Say, you wouldn’t happen to have seen the magic amulet I left out, would you? ‘Cause if not, I’m in big trouble.

Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Erisia – Peculiar
Current Date: September 28, 1401

Character: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 41
Current residence: Peculiar, Erisia
 

---

I have so many fond memories of the children growing up that if I was asked for only a few of them, I wouldn’t know which to pick. It was hardly always easy at home; not while their father was alive. I would even dare say that it wasn’t easy at all while Andrea was alive. My sisters being alive was hardly an issue; they didn’t care about their own flesh and blood and raising these kids fell to my hands more often than not. It was no easy feat, but I want to think that, working together once they were old enough to understand things, means we did just fine.

Life was hard with Andrea. I had no desire to be married to the man and he had little desire to be married to me; he already had my three sisters but out of some macho display of power, he decided that I would be part of the package deal. He took me away from the one man I had ever loved—though I am back at his side now—and he considered that his victory.

I played the part of wife and mother to the best of my abilities, but I won’t deny that I felt relief that he only sought to bed me when he felt it was time for more offspring. He kept himself to my sisters otherwise, a small mercy.

So many kids growing up, all just some months apart since there were four of us being rotated into giving him children, was hard. There even were nannies in the house at one point because I was the only one truly caring for these children otherwise. Andrea only truly stepped in when they were old enough to walk so that he could begin their military training.

All of these kids—who are far from kids anymore, I know—were a blessing to me and I tried my best to show them the love they were not getting from their father or their mother—in the case of the ones I had not birthed myself. All of them were perfect, in my eyes, they all had their little quirks, they all had their passion though they hid that passion early on.

The only one who was more open about his emotions and his playful nature was Aaron. I don’t know what it was about him. It can hardly be that he was the last and the youngest, the twins, born just before him, were three months older. He was always a little more defiant, it was in his eyes, and I spent so long trying to remind him to not make his father angry; I didn’t want any of them to be disciplined any more than they already were.

I’ve lost count of how often Aaron was bruised up because he went against something Andrea had stated or requested. It only got worse once Emmett stepped into his life but these two have just been so good to one another that I didn’t have the heart to try and separate them.

When he was just five, though, Aaron’s imagination already knew no bounds. He already had his tags at that point—they did from the moment they first started schooling and Andrea started them very early. He came to me one early morning, looking uncertain and worried. He asked me if it so happened that I might have seen his magic amulet that he’d left out. Like the rest of the kids, the tags were usually set to hang by their door when they settled in for sleep. Most of them only seemed to get used to sleeping with them while in their teens.

To Aaron, the tags were something like a magic amulet, as though wearing them protected him from some form of evil. He looked so worried that morning, telling me that if the amulet wasn’t where it was meant to be, he was going to be in big trouble. That alone broke my heart, I still remember that so clearly. A memory I find myself not able to truly let go, even though it was not one I would call fond.

We searched; oh, we searched high and low, and we found them—the chain had broken—under his dresser. He was nearly in tears when he noticed the broken chain, but I always had extras of those in my things and within just a few minutes, the littlest one of these beautiful children had his magic amulet safely back around his neck and he walked with his head held high. That last part, probably, is what makes this a fond enough memory. The way he held himself, tall and strong, despite the fact that he knew that nothing about his day would be enjoyable until late afternoon when he’d get free time.

These children of mine have been through so much; they’ve grown into beautiful, strong adults and I cherish every moment.

Final Word Count: 830

Need I remind you that I’m the only thing keeping you out of jail? Knock it off.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Erisia – Rockbourne Dome
Characters: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 39
Current residence: Rockbourne Dome, Erisia
Final Word Count: 788 words
 

---

Most of them are in that new place now. It seems a little frightening to think that if things don’t work out, though I feel as though they will, I will never see any of them ever again. Each of them stopped by to see me before they went. It wasn’t always a stop by the house, I’m sure that, to some, this might have looked quite a bit suspicious.

Child visits parents at home and then promptly seems to disappear. More at seven.

