Icefall Academy
Icefall City
Arktis Skyland
Northern Space

Solana let out a small grunt as she searched the halls for her brother. She had noticed that Knox hadn’t been himself the last few days. Bothered as she was, she opted to ask, but her older twin only told her that it was nothing. She knew there was something bothering him. Usually, he would tell her, unless it was something he deemed she shouldn’t hear for her own good.

The halls of the arena were quiet, minus the muffled sound of the audience behind the walls and her footsteps.

Movement on a right turn caught her attention. She followed it, only to find another empty hallway leading to a dead end. From the corner of her eye, she caught a dark shadow. Her head flipped toward it, but once again, she saw nothing but air.

The longer she walked, the lights in the hallways seemed to dim. She could swear the temperature had dropped even lower, and she reached up to rub her arms through her jacket.

A whoosh of air came from behind her. She turned, catching a dark shadow before it vanished. The hairs on the back of her hair rose.

“This isn’t funny,” she said under her breath. As she said that, the air turned even colder. She gulped as a feeling of being watched settled over her.

In her haste to get back where she came from, she failed to spot a crack on the floor and fell forward. She landed on her right side, and she groaned as her head hit the stone.

She sat up a little disoriented, rubbing her head and side to ease the pain. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she muttered.
She raised her head to look for the corner she came from. She froze. Eyes widened.

A familiar old woman stood before her. The ragged brown clothes she wore was the same as she remembered it from three years ago. Her face hidden behind a curtain of white hair, except for one large brown eye and thin cracked lips.

She shuddered. “No, no, no, no,” she said. She inched away, as she scrambled to stand. She ran once she stood, only to be stopped by the woman who appeared in front of the hallway. She turned her back and ran for the opposite direction.

“This isn’t real,” she told herself. “This is probably a side effect of Sierra’s power when she touched me before.”

She kept telling herself that over and over, even as she avoided the old woman who kept appearing wherever she turned.

“Leave me alone!” she hissed as tears started welling up in her eyes.

The woman’s face appeared merely inches from hers. She screamed and fell back against the wall. She pressed against it as the woman stared at her with that unnerving eye of her. When she opened her mouth, Solana’s hands went to cover her ears. “No, no, no!”

“The day the sky weeps a river,

“Under the protector’s kind eyes,

“With warmth from the arms of those loved,

Solana’s hands tightened over her ears as she shouted over and over for the woman to stop. “No more. No more. Please don’t say it.”

“Death awaits the last bearer of the star,

“In the hands of the second bearer of the moons.

“A single choice or a selfless love,

“Shall heed the stone or break it.”

Solana shuddered again. After all these years, she had studied those words multiple times. She knew that “the second bearer of the moons” was her. “Bearer,” as translated from the Book of Seers, meant heir. The “moons” was her family crest.

She will end up killing someone. She refused to believe it, pushing the dreadful encounter with the seer to the deepest parts of her mind.

The future wasn’t set in stone. But there were few exceptions whose fate had been set from the moment they were conceived. It was a seer’s job to let them know. She will end up killing someone with her own hands. Her body shook from the effort it took to hold in her sobs.

She pressed herself against the wall. Only she felt no wall.

She turned, only to find familiar double doors standing only a few feet from her, with a dark forest behind it.

The door was even darker than the night itself. Octagons, varying in sizes, linked with one another to create beautiful but eerie swirling patterns. Each eight-sided figure glowed, bathing the large door with a mix of silver and purple light.

It flew open. Air sucked her into the darkness. She screamed.

The seer wasn’t the only encounter she had that fateful day.

She closed her eyes tight as she was now going to relive the second one. She didn’t want to see it again. It had haunted her for many nights and almost ruined her sanity.

Her body crashed on solid ground. Like the first time, she felt no pain. She still refused to open her eyes. The temperature was cold and hot at the same time.

She willed herself not to open her eyes, but a strange force pried her them open. A silver, cloudless sky greeted her sight. She sucked in a harsh breath, followed by the tightening of her throat as the strange force prevented her from screaming.

That was when she first heard it. The terrifying wails filtered through her ears and caused all the hair on her nape and arms to rise. She made an effort to close her eyes before she saw the source of the sound, but she couldn’t.

Slowly, her head turned.

There in the distance, surrounded by tall walls of spikes, a large purple fire burned. She saw the human figures burning in the dark eerie flames. Some ran in circles. Some sat with their heads in their hands. Others writhed in the ground as anguished cries tore through their lips.

