Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

08 | BRAVE

"I'll say it one last time;
be brave."

★

THE DARKNESS AROUND Phoenix vanished and she found herself in the courtyard of a place she had never seen before. A white house with Greek pillars surrounded her and the sky above was red like during sunrise, which gave the building a small hint of a reddish colour. Phoenix turned around, wondering whether it was possible to unconsciously disapparate to some place and most of all where she was. She remembered the voices and the pain, but all of it was suddenly gone and it was completely silent around her. There were no birds chirping, no leaves rustling or steps on the marble floor. There was not the slightest sound to be heard.

"Don't be afraid, child, visions are usually a little imprecise. On one hand they seem incredibly real but on the other hand they often miss a few details," a soft, female voice spoke, which made Phoenix jump and almost shriek.

She whirled around and was faced with a woman, who seemed to be only a couply of years older than her, not exactly old enough to call her 'child'. Phoenix couldn't deny it, however, the woman was of great beauty, with long, black curls and a soft face. Suiting their surroundings, she was wearing a white tunic and golden jewellery, which added an elegant look to her natural beauty. The woman stepped closer. "We do not have a lot of time. I am Ariadne."

"What is this? Are you the cause of the pain and the voices that penetrated me just a few minutes ago?" Phoenix interrupted her.

"Yes, and I am very sorry about that. It was the only way to break through the spell and set your true abilities free for a limited amount of time." She offered her a comforting smile. "Would you mind walking with me for a bit?"

"Do I have a choice?" the younger girl answered, sighing. If this was in fact a vision, somebody had to be messing with her mind and there was most likely no escape. "Where are we? What abilities were you talking about?"

"I lived here when I was your age," Ariadne told her, nostalgia lacing her voice as she let her eyes slide over the courtyard.

Phoenix raised her eyebrows. "So you are from Greece?"

That would at least explain the woman's accent that she couldn't quite place yet. Her vis-à-vis smiled. "Rome, but Roman architecture is very easy to confuse with the Greek, especially since our artists copied a few things and added to that framework. Anyhow..." She trailed off and touched Phoenix' shoulder, which was bare because she was apparently wearing a tunic closely resembling the woman's. "Do you know what this is?"

Phoenix shrugged. She knew exactly what she saw on the back of her shoulder. There was a mark in the shape of a rune she had never seen anywhere but in the mirror. "It's a birthmark. I was born with it."

"Do you know what it means?"

The young girl looked at Ariadne in disbelief, suddenly stopping their walk. "So the only thing that you wanted to talk to me about was this stupid rune, which is only coincidentally shaped like that and is nothing but a birthmark like every other birthmark. Anybody could have been morn with it. Does that really justify making me go mad with those voices nobody else can hear and this unbearable pain on about a monthly basis?"

"There is no living soul with the same birthmark and its shape is everything but coincidental. That mark shows that you were chosen, just like I was chosen a long time ago."

"So you're really a spirit from the ancient Rome?"

"I am, in fact I am your ancestor, which is why your spirit can connect to mine."