Hm. I suppose this made me smile; I certainly do need it currently. What’s left in me right now is nervous energy. I worry about these children of mine, even though most of them weren’t mine and none of them are children anymore. They’ll always be mine and will always be children in my eyes. I know better, but as the woman and mother who did most of the work raising them, I cannot help but feel that way.

I’ve had nightmares recently, since they first started slipping away to Peculiar, possibly never to return again other than for brief, sneaking visits into the underground. Not that they truly would have to sneak, I know of people who live underground, so it wouldn’t be all that far-fetched that they have found a place to call their own if they do come around.

I’ve made my peace with the idea that there were always some chances that I might not make it into Peculiar. I think that I’d be all right living out the rest of my life here; it’s where I’ve been all of my life and while it wasn’t always wonderful, it’s not so terrible either so I know that if we were unable to leave, I would manage to make it. That doesn’t keep me from the fact that I do want to go, and I do want to have a chance at this strange new life that awaits me out there. This new place that awaits both of us and the rest of our not-so-little brood, their partners and the others.

The nightmares, though, they leave me waking up in cold sweat, wondering where I’ve gone done and asking myself so many questions. My sisters and Andrea have been gone from my life for years, but this doesn’t change the fact that they were in my life far longer than they have been out of it and, at times, memories of their presence surface.

A bit like this particular nightmare.

One of the things I’ve not truly mentioned to anyone was that, not long after Andrea had taken the four of us as his wives, I tried to run off. I barely managed to do more than pack up a few changes of clothes and sneak to the door that he was there, waiting for me. I still remember the ugly look in his eyes. I still remember the hatred in his voice as he told me that he’d only married me because I was part of the lot and because, well, he couldn’t let that good-for-nothing idiot he knew I wanted in my life have me.

It was a single little threat he told me that kept me from any other attempts. A little threat that let me know he would go very much so out of his way to make sure that if I ever angered him this way again, he would make sure the two of us would end up behind bars and that, for a long, long time. If that were to happen, I would have at least known why, but poor Erland would have been clueless as to those reasons and I certainly couldn’t ever do that to him, so I behaved. I allowed him into my bed whenever he wanted. I gave him the children he wanted even though the pregnancies were difficult, I behaved indeed.

The nightmare was a mixture of that memory along with other little threatening snippets from him. I really don’t know what triggered that particular part of my life to resurface, I mean, other than the fact that it feels as though we’re sneaking away in the way I’d tried to do so many years ago.

The main difference, at this point, and I know this, is that he’s dead. He’s dead, my sisters are dead, and I’ve been out and about so little recently that I don’t know that anyone would really think twice if I were to disappear. This is what is left to do for the few of us still left here. We have to figure out the easiest way to make our disappearance look genuine. We’ll get to it, though.

If there’s a way out of here, I will find it. Believe me.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 49
Current residence: Warwick, New York
Final Word Count: 732 words
 

---

The house is rarely completely empty but it happens. Now that our littlest one is old enough to spend time at school, even if it simply pre-kinder, it changes things. So many of the older ones have all moved out, it leaves this huge home quite full of echoes but we have discussed the possibility of foster and we are on the list. It certainly would bring extra life back into this place.

Every Sunday we still all gather together and it makes me smile. I’ve made it clear to all of them that if they cannot make it, then they cannot. While I adore this tradition of having everyone home on Sundays, it is not an obligation and I know that other things can get in the way.

Mid-morning, was I was listening to the sounds in the kitchen just down the hallway, I know that I drifted off and spent time lost in my own mind. It hardly is a problem, I had a book on my lap, I was settled in a comfortable nook of the reading room and all was quiet. As I said, it is rare that the house is empty. There is the help that still is about, fewer now for the house and in the kitchen but some still remain.

Thinking back now to my morning, the one thing that brought me out of my brief reverie was a buzzing sound to my left. When I looked, I saw a fly seemingly caught between two of the window panes. That, I’ll admit, left me somewhat baffled. Everything is sealed and I have no idea how it even got there but its rather fervent buzzing made me shake my head at the thought that came with it.

