A/N: This story is very special, as I have collabed on this project with fellow user ImmaPegacornz for her Kid Icarus: Origins series. She's a very good friend and excellent writer who let me aid with this origin story for Phosphora. I hope you enjoy and please checkout ImmaPegacornz' account for more in the origins series and more fantastic KI works: u/6426437/ImmaPegacornz
Enjoy!
There is an old saying among humans meant to comfort those who have been plagued with bad luck,
"Lightning never strikes the same place twice….how ironic,," the voice of a young woman echoed through the thick forest, "Like they know anything about true misfortune."
The woman was tall with short yellow hair, her clothes similar to a tunic with a flowing blue scarf. This was Phosphora, the recently exiled Lightning Nymph.
In the world of gods and angels, one would think these mighty figures of myth and power would have solved all issues resolving difference and discrimination among themselves, but as Phosphora saw it, they were almost worse than humans. Segregation still existed except in the strictest of circumstances, otherwise it was always the same: gods on top, angels in the middle, Nymphs just above demons as the lowest of the low. To think humans see the heavens as a utopia. Phosphora thought.
"If not for our abilities and apparent stature as almighty beings, we'd be trudging through the same mud as you...which is sadly what I'm doing now thanks to Nero."
The nymph grunted as she took a break from walking to sit on a fallen tree trunk and began to scrape muck from her shoes as her exile replayed in her head.
-:-
It was certainly calm. The sky was filled of watercolor techniques; a brilliant gradient wash, patted on with explosions of orange from the sun, soaring up from its nap through the night. It was early morning. Every early morning, Phosphora would go out on her adventures, searching and scavenging for anything she could find. Usually, her adventures were without meaning, rather just done to engage herself. Though, it was different that day.
Just the other day, the humans saw her powers and praised her. They thought she was strong. She then revealed to them all the little chattels and goods she got from her adventures. The humans were in awe, amazed by all the gorgeous valuables she found. All the praise and attention from the humans made her feel special, a feeling she had never truly felt before, after all, she never really felt as if she belonged with all the antagonism against nymphs. While being in the moment of all the praise, she promised to bring gifts and valuables to all the humans from her adventures, as long as she was provided a place to stay and could use her powers. The humans, acting out of greed, happily obliged. Phosphora finally felt appreciated, I'm never going back to the heavens, she thought with a large grin on her face. There's so much more to do here, anyway, and for once, my adventures finally have a purpose.
As the blonde nymph flew through the sky, she hummed a tune, and flew over the city of Misenum, travelling into Neapolis.
"I've heard riches aplenty are stashed in this place. Time to get to work." The nymph smiled as she softly landed on the outskirts of Neapolis.
Walking through the market, she began swiping necklaces and jewels she found eye catching, and found herself pick pocketing a few unlucky souls for some silver coins.
"These I'll use for lunch." Phosphora whispered, stashing the coins in a pocket of the satchel the humans gave her for easier transport of her treasures.
With every stand picked clean and no one the wiser, Phosphora silently slinked away from the growing chaos behind her as the market goers began to realize a surprising lack of wares to sell. She giggled to herself before making her way to the food sellers,
"How much for a warm stew? I'm treating myself today for a hard day's work," The nymph chuckled, tossing the silver coins on the counter. The chef at the stand stared down the coins with surprise and greed as he slid them into his apron pocket.
"This much silver could get you a buffet miss, I'll give you as much stew as you want with this." Phosphora licked her lips a bit in reply. "Well I am hungry, lay them on me."
An hour and three bowls of stew later, Phosphora plopped her spoon on the table and pushed away the half eaten bowl, groaning. "Ughhh. I'm full, I still need to be able to fly back to Misenum without being weighed down too much," She moaned out.
"Very well, miss, I'll pack the two other stews I made for you in a travel container, you may have them later if you wish."
Handing the container to the blonde nymph, Phosphora slowly made her way back to the edge of town, trying to balance carrying her sack of treasures on her shoulder and comforting her aching stomach, "I don't want to see stew again for a good few years, ughhhhh." Turning a corner, Phosphora noticed a young boy and girl dressed in patches and rags, sitting in an alley between two of the few stone structures in this part of the town. One of them caught eye of the nymph and held out an old tin pot that had a copper piece or two inside.
"Spare a copper piece, ma'am?"
Phosphora smiled sympathetically and knelt down to their level, "I'm sorry, I spent all I had back at the market, but here," She reached in her bag and pulled out the container of stew. "It's vegetable stew, it should still be warm enough to eat and it tastes great. You keep it, okay?" The children beamed up at the nymph and the girl suddenly plopped onto Phosphora giving her a hug, "Thank you, ma'am, thank you for your kindness," Phosphora patted the girl's back and set her down.
