Sun & Moon

Chapter 42 - Astrid

Falling back to my body, I try to grab a hold of what I can as I feel myself emerge from an abyss of dizzying lights.

"Astrid," I hear my name called out. "Ease up."

I find my whole being tensed up as I awake, especially the grip of my hand in Bianca's, who is knelt beside the bed, her green eyes tinged with worry.

"Sorry."

I release my hold on her and lie contemplating about where I am for a second. The muted greys and blacks of this neat and tidy room confuse me for its lack of color.

"What took you so long?" Bianca asks, massaging her hand. "Did the Sun Goddess tell you why she's doing this?"

The memories flood back to me in an instant as a faint hum in the back of my head resounds to the chorus I heard just before tumbling back to earth. The betrayal I witnessed as I was there a prisoner in the Sun Goddess's mind leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I don't know for sure if that last ray of blinding light was a death blow, all I know is the intention behind it.

"Oh, B. Everything is so messed up," I lament as my eyes idly trace the corners of the room. "I don't think she wanted things to turn out the way they have."

"Nobody wanted any of this yet here we are in the crossfires of a heavenly war. That's the war that's really going on."

"You're right, B."

I look at Bianca's face, which has somehow aged over the course of this long week. Her brow, once so smooth and delicate, is now creased with lines that reflect the emotions of our journey so far—a journey that was thrust upon us selfishly by the beings up above.

"Why is it," I continue, "in all mythologies of heaven, hell and earth that the beings on earth suffer the most while heaven and hell get by unscathed? I've struggled to find meaning in my purpose wondering why me? I'm just an ordinary person."

"You're not ordinary," Bianca gently shakes me from my self-pity. "You travelled halfway across the world to find me. Who does that?"

"A best friend?"

"No, not just a best friend. That is something only a truly extraordinary person would do. So stop feeling sorry for yourself for who you are, because I'm an Alpha's daughter and look where I am now," she scoffs. "It doesn't matter who you are, but it sure as hell matters what you do."

A bright choral hum resounds at the back of my head in the same key as the song of my ancestors.

"Strange," I remark.

Bianca sighs. "Astrid, you're not strange you're..."

"No, not that," I interject. "It's the song in my head."

"What song?"

"It's what the Sun Goddess called the song of my ancestors." I sit upright to decipher its meaning. "I heard it each time I've seen her."

I hum the first melancholic tune.

"When Ganzorig heard this, he called it a funeral song."

Next, I hum the staccato tune just before I was sent back to earth.

"This is in the same key, but it occurred just before I came back when the Sun Goddess blasted a ray of light out of her hands."

"It sounds more urgent," Bianca observes.

I nod and proceed to hum the third tune.

"What does it mean?" Bianca scowls and purses her lips contemplatively.