Clearly, that poor bug—not that I think flies to be very useful—was clearly trying to find a way out of its predicament and I almost wanted to believe that it was giving itself a pep talk as it went from corner to corner between the panes.

I admit, I must have watched it for a good fifteen minutes; at that point, I actually lost sight of it thanks to the sun coming out from behind the cloud and when the next cloud had come back to cover the brightness of that very sun, I could no longer see it, nor could I hear it. I can only figure that it somehow did find a way out, much the way it had come in, but I’m still a little confused as to how it got there in the first place.

I wonder if it makes me strange that I can stare at a trapped fly, trying to find an exit, for such a long length of time. It isn’t as though I had been looking for it or I trapped it between those panes myself; its buzzing had caught my attention and I don’t know that I would have been able to go back to my book with that incessant buzzing, as was.

Now that it was quiet again, turning back to the book on my lap turned out to be easy, after all.

There is so much that I’ve discovered in life thanks to Erland beig at my side. It isn’t that I was sheltered, though I was fairly timid in my younger years, but once Andreas came into my life, things changed. I didn’t really notice them that much as they were happening, but they changed. With the first, second, third—and so on—birth, I spent less and less time outside of the house or our yard. I was too busy with the little ones to be able to spend any real time outside and I feel as though I missed out on a lot of things.

I don’t really have any regrets, though. Yes, there are days when I wish that he had never entered my life but, had that been the case, things would not be as they are now, all of these beautiful children of mine would not have partners of their own and just, things would be so different. I don’t know that I would be happy.

Maybe, in a different universe or reality, I’ve made other choices in life and I still live in Greece but, really, my life happened as it did and I cherish every day of it.

I have a feeling that if I let you go, you’ll just come right back.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Hopeful Beginnings
Characters: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 43
Current residence: Klahanie, Washington
Final Word Count: 764 words
 

---

I never saw myself as very good with animals. I never had any experience, so I suppose that it might be more that kind of thing than not. As I was growing up, having pets just wasn’t a possibility and once Andrea became part of my life, it was even less of an option. There already were twenty-three kids—and teens—all packed up like sardines in this small house, the idea of adding any pet of sort was idiotic.

Thankfully, in a way, none of the kids ever asked.

I’m not sure if it’s because they didn’t really have many friends or if it was because their father had already drilled into them that pets just weren’t going to be an option, so they better not ask at all. I think that, once the new house was up if any of them would have wanted a pet, I would have given them a very willing go-ahead. We had room, I knew they were responsible, and I had been quite certain that if any of them had wanted a pet, they would have worked together to take care of it.

With all that in mind, I found myself taking care of a wounded bird over the last week. It slammed into one of the kitchen windows and it did so with such force that I was sure it had broken its neck. When I found it outside, it was still but upon picking it up with as much care as I could manage, I could feel that it was breathing.

I found a large box for it, padded it up some and set it down in there. I stayed outside until it came to but once it did, I could see that it was holding its wing oddly. I don’t know much about birds, and I couldn’t imagine that taking it to a vet would do me much good, but I took a chance. The wing was broken but the vet set it to a sort of splint and told me that I could either leave the bird with them or take it back home.

I figured, why not? I could certainly try to take care of it.

So, I did. I took it back home, made a few pit stops to buy the things I had been told I would need and I’ve been taking care of the little guy—or girl—since. I brought it back to the vet earlier today and the wing was getting better. It certainly wasn’t enough to set the little love free, but it was getting better.

With every passing day, the bird seems to grow more comfortable with me and I’m almost led to believe that the moment I let it fly back away, it might just very well come back to me. I know I will have to set it free, I’m just not sure as to what I’ll do if it does come back. It isn’t a rare bird, as far as I’ve been told. It is a black-throated green warbler. They’re usually found higher up in the trees, so I’m surprised that it smacked its way into my kitchen window.

It sings more often with passing days as well and I try to keep it by the cracked window as much as I can. I only want its comfort and I want to be sure that it knows it can go whenever it feels strong enough.