"You're welcome, let's just say I know a thing or two about those who deserve respect and fruits of aid. Enjoy the stew!"
She called out, walking away back to the market. That felt good, she thought, Perhaps I misjudged humans before, they may be inferior, but they are nice and grateful inferiors, that's for sure.
The blonde arrived back to the city of Misenum, and gathered in the forum. Soon, people saw that she was back, and hollered to others to go to the forum. Everyone, excited of their gifts, groveled at Phosphora's feet. "No need to get on your knees, everyone," Phosphora giggled,
"There's gifts for everyone. Hey, all the Puellae, I'm sure you'll like this. Got a bunch of jewelry just for ya'll!"
As Phosphora handed the gifts to all the girls and women, they whispered amongst themselves, disappointed in their gifts. Most of them had disgusted looks on their faces, leading Phosphora to quickly take note of their disgust.
"Something wrong?" Phosphora questioned, the women immediately cleared their faces and smiled, "Nothing, lord Phosphora, continue with the gift giving."
"Of course.. All Puerī, here ya go. I've got swords, helmets, golden spurs, and riding boots for all of you. I know how noble it is to have the status, 'equestrian' so I got you some boots and spurs to prove your nobility."
The men had the same expression the women did, and it didn't go unnoticed by Phosphora. Among the upset crowd was Nero, the emperor. He was sitting in a golden vermillion chair, being carried by slaves. Phosphora's eyes landed right on him.
"Seriously, you guys, what is up with everyone today?"
Nero glanced at the people, then glanced the other way.
"You see, Phosphora, we aren't happy with our gifts. Not in the slightest," Nero chuckled sarcastically.
"What?" Phosphora exclaimed, dumbfounded, "But I got you guys gifts! I-"
"You think we like these gifts, Phosphora?" Nero said, rolling his eyes.
"It's Lord Phosphora to you," Phosphora blurted out. "Why should it be different for you? Everyone else calls me that."
"And I'm not like everyone else, Phosphora. Silly girl. I'm Nero, the emperor, I'm certainly god status." Nero laughed long and hard, before beginning again,
"Phosphora, Misenum is a rich place, none of us need these. I've got tons of spurs at home, I've got a collections of riding boots, and I don't need swords or helmets, I have people fight for me. Half of these people already have these, my queen has more jewelry then I can count, why should she need more? When we said we wanted gifts, we didn't think all these things would be.. Well, useless. To put it, frankly, my dear, these are dumb. None of us need these. Go back and find some other things for us, will you dear?"
Phosphora shut her eyes and started thinking if she should go back out for these ungrateful humans. She decided it would be best, considering she has no place to stay after her journeys, and she couldn't return to the heavens knowing nymphs had no future there.
"Fine." She simply stated, "I'll be back."
"That's more like it," Nero chuckled once again while being carried away by his slaves. "Maybe come back with indigo or something, something worthwhile."
Phosphora felt her body tense in anger at the smug tone of Nero's voice, and she felt a spark rise and fade in her hand. "You should've been happy I brought you anything from the start."
"What was that? Slaves! Stop!" Nero turned in his chair and stared the nymph down,
"You dare talk to me this way? You should be lucky we let you stay here, and not rot in the outside world like the dirty nymph you are."
Phosphora's eyes twitched and she spun around to stare right back at Nero, her teeth gritting in anger, "...dirty nymph?" She repeated with an angry tone.
Nero grinned and leaned in closer to her, "Don't think I don't know what you are; you are no god, no angel, you're a lowly, insignificant, thieving Nymph!"
He spit as he finished speaking, the spittle spreading across Phosphora's face. She growled angrily and wiped the spit of her face. "I thought you were better…" She murmured, before turning to face the crowd, "I thought I judged humans wrong, but apparently not. You think I'm dirty and insignificant, when you are the creatures who have barely learned to efficiently fire and trudge through the mud and grime fighting pointless wars for your own insatiable egos!"
Her anger got the better of her and she shot a bolt of lightning in the sky, thunder erupting from her hand as she did so.
"Nymphs may be seen as nothing to gods, but to me, humans are nothing more than greedy meat sacks!"
Phosphora leaped up on Nero's chair and held him by the throat, sending small sparks from her hand to shock him.
"I'm sick of people like you, I might be doing the world a favor by removing you from power."
She felt the energy course up her arm and begin to build in her hands, the lightning would be enough to kill him in a single second. But before as the bolt was to be released, Phosphora was knocked from the chair to the ground,
"KEEP YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF OF OUR EMPEROR!"
