The Daughter Of Dawn

"In the darkness of the night, millions of tiny stars glowed brightly to show their existence, not that they are some ball of air floating across the vast universe, but that they were their own selves, they glow burning themselves and become the path bearer for the ones who seek beauty in themselves." Those were the last lines of the best selling book of the year, just the same as what they say, the Stars are meant to show the way even if they are lost for themselves.That's what stars do. Hiding their own pain so that the others could seek the happiness that the Star never owned. I closed the book. I have read the book for a hundred and one times trying to figure out how it makes sense to the people who don't even know how the Star actually feels. The lips that always smile to hide the pain of sadness, are the lips that they believe have never fallen down into the miseries of sorrows and darkness. I know this, because I've gone through this, and I'm one of them, the Stars. It's 4:40A.M, almost morning, and I stayed up all night working in my studio on my latest work. I wanted it to be hurtful, something that reminds the darkness in the human soul. How something that starts it's life full of innocence, turns slowly into a dark soul as it descends the path of human life. I tried changing the arrangement, I tried changing the rhythm but it always ended sounding cruel rather than hurtful. I've been working on it for almost a week now and still I feel like I'm stuck somewhere. I came out from my studio, I'm tired of pulling all nighters up for at least a week. My body needs sleep, the last remaining cells in my brain are starting to shut down. I went downstairs to the kitchen, my head hurts badly, maybe a drink will do. My sleep deprived eyes wandered sleepily in the kitchen until it fell upon a Post-it note that was stuck on the fridge. It says "No midnight snacks." It was from my manager. These days he is getting more and more irritable. He gets super annoyed when he sees me doing something that he told me not to do. I turned towards the coffee grinder, it might help me to stay awake for the rest of the day. I took out the last spoonful of Jamaican blue mountain coffee beans, it suits my buds, mild taste not bitter, I would've preferred sweet if it wasn't for sleep. I didn't know when I dozed off while grinding the coffee, the next time I opened my eyes I saw the manager's big fat sweaty head huffing all over my face. He was trying hard to drag me out of the kitchen. I pulled my sleeves out of his grip and stood up. I looked at him, his fat body had enough exercise for the rest of the day. He took out his white kerchief to wipe his sweat off.That was good, this little sleep really helped. "Do you know that the expensive phone that you keep is also for answering phone calls other than clicking photos of your pups." he said, wiping off his sweat from his spectacles. That wasn't even a thing to be scolded about. "You haven't seen the news, right? Ohh sorry for asking. How can your busy ass have time to watch news." He said, almost rolling his eyes. Did he just roll his eyes on me? No one rolls their eyes at me. How can he do that? I ignored his mistake this time, of course because I'm magnanimous. He came out of the kitchen and switched on the television. "Why did something happen? You look so serious man." I said, turning my gaze to the television to see what was going on. What I saw next was a total disaster.There was chaos, everywhere. All I could see was water. It took me some time to realise what was happening. The houses were drowned, people were clinging to logs and everything that could float to keep them from drowning, their voices of agony echoed all around. Those vast lands once covered with lush green farms are now looking like a pool of dirty water. All the districts that gave bed to the holy river of Dionysia are now flooded with neck reaching level of water. The children were wailing, they have already realised that they don't have a roof on their heads anymore to sleep peacefully. There is pain in the farmer's faces, it was almost harvesting time, the crops that promised them to feed their stomach until the next season are now nowhere to be seen now, they have already drowned far below into the dark waters, breaking it's promise going down far into the abyss. "....the officers are having hard time excavating the survivors due to the high current of the river. 158 bodies have been recovered underneath the broken infrastructures. The officers reported the situation we are seeing is only the tip of the iceberg, countless citizens have been buried under the water who are unlikely to be recovered due the heavy flooding. As the report says three major gates of the Dam were broken in the middle of the night. The unsuspected residents of the districts slept peacefully unknown to the disaster coming to them. The media has confirmed that the gates weren't broken due to any heavy water current or any leakage from the dam. It is also said that some unexploded explosives were excavated under the surface of the dam which belonged to our neighbouring country Vizophini. According to the government it is more likely to be a planned disaster than an unpredicted misfortune. Many theories point out to the Republic of Vizophini which can be the cause of such large scale destruction, because of the long unsolved disputes between the two nations. The dam, also known as The Smithsonian dam, was built 35 years ago, as a marriage gift between the two countries. The princess of Vizophini was married into the Ducal house of the Smithson as the Duchess. The dam was a gift from the King of Vizophini to stop the flooding of the farmlands of the districts that sides the Dionysia river. The river comes from the North, from the country of Vizophini and enters into Arcogantia making the east and west border of district 23 and 24 respectively. The district 24, which is now nothing more than an abandoned land, has all of its borders covered with water separating itself from the mainland of Arcogantia. Only it's northern border which is shared by the Vizophini's southernmost boundary is untouched by the water. The districts 23 and 25 are suffering a heavy flooding on their northern and eastern borders. These two districts were the main producer of food grains across the country. The loss of granary and livestocks from the two districts caused a big fall in the economy. Due to this fall in the economy, the common class community among the society are most likely to suffer the most. It also said that if the situation is not managed properly, a faminine can be seen in the very near future among the common classes. As the reports said, it is highly predicted that the Republic of Vizophini is trying to break out from this situation. The Monarch of