Mystic Quest

Chapter 22

Some hours later, two azure orbs opened. They trailed around the young woman before resting on her three friends. The muzzle of the white wolf appeared in her sight as Noriran barked happily.

The sound alerted Solarys, who smiled when she saw the young angel awakened.

“How do you feel?” asked softly the archer.

Lyria groaned. “Well; except I feel like a whole herd of buffalo ran on me...”

This extracted a laugh from the two boys. Solarys smiled faintly, but her expression was more worried.

“Normal, with what you took... You really need to stop brushing death...”

A silence followed as Lyria blushed and looked down at the ground. The archer was right; she had friends now, she couldn't abandon them.

And he would never forgive her if she died far from him.

Curiosity reigned between Lyria's companions; however, none desired to awaken bad memories. Thankfully, Lyria decided for them. With a sigh, she straightened up against Noriran and talked.

“You are my friends, you deserve to know. Cereberion was a human with a darkness even the demons didn't possess... And the one who slaughtered my kin. This is what happened, a little more than twenty years ago...”

A young girl with chestnut hairs and blond highlights walked around peacefully. The city of angels was quiet, some of its members flying above the buildings.

Suddenly, an explosion was heard. The young girl hesitated, then rushed toward the source of the explosion. What she found froze her blood. A man was killing the angels in mass. The people of light tried to defend themselves, but they could do nothing in front of the ferocity of this man, unused to the battlegrounds. The maniac smile he arboured showed the joy he took in his deed.

Lyria fell on her knees and let out a whine, scared. The man raised his eyes and they landed on her. The young angel was terrified. Yet, before she could even make a movement, he was in front of her.

The future whip user closed her eyes, thinking she was living her last seconds. And yet... Nothing happened. Gathering her courage, she opened her eyes. Her breath hitched and she fell on her bottom. The man was kneeling and staring at her.

“You, you are hiding a great potential... Powers, and something else... Is it possible you have a destiny?”

Lyria only shuddered, yet knowing the fact her parents had often said she would be powerful in the future.

“Bah, no importance. All that matter, it's that it would be a shame to kill someone who could be worthy of fighting me. Oh! I know! To be sure you will seek me, I will make you the heir of your kin. You know, the one we call the White Lady...”

Lyria paled. The White Lady; the name every populations would give to the last living angel. She wanted to move, to act; but he knocked her out.

Before being consumed by the darkness of unconsciousness, he whispered in her ear.

“Cereberion is my name; the name of the one who will enter history for slaughtering the angels...”

“When I awoke, I... I was alone. That was then that he appeared.”

“Your master?” asked Emerys.

“Yes. He made sure that the angels stayed a legend, and that the slaughter never appeared anywhere. His revenge against Cereberion. He took me in, and explained me the origin of the White Lady; it is the title that our queen would hand down...”

Her three friends widened their eyes: Was Lyria a queen?

“Of course, our people were composed of men and women. But the angels always preferred queens instead of kings. Our queen had been on the throne for many years, and predicted the gruesome day the angels would vanish. She also predicted that a child would survive. Our queen announced that she would then reincarnate.”

Lyria paused, and raised the strands on her forehead. For the first time, her friends saw the mark on her forehead: a circle with three pairs of wings inside.

“She said they could be found thanks to this mark.”

Solarys looked at Lyria with amazement. “You are the queen of angels then?'

Lyria chuckled fondly. “No, not exactly. I am her reincarnation.”

Yuna cocked his head, thoughtful. “The difference?”

“I have a part of her powers, her physique and her personality... but not her memory. It is very likely that fate had already chosen me as heir of the angels, like it chose me for our quest. Cereberion must have felt the potential sleeping as a reincarnation, without understanding what it was. The queen is only subsisting in me, nothing more. She will be reborn only if...”

Lyria flushed brightly.

“If?” insisted Emerys.

“If I have a child. My first child will be a girl, and at her eighteenth birthday; her memory will be unblocked.”

A small silence descended. Yuna, Solarys and Emerys were digesting all of this. It as true they had never questioned how the angels could exist. After all, the demons too had been in legends before. However, they were learning many things at once.

Something titillated Yuna. The swordsman felt the need to share. “Don't you find... that it matches a but too much the arrival of the demons?”

Lyria nodded gravely. “The angels and demons lived in parallel dimensions, with doors to the human world. Until the death of my kin, our two races rarely went into your world. Even my master doesn't know why the demons suddenly decided to attack the humans. All we can think of, is that our queen had a role.”

Solarys fixed Lyria. “There is still something you didn't tell us.”

Lyria blinked, surprised. “What?”

“Who is your master? Is it the white bird?”

“No. The bird is called Fenisan. He is a friend of my master.”

“So, who is your master?” asked Emerys, very curious.

It was then that a husky and low voice, full of warmth and gentleness, cut in as Lyria opened her mouth.

“It's me.”

To be continued...