The Gold in the Storm

By Madison Loria

The day the kingdom collapsed was also the day that Prince Tevin learned a valuable lesson: not everything was as it seemed. As the leader of the angel revolution, Cassiel, slayed his father, reality hit him like a ton of bricks. Everything, literally and figuratively, began to crumble around him. Everything he knew and was fondly comfortable with burned and shook with the fury of these so-called heavenly creatures. Someone screamed his name. Was it his mother? No, she died years ago. Before he could think about it anymore, the world went black violently. Another explosion, this one had collapsed the throne room completely.

While Tevin was out cold, he dreamt of old memories between him and Lady Annelisa, the daughter of one of his father’s top advisors. Tevin had taken a liking to her, but not in a romantic sense. The two had been best friends since childhood and everyone thought they were going to get married one day. It made Tevin laugh at the thought, but alas, it also made him nervous. He did not love her like that. No, he loved a common girl he snuck off to see in the village: Elyssia. It was considered wrong for people of different classes to fall in love, so Annelisa was the only one to know of his dirty secret.

Tevin remembered the days of sneaking out to the village with Annelisa, using her control of shadows to their aid.

“Hurry up!” she would scold him. “The shadows won’t hold up forever! Stop staring at the flowers, your true beauty is waiting for you!”

Tevin grinned at the scolding, shaking his head, and running with her shadows. The summer day was bright with the promises of young fun. The two came upon Elyssia’s house. Her parents were out for the day, so it would just be the three of them to do whatever they pleased, as long as they stayed within the house. Tevin and Annelisa could not be seen in the village if they ever hoped to keep their relationship with Elyssia.

Elyssia answered the back door with a big smile, ushering the two in with a hushed greeting. “Tevin, Annelisa! It’s been so long!” 

“I agree, my love. It has been too long.” He gave her a tight hug, kissing her cheek. “I have a gift for you,” he told her with a grin, looking at Annelisa.

Annelisa giggled and got out a fancy necklace she had been hiding in the pockets of her dress.

Elyssia gasped, covering her mouth and opening her eyes wide.  “Is that angel tears?” She held the necklace, pointing out the cloudy gem that hung off the chain.

Tevin nodded, as he held arm around her waist. “I thought it would complement your eyes perfectly,” Tevin explained, admiring her cloudy blue eyes once more.

Angel tears were the most valuable gem of the kingdom. It was so rare that even royalty had trouble getting the gem. Angel tears were the solidified tears of angels from wars long ago, and rumor has it that they were the key to heaven itself.

“Oh, you sap!” Elyssia hugged him tightly before cupping his cheek, kissing him suddenly.

Tevin’s eyes were wide open as they kissed, slowly closing them as he melted into it. 

Annelisa stood there awkwardly, looking out the window. She gasped as she noticed someone looking back at her. 

“Tevin!” she exclaimed, running to the window to snatch up whoever was spying on them. But, it was too late. The stalker had run off before Annelisa could stop them. The two needed to flee before they were caught, or the king would never let them leave the kingdom ever again. Tevin separated from the kiss abruptly. 

“What! What happened?” Tevin looked worried and slightly annoyed. He was in the middle of his first kiss, and she was screaming about something. Tevin looked over, about to scold her more for not responding, when he noticed her staring at the window. With a horrified expression he connected the dots. “Bloody Hell, we need to leave now!”

Annelisa grabbed his hand tightly, dragging him off outside and covering them in the shadows as quickly as possible. Tevin did not even bother to look around to see if anyone saw them, tearing up. His father would be angry, he would be beaten and grounded for the rest of his life. Elyssia would be…. oh, my Lord, Elyssia would be banished. Or worse, killed. Tevin began to fight against her hold. He needed to go back to his love and protect her from the king’s army.

“Tevin, stop! This is for your safety!” Annelisa held him tightly.

“No! I must protect her! Please, they will hurt her!” Tevin began to sob, blindly stumbling after her unwillingly. 

“They won’t even find out if you shut your mouth and follow my lead,” she hissed as they were quickly getting closer to the castle. “Quit your pitiful crying!”

Tevin sniffled, furiously wiping at his face as they approached. He had to trust that Annelisa has a good plan to keep his secret hidden. The guards were in their usual posts as he could see, so it meant that no word of their illegal visit had reached the kingdom just yet. The shadows outside of the castle walls were a bit more sparse; they would have to be quick.

——————————–

A couple of hours later both were a lot of calmer as they waited for the news of their fate in the study. They were pretending to read stories of the rebel angels when a castle servant came in.

“Hello, Prince Tevin and Lady Annelisa,” they greeted with a strained smile. “The king would like to talk to you. There’s been an… an incident in the East Village.”

The two paled as they looked at each other, silently following the servant to the king’s throne room. King Daniel stared them down as he came in. He seemed more worried than angry, which had never happened before.

