Crickets sang through the night. Their chirps rang over the sound of the nightly animals, skirmishing within the forest brushes. The tall grass Gaiana walked along scratched at her feet. Gaiana wanted to claw at them, for that warm relieving sensation of getting rid of a bad itch, but she couldn't.

Zora walked ahead of her. Fireflies floated between them creating trails of light leading to their destination. It felt as though the fireflies were following Zora, like her presence allured them with some unseeable power. Gaiana was certain Zora was some sort of witch, vengefully acting against the will of the Gods.

The light in the sky was faint, with a crescent moon barely giving enough light to see the budding tulips in the grasstops. The flowers were asleep, she'd once been told. Gaiana used to talk to flowers at night, thinking she could wake them.

All the memories were pouring into Gaiana as she lacked control of her body but maintained control of her mind. The silent mourning continued in her head while her body moved on its own. She at least dreamed of burying Sophus, so that he could pass onto the next life. Every ounce of her body wanted to beg, cry, or scream for Zora to give her her freedom, but her thoughts and intentions futile under the whim of the witch.

Zora said, "you are a deviant."

Zora's hair had morphed to a raven black into an aurora white. Like a ghost's hair, it seemingly floated as she walked forward. Any attempts to pretend to be a man was abandoned. She strided forward like an alluring woman.

"When I saw that tattoo for the first time, I realized that you had latent abilities. It was designed to enslave your kind, with a mark to suppress your secret abilities. I'm not sure who marked you with that tattoo at birth, but you were clearly marked with the intention of serving someone else, and through a stroke of luck you avoided such a fate. Until now."

They walked uphill. It was a canyon side in the outskirts of the city. The canyon itself was black in Gaiana's eyes. The crescent moon couldn't provide enough light for her to see it. But when Zora turned her head back to speak to Gaiana, she noticed that her eyes became crystalline clear. It reflected the firefly torches like a mirror, with dots of light from the starlight sky.

They were shaped like the eyes of a cat, sharp as an animal, she could guide them effortlessly through the night.

"I wanted to wait to bring you here. Spend a few more years collecting crystals from across Greece, but an impending Persian invasion has changed that. I'll need you now, to find the Atlantean treasures as soon as possible."

Zora lead Gaiana into a thorny brush. Again, Gaiana's legs scratched across the thorn bush without her permission. Whereas before she wanted the sweet relief from scratching her own legs, now she wanted to avoid the cuts coming from the thorny bush.

Behind the brushes was a cave. Zora's footsteps echoed inside while Gaiana followed behind her. The heat dropped after entering. Gaiana's forehead moistened from the newfound humidity. Gaiana's vision becme blinded by the darkness while Zora lead her.

"There used to be more deviants in Greece. Which is how I've found so many crystals." Her voice echoed as she raised up her crystal for Gaiana to see. It glowed as bright as a lantern, and provided a small light for Gaiana to follow. "I knew there were deviants across the world, but Greece once held an ancient city ruled by Deviants. After discovering this, I spent my time searching for Atlantean relics. Your aether is key to helping me find their greatest treasure."

Ahead of them, glow worms began lighting up the cave. The larva latched into the ceiling and edges, giving a trail of ambiance as they walked. Natural crystals could be seen. Gaiana wondered if they carried the same energy as Zora's crystal did.

"They don't carry aether," Zora answered for her. "If they did, this place would be worth more than all the silver in Greece."

A few paces forward, the cave began to widen. It eventually opened into a cavern. Steep and longer than any building in Athens. The ceiling reached the top of the canyon side, with glow worms huddling around the rock formations, giving it a light glow of cool as they entered the chamber.

Zora stopped as Gaiana trudged forward. Her body moved stoically as she reached the center of the cavern.

There was an alter.

It was a wide platform, carved in stone for a perfect circular shape for Gaiana to step onto. The steps each had letters carved into them. Symbols that reminded Gaiana of the Phoenician alphabet. She couldn't read them. And if she could, it would've made no difference.

Her steps up the stairway finished at the sight of the pillars. Five triangular stones of varying lengths were symmetrically patterned at the edges of the platform. Lines were carved on the floor to line them together in a perfect pentagram of a star.

Letters were carved into them. Gaiana concluded that Zora couldn't have created these pillars. They had to be ancient, more ancient than Athens itself. Zora said to her, "older than Greece itself." Her voice came out sooth. It carried around the cavern so that she didn't even have to raise her voice. "The death of their civilization was a true tragedy to humanity."

Her voice was so sympathetic. Like she valued the ancients more than the people living in the present. Zora tapped at her crystal, and Gaiana wordlessly kneeled at the front of the altar.

