Prologue
While the moon is a power yet untapped, it was not the only power holding over the sky.
Deep within the woods at the foot of the mountain range, where Eris resides, in the small clearing there lies a slowly breathing body, wounds and bruises covering its skin. Uttering through his teeth as he curses the towering black figure above it that baring its fangs in-between the grinning lips, his final desperate words.
– “Monsters like you must be hunted, murdered without respect, bodies burned down to the ashes, and their existence forgotten with disgrace!”
– “Well now. Did you know that birds can instinctively sense the danger, immediately flying away, along with its brethren flock, leaving nothing but silence among the branches?” – figure’s soft, gentle voice courses the air without an echo and she slowly leans down
– “When was the last time when you heard a single chirp? Did you hear any of them as you entered the forest? Did you..? No one comes to save you.”
Only silence was the answer as the moon were shining brightly, reflecting in the slowly falling dew among the grass. as an unexpected guest decides to lift the veil of the night. Over the peaks of the mountains breaking up the winds as if to protect the swaying trees down below, a beast of hundreds legends playfully followed the winds. Feather by feather, the wings of flames were slowly falling and rising, scattering the embers over the skies. A Phoenix itself, laying her piercing gaze upon the forest.
-“Seems like not all birds are scared of you, vampire.”
-“These are my hunting grounds. We will see.”
Phoenix started diving. With each passing second, as if the second sun falling, she rapidly closed in on the clearing. As the black figure risen up its hand, circle appeared underneath its feet, rapidly expanding across the forest floor, and screamed “I take thee as a sacrifice!”. The forest went even more silent than before as currents of dark blood of filled up the space around the figure, swirling in circles, condensing and reshaping itself into spears, all pointing in one direction – and swiftly launched forward, unsuccessfully trying to match the target speed, with one singular purpose.
Phoenix thought nothing of it, since spears weren’t made of iron, its main weakness, and even then she will shrug it off. All with a single mind of saving a tortured person laying on the ground. She screeched as spears pierced the body and wings, but still kept on going. Weapons of blood, however, had a different idea. They started dissolving, wrapping around the bird, restricting her and stopping her own bleeding. Phoenixes body fell with a loud thud flat on the ground, covered in evaporating blood as water inside it engulfed it, stopping the flames. As light was fading from her eyes, rendering her unconscious from the fall and the pain, she looked into the eyes of the figure, now standing above her. In the last lights of the flames, its face was revealed. Eris, happy as ever about her new catch, recalled the legends while thinking how to go about capturing not just her body, but the soul.
-“This is humiliating! Where is the man you tortured? Take me, but let him out!”
– Phoenix vigorously demanded -“He serves a greater purpose. He should be thankful, really. Might have ended on my plate instead.” – Eris stated with a cold voice as she pointed at the cage nearby.
-“There are no greater purposes for the likes of you.”
Snares wrapped around Phoenixes neck, squeezing it tightly. Moment by moment, her breath was taken away. This time, forever. At the very least, for the current reincarnation. As snares let go of it, it dissipated into the ashes, relieving her of the pain. Blood tendrils moved back to the bars, to all but one.
-“Now to the good part.”
Eris snapped her fingers, keeping the index finger in the air, and scratched the cage in a straight line downward with almost a surgical precision. The dust from it fell on the palm beneath it, Eris took a final look at the pile before throwing it into the ashes, and sat nearby, burying her face into the books near a candle, the last flame in the dungeon, awaiting for the first revival. 3 days later, ashes reformed back into the the body, but as soon as Phoenix drew her first breath, tendrils swiftly slid back to the body, keeping it tightly in place.
-“I was getting hungry for seeing your suffering, my dear.” – Eris slowly walked from the pile of books back to the cage. -“What is the meaning of this?”
Eris ushered not a word, tapping twice on the bar instead, making her prey’s eyes widen in realization.
Tendrils crawled back to the neck, squeezing the life out of her once more, and returned back to the all bars but two. Eris repeated the process of scraping the iron off the cage and throwing it into the ashes.
Week by week, Phoenix was reborn and killed, over and over, losing her mind as she witnessed her own death in the reflection of Eris’ red eyes, growing weaker and weaker with each reincarnation, her skin turning pale. Seven times she have been mercilessly killed, seven times she only remembered darkness, seven times she drew a first and a last breath, but only four times she tried to fight it. Each time one less tendril was needed.
On the eighth time, Phoenix’s lungs were filled once more as she slowly opened her empty eyes, finding herself in the cage, wrapped like a present with a ribbon of blood. As soon as the deed was done, and her glory was turned into ashes again, Eris snapped her fingers once more, but reached to her arm instead. The cursed dark blood, almost sizzling from rage residing inside it, poured down into the ashes.
-“Raise once more in my image.”
Three days passed, and ashes started reforming anew, into a human-like form. This time she opened her eyes with a feeling she only felt last time when she saw that tortured man a few weeks ago. But to her, not knowing the passage of time, that memory felt like something both in the distant past and like if it was yesterday at the same time. She looked around, seeing tendrils, and counted the scratchings on the bar. Seven. She punched each of them in an unknown to her rage, and squeezed every tendril in her cage.
-“I like your fighting spirit” – A happy yet cold voice pierced Phoenixes’ ears, sending shivers down her spine, restraining her again while a set of clothes fell near her. -“I believe you would like to take these.”