Hello to everyone who has read the first chapter. I'm so pleased so many of you enjoyed it and I hope that the story will continue to excite and entertain!
If you haven't already, I would strongly suggest you read the prequel to this story; When The Glass Shatters as from here on in I shall be referring to events and characters from that story.
I hope you all enjoy the direction I'm going with this!
Destiny's Whisper
The Past and Present Dangers
She was walking; her footsteps echoed along the cold, dark ground she had found herself upon.
Knowing not where she was going, nor who she even was, the clatter of her own footsteps was the only thing holding her sanity in place.
The dark emptiness was overwhelming, almost consuming her entire being.
She had to fight to stay awake. She had to fight to breathe.
Wandering for what seemed like an eternity, the darkness of the void she was encased in never ceased.
Lacking in spirit and unable to take any more of this place she collapsed onto her knees.
Clasping her hands to her face, tears streamed from the gaps in her fingers.
This place had finally beaten her.
Wanting to fall asleep and never wake up again she closed her eyes.
The darkness closed in rapidly, she could feel her strength, her soul fading away.
Yet her tears, which once streamed down her face, now fell onto the floor.
A soft chime could be heard echoing every time the little tears splashed onto the supposed floor of this place.
The chime was not the only thing present as the tears fell however because as soon as the chime had ended a single, pure white flower grew where the tear fell.
It was as if the tears were watering an already fertile ground, yet it was clear that these solemn flowers were created at tear fall.
With outstretched fingers she touched the gentle white flowers. One touch and they danced to and fro, almost shimmering upon contact with their creator's touch.
The small patch of flowers emitted that soft chime again, and not before long she began to involuntarily whisper.
"One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Five little flowers. Five little lives needing to be saved"
The darkness enveloped her. It took her and destroyed her.
The saviour of the planet? That's what they called me. If only they knew the truth, that it wasn't me who saved it, but that it was her.
She's gone now, taken somewhere where I cannot ever tread. Fate has split us apart, torn soul from body.
These are the final thoughts of a man left ravaged and war-torn. The same fate befell the planet he was guarding.
He pushed his sword into the earth below his feet until it could stand alone.
Taking one final look at the horizon, the broken horizon filled with fire, iron and craters he slumped down, and rested up against his sword.
Dying was a slow process, he felt drowsy and exhausted. Closing his eyes made his head spin and world swirl yet it sped up time.
Taking one final breath, and then there was none.
A hero to the planet in his own regard, light began swirling from the skies and trickled down to the planet.
It gave no reflections, in pool nor lake nor off sword in the ground.
It enveloped him. It took him and destroyed him.
All was silent on the ground.
All that remained of the man was his sword, stuck in the ground where he died. Attached to the hilt was the woman's emblem; a yellow chocobo feather.
Wrapped around the blade of the sword was a bracelet, worn by the woman that the man lost. At the keystone of the bracelet was a single, pure white head of a flower; the man's emblem.
A cheeky smile grew across the red-haired girls face.
Despite losing her beloved, Claire Farron almost a month ago she was gaining some sly pleasure from watching her fellow townsmate's hips sway as she paced up and down.
Almost a month had gone by, and the remaining group had not gained any ground on waking their fearless leader Lightning.
Everyday was the same, Fang and Snow went to see Lightning's crystal coffin at sunrise and then spent the rest of the day pacing up and down trying to figure out how to free her.
Vanille sat on the same rock, watching Fang's hips as she paced and Hope and Sazh passed time by fixing and upgrading the airship with various pieces of whatever they could salvage.
Days turned into weeks and weeks into further months. The group celebrated birthdays with a certain resentment that one of them was missing.
They too celebrated her birthday, and when a whole year had passed since she was crystallised they mourned that day too.
Claire Farron had walked alone for seemingly an eternity. She had passed time by wielding her sword, and sharpening it whenever the occasion presented itself.
Her thoughts turned to her only physical interaction in this world; her pleasure at the red-haired girl's touch.
Claire's body fell weak at the thought of remembering it again.
She desired to reacquire it.
Alone on the vast green plain, she could walk freely among its borders – unhindered by her previous invisible binds.
