After stepping into the portal that led to Axenal, Alice felt weightless. Then it occurred to her that she was in a freefall. She let out an ear-piercing scream. Where was Jasmine? Did she get left behind? How was she going to stop her freefall? Thousands of thoughts were clouding Alice’s mind. Suddenly she felt a hand on her stomach and her velocity had slowed down dramatically.

“I forgot to warn you,” Jasmine shouted at Alice.

“You kinda need to know how to fly to actually survive entry into Axenal.”

“You forget a lot of things don’t you?!” Alice screamed. Tears were running down her face.

“Well, it’s easy to forget the little things.”

Alice couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The fact that you need to know how to fly to survive is considered a small thing by her. Alice also couldn’t believe that she wasn’t in Boston anymore. She was in Axenal, a land home to the Hallowed. A race of Angels, and Alice was tied to them somehow. After floating through the air for a couple of minutes, Jasmine and Alice reached solid ground again and Alice couldn’t have been anymore relieved.

“Well, how do you feel?” Jasmine asked.

“I’ve been better,” Alice said in between sniffles.

“I still can’t believe how much you forget.”

“Only here a few minutes and you’re already making the poor girl cry.” A new voice said, it’s sound was coming towards them.

“Relax Stephen, she’s okay, isn’t she?” Jasmine said.

Alice looked up and saw a man standing in front of both herself and Jasmine. He was tall and had broad shoulders. He had brown hair which was shaved in at the sides and back and well kept on top. He also had a small scar on the left side of his upper lip. Jasmine let go of Alice and stood up to fix her clothes. Stephen offered Alice a hand up.

“So, you’re the half-Hallowed?” He asked.

“Yeah, I guess I am..” Alice said as she took his hand and stood herself up.

“I take it that you’re still a bit suspicious as to what’s going on?”

“Suspicious wouldn’t be the right word, more like surprised and scared out of my wits.”

Stephen smiled and let out a small chuckle.

“Well, no need to worry, anyways my name is Stephen. Stephen Lithgow.”

“Alice Greycraft, nice to meet you.”

“Since the introductions are out of the way, let’s go to the Hall of Consolidation. I say we’re being waited on.” Jasmine said.

Once Alice regained her composure, she followed Jasmine and Stephen to wherever this Hall of Consolidation was. As they started walking through a bustling town, she kept quiet and was thinking to herself. She still couldn’t wrap her head around everything. Jasmine told her that she was a half-Hallowed, but what did that mean? What’s so significant about it? Alice was too busy with her thoughts that she didn’t even notice that Stephen had slowed down to walk beside her.

“What’re you thinking about?” He asked.

Alice snapped back to reality and stared blankly at Stephen for a second before realising that he had asked her something.

“Oh…” She said.

“Nothing too important.”

“Well, if you have anything you want to ask, just ask away.”

“What’s so special about me?”

Stephen paused for a moment before answering.

“You’re a half-Hallowed,” Stephen said after he finished thinking.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“And the fact that you’re a half-Hallowed is significant because half-Hallowed tend to be very rare.”

“Why is that?” Alice asked.

“Because for a half-Hallowed to exist, a Hallowed must reproduce with a mortal, and that almost never happens.”

“Why?”

“If a situation like that ever does happen, it doesn’t end well. Normally, the mortal and the offspring die and the Hallowed is excommunicated.”

“They’re excommunicated?”

“Yes, Hallowed are not meant to have any sort of involvements with mortals.”

“So, I’m the result of this forbidden love, which means one of my parents is dead and the other is excommunicated,” Alice said to herself.

“That’s fantastic to know.”

Alice’s words felt bitter now that she knew the truth, but what did that mean for her now? She had the answer as to why she had no family, but she felt even more alone now that she did know.

“Hey, we’re here,” Jasmine said as she turned around.

“Alice, welcome to the Hall of Consolidations.”

Alice looked up and stared in awe. What stood before her was a colossal building that looked like a giant mirror that reflected the city of Axenal which they had just walked through and the beautiful landscape that went beyond it. The three of them walked up to the entrance where a guard was stationed.

“State your business.” The guard said firmly.

“We are here to attend the consul.” Jasmine said.

The guard eyed up the three of them and nodded. He opened the entrance and let them pass before closing it back up again. Once it was closed, they were submerged into darkness for a moment before sconces on the walls burst into life. Jasmine and Stephen led the way through the hallway and Alice followed. After about a minute of walking, the three of them came to a wooden door.

“Alice, right now you’re going to be attending a consul,” Jasmine started to explain. Her tone was serious and Alice tensed up a little bit.

“At this consul, you will be standing before the leading Hallowed elders, and they will ask you questions concerning you. All you have to do is answer them.”

“Okay,” Alice said, her voice quivering slightly.

“I think I can do that.”

Stephen turned to Alice and gave her another smile.

“Don’t worry,” He said in a reassuring voice.

“Everything will be okay.”

They waited for a moment to let Alice set herself and then Stephen opened the wooden door. Stephen walked through first, then Jasmine, and finally Alice. They walked towards the centre of what seemed to be a court room of sorts. Only this court room seemed a bit like Congress. Jasmine and Stephen led Alice to a podium before they made their way towards a set of seats that were a few feet away from her. Alice looked around the room and saw that there was roughly sixty people in the seats above her. She felt like she had to deliver an important speech to the UN and felt like she was going to throw up. The fact that she realised that she was still in her pyjamas didn’t help her confidence.

All of a sudden, a booming voice started talking and Alice jumped a little bit.

“Are you Alice Greycraft?” The voice asked.

“Yes I am.” Alice replied.

“Okay Alice, from our records, you are a half-Hallowed, is this correct?”

“Yes, it is correct.” Alice eased up slightly. It almost felt like she was taking part in an interview.

“In order to prove to the consul that you are indeed a half-Hallowed, can you show us your wing?”

Alice froze for a second, she didn’t know how to spread her wing. She looked over at Jasmine and Stephen in hopes that they might be able to rescue her, instead they just kept sat back on their chairs.

“Umm..” Alice began

“I don’t know how to..”

“In order to spread your wing, you must first concentrate.”

Alice closed her eyes and started to focus. She concentrated all her energy into her back and she began to get the same burning sensation that she felt earlier before Jasmine helped her. Alice tried to imagine the process of a bird spreading its wing in hopes that it might help her, and it did. When Alice opened her eyes, a lone wing was fluttering from her shoulder. One thing she did notice is that her wing is silver, compared to Jasmine’s white wings.

“So, you do indeed have Hallowed blood in you,” The voice said through the gasps and the murmuring of the elders that were sitting in the seats above.

“Last night, you had a dealing with a Sentinel, is this true?”

Alice thought for a moment. She didn’t know what a Sentinel was, but then she had a flashback of Jason lying on her kitchen floor.

“I don’t know if he’s one of these ‘Sentinels’ but I a man named Jason Maxson broke into my apartment, his face was covered in strange markings and scarred all over.”

“That man you ran into was a known to be involved with the Sentinels,” The voice stated.

“Stephen Lithgow, Jasmine Crosswell, please escort Alice Greycraft where she shall be staying for the foreseeable future.”

At the sound of this request, Jasmine and Stephen started to move like robots. They stood up and walked over to Alice and brought her out of the consul room. Once they were outside, both Jasmine and Stephen let out a sigh of apparent relief.

“I think they like you Alice,” Jasmine said.

“Why makes you think that?” Alice asked.

“Well, they didn’t have you executed on the spot once you showed them that you were a half-Hallowed.”

“Don’t scare her Jasmine,” Stephen said.

“Come on Alice, we’ll bring you to where you’re gonna be staying.”