We Dream of Hope

Error Should Go After Chapter 19

Outside Sera walked quickly away from the house, she knew Odion was following and so she never turned around. She slowly began to test his prowess by jumping over run down fences and dashing through large open areas. It turned into a game of tag where Odion was proving just how un-efficient his two legs were. Finally after hearing one too many stumbles for her liking Sera stopped. It was a beautiful park well taken care of with flowers just starting to end their cycle of blooming.

“So, you’ve been living as a wolf this whole time?” Sera looked at him eyes deep trying to figure out where she went wrong. “Did you ever try to turn human?”

“Honestly?” he scoffed, “No, I was just content, I mean,” he peddled backward slightly, it was awkward looking at her and trying to see her as his mother. She was trying to have a moment with him and all he could think was that she was so tiny, yet supposed to be the warrior every demon feared. This girl was definitely somethin

g else and he didn’t know how to completely take it, “I always thought I was more. I just never really thought I needed to explore beyond what I was.”

“Right, right,” She calmed herself breathing in deeply and exhaling into her hands, “Look, I’m not disappointed at you. I knew Warner, he was a good friend. At the same time, I can’t help but think that this is just you holding yourself back.”

“Trust me, I want to turn back. I want to be as useful as I was as a wolf-”

“That’s not the point. You think I killed all those demons as a wolf?” She held back calling him ‘son’ knowing he was already a little uneasy about this, instead she took a minute and thought through her words before continuing, “That form, it was never meant to be a permanent thing. We are first humans after all. You have all the powers, the sense of smell, sight, sound, and your gut feelings. Those are all the same when you are a human.” She knew the next thing she had to say was going to be taken the wrong way, but still she had to put it out there. If she bottled up anything right now it was going to do more harm than good, “At this point, you want to be useless. You’ve put it in your head that you’re only good as a wolf and so you cut yourself off from your power.” Again she reflected and watched his face, he was hesitant to speak up, but she didn’t want to make matters worse by saying too much too quickly. “I mean what do you feel?”

“Me?” He shrugged, trying to play around with any excuse to combat what she threw at him. “I think that maybe, you could have a point.”

She smiled, he was ready to learn how to be a proper wulver. He had the drive, he wanted to fight, but Sera also knew where her other kids had wound up. She knew this was going to in the end be up to him and just like all the others she was going to set him up to succeed, where he took it was going to be his choice. “I want to help you. I cherish you, I mean come on you’re the last of my kids that didn’t start working for the demons. So you’ve got to be strong. Speaking of, being strong.” She put her hands on her hips, “Before we continue I want to put everything out there. So let’s start talking about your relationship with Nadia.”

Odion gulped, he didn’t want to take this conversation further. Sera, she had other plans and didn’t give him a moment to object.

Back at the house Nadia tried to clear her mind. She sat on the floor, eyes closed just focusing on her breathing, just as Odion taught her. She would silently tell herself to inhale and exhale and Ma’at worked alongside her. They sat in total silence only hearing the shifting of the house. Creaks and pops of the shack shifting from the age and swelling in the humidity. The air was very stale, it held heavier and full of dust. Sera might have lived here, but she clearly had other things to worry about than cleaning.

“You think my head’s clear yet?” Nadia whispered.

A muffled chuckle came from Maat who whispered back, “Do you feel your mind is clear?”

Exhausted from all the mental work Nadia collapsed backward stretching her legs and spreading her arms wide, “This is boring. I don’t even know if I’m doing it right.”

Ma’at joined her stretching and popping her back and neck before settling down, “You know I don’t think there’s supposed to be a right or a wrong way. I think you just need to figure out what works for you.”

They both stared at the ceiling, it was crusty and chipped but it still held together. Nadia closed her eyes and thought of everything that happened. She thought of wanting to go back. Those people were put in danger, who knows what else was going on? No, quickly the thought faded. Knowing now it was a prison she never could go back, she didn’t want to. Still, Sera’s words rang through her, Lucifer would be looking for her. He would be led to the camp. Everyone there, they would be in danger. It’s all her fault. She clenched her eyes tightly trying to force those thoughts out of her head, but that jolt of realization kept coming back. Those people were as good as dead if she did nothing. She lost herself in thought she kept hoping that Odion would burst in laughing condescendingly mocking her troubles. He had been that anchor of sanity when she was losing herself in emotions. Why now is he staying away? Just because this girl who swears to be his mother skipped into the picture, she was going to lose him.

