Chapter 32: The fading rose
Leïlana's words were resonating in Arja's mind.
"There is nothing anymore for you in this world"
Arja stood up and took the direction of the door silently. As she pushed the door slowly, she found herself in a plain. She had the dagger in her hand, like the last footsteps of the condemned ones carrying their sentence. She watched the night sky and the Little Star as she wondered for how long the Gods have decided her fate. For how long was she condemned to die? Arja felt tired since Typhon's death, this tiredness was unbearable anymore and her steps were slow and heavy.
The fresh air caressed her face. Arja enjoyed it as she walked for a while. Hagalaz didn't manage to follow her; she thought that was better this way. She was sure he would find a better place, she had left him in the forest in a desolate land where nobody would ever dare to hunt him.
She was keeping her grip tight on the blade, searching for the best place possible to enjoy her last moment.
Arja saw a hill. She climbed it with a smile. She sat on the highest spot and she enjoyed the view of the sky and the clouds, feeling the wind moving her hair like a tender touch. She felt extremely calm. Her mind was finally free of everything, she took a deep breath. She felt tired of fighting. Tired to run and hide. She was so tired. She smiled as she thought she would finally rest.
She made her decision, she would die here. At dawn.
Arja sat there all day. She was contemplating the horizon from the climax of her life. She smiled peacefully, there were no clouds and the sky was magnificent. Arja was relaxed for the first time since she couldn't even remember how long. She took a deep breath, the night was falling in a show she wished to engrave in her mind.
The stars looked a bit different this night but the Little Star was there. It was loyal to its position even if it seemed a bit shinier than before. Arja took a bottle from her bag and drank.
"Thank you for coming, Little Star. We are old friends now, I was afraid you would not be there for me."
Arja laughed. The hill was empty, nothing and nobody was around. Not even a bird disturbed the perfect calm. Arja started to talk to the sky, laughing, she was truly happy.
"I think of what happened recently, and you know what? I think I died a long time ago. I died when Typhon left me. The rest was a bonus. I should never have been able to go farther. I am happy I found Ulrich but let's face it, we have nothing in common anymore. And then, I died for the first time. You were not there, Little star, you didn't see but it was incredibly painful."
She took another sip and laughed even louder.
"Little Star, do you think I can come to live with you? Do you think I will finally meet Yshnaa? I spent so much time in my life praying for her, I wish to join her Kingdom. I always did things that I judged as good. I tried to be as noble as possible. I was brave when it was expected of me. I did my best in this life."
The Little Star seemed to shine even more. Arja took the dagger in her hands. She saw water on the blade and then she realized she was crying. She could see her reflection in the weapon.
She stared a moment at her mutilated face and her only eye. Part of her cheek and her lips were burned, then she lowered the blade and watched the armor that was made by Ulrich for her.
It was pure beauty but it was hiding the scars of her life. Arja took out the plastron. Her hand ran through her body. She caressed with tenderness the first scar she had with Typhon during a mission. Every mark was proof that she existed, and every scar was a strong memory that influenced her life.
Then she caressed her belly and she couldn't contain her pain.
"Look at me, Little Star. I am ashamed. Crying for the loss of the children I wished to have and were never born. Isn't it ridiculous?"
Arja lowered her head to her chest, hiding her face behind her hair. Her voice was muffled as she cried. Arja felt like the little girl full of dreams she was for a moment.
"But I wanted them so badly. And I lost them. I lost him. I lost my dad and my mom. I lost my friend. That was not fair. I lost my humanity. Jäwell took me everything and I am going to kill myself with one of his weapons. Isn't it pathetic? Oh little star, please don't mock me now. I need compassion in my last moments. I need to be Arja from the Faranza Kingdom, the princess Arja for one more time before the end. I need to cry for all of them, I need to cry what I was not able to cry before as I had no time for this."
And the tears ran down her face like a torrent. Then Arja raised her head, stood up half-naked, and yelled.
"It was not fair!"
She calmed a bit after yelling, she needed it, she needed to vent. Her fist tightened on the blade. Arja did not despair, she was not sad. She felt angry, she had a burning rage to be put in this situation. What kind of trick was it? She turned into a creature of the same bloodline as the one that killed her family and ravaged her Kingdom. While Jäwell had raised the dead and put in place the beginnings of the plague she had fought all her life, she was now one of them. She laughed a little at the situation. Of all possible fates, it had to end like this.
She placed the slicing part on her throat and cut her neck in one fast move.
She felt the cold embrace of death. That was it, that was the end of her journey. She felt the blood rolling down her body and she was relaxed, happy. She was about to join Typhon.
Without another noise, in the calm of the hill. Arja fell on her knees in front of the night with a smile. Enjoying the view as she felt her soul going to sleep. She felt she would finally be able to rest.
In a last deep breath, Arja died with a peaceful smile on her face.
****
At this moment, a voice raised from the shadows behind Arja's lifeless body. The voice was the one of a woman. She stepped out of the shadows and spread two gigantic white wings, dressed in a magnificent white and gold dress. The woman was furious, she joined Arja and kicked her. Arja's dead body fell on the front, her face on the ground. The woman shouted at her with rage.
"Who do you think you are?! A princess?! That's a joke! You are a monster and I don't want you near us. You will never join the golden city. I hate you Arja, I hate you with all my soul!"
She grabbed Arja by the hair and pulled her. The woman spat in her face angrily before throwing her to the ground and then, letting her anger explode. Her long blonde hair began to glow and her whole skin became as hot as the sun.
