Sun & Moon

Chapter 32 - Astrid

My vision blurs to a hazy but bright light.

I remember this feeling from a dream not too long ago. The humming that surrounds me brings back the memory of the tune I heard the last time. She said it was the song of my ancestors.

Suddenly, my vision clears. The brightness settles enough for me to see that I am standing in a circle of some sort, emanating a golden aura. I step out of it and look back, making out the faint hazy shape of two wispy figures in the middle of the circle.

I look around my surroundings and recognize this place as the underground hall I was just in. Or am currently in. The dark shades of earthy browns and greys are now touched with bright whites and yellows, the walls and floor glistening in the light.

"Astrid," a voice calls from the entrance steps.

An entity made of pure light floats in, so bright that I squint my eyes almost to full closure. It settles down as soon as it stops in front of me. The woman before me looks inhuman in the most beautiful way possible. Her irises are so bright that all I can make out are the two black pupils. Her hair is pure white and so is her robe; where one ends and the other begins is a puzzle my eyes can't compute.

"Sun Goddess."

I gasp in awe of being in the presence of a heavenly being, one who created me and my family and everyone before us.

The Goddess smiles as she puts her arms unexpectedly around me. I gasp at the act, feeling strange that one as holy as her would embrace me so affectionately. My arms hang by my sides awkwardly. She moves in to place a kiss upon my forehead, then two kisses each on my eyelids. I feel utterly stunned.

"My child." Her voice tingles in my ears like wind chimes catching a breeze. "You have made it."

"I found the white wolf, Bianca, as you asked," I tell her.

She reaches a hand out. My breath is raggedy and I tremble quite a bit in nervousness and anticipation. The Goddess moves a bit of my hair that's hanging over my left shoulder. She smiles and traces a finger lightly over Rio's mark. She hums in approval.

"And I see that you have also finally found some sense and put your stubborn pride aside, Astrid," she says. "Good. I have been waiting for this. And now, I can give you what you came here to receive."

She plucks a single strand of hair from her head. It glows in between her fingers as she twists it into a circle. Then, placing it in the palm of her hands, she blows it onto my face. The hair disintegrates into tiny shimmery particles of light that I blink away as they enter my eyes.

The back of my head begins to tingle warmly as the sensation travels down my spine and spreads to the tips of my fingers and toes. I look down at my hands to notice my skin glowing for a few seconds, which then dissipates. And I feel a strange surge of power jolting up my soul.

"What's happening to me?" I ask, confused and enthralled at the power coursing through my veins, causing my heart to palpitate a little faster.

"I needed Rio to mark you first before you received my blessing, Astrid," she says. "It is through that mark that you take a bit of him as much as he takes a bit of you, for you are now two halves of a whole."

The light surrounding me begins to dampen slowly. I look up at the Sun Goddess and notice that her features, too, appear clearer as the harsh light softens. Her skin still looks unnaturally aglow—she is a Goddess after all—but her eyes now appear golden instead of the stark white I saw before. Even her hair, which was blended into her gown seamlessly before, is a slightly brighter shade of white that falls all the way down to her feet. She tilts her head and smiles at me. The movement causes her skin to shift and shimmer as if she were made of half glitter.