Sound Of Silence (Wrath Of Gods Precursor 1)

Seven: Am I A Torch In A Sea Of Darkness? Or, Fierce Of Flames?

PANDORA:
    I sat in the tub, my hands busy as I finished working on washing my hair. I rose, staring down at the dirty water around my legs. Scowling slightly, I pulled the plug and turned on the shower. When I finished, I stared at myself in the mirror. A girl of eighteen stared back, no, a creature with a human body stared back. A creature, because I wasn't human. I wasn't the Sixth Sense, not like my brother and his friends believed I was. I was, something else entirely. Something else, something that was rare, extremely rare. I remembered those words, those words spoken to me before, and after the battle. "They will come for you, you must be ready. Be ready, because they will, and you will learn just what you are girl." I stared at my own blue eyes in the mirror. At my own reflection.
    I raised my hand and it burst into flames. The flames crawled up my arm, down my torso, down my legs, until I was a floating head on a roiling flame, a flames that was in the shape of a bird of prey. "No one has seen the phoenixes in millennia girl." Nothing, there was absolutely nothing on phoenixes on the internet. Sure, there was the one from Harry Potter, sure, they described a bird that could turn into flames that lived for centuries. But, not a race of indigo. And, not a race of indigo who could turn into a flaming bird, into a human shape, and or, into a solid red and gold bird. My flaming body hardened into a large bird of red and gold feathers. I let my head join my avian form and I opened my long sharp beak, and cawed. Feeling self-conscious, I reverted back to my human body, and quickly dressed. A soft knock at the bathroom door. "Pandora, are you ok in there?" "Yes, I'm fine." I said, turning to open the door. Asia stared at me, her eyes scanning over me. She bore a chain on a shoulder, a chain with a spiked ball at it's end. A gift, from a scorpion queen. Troy walked up beside her, his eyes filled with worry. "I'm fine." I said gently touching his arm.
    "Are you sure Dora? Are you absolutely sure?" My brother, so worried after me, so protective. Part of that might have been because of the wolf in him, but he'd always been that way, even before our mother died. Died, was, slaughtered. "Dora?" I walked away, my mind racing as memories passed through it. My mother, slaughtered right there in front of my eyes. Troy and the others, always protecting me, always defending me. Now, now, now we were moving, moving out of the life we once knew, and, and, and, into this alien world. A world where all people, creatures like us, could roam free. A life, that, I, didn't, want. I didn't wanna roam free, be able to talk to others and burst into flames. I didn't wanna turn and see tiny people, Tinkers, flying by. I didn't wanna life where everyone was equal. I just wanted a life, just me, my brother, and his friends. I couldn't even consider them my friends. Asia walked after me, her body shifting as a scorpion tail grew from her back and coiled protectively over her. A sharp stinger barb shot out from the tail and into a target a few hundred feet away. "Sweet," said Asia.
I didn't think so. I didn't think it was sweet that there were targets placed all throughout this place. Didn't think it was sweet that we all could just be ourselves. Asia's chains rattled slightly as she walked. A hand touched my arm, and I looked around, and saw Troy, his brown eyes filled with worry as he stared into my face. He nodded. "Come, walk with me." He pulled me after him, Asia walked in another direction, luculently taking the hint. "What's wrong with this place Pandora?" Asked Troy. "What is it about this place you don't like?" "I want to go home." I said. Troy nodded sadly. "So do I, but our home is long since gone now. We fought with the Indigo and told them we'd never join them. But we needed them, and they needed us. We're safe here, safe and have others like us here. We can shift in public and are able to—"It's a cage." I snapped. "It's just another kind of cage. We're safe sure, but free, no, because the outside doesn't like us, they want us dead. We'll never be free, never." An indigo who was passing by said, "Yes we will, The highest are here, Audrey, one of the first indigo, she's here to help get bills passed for us." "And then what, then again, we'll still be caged, collared like animals, because they will see us as no more than animals." I turned away from Troy, not letting him see just how angry I was.
    But he knew, he always knew. "Dora, Pandora we're safe here, we're safe and have friends and family here. Everyone—"You don't understand, but how could you." I said coldly. "You have others of your kind here. Other wolves you can go to. I have no one, don't you see that Troy? There aren't any phoenixes here. Do you see any? No. From what others have been saying, there haven't been any phoenixes since the beginning of time or some such shit. For millennia much like the other dracons. Only this time, they didn't come to fight the darkness." I turned to see Troy's brown eyes filled with anguish. I raised a hand, let it burst into flames. Not be consumed by flames, as would be in the Molten dracons. But actually turn into flames. Despite the flaming hand, Troy touched my arm.
    "I'm sorry, I'm sorry you feel like a lost torch in a sea of darkness. I'm sorry only you know the taste of flames and no one else does. But Baby, my sweet baby sister, you don't need to lock that part of you away. You do have others, maybe not others of your kind, but others never the less. Others who are here to take the weight if only you'd let them." He gestured to the entrance hall, the grandness of it, the elaborate decor over the glass wall, the table with ornaments and figures on them. Scenes of the indigo's past. More elaborately displayed, was a depiction of Huntor and Sydney, mid flight, wrapped in each other's embrace, as daylight lashed about them.
