Chapter One - The Voices Begin

CHAPTER ONE

The Voices Begin

IT STARTS WITH light.

Not a sunrise. Not a candle.
A flash — like heaven cracked open just long enough to let something slip through.

Joan is thirteen.
She lives in Domrémy, a nowhere village in northeastern France.
She doesn’t read. She doesn’t write. She doesn’t matter.
Except… she does now.

She hears a voice.

Not the voice of her parents. Not the priest.
A different voice.
A voice that knows her.

It calls her by name.

It tells her to be good. To go to church.
To obey her mother.
That’s all at first. Harmless enough.
But then it comes back.

And this time, it’s not just one.

She sees Saint Michael.
Then Saint Catherine.
Then Saint Margaret.
All glowing. All blazing.
All with the same impossible message:

You were born to save France.

Joan doesn’t ask why me.
She asks how soon.

Because France is falling apart.
The English are winning. The French king isn’t crowned.
Her village is caught in the meat grinder of a war that’s been dragging on for a hundred years.
Literally. A hundred.

No one expects salvation from a girl.
Let alone a girl who’s never been ten miles from home.

But Joan isn’t trying to be expected.
She’s not trying to be anything.

She’s just listening.

And the more she listens, the louder it gets.
The visions come often.
The voices speak clearly.
They don’t care how old she is. They don’t care that she’s a girl.

They just keep saying the same thing:

Go.
Save France.
Do not be afraid.
We will be with you.