Bane of the Elements

9

Rio had just finished getting settled into her room. It was fancy, much like the rooms in the castle of Chaitra. She had never stayed in any of them, but part of her had always wanted to. Now, she would be able to. She would live the life of a guest at a palace, just not the same palace she was used to.

She could tell the moment she walked in that the room was meant for the goddess of water. The walls, blue like the ocean, were painted like waves with beams of light pouring through them. Windows lined the walls, and with them a door out to a balcony. Pushed up to the wall was a bed in the shape of a clam. The shells came around the mattress, when she slept she would be like a pearl.

Looking out the window, Rio noticed the moons had begun to rise. The hologram had said dinner would be at moonrise, and Rio didn't want to be late on her first day here. She left her water-styled room, a great contrast from the neutral-color based hallways.

Everything was different in the castle, Rio supposed it was because she was seeing it from a different point of view. Back in Chaitra she was nothing but a general, and though she was high-ranking she held little to no power in the capital. Now, she didn't have to walk these halls as a soldier, but as a goddess.

The hologram had said dinner was to be in the dining room, yet Rio had no clue where that was. She hadn't begun to see the full size of the castle, but judging from the exterior it was nothing small. Walking down the stairs, she began to roam the halls.

She knew it had been abandoned, yet she was still not prepared for how truly empty it was. Old furniture sat in the rooms, only a light layer of dust coating them. Rio walked into a room with a piano. Chairs and couches surrounded the grand instrument. Sunlight streamed into the room, the dust dancing in the beams.

Plucking a key, she sat on the piano's bench. She thought for a moment that she was in the same position another goddess might have been years ago. She was playing the same piano that was played by goddesses centuries ago. Smiling, she plucked another key. The notes fell together to make a pitchy and staggering song. It was one her mother had taught her. There were never many instruments in the village so when her family got their hands on a piano, Rio's mother had taught her a few songs of her childhood.

Something from the side of her eye caught Rio's attention. She walked over to the picture frames sitting idle on the end table. For a moment she wondered what the castle was like before it was abandoned. People had lived here once, why did they leave it the way they did? Lifting one closer to her face she blew the dust off the cover.

The picture was of four women. They sat together in the gardens, each an arm over the other. They were dressed in different colors, purple, green, blue, and red. Just like the elements. Despite their intricate gowns and the royal garden they were sitting in, they looked normal. Rio couldn't tell if they were goddesses or humans, they just looked like girls. She smiled, there was a shred of mortality here after all.

"Rio Zimuz, Goddess of Water." A robotic voice said. Rio turned quickly, dropping the frame in the process. "You're late for dinner." The hologram smiled a tight lip smile.

"Uhm, yeah. Just got a little lost." Rio muttered.

"No worries, Goddess. I shall lead the way."

Rio hesitantly followed the hologram, looking back at the room and the smashed picture frame she had left. She wondered what it was she wasn't supposed to see.

Ysella led Rio through the palace and to the dining room. If the other parts of the castle were considered grand, this room would beat it all. In the center of the room was a table made of the darkest wood she had seen. It was almost as if it had been made from the trees of hell. Three chandeliers hung from the ceiling, the one in the center being bigger than the rest. They all were covered in dangling crystals, casting light across the room with a million different beams. Looking around, Rio noticed all the beams landed on the walls, where a story was painted. Each of the beams fell into the story as if they each held their own part of the plot.