NationStates Jolt Archive

Julia ran.

She was exhausted, starved, thirsty, wounded, but she ran, forcing her body to give her the strength she needed.

She couldn't hear them, nor could she see them. But she knew that they were following her, their every sense concentrated on finding her trail, to find her, to hunt her down.

A part of her wanted to cry, but she had forgotten how to do it, the hardships of her present life teaching her to endure silently.

Only at night, in her dreams, did she cry.

Left turn. Another left turn, then a right turn.

She still couldn't hear them, but she knew that they were following her, her blood telling them the way.

Dead end.

She stood in front of the wall, shocked. Too shocked to actually react, for a few seconds.

Then, she felt the tears coming. Where had she gone wrong? Why? She tried to suppress her urge... And heard the steps behind her, a voice talking, in latin.

"We have the witch."

Julia turned around, facing the three... No, four men in front of her, their foreheads illuminating the sewer, their wings looking a bit awkward. The architecture was pompous, even in the sewers, but still too narrow for the wings of the Cherubim.

Julia fell to her knees, wishing that she was armed. Alas, she wasn't. Never had been, and if she was honest... She wouldn't stand a chance against a Cherubim to begin with.

She just hoped for a quick death. Not the agonising, slow decay on the cross. Everything but that...

The Cherubim talked some more. Julia wasn't sure what they said... Their booming voices were hurting her ears.

But eventually, they seemed to have come to a conclusion, two of them stepping towards her, grabbing her arms. She hung limply in their grip, her hopes being crushed with every step.

It felt awkward, being dragging on by them. Julia could probably have resisted for a while, with the Cherubim being careful not to touch (Or even see) her most private parts. Of course, they were indoctrinated. They wouldn't touch her that way... But what waited for her on the cross was worse.

She never really got what happened next, barely hearing the screams, the shouting and imprecations. Even after it was over, she needed to be dragged on, not really understanding it... Having collapsed during the fight.

Eventually, she opened her eyes, looking at the person holding her. His wings, size, bioluminescense... She closed her eyes, again. Lost.

"You're awake again, Hm?"

Julia blinked. "Daniel?"

She didn't hear an answer. Apparently, they were still in danger. But she could see him nodding.

Never before had she been this glad.

She looked around, leaning closer towards him, carefully, not wanting to make any kind of unnecessary noise. "I've got the info. They're arriving on thursday. With the Syskeyians. The orphans. I don't know how many guards they will have, though."

"Good. Now, quie-"

She simply followed Daniel the moment he started to run, holding his hand.

Tag

Tag.

May I ask that if your intellectual capacities are insufficient to either 1. Employ jolt's neat subscribe function or 2. write a short IC post for a somewhat nice-to-read tag, you don't post at all? Especially no 'tags'?

One day ago

"Yes, honoured Lord." Julia bowed, her eyes downcast, her legs jittering only a little.

The man in front of her, a Seraphim, nodded approvingly, then turned away. Julia let out a sigh of relief. She knew that the Seraphim had the ability to know what she was thinking, knowing... But she had been lucky.

Still, she was nervous, and while she managed to hide it well enough...

She walked away, carefully... Undue haste would be noticed, and she couldn't risk that. There was too much depending on what she was doing here. And it wasn't only her life.

It was a wide, open area, a plaza of sorts, surrounded by administrative buildings. Unlike the outskirts of the city, it was pretty clean, beautiful even, with a good amount of green all around, trees, flowers, all pretty lovely, beauty all around, resembling the Eden the Seraphim wanted to recreate.

Yet, Julia had no eyes for the flowers, the trees or the sculptures depicting the heroes of the time the angels returned to lead the choosen ones. All she could see were the four crosses near the center of the plaza, one of them decorated with a woman, another one with a man.

The woman had been lucky, she was already hanging there, limply, obviously dead. She wasn't the only one dead, though, as her round belly proved.

Julia shuddered.

The man was still alive, moaning silently, the people crossing the plaza, Seraphim and 'choosen' the caste Julia came from before she had 'choosen' a different path for herself, not giving him so much as a glance. He was there as a warning, but it would have been exceptionally inappropriate to actually look at him, to look at the abomination that defied God's will.

She entered a building to her right, trying to control both, her hate and her pity. As much as she required this feelings... Right now, they were pointless, even dangerous.

Crossing a few doors and hallways, bowing whenever she met a Seraphim or a guarding Cherubim, always careful not to oversee a single detail (For the punishment of dishonouring the Angels was death) she entered another room, with a rather old-looking Seraphim standing in a corner, apparently reading a book.

She waited, staying where she was, bowing, breathing slowly to make as little noise as possible.

"Yes?" She heard him say, after perhaps ten minutes had passed.

"The... Orders. From Lord Enerai."

"I see..." The Seraphim turned, a surprisingly calm, even friendly face showing. "Please, show me."

Julia nodded, handing him the documents, then waited.

"I see... I will take care of it. Oh, and here, what Lord Enerai requested. Looks like he wants Lidiel to take care of the pure. Training, I guess. A little inappripriate, given that he's playing with souls..."

Julia was still standing there, still bowing, her back hurting. Eventually she took the paper, wondering why the Seraphim had said... So much, things she didn't need to know, according to all established rules. And criticizing a fellow Seraphim in the presence of a choosen? Odd, that. "I'm honured to be of service, Lord Kalariel." For a moment Julia contemplated to ask more, about... The souls, about Lord Enerai, but decided against. Death would have been imminent.

"For our paradise, yes... Oh, one more thing." He said, just as Julia was turning to leave.

"Yes?"

"Next time, wait outside. I should have decapitated you for dishonouring me like that."

Julia turned white with shock, expecting the blade any second. This was why he had talked...

"But you're young. For this one time, I'll forgive you. But remember..."

"Y... Yes, Mylord."

With that, she was gone.

And with her the exact location of the St. Peter orphans that would soon arrive, as well as security measures, reeducation doctrines (Well, the rebels knew that one, anyway) and the likes.

Another two hours to deliver the paper after memorising it, and then another few to wait in the comparatively good quarters the workers in the administrative district had, once a number of minor assignments had been done.

The only thing she hadn't expected was to be caught this early, just when she left her assigned sector...

And so, Julia ran.