In this excerpt of The Heretics, Eva Milonia reminisces about her introduction to the Electrum Following, a heretical sect attempting to overthrow the presiding religion, The Mettalium. Her mother, Deirdre, warns her that the soldiers are coming, clad in precious metals, to destroy end the threat of Electrum once and for all.
Deirdre Milonia swung open the wooden door of her cabin. Without skipping a beat, she ran to the window, closing the curtain to block out the eerie silence of the Facinitus Forest. Deirdre lived here on the border of Mukta Pneuma and the Facinitus. The citizens, taking no pride in their city, often shortened its name more simply to Mukta. The deep green trees served as a barrier between Mukta and the great Mettalium temple, which sat on the other side of the forest, safe from the turmoil and chaos of the city. The temple was only open to Muktan citizens five days out of the week. During this time, The Prophet, with great exertion, would use his divine power to render the creature infested forest safe for passage. As it was the sixth day of the week, the protection would be lowered, giving The Prophet time to recover. Nobody could safely enter the forest today.
Deirdre watched it from her window. The trees were eerily still and looked more black than green. She could hear the rustling of the leaves as the wind whispered through the pines. Small beads of sweat formed on her brow.
Something was not right.
“Mother?” Deirdre whipped around to see a young, eighteen-year-old woman standing by the table sitting in the middle of the baren kitchen. She was reading a book, titled Baking: A Homemaker’s Guide to Perfect Bread. “Mother, is something wrong?”
“Eva.” Deirdre reached for her daughter and pulled her close. “I just came from your betrothed’s house.” Eva tensed at the mention of her betrothed, but said nothing. “Eva.” Deirdre held her daughter’s face in her hands. “They are coming! The monsters are marching through the forest as we speak!”
“The monsters?” Eva pulled away and crept toward the dirty brown curtain covering the window. She gingerly peeled back the corner and peered toward the forest. It seemed peaceful and still to her. “What do you mean?”
Deirdre quickly slapped Eva on the back of the head. “Stupid girl! Close that at once!” Eva staggered backwards, gripping her head. She huffed back to the wooden table, and sat on the bench, crossing her arms unhappily.
“He told me that The Prophet has learned of our plot to overthrow him!” Deirdre paced as she spoke, wringing her hands. “He is sending his hordes of servants, armed with divine swords, to slaughter us all! There is nowhere to run.”
Eva’s heart paused for a moment before it continued to beat. The Electrum followers had been plotting to overthrow The Prophet for a very long time. Longer than she and her mother had been in the fellowship. As long as she’d known them, they’d claimed that they would one day rise up and defeat the Mettalium empire. Eva always silently doubted the plausibility of this plan. Their numbers and power seemed far too insignificant to be a match for the great religious empire. Much to her relief the Mettalium seemed unaware of, or disinterested in the activities of the Electrum heretics, as they had come to be known. Had that changed?
“How does he know that?” she asked, rubbing the back of her aching head.
“Eva.” Deirdre walked slowly toward Eva and placed her hands firmly on the able. A small cloud of dust dispersed on the impact. “He is the messenger of god. It is foolish to ask how he knows these things. The Electrum deity itself has revealed all.”
She raised her hands to the sky before slumping down onto the bench massaging her temples. “These Mettalium scum aim to snuff us out.” She spat on the dirty floor. . . Eva wrinkled her nose. Indoors , she thought, great. Deirdre finished her diatribe with a final declaration. “They can never be victorious!”
Eva’s face turned red and hot. The mountain of scars on her chest began to itch. She reached underneath her gray frock and scratched at them, furiously. They crossed over her chest like tangled rat tails. Somewhere beneath the scars was once a branded Mark of Mettalium, but it had long been scratched away. She shuddered at the memory.
“Eva,” said Deirdre, looking at her daughter with a flicker of concern in her eyes. “Eva, stop scratching.” She quickly took Eva’s hands and held them on the table. “Do you understand what I’m saying to you?” She stroked her daughter’s cheek, tears falling from her blue eyes. “Today might be the day that we lay down our lives for Electrum.”
Icy blood shot through Eva’s veins. Her mother had left the Mettalium religion two years ago when she was taken in by the words of the Electrum followers. Eva had too. Though things had been difficult for them back then, somehow, two years later, Eva was not sure that she preferred things as they were now. Deirdre was so different.
Eva remembered having to hold her tongue when her stomach growled. If she fussed, her mother would often give her the larger portion of bread, and it still wouldn’t be enough to even feed even one of them. Hard as things were, Eva did her best not to complain. She knew that if she ever let her mother know how severely hunger burned in her stomach, she would ‘go find money’. Deirdre would go out at night and not come home until she had a purse full of coins. Eva thought she knew how her mother obtained the money, but never asked. She would rather go without bread than live with the guilt that she had driven her mother to such lengths.
Deirdre did her best to keep the whereabouts of their small cabin hidden from the outside world. With only the two of them, protection was difficult to come by. The flimsywooden door to their cabin did not even have a bolt, but they made do. Things were a ittle better after joining the heresy, but Eva sometimes wondered if they merely traded one hardship for another.