the Vizophini are yet to release any statement regarding to the breaking of the dam gates." The reporter's voice faded in the background as I stopped listening. I switched off the television. It's hard to believe that whatever happened is not just a news that they bring up everyday, it's a disaster that happened in our country. It started long back, around 20 years ago, I wasn't even born at that time, I was still inside my mum’s womb. Vizophini, our neighbouring country started attacking our country, Arcogantia. The Vizophians started attacking us, murdering hundreds of innocent lives. It's continued for many years. They destroyed our cropland, kidn*pped our people, and killed them. They wanted to be unstoppable, the invincible one. Conquerors of the world. But our Emperor never gave in. He stood still, taking each battle scar in his chest with pride, unwilling to step down. For decades this dark battle went on. No sides were willing to lose. Every passing day the sun follows the bloodied trail of the flowing river with human carcasses. And finally today, they declared war against us. "This is not what I want to show you." my manager said, and turned on the television once again. "Whatever it is, I don't want to see it." I replied. He took the remote and switched the channel to the RoyaleTimes. It's the channel for the royals, of course. Their marriages, oath taking ceremonies and other unwanted stuff are telecasted here. Basically all the pompous and showy things that will make you believe in fairytales. The Ruler was speaking, Emperor Jadestone IV, the Judith Samael Lilith. He looked concerned, his face looked more aged than he actually is, but he still managed to look so majestic. "The disaster that took place recently, brought nothing but sorrows and pain to the country. We, the Arcogantians, will not suffer anymore. We will fight with them. We will take the blood which we have shed because of them. It's time for retribution......" I don't want to hear these. Fighting back with them will bring more miseries, and more lives to lose. "Is this what you want me to see?" "It's there, look. The 'Royal Decree' is there." "What's there to see in it?" I asked turning towards the television screen.                                                                                The House Of Lords The soil in which we grew, the soil in which we were nurtured, the soil which fed us, is now covered with the blood and hatred from the ones who don't want to stay as us, as the citizens of Arcogantia. The nation is built bit by bit from the own hands of our forefather. The founders of our nation soiled their own hands so that this land can protect us. Now it's the time to repay our debts to our forefathers, the founders of our nations. This is the time when our Nation needs us most. It's time to step up, and do what our founders did centuries ago. All the citizens are hereby upon the edict of the Royalties of Arcogantia, that all the households below the rank of Baron have to send one of their bloodline above the age of 20 to serve in "The Royal Army" for the five years of their life starting from the next month. The bystanders in this war will be exiled from this country, and their households will be branded the same as traitors. "What?" I gasped It's been two hours since we saw the Decree. I'm laying on my couch sipping my mood with champagne. My manager is still here, trying to figure out what to say. I'm sure it's already decided for me, he only came to tell the decision from the board. He just wanted to sound nice, or a bit less harsh. "What do I take it for? Do you guys want to send me out?" I asked, this silence was making both of us uncomfortable. "It's not like that.... "Don't try to make it sound better, I know what you being here means." I said cutting him in. Even though he is not the one who wants me out, but seeing him here trying to sound me out like I'm a little kid, I would rather be the rude guy. "I tried my best. I told them that it's not the time. You are at the prime of your career, it would be a waste letting you go." "But here you're, trying to convince me for the old farts of the company." "See you're young, you can always come back and start where you left from." he said holding my hand. "Just be honest with me, aren't you guys just sending me to fill in the director's nephew place?" Of course it has to be the reason, or why else someone would be willing to give their own gold mines. "You're part of the family as well, Mir. They must have thought of something before coming up with this decision." "Yes yes of course. How can I not know! I'm just a piece of tissue to them, just throw me out after they're done with me, and then I'm supposed to stay grateful to them right?" I replied, almost shouting at him. "Why are you being like this Mir. I'm just trying to make you understand that think about them as your family. They took you in because they admired you, not because they saw money in you." He answered very calmly to me. "You mean admired my talent to make money out of it?" I said rolling my eyes, I don't want to talk about this anymore. "The talent you're talking about wouldn't be even there if it weren't for them. You were like an unrefined diamond, they polished you, shaped you into what you're today." "Is it the end? Now I'm not even allowed to call myself mine? For this they took me in?" "Mir, you're not supposed to say like this. They're your parents, even if you don't want them, but in papers and legally you're their son and they have every right to do that." "I don't remember having any family since I was a kid. I don't even understand what you are talking about." "Can you please listen to me? Let's not fight and talk okay?" "Oh come on man that's enough.You know what just get the hell out of here. I need some time to think." They just want me to go so that they can keep their nephew from going to the Army, isn't it great? Who would have thought an adopted child can come to their help at times like this, I'm just a sacrifice made by their family, there will be no grievances even if I die, cause I never meant anything to begin with. I can play the perfect role of pawn, a piece ready to be sacrificed anytime. I already knew I never meant anything to the family, but throwing me out like this, I realised what my place is in the family. If I go, I'm pretty much sure this is the end of my career. Everyone in the industry is replaceable, if they don't see me on stage anymore, it's just that I lost my existence, I'll be replaced by someone. If I leave for 5 years they won't even remember my name, let alone my voice. "Just think about it, it's not as bad as you think it is." He said getting up to leave, I can see sympathy brimming out of his eyes. I hate this, I don't need any of your sympathy guys. "I exactly know what it is."