Hi, folks. :D

So here I am again - back for you with a new chapter. This time we'll get to know about the legend that brought our sailors to Aijakar and just why Sinbad is the chosen one (well the main part of that, that is ;).

I am currently working on Chapter 12 (meaning ch11 is already written and on my to-beta-list), so be assured that this story is progressing.

As always my biggest and heart-felt thanks go to all of you who left reviews, faved and/or added this fic to their alerts. Hearing what you think about my story seriously makes my day and I want to send a special thanks to all those who stick with me and 'The Rise' for so long already: AnimePrincess, AFairy88, inbid, Stitch and WildYennifer. You guys really are awesome!
Another huge 'thank you' goes to everyone who reviewed Ch9: OiseauLune, tink, ChronoCresentFlames. I really feel honoured to welcome you (back) onboard!

And of course special greetings go to MidnightDew and Whisper without whom this probably would have never found its way onto fanficnet.

Stitch: So happy you think this was worth the wait! "Phoenix' Call" was one of my personal favo chapters to write and I am super glad to see that obviously you enjoyed reading it as much as I did enjoy typing it. :D

Now, enough with my ramblings. I hope you'll all enjoy this chapter.

Take care, and hope to see you again soon in ch 11: "Revelations".

Love,
TK

Chapter 10: legends

The crew gasped in shock as they heard the stranger's words. Their eyes darted towards the young women who stood in the doorway to this sacred chamber. Long blond hair framed a pale face, a simple brown cloak the petite body that was clothed in a sandy-toned dress. Her skin was as white as marble could be and yet it held an almost ethereal shimmer of life that was displayed on her rosy cheeks. Her features were stern, but somehow they showed great tenderness and warmth, too.

"She's only a child", Bryn whispered bewilderedly as she looked at the girl in front of them. "Only twelve at most."

The young one immediately tilted her head towards the sorceress.
"Age is not a question of your looks", she stated in a graceful manner, "It is a question of your soul." Then she allowed her gaze to fully turn to the sailors amongst whom there was the phoenix's only hope. Her eyes narrowed when she sensed the captain stare at her with uneasiness.
"Sinbad", she addressed him calmly, "Master of the seven Seas. You have come to enter the phoenix's realm. You have come to let the waters ease the burning flames. Help us heal the wounds that darkness caused."

At those words of her, Sinbad drew in a sharp breath. Pictures were forming in his head. Like aimless flashbacks remnants of voices and memories entered his mind, making him feel dizzy for only a moment. Then, his head snapped upwards.
"You were the one", he suddenly blurted out. "It is you I saw at the gates. It was you who told me to take the stone!"

While his friends stared at their captain uncomprehendingly, the young one simply smiled. She indicated a slight bow and nodded at him.

"Indeed it was me", she affirmed. Then she straightened her back.
"I am Chiara, high priestess of the temple of Aijakar", she announced proudly. Her features softened when she went to continue: "I knew you would come since the new moon rose. The voices you heard, the images you saw... the holy rules kept me from revealing the truth to you but what lies hidden in your soul received what I could not speak out loud. I worried you would refuse to listen but thank the Gods you understood just in time."

"But I still don't know why", Sinbad tried to cut in but was silenced by the priestess immediately.

"I will explain everything to you. Now that you found out, I will tell you."
Swiftly the young one turned to the guards who patiently waited at the doors behind her.
"Secure the gate", she demanded politely, then went to face the sailors again. "Come", she eventually invited them with a gentle voice while she waved her hand, "get closer. It is about time you hear the story of the great spirits and the fire one."

Reluctantly the crew did as they were told. Uncertain glances were exchanged between the friends as neither of them knew just what to think about the young priestess. Only Firouz made his way towards her without any hesitance. The inventor frowned in confusion as he found that something about the girl was strangely different. At first he couldn't put his finger on it but then he knew. Her gaze seemed to be so unfocused, her eyes so colourless. That it was what bothered him. It was not the dim light that made her eyes seem to dull…

"You're blind", he breathed when finally he saw that there was nothing than emptiness in those white lights of a human soul. Immediately his instincts as a physician kicked in and he moved to try and have a closer look at the girl but in an instant halberds crossed in front of him.

