Apparently, I'm making a habit of writing seasonal-inspired one-shots. So, this is Christmas was first, then a chapter of Fallen Priestess was the way I celebrated Valentine 's Day. I wanted to write something like the equivalent to a vampyre Easter… uhh, this is not intended to offend anyone celebrating Easter. I, myself am, so that would be really screwed up. Also, takes place after the exclusive, online only epilogue to Hidden. Check it out at the house of night site.

Zoey

"Where are we going?" I asked, wondering where Thanatos was leading us. Stevie Rae shushed me. "Seriously, Stevie Rae, you've been being mysterious ever since you woke me up. At sunset!" I exaggerated my frustration at Stevie Rae for waking me up so early. I probably looked crappy. Jeesh, if the bags under my eyes got any bigger…

Stark elbowed me, finally telling me something "It's Easter, Z. Thanatos is doing the Easter ritual. We do it every year," he explained, making me seriously wish I'd been a fledgling for more than a year, so at least I'd know all the holidays and whatnot. Not to mention, hopefully by then all this Neferet poopie would be done. With my luck, there'd probably be a big, terrifying battle with lots of—stop it, Zoey. I chided myself. I was not going to think about this now, I was going to give myself a couple of days off. Surely I was entitled to a day off or two.

We entered the temple, where seven big, tall, pillar candles stood. There was the normal circle of candles, and then there was one white one on one end of the room and a black one on the opposite. They gave off a weird feeling, like Spiderman must feel when his spidey senses were tingling. It was like they were alive, in a weird way. I felt like they were watching me. I shivered but the others didn't look freaked out. Thanatos was actually humming along with some odd little tune as she let her warrior in.

"What's Kalona doing here?" I whispered to Stark, who was engaging in some guy-ish conversation with Darius about warrior stuff. HE held up a hand to Darius and then looked over at me. "what is it, Mo Bann Ri?" he asked

I pointed at Kalona. "He's not part of the circle and he's here. Why did Thanatos let him come for our special vampyre stuff?" I asked, also curious because no other fledglings were here. Well, none other than the circle, Aphrodite, Kramisha, Stark, Darius, Aurox, Erik and Rephaim. Kramisha and Shaunee had been spending a lot of time together after Erin—well, after the job fair. Shaunee was really upset by it, well, I mean more than the rest of us, upset. Because we were all really upset. I'd been crying myself to sleep fairly often lately, and not dainty, tragic heroine crying, majorly gross snot-crying. Stark was even used to it by now. He'd seen me snot-cry so many times since he became my Warrior that it was bordering on ridiculous.

"Zoey," Stark began, "I hate to break it to you, but all the fledglings go to this ritual, Thanatos is just having Lenobia and Professor Missal do the ritual for the others because ours doubles as a funeral for Erin and she wanted that to be more private. For obvious reasons, she didn't want to tell the public that their ex-High Priestess killed a student here, not just a student, a part of our circle,"

Thanatos motioned to us to sit under our respective candles, the others sitting along the edges between candles, forming a circle.

"As ever, we start with Air," she began, her voice cutting through the whispers and commanding absolute attention, "for Air we have a rare fledgling, as you all know. Damien is quite lucky to be one of few male fledglings to be gifted with such a prodigious gift. But before Damien, before even my time there was another, the first male High Priest. It was the renaissance era, a word which means rebirth in French. The world was, in a sense, reborn and this man, Zoran had much to do with it," Thanatos lit the Air candle, and a sweet-smelling smoke engulfed us all.

"He had never thought he'd be great, he'd never thought he'd amount to anything actually. Zoran was bastard son of a commoner, the maid to some lesser dignitary. One of many children of hers, actually, and the youngest, weakest. Then came the day the Tracker had taken him away to become a fledgling. That had been the greatest four years of his life, being a fledgling. The plague had caused urbanization, so he was in a secluded House of Night, far from the newly formed towns and cities. Far from the Vatican, where the pope outlawed his kind. But now he was a vampyre, and a prodigious one at that, but Nyx had plans for him. He'd seen the goddess, who'd told him herself that she intended great things for him.

He'd been the leader of the Dark Sons, and everyone knew if he was female, he would be the High Priestess, without contest. Unfortunately, he was not, and he could hardly pretend. The role instead fell to someone unfit. Her name is lost to time; some say she was called Wren, for the songbird. Others say she had a name that was rather commonplace for their time, a Victoria or perhaps a Maria. She was not at all suited to being a Priestess. She, and for now I will call her by Wren, wished to live only a simple life, one destined to last only as long as that of her consort, a human.

It was when the House of Night fell under siege that Zoran had proven himself. You see, humans had come to burn down the House of Night, because they blamed vampyres for the plague, claiming that our kind had used our 'dark magic' to bring the pestilence upon them. They had gone, panicking to the House of night to kill the 'witches' that had 'cursed' them thusly. Wren fled, fearing more for her own life than for the lives of those who she was chosen to protect. Zoran had been a mere professor, teaching a simple class, their equivalent to fencing, when the humans had arrived. Fuelled by Nyx's indignance at having her people vilified, he cast a circle around the House of Night, calling to the humans to drop their weapons and open their hearts, so he could open his gates and welcome them as friends.