    The image rippled, as if they were still in flight, still awakening the sun. On another table, another depiction was rendered in perfect luculent clarity. A rainbow serpent, coiled around a line of Ragni Di Morte. On another table, a lioness rose on her back legs, her jaws opened wide in a roar as on either side of her, two humanoid creatures, Lucy and Kupoa, beat their chests, roaring their own cry. Depictions akin to these were stationed all around the entrance hall and dinner hall. Showing the battle that we'd barely survived, and other depictions. Depictions of the beauty of the Indigo World. A depiction of the great Northern Falls poured continuously in one frame, the image moving due to some indigoism magic thing. I looked around, at the beauty in the world. In the world Huntor had envisioned. In the world his friends and he had created. "Beautiful isn't it?" I whirled around, Troy doing the same thing. A tall girl stood there, her brown hair falling to her waist, her eyes alive with, something other. "Who are you?" Asked Troy.
"Aquilla." Said the girl. "I am the creature who helped Huntor create the Symbol, the first, Symbol, and I help maintain this one. And the others that will be built." "What are you?" Asked Troy. But I answered, "She's a Naiad. A river spirit." Automatically, I stepped away. It wasn't just for the fear of water, water from a true indigo. It was the sheer power this indigo possessed. Clearly, I didn't have a true fear of water, I just had a shower and bath, but it was a fear of those who could wield water at will. A fear that they'd use their powers to kill me. But the girl, the spirit, just smiled kindly and shook her head.
"You have nothing to fear from me Daughter of Flames. I will not hurt you." She held out a hand, I cautiously took it. She shook it and said, "Huntor wouldn't want his people to fear one another. I am here to help the twelve leaders keep the peace and keep us hidden away from humans until the time comes when we can walk amongst them freely." "And you believe that time is coming?" Asked Troy. "Of course." Aquilla said. "Audrey," she paused. "The Symbol, can be very persuasive." She looked around, at the constantly moving depictions on the walls, on the tables. "How can that be possible? For them to move like that?" "Indigoism has it's own symbols, like magic has it's own spells, indigoism has it's own form of spell work. That symbol is a pretty simple one that very few can conjure simply because every major symbol, the thing that defines every indigo, is different." She gestured to Troy.
"For example you're a werewolf, there are millions of werewolves, but your symbol, sets you apart from all werewolves. Not every indigo possesses a spacific simbol, but those who do, are puissant in that symbol, and no other." She turned to me. "You're afraid, afraid because you fear you will have no one who can show you the way, fear that you are a single torch in a sea of darkness, fear that you are one voice in the sound of silence?" I didn't answer, what was there to say? "Come, let's take a trip." She turned and walked away, passed the dinner hall, and down a corridor. I looked at Troy who shrugged and followed after the girl. With little to no choice, I followed after both of them.
Aquilla opened a pair of huge doors with a flourish and blast of air. I stared, transfixed by what was before us. "Welcome," said Aquilla. "To the Hall Of Indigo." Troy and I stepped further in, awestruck at the sheer volume of books that marched on shelves toward what looked like a librarian's desk. The books surrounded it on their shelves, then marched off in a kind of ordered chaos, all in different directions. "This," said Aquilla. "Is where all stories begin, and end. Where all tales can be found. Where all words are spoken." She lead us deeper into the entrance, gesturing around us. "Something that is even more impressive, is that the library, has a soul of it's own." Troy shifted nervously, his claws elongating. Aquilla laughed.
"Oh no not in that sense. Only in the sense that if you're looking for something in particular and can't find it, it'll guide you there." She moved off and we followed dubiously. "Come come, it's not pernicious in any way." "I don't even know what that means." I muttered. "Harmful." Troy supplied. Aquilla reached for a book and opened it. "The Histories Of The Naiad Kingdoms." She grinned showing us the big volume. Troy scanned the page, his eyes widening at the vastness of detail. I looked at the girl, my eyes narrowing. "Why are you showing me this?" Aquilla smiled warmly. "Because you aren't alone. Aren't alone at all. Huntor felt exactly how you did, he was lost, was alone, but he knew sacrifices had to be made to ensure his people, your people, our, people, had a home, and soon, would have rights." She gestured to the library around us, the huge ever growing hall of information about the indigo.
"Let the library take your hand, and guide you to the secrets you're searching for. Let it subconsciously take you forward. It will show you the way, you just have to let it." Troy stared around, his brown eyes filled with wonder. Aquilla smiled. I stepped forward, thinking harder than ever. "I wanna know about who I am. I wanna know about the Phoenixes. I wanna know about my parents, my family, everything. I wanna know it all." Soon, Troy and Aquilla's voices faded as I moved deeper into the library. Indigo lamps lit the way, lighting up as if motion detecters were placed in them and along the floor. I turned a corner, passing a frame that said "Indigo, Millennium One Through Three." My mouth fell open at the sheer vastness of texts. Texts that were in a variety of formats. Some were books, some were in long tubes, scrolls? Some were clay tablets or drawings on the walls. I reached up, and ran a finger along a shelve, and reached for a thick book. The title read, "Fierce Of Flames." I turned, spotting a table with a lamp lit. I moved toward it, and, taking a breath, sat, opened the book, and, began, to, read.