“Mother, what did the world look like before the Denomination?”

At the unexpected question, Mother Rachel glanced sharply in Ellie’s direction. “What have I told you about speaking before you are spoken to?” she asked. Chagrin crossed Ellie’s face, and the girl studied her shoes, mumbling a contrite apology. Surveying the girl, Mother Rachel determined that she had been suitably castigated.

“Now, why would you ask about what the world looked like?”

Ellie hesitated, raising her head only briefly to meet the nun’s eyes before looking away again. She whispered an answer, and Mother Rachel threw her hands impatiently in the air. “Speak up girl, for crying out loud, I can’t possibly hear you when you mumble like that.”

“I read about it in a book,” Ellie braved.

“A book from where? I don’t recall you having access to any books about the intricacies prior to the Denomination.”

Ellie closed her eyes tightly, and Mother Rachel inwardly sighed as she watched the trembling girl stumble through her answer. “W-w-well, there was this book from the Restricted Section, but it was just lying open on the table, and I didn’t know it was from the Restricted Sec—”

“Oh, don’t lie to me, child. Be quiet and let me think for a moment,” she snapped, pausing in the middle of the corridor. The noon bell rang, and other nuns and pupils began to exit from the rooms stationed throughout the convent. They wove around Mother Rachel, Sisters and students alike giving her a wide berth as she contemplated the matter at question.

The girl was not yet ready for the knowledge of what lay beyond her walls, yet of any student in the nunnery, Mother Rachel believed the knowledge would best serve her.

Eloise Armstrong’s grandfather had died fighting in the Denomination Battle, leaving her father a penniless orphan boy. Yet, somehow, he had captured the heart of the former princess, an action Mother Rachel had never approved of and still did not. Because the prior Emperor would have never agreed to their union, the two married in secret, but the princess ultimately died in childbirth.

Ellie’s heart-broken father had brought her to the convent’s doorstep, sharing this story and begging the nuns to take care of his daughter. Mother Rachel had taken the night shift then, only a Sister at the time, but she still remembered the sight of rain pouring down the man’s face, mingling with the sea-salt of his tears.

Sighing, Mother Rachel glanced back at the girl, who was staring at the ground again. “Stop looking at your shoes and keep your head up,” she snapped. She really did love the children she taught, but often her irregular temper flashed before she could quell it. If she showed Ellie the convent’s secret at such a young age, Mother Rachel had no idea what would happen. After all, children were easily tricked and prone to bad decisions. Yet, Ellie did not deserve to never know at all. The land that lay beyond the convent’s border should, by right, belong entirely to Ellie.

The others in the hall had all passed on by now, and the corridor was empty except for the two of them. “Come here,” she said in a softer tone, walking towards a nearby window. When the girl had joined her, Mother Rachel pointed out at the surrounding environment. “Listen carefully, because I will only tell you this once. Before the Denomination, composed mostly of chemical and biological warfare, Earth was clean and pure.”

Ellie blinked in surprise, and Mother Rachel smiled slightly to herself, glad she had gotten the girl’s attention.

“The sky wasn’t always this golden-red color,” she mused. “In fact, the sky once held the most glorious shades of blue and white that could possibly be found anywhere on the planet. Often, pure water would collect in fluffy white clouds above, before falling from the sky as rain. The rain was pure and good, and you could tilt your head to the sky, open your mouth, and catch the raindrops on your tongue.”

“Like ashes?” Ellie interrupted, face alight.

“Like ashes? What do you mean, ‘like ashes,’ of course not! It was cool, and it certainly didn’t singe you when you touched it. The rain was wet and clean, like the water that you drink with your meals. Which you should be grateful for and never spill by the way, because that isn’t exactly easy to purify.”

A quick glance at the child’s face revealed that she was either enthralled or did not believe what Mother Rachel was saying. Shaking her head slightly, she moved on. “The trees were giant, taller than several people stacked on top of each other. Green grass grew everywhere, and plants and flowers of all kinds flowered in the most unlikely of places. Rivers were blue or clear, like the sky, not red or yellow.”

“What about the mountains?” Ellie asked, pointing out the window towards the gray monoliths the convent rested between.

“Those have remained about the same,” Mother Rachel said, shrugging. “It was the other things, green, growing, and alive that I miss most about the world before the Denomination.”

“Were you alive back then?” the girl asked in awe.

Cringing before she could stop herself, two thoughts crossed the nun’s mind. First, did she really look that old? And second, if she didn’t watch her tongue, the children would discover the garden, and she would not be able to blame anyone but herself.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Mother Rachel said instead of answering. “I told you what you asked for, now you have to do something for me. Go back to Sister Lauren and apologize profusely for disturbing her class with these kinds of questions. Then you can ask for her forgiveness. If she says yes, you can have your dinner with everyone else. Otherwise you will take supper in your room, understand?”