It was upon hearing of his bravery, of his kindness toward even the enemies, that the High Council agreed and unanimously appointed him as High Priest. He is seen as someone who did away with discrimination between men and women in vampyre kind, and one of many vampyres who have eased the tension between vampyres and humans" Thanatos paused in her retelling, allowing us to absorb the story, "His affinities were for Air and Fire. Damien, this story is relevant to you because you are another of those unique fledglings. A young man gifted with an affinity for an element is not a common thing, so it is evident that Nyx has chosen you for something great. Just as he faced adversity for simply being male, you face adversity for being gay, do you not?" she ask, her voice losing the sharp edge that it normally had, and looking at Damien.

Damien nodded, brushing his chestnut brown hair from his face and smiling lightly, "and just as he overcame it?" Damien implored Thanatos to complete his sentence.

"You too will overcome it to be something great and prove to the world that your sexuality does not define you," Thanatos finished. Then, she addressed the room, "The thing I want to make perfectly clear to all of you is that no one aspect of us defines us. It matters not what species we are, the colour of our skin, the things we believe, but who we are in our hearts," Thanatos walked to Shaunee.

I stole a glance at Stark, who smiled encouragingly at me, stroking his nimble fingers along the lines of my tattoos through my shirt. Shaunee looked tired, and like she was about two seconds from snapping. Her cheeks were puffy and reddish, not to mention the bags under her eyes. She hadn't taken Erin's death well. I mean, again, worse than the rest of us.

"After Air welcomes us, we move to Fire," Thanatos announced, lighting the fire candle, whose scent was cinnamon-y, "for Fire we have Shaunee, a fledgling who's old for her years. She's lost herself behind a title, found her voice and lost her best friend. For you, I choose the story of Shekinah, the former High priestess of all vampyres. I recall when she first told me this story; I had just been accepted into the High Council, only about fifty years after she, herself had. We were the youngest two, and I asked her how she'd become the Vampyre I knew now. This was what she told me.

When Shekinah was marked, she was living in a time of unrest. She came from the Middle East to the Capri House of Night because she displayed prophetic abilities. Shekinah was only fourteen when she was marked, but she seemed, felt, far older. She'd lost her family to a cruel dictator who'd traded their lives for his reputation. She was forced to be a servant to the man who'd killed her parents from age eight until the day she was Marked. She told me only that it was a dark time in her existence. Whilst she was at the House of night, she was a shy, silent girl, virtually unnoticed. It was the day she made the change that she finally stepped out of the shadows.

She had told me that the day her tattoos appeared, a snake, a sacred creature of the goddess, slithered onto her upraised arm and a light shone from her, forcing us all to see and believe. The young prophetess had lived her life in shadows, in obscurity until that night, when she became her own light.

It was only three years after I met her that she'd become High Priestess and she lived a long, fulfilling life. In itself, her story is an inspiring one, but it is to Duantia that I look to for the moral of the story. They were not terribly public about it, preferring to keep their relations separate from their jobs, but they loved each other. Duantia now and Shekinah throughout her life teach us the moral of this tale, the tale I associate with Fire because of the light that radiated from Shekinah. It is simply that, in wins and losses one must keep faith. One must not give up," she looked over at Shaunee, "You, Child as I have said have gained and lost much in your seventeen years. One thing you have gained stands above all else though," Thanatos began

"It's this," Shaunee pointed at her Mark, speaking softly but holding Thanatos' stare. I wondered how Shaunee did it. I saw no trace of the Shaunee I'd known as 'Twin' when she spoke.

Thanatos was quick to respond "indeed it is. And that is because no matter what, Nyx believes in you and has gifted you with your friends, your element and your life. Like Shekinah, Shaunee, you will have to face things you do not want to face. But like her, you can shine. The lesson we learn from Shekinah is that it is through resilience and determination that you can shine. I understand that Erin's death has affected you all, but you must all push through and persevere."

Shaunee smiled up at her, finally looking close to happy. "And if I can do that?" she asked, sounding so hopeful it broke my heart a little. I turned to see Stevie Rae dabbing at her eyes, trying not to start crying again. I wanted to go hug my BFF, but the power of Thanatos' words held me in my seat, so I wouldn't look like a crappy High Priestess in training and ruin the moment.

"You too will shine, and honour her memory by doing so," Thanatos answered, meeting Shaunee's eyes. I watched as Shaunee thought and then acted in a way that would make Nyx proud.

"Not just for Erin, for Erin, Jack, Dragon, Heath, Anastasia and even Shekinah," she responded maturely. Stevie Rae continued to sob into a Kleenex. Rephaim had come prepared with a little packet of them.

I wondered what Thanatos was going to do for Water, and felt relieved when she announced that she was giving us a break. I laid back into Stark's arms and he whispered "No matter what she tells you, Zoey, I'll always love you."

Well, this was the product of thinking way too much after a liturgy at school. Expect Water, maybe Water and Earth tomorrow. KShade out.