Yeah, this is not a real post, but I wanted to get this out into the abyss, so here goes next to nothing. I guess. It is copyright me, 2009, and may not be used or shared in any way without my express permission.
“Reina?” Sami asked. “You saw her…”
“Die?” A female voice said from the coffin. “Not quite. However, I certainly had left the mortal coil once more.”
“No. You can’t be her. I saw what happened to her with my own eyes. Nothing could bring her back from that.” Mat said, trembling.
The woman sat up, her bedraggled red hair, somewhere in between the hues of blood and fire, sat playfully over her closed eyes. “It’s me, and I’m sure I can think of more than a few things to prove that to you, rusa.”
Mat stumbled back haphazardly. “W-WHAT?!” He shouted. “We- no, I-, I-”
The woman’s laugh echoed, warm and sincere through the trees.
“You were always fun to play with, that was for sure.” She smiled at him, opening her blood red eyes slightly. “Although, that was my fault for using a strange dialect just for my own amusement.”
Mat smiled somewhat. “But that was what had, and it was ours, and ours alone.”
“Well, perhaps. I’m sure there are plenty of people who know it perfectly well.”
“You, know what I mean.”
“Risa,macca ne?” The woman asked.
Mat smiled. “Bac, sisa.”
“Ooh, cold.” The woman laughed again, as she stood. She was wearing a simple white dress, made of a cloth that shimmered in the light.
“Still, I feel that we need a bit of an explanation to how you’re standing here.” Sami said, her sword still held firmly within her two hands.
“Fair enough, I suppose.” The woman said, with a shrug. “I am, as Mat here will be happy to confirm, Reina.” Her eyes wandered to the ground as she kept talking. “Do you recall seeing, any time during the last few months, a… I suppose you would call it a wave, of bright, white light?”
The four looked between themselves, not entirely sure.
“I do.” Irith’s voice said from behind them. “It was during the night we stayed at Ostios, you were probably all asleep.” Irith walked past them, and looked into Reina’s eyes. “It was more than just light, however. There was a physical sensation, that didn’t seem to affect anything, but at the same time, felt like it took a small part of me.”
“That, that was when I was placed here. Dead, mind you, but wholly intact.” Reina smiled. “That was the day our war ended.”
“Your, war?” Irith said. “Before Ostios was attacked, there hadn’t been anything close to a war going on here for over a hundred years.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure if I can tell you much more, but I’ll try.” Reina looked skywards. “The Gods War. A challenge set by the last of the old gods to their replacements, and that was the moment it concluded.” She laughed, this time is was much colder. “Of course, it really was an event outside of your convention of time.”
“Wait. You’re not saying…” Mat said.
“Yeah, I am.” Reina stepped out of the stone coffin. “I am a god. I always have been.” She smiled. “There were hundreds of us. Thousands even. All fighting for one of the one hundred and seven pieces of divine essence that were scattered across the material plane.”
“You, really?” Varian said.
“Shut up!” Seena whispered to him, hitting him softly on the back of the head.
“Of course, some of us wanted more power, to become something much worse.” Reina looked Mat straight in the eye. “He, was one of them. The man who absorbed me, and the piece of essence that I had been given.”
She coughed.
“So was your beloved teacher, Sami. She, with the aid of a few mortal souls, rescued us, and shared the essence between us.”
“F-Furoe?”
“Furia, to be precise, but many of us have kept the names we took here.” Reina looked at Sami with sadness in her eyes. “When we landed here, we knew most of nothing. We found out what we could. Hence the book.”
“Did you all-”
“No, just the Goddess of the Wilds there.” Reina’s laugh returned. “Or the hunt, or whatever it was.”
“So, uhh, what are you the goddess of, then?” Mat asked.
“Me?” She laughed again. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m the Goddess of Rebirth”
The group mostly looked at her bewildered, although Irith wasn’t surprised much at all.
“Come on. The phoenix? The flames? The fact I came back from death?”
“Uhh, well, err.” Mat stammered.
Reina embraced him firmly. “Mai haif, busa. Sisa ios, ne?”
Mat waited for a moment, before replying. “Perhaps, but you can’t come, can you?”
“Maiia.” She said, looking into his eyes, sorrowfully. “Sisa, azia busa ios, dina.”
She gave him a sisterly kiss on the forehead. “Don’t forget, okay?” She said.
“Never, not for the rest of my life.” Mat swore.
“And longer, I would hope.” Reina said.
“I’ll see you again, right?”
“I’d like that, but it wont be for a while. Just, be careful. I don’t want to see you too soon, if you catch my drift.”
“Sure.” Mat started to walk away, to join the others at the wagon. “One more thing. We’re kinda… lost.”
“Just follow the road, you’ll be fine.” She said.
“I, I hope you’re right.” He jumped onto the rear of the wagon, as it slowly made it’s way past him. “Goodbye, sister.”
Reina shook her head. “No goodbyes, that would imply that I might not see you again.”
“Fine.” Mat nodded, and he ducked into the wagon, looking forwards, to whatever came next.
She watched them leave the clearing, and wind their way into the woods.
“That, looked difficult.” A voice said in her head.
“More difficult that I let myself realize.” Reina kicked at the leaves that had started to amass at her feet. “I mean, I’m happy to be alive, but part of me, is very sad, also.”
“I think we’re all that way, but we have always had a duty, just like our parents, and those before them.”
“I, I guess you are right.”
Reina stepped outside the clearing, and found herself back in her domain. Sighing, she got back to work, part of her already wondering what was going to happen next.
