Character Interview: Eveline: Part Three

Eveline: I awoke from my state of unconsciousness within St Pauls. A familiar ball of light that had once acted as a guide throughout my visions, led me to the great doors of the cathedral. When I opened them, I found myself before a great and beautiful land. I was in Aurelius. I was standing before three great villas, amongst a beautiful field of dancing wheat. Then I saw them, bouncing down from the white steps of the middle villa, my family. It was the first time in which I had met my grandparents and uncles. It was the first time in which I had gazed upon my mother as a young child.

Me: How moving…

Eveline: It is in some ways strange to say this, but I felt as though I really was in Heaven. But as is the way of my life, lightness soon turned to darkness and the world about me changed and I was brought back to the day of the attack, in which my grandmother and three uncles where murdered. I walked through the villa and passed their bodies. I found my mother, hiding in her room, beaten and violated. I witnessed my grandfather’s despair and pain, a scene I never wish to relive again.

Me: I’m sorry.

Eveline: For months I have been despairing over my grandfathers need to show me the past, especially the day in which half of my family were murdered. But now as I sit here, months later, I suddenly realise why he did force me to relive that day.

Me: Why do you think he did make you retrace that awful day?

Eveline: To better understand myself and who it is that I am and where it is I come from. Galean’s first wife and young daughter had been killed in a similar raid years later on the very eve that he was sent to save me from Calhuni. Not only did I feel his pain but I felt the pain of all those who had been wrongly and unjustly murdered and I began to understand my role in this life of mine.

Me: When did you grandfather reveal himself to you?

Eveline: When that vision had ended, I found myself falling into a void of darkness. Eventually I awoke and when I did, I found myself lying upon the ground of the great temple in Jerusalem and before me stood my grandfather.

Me: How did it feel to be before him?

Eveline: I felt a thousand things at once, I was angry yet happy, pained yet soothed. Time itself stood still and he explained himself to me, explained who I am and why he had kept himself hidden from not just myself but my mother as well. He began to make sense of everything that had felt out of place in my life. Everything fell into place.

Me: And now?

Eveline: He gave me a choice, I could stay here on this earth with my husband and live out the rest of my unhuman life as I wished or I could part with this world and return home to Calnuthe and reclaim back my throne from my half-brother and deliver my people from oppression and hardship.

Me: What happened to Galean?

Eveline: When I awoke from my sleep, the roof of the cathedral was falling about me. Lagmar and his followers had somehow broken through the protective shield. As I awoke I saw Galean out of the corner of my eye, he and my husband had been involved in a fight, but Lagmar, determined to kill him, took him from the alter and dragged him down the nave.

Me: Why did he specifically target Galean?

Eveline: Firstly for revenge, Galean had killed his son Lagman who had murdered his wife and burnt his daughter alive. Secondly to deliver him to his master and end the prophecy. Galean if he is my fate, also holds the key to the prophecy bearing truth. If he is dead, the prophecy dies with him.

Me: Did he…die?

Eveline: Until this past week, I thought him dead. I was unaware that my husband during their fight had stabbed him, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why he didn’t fight back hard enough against Lagmar, why he simply submitted himself to the demons power. It happened so quickly, like the flash of lightening that filled the night sky above me. One minute he was there, fallen upon the ground lifeless and the next he was gone. Everything changed once Gabriel and Michael burst forth from the cathedral, the demons left and Galean was gone.

Me: You have had a rollercoaster of a year…

Eveline smiles lightly, a smile that does not have the power to disguise the hidden sadness within her eyes. A harsh wind blows outside of the pub and large droplets of rain water hit against the glass window roughly.

Eveline: It has only begun.

Me: What happened after that night?

Eveline: Theodore brought me home to Keswick, to start afresh.

Me: Is it possible to start afresh after such a horrific few months?

Eveline: No, but I think he was trying to interject some order into the chaos that seemed to consume us both.  Everything we once knew has vanished, our friendship and marriage is distorted and nothing could return us to the people we once were.

Me: Life must have been very stressful if you were both tip toeing around one another?

Eveline: I spent month’s bed bound and unable to get my head around the loss and confusion. We barely talked and I cannot blame him for wanting space, I had inadvertently ruined his life. I have killed his closest friends, especially his first love and have ruined our marriage by falling in love with his best friend. I hated myself and hated all that I stood for. My grandfather wanted me to somehow lead a war against Lagar, but look at me, how could I do such a thing? I had not the power to save my mother, had not the power to overcome Lagar and Nathaniel and had not the power to save Galean. I have known elements of darkness before, but this darkness that has shrouded me so deeply these last few months, I have never known a darkness like it.

Me: What changed? How did you find the strength to overcome the grief?

Eveline: I don’t think that I have overcome the grief, I believe I have not fully felt its pain yet, it has only been a few months. The longer I lay in solitude and despair, the more I altered. All the strength and courage that had in the months before simmered, faded away and I became a ghost of who I was. I wanted to run from it all, I didn’t want to be aquatinted to any of it. But then I met the reverend, or I should say he came to visit me.

Me: Reverend Matthew?

I look across at the quiet reverend, dressed in a dark suit with a hat tilted over his forehead to shield his eyes. He is in my estimate very handsome and youthful, one cannot understand why it is he has taken up the cloth.

Eveline: To everyone he is just a young minister, but he is much more than that.

Me: Would you care to explain?

Eveline: Have you heard of the free masons?

Me: Briefly yes.

Eveline: Matthew is a guardian and local leader of the free masons. He has been watching over me since I arrived, unbeknown to myself off course. His father was the late leader of the free mason church before his death. He only became the minister of Keswick two or so years ago.

Me: Interesting.

Eveline: My grandfather explained to me that if I wished to return to my birthplace that I should seek out the reverend, for he would guide me.

Me: So you have decided to return to your people?

Eveline: Only in the last week has my mind altered. Matthew came to visit me on a regular basis on behalf of my husband who was worried. He helped me to climb out of the pool of grief and helped me to come to terms with all that has transpired. Initially I did not want to return, even if I was the heir to a Kingdom, I did not believe myself worthy. The people didn’t know me, I didn’t know them and more importantly I do not know my Kingdom. How could I save them from their oppressors if I couldn’t save myself?

Me: Maybe it starts with self-belief, closely followed by self-purpose and confidence. You are as powerful as the God Heiden, which should sooth your worries.

Eveline: I am not as powerful as my grandfather, nor am I as powerful as my half-brother. If I do not reach the garden of Calhuni and am crowned before my brother gets their first, the war will be won by our enemies. I have not yet been taught as to how I can harness the power given to me, I need to be able to harness the power within before I can contemplate returning to Unas.

Me: How will you return to Unas?

Eveline: We are travelling south to the island of Anglesey, to visit a school of magic called Ravinston. Near to the school lies the stones of Eisteddfod, a circle of stones that act as a passage from this world to another. I have to reach Ravinston before the summer solstice which happens on the twenty second of June.

Me: That’s two months away…

Eveline: Yes, Matthew thinks that I should spend as much time as possible in Ravinston to learn and harness my powers before I return. And then there are the knights…

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