Cimmerian

IV

October 17, 2032
   I spent the remainder of the summer trying to dig up information on 'Noctis' aka my supposed 'father'. It was honestly hard to search for clues, due to my 'classes' they were getting longer and harder. It seemed I was learning more than the average human and I can't truly understand why. I was allowed access to Madame Syna's private library after begging for countless weeks. I had hoped to find something, ANYTHING, that could give me clues about my father but after weeks and weeks of going through almost every book soaking up every bit of knowledge I could I had only three things I knew for sure: Madame Syna kept every single Cimmerians 'life cycle' recorded through a book marked Hecatè, that Noctis was not in any of these books, and that this was just a lost cause. I felt as if some of the humans had played a sick joke on me. They had stopped looking at me, whispering as I went by, they were guarded.
   Once I even mentioned to Madame Syna "if the Cimmerians are made up of light why couldn't they survive in the light on our planet." Just trying to see maybe what she would say. I hadn't expected her to drop her tea or look at me rather shocked. "That's a long story Alyian, one that honestly would take more time than  needed seeing as you have studies to get back to." She had rushed out of the room and for the next week I did not see her, she had sent in another Cimmerian woman to look after me while I was in her private library. I hadn't seen her before and she really didn't speak much just watched me. Her hair was extremely long it fell far past her knees in straight ink black tendrils. She had an extremely beautiful face, she was far prettier than Madame Syna, and Haidyan's mom combined. Her eyes are what took you over though. She had no pupils almost as if she were blind, and they were the most peculiar lavender pearl color I had ever seen. I originally thought she was blind and this would have been the first blind Cimmerian I had ever came across. Yet as I was reading I heard a very soft girly giggle coming from the direction of the short girl. I turned only to find her looking at the book with 'Hecatè" written across it, however the book looked different this time. Instead of the plain brown leather book with gold writing, in her hands was a book the same color brown but intricate knots almost root like were swirling and glowing all around the front page. She looked back at me and her eyes were glowing with a purple light, and she had a pen in her hand as if she was writing in the book.
"Ah, pardon my intrusion I did not wish to disturb your study, I had duties I had to attend to," she said with a voice that reminded me of the sirens my mom used to tell me about in Ancient Greece, or the fairy people from Ireland.
"You're not far off with your thoughts young Celeste." She said with a smile but I felt all of the blood in my body turn cold. I had stood up faster than I  ever thought possible and began to back away towards the door. "Don't be alarmed my dear, it is my duty to know all creatures by they're name, and contrary to your earlier thought I am not Cimmerian. There are more races out there beyond what you could possibly dream. Worm holes to my other dimension and I, like Noctis have a duty to uphold. You wish to know about your father yes?" She asked kindly yet my mind was thrown threw a loop, I could feel her prodding around my head. She began to walk towards me and reached into her pocket drawing out a small book no bigger than a note pad. "Take this believe me it's a lot to fathom especially for your human mind, but the part that is your fathers should help you greatly. This is my most prized possession and I will come to collect when the time is right." She was standing in front of me now arm extended with her palm facing outwards and the note pad resting in the palm of her hand. My eyes drifted to the mark on her wrist, it was a moon intertwined with vines. I didn't think much of it until after I reached for the pad and her fingers interlocked with mine, a glow emitted from the marking, and a searing pain began in my wrist as I watched in horror. I began to yank and struggle trying to free myself from her hold, the blue glow began to extend from her wrist through her fingers to mine then down to my wrist. My vision went black.
When I woke up the girl was gone and I was back seated in my desk as if I had just fallen asleep.
I had walked all the way back towards my home and hadn't even thought much of what had happened or what could possibly have been just a very odd dream. My home was quiet like it always was, the calming sound of the waves coming through the windows. I sat on the couch looking out the glass wall watching the waves tumbling and thinking about how I'm just like the waves, being pushed by something that is out of my control in a constant state of disarray. I had started to doze off on the couch and I guess my hand had gone to the pocket on my summer dress I had been wearing. A small hard thing was lying in it and in my sleep driven mind it was starting to annoy me. I grabbed whatever it was I had placed into my pocket and snatched it out and tossed it on the table in front of me not even paying it much mind. My wrist slowly began to throb every so often until I sat up.