I would never cage a found bird like this, it seems like such a cruel thing to do to an animal that has been born out there in what passes for wilderness here. Birds deserve to fly free, I’m only keeping it with me until it can make use of its wing once more. In a way, I am aware that I likely should have let the veterinarian keep it, but I did not want it to be stuck in a place where it might not be able to see the outside until it was fine enough.

After all, it is but one singing bird amongst many. What would they have really done with it if I had left it there? Surely, they are not equipped to deal with every stray that is brought in to be looked over. I could be wrong, but I could be right in thinking that the bird might not have stayed very long with them.

It doesn’t really matter at this point, it is quite all right. I am caring for this little one and when the time comes, it will.

You didn’t catch my eye—your friend did.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Hopeful Beginnings
Characters: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 43
Final Word Count: 742 words
 

---

At times, I wonder if it’s strange that I’ve asked myself how he would do it. I mean, he was a handsome man, there’s no denying that but the moment you got to know him, really know him, you knew he was someone best avoided. The issue is that, by that point, you were in too deep, and any attempt at escaping was futile. That and, well, I didn’t want to leave the kids alone with him, not when the little ones were just so ridiculously young.

In a way, I figure that this might just be one of those things he possibly needed in the women he dated, impregnated and then killed. He needed them to be motherly. How else would he have raised his kids? He was a monster, all he was interested in was keeping the kids in line and if this house had been a military base, I think he would have been even happier about it.

I remember when he approached me. I had never been the outgoing type, the friend—an acquaintance more than a friend really—I had been spending time with was the full-make-up and push-up bra with cheap cleavage shot type. So yes, when he approached us at the park, I was pretty sure that he was going to be paying her attention, talking to her. He didn’t.

She batted her lashes at him, told him ‘hi’ in a sickeningly sweet tone and while he gave her a slight smile, his eyes were on me as he told her that no, she hadn’t caught his eye, I had. I was baffled, of course. I hadn’t actually had anyone in my life up until him and yes, I was the naive one that let herself be swept up and away by his good looks and his charms. Nothing but smoke and mirror, all of that. I regret it all so much.

Well, no. In a way, I think that’s a lie. I don’t regret it. I regret him being in my life, but without that, I wouldn’t have had Aaron and I wouldn’t have been a mother to the rest of this beautiful brood. Some of them took to my presence quickly—the younger ones, of course—the rest took longer before they warmed up to me and even at this point, though most of them have never really called me mom or even mother—because, with him, it was always father, never dad—I know that they still me as the mother figure they possibly needed.

Archelaos has seen so many women come and go. Of them all, he’s the only one who never even saw his mother, though all of the others were so young when their mothers died, that in a way, I suppose the same applies. As far as I’ve been able to gather from them, he always saw to making sure the mother-to-be gave birth on a certain date, usually by C-section, I’m sure, unless they were induced, and a few days later, he would already have another woman in the house and somehow, the mother-to-be was gone, quite dead, and the new woman was already pregnant.

It’s no way to live, not really. It’s no way for these kids to have lived their lives and I don’t know why he stopped at me. Was it because all of the rooms were in use? Was it because he thought he now had enough kids and the extras he got from the state more than made up for it all? I don’t know. It’s certainly not something I ever asked him or wanted to ask him. He was a terrible man and he was actually pretty terrifying. I don’t really care to think about that if I can help it and, well, it’s better that way.

It wasn’t easy at first, not really. When he was taken away, things had to change, the house was torn down, something new and so much better built up and well, it was a learning experience for all of us. I’m just glad that all of the kids have grown up as they have. I love these kids as though they were my own and, in a way, I suppose that they are. I certainly did offer to adopt them when the time came and all of them went with that idea willingly, it was beautiful.

So many ways to lie to you, so little time to do so.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Erisia – Rockbourne Dome
Characters: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 38
Final Word Count: 711 words
 

---

It feels like a lifetime ago that I was finally freed from his clutches and yet I know it isn’t. In a way, it’s pleasant to think that my life has settled into such a better pace and place that I feel as though it was so long ago that it happened, instead of only a few years back at this point. I can’t complain, my life has been something akin to bliss since his departure and I would want nothing else to happen.

