Divinitas

054 - Fire\'s Final Will

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Your God has left Ten.

Phoenix growled, his fist clenching around his knife in a death grip as the words resounded in his head once again. It angered him. A lot. That those words bothered him so much. Words that had been spoken to him days ago, the very morning after Phoenix had satisfied himself with Aether, in fact. And now it was the evening before the day of the Full Moon.

\"Someone ought to take that knife away from you before you stab yourself,\" the Child of Air\'s voice said quietly beside him, bringing with it the general din associated with a dinning hall.

The Child of Fire whipped around to face the other, eyes focusing fiercely on the apathetic Child of Air. This may have been his Light side, but it certainly pissed him off more than the Dark. At least that sadistic side had the excuse of being naturally evil. The Light was just being a bitch.

The silver haired boy didn\'t spare Phoenix a glance, merely continuing to dine neatly off his plate. Phoenix ground his teeth together, determined not to let his frustration get the better of him. Instead, he stabbed the knife down into a piece of meat and shoved it vengefully into his mouth, chewing savagely.

The past week had been… trying, to say the very least. He was grateful that Ashura had made no comment about his state of being after he had returned from his little encounter with Aether, and had merely cleaned and healed him up once more. But then to tell him, the very next day in such a direct manner that Aether had left Ten… why had he mentioned such an annoying fact to him at all? It hadn\'t been necessary. It was just… bothersome.

And then, if that wasn\'t enough, Ashura had continued to group him with Chimaera and that insane Child of Air in their training sessions. On one hand there was the overly genki and often whiny only Child of Earth, and on the other, there was the split-personality I\'m-nice and I\'m-not Child of Air. Though, in Phoenix\'s opinion, both sides were just as nasty as each other. Even had he not been suffering from that annoying echoing \'Your God has left Ten\' line in his head constantly, he would have found their company grating, at best. But apparently Ashura thought it was good enough they hadn\'t managed to kill each other as of yet, and took it as a sign of their budding \'friendship.\'

Sawing off another piece of meat from his plate and stuffing it into his mouth, the boy glared up into the crowded formal dining hall. And this is what everything had led to. The Last Supper. All the Elemental Children were here, eating, for what the majority of them, would be their very last meal.

One could almost taste the tension and ill-ease in the air. They knew, every one of them, what the morning would bring. Death to all except four.

Would it have been better, had they forgone this last gathering? It really wasn\'t necessary, was it. Just a formality in very poor taste.

The boy lowered his gaze again, somewhat sickened by the scene. Better to just finish up and leave. Better not to look too closely at the faces of those he would need to slaughter tomorrow.

Maybe it was its familiar scent. Or perhaps he had glimpsed them just now, but he knew them to be what they were before they were thrown sickeningly onto his almost empty plate.

Flicks of blood splashed onto his face, cold yet still wet. It sent a shudder of revolution coursing through his body, yet all his mind did was ponder at their sublime beauty. Even though they were detached and soaked with blood, they were still unbelievably beautiful. Glossy and black, and larger than any bird\'s. They had a purple tinted hue that shone even through their coating of blood.

Slowly Phoenix raised his head, pulling his crimson gaze away from the bloody black feathers that now littered his plate. The din from the hall fell away from his ears, and he could only stare at the beautiful girl standing before him. Her aqua eyes glared hatefully at him, bright with anger and unshed tears. And her face, perfect like a porcelain doll\'s, was splattered with the same blood that drenched the feathers.

His blood.

For the longest time, she simply stood there, bloodied fists tight at her side, trembling with anger. There was no doubt in Phoenix\'s mind she wanted nothing more than to wrench his heart from his chest and stamp upon it until it became a bloodied pulp. Only something stayed her hand, and with that resolution crossed out, she couldn\'t find the brutal enough words to convey her thoughts to give him the tongue lashing he so deserved. Finally, she settled for slapping him so hard across his face that the resounding slap silenced the entire hall.

Phoenix\'s eyes widened at the shock, almost falling sidewards with the force behind the slap. The entire side of his face stung, his head ringing from the blow. Confused crimson eyes turned slowly back to the girl\'s, his fingertips lifting to gingerly touch his red and throbbing cheek.

There was no guilt or regret in her eyes. They only longed to see punishment fall upon him again and again until they were satisfied that he had paid enough for his crimes.

\"I would be careful, if I were you,\" the Griffin\'s voice spoke up from beside him, indifferent and aloof as he cut into the meat on his plate and lifted it delicately to his mouth. \"She looks as if she wants to kill someone, namely you.\"

Phoenix let out a hiss of intolerance, wanting to bite the boy\'s head off, yet unwilling to break the girl\'s hateful glare.