"Ugghhh what the hell man." I looked down at my wrist and screamed so loud I was sure the people who patrolled heard me. On my wrist was a mark similar to the one on my neck with Haidyan's crest but this one resembled the girls more than his. It was glowing slightly not as much as hers had but still glowing. Instead of a moon with vines in it this one appeared to be a star, wrapped in vines that flowed each with a distinct small circular mark almost as if it was a constellation around a center star, there were roses blooming from the vines one right where my main artery was at the bottom of the star and then one at the top coming off of my palm. It was both beautiful and horrifying I didn't understand what it meant or why it would suddenly appear on my skin.
Be calm, just breathe.
I could be overthinking things, I could be dreaming weird marks just don't appear by contact. Cimmerians have the power to mark you as there's but only through contact with bodily fluids. Looking down at my wrist and hyperventilating beyond belief I began to freak out. All my prior knowledge on the Cimmerians "marking" rituals and all the crests of each Cimmerian came flooding into my mind, yet none of them fit this mark. I had never seen anything like it while studying.
The throbbing and glowing slowly started to subside and as it did the mark slowly began to turn white almost like a scar on my fair skin. People would think I had branded myself that was for sure. I looked towards the notebook just sitting on my table and I knew that if I wanted to learn more about this and what was going on I had to read it. I had to learn who this girl was, and how she knew my name when no other living being aside from a few humans knew. She even mentioned my father.
A knock was suddenly heard against my door, and I feared I really might have screamed so loud I alerted the patrol unit. The door opened before I even gave the response to come in. Everything stopped. Time froze. In front of me was someone I never thought I would see again.
My mother. Rose Keene herself. Except this time she didn't look so lovely, and smiley as she had in the photo. This time she was covered in dirt, grim, and worse of all blood. This time she was falling to her knees with blood coming from her lips as she said in a gurgled voice "I'm sorry." Her head lolled to the side and she completely fell to my floor not moving. A scream echoed even louder threw my house and I heard the patrol men running with there dogs. As I rushed to my feet to go towards her just to see if she was ok, I finally looked up back out the door to see how far they were from here and that's when my eyes landed on Haidyan's he was propped against a pillar. With my mother's heart in his glowing hands. A look of utter disgust on his face, and his eyes glowing such a vibrant green. He radiated hatred, disgust, and no remorse. He came into the room stepping on top of her. Eyes glowing ever so much more with every step he took. His eyes rested on me then rested on the table with the notepad on it.
"So it's true then..." his voice was laced with fury, hurt, and something else but all I could do was stare at my mother with tears in my eyes. "You were really going to betray me and join the rebel alliance? Did you think we wouldn't have noticed this woman coming to your house every night and sneaking around? What's the meaning of this Alyian?" The hurt was soon completely diminishing from his voice, he took closer steps towards me. "ANSWER ME!!!" He shouted and with that shout a furry of wind blew around the house like I was trapped inside a tornado. Lightning began to clash around the ground and the waves began to crash ever more violently. I was shocked I had never heard of an alliance or even knew what Haidyan was talking about.
"Sir we've caught the main group now it seems they were searching for a key of some sort..... should we come back later???" The main patrol unit had arrived and the chief Cimmerian looked really frightened. Haidyan's already rigged became stone set. He turned his glowing eyes as the glow under his skin intensified. Hand still holding my mother's heart he crushed it and threw it at the officer.
"What kind of damned key?" He said as he walked forwards grabbing hold of me and pulling me with him outside into the eye of the storm. The patrol followed closely behind as we marched towards the village.
"Well Sir, I don't know they keep referring to it as Celeste, I'm guessing Noctis left it behind for the earth people if we ever came to take back what was ours." The chief said keeping closely behind Haidyan and keeping his eyes on me, "why are we bringing your pet, do you believe she is involved in the uprising? If so I'm sure we can teach her a lesson, so she will be more suitable to your liking" he said as he reached towards me. Haidyan stopped moving. Lightning stuck the officers hand and he screamed in pain as his hand disintegrated into ash. Haidyan turned his head, the other Cimmerians jumping back.
"Next time you reach out to touch her and we will be teaching you a lesson, understood?" His voice hit an eerily sweet octave as he smiled innocently at the officer who in turn just shook his head with wide glowing eyes. It was the first time I had ever seen fear in a Cimmerians eyes. It was also the fear in them, that I knew was mirrored in my own.
"Now Alyian, if you will excuse us I have some duties I must deal with. Syna here just assured me you had no way of having any connections to what has happened. I will be back to explain later. Syna take her somewhere safe." Haidyan spoke and as I looked back at him and then felt the arms reach for mine I knew something terrible was about to happen tonight if it hadn't already. Fear is just an understatement. I'm about to be in hell.