After finding a secret, inconspicuous hole in the dead end wall, I step into it foot first. I feel the rocks crunch beneath my shoes as I lift the sword over my head and wedge it between a stone. One at a time, I carve out each stone above my head; eventually, a faint light bursts through the small opening. As I pry away at it more, the light grows. I swim my way to the top with my arms and push off the remaining stones in my way. With a heavy grunt, I climb out, entering into the light.

The most lustrous stones must shine in this room. The statues of women, pouring pure water from jugs that look more like silk, are made of marble I would see in the holiest of cathedrals. Father told me they build very holy churches with marble stone and use regular stone for churches that give the "holy façade". Somehow, I feel like there is something out of place. It might be me. As I maunder the hall, I come across writing in the stones:

Identify yourself with your blood.

"Do I?" I ask myself. My words repeat themselves as I bring the sword to the palm of my hand. Why did I really come here? Why did I risk my life and Knuckles' today? For what purpose am I here for? I thought that while I wandered here, I would really find out why. Even hitherto I am not sure. I cringe as the sword slices through my skin on the palm of my hand; the bright crimson liquid splats on the words and they suck my blood ravenously. My blood fills up the words, bringing color to them.

Blessed blood. Blessed blood. Cursed blood. Cursed blood. Be judged by the Mother.

As I look up to the high ceiling, I notice a painting of an angelic, celestial woman, flying in her painted sky. She looks beautiful, like a woman I met a long time ago.

"Cursed blood spills. Blessed blood spills. I've felt this before. This temple is for those who walk in Light and have their hearts within the light. The curse stains you-it is your sigma, child."

A tiny, spherical light protrudes off the picture of the assumed goddess and descends down to me. It sits in the palms of the largest statue in the room- a sylph holding a baby in her arms. Cautiously, I approach the statue. "Do not be afraid child. My omnipotence arouses curiosity, not fear. That is good for a cursed heart like yours. Pull up your sleeves and expose the sigma."

I do as I am ordered, rolling up my left sleeve and seeing my sigma-it has been a long time since I looked at it. It is a combination of many other symbols-a willow tree wrapped in chains smothered by an infinitely, looping black circles. Staring at it for too long makes me become lost within the endless arrangement of circles. Seven years ago, I pulled up my sleeve to examine this dreadful mark.

"A stigma that is characterized by the infinite circles-a curse that forces you to bend the knee to anyone and everyone. A stigma inflicted by your very own kin. Performed in a place tainted with blood of evil men. Why have you arrived here?"

"I am trying to figure that out."

"Look around you-you are in my palace, your tainted blood spills from your hand. It is knowledge that you seek and knowledge that I can provide only for clean blood."

Father has led me to my downfall yet again. I fall on my knees with my head to my dried blood on the ground. "I want-this curse to be eradicated."

"The unholiest of curses is to remain on your body, Risa. It cannot be done by you-the curse shall even remain after you die." I could feel anxiety sitting in my throat. Father must be satisfied with himself. "Swinging your blade will do not a single thing for you. You can seek and lose, hope and doubt, and be and not be, but it shall do you no good. Even the sleeping power within yourself cannot help you."

"What hidden power is that?" I am even surprised at this point that I have anything within me besides cursed blood. "I have nothing but a sword and my own blood."

"A sword that is a key, and hands that can shape land and sea. You have only awakened some of it, but not all of it. Why do you hesitate young warroir? Why does your heart want more but you let your sigma control everything you do?"

"What am I supposed to do? The curse Father gave me-" I say with my fists curled up "-it stops me from doing anything. It has ruined me and it always will."

"Even as a dead man, your mark will never cease existence. Your kin has doomed you from when you could learn to speak and walk." The female voice continues monotonously. "Only you can save yourself from the fate you fear-the path of destiny that you will eventually walk." I used to repeatedly tell myself that I would one day free myself from this pain. That one day I would find a cure to this curse, something to subdue it, to appease it, but that has not come. My hope is in vain. "All you can do is fight it."

I shake my head. "If I fight it, my lifespan-"

"Fight. That is what you are known for. Fight with the sword. Fight until your knuckles bleed out the tainted blood. Fight for the ones closest to your stunted heart. Fight for liberation Risa, using the key. The key can save you."

"I do not know of any key."

"Look in your hand." When I do, the odd sword appears in my hand. "The key is right in front of your eyes. That key is going to only open one door. I stare wistfully at the odd-shaped blade. Now that I look at it long enough, it does seem to resemble something like a key, but an incomplete one.

"You said that I cannot do a single thing to get rid of this," I point out, getting to my feet and walking towards the light. "And you also said you would not give wisdom to those with tainted blood. Why do you contradict yourself?"

"Why would a mother tell her daughter not to wear a yellow cloak in the demonic village?" she replies ambiguously. "All I ask is that you awaken the power that has been bestowed to you by an entity no one in all of the worlds can match."

Extending my hand out to the statue, the light hops off the stony palms and falls into mine. I lift it to my ear and hear waves crash against earth, birds tweeting sweet songs of dawn, rain falling on the world, thunder booming in the distance, zephyrs making leaves dance in the air, and fire sizzling across a forest. "This is named the Goddess' Temple. But I only hear you."

"Humans make many errors." My memory takes me somewhere I am unfamiliar with. A gentle touch brushed against my cheeks. I have never been touched like this before, with this care and tenderness. It is as if spring's softest flowers were kissing my cheeks. A face that I cannot recognize-a face that I have missed for so many years. Her lips moved but no sound came out except for bird's tweeting. For a second, I wished that they could have stop singing so I could hear her.

"Why have I never felt this before?" I croak when my flashback ends. "It is…not fair." When I clench my hand, the light instantly disappears. My curse will not be my downfall-I refuse. With my mind filled with rage, a crack streaks across the Goddess' face. Abruptly, the painted wall comes crashing down like a turbulent waterfall. The large statue becomes demolished as chaos travels to the ceiling and destroys that too. When all of the madness stops, it is just me, the only thing left standing in the rubble. Above me is the black void and a thin light from where Knuckles punched an entrance to this place. As I begin to climb over the broken pieces of the wall and the statue, my foot steps on something soft.

"Ow, watch it-!" the voice barks. I hastily remove the surrounding rocks around the red top and sigh at an unkempt Knuckles with dirt on his face. "Hey, what're you doing here? And-" he glances at the destroyed hall "-what the hell happened here? You got into a fight or something? One minute I'm digging my way through those pretty stones and the next minute, everything is just falling" Seeing that he is fine, I make my way towards the emptiness that surrounds the temple. "Thanks for leaving me!"

"You told me to," I reply stolidly, trekking up the shattered marble. I did this. My inner power that I originally feared when I attacked Knuckles can be controlled and centered. And I have to accept the harsh fate that my curse will be with me for the rest of my life and afterlife. I wonder when the demon's hands will claim me and devour my tainted heart for its own. Hopefully not soon because there is still so much I have to do before I find my way back home.

"My Risa, don't despair," her voice is dying, fading into the muffled howls of the gales. Your curse does have a cure-but it does require a heart that shines of brilliance."

Oh look at that, Risa can eradicate the curse. See? I don't entirely ruin her life. Don't forget to review.