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▪︎ AESLYN MOORE ▪︎
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THE OCCUPATION OF A TRACKER often included finding oneself at the position of a spy.

Sitting cross-legged on a marble floor of a temple in the guise of a sun priestess descendant with slender hands clasped together, thick lashes strewn shut in falsely devoted prayer, Aeslyn felt every part a cunning spymaster. Only instead of invigorating black capes and leather suit, her clothes were a flimsy excuse of a bronze silk gown barely held together by silver hoops at the shoulders. Furthermore, rather than finding herself in solitude, she was squished among a dozen other sun descendants.

The smell of sage was so beguilingly strong in the air, Aeslyn was sure another few minutes and she'd be retching the contents of her very empty stomach. Solarium knew, she needed food but here she was; rushed out of bed at an ungodly hour in the morning over to this forsaken temple in Vamplyre, the ancient vampire kingdom, to gather information.

If only Aeslyn's job ended at finding who Mellisa wanted her to track. However, her occupation included tracking any potential enemy who might strike the queen and inform about the location of the said enemy to Mellisa so that she could take care of them.

The exact thing Aeslyn was doing right now : Tracking potential enemy.

"My sisters, calm your minds and feel the intensity of your soul by connecting to the sun with this prayer. It is in our blood, in our lineage, this power of warmth and rage granted to us by the sun god, Zeus, himself." The sickening sweet voice of Vanya, the high priestess—who claimed herself a sun priestess in-hiding willing to train despaired sun descendants about their powers—instructed from above the raised dais.

Aeslyn cracked open an eye to spot Vanya clad in an elaborate ivory gown, stiffling a yawn. The thorned crown atop the priestess' head depicting rays of sun, looked brown under the sunlight emitting from the open ceiling above the woman as she raised her arms as if in prayer.

Vanya was such a con artist seeking attention, it made Aeslyn want to knock the fake priestess down to shut her up.

The real sun priestesses were a far cry. It almost had Aeslyn laughing thinking about the actual sun priestesses training their descendants with meditation.

The powers of the sun were rooted from heat. And there is no fire, no warmth powerful than the heat of anger and envy. The real priestesses excelled in evoking those particular emotions from their descendants during training with twisted methods.

Aeslyn would know, she considered bitterly.

"I came through the way of the ancient sun temple ruins this morning and there was this elderly lender frolicking around. . .he said the ancient sun priestesses are alive, living in that temple. He also said. . .priestess Moravia went to an unknown land recently after a mystic called to the sun priestesses to tell them something. But Moravia was killed and never returned from her supposed quest with the information. No one knows what happened to her." A whispered tale made its way to Aeslyn's sharp ears, unawares to the girl speaking that Aeslyn could hear.

Vampire sharpened senses were truly a blessing. Fortunately, these priestesses didn't quite have enhanced senses and that kept the information from reaching other ears than Aeslyn's.

This was the reason she was here. Among the many fake ones who considered themselves to be descendants, there were a pick-few real sun descendants here who'd been scattered from their families centuries ago. They approached the con artist High Priestess for lessons related to their powers without realizing they were being fooled.

If the sun priestesses who used to be one of Mellisa's biggest threats are still alive, the descendants would have some knowledge about their ancestor's whereabouts. Like called to like, afterall. Aeslyn needed to find these priestesses location and report about it to Mellisa. Assuming they are alive, that is.

"Moravia? The rumored right hand woman of the High Priestess from the myths?" Whoever the accomplice of the previous girl was, gasped in shock, "Do you think the crown found her and killed her?"

The crown doesn't even know the priestesses might be alive, Aeslyn wanted to point out.

"Hush, Martha." Her friend hissed, "I'm not sure whether to even believe the lender about them actually being alive. The lender seemed a bit retarded. How can a person possibly live in a crumpled broken down temple? And weren't the first clan of sun priestesses all dead centuries ago?"

"There's always some truth in a rumor, Livia." The girl, Martha, retorted before lowering her voice, "Do you think we could go there, check and see if the priestesses are really alive like the lender claimed? They'd give us refuge if the crown is really hunting down the sun priestesses and killed Moravia."

Livia was silent a moment too long before she sighed, "I'm not sure I would want them to know of me. You know how the stories say the sun priestesses ways of raising their descendants were. . .unpleasant."

Aeslyn could very well confirm about that statement, but she kept her mouth shut. Eyes closed in pretense prayer, she listened attentively.

"But if the crown finds about our existence, don't you think the ultimate queen would end us like she did with the ancient sun priestesses? We're their descendants afterall. Better the enemy we know then the enemy we don't. We know nothing about the queen. The sun priestesses are our ancestors in the end of the day. They ought to safeguard us from the ultimate queen." Martha asserted, her tone turning sodden.

They are making Mellisa the villian as if the priestesses were honeyed hermits, Aeslyn scoffed internally.

Livia hummed in approval to her friend, "If the high priestess and some of her clan are still alive, Vanya will no longer be a High Priestess. The ancient ones will be. If the crown indeed finds us, we'll be left on the weaker side with Vanya." She pondered, "Let's just go and check the temple once after this session."

"Fine." Martha grunted.

