~Chapter one~

Revolution, Chapter 1
by Carolyn Day

Acean sat in the tower of the Cathedral in Berlium sadly and looked at the people shopping happily in the market below her window. She sighed as she moved away from the window. She wished she could live among those people shopping happily and telling stories to friends and merchants; however, Acean didn’t have that option. She was an Oracle of Dur, the supreme god. She was forced to live in a tower and watch as ages came and passed. Acean had seen the streets change from farms and fields to a bustling city with the market just in front of the cathedral. Acean had seen the whole world change in the past two thousand years that she had been a hostage, but she couldn’t remember any of it.

When an Oracle gave a prediction, they couldn’t remember anything that had happened before. Acean couldn’t even remember that the people came to the market at eight every morning like they had done for the past fifty years. The only things that she always remembered were who her masters were, her name, and her duties. Every day when she woke up she walked to the window to watch the people. She didn’t know why watching them gave her the calming feeling they always did. Even though the knowledge that she’d never be like them made her sad, she always felt connected to them somehow when she watched them conduct their business. “I’d like two loaves of bread and a chicken please,” she muttered. Acean giggled quietly. She wouldn’t know what to do with a chicken if she were ever to buy one.

She watched with interest as a priest walked toward the cathedral doors with a large melon. She heard him begin kicking the door as way of asking to come in. She heard the doors creak open. Acean poked her head out of her high window and let the sun warm her face that was cold from being in the cool stone room. She sighed contentedly. She had no idea that after the priests had their morning meal they would bring a sacred item for her to hold as Dur used her as his vehicle to tell his will to the priests.

Acean examined her reflection in the mirror above her small table. She didn’t look like she thought she should look. Acean was a lot shorter then the priestesses. At only five feet three inches she felt like she looked like she was eternally fifteen. She brushed her long black hair and oracle’s braid out of her eyes. Her eyes were the only part of her that reflected her age. The emerald color bored into the reflection of her face. She couldn’t remember the last two thousand years of her life, but her eyes reflected things that Acean couldn’t comprehend. Around nine there was a loud bang when a horse drawn carriage nearly tipped over as it approached the church. Acean watched curiously until a loud knock at her door drew her away from the window. Suddenly she knew what was happening. She would have to give a reading. She tried to hide in the shadows behind her curtains to avoid the priestess who was going to force her to give a reading. “No,” she moaned. She knew that she would feel drained and her blood would feel as cold as ice for hours and she would hide under the quilts for an hour before she would have the energy to do anything else.

Ermez, an ill-tempered priestess, came into the room. “I know you’re in here, Acean.” Ermez came over to the window and pulled the curtains back. “Well there you are,” Ermez said sarcastically. Ermez pressed a Piece of cloth into Acean’s hand

Acean felt suddenly cold; her mind went blank. Then a vision passed before her eyes. She felt as if she was watching it through a fog. The people were becoming clearer, and Acean could make out the forms of elves marching toward the city. She saw tall, red-orange flames licking at the stone walls of the buildings. Then she saw an army of men killing the elves. Acean felt like she was being killed herself; she was akin to elves, and the sight of death frightened her. Was there to be a war?

Acean’s head began to feel heavy as she spoke. “Evil will overtake beauty. War is coming.” Acean wanted to lie on her bed and warm up. Her whole body felt frozen now. Her hands shivered as Ermez took the cloth from Acean’s hand.

“Thank you,” Ermez said as coldly as Acean’s body.

* *********************** *

The next morning was just like the last: Acean woke up in just enough time to watch the people file into the market. She put her face out of the widow to catch the sun. She sighed contentedly until something made her heart leap. The carriage was coming back. “I remember that. It nearly crashed yesterday.”

Sure enough, the carriage made a wide arch around the stone that had almost caused the crash the day before. The carriage pulled up in front of the cathedral yet again, but this time the carriage swayed as if someone were fighting inside of it. She moved from the window when she heard movements downstairs. Acean hid behind her wardrobe and heard an angry male voice.

