Ascension Of the Divine Sovereign

CHAPTER FIVE: SCORN OF THE BALTIMORE

At least he got a car.

That was the thought Chase carried down the servant's corridor, bag over one shoulder, the card of money Augustine had left on the desk without comment tucked into his breast pocket, a dismissal f*e.

The bag wasn't heavy. Some clothes, ones his father had bought him out of obligation. After all Chase was a Baltimore can’t have him dressing the same clothes. Books occasionally. Toys, when Chase was younger, though he'd stopped acknowledging those after his ninth birthday.

He didn't use the front door. That instruction hadn't needed to be given, he understood the geometry of his existence in this house well enough. His arrival had been through the side gate, five years old, hand held by a social administrator he'd never seen before or since. His departure would mirror it.

He cut through the east garden toward the rear gate.

That was when he saw them. They were in the far corner, near the enclosed fence where the climbing roses grew thick enough to provide cover from the mansion's upper windows. Noelle stood with her arms around someone, her face tucked against his shoulder, a broad smile on her lips.

He stopped bag dropping when he saw who it was, the man holding her was Keith Baltimore. When he registered Chase standing at the garden path, his expression shift to pure amusement .

"Big sis Noelle." Chase heard his own voice from somewhere outside himself. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the academy?"

Keith's let out a deep mocking laugh.

"What does her being here have to do with you?" His hand wrapped Noelle’s waist pulling her closer. "What does my girlfriend's business have to do with some trash that's been kicked out?"

The word girlfriend landed differently than the insult did. Chase turned it over, waiting for it to make a different shape. Waiting for Noelle to step forward, to push Keith's arm off, to tell him to stop being ridiculous.

She looked away.

"Yes," she said quietly, a faint blush on her face. "Keith and I are dating."

Something inside his collapsed, he felt a tight chest inside his heart gawning over and over making breathing difficult. He felt like he was submerged in salty water and forced down to suffocate. He never admitted it, never showed it but he had perfect dream, a wonderful one that made him survive this cruel house. A dream of him and Noelle, with a happy family, that much he held onto.

"What do you mean?" he asked, and hated how young his voice sounded.

Keith laughed again, fuller this time.

"Don't tell me a piece of trash like you actually dreamed of being with a noble lady." He shook his head with the theatrical pity of someone thoroughly enjoying themselves. "Stop dreaming, Chase. Trash belongs in the gutter. I heard Uncle kicked you out this morning — so get lost, and don't think about contacting my girlfriend." He paused, savouring it. "Oh — and if you're still alive in the capital in three months, you're welcome to come to our engagement."

His gaze lingered to Noelle, still hopping but she just looked at him with distance eyes, “Am sorry if the way I treated gave you a wrong idea but it was all pity, I just pitied you that’s all!”

The word pity rang over and over as he picked his bag and ran off, he needed to get as far from them as possible. He didn't find the car or rather, he passed it, saw it idling at the service entrance exactly where Augustine had said it would be and his legs simply didn't stop. He ran until the city thinned.

He never stopped until he arrived at a vast garden of blue lily flowers. He stood at the edge and screamed.

It tore out of him without shape or language first, building to raw agony then the words came.

"Why! Why me! Why do I deserve this!"

His knees hit the ground.

"Aren't I one of your children? Do you even exist? If you did — why forsake me? Why me alone? What did I do?" His hands found the grass and gripped it. "I pray like the rest! I pray every single day! So why — why did you do this to me?"

"Yelling won't help."

Chase's breath stopped.

The voice came from behind him. He turned, still on his knees, and found a man standing at the edge of the garden path he hadn't heard anyone approach on. Tall in a loose military uniform in a cut Chase didn't recognise, it wasn’t any he saw in Galactic record book. Green hair, blue eyes an almost chisel modified jaws. His expression completely empty.

"He hasn't forsaken you alone," the man said. He didn't move closer. "Heaven is closed. Those of us here —" he tapped two fingers against his own chest, once, "— our will is what matters." He let that sit for a moment. "Do you understand that, boy?"