Free Web NovelChapter 132: Trial (4)
"What on earth am I going to do?" Questioned Aurora, laying on her bed looking up at the ceiling of her room. Her talk with Artemis hadn’t gone so well last night and now that it was officially the day of the trial, she wasn’t sure if Artemis was going to show up. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
She remembered the conversation she had with Artemis last night clearly.
"Aurora, I know you have memory loss right but living with humans shouldn’t make you forget that Gods and humans are not on friendly terms. Hence why you don’t see us wanting around amongst humans. Understood?"
Yet again Aurora had to hear about this whole separation between Gods and humans or humans and other creatures. Why was there ever a need for everyone to be divided? They shared the same ground they walked upon. "They’re just children, Artemis. Surely you might dislike the adults but children you can save right? Everyone likes children."
"I don’t," Artemis abruptly answered. She couldn’t stand the little crying things that leeched off their parents for many years. "I like to keep my distance away from them. You don’t mind me leaving the adults to die, how heartless."
Aurora was almost certain Vincent and Artemis were related to each other. Their personalities were not too far off. "How about we make this a gift for me getting away from the Hamiltons?"
"I didn’t tell you to go to that house, why on earth should I give you a reward for something you did to yourself? Does that sound right to you?" Artemis asked in a motherly tone without realizing. "If I do that then your brothers and sisters will never let me live it down. Next thing you know, they’ll want me giving them a gift for their stupid decisions."
"Brothers and sisters?" Aurora was aware Artemis had people or things she called pets but she didn’t realize since they all came from Artemis they were technically siblings.
"They know that you are with Vincent so beware if any show up. Most of them are troublemakers. Don’t allow them to trick you that you were on the best terms with them. You hated most of your siblings. Are we done here?" Artemis asked, ready to go back to what she was doing which was nothing.
"No!" Aurora exclaimed, stepping even more forward to grab the sides of her mirror. She couldn’t allow Artemis to leave when she had not agreed to come to the trial and it was a miracle that she even got Artemis to hear her request to speak. "The children, remember? Please help me with this. Just this once."
Artemis sighed having to go through this conversation with Aurora. "Listen, outside of this trial that is happening with these girls you have to realize the world is not rainbows and butterflies. There’s war behind a lot of the reasons why creatures kill other creatures without a second thought. The world has cruel secrets everyone wants to gloss over. You won’t be able to save everyone and I personally don’t want you to be calling upon me to do it for you."
"You and Vincent seem so alike, I’m starting to understand why I ran away from being around the two of you. Those little girls will die unless you help them. I understand Vincent’s position but you were literally placed here to help those in need. Please don’t talk about the whole world being against you because those little ones are innocent. They aren’t aware of the power battles the adults are going through, they just want to be somewhere safe."
Aurora understood very well that the world wasn’t rainbows and butterflies. She wished everyone stopped mentioning that when it came to the little girls. She read about the wars between humans and creatures when she snuck out of the Hamilton house and visited the market. Even without creatures like werewolves, the world would still have wars because humans would be greedy for something they can’t have or have egos where they wanted the world to bow to them.
The little ones were nowhere like those adults and if they helped the girls now in the early stage of their lives, they wouldn’t grow to be like the adult’s Aurora and Vincent hated. Why do children need to die over the mistakes of adults?"I’ll take care of the girls-"
"Well, I hope you weren’t thinking I would. I hope one day other people try to vouch for you as much as you do it for others. Like how you helped humans in the past and they turned around and wanted to burn you for being a witch. I’m going to think about whether or not I want to get involved in this. Goodbye," Artemis disappeared.
"Wait!" Aurora called out to her wanting to find out more about humans wanting to burn her. She remembered hearing the chants inside of her head. Aurora forgot all about it until Artemis brought it up just now but it was too late as Artemis had left.
In the present, Aurora continued to wait patiently for Artemis to return with her decision on the trial. Giving up, Aurora closed her eyes to get a moment’s rest but a knock at her door made her open her eyes as quickly as she had closed them. "Is it really time for the trial?" She grumbled hoping that the person came to give her the news that the trial was going to be on another day. "I just need to shut my eyes for one minute," she closed them again, attempting to drift off to sleep.
"Aurora!" Mari’s voice echoed from the other side of the door.
"Sleep is overrated at this point. Who needs it?" Aurora rubbed the sleep away with her hands. She sat up on the bed staring into space for a moment. After another knock, she threw her feet off the side of the bed and got up to see Mari. "Good morning," she greeted the young girl when she opened the door.
"Good morning. Didn’t you get any sleep last night Aurora?" Mari asked upon seeing Aurora’s face. She was surprised when she found out about the trial thanks to some of her neighbors speaking about it. She had no clue Vincent and Aurora had this type of thing going on. Where was she when they found a human child?
"I didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Is it possible that I can sleep for at least two minutes so I can say I did sleep when Vincent asks me later and it’ll be the truth? I stayed awake the entire night waiting for something and I am not even sure how I did that." Even if it was just for a couple of minutes she just wanted to close her eyes to not feel so tired. Or maybe sleeping for a few minutes was a bad idea as it would make her more sleepy.
"There’s still a few hours left until it begins. You can at least get an hour and a half of sleep until we absolutely have to get you ready and go attend the trial. Vincent has already left since he is involved in the trial and we’ll see him there."
"I see. Then I will just rest for a tiny bit," Aurora went back to her bed and collapsed face first onto it.
Mari found it to be cute and closed the door to give her some privacy.
An hour later, Aurora had woken up, got dressed, and now she was on her way to the trial with Mari in a carriage. Jane was supposed to meet them there to be Aurora’s bodyguard and the trial was expected to start in a couple of minutes. Aurora had expected the trial would be at a building but it was actually outside at a place with moon symbols all over.
Some people were seated on logs while there was one long table where she saw Vincent sitting with other people.
"This place is sacred ground for us. It has been used by many wolves before us to make important decisions. You can tell by all the moon symbols and other markings. Though our community has changed over the years and become more civilized, this area has remained unchanged. Children go through a ritual here to see which ones can actually transform into a wolf," Mari explained when she saw Aurora’s curiosity.
"I am getting a strange feeling from this place. Maybe I have been here before," Aurora muttered looking around at the area. She played with her fingers, nervous to have to stand in front of all of these people given her personality. It was one thing to say she could do this when she didn’t see the number of people she had to stand in front of. ’You got this,’ she mentally cheered herself up.
"It’s Jane," Mari pointed out. Jane came out from the entrance where many werewolves were going in to find their seat.
Many of them were looking at the carriage since it belonged to Vincent but he was already seated with the elders. They tried to pry in on what the people inside of the carriage were saying but there was a witch spell placed on it.
"Are you ready Aurora?" Jane asked when she approached the side of the carriage Aurora was seated on.
Aurora took one last deep breath. "Ready."