Except that I know that things are changing and there will need to be decisions made. I know that most of my brood—mine and my sisters’—will wish to head over. I hear the air is so clean and fresh that it feels heavenly. Without Erland, I refuse to head over there myself, though I would most certainly wish to. How any of their so-called disappearances will be explained is beyond me. Perhaps it is one of the many reasons why I’d like to go there as well, so I don’t have to deal with these questions; so that we don’t have to deal with them.

I was going through things in the house—it feels so empty anymore with so many of them having left—and of course, I found a few things of Andrea still left and I couldn’t help but think of him again just for a few moments. I still remember just how he would give me this look of his, a look that I learned to tell so well. A look that told me he was preparing plenty of lies to me but he was trying to figure out which ones to offer me and which ones to keep to himself. It was his ‘So many ways to lie to you, so little time to do so’ look, as I called it.

He only looked at me that way, I know. He adored the way my sisters looked up to him and worshipped the ground he walked on, though, as though it deserved any worshipping. He was worth very little in my eyes but I still was his wife and back then, even just twenty years ago, a wife disobeying her husband was seen as something worth punishable so I kept my eyes down and I let him do what he wanted.

At the very least, I can’t complain, once he had enough little ones to fuel his big personal army dreams, he left me on my own. He kept my sisters entertained in the bedroom or, I should say, my sisters kept him plenty entertained, they were often arguing together, trying to decide which of them would see to his needs. It made me want to be sick.

I busied myself with raising the kids. My sisters weren’t exactly the best example of mothers though they also were not the worst. I think I most likely raised most of them on my own. That, in a way, might have been for the best. Andrea still terrified them as he could, turning them into his perfect soldiers while I tried to shove them what love and affection should have been like. I truly felt like I was failing at that simple task until he was gone and until they each slowly found friends and then more.

Of course, some seemed to have an easier time of overcoming the training their father was putting him through but, on that same note, I believe that Aaron, with Emmett in his life, always had an outside anchor to help him. Not that I can complain, these two were just meant to be at one another’s side and I don’t know that I could have wanted any other way.

I only ever had one rule while I was with them. No lies. I had enough of those with their father, I didn’t need it from them and that rule still stands now though I know Erland would never lie to me. Omit things, perhaps, for my wellbeing though it is rare, but lie to me, I wouldn’t think so. We spent far too long apart to lie to one another now that we’re finally together. Only an idiot would lie to their heart, after all.

If I have to stop and think about it, I’ll be forced to acknowledge that this is a terrible idea. I don’t want to come up with a new plan, though, so just do as I say.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 48
Final Word Count: 718 words
 

---

It would be lies to claim I was not afraid that some of the boys—more than the girls—would turn out like their father. I was wrong, of course, and I am glad in ways that cannot be put into words.

Looking back now, I can see all of the red flags that crept up. All of those red flags that I should have seen but was too enamoured to see. His focusing on us, on his ‘little army’, as he fondly liked to call them though when I gave him girls instead of boys, he would just sigh, shake his head and mumble something about trying harder next time. Those are words that I might have imagined, I was exhausted from birth-giving and taking care of the other little ones as time passed but I am sure those were his words.

In a way, I think he would have wanted a little army of men more than women. When he was preparing to move us to America, I tried to tell him that we were better off stay where we were, in a way, this place was home, it was where we’d both grown up, though my parents and grandparents now mostly shunned us since I had taken him as my own instead of listening to their advice.

I would like to think that if I had pushed a little harder, he would have stopped and thought of it more. He would have realized that moving so many children at once would have been a terrible idea. I could imagine that he would have refused to come up with a new plan and he would have kept to the plan he’d worked out.

It was, of course, difficult to move all those loving children, some so very young still but I had the help of the older ones. I was baffled as to how he had managed to find, let alone buy, the near castle into which we moved.

Over the years, after the news of how he had been killed in action came to be, it became clear to me that the near-castle had been in need of a lot of fixing up and it was most likely why it had been offered at such a cheap price. I still never learned of how he came to have the necessary money for the move, we were mostly managing to make ends meet back in Greece.

