The First by A. Claire Everward

Author:A. Claire Everward [Everward, A. Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Author & Sister
Published: 2016-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

The Keeper had gone back to the main drawing room of the great house, and Aelia had joined her there. The three men walked through the open doors to see the two of them standing before media coverage from the bombing site, showing on a previously concealed screen. The old woman's hand was on her mouth, a horrified expression on her face. Ahir walked over and put a supporting hand around the longtime leader of the Firsts, and Rolly filled her in about the cruel attempt to harm her people. Adam came to stand silently beside Aelia. Around them in the room, a distance away, stood others of the house's staff, Remi and Sonea among them. They were all looking at the coverage of the explosion, some spoke in hushed voices, tried to make sense of it.

Beside Adam, Aelia listened to Rolly. But within her, she was listening to what remained unsaid in the room. She turned and looked at them, at the shocked faces all around her. A slight furrow in her brow, she walked to the French doors and looked at the people outside, standing in small groups. Waiting. News of the attack had made it to them, too, and they were being kept informed. Not far from her stood several members of the security details Rolly had reassigned to her and to Neora, looking out. She heard one of them comment that there were now so many people out there, he'd never seen anything like this before.

She didn’t look at them, but knew their gazes moved to her.

In her mind she heard what Neora had said earlier that morning, and what she had replied before when Aelia had asked her why all these people were flocking here. “They have waited so long, dared to hope for so long. They had to come,” the Keeper had said then. “And for each, there are so many others who have not come, who are out there, waiting.”

They had done nothing wrong, these people, nothing but live their lives. In peace. In hope. And yet now they were under attack. Aelia closed her eyes and listened to them, to them all. Gradually the voices in the room faded, replaced with their voices within, then others'—outside the room, in Aeterna, beyond it. She opened her eyes and placed her hands on the door handles, her gaze far away. Then she opened the doors and stepped out onto the terrace. The security detail stationed outside turned in surprise and began to walk toward her protectively, but her look stopped them. She walked forward and they stepped aside in reverence, their heads bowed.

“What the—” Adam sprinted after her, Rolly at his heels and Ahir and Neora following, everyone else behind them. Outside, Aelia walked down a few of the terrace steps and stopped. She stood there, looking at the people waiting in silence, in expectation, with hope, as far as the eye could see.

Adam was about to move closer to her when a hand restrained him, gentle but firm.

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