“I’m looking for my people! Let me go!” The cathedral doors crashed open and the voice became fearful. “No! Please no!” The voice pleaded, “I just want to find my people.” He yelled one last time. His yell was followed by a grunt and a dragging noise. Acean was sure the priests had gagged the new captive and were now dragging him up the stairs.

Acean closed her eyes. She saw a man who looked like her being pulled up the narrow staircase to the tower. She heard door after door on each of the landings bang unlocked and opened. The male oracle had his eyes closed; he was trying desperately not to cry. Even Acean knew that crying was considered shameful for her people. Perkin, one of the kinder priests, was carefully making sure that the male oracle was unharmed. Ermez was behind him. Acean opened her eyes. She and the other oracle were bound for the same fate. They would both be giving predictions and losing what little memory they had.

Acean closed her eyes again. She tried to remember her childhood and how she first lost her memory when her gift was full and she gave her first prediction. She saw a purple horse, a horse that was in her dreams. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen the creature, but the dream was the only childhood memory she had.

There was a knock on Acean’s door, and Ermez entered again. She had a stone this time. Ermez pressed the stone into Acean’s hand. Acean didn’t grow cold, nor did her prediction begin in a fog. Instead there was a clear image of an army of her kind being led by elves attacking a city and killing humans. It was a freedom war. Was Dur trying to tell Acean there was going to be a war for her freedom? For the freedom of all the elves and the seers?

Acean spoke to Ermez, “The war will be for the freedom of all the enslaved people of this earth. All people deserve the right to be free. If war comes, you will be the first to die.”

Ermez pulled the stone from Acean’s hand. “You lie!” Ermez pulled back her hand and was going to hit Acean, but Perkin stepped in the room and stopped her.

“Ermez! Look at the glazed stare. She’s in no state to lie.”

Acean realized this was her chance for escape, but she couldn’t run out under the priest’s noses. She noticed a thin piece of wood peeling from the wardrobe. Acean very carefully put it in the crevasse where the door caught the frame. If the wood didn’t fall from its place, Acean would be able to free the other Oracle, and they could escape together. Perkin and Ermez finally stopped arguing and left Acean alone and closed the top and bottom part of her Dutch-style door.

Acean closed her eyes again when she heard the top part of the door close but not lock. She let her head slump against the wall before a blood-red fog engulfed her. Acean felt something in her head begin to burn. She could see nothing but red as the burning got stronger and stronger. Then Acean saw the god Dur emerge with blue smoke, and her head began to cool. The blue smoke filled her whole body, and Dur spoke. “Acean, this is your calling. You remember things that you should not. You will lead your people. My chosen to freedom.”

Acean collapsed as soon as Dur began to speak. Acean delighted in the cool sensation that was filling her body. Perhaps this was her becoming mortal or maybe even death. What she would give for that kind of freedom was more than anyone understood.

Dur spoke again, “Acean, my child, this is not death, nor mortality. Not yet. I want you to lead your people out of slavery. For hundreds of years, the seers or oracles, as you have become known as, lived in the wood. I walked with them, and they knew me as none of my other creations knew me. Even man cannot know me as your people did. I want for you to know me again, Acean. All of you. I want the seers to be one with me again. You will lead them, Acean. You can, and you will. I will give you the aid you need.”

Acean’s mind was spinning. How could she lead all of the seers from slavery?

“I will show you, Acean,” Dur said softly. “You need to know.”

Shadows began to emerge in the smoke. Acean recognized many of them as Durin priests; the rest were seers and a winged horse. A red smoke came in, the seers disappeared, and only the priests and the horse remained. Maroon shadows formed in the red smoke, and pink arrows hit all of the priests and priestesses. Once the shadows had gone, the two colored smokes began to battle. They wafted and glided all over, constantly pressing and pushing. The winged horse charged toward the smoke and was caught between the red and blue smokes. Acean saw that it became a purple horse then. The horse she had seen as a child--her only memory from two thousand years ago--emerged full and clear. At the sight of the horse Acean rose and knew what it had meant.

