Page 96 of To Trap a Soul

Her dark-grey beak was hard and immobile, but she felt her smile within her very soul.

If I could, I’d never turn back into a human.No wonder Furir found this so addicting.

April 6th, 1726

Standing on top of the lantern of a great cathedral, Lindi noticed the broken section of stone beneath her talons. The cross that had once been fixed to the very top had been removed forcefully, and there was evidence of its fall lower down on the building.

Beneath the stone lantern she was perched on top of was a great dome, and below that a rectangular building. Off to one side were two towers, one of which had a great clock on it large enough to see from a mighty distance.

The clock was well maintained, possibly so that all the occupants of this large and vast city could count down the minutes of their demise. The cathedral, once a pillar of a mighty religion, was in disuse for such a reason and had been repurposed into a different temple.

These people needed it.

With so many injured soldiers and builders, as well as sick people, the city of Londinium required much support.

Below her talons was the home of the Anzúli who resided in Londinium. Anything that looked to be of the old religion hadbeen removed, giving room for new paintings, glass windows, and glorious artefacts. Deeper within its bowels, materials from another world were stored away and constantly monitored.

But of course, Lindi was the only human who knew such immense changes had been made within these stone walls. Not even the current king had been inside. Then again... he rarely left his newly built estate within the city, too afraid to step outside past the guards that surrounded his home.

The Anzúli within Sing Dynasty had used their communication scries to let all those on Earth know of Lindiwe Bernadi, the strange humanwitch.Someone touched by Uxos, even if that was an unconfirmed blessing.

She was welcome everywhere.

And she was here, in the great Englian. Not that it was so great, considering its morose state.

I hate that I must stand here and bear witness.

Because the current situation was that Lindi had somehow found herself being pushed into the role of a pillar of hope. Her black downy feathers and large bird form reminded the Anzúli of one of Uxos’ forms, a large phoenix-like creature with black flames coming off its feathers.

The fact that she was human sized and large enough for most to see, even from a small distance, had been a good omen to them. Most animal shifters morphed into the size of the animal, perhaps with a small amount of discrepancy. A bird of her size was impossible, and yet here she stood, massive.

With warm night pressing in against her, Lindi shifted her talons on her perch to drift her gaze elsewhere.

It was hard to watch, no matter where she looked.

This large city, one of the biggest in terms of congregating people, was at war. Hundreds of thousands of humans were suffering at the hands of Demons. Night was the only timethey could rest, but sleep eluded many with the sounds that scratched, howled, and rustled in the night.

Before her lay houses that separated her from a large river, and more buildings spanned to the right and left as far as her raven eyes could see. Behind her were more homes and then acres of much-needed farmlands – not that it was enough to feed so many.

Her feathers ruffled as she shivered at who stood on the fringes of this city and bordering the river that spanned five or so kilometres. A string of Anzúlidesperatelytried to keep the monsters at bay. Walls made of magic, varying in colour, shimmered in the night – each one belonging to a different caster. The other side of the river was left to ruin, all those that once lived there eaten and their homes occupied by inhuman beasts.

The river did little to keep them at bay, and the bridge that separated the two lands had been purposefully burned down.

Lindi wished she could leave. She had done her part for Weldir for these two main islands that made up Englian. Even just thinking of escaping had guilt slicing into her gut.

The Anzúli were doing their best to keep up a linked barrier, but they could only do so much with fifty of them. There were more across the country, others helping other towns and humans, but this was the largest city.

The humans up north were strong, hearty people, but they, too, needed assistance even with their kilts and axes. Thankfully they had many rolling hills and mountains, but they also had many forests and woodlands to contend with.

Like those people, those of Londinium had taken up arms. First it was just men who had taken up muskets and swords, willing to fight for their women, children, the old, and the sick. But as they fought back against fang-filled beasts and swiftly died, even women had taken up arms.

The societal restrictions and silliness had been shed in the wake of destruction. They all worked together to build a wall that encompassed the entire city, which had been a painfully slow endeavour.

There was a shortage of resources, their walls first built of stone being swiftly extended and reinforced with wood to fill in the gaps. Their muskets were now lacking in bullets and there was only so much gunpowder left. Citizens were hungry and thinning from famine, giving room for disease. They had access to the river, their only drinking source, but it wasn’t in the healthiest state.

Those who left throughout the day to chop wood and search for herbs were few. In the shade, hungry beasts lurked and took their opportunistic meals when they could, picking off workers or soldiers one by one. People had acquired resources in many ways, such as taking from ships that were afraid to leave harbour when the debris of other shipwrecks came back down the river in pieces.

They were unable to go to the mines to find ore, halting any progress they had quickly been achieving. The technology they had here had already far surpassed that of Austrális, but they were now shoved back decades into the past.

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