When he was killed in action, I came to have a rather substantial sum that was separated into accounts and just, that is history. Would I try to change this history if I could?

Any sane woman would most likely say yes, yes, change it all, do it over again and never meet the man but… that would change everything. It would change the fact that I have a large and beautiful family, that every one of them has found someone to call their own, which means that there are twenty-four people out there—a meagre number in all but large to me—have found love with my own children and likely would not, had I changed the past.

Changing the past, it would mean never accepting him in my life, never having any of these wonderful children, never moving to America or meeting Erland or anything else that has made my life what it is now.

I know that my parents and grandparents passed from a fire in their home. A fire that possibly could have taken me along had I changed my past and never let Andrea in my life.

I think that I have long since come to accept that my life is exactly as it should have been. While I do not truly believe in things happening for a reason, my life took the path it did and that is about the end of it. I cannot change any of it by fear that it would change things so drastically and that, well, I don’t need things to change. Not right now, not anymore, not ever again.

Arden is growing up quickly; it still only feels like yesterday that I whispered the words to this wonderful man who has given my heart a second chance. I was pregnant and so afraid, and yet, here we are.

Don’t make it easy on me. I like a good challenge.

 
Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Birds of a Feather
Characters: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 46
Final Word Count: 626 words
 

---

My parents never approved of him, not really. I was a naive young woman and I adored him, can you fault me? He seemed like the perfect gentleman at first; even if he became a little pushy once, I accepted his proposal. I remember giggling away as we spent time together; he was laying out all of these big plans he had for us having the biggest family ever and I kept on reminding him that my parents, let alone my grandparents, would never approve of us. All he’d be telling me was that he liked a good challenge and that only made it all the more interesting.

At least, interesting enough to ignore the fact that family had always come first and should have come first but he made me forget everything I knew. Our first home wasn’t the biggest home ever but it was big enough to accommodate his dream of having a little army of his own—his words, those. I didn’t think much of it at first but he seemed to be pushing for unprotected sex more often around certain dates and he always wanted the little ones to be born around certain dates as well. It’s surprising that it did work out so well and honestly a little creepy now that I’ve had a lifetime to look back to things.

Once the army took him away for longer and longer periods of time, the older ones helped with the littler ones and I was more than a little grateful for their help, I don’t know that I would have managed though I felt bad for not being able to spend as much time with each and every single one of them on their own.

Eventually, Andrea took us away from Greece and we moved to America, a quaint little spot not far from a much bigger metropolis. We moved into something resembling a castle and every child had their own room, something very different from the old house and it took them as much time to adapt to that as it took me.

I was pregnant with Aaron when Andrea was swept away for the last time, the news of his death returning later on but without a body attached to it.

The past has shaped me into the woman I am now. A mother again—something I never expected but I cherish—and a wife. This part, this being someone’s wife is the one thing I never actually thought would happen again. I had married Andrea because I had been a foolish young woman but he still gave me all these children and I adore all of them, they are mine and I pity the fool who steps between this mother and her flesh and blood, they will regret it.

Of course, all of my darlings, at this point, are more than capable of handling themselves and so many have left the nest, though not gone very far, that my life has changed again. That was something else I’ve had to adapt to. Until the return of Andrea’s surprisingly well-conserved body, the thought of any of them leaving the house didn’t seem to even cross their minds, as though it was their duty to remain with me until… I don’t know what. I love them for it but I love them all the more now that they’re focused on their own lives and loves, that’s what’s most important at this point.

My family had grown to a size I never thought possible and I’ve made it a point to know everyone my darlings have brought home for me to meet. They all are wonderful but none half as wonderful as the man who has stolen my heart for good.

You wouldn’t have guessed it was really me all along.

 
Timeline/World: Erisia – Rockbourne Dome
Characters: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 36
Final Word Count: 571 words
 

---

There are some many things I wish I could tell him. So many ‘ugly’ truths I would throw back into his face. Most would think of me as the meek little girl he took in to marry when he also snapped up my three older sisters. I’m sure this was a move that hadn’t happened in quite some time. Most men only marry one on the first bid and then add in another after a few months or a year or two. I’m sure there has been one or two out there who have taken two at once but four… I’m sure that four was a new event.

