Returning Home

Title: Returning Home
Author: SilverInk
Writing: Short Story (Excerpt?)/ to-be-continued?
Word Count: 849

Alina Zephyr was still. Despite the time, her room had remained untouched. Her parents hadn’t altered anything after she’d been banished from Bryka Fields and made an Object of Holena. Five years ago. It seemed so long now, but it was only five years. Two since the Ferrezin tournament and the last time she’d been on the planet of Idyllen. 

One by one she pulled the covers off, unveiling her old desk, her old bed, her old dresser-closet, and her old doll rack. A moment of silence enveloped the house as she stared at her bunny-doll collection. 

"I know," she said quietly, so softly it might have been nonexistent. "I am sorry too. But we are leaving now....I do not know....yes. Come on." she raised her hands, and pushed them together, gathering all the rabbits in one sweep and shrinking them into little charms that she attached to a chain she created. This charm necklace she slipped away into the black pack on her thigh. "We are going back to Edihn after this," she answered an unheard question as she began to pack up the other items in the room into the black energy spheres. 

"Yes, I am sure Lady Holena will allow me to keep you in my room." She giggled and for a moment all signs of the 18-year-old energy pool melted away and she was an innocent 13-year-old child again. Only the moving tattoo on her face betrayed the power within her.

She continued to each room cheerfully, picking the things she wanted to keep and leaving the rest untouched. "It is large too....of course we all get rooms of our own....it really is a sort of paradise up there. Aside from fighting the Pains, of course, but it is eden besides that. All the food we can eat, all the luxuries, entertainment. It is not quite as bad as people here portray." 

She finished scouring the second floor and unlocked the trapdoor to the attic. The small attic had used to be her little escape whenever he mother yelled at her. She remembered the boxes of baby clothes and baby books up there, and the little hammock she had made. She floated up into it now, with no need for the frayed rope ladder. 

"Fighting Pains is harder than fighting here," she replied ominously. "Brutal all-out murder. Anything to survive another day," she continued, ducking her head and entrapping the boxes in black energy spheres before lowering them to the ground  below safely. 

"Anything to defend yourself from the Pains. Because they will do anything they want. Rape. Slaughter. Mutilation. Every day, the same routine. Go out there and beat the life out of everything that moves, then return to Holena's Haven to rest and enjoy yourself."

Everything was now away and she swept the dusty rug to the ground as well, deciding it might as well be moved to her room on Edihn. She gave everything a cursory  glance before zeroing in on the false panel that had been underneath the rug. "Never knew this was here," she noted, reflecting on the many hours she had spent cooped up in this little room. With a thin ribbon of pure energy she unlocked the panel and looked inside. 

There was a picture of a little girl, around five, with dark brown hair, slightly curled and very silky. The girl's hazel eyes were wide, open in innocence and delight. Alina stroked her own blonde--almost white--hair and tried to impose her small blue eyes over the picture. It clashed. 

"Who is this? Was there another child?....No? Who is this then?" she asked. She stroked the silver necklace and charm the girl in the picture wore and examined the cute frilly dress. Nothing was familiar.

"Strange," she murmured and set the picture aside and dug up the second and last object in the secret vault: a rectangular rosewood case with an ornate clasp. She opened it to find a bloody dagger resting on a satin cover. Looped around the dagger was the silver necklace the girl in the picture wore, and on the inside cover was a collection of small clippings and photos. They showed the same little girl from the picture, only dead, mutilated and murdered by a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Almost just like Alina. 

“But I have only killed Pains…and I do not mutilate my victims….” She skimmed through various photos of the murder scene and finally arrived at a short newspaper clipping from 13 years ago.

"Youth mutilated and murdered by escaped convict," read the headline. Alina balked at this and turned to the charms hanging out her bag. “I have never been arrested though; how was I a convict? ” she snapped her fingers and created a small ball of light energy that hovered close to the newspaper as she scrutinized the story for answers.

"Five year old Alina Zephyr was mutilated and killed by escaped national convict 19 Delin Al Era in the temple sanctum...."

Artist's Note: So I was looking at the archive on DiW and thought I was missing a few posts, so I found something from a few weeks ago to post...consider it an Angelmas present? >.<

I refer you to "Lucidity" by Lewis. :D. This post refers to that incident >:)

And I have transferred the picture's link to this post: 

 Picture of her on TegakiE . Mini-preview here!: Yap! Comment on both please :D

What else...I will be continuing to write about the Chosen Three in January. Haha. 

So yea! Happy New Year's EVE! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!

~SilverInk