The movements where the same as the memory she had unwillingly stored in her mind. She had to close her eyes before she saw the scene that had scarred her and threatened her sanity.

Too late.

Three black figures emerged from the fire, tumbling over one another to escape their punishment. The entirety of their skin were black as ash, and it looked as if one touch would cause them to crumble. Black panicked eyes widened to their utmost capacity as they stared at her. Blackened, charcoal hands reached for her, while at the same time shoved one another off in their escaped through the fire.

She tried to inch back, but once again, she was rooted to her spot on the ground. Tears streamed down her face as she shook in fear.

The hands reaching for her, never touched her, even from the time three years ago.

Like that day, clawed hands clamped around the sinner souls’ wrists. Screams ripped through their mouths as they were thrown back to the purple fire with incredible strength.

Solana’s gaze started from the clawed hand before they trailed up, following the silver sleeve of a long coat, up to the face she had only read about in the Old Scriptures before. The memory was still as vivid as she first saw it.

A pair of small horns jutted from either side of the being’s head. His face looked almost human, except for the black eyes with purple irises looking straight at her.

An Eimion.

She shrunk away from his piercing gaze.

A second Eimion appeared, wearing a black coat instead of silver.

“A living human?” the one in the black coat had. “How did she get here?”

“She must’ve entered through an open door that we failed to seal,” the one in silver said. “Where did you come from?”

Like three years ago, she was compelled to answer his blank tone. “Rosen City, Saggaran Skyland.”

The one in silver spoke to his companion. “Send word to find that door and have it sealed,” he said. “We can’t have any of the living humans entering again…and most certainly not have another rebel follow Prince Beuen.”

The Eimion wearing black, bowed, turned on his heels and dashed down a path between a thick forest of black and purple trees.

The remaining Eimion, turned his strange eyes at her. He took purposeful steps toward her, the purple flames behind him casting light and shadows at his form.

He paused when he stood before her slumped form, towering over her by a few feet. He stared down at her with unreadable eyes as his forefinger touched her forehead. The violet in his eyes glowed, before his brows furrowed at her face in slight confusion. To her shock, a faint smile appeared on his pale lips.

“Don’t forget this place, young one,” he said. “And a piece of advice. Choose the most difficult choice at the right time.”

So much pain came from the skin where his clawed finger touched her. It felt like a thousand needles poked her brain and, then a knife tore it into multiple pieces. She screamed and fell, writhing on the ground in agony.

Through her tear-filled vision and battle between unconsciousness, she saw the Eimion with his back turned to her. He looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with her. Purple was the last color she ever saw, before darkness won the battle with her mind.

———

“Solana!”

A voice called to her. Running footfalls followed that call before a thud came from in front of her. Hands grasped her shoulders, then pressed on the side of her head. She groaned from the pain that came from there, before she felt a trickle of something warm and thick ran down the side of her face.

“Damn it!” the voice said again.

She felt her weight leave the ground as two arms wrapped around her. Then she heard rushed footsteps once again.

“I found her!” the familiar voice shouted. “She hit her head and she’s bleeding.”

Frantic voices surrounded her. Their worried tones caused her to force her eyes open to see what was happening.

Her sight first fixed on a mop of fiery red hair, before dark brown eyes held her grey gaze. She saw the relief in Rei’s eyes.

“I’m taking you to the infirmary,” he told her. “We’ve been looking for you for hours. I know you can be clumsy, but tripping over a crack and hitting your head is just too much than usual.”

He sounded so playful on the last sentence, as he smiled down at her. It had always been his way of comforting her. For some reason, tears welled up in her already swollen eyes and she sniffed. She buried her head on his shoulder, hands grasping the fabric of his jacket.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” she said in between cries. “I’m sorry, Rei. Please forgive me. I’m sorry for everything.”

Rei stilled from his pace, apparently just as shocked as her for the words spilling out of her mouth. He tightened his hold around her and pressed a light kiss on her head. He gave soft chuckle.

“You really have hit your head hard, haven’t you?” he said.

Through her tears and sobs, she laughed, tightening her hold around him.

The things see saw earlier were all memories from that dark day from her past. It was over.

She wasn’t in Blazen. She intended to never to set foot there again—whether alive or dead.

###

Was supposed to post this along with the first update but I had to fix some things about it. Tnx for waiting.