"No need to worry, good men", she waved at the guards with a warm smile on her beautiful face, "He's pure in both – his actions and his soul." Then she smiled at Firouz.
"I am blind since the day the phoenix chose to reveal its might to me. There's nothing a human being could do about that. But I feel honoured to have you worry for me", she said with a lovely voice.

Her eyes sparkled in the dim light of the night and although her gaze occurred to be so empty, it still seemed that she knew exactly what the world around her looked like. Without any hesitation she moved forwards to stand right beside the central pillar. Her body was tensed as she obviously listened to the quiet thuds of the sailor's boots. When she was sure all of them had come close enough, the young priestess nodded at Lofar.

The old man understood immediately. Without needing any words to hear, he went over to the door where at each side bright torches were providing the chamber with some extra light. Lofar took one of them and then made his way to a certain spot at each wall of this sacred room. Only now did the sea-farers notice that small candles were attached between those magnificent reliefs they had already noticed in the morning. But while in the bright daylight they had seemed to be just a wonderful work of art, the birds now seemed to almost pulse with life every time the little flames flickered in the soft night's breeze.

"This is one of the four eternal beings", Chiara's voice suddenly cut through the silence. Her head was turned to face the wall right in front of them.
"Once", she began to explain, "there was nothing in this world but the elements themselves: water, earth, wind and fire. Nothing existed but them. They filled the air, they steadied the ground, they heated up the cold core of this once dead planet and they rolled the waves of its blue waters.
For thousands of years they filled the lines of a timeless history until one day the elements chose to unite and form the first living thing. At the beginning small and vulnerable, it soon grew and rose to leave the secured bays of its creation. From that point of time life found its way. Mystical beings came to existence and vanished again. All forms of plants and animals spread across earth - conquered air as well as water. And one fateful day the human race left the emptiness of void and made this world its home. The eternal forces saw the potential those young creatures held and so they allowed them to find out how to influence the elements that once had formed them. This knowledge was meant to be a gift to turn this world into one of light and good, but mankind was too weak. Too many used that precious treasure only to gain power and wealth. In their heads dark voices began to speak - voices of shadows that never before had existed. That was the time when the night-kind were born. They surrendered to the voices only they could hear and all too soon the world split into those who collected knowledge and used magic only to do good and those who used it for their own selfish reasons. And yet, many years light and darkness existed in harmony. There was a balance that, although none had ever spoken it out loud, both sides had chosen to keep. It stayed like this for hundreds of years until one day…"

"Darkness became too greedy."

Chiara jumped a little when Doubar finished what she had wanted to say. The young priestess sent a half-hearted nod towards the sailor before she decided to continue.

"It was a mighty wizard of the west who wanted to fully control the elements. He knew that, in order to accomplish this, he had to defeat those who followed the path of light because those who used the energies to do good had also sworn to protected them. And so he recruited men, beseeched the demons that once had lived in harmony with nature and brought the night's ghosts into being - it was the rise of an unholy force and the beginning of the first war between light and darkness."

Suddenly Chiara came to a halt. Her shoulders tensed as she turned to face the crew.

"You, white sorceress", she addressed Bryn firmly, "know that the white powers are hard to be used. You need a strong will and a pure heart to get access to them. Darkness in contrast is coming so much easier than light if one calls for it and thus soon it had been the bright force that was near to extinction. And in this moment of despair, four of the world's greatest sorcerers sacrificed their magic only to call out to the eternal elements. Each of them gave up their life to protect what this world was made of. It was a sacrifice that darkness had not expected to take place – it was the one thing that held the might to turn the tide. With what those great men had unselfishly done that day, they enabled the four elements to change their status of existence and take on a living form that could intervene in the world of men. This was the day when the four eternal beasts were born."

The young priestess took a deep breath before she chose to continue. Her eyes sparkled in the torches' light while her voice once more filled the sacred chamber - making everyone inside watch the girl in awe as she almost seemed to visualize what then she talked about.

