Of Phoenix Tears and Demon Blood

7 - Breathe

I awoke to a familiar plain of red sand. I immediately looked up and relief swept through me at the sight of an empty sky. A survey around me revealed that the surrounding area was free of the harpies that had attacked me last time.

The air was just warm enough to prompt the gray falling ash to stick to my moist skin. The clouds were dark, but the plain glowed from an unseen light. A jagged outcropping of umber rocks loosely encircled me; their sharp edges split apart the sky and the sand. I ran my hands along one as I wove in between them; they were gritty, with gravelly chunks that tumbled to the ground. Poofs of copper sand rose behind my footsteps, settling down perfectly straight – no wind to blow it askew.

Anubion. Hell. The demon prison. The world that prophesied to collide with our own. Somehow I had imagined it differently. More demons perhaps, but I was grateful for their absence.

I crouched down to scoop up a handful of sand. The graininess was almost soft in my hands. I watched it trickle through the cracks between my fingers, escaping despite my closed fist.

"Thea?"

I jumped up and dropped the sand. A man leaned against a nearby rock – the man from last time. One of his hands causally rested on the hilt of his sheathed sword; the memory of his flaming sickle sword flashed through my mind, then the memory of his words, his claims that I was a phoenix, and my tears. I silently cursed myself as my cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"You're here again. I wasn't certain you'd return, but I had hoped." He pushed off the wall and approached me with silent, measured steps. His eyes didn't once stray from me. I walked backwards to match his steps, backing myself into a rocky corner. His eyebrows pinched as confusion flared across his face.

"I'm a phoenix." My voice was hollow and cracked as I said the words. I barely recognized the sound as my own, it seemed disjointed and separated, like someone else was controlling me. Someone else was living inside my body, someone else had saved me from the fire. Because it couldn't have been me. I'm Althea of Squadron One of the Taergoria Stronghold – a fiend. I can't be the last phoenix, the last of the Eight, destined to save the world. Yet, the memory of the flames burned fresh in my mind – their vibrant colors as they swirled around me, what should have been scorching fire felt only like the softest brushes.

I slid down the rock behind me, my clothes catching on its rough surface. The man followed me and sat down beside me. The edge of his sleeve briefly brushed against mine, the warmth of his body faintly radiating heat. I could feel as his eyes studied my face but I looked straight ahead, tracing the edge of a rock opposite of us.

"What happened?" the man asked, his voice gentle, but the rawness of his throat creeping into it. I was silent. "Men attacked you and your friend. And they hurt her. The last thing you remembered was fire. That was over a week ago. Are you safe, right now, in the real world?" My hand darted up to brush my swollen jaw and split the lip where his eyes had landed on. He was worried, why? He didn't even know me.

Pain stabbed through me at the reminder of Ella. If I was truly a phoenix, it wasn't a dream. Ella – Ella. A single sob escaped me and I clasped my hand over my mouth. I won't mourn her, not till I'm certain. I furiously blinked away tears.

The man turned to face me. The omnipresent lighting highlighted his cheekbones silver, and his fiery eyes glowed above them. "It's okay. You don't have to talk. We can just sit here."

I swallowed back the lump in my throat. "I woke up in a carriage. There were Insurrans, they must have captured me at the battle. But they were planning to kill me, so I jumped out of the carriage and ran. But then there was a Xufran scouting party and their leader, Ozakan, was convinced that I was a phoenix - the escaped prisoner of the Insurrans. He drugged me, I couldn't move or use my magic, because of a red sand bracelet. And I sat there, day after day. He bribed, and screamed, and threw things, and threatened, but I just wasn't a phoenix."