A guard said, raising his spear to Phosphora as she rolled over to look up at him. She rose slowly and shot her hand out to grab the spear, "Remember, you all asked for this." She said, before releasing the energy in her hand across the spear to the guard.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
The guard's body was covered in emerald sparks and his flesh burned under its power. His lifeless body fell to the ground and Phosphora turned to the crowd, "If you value your life, leave NOW." She yelled out to the crowd.
The crowd, instead, charged at her. Nero, frazzled and terrified, quickly called his militia to destroy Phosphora. "I want that dirty scum dead! Dead, you hear me!? My orders!"
Phosphora was tackled to the ground by a raging crowd, even little wealthy kids of the parents fighting were chucking rocks and stones at her. Phosphora, surrounded and terribly injured, started to defend herself by zapping lightning bolts around the crowd, trying to scare them off. Unfortunately, the lightning shock hit someone, Nero's queen, who was simply a bystander through all of it. She was struck down to the ground, laying lifeless. Nero let out a long and loud howl after seeing his beloved wife go down. He quickly ran to his wife, trying to shake her awake. She wasn't breathing, she had no pulse, she was dead.
The whole crowd stood stunned and confused over what had just happened. Everyone watched as Nero cried and shouted over his dead wife's body. "You.. You killed my wife. YOU KILLED MY REGINA!"
"It… It was an accident, Nero," Phosphora stuttered, wide eyed and shaking, "You were all attacking me, I didn't mean to kill anyone, and I never meant to kill your queen, I just wanted you guys to back off! I didn't mean to kill her, I-"
"I don't care WHAT you tried to do!" Nero cried, "You killed my wife, and that's all that matters. Not only are you a dirty, disgusting, and irrelevant nymph, You are now also a murderer, she was innocent! Milēs, attack her, NOW! I want her dead!"
The soilders threw their spears, shot their canons, and charged with their swords. After being hit with a few spears, Phosphora knew this wasn't a fight she'd be able to win. Either she'd kill everyone, and enrage more humans and the gods as well, or she'd die letting them win. She decided to make a run for it. It was a hard choice for her, considering she had the mentality that if you are in a fight, you must end it. Now, Phosphora was running, and was running from some dumb weak humans as well.
Phosphora flew out of Misenum, but was still being chased. She had no other choice except to hide in a very dense forest.
"We will find you, Phosphora," Nero shouted, still teary eyed, "You can hide all you want, but we will find you, even if it means cutting down ALL the trees! And when we do, you filthy nymph murēs, we will KILL you!"
Afterwards Phosphora just kept running, leaving no straight route for herself as she weaved through the trees and bushes around her. Her run slowly became a limp as she felt a wound in her left leg begin to send a shocking pain up her body, then she had to hold her arm up to keep that pain limited. Tears welled in her eyes but she just kept going and going.
Night soon came, and Phosphora was hidden under the darkness. By this point, hearing nothing other than the wildlife around her, she assumed Nero retreated and left her to die here. She felt none of her energy, the spark in her soul was dim and she fought dropping unconscious then and there. Eventually she stopped and fell to the ground to rest, but as she began to sleep, she also began to cry softly into her hands. She had nothing now, no one to help her, no place to stay, nothing. "This world hates me for being born, fine then." She sobbed as she slowly drifted to sleep, "If the gods truly want me dead, do me a favor and kill me in my sleep, so I won't feel it that way. Let me have….at least...that." Phosphora fell asleep, practically unconscious and laid there in the forest for the rest of the night.
-:-
That was about a week ago now, and Phosphora clearly got no answer from the gods. She continued to trudge through this endless forest. Her strength and power still laid dormant inside her, her skin was pale from great blood loss due to her wounds, and every inch of her body ached as she kept going through dirt and bushes.
Finding yet another fallen tree to rest at, Phosphora laid on it and silently lamented, that was until she heard rustling. She arose in fear as she saw tall bushes moving and swaying, someone was behind them. She fell back off the trunk and slammed on the ground, only for her to scream in utter pain.
"What on Earth?" The voice was commanding and rather ancient by the sound of it, a british accent too. "That was no animal, shall I inspect, Mistress?"
Phosphora's heart dropped a bit, there were two of them? She could barely stand at this point let alone take on two humans, apparently the gods wanted her to die an embarrassing death at the hands of mere forest people.
"Don't think about leaving me out of the fun, Arlon. I'm not a child you know."
The other voice was loud, young, and female. "Very well, Mistress, but I will protect you either way." The other man chuckled dryly. Phosphora winced as the people cleared through the bushes.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" The man called out. "If you're responsible for cutting this poor tree down, you better have a good reason for it, bub!" The girl almost shrieked. "Now, now, Mistress Viridi, have I taught you no manners?"