"The first one who stepped onto this planet was earth. This strong and calm element chose to take the form of a dragon. With its claws it split the ground and sent the dark armies to the never-ending silence of an earthy grave. Next it was water that rose to take the form of a serpent. With its mind it was able to control the waters it lived in and with its tail it sent demons, men and shadows to rest in the depths of the endless seas.
After the elder elements had taken their mortal shape, it was air that came to existence in the body of a griffin. Half eagle and half lion this creature was the perfect match to the temperament of this young and restless element. With the ability to command the stormy winds the holy griffin scattered the troops that darkness sent out.
The three creatures fought with all their might and still evil invaded this world like a plague. And so the last of the four great sorcerers decided to take their only chance: with the last amount of energy he had left, he set the fourth element free."

In a gracious move the high-priestess lifted her right arm to point at the beautiful reliefs.

"Fire is the youngest and at the same time the oldest of all elements", she explained, "it is the weakest and yet the strongest of them all. It was the first of all elements mankind had learned to use and yet it is the one men will never fully control. It is the one force the magicians had feared to set free because once released it can hardly be eased again. Its bright flames are able to burn everything – without regarding good or evil, vision or reality - if they're not controlled by the only might that can hold them back.
But light had no other chance. Fire came into this world in the shape of the holy bird. The creature spread its wings and bright flames burnt the armies whose purpose it was to destroy what this world was made of. The release of the fire one was the last desperate action of the great sorcerers and yet it almost came too late.
When the youngest beast rose this world had been so close to falling into darkness and only with the dangerous rage of the firebird, light could finally win the war. With the entire power the four eternal beings held – their own elemental force and the magicians' might – in the end they were able to end this battle and banish the night-kind to the shadows they had once arisen from. Darkness itself, however, they could not conquer. It's part of this world, such as light.
The seed of evil remained in the hearts of men and it's there until the present day. But the creatures chose to protect all those who followed the path of the four great sorcerers and secured the balance between the two forces. They sent their whole energies to lie within four crystals that would forever connect them to the world of men. Each of them carrying the spirit of one of the beasts, the magical stones were brought to four holy places that were being kept a secret to the rest of the world. In those temples good people chose to protect them. And every three hundred years only one of them set its power free and with that renewed the charm of the old magicians that held their might in the living world. Never did the four beasts take their mortal form at the same time. Each creature slept a thousand years before they walked upon this world again. Now the time for the phoenix has come to relive its own creation. And this, good sailors", she finally announced, "is the reason why you all are here today!"

For a moment, none of the crew dared to speak or even breathe. They all still heard Chiara's words echo in their heads, forming pictures of those great magical beings. All their thoughts started to circle around these creatures – around their grace, their power and their purity. To them it seemed like the visions the young priestess had, had just entered their souls as well – filling them with an ancient knowledge that would have been forgotten if she hadn't brought it up again.

"Why do you talk of them as if they didn't exist anymore?", Firouz' voice then suddenly cut through the quietness that seemed to have lasted an eternity. Six pairs of eyes shot into his direction while his words vanished to the night's silence, leaving nothing but the quiet crackle of the torches' flames to be heard.

"The world needs to be in balance, young friend", Chiara slowly answered after waiting a moment. It seemed that she tried to choose her words wisely when she lowered her head a little and turned to the graceful reliefs behind her once more.

"As long as the holy beasts rest in those crystals, darkness is not able to get near them. Their might keeps every evil at bay – just like an eternal light that never could fade. But nothing can be eternal. Just like good has to have a chance to win over darkness..."

"Darkness has to have a chance to win over light."

Chiara nodded tiredly upon Bryn's completion of her explanation. "The one moment where darkness can dare to attack the holy ones is when they leave their crystals in order to renew that old spell. Just like a newborn baby, the creatures are vulnerable then. Their lives are just as mortal as the forms they are taking. Like every child they are in need of an earthly guardian – one who keeps evil away from them with their mortal heart."
After she had said this, the priestess tilted her head back at the sailors and her blind eyes focused on only one of them.

"It's the keeper's holy duty." It was a hoarse whisper that escaped Sinbad's throat and which made the high-priestess nod solemnly.

