“What… What the hell are you?” Soliene managed to ask, somehow not being so incredibly petrified by the monster before her that speech was impossible. “What the hell happened to Reonda?”
Il’jan’i didn’t answer right away, instead ripping off what bit of Julius’ intestines weren’t in her mouth. She slowly plodded over to Soliene, the Numaran attempting to scramble back a bit before being greeted with a feral growl. Like several other times in the past hour, her body froze up as the scaled beast drew closer and closer. It only stopped when its snout was directly over Soliene’s face, a strong breath coming from Il’jan’i’s nostrils as she chewed on her meal. Watching the beast before her swallow just made Soliene less certain of the beast’s earlier declaration that she wouldn’t die.
“My, I didn’t think you would care much about the girl. You know how many harpen she and her mother and father sentence to die? Do you know she got her own brother executed?” Il’jan’i asked, her voice sounding cheerful as she recounted everything that Reonda had done. Soliene wasn’t sure if it was because of the sheer amount of terror she had been in for the past while, but none of what the beast said affected her. “You should have figured out the answer to one of those questions already. I told you as I drenched young Reonda’s form in that man's blood.”
Il’jan’i spread out her wings, lifting her head so that she had to glance out of the bottom of her vision to see the Numaran. The pose she took was a proud one, the beastly version of a smile dawning her muzzle as she relished in not just being free for a little while, but in the fear she was placing in Soliene. That would be good, they would be far more submissive and afraid of Reonda now because of her, and that meant she wouldn’t bring up those two ever again. It was the best she could get away with without outright killing the girl.
“To repeat what I said to the corpse, I am the future Oracle of Balance, Il’jan’i,” the beast explained. “Reonda, my vessel, is both me and not me. My survival depends on hers, and for that reason I am willing to assure you that she is fine.” Il’jan’i turned around, attention drawn back to Julius’ corpse as she continued to talk. “When a vessel dies, or is under too much emotional stress, I’m forced to come out and rectify the situation. In time both Reonda and the pecker will be back on their feet. Do you have any idea how long my vessel was on the brink? How long I have waited to plunge my claws into something again? It’s all because of those damn birds that she lost that murderous flare!”
As she finished her question, she tore apart more of Julius’ corpse, eating her hate and hunger at the same time. Soliene felt a heat she hadn’t felt before hit her cheek in the direction of Nyal’s body. Daring to move her head, Soliene glanced at where Nyal should have been, but she wasn’t. Instead a giant ball of flame levitated off the ground as if it was some kind of mini sun. Soliene knew that the existence of such an object should have shocked her, but the ability for such a reaction to appear had long since faded.
“She was just so perfect those months ago! Before she met that damn bird, before she met Am’a’ros, before she was asked to use the Historia for her country's greatness she was the image of unloving!” Il’jan’i exclaimed, she ravaged the corpse before her as she spoke, another vortex of dark energy starting to surround her. “In fact, fuck it, I don’t care what she wants anymore. Same goes for the pecker.”
As her eyes were still on the ball of fire, Soliene did not notice Il’jan’i turn around until the beast had grabbed ahold of her throat. Much like Julius before her, Soliene brought her hands to try and remove it. The result was the exact same, with Il’jan’i having too much strength for her to even remove a claw from her neck. Il’jan’i brought her face close to the Numaran once more, showing off their predatory teeth to Soliene.
“I will thank you for getting me free, but my vessel does not realize the hindrances she has around her,” Il’jan’i told Soliene. She tightened her grip on their neck ever so slightly. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be a tasty snack. Now s–”
Il’jan’i was interrupted by a sudden blast of fire engulfing everything around her, the shock causing her to stammer to the side and shield her eyes. While the fire pelted everything else, Soliene found that said fire avoided her as if it were alive. She stayed as still as possible, waiting for the flames to die down and praying that somehow, someway, she managed to survive all that had happened around her. When it did disperse, it was done with the spreading of two giant, molten wings, revealing nearly the entire environment scorched to ash with the exception of the Numaran.