A rustle outside and a leap through the window stirred the two from their concentration. Odion and Sera returned and Odion seemed different. He looked more troubled and yet, he held himself to a new meaning. His eyes still had their yellow hue and yet they were more distant, he had more confidence in his movements. After only a few short hours Sera was able to change him that much the two girls wondered what miracles she could work on them.

“Having fun?” She laughed, it wasn’t that she didn’t know what they were doing, she could feel the trouble and grueling headaches they had been battling. “Yeah, I know I’m pretty great. I turned this mutt into a respectable warrior.” She patted him on the back and he rolled his eyes. “He’s still a work in progress, but don’t worry Nadia, he’ll be staying out of your thoughts from now on unless you invite him.

Ma’at took this as a sign and lit up with possibilities of acts of valor. “So what now? Are we all going to go through some journey with you and then march on to battle?”

Sera did a double take, and her smile faded, “Why would you do something so stupid?”

Ma’at’s eyes narrowed and the light faded, “What do you mean?”

She scoffed in reply, “I’m just getting you ready to survive. We are not going to go out looking for trouble. Do we really want to restart the war? If we restart anything it’s you three going back into hiding.”

Nadia’s stomach dropped, she never realized how much she wanted to fight this power until someone told her she wasn’t going to. Odion shared her feelings and Maat looked more troubled than anyone. Sera could see their faces, washed with sadness and disappointment. Stil she stuck firm.

“Why on earth would you want to start fighting again?”

Nadia looked around as the spirit of the room was depleted and Sera just stood back more resigned in her feelings. “Well, there are people who were prisoners with us. How can we just sit back while they are up on that mountain confused, lost, and in the direct path of a crazy demon overlord ready to kill them? I mean we are eternally grateful for your help, but weren’t you made to fight? You could help us bring them all down here to the town. They could live here safely. You’ve killed all those demons, how could you stand there and preach about just hiding when you clearly are wanting to make some kind of impact?”

“Nadia…” Sera could only admit she was being a hypocrite, that wasn’t the point though and she calmed her nerves before she allowed herself to continue, “It’s not that I want to leave those people, but times have changed. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Hope, your mother created me. Fighting for her was a great honor. I would have done anything for her. Right now, I would do anything for you. However, looking back, we were all blind. I cherish each moment I had with her, I want you to know that.” She walked over and sat down cradling her legs close to her chest, “When you look back on the hundreds of years and the things I had done. All in the name of being on the right side. There ends up being no difference between the angels and demons.”

Maat glared and her nostrils flared, “How dare you?”

“You don’t know what I did-”

“Maybe now, but Nadia and I know what we went through. Good for her for finding her desire to save everyone. You, how could you?”

“You hold the angels to such a high standard.” Sera smirked and just closed her eyes, “Lucifer was an angel. Originally that is. Years of fighting and torturing other angels left him mutilated.”

“So that was one angel.” Ma’at was not backing down her assault, she travelled all this way and she would be damned if it meant nothing.

“I think Sera’s right.” Odion, finally after silence and contemplation spoke softly causing the others to turn to him, eyes wide and in disbelief.

“Are we missing something you two shared?” Ma’at put the pieces together on her own, the wulvers were grouping up and Odion was turning submissive to his mother.

“The angels are northern invaders, the demons are southern, and Earth was caught in the middle.” Odion wanted to support his mother without overstepping. They had shared a lot and she told him more than enough to make him see the truth, Ma’at and Nadia would need something if they were ever going to back down.

“So we get rid of the demons,” Ma’at still couldn’t see what was wrong with fighting. She wanted to act, not react and this was starting to just circle in logic.

