36 — ATHENA'S HEART
The night breeze blew her very dirty dress torn at the ends. The rose still held a sweet perfume that brought her enormous comfort; Saori stuck her finger, however, in the hard thorns of the stem, and saw a drop of blood dripping onto the beautiful tile of that balcony.
She stood there watching, as she had done so many times in her life, how quickly her skin healed, stopping the blood. She went into her old room; now overturned, stuffed and very dirty. She found her desk empty of her things except for a flowerless vase that was part of the wooden structure itself. And there she placed the rose which, even in that darkness, seemed to vibrate a beautiful shade of red. Everything around her was purple and night-time shades, but that enchanted rose seemed to glow by itself.
She sat on her old bed, now very dusty and with a lot of junk on top of it. She took a deep breath with the staff lying in her lap as she remembered the horrific events of that night; as if the dimensions she had crossed had delayed a few hours of her memory.
She remembered Seiya and got up desperately, very worried.
She ran to the door and found Alice's worried face.
She hugged her crying, her hands touching her body to make sure she was really there.
"What happened?" she asked desperately.
"Mii..." she tried to calm Saori, but she continued to hug her friend in a very emotional way.
Saori well knew that for her to be desperate like that it was because something serious had happened. But, before anything she needed to know, Saori knew she had a heart there that she needed to calm down. She left the staff and hugged her friend as tightly as she could, so she could see that she was right there. And that she was still strong.
"Where were you?" Alice finally asked, seeking her face.
Saori looked over her friend's shoulder, who turned to look at the golden staff that remained standing without any support in the air.
She told what had happened in the canyon until the miraculous visit of the Gold Saint. Her fateful encounter with the Sanctuary Camerlengo and the gift she had brought back along with a mission.
"It's been three days since you're gone." Alice finally said. "The entire city is looking for you."
Saori was amazed, because until then she thought that Seiya still suffered in the canyon needing her help.
"Seiya is at the far hospital, badly injured, but he'll be fine." said Alice. "Ikki disappeared again, for a change, and Shun went to Jamir."
"Jamir?" Saori asked and Alice confirmed.
"He said he's going to get something for Shiryu's eyes."
"What about Hyoga?" asked Saori finally.
"He's in the Coliseum. He was sure you would come back."
But not her, Saori felt. Alice cared about her too much, as she was so much more than a Goddess to her.
"I'm fine, Mii. I'm here now." she said.
Alice was still crying, though. She was crying, because if Saori was there it wasn't thanks to her. She had failed. With her Goddess, but much worse than that. With her friend.
"I'm so sorry, Saori." she wondered aloud. "I'm not up to protecting you."
"Don't ever say that, Mii." Saori spoke again hugging her. "You were there with me since the beginning."
Allice wanted to be with her forever, but she had many doubts inside her chest whether she was even capable.
They embraced again in the midst of a destroyed room; both one and the other looked at that place full of memories for them. When Saori started to learn to play the piano and couldn't get out of those damn repetitive three notes, when Alice dropped breakfast on the mattress, or when they danced together in pajamas on that same bed. The day Saori wanted to wear makeup and the two became like circus clowns. The day she mourned her grandfather's death. The study hours.
Everything in there.
Now destroyed.
Only their embrace had resisted.
The next day, with Hyoga, they decided to visit Mayura's retreat with the staff to better understand what, after all, that golden scepter meant. It was also important to choose the next steps wisely. The mission was clear. The path was still very foggy.
Welcomed by Mirai and Shinato, as usual, the two revealed that they would soon leave for Palaestra.
"Where's Ikki?" asked Saori.
"We don't know." Shinato replied. "She's probably already there."
"No." Hyoga interrupted and corrected. "Phoenix went to Canon Island. Her arm was still numb from our battle in the valley and only at the mouth of that volcano can she recover. For six days and six nights, she will have to withstand the volcano's heat and then the Phoenix will be reborn from the ashes. I am sure that very soon she will be with us."
They all looked at Hyoga in surprise.
"Soon Shun will also be back and I'm sure Seiya will recover." said Mirai. "We'll all be in Palaestra."
They all fell silent when, finally, from inside the huge rock at the end of the retreat, the deep, powerful voice called.
"Athena."
"Master Mayura." replied Saori.
Mayura's voice and, if possible, her own likeness, seemed to grow more serious under the blindfolds covering her eyes. The presence in front of Athena's staff seemed a revelation to her, and she spoke her name very softly, almost imperceptibly, to herself.
"Niké."
Saori nodded and then told everything that had happened between her, the Gold Saint and the Camerlengo of the Sanctuary. A fascinating story that ended with her return days after her capture with a gift and a mission ahead of her.
