Dance with Swords | Book 1 of the Rising Phoenix Chronicles

Chapter 3 - Missing

Aphmau

---------------

Have you ever felt like there was nothing inside of you except for pure, unbridled Light?

At that moment, the moment when I first set foot in Irene's Dimension, that's what filled me.

Not dread...but hope.

Hope, I have discovered, is a wonderful thing. It gives you the power to undo past errors and look to the future for a better tomorrow.

But, of course, to have a better tomorrow...

You must make today better.

Which is what I shall do.

When I opened my eyes to the light of Irene's Dimension, a single memory came to me.

(Flashback!)

I raised my arms in front of me. "Sister, do you know what responsibility the power of Creation comes with?" I asked.

A woman's voice answered me.

"I know that it gives me the power to do what I wish with the world, and that is all I care about." she snapped.

I sighed, shook my head and lowered my arms.

"Irene, the power of Creation is also the power of Destruction," I said. "Destruction is another form of Creation. Destruction is deadly and should never be toyed with. If you receive the power of Creation, you must only Destroy when necessary. Is that clear?"

I heard her sigh. "Yes, Aphmau, it is."

I nodded. "Good."

I raised my arms again and watched as a great white church formed before us in the light-filled void.

"This is yours," I said. "This dimension can be used for anything, be it for defeating evil or resting."

"Finally," Irene said. "I've been waiting for a long time."

(End of Flashback!)

I gasped in shock.

I had a memory of Irene the Matron, the goddess of Ru'aun. And...she had been talking to me!

A maniacal laugh sounded from behind me. I whirled around.

Standing in front of me was a humanoid creature formed entirely of darkness with one single white glowing eye.

"Oh, Aphmau, if only you knew the struggle I had to endure to get us here," it said. I recognized that voice.

"Zane," I gritted my teeth together. "Why did you bring us here?"

He laughed again.

"Aphmau, don't you know what lies here?" he asked me snarkily. "Irene's Dimension is home to her relic, one of the most powerful objects in the world. And now that we are here..."

Clothes materialized over his black body. His skin began to turn back to its normal pale white. His laugh turned demonic, and a black sword appeared in his right hand. His eyes had turned back to their icy blue, and a thick curtain of coal-black hair still covered his left eye.

"Oh, goddess..." he drawled. "It is time for us to fight, at last."

Something deep within that had been hidden for a long time had unlocked within me at that moment.