The marble and gold halls of the capitol were abandoned. When Elizabeth had come from the Messiah’s plate into the city, and again when she entered the meeting with Marshal, there were guards stationed at every corner. Yet as her footfalls sent echoing clacks down the corridors, not a soul could be seen or heard. Blue moonlight bounced off the marble floor, casting a soft glow. It streamed through the many windows, not made of glass and iron, but were crudely cut slices from the wall, too thin for any man to squeeze through.

  It was all a maze to Elizabeth, one that she did not have time to examine. She was out of breath and on the run and all she knew to do was to go up. The snake pursued her. A colossal serpent too long to measure and wide enough to swallow a man whole. It had cream scales, golden eyes, two fangs and a tongue that had been cut in half. In exchange for wounding it, the serpent had snapped Elizabeth’s thin, ceremonial blade and nearly crushed her leg. It hissed behind her, broken and furious. The ground was torn up as it chased and the hallways were smashed as it slithered into them. It was so wide, it was impossible to get passed it, Elizabeth had tried and gotten her leg stuck between the razor sharp scales and the brick walls. The only option was to run.

  Elizabeth climbed another flight of stairs, limping as fast as she could. Turning a corner, she threw herself into a side room. She prayed it did not see her. She held her breath If it found her, she wouldn’t be able to- It shot past the room, a torrent of white scales washed past the doorway. When the snake was out of sight Elizabeth collapsed onto the ground, her chest heaving, but there was no time to waste. She began to rip off her uniform, first the blazer which constricted her shoulders, then she ripped off her sleeves and her pants from the knees down. Using the fabric from the sleeves, she bandaged her leg. The bleeding had slowed, but her head was dizzy. She had already lost too much blood.

  The snake was crashing around downstairs. The thud could be heard from the small room Elizabeth hid in and the walls shook. By cutting off its forked tongue it had lost some sense of smell, which would buy her time in escaping. Elizabeth needed to reach the Messiah’s plate now, before she fainted. She passed through the halls, all the while the crashing downstairs intensified. Elizabeth came to the base of a flight of stairs. At the top would be the gateway to Earth. A blood-curdling scream sounded from downstairs. The snake had found some other prey. One-step at a time, Elizabeth climbed with her hand on the wall to support her. She heard a footstep behind her. Elizabeth spun, but the stairs below were vacant, not a soul insight. A footstep above. Again, she spun. Again she found nothing. She felt she was going insane, perhaps she was imagining sounds in her mania. Then she heard two footsteps directly below her, an unmistakable sound. This time there was a man waiting there, watching Elizabeth intently. He was shorter than her, but it was due more to his hunching posture than stature. He was dressed in the white and golden robes of the holy knights with a golden vambrace on his forearm.

  A holy-cryptic.

  He smiled, ‘What would a fair maiden be doing all the way up here while her master is in the war room?’

  ‘Why is some creep stalking a fair maiden?’ Elizabeth replied.

  ‘And what is this fair maiden's name?’ the man asked, looking at her bloody leg.

  ‘Elizabeth.’

  ‘Nice to meet you Elizabeth. My name is Ezekiel, it’s my duty to protect the capitol, dispose of its threats, and you have made a royal mess of the place.’

  ‘You said you saw me with my master, Marshal. So you know I am not a threat. There is some ugly snake who attacked me.’

  Ezekiel shook his head. ‘There is no excuse, Elizabeth.’ The man held eye contact with Elizabeth. His eyes were strange, green with a slitted pupil.

  ‘Are we really going to do this?’ Elizabeth asked, touching the hilt of her sword, knowing damn well that there was only half a blade hidden in the sheath.

  ‘Depends,’ Ezekiel said. ‘Why are you here?’

  ‘I don’t need to answer to you.’

  ‘Oh but you do,’ Ezekiel said. Behind him a mass of cream scales slithered to the base of the stairs. Hanging from a fang in the serpent's mouth was a man’s cloak. ‘You hurt my ugly friend and I want to know why.’

  ‘He attacked first,’ Elizabeth said, slowly backing away, heading up the stairs. The plate was so close.

  Suddenly Ezekiel was no longer below her, he had disappeared. A kick thrust into Elizabeth's back, knocking the wind from her lungs. She fell down the stairs, coming to a stop face to face with the serpent. It opened its mouth ever so slightly, baring its fangs. It breathe smelt like rats and blood.

  ‘Are you going to talk now?’ Ezekiel asked, ‘If you say nothing, my ugly friend here will have you for supper.’

  Elizabeth stood on trembling legs. I am not shaking from fear, she told herself, my legs are only shaking due to the blood loss. ‘I’m headed for the Messiah’s plate.’

  ‘I know that, you dimwit, why else would you climb this high. I want to know where you are going from the Messiah’s plate. Off to warn one of the western countries, perhaps the east? Or even Capernaum? So come on, spit it out. Where were you going, you traitor.’

  ‘Nowhere.’

  ‘Nowhere huh,’ Ezekiel disappeared again, and a knife appeared around Elizabeth’s neck, ‘Nowhere is a funny place, I’m not sure where it is exactly.’ the knife touched her skin, and a trickle of blood dripped down to her chest.

  I hate cryptics Elizabeth decided.

  ‘Earth,’ Elizabeth said. ‘I am going back to Earth.’

  Ezekiel did not speak for a moment, and then the grip on his knife tightened. ‘Don’t mock me girl. Do you not understand your position here? Your holy-knight can’t save you now.’

