Page 83 of A Monarch's Fall

“They stay here, underground?” I asked. I didn’t understand how any person could flourish underground.

“It’s not as bad as it seems. Look around.” Narkissa opened her arms wide to the room. “The environment is hardly what one imagines of a cellar. Every room is filled with light, colour, and flora, designed to mimic natural sunlight and be a supportive, creative environment,” she said.

I simply nodded. No matter how colourful a prison was, it was still a prison.

“The children are very happy,” Lady Flores told me.

“I… I know. I’m just finding it difficult to think that they never leave here,” I told her, hoping honesty would hide my growing anger. These were children, and they were kept down here, learning to control their magic with the sole purpose of being used as pawns in a war.

“I understand. It is purely for their safety. The world is not a safe place for those with novel abilities and dual users.We are hiding them here until they are capable of protecting themselves,” Narkissa explained.

“Where are their parents? How do we keep them secret?” I asked, careful of my wording, and hoping that by including myself in the secret it would further hide my simmering outrage.

“Most are working within The New Foundation, entrusting us to provide protection and training so that their children will be safe and free someday,” Lady Flores answered.

“This is simply the safest place to house these children,” I stated, pushing down my feelings that this was all wrong.

“Exactly,” Narkissa said.

“Do you understand what we are doing here, Percy? We are embracing what it means to be Flores, truly, for the first time in our known history; we are not making ourselves small. We no longer prohibit mixing with other magic lines. We assumed such a law had always existed for fear of losing ourselves, but Damia and every child since then have shown that Flores' magic is never lost; we grow, we adapt, we become something more. We were always the forgotten coven. The coven that could be pushed around, used, and abused with impunity. Perhaps our ancestors feared how powerful we truly were. We do not know why our true nature was prohibited and hidden for so long, but we do know that by embracing our power, we will uplift not only Flores but everyone,” Lady Flores told me.

It was a nice speech, and maybe if we weren’t sat underground in a basement where children were being kept from their mothers and from experiencing the warmth of the sun, so that they could be moulded into perfect little soldiers, it would have had the effect that Lady Flores had intended.

“I understand,” I assured her. “We are far from weak now,” I said.

Narkissa smiled broadly.

“We were never weak to begin with; we just never knew our own strength,” she corrected.

“Everyone is going to know the strength of Flores soon,” I said confidently. It was true. I didn’t think anything could stop them now.

Lady Flores patted my shoulder approvingly, and I gave her what I hoped was a happy smile.

We chatted for a while with Narkissa, telling tales of how my mother refused to learn to swim, scared of the water, until her dual-user nature made itself known. It was oddly nice: the distraction from what was going on and the chance to hear about my mother from someone who knew her as a child. I found it so difficult to feel connected to a woman I never had the chance to meet. But the longer I spent with Lady Flores, the more I realised that my mother had done me a great service in leaving Flores. If I had been born within the coven, maybe I would have found myself imprisoned underground, brainwashed into being an obedient soldier, willing to use my magic to harm others.

I tried to focus on anything else, focus on the stories of my mother. Until eventually I returned above ground with Lady Flores, and we parted ways.

It was as I was walking back towards my room that I realised I was alone for the first time. Kat and the others would be training at the gym on the general base outside Witching Command. I had an opportunity and clear cover to leave Witching Command if anyone asked. If I were going to inform Arvid of what I had learned and escape this place that made me feel dirty and wrong after what I had seen, now might be my only opportunity.

I left Witching Command without anyone stopping or questioning me. Perhaps I had always been able to move freely, and I wasn’t being as closely watched as I suspected. I didn’t know. I ran across the green space in the centre of the main buildings toward the accommodation block where I had awoken,determined to find Arvid. I needed out, I needed to get back to Selene, to warn her of how far The New Foundation and Flores had been willing to go. I felt sick. All those kids. They were so innocent. Too young to be used as weapons of a war they had no part in.

As I neared the accommodation block, I began to slow my pace to a swift walk, aware that I had probably attracted attention. I looked around me, and short red hair caught my attention, crossing towards the forest and Witching Command.

Ana.

I changed direction and ran into the forest after her.

“Ana!” I called as I entered the treeline.

She turned to me.

“Percy,” she said, her voice full of relief, and she ran towards me, wrapping her arms around me.

I pushed her off me.

“How could you do it?” I asked her. “How could you take me from her?”

I was crying with anger and betrayal, tears that I hated to show her in that moment, but which I couldn’t control. I was angry with her. I was furious. But I was also so deeply betrayed, and it was like a punch to the gut; it knocked the air out of me.