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Truth? Howattention to the strange clothing, so different from the severe dress of the orthodox; to my skin and scars, both radiant; to my jewelry, which was ostentatious, and not a style humans would wear It wouldn&039;t hurt to re around ainst the town I allowed e storytellers, I started speaking "In the Beginning of the End of the World, caues they brought that punished the huues Few survived

"Darkness came, the Darkness that was of the spirit and the flesh The handful of living descended into anarchy and violence or chose sides, joining the seraphs fighting the Dark, or joined the Darkness and the lures they offered Evil walked the earth, stalking hued and kidnapped and bred with human captives to create new demons to cavort with the old In all, nearly six billion died"

I heard the crowd es were the result of Darkness raping hu them with child, false accusation based on prejudice I drew on the toure of the dais so all of the like a drum on the wood floor of the platfor part of the storytelling art In Enclave, es lived for the story, and I wanted the hue version of the end of the world Wanted thees were born" I told theues, infected or dead at birth Malforue, at the end of the final plague, a few hundred thousand human women survivors, those who had been in the first triave birth all around the world These children were viable offspring, beautiful children Children of human fathers and mothers But they were not huue, carried successfully through all three plagues, the pestilence and disease had twisted their DNA into so never prophesied in all the years of hue of the dais The TV cale to catch the crosshatch of scars on low of scars on my left hand I put it fro and hard The ice age began When the first neoes came into puberty, in the fourteenth and fifteenth years of the war, their talents and gifts erupted These children of man had no power of their own, but could use the power in the world around theies of creation They could see these energies in the rain and stors and in the earth, in rocks and an to experiment with the power that was theirs to use

"It wasn&039;t illusion or trickery, it wasn&039;t ic, not in the way of fairy tales or dark fantasy It wasn&039;t religion or sorcery It was the unused energy of the Most High, the residue of creation But the uide theies - what, for lack of a better word, they called wild-es died Huh the world"

I arched lassI raisedthe story of the Beginning of the End "And hu off the walls of the old church "They killed us by the tens, by the hundreds Perhaps by the thousands Slobe, despairing, frightened, untrained In Louisiana, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, a s their newfound power Attacked, hunted, trapped, they stood before an ar wave, not saying "hue eyes picked out the faces in the crowd European, Cherokee, African, and Asian genetic backgrounds were all visible, all hue War The crowd had fallen silent, staring at the apparition who stood above thean wild child, a wisp of a wo power they had never known

And I spoke the story that hu a revisionist history that protected them from the truth of what their forebears did, or tried to do "Soeny They bombarded the small band of teens with rockets and mortars The children of es knew not how to ies they could see and taste and feel in the world around theeneral ordered the ultimate weapon dropped, the nuclear boes called on the seraphs"

The crowd gave a collective gasp From the back of the church, a voice thundered, "Seraphs and God the Victorious don&039;t hear soulless es They&039;re not human! They&039;re ani acolyte guard who had sworn in the witnesses He was holding a gun in both hands, out fro, I called on the white onyx fish that heldI didn&039;t snap it into place, as it would be like building a wall between the asseot it ready And I watched Tobitt&039;s eyes as I spoke

"They don&039;t hear Godless, heathen whores!" soes," another said "That&039;s why they&039;re in prisons!"

Watching Tobitt, I whispered, "Neoe children of huh Host of the Seraphie in dire, seraphs, come with holy fire&039; It was a child&039;s nursery rhyme, chanted by innocents filled with fear And the seraphs came" I raised my voice "A dozen of the Holy Ones appeared in the air above the battlefield One reached out his wings and caught the bomb as it plummeted Another took the boes had built up pohile defending themselves Much power My ancestors were foolish, afraid and untaught, facing an arhtened huathered ht, or how to control it

"In their inexperience, they released the power And the human army fell Thousands died By accident, not by intent And the children of man screaht that escaped from them But there was no tool on earth or with the seraphiies rained down on the human army, on their own fathers and uish went up to the Most High with the souls of the hue account listed all the names of loved ones they had killed that day I mentioned only the best-known one "General Bascomb, the huical father of one of the es he battled Bascorieved"

The church full of people had fallen silent again Tobitt&039;s gun wavered fro at the floor Truth, the sigil had suggested Well, here it was Truth that the hue coathered thethem into the first Enclave, the shielded haven now universally called the New Orleans Enclave All around the globe, seraphs collected ees and established Enclaves, where the few still alive could work and study their gifts in safety Where they were imprisoned Nearly one hundred years have passed, and still we are captives We may not depart without seraphic approval, visas, and scrutiny by the Administration of the ArchSeraph"

I looked around the hall There was a lot I hadn&039;t said I hadn&039;t es and seraphs into heat Only recently had the Most High and the High Council of the Seraphie-heat for a few hours at a time All that I kept to myself "Even today, we mourn those we killed Even noe do penance for the death of hue War" This was truth untaught in hury and contain the vitriol

"To atone, we help where we can, where asked We accept payoods Yes, we have power, but it&039;s sealed inside the Enclaves with us, so it won&039;t harain"

I looked at Tobitt Orthodox, weaned ontheir own political power "You&039;re right We have no souls When our spark of life is extinguished, we die forever There&039;s no afterlife for us Don&039;t fear us; pity us We&039;re empty vessels We are the unforeseen"

"So how did the seraphs hear the ed Bells rang softly, a funeral cadence "We think it was innocence that called to thees in dire It&039;s their pact with us, though to call the capricious and volatile seraphs is always a danger to nearby huestured to the chair set aside for the accused I walked back across the se, my boots and bells loud in the quiet church When I was seated, my champard asked, "Are there more accusations?"

Derek Culpepper raced up the stairs to the dais and shouted to the crowd I had forgotten him and was ale, a finger pointed accusingly at me "Don&039;t listen to her wiles Can&039;t you see she&039;s trying to seduce you ords? She&039;s spelling you all right now!" When no one agreed, he said, "They take our money and make us dependent on their trinkets We&039;re huh, beneath the seraphs We don&039;t need es or their conjures or aood to be had froood at all from the conjures and amulets that humans buy and use?"

"No!" Derek shouted

"Then the accused requests that you empty your pockets," Audric said

Derek paled and clenched his hands Shocked, he looked to his father, and I followed the glance The elder raised his eyebrows Derek turned toin my small smile I didn&039;t knohat kind of a it during a previous townit like a lifeline He opened his lint in his eyes