"Indeed it is", her clear voice affirmed him before she went to step back a little, moving towards the sailor until she stood right before him. Slowly, almost hesitantly, she reached out with her left hand then brought it up to his chest where she let it lower gently. "Your heart is beginning to understand", she spoke calmly while once again her white eyes searched for his', "but there is still so much it has to learn - still so much it has to realize."

The young girl's eyes narrowed almost unnoticeably as she transfixed his own questioning gaze, refusing to give him the answers he was seeking to get.
"Your head is asking too many things...", she finally stated with a low voice, lifting her hand slowly and straightening her back a little before releasing him of her presence as she moved to face the central pillar again. "... too many things that your heart should have the answers for."

Sinbad felt his brows furrow in confusion upon what the young priestess said. A deep breath escaped his lungs and only now did he notice that he had held it the whole time she stood next to him.
Her words still hovered in the air when the captain suddenly stepped forward. The young man was well aware of his friends' gazes that lay on him but for once he didn't care.
"But why me?"

Chiara's body tensed as she heard his question and only slightly did she tilt her head back at him in response.
"You really don't know?", she asked him with an unmistakable trace of sadness and incomprehension in her voice.

"None of us does", Bryn's words then cut through the quietness; replying to the priestess and with that lifting the burden of negating this knowledge, which seemed to be so important, off her friend's shoulders.

Chiara raised her eyebrows in surprise. "This is unexpected, indeed", she mumbled silently before lowering her head a little and taking a deep breath.

"It's the burning seas within you the phoenix is searching for", she finally voiced out what she felt lay hidden in the sailor's depths. For a moment then she waited, hesitated, hoped that she would find recognition in the strangers' minds but hearing nothing but silence answer her, she finally turned around completely to face the sailors once again. The young woman had not expected them to know nothing about what she would have to tell them now, but knew better than to let her disappointment be shown in her features.

"Everyone carries the elements within them", she thus, after a while, began to explain with patience.
"Once together they created the first living thing and still every form of life bears their nature within them." In a graceful move she then left her spot and walked slowly towards the Nomad crew, passing one after the other as she did so.

"Each of you carries the elements' strengths and weaknesses; each of you has one element that is superior to the others. Water, Wind, Earth and Fire", Chiara stated solemnly, "you all carry them within you. They let you be what you are, and the way they merge within your hearts decides about your nature." For a moment then the priestess halted in her steps.
"But every once in a while souls are born that belong to only one of the four." The young girl stood right in front of Sinbad now but this time she didn't let her blind eyes meet his face.
"These people are called the elemental ones for they carry all the strengths and all the weaknesses of only this one element within them. Their souls are precious lights for one of the great forces chose to share their whole spirit with them. And it is only them who can call out to the creatures."
Abruptly then Chiara's head snapped into Sinbad's direction; her gaze transfixed him and her voice took on a stern tone as she spoke to him: "You, Sinbad, Master of the Seven Seas, have been born to the waters. Your soul is bound to them just like they are to you. You carry all their strengths and all their weaknesses for there is no other element within your heart."

Almost unnoticeably the young priestess frowned for a moment before she added with a low voice: "None but one."

"None but one?", Firouz echoed what Chiara had just said. The Nomad's inventor eyed the young girl intensively and let his confusion be shown in his voice. He had listened intently to all what she had said; had tried to understand this knowledge that didn't follow any of the laws of logic he so believed in. "But didn't you just say..."

The scientist wasn't given the chance to go on as the priestess lifted her right arm slightly, silencing the curly haired man with this simple gesture.

"I know what I said and still there is more about your friend than any of you could ever imagine. You are born to the waters and only to them", she eventually addressed Sinbad again, "but still you hold another spirit as well. Another element that is as pure as yours." Slightly she elevated her head then, piercing the sailor with her empty gaze and letting her following words sound in the chamber.

"You carry the bright flames of a fire-born."

A/N: Alright, so this is my own little fantasy version of how life came to be. I've always loved the idea of the four elements deciding on a soul's nature - at least when it comes to the world of AoS. I am aware that the idea itself is everything but unique, and that there are numerous stories out there which state that Sinbad sort-of represents the waters/seas but I hope that I was able to add a new hue to this theory. :)

As always, feedback is very much appreciated and guest review is enabled. =)