Chapter 39: Chapter Sixteen: The Testament of Arela Hawks

“Does this spark joy?” cried a tall slender woman, who stood on the podium. She wore ornate white robes that were closer to a wedding gown than any kind of church attire, with golden lace trim and a tall steepled hat. She held a man by the nape of his neck, naked and broken, it was the General we saw dragged through the streets. The crowd jeered as the man was hoisted by the deceptively strong woman. “I said, does this spark joy?” she repeated, and again the crowd mocked the sobbing man. 

“General Radbury, you have been found guilty by our most beloved people, what say you?”

“The witches, it was the witches!” he blubbered, his face bruised and bleeding.

“So it was the witches who ordered church soldiers to fire into a crowd of innocent men and women?” she questioned him, her eyes stone cold and filled with rage. 

“No, no, the witches,” he continued to sob, unable to form his words right.

“You are a blight on our most glorious church, rotten to the core, dear general. And when a body part rots, you must cut it off and cast it to the flame,” she spoke with a booming voice, elegant and powerful.

“No, no please,” he begged, tears and snot running with filth and blood down his battered face.

“You enjoy an ironic execution I have heard, so I shall not disappoint you good sir,” she placed the man down from the podium, where he was surrounded by four inquisitors, “You shall be put to death by firing squad,” she ordered, “but not by the hands of my Inquisitors.” Six locals stepped forward, receiving rifles from the church soldiers. “These are the men and women whose lives you ruined, when you so carelessly had your soldiers kill their family and friends.” She rose her hand, “And so in the name of the Goddess Sakolael, who has granted me her divine retribution, and by my power as Grand Cardinal of the most holy Church, I sentence you to death,” with her words the villagers raised their rifles, and fired shots at the disgraced General. He laid there, riddled with bullets, choking on blood, gargled pleas to be forgiven just barely escaping his mouth. “Have mercy and just end him,” the Grand Cardinal said and one of the villagers placed their barrel to his head, silencing the former General Radbury.

The crowd cheered the whole time, as we watched from behind the cover of the alley. I turned my eyes, unwilling to watch more. My stomach turned and I knelt over, Miki calming me with gentle words. 

“Find the ones complicit in this man’s sins, so they too may be dealt the Goddess divine justice,” the Grand Cardinal commanded. 

Shana took me by the hand, “Come on kid, we gotta go now,” she said, helping me stand. The four of us ran deeper into the back streets, distancing ourselves as far from the mob as we possibly could. As the crowd began flooding the streets, we just barely managed to make it back to the safe house. Delun waited inside, panicked, manically scratching at his arm. 

“Good goddess it’s about time you got back!” He grabbed Josie by the arms, “you need to be more careful, they’re fricken everywhere.”

She pushed him off her, and pulled down her hood, “Calm down Delun, damn I’m not a child anymore...” 

“I’ve sent a telegraph to Kara; it seems there won’t be any trains running in town for the next few days.” He said as he continued to nervously rub at his arm.

“You need to relax; you know you’re only going to exacerbate that damn thing if you keep panicking like this!” She fished a small purse from her satchel. “Take one of these, it’ll sedate you a little.” 

He took the pill from her and swallowed it down with a swig out of a bottle sitting on the table. Josie directed him to lay down on one of the cots, and he did.

“So how the hell we gettin out of here without a train ride?” Shana asked, pulling her disguise poncho off. 

“We’ll just have to bunker down and hope they don’t find us.” Josie answered with a sigh. She took a seat at the table and retrieved a folded-up piece of paper from her bag. It was a map of Haven’s rail lines. “According to the information Delun gave us, they’re taking an express from the first circle all the way to the ninth.”

“But there aren’t any express lines that run that route.” I interjected.

“Correct, though rumor has it they’ve been building new lines along the old Shipping lanes, adding more junctions and connecting previously disjointed railways.” She took out a pen and began tracing a line from the first circle to the ninth. “If the intel I gathered is any good, this is likely the path they’re going to take.” 

Examining the projected route, they were not going to pass through the town we were in, nor Gold City. 

“So what makes you so certain about that?” Naomi grunted.

“This would be the fastest route, what normally would take over a month could be done in less than half the time going this way.”

“Shit, that doesn’t pass through here,” Shana groaned, “guess that means we’re going to have to jump it elsewhere.”

“Passenger trains are temporarily out of service here, as Delun said, but that should only last a day or two. We’ll catch the next train out of here, if we can get one to take us here,” she pointed to a city along the route in the third circle, “or here,” she pointed to another one also within the third circle, “then we should be able to jump aboard the train there.” 

“I still don’t get it, what’s in this train that’s worth risking your lives?” Naomi asked, leaning over the table and examining the map. 

“If what Delun said is true, then they’re transporting a powerful weapon without equal. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather the church not have such a thing at their disposal.” Josie folded up the map and returned it to her satchel. 

“And we’re just going to take his word for it huh?” 

“Girls got a point,” Shana shrugged her shoulders before stretching and laying back on a cot, “he could just be leading us along to a trap after all.” 

“No, Delun wouldn’t do that, not to me at the very least,” Josie sounded confident in her assertion. 

“Believe what you like, though I guess at the end of the day, I’m just waiting on Kara’s orders, right?” Shana tilted her hat over her face, then went silent, till a snore escaped her mouth.

“Guess I’m gonna hit the hay too. Nothin better to do while we sit our asses down in this hole.” Naomi marched over to a cot. “Bara, girl, make sure none of them try nothin in my sleep.” 