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THE ABSOLUTE SENSE OF DEJA VU hitting Aeslyn was a different sort of feeling than the panic-driven drumming of her heart, as she gazed at the mirage of the destroyed ancient sun temple past which Livia and Martha walked few moments ago.

It had been hard to catch hold of the two among the throngs of bronze-coloured gown clad descendants from the temple. But Aeslyn had memorized Livia and Martha's voices and perked her ears to listen intently when Vanya had finally let them go after an hour. Luckily for her, Martha was a talker and Aeslyn was a damn good tracker.

Aeslyn needed to have a word with Vanya about misguiding fellow sun descendants. Although that could wait. If the ancient priestesses are actually alive, it meant some real ass trouble.

Aeslyn preferred those old, empty eyed, uptight woman, better six feet under the ground. She definitely didn't like the idea of them breathing and plotting Mellisa's demise and making plans of taking over the court systems.

But the possibility became more and more likely when she took a step after another towards the temple ruins. A foul smell clotted the air, the image of the destroyed lands wavering, appearing as though underwater.

Aeslyn almost couldn't believe her eyes as the bricks started to reform and fix together, joining and building and building and building—

In the span of a blink, the ruination was no more, like it had never even been there. Instead. . .

A set of neverending stairs lead to a plateau atop which there stood a temple with the magnificence of a fortress. The architecture of the sun temple was designed after a cathedral—walls of ivory stones, window panes and edges rimmed in gold embellishments, the glass windows clean enough for one to glimpse their reflection in it, the top edges peeked upwards at the sky. The symbol of a sun adorned the large triangular glass at the top center of the temple's building.

Aeslyn gawked, her mouth open like a crane hunting fishes in a lake. She didn't understand the kind sorcery that would've been used to make a person believe it was just a barren land in the middle of an abandoned forest when in truth, there stood a towering building where there might be people very well plotting a takeover over the courts. This was insane.

It was as though this whole place was hidden behind a veil of illusion and for whatever reason, people were able to look through it the moment they crossed the ruination mirage part of the temple. Up ahead, Aeslyn spotted Martha and Livia with their jaws slack open too, gaping at the temple.

Shaking her head, Aeslyn took in a deep breath and ascended the stairs, making sure Martha and Livia who were entering the hovering architecture didn't spot her as she creeped up and hid behind a pillar inside the temple.

Not a speck of dust in sight even in the interior. This place was well kept. This was bad. Really bad.

"Hello?" Martha's soft feminine voice called out.

Livia was looking around skeptically, twirling her luscious black curls around a finger.

For a moment too long, there was no sign of a living creature. Maybe the priestesses really weren't aliv—

"Descendants." An icy, emotionless voice that sent a terrible shiver down Aeslyn's spine echoed, raising the hairs on her arms.

Aeslyn stuck to the pillar, holding her breath, trying her best to stay out of sight.

A woman so beautiful, she looked like a mirage, approached from behind the raised dais, her billowy gold robes dragging behind her.

Blonde hair partitioned and slick straight, locks so luminous it resembled being freshly dipped in gold. Her slender figure wrapped in silks was all feminine curves and angles, like that of an enchantress. She wore a crown atop her head resembling long, pointed thorns, except this one was pure gold and a shine emanated from each thorn as if spreading sunlight.

"What do you seek?" The real High Sun Priestess' gold ringed eyes settled on the two sun descendants in front of her.

Aeslyn could swear Martha and Livia gulped in fear and were probably regretting ever stepping foot in this place.

"We're. . ." Martha began, chewing on her lips nervously.

Livia stepped forward in front of her friend, shielding the girl from the penetrating gaze of the priestess, "We suspect the crown is hunting down sun priestesses and descendants. We are here to seek refuge in the sun temple. If you would have us, High Sun Priestess."

"Priestess Raveka." The woman above the dais accessed the pair silently, before raising a hand in dismissal, "The accommodations are on the second level. Tomorrow, you will start your training. If you seek refuge here, and let me emphasize, there's no other place you can go because the crown will come for you. Hence you accept to fight alongside us in any war to ensue."

Livia blanched, "What war—"

Raveka held out a hand, "Now why don't you tell me why you're here?" Those dagger-like eyes snapped straight to where Aeslyn hid behind the pillar.

Aeslyn felt her breath stop for a whole minute, her mind spinning. How had Raveka. . .

No no she had to handle the circumstance. It's what she's best at. That and tracking and. . .

'Pretending,' Aeslyn considered herself smirking slyly in her mind.

Tears of great distress formed in Aeslyn's eyes, her body moving out from her hiding space into clear vision of the three females standing under the towering marble walls of the temple's common hall.

Aeslyn's feigned pain-filled eyes raised to Raveka's cold ones as the vampiress said with a broken sob, "I heard my mother, Moravia, was killed by the crown. I want revenge."

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Your views on Aeslyn?

Any theories?👀

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A late update but...
aight better late than never.

I know I know you hoomans wanted a chapter with Mellisa and the guys (they will be there in the next chapter and on) but I thought, it was time I put this part of the story into action because later on, everything is going to make sense. There will be Aeslyn chapters randomly where you'll get insights which will connect with the main plot eventually. So keep your eyes open👀🤫

Now I hope you liked the chapter and pray to the heavens, my inspiration runs like the water in river Nyle.

Tataaaa! See ya later, alligators!