Two pillars were at her sides. Chains attached at the ground were littered in front of her. "Put them on," Zora ordered.

Gaiana's hands picked up the heavy chains. To her surprise upon seeing them closely, the chains were made of gold. Unlike the rest of the altar, they were fairly new. Zora had clearly prepared for her arrival.

Why she needed golden shackles was beyond her. Regardless, she strapped the metal shackles onto her arms and legs. It weighed her to the ground. The coldness to them was an unwelcome addition to the already cool air mist that the cavern provided.

The shackles were just small enough to contain her nimble body, but not small enough to be terribly uncomfortable. The chains were long and spread around her, giving her free movement around the altar if needed.

"Now speak," Zora said with a tap at the crystal. Her gem instantly stopped glowing.

Gaiana dropped to the floor. She clutched at her chest and breathed heavy. Her immediate instinct was to mourn the loss of Sophus, to cry for the person she loved because she wasn't able to before.

"Why?" Gaiana yelled at her. She almost cried, but she held back tears. "Why is this happening?"

"Because you're special," Zora replied. "You hold truths in your soul that I need. And in order for me to save what's left of Atlantis, I needed you."

Gaiana shook her head, "no, why did he die? Why did you have to kill him?"

Zora looked up, and tapped her gem at the front steps of the pillar. "Deviant aether can only awaken through pain. The more pain you feel now, the more likely you are to awaken."

Gaiana lowered her face to the ground. They died because of her powers, simple as that. To Zora, those people were just tools to make Gaiana useful. Gaiana cried, "I didn't want him to die. I loved him more than anything."

"I know," Zora said. "Which will make this easier for you."

The stone pillar alphabet glowed across the surface. The carvings etched in ancient language glowed a hot blue as the lights surrounded Gaiana. Her skin reflected the bright. It surrounded her body like rising lanterns would.

Gaiana dropped. Her tattoo brightened and stretched its light around Gaiana's body. Veins and blood boiled in heat, contaminating her body with lightning and poison. It was like insects crawled across her insides, leaving a burning sensation as they stepped inside her. Every piece of her body heeded the call for pain, and Gaiana screamed in terror while the ritual began.

Zora walked up the alter steps. Gaiana's eyes shined a bright light as she approached. She took Gaiana by the head and began holding her. She sang.

"As long as you live, shine,

Let nothing grieve you beyond measure.

For your life is short,

and time will claim its toll."

Zora sang the words soothingly at Gaiana while she cried into Zora's arms. Despite all the suffering Zora had put her through, she only wanted a sweet release from the mind-numbing pain. Gaiana embraced her hands, hoping it could calm the hurt coursing through her body. Her mind throbbed and her heart pumped frantically as the energy ripped through her body.

"The pain will rebirth you," Zora whispered. "Pain has always empowered our kind."

The crystal around Zora's neck pulsated. She clung to it and turned her head. The silhouette of a woman entered the cavern. Zora stood up by the sight of her.

She dawned on hoplite armor, colors painted with Athenian blue stripes. It was a heavy plating, with a shield strapped to her forearm and a short spear gripped by her other palm.

Zora flicked her hand towards her and lightning escaped from its fingertips. Mimoza dropped on one knee and planted the shield in front of her. Rays of thunder shot at the shield and deflected around her body, avoiding any direct impact to her. The crystal at the center of her shield glowed. It pulsated with energy as Mimoza glared over her shield towards Zora.

With a heave of the shield, Mimoza launched a ball of energy from the plate towards Zora. Zora raised her palm at the ball. It touched her skin and burned her hand as the thunder scattered around her.

Zora gritted her teeth, "What are you? Some scholar out to capture me, or a rogue deviant who strayed from her master?"

Mimoza stood up, spinning the spear around her hand as she spoke. "I am Mimoza of the Kurgan Scythian tribe. Amazonian descent, captain of the Athenian guardsman. You're guilty of kidnapping a free woman, and the murder of Greek children. I swear under Astraea that you will suffer in the name of justice."

Zora rolled her hands into a fist. A stream of translucent lights flowed out of the alter's light and condensed into her palms. Mimoza reacted by pulling her spear back and launching it into one of the alter's stone pillars.

Mimoza's spear enveloped with a white fire as it flew. It flung into a pillar's center. It lodged into it, cracking inside like its stone was an eggshell. Light spurted out from the cracks before it exploded into thousands of smaller pieces. Like an explosion of light, energy blasted out of the pillar like it was a trapped fire. Zora and Gaiana ducked to avoid the flinging pieces.

Zora and Gaiana turned toward the pillar. Its inside was completely glowing, like it was more crystal than stone.

"This place is sacred," Zora yelled at her. "Ancient, more holy than either of us."