“I’ll watch over you like a hawk, Naonao.” her familiar responded, taking form by her head. She was slender, and elegant. She had scales along her thin legs, and a small pair of wings on her head. She held a harp in one hand and wore a garland of shells around her chest. So this was the River, a familiar with power over water. I expected her to be more, well, river like? The feathers certainly threw me off, though the scales made sense. 

Josie pulled out papers and some mechanical pieces, and began to fashion some kind of device, a bomb I presumed. I stared at her, lost in her work, and wanted so badly to say something to her. We barely talked since that night, and mostly she seemed to kind of ignore me. I squirmed in place, fidgeting my hands as I watched her work.

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“Gonna just stand there and stare, or are we going to talk?” She said not looking up from her creation. 

“Eep!” I squeaked, caught off guard, “I’m sorry.”

She stood up and approached me, tugging on my arm, “come on, there’s a back room. We can talk in private.”

“Careful, Reli, I still don’t trust her.” Miki warned.

“It’ll be fine...” I whispered.

“Huh?” she looked back at me.

“Oh nothing...” I whimpered and followed her through a door. The back room she led me to was not what I was expecting. Rifles, dynamite, handguns, knives, even a few swords, all hung on the wall on racks. Crates marked ‘Danger’ and ‘Caution’ were stacked in the corner. A table with tools was positioned along the side wall, with schematics and diagrams of different weapons and explosives. “What is this place?”

“This used to be a sort of base for the posse I was in, before I joined the Angel Kiss Manor.” She leaned back against a bench and sighed. “That’s not important though. We need to talk about the other night.” She looked me in the eyes, her gaze direct but not fierce.

“Yeah... we do.” I said, holding my arm across the other. “I...”

“I’m sorry Reli,” she cut me off, “I’m really, really sorry.” It sounded like she was holding back sobs as she apologized. “I... there’s no excuse for what I tried to, no what I did to you.”

“No, I... it’s not,” I tried to form the right words, but I couldn’t think of anything, or maybe it was more I thought of too many things. I wanted to forgive her, I wanted to yell at her. I wanted to love her, I wanted to hate her. I didn’t know what to feel, what to say. My stomach burned, and my eyes felt dry. After stumbling through so many different thoughts I finally managed to say, “why?”

“I, I can’t excuse what I did.” She turned away, towards her work bench, I could see droplets fall on the blueprints below her. 

“What happened, that night you went on the mission with Shana?” That’s where this all started after all. And I understand that maybe it wasn’t my business, that I shouldn’t go digging into things that could just further drill a hole into her emotions. But I wanted to know, needed to know. Maybe then I could make sense of all this.

“We were caught by guards, and Shana was weak from the malicite,” she started to explain, speaking slowly to stifle her tears, “I was pinned down, couldn’t reach any weapons, couldn’t move my body, all I could do was scream in protest,” her voice was quacking, weak, it cracked with each word. “They raped me!” She shouted, no longer able to hold back her sobs anymore. 

“Josie! I’m so sorry!” I ran to her, and tried to hug her, but she pulled away.

“And you expect us to show you sympathy? Do you think this excuses what you did to my Reli?” Miki said, stepping out between us. 

“I’m not looking for fucking sympathy!” Josie screamed, turning back around to face Miki. “I, I wanted my power back...” she withdrew again, shrinking back down to the sad crying girl she was a moment ago. “I’m not like you, Reli. I can’t use magic; I can’t hear a familiar in its carta. Eros doesn’t resonate with me like it does you. I have my wit, I have my charm, those are my weapons. And they’re meaningless.” 

“But Josie, you are strong,” I tried to reach out to her, but Miki stood firmly in my way, sheltering me from who she deemed a threat. 

“No, I’m not. I used you to feel good again, to feel strong. I’m a terrible person. A worthless excuse of an Ael, and a mockery of a woman.” 

“No, don’t say that!” I pushed past Miki and wrapped my arms around Josies. “You are not a bad person!”

“You don’t even know me, Reli. Know who I really am. I’m just a cabaret girl who brings your meals and flirts with you. That’s it.” 

“No, you’re more than that!” I objected, “I... you’re special to me Josie.” I didn’t notice when, but I had started crying, my tears running hot down my cheeks. “I love...”

“No!” she pulled her arm away from me, and went to the corner, where she curled up on the floor, holding her knees to her chest, “don’t say that. Just don’t!” 

“But I do!” I tried to get closer to her, however Miki held me back.

She pointed to the door, “I need to be alone.” I reached out to her, and she shook her head. I ran out of the room, my eyes burning.

As I burst back into the main room, Miki reappeared before me, “it’s better you just forget about her Reli,” she said with a huff, “she’s no good for you.” 

“Would you just stop!” I yelled at her, drawing the attention of Shana and Naomi. “I told you I’m an adult, stop telling me what to do or who to love!”

“I’m just trying to help you sweetie,” she argued, recoiling at my outburst.

“Help me by loving and supporting me, not by trying to control my life!” 

“But I do love you Reli, you know I do,” She tried to hug me, but I pushed her away. 

“Then listen to me, understand what I’m telling you. Everytime I try to talk to you about this it’s like you’re just waiting to counter anything I say, not letting it sink in.” My face burned a bright radiant red, partly out of anger, and partly out of embarrassment for the scene I was creating in front of the others. 

“You have to think rationally, sweetie, I’m trying to help you make the right choices.”

“Only I can decide what the right choices are for me to make!” The boiling pot of pressure in me was about to blow. I had to stop it, I had to get out. I grabbed Miki’s carta out of my pocket, and slammed it on the table. As I turned to leave out the door Miki and the others yelled for me, but I slammed it shut and ran.

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