A halo emanated from her gigantic, pure white wings. Arja slowly opened her eyes. Her body ached like never before. Arja screamed in pain, rolling like a worm on the ground, trying in vain to escape her suffering.
The woman spoke to her through clenched teeth.
"I hate you. You will never come to my kingdom. You will never rest. I, Yshnaa, condemn you, curse you for life. Did you want my attention? You have it. Pay it now."
Arja didn't understand what was happening, but she saw her skin burning and blisters forming on the surface. Yshnaa stood up after pushing Arja off her feet in a humiliating gesture. She crossed her arms and watched her cry out in pain. Arja had no idea but to take the dagger and cut her burnt skin. The pain she felt when she cut herself was less than the pain she felt in her heart.
Yshnaa laughed at her. Arja suffocated when she finished. She was deeply shocked.
"Why the f*** would you hate me like this!?"
Yshnaa uncrossed her arms, her wings spread, hiding the light of the moon.
"Is it because of Miroïr?! I didn't choose this!"
Yshnaa laughed even louder then she spoke to her with a condescending voice.
"Oh, little poor thing who talks to her Little Star in the sky since her teens. I could almost pity you. You are a daughter of a King and you have the right to my place by birthright, this is exactly why I hate you, why you will never die. I will make sure that you never join us."
Yshnaa flapped her wings rapidly and started to leave the place. Arja had wild opened eyes. Yshnaa screamed at her before disappearing.
"And never tell my name again or I swear that you will regret it!"
That was so unexpected for her. Arja felt a burning rage in her. After everything she endured, her goddess came to her in the mortal realm only to curse her.
The scream of Arja resonated in the plain. The anger was devouring her soul. She closed her eyes as tears of rage were rolling down her cheeks. Arja didn't care anymore about anything except her fury, the wind raised all around her. Her voice became lower and more powerful. Her scream resonated further as she felt the power invading her body. In the night, she heard a howling as an answer to her.
She saw Hagalaz running in her direction. He looked different. The mystical creature was not physically touching the ground. When he was near her, Arja kneeled in front of him. Hagalaz was now a night creature. She saw a wound on his chest, this wound must have been deadly for him. Arja recognized the black shadows and Leïlana's scent over the wolf. Leïlana must have found Hagalaz dead, she must have realized that something had gone wrong and brought him back to join Arja.
Arja caressed the dead animal.
"You came to me? Did Yshnaa kill you?"
The wolf seemed to understand what Arja asked and howled. Arja understood the feeling behind this scream. The wolf was angry. The wind grew stronger around them into a tornado. Arja roared in the wind and her voice was carried with power all over the region. Her blood was mixing with the earth in the wind into a dirty mixture that would terrify anybody who could see it.
Arja had pain from the wind touching her skinless body. She didn't have the time to remove the bottom of her armor in time and pieces of the metal melted into her flesh when Yshnaa burnt her. It got cooler with the wind and solidified as a part of her. Arja was too furious to notice anything. She was supposed to be dead with those wounds and her neck was still not healed. The amount of blood she was losing was incredible, so much so that she wondered how she could continue to bleed.
Arja took a step in front of her. She didn't have balance. Then, she took another step, and this way, slowly, she went away.
There was no point in her staying there but she also didn't know where she was or where to go. She was there with her rage and no idea what to do next.
She walked in the direction that she thought to be the North, eventually, she would find Altraya. She never saw such a plain before, she was lost but anyway, she was too furious to think of anything else than just walking in front of her at the moment. She has been humiliated by the goddess she prayed for all her life.
She felt tears running down her face but this time, that was not of pain.
Arja screamed with all the power she had left to be sure to be heard through the space, up to God's realm.
"I am gonna kill you! I will find you and kill you!"
In a cold and terrifying whisper, she added.
"After that, I'll die, and there's nothing you can do about it."
****
It was in the Golden City, in the Ombrae. A shiny city in the sky with golden columns and marble stones.
Archanium was focusing on a map representing the light world. Yshnaa came to him and caressed his shoulder tenderly, hugging him from behind, she came to drop a kiss on his neck. Archanium turned in her direction, he touched her cheek with tenderness before placing his hand on her throat. Then he pinned her onto the wall behind her and choked her for a few minutes before he whispered in her ear.
"Next time, I will not spare you."
He opened his hand to free her and the goddess fell on the floor. Yshnaa placed her hands on her painful neck while whimpering.
"Archanium, listen to me! If Arja dies, they will hide she existed and you will have no right to come back to the mortal realm. We can use her to free you. This is why I cursed her to life! I did it for you, for us!"
Archanium spread his wings, his golden eyes piercing like those of an eagle before its prey.
"I advise you to stop talking."
Yshnaa was furious, she left the room without any other word. Archanium came back to his map and didn't turn his head as she ran away. He had a slight smile on his lips when another voice came from the shadows.
"You know she loves you. You are cruel, brother."
Archanium laughed.
"I have no care for this pathetic goddess. In this world, there are only us. You, Zarkhaïm, and me.
Archanium's brother was amused and he chuckled.
"And her."
Archanium whispered in echo with a terrific smile as he agreed with the man hidden behind him.
"And her."
The voice faded away in laughter.
"Try to not destroy the world with Zarkhaïm this time. I would not be pleased to have to kill you."
****
This is the end of an era.
The wind blows stronger,
And the story continues.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Dragoslawa
Dragoslawa Thank you so much to be a part of my world!
Volume 2 is already finished and in the process to be corrected.
Coming very soon!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone