The Queen of Elysium

Chapter 20 - The Queen of Elysium

Elissa sucks in a shaky breath and tries to still her yammering heart. Everyone, who is anyone in Elysium it would seem, is waiting for her in the Royal Council building, crammed into that massive space.

Slowly, she walks towards it, almost as if to her doom rather than to her coronation. It does not help that everything is grey; a mist is laying heavily upon the ground and the sky is blanketed in light cloud, which is blocking out the sun. Even her white dress appears almost grey in the dim light.

Wiping her sweaty palms on the silk covering her thighs, she tries to reassure herself. Come on Elle, you were born for this. However, the words sound hollow in her head.

She hears her name being whispered on the breeze, a siren's call luring her towards the sacred circle. Unable to resist, she changes her course and follows the well-trodden path to the trees. Her feet still when she catches sight of the unicorn in the very centre.

The mist is curling in eddies around its hooves and its dark eyes are filled with swirling galaxies, beckoning her forward. She knows intrinsically that it is the same unicorn that brought her to Elysium. Slipping off her shoes, she walks barefoot into the circle.

The unicorn rests its horn against the top of her head and his lyrical voice sounds directly in her mind. It is time. Time for your quest to be fulfilled.

She bows her head. "I-I'm so sorry. The Light is gone. I have failed."

Watch! he commands, and she follows the movement as he raises his eyes to the grey heavens. The trees shoot upwards around them and triple in size in mere seconds; the momentum sends her hair and dress whipping about her.

The soft downy covering on the tree's trunks breaks away and floats slowly down in fluffy clumps.

Barely has she had time to swivel about, gazing in amazement at the transformation, when the clouds part allowing a shaft of sunlight to shine down on them. She has to shade her eyes, almost blinded by the brilliance reflecting off the tree's newly bared golden bark.

Elissa, my child. Let me look upon you. This time it is a female voice that sounds in her head. The voice carries with it the warmth of sunshine, the gentle babbling of a brook and the scent of summer wildflowers.

Peeking through her fingers, Elissa blinks against the light. It seems to reduce in luminosity and she is able to remove her hand. There before her, sat astride the unicorn, is a female figure made out of mist.

The woman's hair cascades like a waterfall down her back and across the unicorn's flank in a myriad of rainbows. Her eyes are spheres of glacial blue ice and upon her head is a crown made from the butterflies that normally guard the trees

The power radiating off the figure has Elissa falling to her knees and bending her head in supplication.

Rise my child. The woman gazes down at her with a smile as benevolent as the sun shining down upon a flower and encouraging it to bloom. But behind that smile, is the power of tsunamis. Elissa gulps. One toe out of place could be my demise.

"W-who are you?" she quavers, unable to keep the fear from her voice.

I go by many names. You may know me as Gaia.

Gaia! The Gaia? Elissa trembles at the thought of being in the presence of an actual goddess.

Gaia laughs like a tinkling fountain. Yes, my child. The one and only.

Elissa's only experience to date of a goddess was that of Ishtar's idol. Subconsciously her hand moves over the mark of a flower which Ishtar's fire left upon her skin.