"I can't tell if your mission has just become more hopeful, Athena, or if the evil spreading through Sanctuary is much worse than we imagined." said Mayura, very serious.
"Do you know the staff, Master Mayura?"
"Yes, and you know her too. It's Niké, the Victory." said Mayura. "She's been by your side since times of yore and guided you through all the victories you've ever achieved."
"If that staff guarantees victory, then we're very lucky!" said Mirai.
"Don't be fooled, lovebird. I said she leads to Victory. Athena has already lost a lot too. Niké doesn't guarantee full victory, but it can lead the way. No doubt it is a good omen that she's back at your hands, Athena."
"I feel I won't have another chance to vanquish this evil within the Sanctuary."
"You're right." agreed Mayura. "All these years I've been looking for a way to return Niké to your hands. It is a good fortune that the Camerlengo himself did this favor." she said.
"Do you know the Camerlengo, Master?" asked Saori.
"Barely. I only know that he is the brother of the former Pontiff Zion, and he was a very good man. But his brother I don't know so well, as I left the Sanctuary a few years after the death of the former Pontiff. With this gesture, it seems to me that he is walking the same path as his older brother."
"With Niké and the Camerlengo by my side, maybe we can convince others within the Sanctuary."
"Perhaps." said Mayura mysteriously. "But if the Camerlengo knows that there is an evil in his territory, perhaps that evil is much greater than we imagine."
They all looked at Mayura in astonishment, because where there was hope, she seemed to bring an even greater shadow.
"Master, you said that you left the Sanctuary a few years after the former Pontiff's death. I remember very well the night you told me about Athena." said Saori. "But you never told me how you found me."
Mayura rested her hands in her lap and took a deep breath under her blindfolds.
"Oh, that's been a long time, hasn't it, my dove?"
And, in the veil of dawn, Mayura told them about events from almost fifteen years ago.
Once upon a time, in a very distant city, a very rich mansion stood surrounded by beautiful gardens. Among the many windows, one let out the painful cry of a child afraid of the night. A very young baby.
Attending to her care, a sloppy old gentleman tried to rock a beautiful crib in the hope of enchanting the child into a sleep that would let him rest peacefully. It was one of those rare warm nights and, perhaps imagining the child was suffering from the heat, the old man opened the balcony so the fresh air from the garden could soothe her.
With amazement, however, he noticed perched on the balcony railing what looked like a bird watching him in the darkness. Two eyes watching him intently, unblinking and bright. The old man left the child's cry to drive away the eavesdropping bird, when he realized already very close that the bird was metallic and enormous. For it was not a bird, but a shining Armor of someone who watched him.
It was a woman, the old man was startled.
She climbed down from the parapet and, without him being able to do anything, as he was paralyzed with fear, she entered the child's room. Behind her, the old man saw how beneath that gleaming Silver Armor the woman was bandaged up to her neck. She stopped by the crib.
Immediately, the old man understood what it was about.
"Whose child is this?" asked the serious woman's voice.
"This is my granddaughter." lied the old man in Greek.
"You lie." she returned, looking at him with eyes that, it seemed to the old man, were glaring in the darkness.
Those eyes looked again at the little baby in the crib, who by this time had stopped crying.
"You have no idea who she is." said the woman.
"For I know exactly who she is." said the old man, waiting for the woman's bright gaze to return to him.
It was like looking at a bird in the night, whose eyes could see everything.
Like an owl.
Her head lolled to the side in clear confusion, waiting for the old man's conclusion.
"She is the reincarnation of the Goddess Athena." he said finally.
A secret he had sworn to protect and never tell anyone, that night he felt inside that there was no reason to hide it. That woman knew it well. And on hearing those words, the owl looked at the child again.
She finally turned to him and walked purposefully towards her, so that the old man found himself trapped in the glass of the balcony.
"What is the child doing here?" she asked sharply, but he didn't respond, marveling at that Armor.
"Your protection." he began, stuttering. He looked at the crib in the middle of the room and mouthed her name to himself. "Athena."
His mind joined one to the other, and when he looked again into her glaucous eyes that seemed to glow in the dark, he concluded in awe.
"You are the Owl. Athena's Owl, isn't it?" he tried, but her eyes didn't waver at all. "If what I think is true, then you're here because you know Athena isn't in that so-called Sanctuary."
"How do you know the Sanctuary?" she asked.
And he told. Everything as it had happened.
She then left the darkness in which she lit the old man to stand beside the crib again, where the child now played with the mobile of planets and stars she had above the crib playing a beautiful melody.
