Saint Seiya: The Legend of Seiya

52 - The Demon of Canon Island

Days ago, Phoenix Ikki arrived at a small volcanic island in the Aegean Sea, called Canon Island. Because of its constant seismic activity, smoke and ash were frequent in its sky, so there was no tourism or any reason to travel to it. But for Ikki there was a big reason.

Her right arm was still frozen and numb since she faced Hyoga in the Death Valley, back when she was fighting alongside the Black Saints against Saori and Seiya. Six days and six nights at the volcano and she would be recovered again. Mayura knew the ancient fame of the Island and as her own knowledge had not been enough to recover Ikki's arm, she judged that it wouldn't make it worse to follow Hyoga's advice, after all he was precisely the cause of that wound.

So Ikki arrived on the island one rainy night and found a miserable but self-sufficient village that lived at the foot of an active volcano. As visits to that place were not common, she soon attracted some attention to herself, so the eldest on the island went to welcome her in the rain at the heart of the village beside a fountain, where Ikki gathered her things to sleep the night.

"Welcome, Saint."

Ikki opened her eyes and saw before her an old man, but still firm in the legs, with bald and gray hair. She got up to try to be polite as much as she could.

"I'm just passing through." said Ikki, trying to avoid confusion.

"I know why you came here. You want to heal at the edge of the volcano." said the old man.

"How do you know that?"

"For this is Canon Island. There is no other reason to come here."

"So it is true."

"It was true for a long time." snapped the old man and Ikki looked at him confused with his lost eyes. "My name is Hector. Come, get out of this rain, stay at my house and I'll explain."

The girl, very suspicious, did not welcome the invitation, but her trip had been really terrible and it wouldn't hurt to spend at least that night under a roof. In any case, the old man's voice and knowledge seemed to be ancient, so that it wasn't strange to him that she was a Saint, much less that she was there to heal at the edge of a volcano.

She accompanied the old man through the rain and to his home. The old man's hut was simple and he lived with a girl a little younger than she was.

"Here, take it." he offered the girl some bitter tea as soon as he arrived and she accepted.

"It's been a long time since anyone has been here." said the old man. "Who told you about Canon Island?"

"An ally." she replied.

"An ally." repeated the old man. "You speak as if you were in a war."

"We are." said Ikki.

"Here we are close, but also very far from the Sanctuary events." said the old man.

"Who are you?" asked Ikki.

"We are a forgotten people." he said. "For many hundreds of years my people have taken care of this volcano and its thermal waters, passing the responsibility from generation to generation. My old grandparents used to say that the role was given to us by the Goddess Athena herself."

Ikki was surprised to see that the old man spoke without any qualms about Athena's secrets.

"But I know better and the truth is that our ancestors were banned from the Sanctuary for whatever sin, and Athena's mercy was to spare their lives, but to take care of this terrible place forever. Just as it has been home to many of those who fifteen years ago only exchanged a word with the Traitor of the Sad Night."