“Father?” Prince Tevin asked, approaching the throne with a frown. “Father, what happened in the East Village?” Tevin was panicking inside. That is where Elyssia lived, and it was no coincidence that something happened just after he and Annelisa left.

“There was an explosion,” the king told them. “And a sight reporting of you two. Did you two have something to do with this? It was proven to be a magical blast. People have gotten hurt, three dead already.”

Tevin shook his head. “No, father…. we…” He sighed shakily, deciding he should just be honest. “We were in East Village, but we left before there was any type of explosion. It wasn’t us, honestly.”

King Daniel stared him down again before nodding. “Alright, I believe you. However, the village might not. Where in the village did you two go? The common folk will have many questions.” King Daniel crossed his arms.

Tevin gulped, looking at Annelisa for help. He no longer wanted to be honest.

“We wanted to see the maze,” Annelisa lied. “We heard rumors that it was enchanted with magical flowers. We wanted to see for ourselves.”

Tevin nodded in agreement. “We were spotted while we stopped in a house to hide from a crowd,” Tevin continued the lie. “We got scared so we ran. I am sorry for running off father. We were just so interested that we didn’t have the patience to wait for permission.”

King Bastien was disappointed in him for sure. “As punishment, you two will stay in your own quarters and focus on your studies,” King Daniel finally decided, looking to the servants. “Escort them, bring them some work to do,” he instructed, watching the servants rush to comply.

Tevin nearly groaned. His father’s appointed studies were always such a drag. He let the servant lead him to his quarters, thinking back to his first kiss once again. His lips buzzed with a fury as his face turned red. Tevin supposed he should have expected her to kiss him. He had given her a rare and potentially angel-summoning necklace. He scoffed at the thought of such a thing. Angels were dead; there is no way that a strange looking crystal could bring back the dead. 

Tevin, however, could also not help but feel a bit of dread. There was an explosion in the village his girlfriend lived in. People were injured and killed. He prayed that she was all right. Hopefully, she would somehow send him a letter by a bird again. He smiled some at the thought of seeing her beautiful handwriting, but it did not quell the fear in his heart of her being potentially hurt. He knew it would not ease until he saw her again. He would just have to sneak to East Village again, but this time at night.

——–

A week went by and there was no word from Elyssia. Tevin was panicked, and Annelisa could no longer calm him down.

“Maybe the postal office was destroyed in the blast?” She had offered an explanation.

Tevin had accepted that for a few days, but his father had sent his builders to go down and repair everything quickly. What if… what if she had been killed in the blast? Maybe if he had a copy of the village paper, he could find out. Annelisa had promised to get her hands on such paper, so hopefully he could find out if she was okay, and he could sleep. His stomach ached with the anxiety for her safety and something else he could not decipher. It was the anxiety you get when you know something bad is on the horizon, like a bad storm or an approaching army.

That morning at breakfast, Annelisa sat down next to him, paper clutched and folded in her hand. “My servant finally got her hands on the paper. I have not looked at it. Do you want to read it together or look at it by yourself?” She asked gently.

Tevin thought for a moment, gently taking it from her. “I’ll read it by myself. I’m shaking with my nerves.” He chuckled and breathed in deep, slowly unfolding the paper. His eyes scanned through the article of the explosion, stopping when he saw a name in the deceased section.

Elyssia.

—–

Elyssia watched Tevin and Annelisa rush off with scared tears building up in her eyes. She clutched the special jewelry close, her fingers pressing against the angel tear’s stone as she prayed. As she began to cry, the stone began to glow, almost as if it was powered by her touch and emotions. It illuminated the room to the point it was painful to look at. Elyssia gasped and threw it away from her.

“What in God’s name?” Elyssia starred at then necklace in curiosity and horror, but she kept having to look away as the light burned her eyes. Tears fell from sadness and pain. The crystal called to her. It called her name; it needed her body. It needed her life; it needed her. Elyssia began to walk closer and closer, barely fighting the temptation to grasp it and give it her life no longer.

Elyssia grasped it tightly, gasping for air as it sucked the life out of her. Her eyes burned along with the skin on her hands as she fell to her knees. The house shook with fury; the crystal buzzing as the light grew hotter and brighter. It was growing a form, the light almost laughing at her as she died before it. She could sense how much this being hated her. It’s hateful views filled her bleeding head. It thought it was higher than her, she was scum…. Elyssia somehow began to agree.

The power and light was too much, and she exploded with the fury of it letting out a loud scream. The house burst with it and set the whole neighborhood aflame. The crystal cracked open and a winged mass of power flew out. No one spotted them as they flew upwards, multiple forms following the first as they escaped the now charred and screaming village. The winged masses headed for the tops of the snowy mountains where it was cold and bitter. These beings were not of the hot and passionate world of the humans.