As they died down, Il’jan’i lowered her paw from her eyes and looked to the origin of the flames. What she found was a bird made of flame and lava, her very presence carrying sweltering heat. Her eyes looked like shining rubies, and her talons seemed to be made of molten rock. Their tail was easily the most striking thing about them, broken into four long, ribbon-like appendages that seemed to act as their own separate entities. Il’jan’i looked at them, glee on their faces as they looked at the molten avian before her. Soliene just sat there stunned, pulling her mask over her mouth and nose to try and keep smoke out of her lungs. She put the hood on right after to keep the sun off her skin.
“N-N-Nyal?” Soliene muttered. The avian looked to her, sadness and disappointment clear in her ruby eyes.
“You finally awakened, sister,” Il’jan’i said, her words genuinely sounding as if she was a younger sibling talking to an older sibling. “I knew it was only time when the pecker died, b–”
Il’jan’i was promptly shut up as the avian took to the air, closing the distance between them in less than three seconds. They grabbed the beast’s head and threw it across the scorched clearing. The first tree they hit didn’t stop them, nor the second, the third, or fourth, but the fifth finally stood worthy of mercy as Il’jan’i stopped against it. The gasp that left Soliene’s mouth was justified by that alone, but it was even further justified by the tossed beast somehow managing to get back on its paws. As they did, the avian closed their eyes and focused, Soliene watching from afar as a flame rose from a pile of ashes not far from her, assimilating with the flaming body of the bird.
“For you to be so incredibly unstable. It appears what Aria and Lasp said about Acamus is an under-exaggeration,” The bird spoke, the warm motherly voice that came out from it contrasting with its intimidating appearance. It looked back to Soliene, the girl somehow able to tell that they were smiling despite it clearly not being possible with a beak. “You must excuse her, we Oracles are shaped by the personality of our vessels. To think this was hiding in such a broken child.”
“You… you are Nyal, correct?” Soliene said, finally being able to get to her feet for the first time since she lost her eye. “Or the other part of her or whatever it was that… thing was saying?”
“The creature you are looking for is a dragon, and to save on time I am a phoenix. These do not exist in this cycle, do they?” The bird asked back, Soliene given an uncertain yet hasty nod. The phoenix quickly looked back to Il’jan’i before speaking to the Numaran yet again. “I see. You are correct about who my vessel is, and do not worry. Her soul will just need a day to regather itself. Now then…”
Having heard the sound of Il’jan’i stampeding towards her during her explanation, the phoenix already knew what was coming. It hopped to the side, causing a tunneled visioned dragon to completely miss its strike. Before she could turn and think of striking again, the phoenix took to the air and grabbed Il’jan’i with her talons. Soliene watched as they rose high into the sky, the avian doing a spin and tossing the dragon even higher with the momentum that spin gave. Il’jan’i did their best to take control and spread her wings, but the phoenix was one step ahead, conjuring a ball of fire into her beak and launching it at high speeds at her target.
Il’jan’i stood no chance and did not have enough air control to fly out of the way, the fire blast hitting her square in the face and knocking her out. Unconscious, the dragon spiraled downwards and back into the scorched clearing. Soliene jumped back at the thud sound created because of it, falling down herself due to nonsensically thinking a tree behind her had been spared the earlier flames. Then, with far more grace than both the dragon or Numaran that were on both sides of her, the phoenix gracefully landed on the ground facing towards the latter.
“I am Pho’nix’ea, but Pho is just fine. Il’jan’i and Reonda will be okay, I can assure you; it takes more than that to kill an Oracle,” Pho replied before closing her eyes. Soliene watched as flame and lava instantly turned to ash and collected on the ground. In the center of the ash a harpen exactly like Nyal stood with two key differences: those same ruby red eyes and her feathers being the color of magma instead of soot. A childish smile adorned her face. “I do apologize, this is no doubt a lot for you to take in.”
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“I… uh, one moment,” Soliene said, taking notice of her incredibly rapid heart beat and proceeding to take several deep breaths. Slowly she calmed herself, Pho sitting within the ash her true form had created and flexing her talons in wonder and joy. After a minute, Soliene walked up to the Oracle with her curling and uncurling her hands. “Okay, so… what the fuck did I just witnessed?”
