Light and Shadow✔️

Lady

As I child I had once touched the hot stove in the kitchen, it was so hot it felt cold. The sensation was nothing compared to being drowned in lava. If I had to describe it, maybe I could compare it to being eaten by fire ants. The pain was excruciating. I didn't know how long I was in there, but I just wanted to die, the moments felt like eternities. My lungs were filling with hot stone, my limbs were burning, I wanted to scream but nothing came out. 

Inside of me, or maybe it came from outside, I heard someone else screaming for me. Hot tears were staining cheeks that weren't my own, strong hands were fisting the earth. I could feel him. He was in pain, so much pain. The bond between us was starting to strain, getting thinner with every breath he took. My lifeline was shrinking. Rhys and Cassian were holding him, but-

He was feeling it too, the realization tore through me like an ice storm. With the shreds of power that I had left I grasped the strings around me. My own strings I would realize later, much later. Desperately I was weaving them, to achieve what, I didn't know. But with every little kernel of power leaving me the hurt got less, the burning sensation ebbing off until I was myself again. I could see, I could feel. Even though the lava around me was touching my skin it wasn't burning anymore. It was like water. Not clear, but soft and soothing. I made a stroke, as if swimming, parting the lava around me. 

When I emerged, from the ring of fire, my father had already returned to the platform, giving commands and directions. Like the cruel dictator he was. He had just killed his own daughter how could he not even take a moment to mourn the child he had seen grow up? The indifference was like a slap in the face. Worse. The onlookers were more shocked than him. At least Tinus had the decency to look somewhat remorseful. 

Something in me seemed to break. I was nothing to him. Worth even less than the dirt beneath his feet.

As he turned around his eyes widened at me, but I didn't give him time to compose himself, before my fingers closed around his neck. A scream echoed from his throat, but I didn't care, I just threw him in the air. I pushed off the earth, flying after him, hitting him hard enough several of his bones broke when he hit the earth.

Panting I was making course to land, but my father spoke, his eyes fixing on a big white and black striped cat strolling down the aisle: "You told me my son would be the one to follow me, the one to change this clan and make it one of the most powerful ever seen."

Neva.

My heart stopped. How could she be here? Why wasn't she on the clearing miles away? And why was he talking to her as if waiting for an answer?

"No. I foretold your child would bring change greater than anyone ever before. That it would restore your kingdom to its old strength and beyond. You just assumed I was talking about your baby boy" the voice was a shower of ice, a cool winter breeze, both young and ancient.

Everyone immediately fell to their knees, for before them stood Neva, the goddess of winter and strength. 

Ice flooded me again, but a different kind. It was almost paralyzing. 

What?

I blinked. And blinked again.

I had spent weeks with a Goddess and I hadn't realized who she was? So much questions, questions bordering on insolence, raced through my head. Why hadn't she saved me the day those three came to get me? How could an all-knowing goddess step into a poisonous bush without realizing and why had it even hurt her?  

My feet touched the ground and thanks to a very old, almost instinctual reflex I kneeled alongside my people. Angering a goddess was always a good way to get oneself killed very painfully.