There was nothing here, no people, no towns, and no monsters.
Empty and alone she sat down on a rock and placed her face in her hands.
Her eyes started to swell up and she felt small drops of water splash into her hands.
One little drop climbed down her cheek, and kissed her lips. She licked the water drop away from her lips.
She tasted the full weight of the ocean in one little drop, it was sour against the sweet taste of the ever-present strawberries on her lips.
Claire stood up, and turned around from the rock she was sitting on.
She noticed a cave nearby, an open, inviting cave.
Walking towards the opening she brushed her hand up against the stone wall, it was cold and this cold lingered down her spine.
Obtrusive memories of a black-haired woman dressed scantily in blue sashes flooded her memory, and made her angry for a reason which she could not quite place.
These flashes of thoughts gave Claire the idea that they had been fighting at this place.
This is surely a lie? I have never met this woman before, and I have never been to this cave before.
Her thoughts doubted the memories, but only one could be true – they could not both be a lie.
For now she decided to trust what she had known; and that was that she had never met this woman.
Entering the cave only solicited more memories, this time not of the woman in blue but of the red-haired girl again.
She severely did not wish these to be a lie; they were images of the two women making love here, at this very place she had never visited.
In the centre of the cave was a warm light, a small sphere of orange-red light was dimly illuminating the cave. It looked as though it had been here a long while.
Placing her hands near it Claire could sense heat emanating from the sphere too, not just light.
Touching it gently with her finger, the sphere flickered and wavered.
"Ow! That hurt."
Her fingertip was now red and throbbing; it had been burnt.
Grasping her sword she poked the small sphere, thinking it would be safer than touching it with her finger again.
She was wrong.
The sphere 'popped' and ejected small flames onto the floor of the cave, they quickly diminished without any means to latch onto a flammable object.
Claire now found herself in a dark and empty cave. With nothing further to do here she started to walk towards the exit.
The light of the outside sky seemed to be getting further and further away, running did not help it become closer either.
The exit was too stretched out now to even make sense to her brain. She stopped running and eventually walking and came to a dead stop.
The exit faded away completely, she was surrounded completely by darkness.
But in the dark, there is always light; the light of hope.
A small chime could be heard, and pure white flowers seemed to grow at her feet.
They emitted a small glow each, and when tallied together lit up the cave in a wonderful soft white glow.
Bending down Claire picked one, breaking it from its stem.
It felt like it was made of pure silk, and made her skin feel soft, exactly the same as it felt when she had been fourteen.
It chimed in her hand, and resonated with the other, unpicked flowers.
A soft, male voice seemed to speak from the flowers;
"With me in hand, you shall find a new power. Use it well, and overcome the obstacle you shall soon find."
The flowers disappeared all at once, except the little one that Claire had picked.
Light of day streamed through the cave once more, the exit becoming visible.
Upon breathing fresh air, after a long time of stale air she coughed heavily.
She felt a pain from within her chest which surged through her entire body.
It crept through her limbs until she could sense it being focused in her palm.
Pointing her palm at the rock she previously sat upon, a shock of sharp pain was released from her body; she watched it quickly travel in a blue haze to the rock and decimated it, shattering it into small pebbles.
She had gained the magic of Thunder.
Looking up at the bright daylight sun, she noticed the now all too-familiar flash of it, which meant transportation to some new, and random place for her to explore.
Upon opening her eyes, her vision was blurred but once she gained clarity she noticed she was in a castle, a huge, daunting castle which seemed both gothic but modern at the same time.
She was in a hall, the open sky; which was now a torrent of purple clouds and forked lightning appeared before her at the opposite end of the hall from where she was standing.
Walking towards the weather anomaly she noticed strange altars located at both left and right sides of her.
Walking to each in turn, there were writings indented on the walls which she could not read, for they were in a strange language, but below the writings she noticed an indentation.
On the left altar was a small, feather shaped indentation, and on the right altar was the space for a small flower to fit into that indentation.
Claire had both ingredients, but also noted the warning the flower gave out.
"The obstacle you shall soon find"
She repeated the message aloud, and instantly the two objects gravitated towards their rightful place.
Sitting neatly in their indentations the castle shook, something was coming.
