Highest Treason

Darkness and silence, but no... Is that whispering? Silence and then... Yes! I can hear voices. Why can't I see anything? Where am I? I could hear voices, but nothing they said made sense. I was being carried on a flat surface, but no this is a not floating sensation. This isn't a boat or a board in the ocean floating beneath my body, this was a flat cool surface being carried.

Suddenly, I was set down rather roughly. My body jerking and toppling over at the sudden stop of motion. My eyes must be covered with something dark, a satin cloth or perhaps a hood? I felt myself being set upright by hands, but they didn't feel like skin of a human or anything I have ever felt before physically in my whole 22 years of life. It felt more like static, or like I was being slightly electrocuted but in the same form or the shape of hands. The blindfold was ripped from my face.

Bright light stung my eyes, causing me to blink rapidly. Grimacing, I tried to open them once more to see my surroundings. Blinded, once again. Frustration started to fill me, causing me to try again. Blinded. Again. Blinded. Finally, anger set in. I forced my eyes open, blinding myself in the process. Leaving them open, I endured the pain trying to see anything but the blinding light before me. What I madman I must be.

After what felt like hours, the bright light began to fade and the surroundings that were once covered began to show themselves to me.

Kneeling before a great number of brightly colored beings with giant energy wings and what looked to be swords coming from one or both of their arms, I felt nothing but fear and anger. Shaking, I glanced between the faces of those that looked so familiar and yet nothing like anything I’ve ever seen before. Some of them had what looked like armor, others in normal-looking clothes. All were either white, gold, silver, or purple. Everything about them looked what I could only imagine as perfect. They looked human, almost. But, obviously nothing about them was human.

The sound of a large door opening behind me caught the attention of the room and my nerves, causing me to turn my head in hopes to see this new comer. The room was large. Massive, even. Transparent walls, floors, and paintings that looked otherworldly across the ceiling. The beings were even large, standing above me their faces were watching, waiting. From what I could tell there was only one door connected to the room, and that door sit behind me somewhere.

With every attempt I could not move my head, nor my hands. I was frozen kneeling on cold, transparent marble floors before a crowd of onlookers; heart racing I attempted to speak. Nothing. Not even my brain could activate my vocal cords to speak out. What was I going to do?

“Thank you for joining us today, brothers and sisters,” came a voice from just behind my left shoulder. “I will try and make this quick, thus to get my point across for those who believe they can get away with treason," the man with a deep, frustrated voice stated. The energy of the room went from anticipation to tension, causing anxiety to burn in my chest.

Windows across the tall walls that surround the room show a bright blue-white sky that lay just beyond the walls that now were my prison. Was there hope for escape? The faces before me gave no answer, nor did the sound of the footsteps behind me.

I felt a hand lay on the left side of my neck, the other drawn back with the same energy sword these other beings had. Energy swords of angelic beings were not hard to miss for me, seeing as how I had two of my own that were now trapped as was my body, bound with unseen restraints.

In an instant the blue colored sword I once had attached to my left shoulder blade just a blink ago was now laying as a flesh arm on the floor beside me. Warm thick blood pour out down my side and onto the floor. A pool surrounding my knees; I heard the man move behind me placing his hand on the right side of my neck. With one swift movement, barely noticeable to the human eye, my right arm was now laying beside my body. Adding more blood to my clothing and the pool I knelt in. Both of my energy swords, gone.

Pain. Anger. Confusion.

Why am I here? I tried to mentally scream it to them. To him. To anyone who could hear me. What did I do to deserve this? Little was I concerned for the fact that my swords were both gone, but I somehow knew what was coming next. Tears forming in my eyes, burning my cheeks as they slid down to land in the crimson puddle that was mirroring my reflection back to me.

Blinking, I looked up to see another set of beings coming forth, grasping and extending my left wing. I screamed. Or, tried to. The blade came down, slicing through the snow white feathers and bone connecting the wing to my shoulder blade. More blood began to pour out of my body, pooling around my legs and feet. My wing, they held in their hands, stained now in my own life force. My life force that was growing weak and tired.

Closing my eyes, I could still see them all standing there around me. Their faces darkened by their lack of emotions for the one being punished. I was ready to accept my payment for the crime I had committed. The crime I couldn't even remember.

“Almost done here, folks." I could hardly hear his words through my own heart pounding in my ears. "Shall this teach us all a lesson,” he said, less forced. The cracking in his voice, the emotion behind his words showed his true feelings for what he was doing. Did that stop him?

This time he was on my right side. I opened my eyes and stared at the faces that I couldn't name. The faces of memories I had forgotten long ago. I glanced to my side as best my eyes could let me, seeing that they were about to take my other wing from me. The other two beings grasping and extending my right wing, the blade once again came down and sliced off my other wing. Agony shot through me, white hot rage, and terror.

Tears pour down my frozen face as the man came around to face me. He grasped my throat with his hand, "You will do best to remember to not betray your brothers again, my love." Pain seemed to shine in his eyes as he spoke the words to me in almost a whisper and closing his eyes before drawing back his bladed arm and shooting it through the center of my chest into my core. My halo.