From Dust to Flame

9

"Then who are you?" I ask, shifting into a fighting position. My long brown hair flutters in the wind.

The black mass meets my keen hazel eyes.

"I am aether."

The black surrounds me, but instead of surrendering, I attack it with my own darkness. It recoils for a moment, then attacks again. I defend myself, a shield of pure black coming to my hands from sheer will. However, the aether uses that to it's advantage.

My darkness gets swallowed up, and the aether comes back twice as strong. I can't beat this thing. Darkness doesn't beat darkness. So, then what do I do?

The answer comes to mind right when the aether uses it's final blow. The black acts as a wind, the entire night sky slamming into me. I fall down, and put my hands to my head. I need to survive this. I have to survive this. There's no way I can't- otherwise this world will die. I need to save it. The grey and the black can't win.

A bright light explodes from my fingertips. I stand up, furious at this darkness causing all of this. Black- pure black- cannot rule over this world. This cannot happen. White crests at the top of my palms, and I know that I am not darkness anymore.

I am light.

The aether jumps back, realizing that I can retaliate. I will win. This is what I was meant to do. I make the light shine brighter, the white overtaking the black. Light versus darkness. Light always wins.

The aether growls, annoyed. It attacks me again, but I keep on walking forward. I start to see more grey than black, and I have never been happier to see the dull color. The darkness surrounds me, but I blast it away with light. I make it shrink, smaller and smaller, banishing it to the dark world in which it came from.

I've reduced the black to a small ball, and it retreats back into Huelnira. She immediately gets up again, and starts running away. I surround her with a bubble of pure white, whiter than snow, whiter than clouds. The black retaliates, but it can't overcome me.

It finally gives up, retreating to whatever null void it came from. I slump down, exhausted.  I did it. The world is rid of the darkness, forever. The world will survive. Miron comes to me, and exhales.

"You did it, child of aether." he greets, smiling ear to ear.

"I am not a child of the aether."

"Yes, you are. I told you that the aether mingled with the human race, did I not? Not only it produced the terrible darkness inside of Huelnira- it produced you.

"Arinlumi had a sibling, named Ignisha. Arinlumi was banished to a dying dimension for a horrible crime, and you- unlike Arinlumi, hated the fact that you were darkness. You felt as if you didn't fit into any of the other elemental traits either.

"So you created your own."

"What am I?" I whisper, my voice barely audible.

"You are light, the opposite of aether."

"What are you?" Miron starts, and mulls over what he will say.

"Don't hide anything from me."

"Arinlumi decided to possess Huelnira, picking up victims that fell into this terrible world. Huelnira has been dead for hundreds of years, but 'alive' by the hands of your sibling. It just so happens that Huelnira is an amazing illusionist, and she managed to keep the illusion of your flame and the world around us this entire time. One day, after following after your sibling, but retreating to the wrong universe, you lost all of your memories, and became reborn into a dying world.

"Then you came here."

He exhales, and I notice that the area around us suddenly became a dull grey, full of ashes, while he was talking to me. All the trees and wildlife are gone. I feel a deep urge to heave with sadness of failing this world, but I let Miron continue.

"I was ... the son of life itself. But the aether murdered me in cold blood, to avenge something that life had done to it."

"This world is dead?"

"There was no hope of you saving it, Ignisha."

I sob, a great wave of sadness overcoming me. I failed everything. I couldn't- I didn't.

"You were never meant to save this world. Your homeland is dying, about to become as dull as this one. You must work to prevent it to happen. I believe in you, Ignisha."

"You're not coming with me?" I cry, wanting to plead with Miron to come with me. I don't want to be alone.

"I do not exist."

And with that, he disintegrates into dust.