8 Purification by Fire (1/2)
”There is no greater agony, than bearing an untold story inside you.”
-Maya Angelou
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”Summone spiritus dea. I command thee, the sealed spirit of flame to descend from the heavens upon my rite and to consume what is laid fore. Summon! Ignitress!”
From the heavens, there appeared a giant rift that seemed unearthly, as if it was a gate that connects two discrepant realms of which one belonged to the deities themselves. And there, descended a crimson humanoid image with wings like a phoenix that stretched all over the clear night sky. In her not-so-clear and comprehensible chant just a moment ago, she called that, the spirit of flame, Ignitress.
I was stunned for quite a while amidst the scenery that the Goddess herself created out of her own words. It was such, if I were to define, a suite display of what a God who is at least inferior to the highest excellency is really capable of doing, and a cascaded showcasing of elegance and beauty.
The humanoid spirit then pointed its hand toward the mansion. Then out of it, there came forth a crimson-colored fire that took the shape of a gargantuan avian. It then flapped its wings mightily downwards toward what was in front of us, the mansion.
In its glorious light that is appearing brighter as it gets closer, I covered my eyes using my arms and then, the moment I took it off, I saw fire engulfing all around us and great smoke arising as if it was a glimpse of hell. The flame was too strong and instead of merely just burning the whole place down, it could have easily killed me, if it was not of Lacrimosa's provision protecting me in that time.
I saw bodies being born, incinerated to dust. Bodies of my beloved ones that gave me much to remember that made them much harder to forget, along with the slowly weakening fire that is obliterating them to ash with not a single remains of life's benisons. Amidst the flaming environment, the goddess slowly handed me something...
”Here, I saw it in your mother's hand so I picked it up.” As I was watching the mansion's shape slowly turning void due to the fire, the goddess suddenly said, while handing to me a piece of crippled paper.
”What is this?” I asked.
”See for yourself, I value your right to privacy,” she answered with this honest look that I found to be somewhat satirical.
I assumed that it was probably just one of those cheques containing large sums of money that had been the root cause of all evil tonight. Yet in all curiosity, I uncovered a part of it and to my surprise, it was not just any kind of paper. It was a letter of which the first line reads ”Dearest Jaiden”.
From that single sudden glimpse alone, I knew the handwriting made it seem that it was from my mom and that, it looked like it was made hastily. I decided to put that paper as it was and placed it along with the fire... I can't afford a souvenir. Mom would understand.
”Hey... You sure about that?”
”Yes.”
”Hayst... And I had to go through a lot of effort to retrieve that. Oh well, it's your choice...”
The fire then started to quench little by little. The moment all had gone out, the place was wiped off clean like it was purified by fire. There were no marks of dead bodies and all were turned to ash without falters and even the verdant ground once filled with green uniformly-cut grasses was turned to ash.
And as I was staring at the ruins laid in front, the Goddess suddenly said...
”Your request had been fulfilled... and also someone is coming.”
”Eh? Who?”
”Oh, there is no need to worry. While you may not likely know her, she knows you very well. She will stand as the guardian in your new transition in living. Heed her Jaiden as she is the remaining relative you have.”