“If you lose Nadia then you lose the last shred of Hope’s power in this world. Why do you think that is? Why do you think after all those years there is only one piece of Hope left? Thousands of years and Nadia just so happened to be the only child she ever had? What happened to the others?” Sera frowned and looked back at Ma'at, resolved and edged on to a broader point that she was sure was going to turn everyone to her side.

“Lucifer, he-”

“Not Lucifer.” She interrupted.

Nadia snapped back into the conversation she predicted where this was going but wanted Sera to say it out loud. She wanted it to be said so she could fight it. “Who killed them?”

Sera exhaled and closed her eyes, “On the orders of the angels. The first warbeasts did.”

“LIAR!” Nadia stood up, fists clenched, voice shaken, “My mother would never do that!”

“She was here for over a thousand years Nadia, do you really think you are the first to be born? There are only so many names that mean hope you know. There have been at least ten Nadia’s born, each not as strong as the last and each didn’t pass Hope’s test. She kept having children with different people until she finally had the strongest, killing each before to make sure the power was never lessened.”

“She would never-”

“Angel’s have a finite limit to their power, the more sharing from the pot the less each one was. They couldn’t afford to have a horde of children!” Now Sera was standing facing off with the product of a long unnatural selection process. “If your mother survived she would have certainly killed you too once a better one came along.”

“She loved me.” Nadia whispered praying Sera wouldn’t rush with a counter.

“She did, in her own way, but she was a creature of practicality. I was blind. It wasn’t until things changed that I finally had to think for more than just her wishes.” She stumbled over her words quickly clearly hiding something and everyone caught on.

“What changed?” Maat the first to press the subject seemed disgusted.

“Matters were complicated,”

Nadia glared at her, she was the child of Hope so in her mind it made sense that she would have a power to push information out of her mother’s creations. She was supposed to control them according to Sera, so she glared with intent. She stretched her mind forward and Sera looked at her completely aware of what she was trying to do.

“I’ll tell you if you stop trying to figure it out.” She didn’t want Nadia poking around to see for herself what happened. She would feel it as if it was first hand, and that was something she wasn’t prepared for.

Nadia backed off and felt a wave of relief, she wasn’t fully confident in her ability to look into her mind, and it was exhausting to just try to break through Sera’s who had more experience with keeping things bottled.

“I lived in fear that one day Hope would have twins. They were never not an option, but I always thought it was so unlikely that it wouldn’t happen. If it did I prayed I wasn’t the one to have to deal with it. Hope cycled through who she used to take care of things. She favored me, since she knew I would never disobey her. Still…” She trailed off before continuing, “She had twins. I was supposed to figure out who was stronger and dispose of the weaker one. I couldn’t do it. When you and your twin were born. I hid the fact I didn’t take care of the job.” She cleared her throat chasing away tears, “I didn’t do as good of a job as I thought and she confronted me about it. She sent Warner out to finish the job and that’s when we were attacked. Hope didn’t survive, but…”

“What about my twin?” Nadia’s eyes glistened and her voice was strained, she thought all her family was gone, but now this was a second chance. “Where are they?”

“Warner took care of it.” She looked down ashamed.

“Then why tell me? Why did you-”

“I told you so you would understand. Don’t fight for them. They wouldn’t give a second thought to your life so why should you sacrifice it for the angel’s cause?”

Nadia backed off, she wanted to argue her point, but Sera was filled with emotions and she projected them all back onto Nadia. She broke down, tears finally broke through and rushed down her cheek. Her desire to fight left her. Every amount of respect and admiration she held for her mother faded. Hope was held at such a high standard Nadia believed she could do no wrong. Everything about her mother she thought she knew was rewritten. Hope may have helped fight the demons, but she lost herself in desiring to be strong. Nadia was lost, she wanted to be like her mother, and now she had nothing. “I need a minute.” She turned and slipped out of the house.

Odion and Maat turned to go after her but Sera stopped them. “I think she just needs some time alone. We should give her that.”

“We can’t just let her wander off.” Maat wasn’t about to watch her friend get lost, but at the same time she knew being overbearing was just as damaging. Nadia wasn’t moving off the front lawn, so it wasn’t like she was in any danger. So she just stood by the window keeping one eye on her as the other maintained a stare at Sera.