Sephira

The Six Sisters

"You were brought here for a specific reason; it not being to slaughter this halfling, neither bickering amongst yourselves. You are here to understand why we can't let you leave the village and venture into the outside world full of atrocious dangers." A sweet, soft voice said.

A deafening silence fell upon us all, the previous talk forgotten to the topic on hand. All heads turned towards Tien, who had not taken part of the conversation before then. I had always been curious as to who Tien really was. All the Elders had proven their place in front of the younger generations, showing their unclouded judgment in troublesome situations, solving conflicts where others fought, to say a few examples; yet, Tien never seemed to be interested in things like that. No, she preferred to stay away from others in the confinement of the Elders' house.

"Several centuries ago, when the lands were barely anew and peace reigned, the gods decided to send down five angelic beings to make sure war never raged. All of the sisters were gorgeous and without equal, so similar in beauty yet so different at the same time.

"The first of them had brown wings, the color as rich as the ground's soil; the second sister had a pair of blood red wings that matched the intensity of a scorching fire. The sister with light gray wings seemed to adore the wind high above in the sky and the one with dark gray couldn't part from the raging waves of the sea. Every one of them was able to somehow manifest the element to which they felt the most affinity but not all of them decided to do so.

"The last sister was the most astounding of them all. She had a pair of pitch black wings which she held with pride. Unlike her sisters who could use the elements to their will, she could feel a being's mana, or soul, as some would call it. She could bend a person's actions to her will whenever she wished so.

"For years, there was no problem they couldn't fix but the gods hadn't taken into consideration how their powers would change them. Greed started to creep into the fifth sister's mind, forgetting she had been sent to prevent evil, not choosing the path of rage and power.

"Her sisters tried everything they could to stop her but failed while trying. Feeling a tinge of compassion for her sisters' well-being, she let them live and understood that even alive they posed no threat to her plans. She started to build her realm without any resistance; there was nobody who could withstand her power. Deciding the best course of action for such events, the gods created a sixth sister who would solve everything.

"Unlike the older sisters, she had the powers of her creators, as well as their compassion. She could do exactly what her sisters could; she had control over water, fire, air, earth, and spirit, all of that power in one sole being. She went to the black siren's lair and tried to make her see reason, but her sister simply laughed at her and called her foolish. How could she, a newborn compared to her, was trying to tell her what she was meant to do. Saddened by her older sister's response, a single tear fell on her cheek before vanishing her sibling to the depths of a mountain.

"Life continued and the sirens had offsprings with a specific race, seeing as no male siren had been created. The race that was chosen was none other than humankind. We are the descendants of six wondrous creatures, though the powers got weaker and weaker with each generation, before completely fading away. Such is the story of our kind, our legacy," she finished with a sigh.

"So you're basically saying you brought us here to tell us a bedtime story our mothers used to tell us?" I asked sarcastically before remembering who I was talking to. "I do not find it wise to pause the trial for such a petty reason, without meaning to disrespect you or your means in any way."

Tien let out a throaty laugh, her smile barely visible by the obscuring cloak. "We brought you all here, Sephira, to give you a small task, one which needed to have that story told."

Marina coughed loudly, gathering all of the attention on her. She had taken a seat somewhere in the middle of Tien's story; she was now sitting comfortably behind a large desk surrounded by an array of bookshelves.

"There have been several conflicts with our fellow clans, some of them have committed some atrocious actions that could be considered as an act of betrayal against the Siren's Treaty. The Indigo Clan has gone as far as injuring some of our members, ignoring all the consequences such deeds might bring upon them."

"You are to go and deliver a letter to each of the neighboring villages. We would send Miss Roke as an escort but due to the trial being cut in half, several arrangements must be sorted out." Marina stood up and softened the invisible wrinkles on her aquamarine colored cape. "You will part at dawn. Gather whatever you may need and rest as much as possible, you will need the extra energy to travel. Since you are not carrying anything of a vast mass you will not be given a carriage, all of your journey will be flown."

"Wait, does that mean we failed the trial? You can't just-" I started, forgetting all of the formalities that should be taken into consideration, before Marina said in a terminating tone, "This is your trial."

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We were ushered out of the room as soon as Marina said that. They gave us no room to deny them, to at least ask for an explanation on why us. Neve and Colette hurried home to tell their mothers the mission they had been assigned to; I, on the other hand, had no one to excitedly tell them the elders had hand-picked me to do their bidding. No, I was stuck with a homeless halfling that was staring at me every three steps we took.

"Seriously, what is it that you are thinking about that you need to look at me every 5 seconds? Because, just so you know, it is very pesky of you to do that," I exclaimed after some minutes. 

"Whoa there, no need to fuss about it. I was just wondering if you'd let me crash at your place?" He said, making it sound more like a question at the ending. We were nearing my house, though to get to it we'd need to fly. I wanted nothing more than to take off my armor and take a long, soothing bath with some flowers floating around. Wait, did he just say crash?

"Why would you want to crash my house? It was done beautifully so that you would just tear it down."

Josh's serious expression changed to one of humor, seeming to find something I clearly didn't understand very funny. "No, no, it's an expression we use. We as in humans, or at least, over in my town. It means to spend the night in said house." He explained, the humorous smile still spreading across his lips.

"I would normally tell you that your suggestion is absolutely wrong, that you are a dangerous creature, that I would die before letting you stay the night; but seeing as we are spending the next couple of weeks traveling together, sure." Spreading our wings, we both took flight easily and ascended the meters that were separating my house from the ground. "There's an empty bedroom upstairs, as soon as you go up the stairs make a right turn and go to the end of the hallway. It has a bathroom of its own. Use whatever you may need. The food is downstairs."

"Is it your mother's room?" Josh asked out nowhere. 

The question struck me since I definitely hadn't expected him to remember what I had once commented when our lives happened to be in danger soon after I said so. Guess he is a good listener. 

"Yeah, it was." I flew up the stairs, taking advantage that Felicity wasn't here to comment on it. I undressed as soon as I got to my bathroom and let my body be submerged by the alleviating temperature of the water in my bath. I stayed there until I heard Josh go into his room, preferring to avoid him as much as possible. 

Feeling hungry all of a sudden, I decided to eat something light before going to bed. I grabbed a fresh peach and a small glass of water, chugging it down at a monstrous speed. Night had already fallen and knowing that a long day awaited me tomorrow I returned to my room, falling asleep shortly after my head touched the pillow.

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