Brink of Eternity by Caris Roane

Author:Caris Roane
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-05-25T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Elise stood in front of Madame Endelle, in one of the large white marble rotundas of the official Second Earth palace. She was waiting for Her Supremeness to start the ceremony. She might have been awed by her surroundings if she hadn’t been completely overcome by the reason for her presence in the massive, formal dwelling.

She was ascending.

Endelle had argued her case before a hastily convened COPASS, stating that because Elise hadn’t been offered her choice of alignment before the attack at the White Tanks Borderland, the attack had been completely illegal.

Greaves had agreed to permit the ascension without further repercussion. It was that, or the actions of one of his generals would be brought to trial and the general could risk execution for violating COPASS law. So, naturally Greaves conceded.

So here she was, at Madame Endelle’s palace, at nearly midnight, with Duncan standing off to her left side and serving as a witness. Gideon stood behind her and to her right just a couple of feet. He wore a formal military tunic in black silk and a sleeker version of the usual battle sandals. He had a purple cape flung over one shoulder. Again, ancient Rome came to mind.

Elise wore a simple black dress for the ceremony and basic black heels. She’d worried that she wouldn’t be dressed appropriately, but frankly, Endelle hadn’t seemed to notice what she was wearing or anything else about her.

Her Supremeness smoothed a hand the length of her earring—the same feathered earring that Elise had seen in one of the visions she had recently shut down. The feather was very long, a foot perhaps, and narrow, with the coloring of pheasant. Endelle wore a black ceremonial robe that reached to what Elise knew to be some of Her Supremeness’s favorite footwear: black stilettos. She held a large book in one hand and with the other flipped through the pages.

Elise felt dizzy and overwhelmed. She was ascending, beginning a new life in a new dimension. She would be free to explore her powers in the open and if the itching up and down her back was any indication, she would develop wings in the near future. She couldn’t wait.

“It’s late,” Endelle said, “and my thong is bugging the shit out of me, so let’s get this done.”

Elise couldn’t suppress a spurt of laughter, but Endelle truly didn’t seem to care. She read straight from the book in a voice that bordered on a drone. A woman, in a place of authority, who was nine thousand years old, had probably done this one too many times.

Despite the woman’s disinterest, the words meant something to Elise, of the ascended world, of the community she would soon enter, of service, great service, to Second Earth. She would be given special duties that would align with her preternatural powers and in due course she would receive the gift of relative immortality. She would receive her fangs this very night and, yes, she would one day mount wings and fly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.