October, Year 483
Auro
North

"Eva, I don't think this is going to work."

Dawn was crouched low against the snow, watching the growing puddle that extended downwards from the point where her fingers touched the ground.

The plan was to get the massive Colossi to chase her into the pit, much like Hezekiah had done with the smaller ones. But the beast was large and heavy.

She had been melting the snow for what felt like hours, her exhaustion evident in the sweat trickling down her jaw, and yet it wasn't deep enough.

The creature wouldn't sink to his knees.

For a moment Dawn diverted her attention to Hezekiah. In the thick plains of snow he resembled a god. He melted and refroze the snow like it was second nature, weaving between the attacks of the lumbering creatures.

He was keeping them in place, stopping them from advancing towards the gate-towards Dawn. Anytime their fists managed to make contact with his body he seemed to shrug off the force while the Colossi scrambled back, wailing in pain and clutching their disintegrated limbs.

The snowy plain was already beautifully decorated with their bronze-blue blood but they didn't seem to be capable of dying.

Dawn had seen their repulsive heads roll, their limbs torn apart by the ferocity of Hezekiah's powers. And she had seen them recover, regenerating and growing limbs at a rate she could never hope to achieve.

From the battle she had learnt two things. One, that Colossi had no brain nor heart. And two, that Hezekiah Yong was a force to be reckoned with.

And yet my father managed to capture him, Dawn thought bitterly and acknowledged her father's power. He had been so strict when she was a child, determined to rule everyone but his staunch followers with a firm hand. Come to think of it, the only time she had seen him truly happy was with her mother, the only woman to ever leave him.

"Concentrate, girl!" A voice hissed in her mind and she was brought to the present.

Defeat the monster. Save Corey. She chanted in her mind, willing the new powers that played dormant beneath her skin to activate. Defeat the monster. . .

It started with a tingle in her fingertips then more steam began to rise. Save Corey. Save Corey. . . She rushed through the words furiously, closing her eyes as she imagined the heat buried in her flesh rushing down into the deep pond of water, slamming against its end.

The pool needed to be deeper.

Dawn melted more and more snow while keeping her focus on Corey. The deep lines that cut into his face when he frowned, the way the corners of his eyes wrinkled when he smiled. She wouldn't let him die. Not in this life.

The heat she controlled finally hit something that wasn't cold and Dawn knew she had hit rock. She sucked in a deep, frigid breath and kept going.

She started digging.

†

The capital was under siege. Rhea Lee let out a sigh and put down the book she held, the words she just read still echoing in her mind.

. . . and once the world was known as Paradise, under the doctrine of the Maeg and the guidance of her wwr.

They were words from her father's journals, and her father-as far as she knew-was all-knowing.

The Nobil frowned in contemplation as she played with the flayed edges of the page. Paper was rare nowadays and this book was ancient.

Rhea Lee shifted in her seat, suddenly uncomfortable with the thought. Why did father let the capital fall?

All her life she had followed her father's ambitions, she knew that he longed to control much more than North. Next to the New Order residences, the capital was the stronghold of the religion. Giving it up meant losing half his influence and power. And letting North fall meant losing everything.

She just couldn't understand. She hadn't felt her father's omnipresence in days, that fact scared her. Normally with every beat of her heart she could feel him, and now. . . nothing.

A knock sounded on the door to library and Rhea Lee straightened, gently shutting the book.

"Come in." She said.

Following her words, Corey strolled in, his hair neatly combed and a smile resting on his lips. Already he looked better, edging less towards the gates of death.

"Sit." Rhea Lee told him, a prick of pain in her heart. Despite his appearance, she knew that his health was always fleeting.

He did as he was told while staring at her curiously. "You remind me of her sometimes."

The doctor said nothing at first, not sure if Corey meant Dawn or his mother. Still, she smiled. "You're here for the prisoner?"

Her pulse quickened at the thought of the man held captive in her dungeons. The man that belonged to her, her dirty little secret.

"No," he shook his head and placed his hands on his lap. "Where are we?"

"Somewhere safe."

"That's not what I meant." Corey leaned back into his chair and crossed his legs over each other. He was dressed formally, wearing a light blue that complimented his eyes. His shirt was loose enough, but while it didn't cling to him like a second skin, the collar and cuffs were snug.

"Your injuries haven't fully healed." She countered with a grim smile, keeping her eyes off his clothes.

"Are we at the capital?" He seemed not to hear her.

"There's no point in asking." She tore her gaze from his lazy smile and focused it on the book in front of her.

"And what if it was your father's wish for me to know?"

Our father, Rhea Lee automatically corrected in her mind then frowned, not daring to say it out loud. "And is it?"

"He wants me to save the capital."

Odd, he didn't give a damn before. Why would he care now?

"And," the doctor stared hard at the lines on her palm, not wanting to see the dim glow of Corey's eyes, the signs of his recent compulsion, "have you felt him recently?"

Their father had probably trapped him in a dreamscape as he wrote the order into his mind. It was sick but effective.

The guilt she felt made the words heavy on her tongue and awkward when she finally managed to blurt them out. Maybe her father was hiding himself from her? Maybe she was no longer needed.

Corey shook his head once and Rhea Lee deflated, not sure whether to be relieved or frantic.

"I see." She let out a sigh and directed her gaze to the ceiling. "We're at the capital."

When he said nothing in reply, she continued. "Richard is here too and the capital is empty. . . it's gone. We're underground."

Still there was silence.

Rhea Lee closed her eyes, internally debating her next words. "Dawn is close. . ." the scrape of Corey's chair followed her words, "she's in trouble."

In a flash, he was gone, the furious slam of the door announcing his departure.

Why didn't you tell me sooner? Why aren't you searching for her this very moment? Rhea Lee didn't need to read his thoughts to know them. Dawn was her sister, so shouldn't she care for her?

But Corey was also her half-brother. . . and the love he and Dawn had for each other was sin. . . should be sin. Rhea Lee wasn't sure anymore.

She glanced down at the book again, remembering the pretty scrawl that overpowered her father's usually rugged handwriting.

Before men were bound by the Code and oppressed by the Order a different sort of peace had taken hold of humanity, a religion hidden from the majority of believers but stronger that anything we could have imagined. Before Armageddon their was no Code, and once the world was known as Paradise, under the doctrine of the Maeg and the guidance of her wwr.

"But he's not my father either," the doctor said quietly, pushing herself off the chair and out the library. Despite all her efforts she couldn't forget that there were two different handwritings in her father's personal journal. She couldn't allow herself to forget the truth.

†