Ellie bobbed a nod and a curtsy, turned, and practically ran from Mother Rachel’s presence. Pressing her fingers to her forehead, Mother Rachel sighed, wishing the headache that had just sprung upon her would go away. Although the chemicals in the air no longer harmed the mutated humans or other life forms, everyone and everything had changed. Green plants were nearly non-existent, and whenever a scrap of living matter was seen, it was instantly scooped up, devoured, or sold.

In fact, Mother Rachel believed that the convent housed the last refuge for Old Earth available anywhere on the planet. Their garden greenery was small, but it was growing, old species of plants thriving with the careful tending and growth that they were being given. The air was pure and clean inside the conservatory, and she intended to keep it that way at all costs.

~ ~ ~

Ellie should have waited for Ruth, her best friend, before she went exploring the forbidden areas of the convent, but the information Mother Rachel had given her buzzed through her mind like a hive of bees. New ideas pricked and stung her every so often, and she felt a delightful wave of excitement coursing through her.

Truth be told, she had sneaked into the Restricted Section for books about the Denomination, but it was for good reason! None of the teachers would talk about life before the war, saying that it was secret for when or if they joined the nunnery. Secrets were unacceptable for Ellie, and she was determined to find out what lay beyond the one Mother Rachel hid at all costs.

After she reported to Sister Lauren, Ellie chose to head back to her room instead of joining the others in the lunchroom. If going without lunch meant solving this mystery, that was just fine with her. With everyone else at lunch, slinking through the halls towards the Restricted Wing of the convent was much easier than it would have been otherwise.

In fact, after not seeing a single soul for several minutes, Ellie abandoned caution in favor of speed. Through hall after hall of the nuns’ quarters and study halls she dashed, finding nothing that looked even remotely out of place. Finally, she stopped running, confused and dismayed. Had she taken this risk for nothing? There was nothing back here! Why didn’t Mother Rachel allow people to come into the Restricted Section if there was nothing hiding here?

The sound of a closing door reverberated through the hallways, and Ellie squeaked, darting towards a different hallway, and pressing herself up against a shadowy tapestry on the wall. Please don’t come this way, please don’t come this way, please don’t come this way…

Silence fell over the area, and Ellie dared to peek back around the corner. As if standing guard before a lightly ornamented door, Sister Lucia paced back and forth before turning and striding off in the opposite direction as Ellie. Unable to believe her good luck, she counted to thirty under her breath before dashing towards the doors.

Hand on the doorknob, she hesitated for a split second, but she cracked it open and slipped inside.

A burst of warm air hit her immediately as Ellie closed the door without a sound. Yet when she turned around, Ellie saw a veritable wonderland of bright life, beautiful plants, and enticing creatures. Unable to believe her eyes, she took an unconscious step forward, marveling at the exotic landscape.

Above her, glass windows allowed sunlight to fall onto the growing plants, but the glass adapted and distorted the light, creating yellow-gold rays of light that stretched and danced across rows of brilliant flowers. Made only of grass and rich brown soil, the ground called to her, begging her to roll around and play in it, or maybe camp out for hours, smelling the glorious scent of…manure? Wrinkling her nose, Ellie wondered how such a beautiful area could smell so bad.

“The manure is good for fertilizer,” a gentle voice murmured behind her.

Ellie cried out in surprise—she could have sworn that she was alone—and she whirled, ready to throw herself prostrate to the ground and plead for forgiveness. Yet, when she lay eyes on the woman behind her, she was so surprised that she stopped in shock and her mouth fell slightly ajar.

The woman, arguably the most beautiful she had ever seen before, had hair as black as the darkest raven or a midnight sky. Her olive skin caught the light, somehow making her shine even further than seemed humanely possible. However, her most surprising feature was the spotless white dress the woman wore. Though modest, it fell freely to her shins, fluttering around her with the woman’s every movement.

Every Sister Ellie had ever seen had worn a solid black robe, stretching nearly to the floor. Hair pulled away from their face or tucked away into a black cap, few had even the slightest bit of adornment on their gowns. Only Mother Rachel had gold thread embroidered into her clothing, and even that slight means of differentiation was hard to pick out for those not looking for it.

Yet here was a woman in the most inner, sacred area of the nun’s convent, wearing nothing but a spotless white dress. “Who are you?” Ellie breathed, too shocked to remember her manners.

“Call me Jade,” the woman said, smiling. “And as for you, I take it you are the princess?”