\"Perhaps you should take her out of here. You\'re interrupting their last meal,\" the silver haired boy\'s uncaring voice continued after he had chewed and swallowed.

Biting back the retorts that threatened to spill from his mouth, the fiery boy stood, the sound of his chair scrapping the ground killing the silence. In a feline movement, he jumped onto the table, and landed easily on the other side where the girl stood in her silent rage.

\"You wanted to yell at me, didn\'t you? Concerning him,\" Phoenix demanded, his last word coming out almost as a growl. Without waiting for a reply, the boy snatched up the girl\'s trembling arm and dragged her from the dinning hall, only releasing her when he had found a deserted part of the corridors.

\"Well, talk!\" Phoenix shouted after a long length of lingering silence. \"Isn\'t that why you charged into the dinning hall and threw his blood-drenched feathers on my fucking plate?\" He was suddenly incomprehensively angry. He hated how she had looked at him, at the accusing glare from her innocent aqua eyes.

\"My Brother tore his own wings off.\"

A feeling of something unbearably heavy dropped in his stomach. Aether tore his wings off? Those beautiful black wings that had sprung from his back, whose sound and sight and smell still lingered about his mind… torn hatefully away.

\"Because he couldn\'t calm himself enough to make them remerge with his body. Because you are all that occupies his mind now! Because of that I had to watch my own Brother scream as he gripped his own wings and tore them off one at a time!\"

The echo of her voice bounced off the smooth walls, taking a tauntingly long amount of time to fade. Coldness swept through Phoenix\'s body, turning his uncertainly into icy fire. He felt angered by her words, and angered by Aether\'s actions. Some part of him thought furiously how stupid a thing it was for Aether to do, tearing off his own wings. Why would anyone do that? Did realising he desired a lowly mortal disgust him that much? Did he regret fucking Phoenix now?!

\"Say something, damn you!\" the violet haired girl shouted, desperate frustration pouring off her entire being.

Phoenix\'s voice shook with effort when he finally spoke. It took everything to leash the anger, to reply with a semblance of civility. \"And what would you have me do?\" the boy bit out, feeling his throat tighten around his voice. \"Die? Die as he asked of me? Let my life be thrown away so he might have my soul?! How fucking unfair is that! Your Brother is none of my business! He does not concern me, and if he is stupid enough to go tearing off his bloody wings, then let him bloody well bleed to death!\"

The girl bit her lip, taken back by Phoenix\'s steadily rising voice. The tears threatened to fall again, born from the shock and helplessness she felt. Of course it was selfish… asking someone else to die so the one you love might live. But this was her Brother… the only family she had, the one she cared for the most.

She had thought she wanted Aether to regain his feelings. To feel again, to lose that apathetic veil that separated him from all emotional experiences. But this? This wasn\'t happiness, this wasn\'t joy. It wasn\'t love! It was just… obsession and need. And it made him experience pain and regret… it hurt his heart and soul.

\"If you live… if you become the God of Fire… Aether will sell half his soul for you. Either way, you will be taken back to Chikyuu,\" the girl finally whispered, unable to keep eye contact with Phoenix any longer. \"Because that was your whole purpose from the beginning. To be offered to my Brother as something he desired enough to sell half his soul for.\"

A shattering silence fell.

The words tunnelled into Phoenix\'s mind, crashing through false truths and razoring his beliefs to the ground. The feeble resistance of a small voice trying to tell him that it was a lie was quickly swept away. Too many facts reinforced those words… Deus\' love for Aether, the whole overly elaborate and seemingly caring plan Deus had laid out for the Elemental Children. There was no way a deity of Ten would care about beings of another realm. No-one would interfere unless they had some ulterior motive, something to gain.

Phoenix\'s foot took a step back, his crimson eyes widening in comprehension. Ten did not want him, had never wanted him. The Elemental Children were all pawns, and he was nothing more than one of them, being played with for the gain of another. This whole realm wanted him no more than Chikyuu did, and its God wanted him no more than Aether had before this horrible plan had been put into play. Ashura had lied, Deus had lied… was his Dream a lie?

No. No, his Dream was his own. It was not a lie. He wanted to live. It was as simple as that. He wanted to live. And this was the only path left to him, even if it played into another\'s hands.

\"I will not die.\" The words were quiet, calm, devoid of the turmoil that had ripped through his being only moments before. \"Not because I hate Aether and wish to see him lose half his soul. But because I want to live. For myself, I will live. And if this is the path I must follow, then so be it.\"

The boy began to turn, meaning to take his leave. \"Aether knows this. And he wouldn\'t have it any other way,\" Phoenix said softly over his shoulder. \"He was the one who shaped me into what I am. He was the one who made it possible for me to taste Heaven. He may as well be the one to suffer my resentment of him when he drags me down back to Earth.\"

Casimir didn\'t look up as the Child of Fire\'s footsteps faded away. She merely lifted her blood stained arms and wrapped them around herself, feeling keenly alone in the endless hallways within Ten.



