Awakening (Children of Angels) (6 page)

It seemed to Mia that she was stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. On the one hand, she could sit here and wait for them to come. On the other, she could go with this stranger and become a weapon, a fighter. Neither of those options seemed particularly appealing. Had it really only been a few hours since she was at school, then home with her mother fussing over her getting ill? How does one get from that place to this one, in a heartbeat? It was all too much, and she was tired. She suddenly realized how tired she was, and yawned widely.

“
You need to sleep?
”
asked Leonara.

“
You don
’
t?
”
asked Mia quizzically, by way of a reply, as she finally let go of her chest to fluff her pillows. The Angel shook her head, and Mia sighed
“
look, I don
’
t mean to be rude but
…
I
am
human so
…”

“
Part-human. Really less than half
”
Leonara corrected.

“
Fine. Well, the less-than-half of me that is human, needs sleep. I
’
m
exhausted
. I need to sleep. Could you come back tomorrow or something
…
?
”
it occurred to Mia then that since this was a dream - she had to keep reminding herself of that - this may well be the last time she saw the stranger. Tomorrow night, she may well be back at the tower with her mother. The thought of seeing that woman’s face again grated on Mia, she didn’t want to see her ever again. Not after what she had done. She was forgetting again, that none of this was any more real than her “visits” to the tower in her dreams.

“
Out of the question,
”
replied Leonara firmly, shaking her head and ignoring Mia’s current thoughts, focused so clearly on her anger at her mother
“
these things cannot wait..
”

“
Well if I don
’
t sleep, I
die
and then nothing you
’
re saying matters anyway
”
replied Mia brutishly, crabby now that she had thought of her mother’s smiling
lying
face in the tower.

The Angel regarded the child before her, recognized a hint of the fire that burned in it’s mother. She nodded.

“
Very well. You can sleep. But since sleep is
such
a waste of our
valuable
time,” she emphasized the words to show her disapproval at Mia’s weakness, and although Mia caught it, she was too tired to care “may I at least have permission to speak to your dreams?
”

“
Speak to
my dreams
?
”
Mia raised one eyebrow quizzically at Leonara.

“
Yes, we have ways. I can tell you much of what you need to know while you sleep. When you awake and your body is rested, you will already know much of what you need to. It will just be like when you have a regular dream, only what you see will be a Truth. The Truth of how all of this began, so long ago.
”

“
Just when I thought it couldn
’
t get any weirder. Fine. Goodnight.
”
Mia crawled under the duvet, throwing one pillow over her head and reaching out blindly for the cord to switch off her bedside lamp, hoping that this would be the last she saw of the ‘Angel’ and the tower.

Leonara sat in the dark, and looked at the figure of the child, watching it shifting to get comfortable. The darkness did not bother her, she could see as clearly as if it were full daylight. The child’s fidgeting
did
bother her. She was impatient, working with humans was always such a slow process - they needed so much, just to continue to exist. So much time wasted, that could be spent on more important and valuable things. And if the child needed sleep so much, why did it not just
sleep
she thought, irritably. Finally, after what was a few minutes, but could have been hours, for she still had no perception of time, she grew tired of waiting for Mia to settle. Gently, and so that the child would not detect it even though Mia’s powers were now awakening within her, Leonara sent her Influence over the girl, and within moments, she was soundly asleep.

CHAPTER SIX

M
ia was enveloped in a kind of soft fog, almost as though she was
inside a cloud. She walked, trying to find her way out of the cloud-fog and found herself in a blindingly white room, which seemed to go on forever. The ceiling was so high she couldn't see it, and the room stretched away from her as far as the eye could see, with two rows of ornate columns extending upwards from the floor to support the impossibly high ceiling. The carvings on the columns were the only decoration in the otherwise plain, but undoubtedly grand, room. She moved towards one of the columns to see what was carved there, but the carvings were changing, shifting quickly so that she could never quite make out the pictures there.

Entranced, she stood there a while, and watched the incredible shifting of beautiful images, which in turn created a magical rippling effect, as though the entire column was quivering and shifting form.

Somewhere in her mind, she became aware of voices, far down the corridor. She wasn't sure how long she had known there were others there. She thought it might have been a while, but she had been so fascinated by the columns that she hadn't wanted to tear herself away. Somewhere in her subconscious, Mia knew that she had to follow those voices, to know what they were saying. It was important, although she couldn't remember why.

Reluctantly, she walked away from her column, and resolutely refused to look at any of the others she passed, lest they entrance her too. The voices grew louder, and she suddenly, in the way that can only happen in dreams, found herself before an enormous white door, which was closed and had a handle which was so high she knew she would never reach it. The voices were coming from behind the door, although their words did not make sense to her. From the pitch of their voices, she determined that it was two men speaking, and they spoke a language Mia didn't understand.