Mimoza ignored her shouts and unsheathed her sword. She jabbed the sword into the ground. Light rose from the floor with the cavern stone crackling out around it. Like a goddess, Mimoza's power spread towards the ceiling of the cavern and broke out clunks of rock to drop onto the altar. Heavy chunks of natural crystal fell, chipping away pieces of writing that had laid there for centuries.

Zora screamed like an animal. Mimoza gripped both hands on her sword, and willed it to glow with a green flame. She raised it upward. A rain of fire spewed up from the tip, only for the fire to arch back down onto Zora like droplets of heat. Zora's hand cusped around herself and Gaiana. But as an invisible dome shielded them from the venomous attack, the altar itself was disintegrating beneath the acidic rain and falling rocks from the ceiling top.

Realizing her alter was lost, Zora ripped the necklace off her neck and jabbed it into the ground. The alter top broke down into dozens of floating boulders. A few of the boulders flung toward Mimoza but she sidestepped and parried the chunks of rock easily with her sword and shield.

Zora twirled her fingers. The boulders separated into tinier pieces, pieces as small as pebbles. They compartmentalized into perfectly sculpted cubic rocks. Each flowed out of the altar and boulders one by one with glowing edges like tiny starlights. The cubes shifted shape, turning into thousands of miniature pyramids. They pointed towards Mimoza, and launched towards Mimoza like a hailstorm of arrowheads.

Mimoza lodged her shield into the ground, and allowed the arrowheads to hit her. Just like Zora had done, an invisible shield dome prevented Mimoza from taking any damage from the attack. But while the hailstorm pelted her, Zora created a crystalline sphere within her hands.

Using an energy neither of them could see, Zora created a sharp pike using the leftover materials from the alter. Without touching the spear, Zora levitated the pike back, and swung it towards Mimoza.

It pierced through whatever invisible force which was protecting Mimoza. It hit the center of her shield, the crystal, and shattered it into pieces. The invisible protection was gone, and the rest of the hailstorm of shrapnel stones hit Mimoza all at once.

Dust filled the area as they crashed into Mimoza's area. With another gesture of Zora's hand, the dust dissipated through a gust of wind. Mimoza was gone. Vanished, like she was never there to begin with.

Zora looked around, waiting for something.

"I can kill her," Zora yelled out to the silent cave. There was an echo to her voice. No one replied. "I wouldn't hesitate. She's as good as dead without the temple."

Gaiana arms were still weighted in chains. The rocks that held them to the ground had dispersed to pebbles earlier. She hadn't realized that she'd regained complete control of her body since Mimoza had arrived. She guessed it was because Zora was distracted.

Gaiana didn't bother to try and escape. Still on her knees in pain from the failed ritual, Gaiana called out, "Mimoza, she killed Sophus!" She touched the ground while she tugged the heavy chain. "She killed Sophus! She's a monster!"

Zora stayed quiet while Gaiana screamed. Zora habitually tapped at the crystal around her neck, but didn't respond to the faint glows illuminating from it. Minutes passed, and the calmness in the cavern became more daunting.

The ground rumbled. Looking over, Zora saw a cloud of dust push towards her. Before she could react, the dust cloud morphed into Mimoza's body. She smashed a fist encased with rock into Zora's face, Mimoza then instantly dissipated back to dust.

Zora felt at her jaw. A hit like that would've killed the average man. She turned around to see another cloud of dust come her way. Zora fired a lightning bolt at the cloud, but the dust spread around Zora and remorphed to a person behind her.

Mimoza punched her in the spine, again with a rock encased arm. Zora growled in pain as she turned around. Mimoza re-morphed into dust and appeared to her side to hit her in the hip.

This continued for several more minutes. Mimoza shifted form between dust and body to dash hits across Zora's body. Zora was hit across the head, stomach, knees, and all her other weak points while Mimoza kept morphing to avoid a timely response from Zora.

Mimoza transformed to normal one last time and unsheathed her sword. The sword glowed green, mimicking the green flame she'd seen from the twins.

"A mirror blade," Zora said with an eye twitch. Zora breathed heavy as she spoke. The damage had taken its toll. "Couldn't make your own cipher, so you had to steal it from my kids?"

Mimoza pointed the sword at Zora. She charged at her for what was hopefully a final blow. Zora held still when it pierced through her heart. "It's over, Pandora."

Zora held still as the sword went through her chest. She raised a hand to cling over Mimoza's shoulder, "heart wounds kill deviants, but I'm not a deviant anymore."

A dagger pierced through Mimoza's stomach. A jolt charged across her body. Mimoza stepped back slowly. She dropped her sword as the strength from her fist faded. Her legs wobbled as her body became numb.