She remembered the day things changed, two years ago. Deirdre opened the cupboards to make more bread. To her dismay, she found them nearly empty, which only meant one thing: it was time again to go to the market. She sighed, pinching her eyes shut. Deirdre preferred to avoid the market whenever possible. It was a busy, bustling street with a dirt road. Various individuals roamed freely including pickpockets at best, and dead-eyed sadists at worst. These were the people who caused harm to others not out of desperate necessity, which Deirdre could forgive, but for fun. Then there were the crime lords, who would take one look at Eva and see a lucrative asset to add to their brothels. Deirdre was always torn between taking her daughter to such a place, or leaving her defenseless in an unlocked cabin. She usually chose the latter, but found a group of men lingering too close to their covert location only that morning. While it didn’t seem like they’d spotted the cabin, Deirdre opted tokeep Eva by her side just for today.
Once they reached the market, Eva and Deirdre cautiously wandered into the dust-filled streets. Sellers yelled from their stands, beckoning them to purchase vibrantly-colored clothes, fresh, succulent food, and glittering jewelry. Eva inhaled deeply. She could smell cooking meat on the fire along with floral hot teas, and freshly baked bread.
All pleasant smells that mingled with the earthy stench of the dirt and hordes of tightly packed humans. She flinched as one man shoved a handful of gold necklaces in herface and said, “This would look beautiful against your blue eyes. What do you think, mother?” He turned to Deirdre. “You cannot put a price on your daughter’s happiness.”
Deirdre ignored the man and pulled Eva along. Rhey squeezed through crowds of men and women, some urgently trying to make their living, others with treacherous eyes. Deirdre held firmly to Eva’s hand, her purse hidden in the pockets of her gray frock. “Stay with me, love,” she warned, squeezing her daughter’s hand firmer still. Eva obeyed. She held her breath as hundreds of footsteps kicked up massive dust clouds. The yellow clouds stung her squinted eyes. With little success, she tried to block the dirt by cupping her hand over her mouth and nose. They’d only just arrived and Eva already wished to leave. The market was always such a disorienting excursion.
She could hardly tell which way they were going when a man with piercing blue eyes, much more electric than Eva’s, came forward from where he stood leaning on the edge of a stone building. “Excuse me, lady,” he murmured. Eva, who was already on guard, perked up immediately, ready to fend off any danger. She did not respond, but leaned in closer to her mother. Deirdre glanced over her shoulder, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She had thought they’d get deeper into the market before attracting unwanted attention. That was usually her experience when she was alone, but her young, beautiful daughter stood out in the crowd.
“I’m talking to you.” The man loomed closer to the women and placed his hand on Eva’s shoulder.
Deirdre jolted. “Leave her alone!” she cried, as she quickened her stride.
Onlookers began turning their heads with a mix of casual curiosity and indifference.
“Who, me?” He raised his eyebrows innocently. “I just wanted to say ‘hello’.” He pulled on Eva, separating her from her mother. Deirdre, no longer aware of her surroundings, turned and pried the man’s hands off of her daughter.
“I said, leave her alone!” She lifted her hand to strike the blue-eyed man on the head. When she did, he released Eva, but glared at her with eyes that looked lit up from within.
“You’ll regret that.”
“Stay away!” Deirdre pushed Eva behind herself as the man crept slowly forward.
She held her hands in front of her as a painfully insufficient first line of defense. Eva looked around to see if anyone would help them. To her dismay, it seemed most people were just grateful that they were not the ones being attacked. She turned her attention back to the blue-eyed man. As she did, another man approached from behind and quickly reached into Deirdre’s pocket. Before she could react, the second man ran off into the crowd with Deirdre’s coin purse tucked into his chest.
“As you wish!” replied the blue-eyed one. Before following after his companion, he lifted his hand and struck Deirdre across the face. She fell to the ground clutching her cheek. The market spun several times as she attempted to reorient herself.
“Mother!” Eva crouched down to help Deirdre to her feet. Deirdre ignored the stinging in her cheek and was quickly alert again.
She sprang to her feet asking, “Where did he go?”
Eva pointed. “He ran off in that direction! Mother, I think the second man stole your purse!” Eva was on the brink of hot, angry tears.
“My purse?” Her stomach dropped when she realized her pocket was empty. “No! Damn it!” Deirdre slammed her fists against her thighs. She had to get that money back. Otherwise, she and Eva would go hungry tonight. Even worse, she would have to go out again and get more money. The work she did made her sick as it was. The thought of having done all of it for nothing was more than she could bear. She moved forward conflicted as to whether she should leave her daughter for a moment, or let their money go. She could be fast. Faster than she would be with Eva trailing behind her. She glanced at her daughter. Eva would be okay for a moment – just for a moment.
“Eva,” she said urgently, “I have to go after them!” Eva’s eyes widened as she shook her head. “Please, just wait here for one moment! Just one moment, all right?” Deirdre hesitated before pulling her hand from her daughter’s grasp.
“Mother please! We can go one night without food.” The fear of being left alone in this place by far outweighed a night without food in Eva’s mind.
Deirdre thought her heart would split in two. When she first discovered she was pregnant with Eva, she had foolishly hoped that she could give the girl a better life than she’d had. Yet, here she was given the choice of leaving her daughter in the danger of the market or allowing her to go hungry. It was a bitter choice for any mother to make.
“I’ll be fast.” She held Eva’s cheek. “Just don’t move!”
© [2024] Taleah Graves. All rights reserved.
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