Viridi? Phosphora had heard that name before amongst the heavens, she didn't know who that was but this girl was apparently known to the gods. Perhaps they came in search for her to bring her back to Skyworld for punishment? At this point, Phosphora decided to take the chance just for the hope that if she's returned to skyworld, she'll at least be in a warmer area. "Over...here." She whispered just loud enough over the fallen trunk.
She heard the footsteps get closer, than two figures appeared over her head. The man was tall, with purple skin and white hair, his mustache must've been five feet long and he had a piercing stare even through his monocle. The girl was a healthy pale, with long blond hair and an outfit seemingly handcrafted from branches, leaves, and thorns. These weren't humans, for sure. "Who are you?" The girl asked, a mix of shock and curiosity in her voice. Phosphora stared at them for a moment before speaking with a dry voice, "Pho-Phosphora." She said weakly. "I was attacked...by humans...please...help...me." That was all she could say before her fatigue and blood loss overcame the poor nymph, she fell unconscious yet again.
"Good heavens." The man said with slight shock, "She is a nymph, my Mistress, attacked by humans, hmm? They've done a number on her."
"Disgusting creatures, humans, one day they will pay for all they've done, and here I thought they only wanted to kill nature. Let's bring her back to the temple, bandage her wounds and get her to a hot spring!" She commanded to the tall man, who bowed. "Yes, Mistress."
-:-
That evening, Phosphora spent almost the whole night in the warm, healing hot spring. Still unconscious, Viridi sat right next to her not leaving her side. Arlon knocked on the door, carrying a tray of food.
"Mistress, aren't you going to eat dinner? It's getting cold."
Viridi stared at the water, not turning back to give Arlon even a glance, "I wanna make sure she's ok. Can you just save it for me? I'll eat it later."
Arlon sighed and walked into the hot spring room and took a seat beside his mistress. "I know you care for her, Mistress Viridi," Arlon began, "but you still must eat. You have said later to me more than 5 times, come and eat dinner, then you can come back and check up on her before you go to bed, alright?"
"Fine…" Viridi sighed. As she got up, she looked back one more time to make sure the injured stranger was going to be ok, before being rushed by Arlon. A few minutes after Viridi had left the room, Phosphora finally woke up. She blinked a few times before opening her eyes wide and realizing where she was. She peered around the room, trying to get an inkling of what just happened. She then remembered everything, from her exile to meeting those strangers. She put two and two together and realized where she was, in the temple of that little goddess and the old man.
She then quickly realized she was in a hot spring, and her wounds were wrapped bandages. A god taking care of me? That's super weird… Or maybe… She's just healing me to trick me and gain my trust… Then turn me in. I won't have it. I can't trust anyone anymore, I gotta get out of here. But before the tired nymph could climb out the window, the little blonde goddess opened the door to check up on her.
"What are you doing?" The little goddess asked Phosphora.
"Look… I don't know why you helped me, or what you want, but I know you're a goddess."
"A goddess?" Viridi growled, "What's that supposed to mean? I just saved your butt. You were bleeding and everything! You asked for my help, remember? What does me having to be a goddess have to do with anything?"
"Okay, you're right, thanks for saving me. But don't act like you don't know the whole ordeal. I'm a nymph, doesn't that ring any bells to you?"
Viridi looked at the recovering nymph with confusion written all over her face. She honestly did not know what she was talking about. Phosphora took notice of the confusion written on her face.
"I don't know what you're talking about, I really don't. If you don't want our help, you can leave, that's fine with me," Viridi said.
Phosphora stared at the girl confused, she doesn't know what nymphs are? This girl must be really young if she wasn't taught to hate nymphs. She took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm just...stressed over recent events, thank you for all your help." She suddenly felt a slight shiver come over her from leaving the hot spring, "Brrr." Viridi sighed deeply and walked over to Phosphora and took her hand, leading her back to the spring, "Please, at least stay long enough for you to heal and for us to get a meal for you, okay?" Phosphora smiled lightly as she lowered herself back in the spring, sighing happily as the warmth overcame her once again.
"Thank you, and by the way, may I ask your name?" Viridi looked down at Phosphora and posed proudly, "I am Viridi, Goddess of Nature." Phosphora shuffled further into the spring, shutting her eyes.
"Well, thank you for all you've done, Viridi. I don't know why you're helping someone like me, but I greatly appreciate it." Viridi nodded happily and made her way out of the spring.