Zora perched out the dagger that went across her stomach. It wasn't a natural blade. It was carved out of pure crystal, and glowed with an unnatural energy to it. A black aura surrounded the flame when Mimoza laid her eyes on it.

Looking down at her wound, Mimoza saw the white light glowing out from her cut. Purple blood leaked out. It dripped from her stomach and she collapsed to the ground in pain.

Zora twirled the knife in her hands. "That's the problem with you deviants. Always thinking like a warrior, but never as a scholar. You lost the moment you stepped into my shrine."

Mimoza coughed out more purple blood on the ground. Her head shook while her vision blurred. "Wha, what did you do?"

"Scholar secret," Zora said with her eyes wide and approaching, "something a warrior's heart could never understand."

Mimoza slowly stretched her hand to reach for her dropped sword. Upon touching it, a shock trickled across her arm. The pain was sharp. The prospect of gripping the sword in her hand would've meant enduring through excruciating pain.

"Impossible."

Zora stood over Mimoza as she laid back at the ground, still clutching her stomach wound in pain. Zora said, "you really don't understand aether, do you?"

Without sparing another second Zora began stabbing Mimoza across her body. The stabs came in and out like a frantic animal trying to claw down at her. None of the attacks were fatal. The dagger was so short it only served to cause pain as Zora continuously jabbed at her.

Rays of light glowed from Mimoza's cuts. Zora cut into Light escaped her body like she encapsulated a miniature sun. Mimoza was now prey. Zora cut twenty times across her stomach and sides to extend the damage. She sliced across the legs and arms while she tried defending herself with her limbs.

Zora didn't stop as she induced more pain into her. She could've killed her easily at any point, but now she just wanted the woman to suffer.

Gaiana took slow steps toward Zora. She dragged her heavy chains as she walked. The chains were long and large. She could only swing the metal if she put enough force into it. While Zora laughed hysterically at Mimoza dying, Gaiana raised the chains from behind and wrapped her head in them.

The chains wrapped around her neck and Gaiana pulled in an attempt to choke her to death.

Despite her being smaller than Zora, Gaiana made it her mission to try and kill the witch.

Zora choked. Her hands were caught too. Wrapped around by the golden chains Zora choked as Gaiana held her. She shook her body as Gaiana held tight. She seemed like a god earlier, now Zora flailed like a normal woman who was about to die.

Mimoza stood back up to her feet. Her body had no strength left, but she was still desperate enough to try and live. Mimoza walked over to the sword and held it still.

Burning electricity coursed through her arm. Rather than succumb to the pain, she forced herself to hold the sword even as it rejected her body. Pain rushed across her arm. She tried channeling that pain into adrenaline. Mimoza imagined that the shocking energy could empower her body and heal the wounds that Zora had given her.

Mimoza raised the blade up, and stabbed it through Zora's stomach. Gaiana was so close to Zora's back the sword barely missed Gaiana as it stabbed through Zora's body.

"You have a problem with warriors?" Mimoza growled.

The energy conflicting with Mimoza's arms pained them both. Whatever was rejecting Mimoza's grasp with the sword was now spread out across Zora's body too. She held the sword in Zora's stomach as the raging electricity damaged them both.

Mimoza's palm touched the hilt of the blade. She stirred what little energy she had left into the crystal. "Then die by the warrior!" She let go of the sword and stepped back.

Gaiana followed her lead and let go of the chains. The crystal at the center of Mimoza's sword exploded into a tiny blast of blue smoke and light. The golden fractures of the sword's blade and hilt shattered into Zora's body, splitting her into two.

Zora screamed in pain as her torso exploded upward while her legs shredded into pieces from the blast. Golden specks of sharpnel escaped the sword as it scattered. Gaiana ducked away from the explosion. She closed her eyes at the demise of Zora's body.

Heat and light flared up in an instance. The explosion disappeared into echoes of noise as the blast subsided. Gaiana's ears rang. She looked up. While Zora's body had vanished, Mimoza was still conscious, coughing up blood onto the ground.

Gaiana ran towards her calling out her name. "Mimoza," she keeled next to her and held her head up. "Are you-"

"I'm fine," Mimoza grumbled. More purple blood escaped her lips.

"What... Are you?"

Mimoza painfully sat up. She winced in agony to meet Gaiana at her eye level. "That's a long story. I'll explain everything. But for now."

Mimoza stood up slowly, wobbling and she centered herself. She limped slowly towards the exit. She glanced back at where Zora had stood. Nothing remained, just littered pieces of cloth that flew out from the explosion. "We need to leave before she comes back twice as angry, deviants don't normally die so easily."