Chapter 1:
Part 1:
Two old Ionian parents walked hand in hand to a memorial stone in the middle of the night. As they arrived, the two stared at the engraving. Entire years gone by have caused the stone to degrade its surface. They had not uttered a single word. Their grief was too deep.
"You have come." A ghostly voice spoke from behind them. The two turned around to meet it.
"If we agree, will you show us?" The old man spoke towards the ghostly apparition. It had a green aura around it, held a scythe in its right hand and a lantern in its left, all chained together. It was a reaper.
"Yes. Free souls value more than reaped ones." The two looked at each other for a brief moment, and then turned to the reaper.
"Show us." They were determined.
"Are you sure?" The reaper was expecting to sense some sort of hesitation and fear, yet they stood rigid in their place, courageously. The determination in their eyes…
"We are old, but we deserve to know what happened to our daughter."
"So be it. Look deeply into my lantern." It opened and welcomed their curious gaze.
The earth shook. The air was restless. The sky darkened. Thunder rained. A woman struggled to deliver new life into this world. The people were scared. The elderly prayed. A calamity? No. Nothing of the sort.
A cry finally managed to break the deathly silence. The temple held against the unnatural phenomenons, and the Starchild's blessing helped the woman greatly.
"It's… a girl." The one who held the child in his hands had announced.
"Let me see her!" The girl's mother demanded. She was brought the child, ever so happy to hear her daughter's life force gushing out through her continuous cries. Nobody seemed willing to say a single word. The air was filled with more fear than joy.
"I shall name you…"
Part 2:
Years passed, the girl, now a sixteen year old, walked through the yellow fields with a casket hanging around her right hand. She was gathering the prettiest flowers. The sun was up high, engulfing the plains into its powerful light.
But this didn't deter her objective. Her hair was long and yellow, managing to reach past her shoulders and onto her back, but did not reach the waists. Much like her hair, her dress bore the same color, encasing her body in a golden frame.
The girl was running across the field, taking flowers every now and then. She ran, happily enjoying it, until she stopped…
Her eyes spotted something in the distance: a flower stood out amongst the rest. It was a blue rose, but no such flower is known to exists. She was curious.
The girl approached, suspecting no evil from the tiny thing. She kneeled and reached for the flower. As she touched its body, it surprised the girl by springing spikes. She immediately pulled back from the unexpected sting.
Looking down at her finger, she determined that no blood started flowing out, yet the wound felt deep. The edge of the spike stood stuck into her finger. It began dissolving, panicking her, but the panic didn't last long and she began feeling tickled. She couldn't contain her voice and giggled, until she let lose an innocent laughter.
The tingling stopped when she realized the inevitable. The shadows in front of her proved it. The girl got up looking around, trying to catch something behind her, and eventually stumbled back down. She merely used her head and eyes to confirm, remaining still on the ground, amidst flowers.
She had wings! Bright white wings! They seemed capable enough to grant her flight. The girl was frightened at the sight of this, but also, extraordinarily happy. She had always watched pigeons and other small life forms flying above her from her room's window. They were such a sight, and she almost wished that she could be among them.
Now she could… and thus steeled herself. If this was a dream, she would have preferred it last a little bit longer. She got up and tried flapping the wings, effort wasted though. The little angel stood thinking for a moment. Her memories took her back to observing birds. Years ago, she had studied pigeons from afar, eyes pointed straight at them. Then, she remembered how they took off.
Now the girl had the chance to give it a try. She jumped and flapped the wings hard, managing to remain above ground. This astonished the little angel, which in turn, caused her to fall back down. She landed softly, but her fun was far from over.
Part 3:
After any number of tries and time gone by, the girl finally managed to be in the air for more than five seconds. She got the wing flap rhythm done properly, and decided it would be a good idea to take flight. She had done so, soaring ever upwards, aiming after pigeons and other birds within sight, causing them to scattered at her arrival.
"Wait!" She so innocently said, wanting nothing more than to be amidst their group.
But she hadn't realised that countless minutes of chasing after pigeons brought the girl to a severe altitude. She had to have been a few kilometers above ground. That height posed unthinkable danger to her, as she hadn't yet practiced landing. The little angel did not at all consider the current situation she was in.
"Oh no!" She suddenly panicked, causing her wings to stop flapping.