  ‘I am not mocking you; everything I have done for the past two years has been to return to Earth. That plate,’ Elizabeth said, pointing up the stairs, ‘is my only way there.’

  Ezekiel scoffed, then he chuckled and his grip released from her neck, ‘I’m sorry,’ he said through fits of laughter. ‘I did not realize you were already insane. That usually takes centuries of aging to kick in, not two years.’

  ‘I’m not insane! A woods witch told me.’

  Ezekiel laughed harder. ‘A woods witch!’ He struggled to catch his breath. ‘Oh I have to see this. Come on up the stairs you go.’

  ‘You’re letting me leave for Earth?’

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  ‘I’m letting you try,’ Ezekiel said with a smirk, ‘but of course if you try to go anywhere else I will block it before you leave and then you will become her dinner.’ The snake hissed. ‘Sandy here knows the taste of a traitor well,’ Ezekiel said, patting the head of his colossal serpent.

  Elizabeth reached the top of the staircase and stood surrounded by the ivory trees with their emerald canopy. The smell of salty ocean air washed over her and so did the blue moonlight. Ezekiel's snake Sandy slithered to the base of an ivory tree and coiled around it, climbing into the highest branches. Ezekiel walked up to the ring of twelve ash knights that were guarding the Messiah’s plate, ‘Zero Four, open a path. We have a traveler… to Earth.’

  ‘Sir,’ an ash knight replied without a hint of amusement in his voice. He stepped backwards two paces and to the left another two.

  Ezekiel waved to the open space, ‘Go ahead,’ he said with a smirk. ‘Show me the pathway to Earth. We all are very intrigued.

  Elizabeth did not care for his mockery. She stepped through the gap and into the ring of knights. Her heart was beating out of chest as she stepped onto the bronze Messiah’s plate. The gap in the ring closed, each ash knight's eyes watching her skeptically. The snake slithered above, ready to drop on her. She closed her eyes and sent her lifespan into the plate. It was greedy, taking twice as much as the apostle plate in Capernaum.

  Time went still.

  Hello Elizabeth, a masculine yet high-pitched voice said, Jophiel told me you were coming.

  Jophiel? Elizabeth asked.

  You don’t know her? She said you were her friend.

  The voice from Capernaum. Elizabeth realized. She never told me her name, she said she had forgotten it.

  He laughed in her mind, but it sounded sad. I will have to remind her after I talk with you. She will be happy to hear you made it.

  Yes, Elizabeth said. She sent me here to find the king.

  And you have found me and I am no king, that is just what they call me, the voice said, but a friend of Jophiel is a friend of mine. How can I help you?

  I need your help finding my brother Luis, he is on Earth.

  Earth! He said, sounding excited. It has been a while since I looked there. And a moment later he said, I found him, would you like to see?

  Yes. Her heart was as still as time, but it pulled against her chest. Yes, please Mr King.

  You can call me Michael.

  Elizabeth could no longer see the room on top of the capitol with its ivory trees and emerald canopy, instead she was in a mud brick town, hidden in a tropical desert. She could feel the heat on her skin and the sand under her toes. She was barefoot. She was naked. She covered herself quickly with her hands, wondering where she could find clothes. I couldn’t possibly go to Luis like this. Then she saw a group of young men walking from one of the brick huts. Their faces were covered with crude masks to keep the sand out, but Elizabeth could never mistake that shaggy black hair, the way he walked, the shortest of the bunch. Luis. He had grown so much. What would he be now? After some addition, fourteen, he is already a young man. Forgetting her nakedness, Elizabeth ran at the group, straight for Luis. She shouted and waved her arms, tears streaming down her cheeks. Luis ignored her and even when she grabbed his arm, Luis continued as if he felt nothing.

  He can’t see me, I’m not here.

  Elizabeth saw the face of the man Luis was talking to. It was the son of the gang leader. The man who had her shot. Luis laughed at the man’s joke. She collapsed down in the sand and her mind was spinning. After everything, two years of work it wasn’t enough. Her baby brother was being corrupted. Her heart ached. This is what she feared most; Luis joining them, Luis forgetting her.

  Michael, Elizabeth called out. I need you to send me here, in person.

  You are my friend Elizabeth, but this is an impossible thing you ask me to do.

  Impossible? I need to go there. I need to save my brother from becoming the scum who surround him.

  To travel from Purgatory to Earth, you need to be holy.

  I am, I am the holy-squire of Marshal the Red Bear.

  You have holy in your title, but holy you are not.

  What more do you want of me?

  I want nothing of you friend Elizabeth, but you ask me the impossible.

  Just make it happen, please.

  It cannot be done.

  I will give you my lifespan, all of it save one year. If you send me here, I will go as an old hag if I need to.

  It is not a matter of lifespan, child. You are not worthy of this path.

  You call me friend, but spit in my face at one request.

  Why the hostility, friend Elizabeth? I am doing everything I can for you. I will send you to the apostles if you ask me. I will send you to Hell if you desire and I will even make an exception and send you to one of the sleeping ones, if you ask me. But Earth is beyond my power, if you are unworthy.

  I am worthy.

  You’re not. You are not holy.

  I am.

  You are not.

  I a-

  Friend Elizabeth, if there is nothing more I can do for you, I must ask you to leave. I have already used the life that you gave me and I am growing weary.

  I will not leave until you send me to Earth.

  Michael sighed. I am sorry, friend Elizabeth.

  Send me to Earth.

  Good night friend.

  Send me-

  The world went black.