She stood shakily and brushed off her skirt. She knew that the war she had predicted earlier was imminent. An invading army would kill the priests if they tried to hold the oracles. Ermez would be the first to die as she had said earlier. The others would die, too. Acean knew she had to speak with the other Oracle. It was the only way to lead them to freedom. She jumped onto the lower half of the door and swung her legs over. She landed almost soundlessly. Acean took a minute. She wasn’t free, but she was out of her chamber and that feeling alone made her heart swell with joy. She took a deep breath and let it out and then knocked on the lower half of the other oracle’s door.

“Go away. I don’t want to give another reading!” He cried. “No more!”

Acean began to panic. His yelling would make a priest come. “Shhh,” Acean hissed. “I’m not a priest. I’m one of your people. Let me in.”

“They locked me in.”

Acean had been so bent on her own freedom that she forgot that the other would be locked in as well. “Damn it,” she whispered, letting her head fall against the top door while her elbow slid the door handle. Acean heard a small squeak and then she fell headlong into the chamber with a yelp.

“Are you all right?”

“Ouch,” she moaned putting her hands on her head.

“Oh, my, you're hurt.”

Acean pulled her hair back with her fingers and opened her eyes. “Where is my braid?” Acean asked in surprise.

The other oracle did the same. “Mine’s gone, too.”

“We’re mortal,” Acean said with a sigh.

“I forgot,” The other said with a heavy sigh. “We can’t meet each other and remain immortal.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m so tired of this imprisonment.” Acean began to cry.

“It’s all right. What’s your name?”

“Acean.” She answered between sobs. “I’m sorry about all of this.”

“Acean, my name is Meili. Don’t cry, Acean. Mortality is a wonderful gift. Do not shame yourself for gaining it. How old are you?”

“I’m two thousand fifteen years old.”

“Have you spent all that time in this tower?”

“I lived one year with my parents as a baby, but they were slain by Durin priests. After that I was brought here, and they kept me here until I reached maturity and my gift of sight was full.”

“You remember all of this?”

Acean pulled her chin up higher. “Dur has blessed me with the ability to recall my life. At the first moment, my life flooded before me--all two thousand and fifteen years of it. You remember your life, too.”

“Dur refused to take my memory. He said that I would be a leader in a rebellion in the upcoming war that I predicted. Dur said I would meet a woman with great power who would show me the way. She was a beautiful she-elf clothed in white, carrying a long sword. She looked a lot like you, just slightly more aged, as if she had been carrying a great woe on her mind. And she had a full braid. You only have a half braid.”

Acean felt her hair. It was true she only had a half braid. She surveyed Meili. “You only have a half braid too. Are we shamed?”

“No, just mortal. Acean, take me with you. Lead the way to the rebellion and our freedom. I think if I come with you I will find my she-elf.”

“Meili, how can I lead the way if I’m not sure of it myself?”

“Dur will guide us. We are his chosen. We have the wisdom of elves and the souls of men. We are called by him to rebel against the chains that bind us. Acean, help me. We will free our people with the power of the she-elf.”

“Why must we fight anyway? Why is Dur doing this? The priests will lose without us.”

“Dur must teach them. He is making them pay for their sins. Especially the sins of the Durin priesthood.”

“Not all men are bad. Perkin is good to us, and he’s a priest.”

“He has a horrible transgression, Acean. I sense it in him.”

There was sudden banging downstairs as Perkin remembered he hadn’t locked the doors.

“Give me your cloak, Acean!” Meili said.

“Are you daft? You have one.”

“It’s our means of escape, woman. Give it here.”

‘I will not.”

Meili ripped it from Acean’s shoulders. “Have it your way,” he said, grabbing Acean by the waist and jumping from the tower window using her cape as a parachute.

To Acean’s shock they landed gracefully on the ground; however, she was still boiling with fear and anger. Acean slapped Meili and took her cloak back. “What in hell were you thinking jumping from…”

Meili quickly shoved a pinecone in Acean’s mouth. “If you want to come with me, you’ll be quiet, and if you want to live, you’ll clean up your language. I can always find the she-elf on my own.”

Acean spit out the pinecone and slumped. So, with a heavy sigh, she put her cloak back on and led Meili on the path to war.

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