"Where there is darkness, the eyes of wisdom can see." she said mysteriously, perhaps more to herself than to them.
"Do you have some kind of connection with her? Is that why you found her here?" he asked, like a curious archaeologist facing a new mystery.
"Why should I trust you? she asked.
"That young boy trusted." said the old man, boldly.
And she was silent, as she knew the story of Aioros, the traitor to the Sanctuary. So the story she knew was a lie, for the biggest truth she knew to be irrefutable was that that baby really was the Goddess Athena. And a curious old man like that could never be with her if his story weren't really true.
Still, the Goddess Athena was in a place incompatible with her importance.
She bent over her crib to take it when she was interrupted by another act of courage from the old man.
"No. Don't take her." he asked.
"She needs to be in a safe place."
"There is no safer place than here. Mixed with mortals. Among ordinary men and women." he said. "If there really is an evil in this Sanctuary where the Gods walk freely, they'll never imagine she could be in a city like this. They better think she died in that ravine."
There was truth in his words, Mayura thought, hating herself.
"Because if there really is an evil in the Sanctuary, you can't do anything about it. Much less her. A child."
He propped himself up in his crib with his arms as if he was demanding too much of his own brain.
"I will build a Temple for her. A hidden fort. And around her an army will gather in the future."
To all of this Athena's Owl listened in silence and with a hopeless faith; in front of her was an old man, whose hair was already whiter than natural, his eyes sunken with age, his temples pouting with worry. Inside the crib, the child was smiling looking at her and in every way looked very well cared for.
What lay deep in her chest was that times were unfavorable, for she knew that, at that very moment, a war was about to break out between the Sanctuary and ancient foes. It wasn't even the best moment for an internal crisis with the reappearance of the real Athena.
She decided on something that stayed with her forever. A doubt that haunted her forever. Whether or not she had made the right choice. For she chose to leave her there.
"I'll stay close and not take my eyes off you and the child." she said gravely.
"Please do!" he asked. "And when the time comes, I'll take her to you. And when the Temple is built, I will turn that responsibility over to you. I'm just an old archaeologist. Terribly curious."
"You'll see me again." she threatened.
She turned to the crib and bowed to the child, bidding her farewell.
"Goddess Athena. I will stay by your side and I will always be in your nights."
"Saori." said the old man, interrupting her. "I'll call her Saori Kido."
And, not far from there, Mayura chose the highest point of a huge mountain so that she could watch the child's every step; a few years later, they would be together again, so that Saori could learn about her fate.
"So you are the Owl Saint." Saori spoke, guessing her protection at last.
"No," Mayura corrected gently. "I'm not a Saint. You must know, little dove, that there is no Owl constellation. For my protection and my function are outside the stars of the cosmos. My destiny is to watch over Athena's heart. Because that's how I found you."
Everyone there listened to the story, attentive, listening to Mayura's deep voice recalling events from so many years ago. Brought to the present, however, the Master's voice spoke again.
"Now that Niké is in your hands, your path should clear."
"I must go to the Sanctuary." announced Saori. "The time has come."
Mayura nodded silently.
"Your battle will not be easy, Athena." said Mayura. "Niké was in Pontiff Zion's right-hand in the battle against the Titans before you were among us, and more recently, she was in the hand of Master Camerlengo Arles in the battle against the Gigas. Whatever malevolent force is sweeping through the Sanctuary, it has kept the peace on this planet in two crisis in this Age. It won't be simply battle about who's wrong and who's right, about truth and lies. There is much more at stake."
Saori listened seriously to Mayura's harsh words.
"I still don't know what kind of Goddess I should be." she said sincerely.
"Trust your heart." said Mayura, finally. "I do."
Then Mayura got up from her wheelchair, to everyone's amazement, and knelt down in front of Saori. Shinato and Mirai beside her immediately did the same, and Saori saw how Hyoga and Alice beside her also knelt down.
Everyone trusted her.
In her hand, she felt how the staff resonated with the will of those around her. And also with her heart.
And in her heart was an ungodly answer, but perhaps for that very reason special.
She wanted to see Seiya at the hospital.
Mayura, however, asked her to hear about something important before leaving.
"I need to tell you something about the Gold Saint." she announced mysteriously.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: One of the totally original chapters, consolidating the relationship between Saori and Mii, but bringing something I kept wondering: did Kido have any help from someone who knew something? from the Sanctuary I like to think that Mayura was that person.
NEXT CHAPTER: CROUCHING TIGER & HIDDEN DRAGON
The day comes to seal Shiryu and Dohko's challenge for the Dragon Cloth.