The Bleak Walker

Aria saw the image of Ciara in the sky. She tugged on her coat as the battle between her and the Eon-father had ravished the land. She saw storms being conjured and heard the screams of those who were around her. The rainy city that she had been walking on was ravaged by the storms that blew.

“What are you fighting for?” She thought. “I can hear your sorrows, Ciara. What I am fighting for that makes me so maddened enough to fight even the ones guarding the fate of the bubble.”

Aria took cover behind a building. The storms caused by the fight raged and the world seems to be the battlefield of this storm. The buildings were being torn and those who were unlucky had their bodies smashed under debris. Aria had pulled children and mothers far too many times. Her white lance had conjured a shield that blocked the stones and flying fragments.

“This should be right, no, this is what should I have expected the moment I got my memories stirred. I know myself better and I know when not to give up. Yes, that should be it. No matter what you are then you would be mad as well. To have your children used as fuel for a world. They have your bloodline now.”

She recalled the little hands of the twins. Their soft breath and smooth skin and their gentle cries. Aria’s heart tugged at the memory of those two. They were born early and then were taken from their mother. They were strong beings nurtured inside a womb of a woman who held greater power.

“I cannot imagine losing my children again,” she thought. “If I experience such hell then would I be able to stay calm as well? Ah, Nolan, you have started something, no, I should not blame you for this madness. I cannot. Let go, damn it, how do I let go of something that has been a part of me?”

The storm raged and the wrestle of the Eon-Father and the Burnt Woman continued. Aria kept her white lance as a shield while the parents had their kids were on their embraces. A woman was tightly hugging her child, and the little child was hugging her Mother, shaking and shivering.

Mother, I’m afraid.

Fear not, Ciara, your mother will always be with you.

Are they going to get us?

Your father is fighting, dear. Do not worry, I will make sure that you will not be left alone.

Aria saw the flashes of memories for a second. She closed her eyes to shake off the memories. She turned her eyes to the storm and sang a song of abundance and grace. The white lance conjured white butterflies that flap their wings, protecting the people, coating them with white light, and creating another layer on the barrier.

Above the skies seems like it was being split. Ciara’s fist tore the skies, blazing like a meteor on a cloudy night. The thunderstorm broke through every brick. Aria sang the song of light and the area around the lance became a barrier against those who seek shelter from the storm.

She saw people ran to her barrier and through her power she shielded them. The Song Maiden’s power comes from the strength of her voice and soul. As emotions kindled in her heart, the barrier, the white lance shook as it releases an even more powerful light.

“Under the white lance that protects all. O voice of thy warm mother, please spare thy pitiful and let the songs of love and protection give birth to a warm shell.”

She sang a song and within the vicinity was a gentle phantom of a long-haired woman embracing the city. As the fires above them turned the clouds to embers. When even the storms itself were ravaging the terrain and as mountains explode within distances. Aria kept her white lance steady and she kept her song going for all to hear. When even the Gods were trying to kill them. Aria herself refused to give them to death. Not when there were children under her protection.

I refuse to repeat the same sin, she said. I will not allow myself to witness the death of children. I cannot allow it and you shouldn’t allow it as well. I need to stop you, Ciara. But doing so will damn my soul. You won’t stand by if you witness my soul. The War Maiden’s Ode will not allow me to be different. I need to find them. I can feel it in me as well. I know that you want to find your children.

She knew that Ciara had given birth to the twins in hopes of tying another chain to him. However, the incarnations within her, the mothers who did not have their children were too volatile and their will manifested into an unquenchable desire. Aria saw how dangerous this desire was through the fragments of memories.

Now, this world now uses the child born of her as pillars. The twins are of different genders and they represent a balance that was perfect for this world. Could it be that they were planning to usurp her power, take it to the twins, and then raise them as the true deities of the world? If the knowledge that I got from her is true then this world is an incomplete one with histories that are jumbled and mixed. The pasts and future are being mended through her power as well. No, Ciara had not to reach true creation, then it only means that the time wraiths she consumed, those beings are now her fuel, she’s repeating those times, letting the wraiths she consumed be her fuel. Is that why you can contend against the Eon-Father, Ciara?

The duel above the sky split the sky into two sides. One side is that of flames and the other that of storms. When the storm rages and finally when the storm subsides all that was left was the brown skies. Aria fell to her knees and yet the joyful cries of the people around her kept her heart on.

“Sister!” She heard a voice. And when she turned she saw face similar to hers.