Chapter 3
Avenging Angels
Ladrieu, Arielle, Bonaventure
Things were proceeding smoothly. Now eight of the Ancients had awakened to the memories of their previous lives and the process was becoming easier. They were getting better at identifying the trigger and with a little more refinement, their work would hopefully start to yield more reliable results. Now, if only they could awaken someone with more useful information...
Mariana looked around the bay uncertainly. There were plenty of options, but how many would help her achieve her aims? She wanted to select someone who appeared to have once been important, but after the past few weeks in these conditions, it was difficult to tell one malnourished, parasite-ridden shell of a human being from another.
"Is something the matter, young mistress?" Mr. Geoffries asked.
"I was wondering... how do you tell when someone is important?"
"You look to the eyes, young mistress, and the bearing. Few men who know their importance can hide these things."
"Only we are dealing with people who do not know their importance."
"Indeed so."
Mariana then realized that Iliana was not echoing her words as she usually did. She turned to see her sister staring off into the distance, not really looking at anything in particular.
"Iliana, what's the matter?" Mariana asked.
"Something... Something is coming..."
It seemed strange that Iliana would sense something Mariana did not, but then everything around them went unnaturally silent. There was a heaviness to the air and a faint sense of trembling before a sudden shock rattled the entire building and blew out the windows. The bay flooded with blinding light and it was difficult to say what happened next.
It was like the whole wall was stripped away and vague humanlike shapes poured in. Mr. Geoffries shielded Mariana with his body, blocking out enough of the light so that she could see Trooper Ioanides fall to the ground with most of his head resembling a lump of charcoal. She thought she saw someone carrying away Iliana. Surely it was her voice crying out, "Sister!"
"Iliana!" Mariana cried back, but as she did, Mr. Geoffries was torn away from her and amid all the light, blackness enveloped her.