Chapter Three

The Unmarked: Book One

Oct 10, 2025

Dawn

The scream that Dawn bellowed did not belong to her. It was a violent and ferocious sound. Dawn had no recollection of how she came to be in her current state. One moment she had been sitting with the letter crumpled between her hands, and the next, her chair was flying across the room. Her mind was in a haze. She was no longer in control of her body. Things shattered against the walls and tumbled across the floor.

Every curse was followed by destruction. Glass shattered for every promise Lilly had broken. Furniture crashed for every deception that had tumbled from Lilly’s lips. The last two years of Dawn’s life had been a lie. Everything Dawn thought she had known about her mentor had come crashing down in a matter of moments.

“You’re sorry?” Dawn yelled. “That’s all you have to say to me Lilly!” she kicked a pot that was at her feet. “After deceiving me? You’re sorry!”

Another chorus of destruction followed. Her mentor was a hypocrite. She had vowed to serve Tariah; a promise sealed with her own blood. She had vowed to teach Dawn in the ways of a Guardian; another promise sealed by blood. She had willingly dragged Dawn into her mess. Lilly had known that Dawn would be in danger because of her, and yet she had still taken her as an apprentice. For two years, Lilly had manipulated her in the hopes that Dawn would follow her filthy cause!

It was when Dawn caught sight of her bloody hand that she fell out of her frenzy. She hadn’t even noticed the pain. She stared at her hand as blood gushed from the cut that spread across her palm and trickled down her arm. Each breath came in a shudder and her entire body shook. It took a long moment for rationale to return to her. When it did, so did the pain of her injury. Dawn rushed to the bathroom and wrapped a towel tightly around her hand, wincing at the pain.

She turned around and saw a girl with wild eyes and tangled hair in the reflection of the mirror. This was not Dawn. This was the reflection of a madwoman. Dawn quickly turned away from the mirror and walked back to the kitchen. Or to that was the kitchen. Dawn was looking at a desolate wasteland. If someone didn’t know any better, they would have thought a wild animal had rampaged through the house.

Dawn slumped to the ground in a daze, breathless and numb. Her hand throbbed. Two years of lies. Two years of manipulation. Lilly was a heretic. Dawn thought about everything written in the letter and felt disgusted.

No one deserves to be deemed unworthy, punished, ridiculed, stripped of their humanity and forced to work the most despicable and unpleasant jobs because they do not meet the standards of strength, beauty, and intelligence that are determined by those who are in power.

But they did deserve it. Everyone in Erom was given a chance to be Worthy. Whether they were born to the Governor or to a street cleaner. Everyone was given a chance. Everyone had fifteen years of training and education. If they failed, it was because they hadn’t worked hard enough for it. Moreover, if the unworthy didn’t do the unpleasant jobs, then who would? As for the ones who were being killed, Dawn didn’t even think she believed Lilly. It was probably a ploy to bend her to her will. And even if Tariah did kill the unworthy, then so be it. Tariah was their God, and her wisdom surpassed all understanding. Who was Dawn to question Her Eminence?

There are so many secrets hidden in the shadows of our Land. Secrets that reveal the true nature of our system: evil and corrupt. But I have kept my own secrets too…

Yes. Lilly had kept her secrets, and they also revealed her true nature.

Dawn mulled over the warnings her mentor had left her. She wouldn’t join the Unmarked, she couldn’t. But she wouldn’t run either. Lilly had written the letter with the presumption that Dawn stood for everything she did and was in danger because of it. But Dawn did not stand for any of it. She was not a heretic. She was not a rebel. However, what she was, was a Guardian of Third Order who now possessed information about the Rebels. Dawn rose from the floor, still applying pressure to her wound, and searched among the mess for the box with the documents. At some point she had thrown it at the wall. Dawn shoved broken things aside with her foot. Eventually she found the box and gathered the papers that had fallen out. She spread the documents across the table. Many of them were fake mission statements and passports, but there was one map. Lilly had indicated all the safe havens and Rebel camps on it.

That is why I am asking you to trust me. Just as you have trusted me since the beginning.

Was Lilly that self-absorbed that she thought Dawn would trust her without a question, after two years of having deceived her, or was she just stupid?

Dawn put away the documents and the map into the box.

I am so proud of the person you are becoming.

Dawn looked out the window. The sun was rising. It was morning already.

I know from the deepest part of my being that you have the potential to do great things.

Dawn went to wash the blood from her arm and then attempted to bandage her hand just as it had been bandaged the evening of her Initiation.

I am asking you to trust me...

Dawn went to her bedroom to change her clothes and comb her hair. It was a difficult and slow process because of her injured hand. But eventually she got all the tangles out.

Just as you have trusted me since the beginning.

Dawn gathered the box and tucked it under her arm.

…leave as soon as you have read this letter.

Dawn stepped out of her house. It was still early. The air was cool. Dawn breathed in and let out a long exhale.

…Tell no one.

She marched down the steps of her home and made her way to the Governor’s Hall. The Governor would be receiving some very valuable information today.

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