All of this because he was a bitter, unfair little man-boy who wanted to take everything away from everyone he didn’t like and that included the man who had placed his bid on me. The man my heart longed for. The man I had to be taken away from, for too many years to count, just because my now-dead husband was a selfish bastard.

I have no regrets for the beautiful children I’ve brought into this world, however. They would likely not have looked quite this way if they had been born of my true heart.

For so many years, Andreas searched to find the mole within the ranks of his precious followers, a mole he never thought, not in a million years could be one of his children, his precious perfect soldiers and most certainly not one of his four wives. Three of them who craved to bed him and satisfy him and the meek one who would rather be left alone now that her duty as a breeder has been completed.

If only he had known that I had likely started it all, that I had taught each of his children—mine and my sisters’—the truth of things, the secret ways, the paths to take, the underground discoveries. They all were within the rebellion, each and every single one of them. I was his mole, the one who gave all of his secrets the slip and told to open and willing ears but he died and did so without any of that beautiful knowledge that likely would have made him a man even more feared.

Things have changed since. Some in drastic ways that the people have a hard time accepting, others in much more subtle ways that they’re not even really paying attention to. The rebels have not settled down, however, at least, not wholly. They’re planning fewer things now and what they plan, they bring up to the proper power because, well, the proper power—my new husband, the man my heart has belonged to for all of these years—had been working on his own rebellion for so long but our numbers were greater, the knowledge went much further, there just was… well more.

Now, we’re all working together, trying our best to achieve a better life for those who are here with us, a better life for women, men and children alike and I believe we’ll make it. Perhaps not in this lifetime of mine but maybe through the next generation or three, I believe in it.

Just as I believe and I know that I will go to great lengths to keep those I love safe, no matter the cost. I might look slight and meek but believe me, your eyes deceive you.

You know that your actions are making you look incredibly stupid, right?

 
Timeline/World: Urbana LaCrosse University – Hopeful Beginning
Characters: Agathe Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 40
Final Word Count: 525 words
 

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I don’t know that I truly loved him. He was different at first but I’m sure that every woman he’s been with, if they were still alive, would state the same. He was sweet, gentle, loving. I might have liked him a lot at first but it was his children I was taken with when I first met them. It’s for them that I let myself be swayed into his arms though I guess he still made me feel like a woman from the first moment I met him.

That changed so quickly. Anyone in their right mind would have packed up and left but I couldn’t leave this evil man to raise his children on his own. Any woman with a conscience would have done as I did. At least, I’d like to believe they would have. Now that he’s out of mine and their lives, everything is so much better but for the longest of times, it was hard around the house, so hard.

He was constantly belittling each and every single one of them. He had plans to marry off all of his daughters to contacts he had in big businesses so he could make easy money—money that no one in the house ever saw. He also had plans to marry most of his sons off. Their chances to go to college depended on their grades and I’m sure that most of them would like never have seen the inside of a university if the man still had been about.

I wasn’t allowed to step out of the house. If I did, it was for small things here and there but it was rare that I could do more than step into the back yard for a breath of fresh air. I kept myself occupied in the kitchen, with the mending of clothes, with the caring of these beautiful children who deserved just so much more in their lives than they’d been given. I could see the despair in their eyes each morning when they left for school and each afternoon when they came back.

I saw the aching need for something more in the boys who were forced to work by the time they were fifteen, juggling school and work and time at home. The bedrooms were too small for comfort, cramped with no privacy whatsoever between the occupants and I admit that when the house was no more, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Of course, it took a lot of work to rebuild but the community around us is one of willing helpers and friends. I still have not found it in myself to be able to finish thanking them for all of their help in giving us another chance at life.

Now, now I have seen them blossom. I have seen their eyes brighten up; I have seen happiness in their eyes in ways it never truly had been there before. All of my little ones, growing up and becoming such wonderful people. Not that they were not wonderful before but now they can truly act without fear of angry words or belittling, I love it.