No, they were better than that. They were angels, God’s children, and the ones chosen to serve him, but everything changed when their lovely father and leader had betrayed his divine creation for a bunch of emotional meatbags that could barely handle the weak elemental powers bestowed upon them. The angels were shoved into their crystal prisons, all jammed in and unable to do anything but scream to each other in agony. It was appalling, disgusting. It was maddening, and the angels were punished once they tried to show their father that the humans were not worth his time.

Now they were out and thirsty for revenge. They wanted the scummy blood of humans. The angels wished to wash the world with the blood and start over. God was gone, having gone on to other matters and it was the angels time to reign.

———-

Tevin dropped the newspaper with a deep and heartbroken wail, gripping onto his arms as he radiated grief. Annelisa hugged him, crying some herself. She had gathered what had happened from his reaction, and she had her suspicions deep down all along. The servants stood around them, waiting with unease as they watched the prince and his best friend cry for whatever reason.

“Get the king,” one servant whispered to another by the door, and they ran off with a nod. King Daniel rushed in a few minutes later, going to his son’s side and pulling him close immediately. He had not seen his son this upset since the passing of his mother.

“Tevin, what is the matter?” He asked, cupping his son’s chin so he would look him in the eyes. Tevin shook his head, trying his hardest not to look at Annelisa. His secret couldn’t get out, his father would not understand. No one but Annelisa would.

“I feel so bad for those innocent people gone!” He half-lied. He felt bad for all their deaths, but Elyissa mattered the most out of everyone in the world to him. “Seeing their names in the paper just made the grief I feel so much worse!”

“No worries,  my son,” Daniel soothed him, rubbing his back. “We will hold a month-long mourning, hold funerals, and a ball at the end of the month in the village’s honors. Everyone will be invited.”

That didn’t feel like enough, but Tevin nodded and sobbed into his father anyhow. It would have to do.

———

Tevin locked himself in his room for days at a time, only coming out when someone would unlock the door and drag him out themselves. The servants were worried, as he refused to eat or shower on his own will. He was either sleeping or sitting on the window sill. The window luckily had been locked up, so he couldn’t jump out.

If King Daniel wasn’t so busy he would have come get him himself. The servants were hesitant to bother him, and Annelisa would be gone for four months on a family trip. Tevin was truly alone. The guilt of leaving Elyssia to die in an explosion was crushing. It hurt. He hoped it was quick and painless. It was almost as if he was the one caught in the midst of an explosion. He vowed to find out what caused it and see that whoever caused it was punished. When Prince Tevin became king, he would ban anything capable of explosion. He did not care if he was accused of being tyrannical. He refused to let anyone die in a way his love had.

About a week later, Tevin dragged himself out of bed and went to bathe, getting into his best mourning clothes. He wandered around the castle as he tried not to cry out in pain. Lying in one spot so long has made his body not used to movement, and he was so hungry. He was sure he looked sickly. Even feeling as horrible as he did, he refused to eat or sleep any more. He wanted to sit in on his father’s meetings. It was time to grow up and get down to business.

Tevin walked in and sat next to his father as everyone watched silently. His boots echoed on the ground loudly, his face tense and stony. He refused to cry anymore. The king reached over and patted his shoulder, a concerned expression etched upon his face.

“Are you alright, my son?” King Daniel asked as he tried to gauge his son’s current state. Tevin merely nodded, swallowing hard as he fought back more tears. The meeting continued as Tevin sat there with a blank expression. As the speaker spoke, Tevin quickly blanked out and seeped into the world of his inner thoughts.

——

The angels had been working hard on their camp. That was not an easy feat considering most of the angels did not have a body. They had to wait for their bodies, as a mass disappearance of humans would cause great alarm. A gathering was happening at the moment. It was time to elect a leader and come up with a proper plan to take revenge against the mortals. A younger angel by the name of Cassiel knew he must step up and take his place. He was one of the last angels crafted by God’s hands and knew he was crafty and clever enough to lead.

Cassiel headed down to the village; the pathetic mortals would be too busy grieving to even notice his divine presence. Time to look for a vessel.

Cassiel looked for a vessel that looked like he once did, minus the large wings. It took almost a whole day of searching when he found the closest match. His new vessel was a drunkard, lying in a dark alley on the cusp of death. He had gotten in a fight with a man twice his size and ended up mortally wounded. Cassiel hovered nearby, faintly illuminating the man and his surroundings as he finally stopped his whining. Cassiel waited until he sensed the corpse had grown stiff and cold before entering it and claiming the vessel permanently. The body would not rot nor age, it was perfect.

Cassiel stood with some effort, grunting a bit as the wounds suddenly closed. This body was absolutely filthy with sin and blood. He would need a place to bathe and gather more intel on the daily routine of the mortals. Then, he would lead his brothers and sisters in the revenge efforts against these putrid beings.

—–