“I assume based on the fact that Reonda’s Oracle took control that Nyal and I missed quite a lot,” Pho guessed, her words causing Soliene’s mouth to hang open like a fish. The Oracle of Death shrugged, the child-like smile never leaving her face. “What? We were dead for a good ten to fifteen minutes there. At least I think it was ten to fifteen minutes, not sure. I’m gonna go on a guess you weren’t counting.”
“I… nevermind,” Soliene said, throwing her hands up in the air and turning away. She chuckled a bit to herself. “I woke up today expecting the usual, but Rag’na’rog decided I clearly didn’t deserve that. I mean, who wakes up in the morning thinking they would meet the three oracle vessels and their “other halves”, get chased through a forest, witness murder and have their eye… their eye…”
Having completely forgotten what Julius had done due to Il’jan’i and Pho, Soliene raised her left hand over where her left eye should have been. She saw nothing. She tried to open her eyelid in belief that it might be closed, but there was still nothing. Her breathing picked up once again, both hands groping around where her left eye should have been. Her eyeless socket wasn’t bleeding anymore, but the fact she could grip inside her one face frightened her. Pho looked at the ash, sorrow over taking her expression as she realized what said eye now was.
“I hate to say, your missing eye is but ash on the forest floor,” Pho told Soliene, her words doing nothing but causing Soliene to hyperventilate. “I am so sorry.”
“No, no, no no no no no no no,” Soliene repeated to herself, unable to calm down.
She paced back on forth, one hand always prodding around where her eye should be. Soliene had no idea what to think, for this was only the second time in her life she had lost something like this. Yet somehow this was much worse, and no matter how much her brain didn’t want to accept it the reality was clear as day. She only had one eye, and she would stay that way for the rest of her life.
“This can’t… this shouldn’t… this is…”
In desperation she ran over to Pho and grabbed onto the young Oracle’s shoulders. The fear that was etched on Soliene’s face was like nothing she had seen. Up until that day her consciousness came and went, for she was practically a newborn to the other Oracles around her. A highly intelligent newborn, but still very much a newborn. If her heart was beating in that moment, which it wouldn’t be till Nyal woke up again, she was sure it would be beating as rapidly as Soliene’s.
“You're an Oracle right? All powerful, capable of miracles, that kind of shit?” Soliene asked the girl before her, shaking them in mad panic. “Please give me my eye back! You can do that, right?”
Pho sheepishly looked away, a wave of guilt encompassing her.
“I’m the future Oracle of Death, young Soliene. I am incapable of such feats as lifegiving,” Pho explained. Though she didn’t see Soliene’s face pale at her words, she could feel the grip of the Numaran’s hands strengthen off your shoulder. “Il’jan’i’s light magic seemed to stop the bleeding, but it appears to not be strong enough to repair your eyesight. Even then, that eye was burned away in my awakening. Your half-lost vision will never be whole again.”
Soliene did not let go of Pho after hearing those words, dropping to her knees with shaking hands. She eyed the ash that lay under her, noting how the wind casually blew more and more of it away. Her hands slid from Pho’s shoulders to their chest, mind stuck in a loop of self-destruction and questioning. The Oracle looked back to the Numaran before and, not knowing what else to do, wrapped their wings around them.
“I’m sorry,” Pho whispered.
After a couple moments, Soliene stepped away with a tear stained face. She turned her head so that Pho couldn’t see her empty eye socket, but the Oracle was looking elsewhere. She turned to where Il’jan’i once laid, but the one found unconscious was Reonda instead. Pho watched as Teolus descended from high in the air, resting at his master’s side concerned yet wary. The hawk watched as Pho got close, and in fear of what they might do he flew over Reonda, flying and cawing at the Oracle.
“Do not worry; I’m not your enemy,” Pho said, raising her wings in front of her and keeping calm. Soliene walked up behind the Oracle, hand over the left side of her face. “I’m the one who knocked her out.”
