The Darkness Within

25 - Power of Creation ~ Power of Destruction

The Light Goddess stood before the huge map on the table with Nuri standing stoically at her side.

"Where could she be?!" she cried out, looking at the map. There was no new information on where the demons were hiding and they still had not found Ciara despite the more than extensive efforts to locate her. It had been one month, eleven days, and three hours since her mate was taken and it was beginning to break her.

"Goddess, you're sure you cannot follow the pull of her magic?" her General suggested.

"I have tried! Her magic is being blocked," her own magic flared alongside the rising tower of emotions within her. Her body ached constantly from the wounds Ciara had received and that drove her to new heights. She wanted someone to understand that the female was more than her power-bound, that the female's disappearance and separation from her could quite literally drive her mad.

"I just want her back," she said, her voice cracking as her emotions won out and tears entered her eyes. She turned towards her best friend and looked at her with pleading eyes, hoping that somehow her friend would be able to fix this. "She's my mate, please, I just want my mate back."

Nuri's eyes widened before she stepped forward and took Lucienne into her arms. The Goddess knew the female was not one to break formality, as is an angel's instincts, but when necessary the female would comfort her best friend. Never before had Lucienne cried like this in her over seven hundred years of life.

"Oh, Lucienne," the female angel said with a sad tone. In a manner of comfort, the female wrapped her wings around both of them, holding the Goddess as she finally let herself cry.

⥐

Ciara was hurt and terrified. But above that, she was tired. She was so tired of being in this strange, cold, unseen place that caused her such pain. Her dreams rarely blessed her with peaceful scenes anymore. Now, they were often filled with more and more torture.

When she had dreams where she couldn't see in them, the only thing that told her they were dreams was that she'd wake up suddenly in her cell with the mousey-female tending to her wounds. But even then, sometimes Bacia would keep her in the torture room for what seemed like days. She'd wake in the room and as soon as she did, Bacia was right back at it. Sometimes she'd even wake up from dreams of torture only to find that the demon was already in the thick of it.

She wasn't sure when or how often, but occasionally she would be given food and water, both of which she scarfed down as fast as her cellmate provided it.

How she was not dead, she did not know. Between the torture, blood loss, and infection she should be dead. But here she was, awake but pretending to be asleep, waiting for the guards to come and fetch her. These days, she was so weak that they didn't bother placing the chains on her cuffs and collar. The metal was too heavy to lift on her own some days, anyway.

Today was not one of those days.

Knowing that the guards would come when they came, regardless of if she was sleeping, she lifted her wrists and used her right hand to feel the metal collar around her neck and her left hand to feel the metal cuff on her right hand. Her nearly destroyed muscles and hands screamed out in pain but at this point she was accustomed to it and able to ignore it.

She could feel the warping of the metal on the cuff where it had been heated above the fire. The metal was cold and had a bite to it but everything here was cold and she no longer cared.

Flashes of feeling her hands being burned in the braziers or branded with various metal tools flashed through her mind and the despair-filled darkness within her grew.