Chapter Text
With hurried yet careful steps, a young girl with crimson hair approached the inner chambers, heart palpitating and eyes darting all over, in alert to signs of danger. She's usually not one to sneak around, ever the obedient soldier that she is, but she's desperate to practise her newly acquired powers. To prove to those who took her in that she deserves what she's been given, to show her appreciation and gratitude, for without them she would have become another poor orphan in the street, destined to suffer and fade away.
"You are the chosen few, the ones that our gods saw to be with them, and so to show our love, we must serve and be their instruments in this world," she recalled their nanny saying word for word. She remembers her reciting this as some sort of ritual with her and the other kids in the orphanage, at least three times a day in the morning, afternoon and evening respectively. The young girl recounts this memory with fondness, yet there is a stinge of melancholy to this, for she thought that her time at the orphanage was the most warmest time of her life, where she felt like she belonged with everyo—
"Stop that," She said softly outloud, pausing her steps and shaking her head, trying to banish that train of thought. She should be honoured that she was able to prove her worth and move beyond to serve the main branch at such a young age. There's no point looking back, all that matters is that she's her now, and so she needs to train her new abilities, just like any other skills that she has acquired thus far.
She does find it strange though, the gift that she was given. People say that it is said to be a reflection of how the gods see you as, but how come she was given such an artsy gift? She's never really recalled being into music, except maybe the nursery rhymes taught at the orphanage when she was a kid. In comparison, the other recruits who were given their gifts were so natural at it, almost as if they were born with it all their lives.
“There has to have been a mistake,” she thought, as she had to take vocal classes to be able to use her gifts to the fullest, and while she has made some progress, for the most part the pace of her improvement has been average for the past few months. “No use in getting frustrated, I’ll try compensating my lack of talent with my hard work and dedication then.”
And that's how she got into this situation, sneaking around the lower chambers of the main branch, since she realised that it was the only area that isn’t really looked after much. The location she’s aiming to go to is actually the chambers right before the prison that houses the most dangerous criminals that the gods have contained for thousands of years. Though weirdly enough, there’s no sign of living beings anywhere within that area, nor a system of security in case they attempt to escape.
Some of them even question if these prisoners even exist, including herself, so when she approached Cecilia, one of the oldest members of the main branch, she was genuinely surprised at her response, seeing her smile for the first time, though it wasn’t the typical smile you would get, it looks almost tired-looking, as if she was recalling a time that was some-what sad.
“The gods’ seals guarantee that they’ll never get away from that cage, the oldest among them has stayed there for at least 9,000 years. It doesn’t really matter if we guard that area, nor should you have any business looking into it.”
That was the first time the young girl ever saw Cecilia showing a more human aspect of herself.
Relieved from being able to arrive at her destination without raising suspicions, the young girl with crimson hair slowly begins her vocal warm-ups, starting from a simple hmmm sound before proceeding to other types such as lip-rolls, and vowels. She does this for at least 20 mins, all the while feeling the blue flame in her chest responding, pulsing and shining brighter than usual, in resonance with her voice.
Alongside all of this, she slowly feels a new found energy flowing into her system, making her feel more alive, her senses in clarity and her mind as focused as it could ever be. As she goes deeper into her performance, she also started to notice her surrounding all the more, the faded bricks beneath of her feet, the unnatural and uncanny smoothness of the wall at her back and the highly detailed carvings on the walls of the prison in front of her, made out of an alien pitch black material that it almost as if it absorbs the light surrounding it, yet somehow, she’s still able to see what the carvings were about.
It depicts battles, seemingly tales from ancient times as it depicts races of old alongside humans. Other than that, it seems that the piece itself is pretty abstract, depicting claws, feathers and other peculiar motifs. “I wonder what kinds of beings were so dangerous that the gods themselves personally locked them away forever, they must have committed such horrendous acts, the most vile taboos.” She thought, and alongside this unconsciously stopped her warm-ups. Touching the wall of the prison, she clenches it slightly, in her head understanding that incidents and creatures like these are the very reasons why the organisation existed, why she's here to learn and train.
And so she closed her eyes to find the energy again and continue her training, feeling the flames pulse once more and its light engulfing her until she was one with it. She then continues, this time vocalising a melody that comes natural at the given moment. It wasn't any piece that she knows, but yet for the first time she feels like she's letting out a part of herself, one of confusion, of frustration and yet a melody that's still determined to face all the hardships ahead of her.
And as if to respond, another melody joined her, a voice like a feather upon a gentle breeze, like a drizzle of rain dripping down one's face, almost as if to mirror her confusion and frustration, yet unlike hers whose full of determination and hope, this voice seems to be in mourning, it didn't exactly sounded sad nor pained, yet it was hauntingly sweet similarly a mother caressing a child's cheek before saying her last goodbye. Before she knew it the crimson haired girl became immersed into this voice’s song, feeling herself almost shedding a tear, though it suddenly went silent right after.
Slowly coming back to her senses, the crimson haired girl immediately took out her dagger, now startled by how she was almost hypnotised by the unknown voice. Her eyes once again try to scan the whole area for anyone who might have entered or hid away from her, yet as she inspected again, there's no single soul who is there, save for her alone.
“Who are you?” she shouted to the void, having given up in her search. This is followed by a loud timid gasp from the end corner on the right side of the chambers.
It was directly from the walls of the prison.
Quickly, the girl with crimson hair leaped quickly to the direction where she heard the sound, her body still empowered by her gift, summoning flames to cover her dagger, transforming it into a flame sword. Ready to face any danger, she hurriedly inspected the wall with her sword’s light. And there she saw a tiny crack at the wall, probably an inch wide she thought, and through it, she saw a silhouette of a young girl, who seems to be early teens like her, though other than that, she can barely distinguish any features from her.
“I'm sorry!” the girl on the other side waved her arms in panic before covering her head and burying it to her knees, “I just heard you practising your singing and I was just curious! I didn't mean any trouble I swear!”