Teolus gave an uncertain nod at those words and turned his attention back to the Acamian. Pho walked behind him, and Soliene stayed and watched on as the Oracle looked to the unconscious girl in contemplation. There was no denying the danger the girl was, but she was the Oracle of Balance, and a piece of her felt like she could fix whatever was wrong. She and Nyal to be precise. That also brought up the matter of having to explain to her vessel what had occurred, which would be a rather difficult feat. Still, that was a matter for later; right now the main concern was the safety of everyone present.
“We need to get her far away from that town you were all in. You call it Makaus, right?” Pho asked Soliene. As soon as the attention was on her, Soliene turned her head away so that only the right side of her face could be seen. She then gave a quick nod. “I’m gonna need you to carry the Vessel of Balance. I personally have no idea where we will go but as long as it is away from the city it will be fine.”
“Wait, you want me to take her with us?” Soliene asked back, getting a firm nod, “Why? It would be far safer if we just left her here, wouldn’t it?”
“I could see Makaus while I was in the air earlier, they no doubt saw the smoke caused by my flames,” Pho explained turned around to face the Numaran. She held her wings out against the mortal before her, watching as a new version of her Historia appeared from nowhere, the previous one having been lost to the flames. “No doubt someone will come and find her. While I’m more aware than my vessel of how dangerous she is, would you want to leave her in the hands of individuals who would kill her? You know from me that she won’t actually die, and that far more would be killed because of her.”
Soliene frowned, remembering Il’jan’i’s earlier words and shivering at the display her mind created. Far too many innocent lives would be put on the line if that was indeed the case, and while the thought of carrying something so dangerous scared her it was the better option. Pho was right, and if it was any consolation she did have another Oracle that was more than capable of knocking Reonda. Instead of voicing her understanding, Soliene chose to simply walk past Pho and lift the Acamian up onto her back. They were heavy and she immediately felt her back start to hate it, but considering how light harpens were known to be she was the only one capable.
“Let’s just get going,” Soliene said, her tone showing the unease that she felt inside.
With a nod from Pho, the Oracle took the lead. Teolus rested on the shoulder of his unconscious master and kept his eyes fixed on her. Soliene, meanwhile, carried both girl and hawk wondering what she had ever done to get involved in all this. If the day had gone how she had hoped she would be roaming the festival grounds with food in her hands – stolen, of course – and dealing with what she had believed would have been the best day of her life since leaving New Numar. She would take the misery of being forced to steal over… whatever it was she was getting involved in.
Soliene silently whispered a prayer that would go unheard by all Oracles. It did not matter what the prayer was, for even if an Oracle did hear it they would not have been able to give her any of the comfort or assurance she wanted.
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Makaus saw more than just smoke.
Juliia watched as Pho’nix’ea rose into the air, unaware she had been carrying Il’jan’i. Behind her were screams of fear and awe at the sight of what they immediately knew was an Oracle. That fear only grew as they watched the ball of flames the future Oracle of Death summon explode in the air. Some scattered, others stood dumbfounded at the display before them, and Juliia couldn’t find it in her to speak at what she saw. Even when Pho’nix’ea descended back into the forest, her eyes and mouth did not move.
“Did… did a High Oracle just approve of Miss Farlon’s performance?”
Juliia finally found herself able to turn back to the crowd as she heard those words. She looked among the crowd before her, noting similar murmurs along the same line of thought. That couldn’t be true though, she knew it. Only three High Oracles, Oracles with actual sapience and weren’t more along the line of feral animals, existed and what she just saw didn’t match the description of any of them. Yet she also did not know of any Oracle that looked like what she had just seen.
Her mind warred with itself, and she glanced back towards where Pho’nix’ea had risen up into the sky. She reached out towards the smoke, as if wishing to touch and feel it upon her feathers, and then brought it back to her body. With the true events that led to the Oracle’s ascent unknown to her, she became entranced with the idea that a being as powerful as the Rag’na’rog no doubt had been approved of her performance. It had forever been Juliia’s wish to bring happiness through song and art, and if an Oracle approved that not only proved her cause just, but silenced Acamus.
That last thought made her smile widely. Spreading her wings, she took a deep breath and looked at the crowd before her.
“I shall show those fascist fools the power of art and song, High Oracle,” She whispered, a slight amount of smugness making its way through her voice and showing in her posture. “This next song is for you.”