By.CorvidQueen
Anona sighed slightly as she traveled the wide and well lit corridors of her new home. It was midday, well after a boisterous "Welcome to The Pit" breakfast. A smile spread across pale cherry lips at how warmly they had welcomed her, some warmer than others. She hugged her wings closer about herself, stroking the almost downy softness as her mind grappled with an equation to which there was one to many variables to solve for, all brought on by one word, simple name. Pyra. What was her deal? Everyone seemed to be afraid of her, but she couldn't tell if it was out of respect, actual terror, a combination of both, or possibly none of the above. Isha's words still floated in her mind.
I'm glad you got Pyra's approval
Was Pyra the leader? Like the team captain? She didn't act like it, and yet it seemed like what she said, went. Anona paused as she came to the end of the hall and found herself standing before two overlarge, engraved oak doors. Hesitant fingers gently pressed against the cool wood, ivory wings held back and slightly upright, well out of the way. The door gave way easier than Anona had expected, eyes registering surprise as it swung slowly inwards without a sound.
"The wonders of oil." Anona breathed with an awed grin as she found herself in a library.
Book cases with no less then five and no more than eleven shelves lined the seemingly Olympic sized room, super-sized windows allowing the weak winter sun into the otherwise dark and silent room. Anona walked amongst the mostly dusty volumes, finding everything from Plato to R.L.Stine. Ebony curls brushed her cheek as she bent to obtain a closer look at a little emerald book with gold embroidering and silver letters, fingertips barely brushing the smooth surface. She absent-mindedly tucked her stray locks behind an ear, noticing an odd shadow on the tile floor. Looking up and to her right, she blinked. On the floor stretched the reflection of the sun's rays off the well polished tiles. In that standard reflection was a lump of black with a definite shape that looked basically human. There was someone else in there with her. Carefully, Anona inched forward, her heart echoing in her ears and pounding in her chest as she struggled to keep her breathing regular and silent. Slowly, slowly she peered around a corner, mentally scolding herself for being so paranoid and that it was probably only Isha. Sitting in one of those overlarge windows, was not Isha, but Pyra, one of the last people Anona would have expected to see. A gigantic book lay open in her lap, it looked like a photo album and a very old one.
"It's best is we leave Pyra be for the moment."
Anona nearly screamed, wings flaring as a hand clamped over her mouth, an arm around her middle and drawing her back and out of sight.
"Be still, it's me, Byron."
The name and the tone where the main contributing factors for her obedience, her breathing the only sound in the cavernous room. The hand was slowly removed, arm gently turning her around. Gray eyes and a rye smile put her at ease, but when she began to speak, he shook his head. Anon followed him quietly from the library and back to the hall.
"I'm sorry if I scared you." Byron apologized immediately, expression frazzled and nervous.
Anona frowned, her tone demanding as she placed her hand on her hips.
"What is her story?"
Byron hesitated, then sighed. "Come on."
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"Pyra was one of the first to come here. Doe was obviously the first, Pyra showed up a little while before me. Then Jason, the twins, Morgana and Rox within days of one another and Isha in between them." Byron started once he and Anona had taken seats in his spacious and neatly unkempt room.
"Then me." Anona added, Byron nodded his affirmative.
"Pyra is a pyro-kinetic and what better power to give a pyromaniac. She didn't go around committing random acts of arson mine you, but she liked fire. She didn't really understand it when she was young, all she knew was fire didn't hurt her like normal people. She was fourteen when it happened. She had been having a particularly bad day and hadn't been feeling well for the past few weeks. She had felt over heated and overtired, like she was going to explode. She had been standing on a corner, waiting to cross the street when a bird "splooted" on her shoulder. That was the final indignity, the straw that broke the camel's back, and she...well, she blew up. Incinerated two blocks, killed god knows how many people, her mother and younger sister and brother included."
Anona felt her heart jump in her chest, stomach turning as a chill ran through her.
"Oh my god, she's the one." she whispered, eyes wide. "She's the one Dr.Sifane was talking about."
Byron nodded grimly.
"She still has nightmares, I think she always will. Can you blame her?" he asked, gray eyes so sad, tired, and defeated that Anon couldn't help but feel for him. "I try my best, but I don't think I'll ever really be able to understand what she went through and is still going through. She appreciates the effort though."
His weak grin was laced with a helplessness that made Anona's heart sink.
"There are only two people who know what she's gone through. One killed herself and the other isn't real. It hurts every time she says it, but in a way she's right. She's all alone in this world, and it's all her fault."
Anona shuddered, a voice floating in her mind.
Fan not the flame, but heed the smoke for the shadow of Anubis clings on.....