Then gravity began pulling her down. As she was falling, she became increasingly panicked because her wings refused to move. Perhaps flying for as long as she did exhausted her, or maybe the air pressure of the speed at which she was falling was preventing her wings from breaking the vertical position that they were in.
Terrified at the realization, and noticing how quickly she was approaching ground level, the thought of colliding with the earth and being splattered all over it made her faint.
She was about to die.
What a fool she'd been. She was in way over her head to have jumped the gun so brazenly. Why had she done it? Because she had wings? Because she became an angel?
She subconsciously regretted her choice.
The girl should have immediately returned to her parents and told them everything...
Then it happened.
The falling angel was caught by another. A man had reached her shortly after she'd lost consciousness. This man, who had rescued the girl, did not require physical means for flight. His methods were more refined.
Wasting not one moment, he flew up, reached for the clouds at incredible speed and surpassed them, obtaining sight of a temple floating above the ghastly bodies. Under normal circumstances, should anyone reach that high in search of this very temple, they would not be able to find it due to the multiple layers of shields and barriers protecting it.
The only way to discover this place is to have the very key to it, or to be invited in.
The man landed on its elongated peak with an impact that would have broken the legs of any human being. Thankfully, he wasn't one. Nor did the impact bend the surface of the temple to create a mini crater.
Looking down at the girl in her knocked out state, he couldn't help but notice the marvelous features of her face. She was beautiful, but that did not deter the man from doing what he next did.
He had placed the girl down and with his left hand, took a firm hold of her wings. Raising his right hand, the rescuer had in one strike cut the very things which allowed the girl to arrive so high up in the sky.
She fell forward, still unconscious, separated from her precious wings. From her back began gushing out blue blood. It was all because of the flower which sung the girl and granted her means of flight. This fact did not at all surprise her rescuer for, he knew something the girl didn't.
The man picked her up once more, this time making sure her back was upwards to prevent any blood loss.
Rushing into the pyramid like temple, he shouted: "Apothecary!"
There were quite a few onlookers there, but only one of them followed the man into the temple.
After the girl was placed on a bed inside, the apothecary appeared. For someone who was supposed to be a healer, he was dressed in fashionable black robes which hid most of his features. The only visible parts, the upper half of his head and all his arm fingers, were pale in color.
Taking out an orange sphere, the healer then used the device to quickly scan the girl's body, finishing his analysis with the sentence: "All is as planned."
"Take care of things here." The man moved out of the room to the onlookers waiting outside.
Like the apothecary, they too wore fashionable black robes. These were assassins. The absolute best among those who prowl the night, and the ones most attuned to darkness among humanity.
They were waiting for his word, all of them were curious. Yet all he had to do was a head sign. The man had signaled a silent 'yes' and they all understood that it was time.
Without even uttering a single word, be it to the man who gave the order or among themselves, the onlookers dissipated, fleeing from the temple grounds and jumping off the ledge. Everything they had done was planned centuries in advance.
Their leap was obviously not a suicidal attempt. Several seconds later, footsteps so silent not even a cat could hear, were heard by the man whom rescued the girl.
It was the apothecary. "I have done as you asked." By done as he asked, he meant sealing the girl's back wounds with the blue blood inside.
"Should my services be needed once more, do not hesitate to call upon me."
With that, the healer jumped into the vastness of the world below, without requiring so much as a glance from the other one there.
Part 4:
Her eyes opened slowly to be greeted not by the rays of sun, but by the darkness of the room in which she was. The girl raised her upper half, looking around. The room was spacious, with the bed in the middle of it. The bed was large and soft, the kind in which you could have the most pleasant of dreams.
Chandeliers were lid by a flame bearing a purplish color. The girl moved her left hand to feel her back. The lack of any protrusions saddened her greatly; the discovery that she could no longer be an angel left its scar on her.
Quickly remembering the important: 'Where am I?', the girl got out of the bed in which she was and proceeded outside the dark room. The door opened easily without making any creaking noises. She noticed that she was at the second level of a building. She wasn't sure, but it looked like a temple made of some kind of rock or metal.
The girl moved downstairs to the large open area. In the middle was a black couch with a glass table in front of it. It was as if that table and couch were there just so that whoever sits down can enjoy the look towards the sun.
The entrance to the temple was big, and it had an elongated peak that you could walk onto. The temple wasn't very wide, so she made her way in front of that couch and glass table set, without realizing who was sitting down.