One day later, Phosphora was feeling much better, her wounds were healing well and she had her strength and spark back. Viridi and Arlon were very hospitable and kind, giving her everything she needed and more all in return for nothing on her part. Despite all of this graciousness, Phosphora still didn't completely trust them, her paranoia said to keep a one track mind that this was all a big trap waiting to be sprung, but the rest of Phosphora didn't want this to be the case and hoped that they really were just being friendly beings for once.
Phosphora was being guided to Viridi's study by Arlon, apparently she wanted to ask her something. "Mistress Viridi has been waiting until you were properly healthy to ask you a request." Phosphora flushed a bit, wondering what was about to happen, or what request this was going to be? 'Is the trap finally going to spring? Please let this not happen, please.' She thought nervously.
-:-
Entering the large study, Phosphora was surprised to see the scale and length of all of the bookshelves filled to the brim with numerous texts and scrolls. She looked forward and saw Viridi in one of four large, soft looking chairs, there was a table with an old fashioned glass tea set in the middle. Arlon guided Phosphora to the chairs and took his place aside Viridi on the other chair.
"Phosphora, would you like some herbal tea? Arlon makes it with the best tea leaves from the south east garden."
She poured two cups and pushed one to Phosphora and picked up her own, shakily taking a sip.
"Is something wrong, Miss Phosphora? You're shaking rather violently," Arlon noticed. Phosphora sighed, setting the cup down before falling forward and groveling at Viridi's feet, "Please don't turn me into the other gods, please! I know I attacked the humans, but I didn't mean to kill anyone, I swear. They were swarming me and I didn't know what to do, please spare me, you've been so kind up to now, please!"
Phosphora had never cried so much before now, her paranoia got the better of her and now she was letting out all her fears and nerves at once. Viridi and Arlon shared a curious glance before the goddess spoke up.
"What? Phosphora, what in the world are you talking about? Turning you in? Attacked humans? Kill someone?" Viridi cried, wide eyed.
Phosphora wiped her eyes and looked up to the small girl, "Yes! I- wait, you don't know? The humans were after me after I gave them gifts and their ruler sent an army and I tried to defend myself and I killed his wife and-" Phosphora was cut off.
"Slow down! I've never heard anything like this." Viridi placed a hand in front of Phopshora's face and thought for a moment. There was no way she would've found the nymph if the Gods cared at all about what she apparently did. Perhaps she was right when she said most gods see nymphs as nothing. Thankfully Viridi wasn't like most gods.
"I'm not going to turn you in." Viridi
said, bending down to Phosphora's level, "Your secret's safe with me."
Phosphora wiped the rest of the tears from her eyes and stared into the golden, viridian eyes of the tiny goddess. She noticed the truth and saw the true honesty in them. She got up and brushed herself off, then embraced the tiny blonde goddess into a giant hug.
"Oh thank you, Viridi! You've been so kind.. But I have to ask, why won't you turn me in?"
"Why would I? I saw what they did to you, and I hate humans too," Viridi mentioned, her tone changing a bit to match her distaste of humanity, "I give them trees and plants for them to use, not abuse. They take advantage of my kindness and pollute the world… I wish I could destroy them all. And I'm not very fond of the gods myself either, don't tell anyone I said that, though." Viridi nervously chuckled, scratching her head.
"I won't. Hey, you are keeping my secret, I'll keep yours. Thank you both so much, I can't thank you enough… Say, what did you want to ask me?" Phosphora inquired, setting the goddess down and making her way back to her seat.
Viridi gave her a confused glance, and then remembered what Arlon and she were planning to discuss with Phosphora. "Oh, right! I remember. Well Phosphora, how would you like to make a permanent residence in the forces of nature?"
"Really?" Phosphora's eyes twinkled for a split second hearing the offer and she brought her hands up to her chest happily, "You mean I may stay here? You really are too kind."
"Well, in return for letting you stay and providing you with what you may want, I ask in return you help me out when I need it. My own errands or missions and such, that sort of thing. And if I can promise you anything, it's that I will at some point let you strike down the wretched humans with me one day."
Viridi's voice got enthusiastic as she walked over to the nymph, her smile large. "Besides," She continued, her voice softer now, "I'd...really like another friend around here."
Phosphora smiled warmly and wrapped the Goddess into another hug, "Of Course,
Viridi! I'd be honored to be both your friend and assistant, it will be my way to repay you."
"Excellent!" Viridi hugged her back happily and Arlon watched on with a small smile. "Welcome to the Forces of Nature, Miss Phosphora."
A/N: Reviews are always welcome and I once again thank ImmaPegacornz for allowing me to help her on this project, and I can't wait for the opportunity to work with her again.
Her account: u/6426437/ImmaPegacornz