A light flooded from beneath the door, different than the light illuminating the room Mia was standing in This one was warmer and more yellow, as though it was coming from an open fire. She lay flat on her stomach on the floor and, with her face to the ground, tried to see through the gap under the door, into the room beyond. She could see nothing but the open fireplace, burning brightly in an otherwise darkened room.

She shuffled forwards, trying to see if she could see anything more, and was surprised to find that her entire body fitted easily underneath the gap. She was sure that had not been the case at first. Nonetheless, this was a dream, and in dreams, the impossible becomes the ordinary. As quietly as she could, Mia edged forwards under the door, from the cold white marble of the hallway and onto the thick, soft, dark red carpet of the new room.

She stood up and brushed herself down, then took a look around the new room. It was warm - almost too warm. Mia couldn't remember being cold out in the corridor, and wondered why there was a fire lit in here, if it was not cold. Still, details didn’t matter all that much, she supposed. She had come here for a purpose. What was the purpose? She pondered this as she looked around her at the room she was now in.

Compared to the previous gleaming white and impressively grand place she had just been, this room felt claustrophobic. Still huge, still grand, but very dark and very hot now. The columns here were made of a dark wood, so dark it was almost black, and like the columns in the white corridor, these ones shifted too. Mia had no desire to go near these columns, and walked past one without giving it a second glance. Something about
these
shifting columns felt sinister and wrong. Her heartbeat quickened, and she felt a sense of dread and fear press down upon her.

She couldn’t remember why she was here, why it was important. Hadn’t she heard voices? Wasn’t that why she had come into this dark and terrible room? As if on cue, she heard the voices again, they seemed to be coming from high above her, but when she looked up she could see nothing but blackness. The only light in the room came from the fireplace, and though there was a roaring fire lit, it’s light did not extend up into the darkness of the chasm-like room.

The disembodied voices echoed all around her, and she wished she could understand what it was they were saying. It was important that she knew what they were saying. Wasn’t this why she had been sent here? To hear this?

And then the meaning was clear. She did not understand the words of this strange language she had never heard before, but their meaning and intent was clear. It was a fight, an argument between two men. No, not just two men - two brothers. She understood that they could no longer live together like this, the way they had always done, the two brothers who had been alone here for as long as either could remember. They were too different, and their brotherhood was no longer enough to keep them together.

They would separate, and each would rule his own kingdom. They agreed that each would have the power to create his own companions, but that they must keep to their own realms, their own Truths. Neither would disturb the existence and peace of the other. They were brothers who loved one another, neither wanted the other to be unhappy. They just wanted to live out their lives the way they chose.

The ground began to shake violently, and the fire flared up as the final words were spoken sadly by the two men, who bid one another a heartsick farewell, for they knew they would never meet again. Mia scrambled for the door - it felt as though the ceiling of this hot dark room would come down on her at any moment. She made to squeeze beneath the door as she had to come in, but found there was no need, as the door was flung open. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness in the hot room, and she was blinded by the sudden bright whiteness.

Shielding her eyes with her arm, she stepped out, but instead of the hard white marble, she felt nothing meet her foot. She moved her arms and looked at the corridor before her, just as it should be, then down in horror as she continued to step out of the dark room and realized she was stepping into nothing but a swirling grey fog. The white room and the dark room were above her and out of sight in an instant, as she fell through an endless fog, wanting to scream but being too terrified.

She fell, and continued falling for what seemed like forever, certain this was it, that she was going to die - after all, how could anyone possibly survive an endless fall like this one? And then it stopped. She was not aware of the exact moment the falling stopped, there was certainly no impact at the end, she was just
there
in this new place. She was lying on the ground, and completely unharmed. There was warm early-morning sunlight on her face, and she was vaguely aware of a slight dampness now seeping into her clothes, her hands and the back of her neck were already wet with it. There was a familiar, earthy smell.

She was lying on grass, in the early morning, and it was dew soaking into her clothes. This much she managed to deduce whilst lying with her eyes shut, simply savouring the feeling of being
alive
. She realized she had never actually been grateful to be alive before. It was odd, something she had always taken for granted. But now, after falling so impossibly far, and for such a long time... from where? She couldn’t remember. She only knew she had been afraid, before she fell. She remembered whiteness and heat. But that part of the dream was lost to her current mind, now she was focused on being alive. Breathing fresh sweet morning air. And being here. Where was here? Surely she should move to find out?

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes and saw nothing but pale blue skies above, with the slightest hints of morning sky still remaining, pink and pale purple streaks across the otherwise flawless blue canvas. Not a cloud in the sky, on this beautiful day.