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It was so dark, every path that led to Aether\'s rooms. Chikyuu always seemed veiled in shadows after returning from Ten, and the Castle of Genesis was no different. But tonight, it seemed black. Darkness seemed to spiral out from where Aether was, seeping through the castle like how his blood seeped onto the cold ground.

Nothing had changed. The sickeningly sweet scent of blood still smothered the suite of rooms. Red painted the walls and clung to curtains, pooling on the polished table and floor. The dagger that had dug into flesh and feathers laid discarded on the blood-soaked floor, gleaming dully in the faint light. And finally, there were the two discarded - shredded - black wings, flung into the furthest corners of the room, scattering pretty feathers in their wake.

Exposed bone and torn muscles still flexed and throbbed, dripping blood down Aether\'s bare back. The God of Soul was huddled in the center of the room, his long slender legs collapsed beneath him. His arms were wrapped around himself, as if trying to make cease the violent spasms that tore periodically through him. Only they wouldn\'t stop, and his fingernails had dug so deeply into his bare arms that rivulets of blood dripped down from his elbow to join the pool growing around him.

\"Aether…\" Casimir\'s voice trembled as she said the name, scared to see what would be reflected in those amethyst eyes when they looked up at her. \"I… travelled to Ten just now. And I spoke with Phoenix. He…\"

\"My Phoenix, Casimir.\" The interruption was barely audible, nothing more than a whisper. But it carried all too clearly the unspoken threat lying just beneath the surface.

The girl\'s eyes narrowed, frustration and fear changing into bitterness and anger. \"He said he would live! Why do you still chase after him? Why…? Why do you want someone who will resent you forever if you drag him back to this realm he hates so much?\"

Haunted amethyst eyes raised their gaze from the bloody dagger on the ground, staring intensely at the girl who had spoken. \"Because I am selfish, Casimir.\" Aether\'s voice was soft, deadly. His hands fell away from his tortured arms, closing around the cold wet handle of the dagger instead. \"I want him and I need him, and I am obsessed with owning him. I will sell half my soul for him, and I will drag him down here where he belongs, and I care not whether he resents or hates me, or is broken and in pieces, as long as he is mine!\" The blade lifted and plunged downwards, striking with a resonating ring before sinking deep into the accepting cold blood-covered stone.

A ripple of power flowed outwards from the dagger, passing through the floor and walls. Casimir bit her lip, talking an unconscious step back from the force that emanated from her brother. It hurt, to watch this…

Aether\'s fingers tightened around the dagger, his fingernails biting deep into the back of his hands. Fresh blood welled forth from the self-inflected wounds, filling the air with metallic scent. \"I will be content with that,\" his voice whispered, his gaze falling away from the frightened aqua eyes to watch the blood slowly seep into the incision in the stone ground.

Pity welled inside Casimir\'s heart. That the Will of two souls could hurt each other so. \"No, you won\'t be.\" The regret and sorrow couldn\'t be helped. No one wanted to stand by, unable to do anything, as another dug their own grave. The girl closed her eyes and swallowed her feelings. A long moment passed before she opened them again and walked quietly towards Aether, kneeling down in front of him and placing her hands over his. \"You won\'t be content, just to keep him. You will, sooner or later, if not already, need his love. But… since your heart and soul have already etched their decision in stone and blood, then I will help you in whatever way I can… to be happy.\"

To be happy… Sometimes some words just could not be said. Could not pass one\'s lips and into another\'s ears. She couldn\'t say, just now, \'to bind the Fire\'s Will with half your soul and make him yours.\'

Amethyst eyes slowly looked up from their hands upon the dagger, unreadable, yet beautiful with their multifaceted colours shimmering through. \"Heal me, then. Erase these wings. Sing open the Gate into Eternity and let us enter Ten through them.\"

Casimir nodded reluctantly. What else could she do? Knowing that the Gate into Eternity was the only way left to them for entering Ten, now that Aether\'s wings had been torn away. She could never refuse. Not now, not after her promise to help him.

The Goddess began to hum softly, filling the room with melody rather than blood, and moved behind her brother to gently place her hands over the two bloody wounds that ruptured from Aether\'s back. No one, perhaps not even herself, noticed the tears that welled in her eyes as she threaded golden silk through flesh and bone, mending Aether\'s back into perfection once more. Tears that longed to fall, knowing those bright aqua eyes would soon watch more tragedy unfold.

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