The big statue of a woman decorated the side of the stairs which she just crossed. Whoever that woman was, the girl couldn't tell. Even so she hadn't noticed 'him'. And he wasn't even trying to hide. The girl continued her way outside the temple, and into open space. She looked down at the floor, her crystal clear reflection slightly blackened by the material used to construct said temple.
Looking to the world below, the drop was great. She couldn't leave there without her wings, or without help. So, he raised himself from the couch and stepped forward. The sound of his footsteps scared her, as she turned to face him while taking two steps backward.
"Hello." The man's voice was tough and intimidating. He raised both his hands horizontally and said: "Welcome!"
She stepped back even more. "Wh-Wh-Where am I?"
"Where you belong." He took more steps forward and she stepped back even further.
"D-Don't come close!" He stopped as she reached the end of that corridor. "D-D-Don't get any closer, or I-Il jump!" She was scared. She was very, very scared.
"There is a barrier in place here. You can't get far even if you jump." He took a step forward. She started trembling. "If you wish to jump, please do so. I will be there to catch you as many times as necessary."
In some weird way, his voice was inspiring. He took two more steps forward, and she was now panicking. "It is my duty after all."
"Don't come any closer!" The girl crouched herself into that corner, covering her head with her hands in a pitiful state. He noticed her great fear and thus, chose another way.
She stayed like that for a moment, until she heard his footsteps once again. She raised her buried head and looked up. The man from before was slowly returning to the temple with both hands into his pockets. He then raised his right hand and waved it, especially so that she sees it.
It was a motion which indicated that she was being sent away. He entered the temple, and exited her line of sight.
Part 5:
She got up from her scared, kneeling stance. That man peeked her curiosity. He hadn't laid a finger on her, and he said he would protect her. So what does he want from her? She took steps forward, slowly building trust out of curiosity.
The girl approached, arriving directly in front of the temple. She touched the edge to the right and peeked her head over the corner. She saw that a bar was there and strangely enough, a plate with rice on it was there too. Her stomach growled out of relish.
That rice plate smelled really good... It had condiments within it that produced a pleasant odor. She couldn't contain herself and took a seat in front of the food. She would have just gobbled it all down her throat, were it not for the fact that she was unsure for whom this food had been prepared. It would be rude to eat another's meal.
"Go ahead." His voice came from the couch. She looked at him once, before savagely devouring the food.
He stood there relaxed as she ate. Her previous injuries could not be a problem anymore, because their apothecary was the best there is. He could bring a human back to life even from the brink of death. He was legendary in the ranks of medicine and treatment, and their association made him even better at it.
In no time at all, the rice plate was emptied and she felt full. Her hunger had subsided. The man made his way across the temple. It was so silent that she hadn't even felt his presence until the moment he entered the bartender post.
"Umm, thank you for the food." Despite all this, she was still shy and weary of his intimidating figure.
"Do you want something to drink?" He took orange juice and placed it on the bar desk. She was hesitant for a second, simply looking at the glass. But nonetheless she fell for this old trick and drank.
The drink contained nothing but oranges in it.
"Will you tell me your name?" She noticed how he took care of her despite the lack of knowledge as to what his actual name is.
"You may call me Jacky. That is the name 'She' gave me." He pointed towards the big statue behind the couch, to show what he meant. The girl looked at it to see what he meant.
After returning her gaze, she spoke: "Can I ask you a few things, mister Jacky?"
"Go ahead."
"What is this place?" He took a seat behind the counter.
"It is the Temple of Darkness." He noticed how her face went pale. She was beginning to feel scared again. "Is something in the matter?"
She nodded. Her expression looked like it wouldn't speak a word.
"Well, not that its concern worthy." He paid her stunned expression no mind. Obviously, she was spooked by her parents into being a good child with stories of this evil Temple of Darkness. He would have to make something obvious.
"Just because you heard awful rumors about this place, doesn't mean it's as you were told."
Even so she still wasn't convinced. She stayed in her seat, unmoved, frightened and pale. Right now she was most vulnerable.
"So, what did you hear about this place?" Her mind was racing with numerous scenarios where he either killed, made her suffer, or put her through terrible nightmares.
Jacky slammed his fist into the bar desk, making her fall off the chair and unto her butt. She was disturbed by it for a moment, but managed to look up at him, as he was now in front of her. He extended a hand.
"Come, I will show you that all those awful rumors about this place are just rumors." With that he was awaiting for her to grasp his hand. She hesitated, but took it in the end, as she had no other visible choice.