“W-what? No, not at all, I’m Elli—Eloise Armstrong.” She felt like it was necessary to use her full name in the presence of such a woman.

“Eloise, that’s a beautiful name. And yes, I can see it in your eyes and the set of your jaw. You are the princess, and you will be the one to rescue us from the Red Queen.”

Bewildered, Ellie could only shake her head. “You certainly have the wrong person. I have no idea what you are talking about.” The woman frowned slightly, and the action sent a wave of remorse rippling through Ellie’s heart and soul.

“Don’t the Sisters teach you anything about your government or leaders?” Jade asked, perplexed.

Ellie felt a sudden need to defend the Sisters. “Yes, Empress Serenity is the ruler of these lands, and Sister Florence thinks that she is doing a good job.”

“Empress Serenity,” Jade snorted, wrinkling her nose upward in scorn. “The so-called Queen of Peace who brings forth terror, hatred, fear, and war. The Queen who corrupted the power, bah!” Noticing that Ellie watched in confusion, the woman shook her head again, reaching out to take the girl’s arm.

“Trust me, my dear,” she said. “The Red Queen is a much better name for her.”

Ellie closed her eyes, certain that she had somehow trapped herself in a bizarre and impossible dream. She stood in an exotic garden, beside the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, and Jade had chosen the moment to rant about the government.

“So tell me again, who…who are you?” Ellie questioned.

“My name is Jade.”

“No, why are you here? What is this place?”

“I am the Caretaker of the Garden, if you will. I am not a Sister, yet even Mother Rachel does as I command. I am ageless, yet I exist only in this moment. This garden is my home, and I take care of it; hence the name: Caretaker.”

Her tone remained level, yet the corner of Jade’s mouth twisted upwards, and Ellie sensed that the Caretaker was teasing her.

She didn’t know what to do, so Ellie just said the first thing that came to her lips. “Caretaker, I am so so sorry for sneaking in here; I was curious, and I won’t do it again, and I’m sorry, and I beseech your forgiveness…” she continued on in that vein for a few more moments before she noticed that Caretaker Jade was openly grinning at this point.

“Finished?” At Ellie’s nod, the Caretaker smiled. “Good. Because you don’t have much more time left before Sister Lucia comes back. Even I can’t hold her off forever.” The Caretaker stepped past Ellie and reached towards a nearby plant. Picking up a pair of shears, the woman cut a stem with a tightly closed green bud on the top and handed it to Ellie.

Gasping in disbelief, Ellie took the flower, being careful not to prick herself on the sharp thorns.

“This is called a rose,” Jade said. “Put it in a vase of water somewhere safe, and make sure it gets sunlight. When the flower has bloomed and died, come visit me again. I will be waiting.” Jade glanced towards the skylights again, before setting the pliers down and stepping away from Ellie.

“It is time for you to go, Eloise. I look forward to you saving us all.” With a nod, the woman turned her back and disappeared among the rows of flowers as mysteriously as she had arrived.

Swallowing tightly, Ellie tucked the flower inside her vest pocket, just until she made it back to her room, she promised.

~ ~ ~

For the second time that day, Mother Rachel stopped Ellie in the hall. However, this time, she was in a hurry and didn’t have time to scold truant novices for running like the devil himself was chasing them. So saying, she let Ellie off with a warning.

The girl had behaved suspiciously confident, but she was polite, so Mother Rachel could think of no conceivable reason to hold her back and question her further.

As Mother Rachel stepped into the observatory, she kept her head politely inclined downward. “Caretaker, you asked for me?” she called.

The woman appeared out of nowhere, like she always did, but Mother Rachel refused to jump in surprise.

“Yes. Princess Eloise visited me today, and I must say that I am quite impressed with the girl so far. Although, I fear you have trained her too well. She quivered whenever I spoke.”

“A healthy respect for authority is good for children,” Mother Rachel replied.

“But for a princess who will become the authority?” The Caretaker shook her head. “No, we’ll need her to be a strong and confident ruler. I am interested in training her, but the time is not quite right. Until I can take over her education though, make sure she gets plenty of time with her friends and others like her.”

“Caretaker?” she questioned.

“You heard me. She’ll have little enough time with her friends in a year or so. But for now, allow children to be children. I am interested in seeing what comes from exposing Ellie to the garden.”

Mother Rachel strongly disagreed, but even she had to take orders from the Caretaker. “Very well, it will be as you say.”


Author's Note: This post was inspired by a picture prompt given to me by Thalassa Brytaye! The picture is from Pinterest, and it was given to me at this link. Thank you! I really like this story, and I hope y'all did too.