Daisuke awoke slowly, swimming though layers of gray unconsciousness before his eyes begrudgingly opened. Disoriented, he couldn't remember where he was, or why. He sighed softly, unwilling to move. He was warm and very comfortable, his cheek nestled in something soft and silky.
Like Hiwatari-kun's hair. Daisuke's fingers curled into the softness. Feathers?
His eyes opened again, this time the lull of sleep was broken. Daisuke found himself cradled against the breast of a very large swanlike silvery gray bird, it's wings holding him against it so tightly he found he couldn't move. It's eyes were closed, and it's breathing deep and rhythmic. Around them sparkling golden flames licked upward, creating an unflickering beam of pure light. Instead of being swelteringly hot though, the flames created a comfortable warm breeze. What is this place? What's going on? Dark? Panic began to well up inside him as Daisuke realized that he was alone. Frantic now, he began to struggle against the grip of the bird.
The bird's glittering black eyes snapped open, and it's sharp beak opened in a startled cry. Wings pulled tighter around Daisuke, and he felt a strange ripple pass through the bird as if it were convulsing. Wings around his waist became arms, the silken feathery breast of the bird became a the soft breast of a girl clad in smooth silver silk.
"Stop fighting me," She said against Daisuke's ear," You will only wear yourself out faster."
Turning his head sharply to look up at her, he gasped. She was radiantly beautiful, skin pale and glowing in the light of the flames. She had wide gray eyes surrounded by long dusky lashes and a very soft looking rose mouth. Her hair fell in soft silver curls over her shoulders and down her arms, where she held him tightly against her. Daisuke's face flushed, being held against a bird was a much different thing than being cradled in the lap of a very beautiful and very soft girl. He wondered what Dark would have had to say about the situation.
"Good," the girl smiled brightly and rested her cheek against the top of his head. "It's so much nicer when you don't fight me, Daisuke-kun."
"How did you know my name? And Who are you? Where am I?" Daisuke twisted around to look at her, and this time she let him, arms loosening enough for him to turn sideways against her.
She laughed merrily. "Which question to answer first? I know your name because I can read your heart. I am 'The Ever Burning Flame' but you can call me Eve. And you, my darling, are in the center of my heart."
"Oh," Daisuke's head swam. Her answers really hadn't helped him at all.
Emiko took the beacon from Dark with slightly shaking hands. Carefully, she placed it in the center of the alterstone. Behind her, Daisuke's Grandfather, Daiki, lit the braziers and flickering light danced upward, illuminating the plain stone walls and ceiling far above them. Silently, Emiko slipped a ceremonial robe over her shoulders. Being born a Niwa had meant many things to Emiko. It had meant studying priceless and dangerous artifacts as a girl, and having a mysterious ceremonial shrine below her house. It was daring midnight escapades with the Phantom Thief and being intrusted with an exciting secret. Today, though, being a Niwa might mean that she lose the most exciting and priceless thing of all.
A tear slipped down Emiko's face. Dark wordlessly wiped it away and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Emiko let herself be held, and pressed her face against his chest. "I will get him back, Mother," he whispered to her.
Emiko raised her tearstreaked face. "I can't lose him," she said brokenly, "I can't."
Over her head, Dark met Daiki's eyes from across the room. Daiki nodded slightly, then opened the heavy book that he was holding. Blowing dust from between the pages, he began to read aloud, his voice echoing back at him from the heavy stone walls.
"The Ever Burning Flame Of Love was created in 1736 as a special gift for the wedding of Alonzo and Lucrezia D'Madea. The young couple was said to love one another with an unmatched purity, and The Ever Burning Flame was fed by their love, and as long as they were true to eachother, it would never go out. In the fall of 1742, Alonzo was called away overseas. The trip was supposed to last for only a month, but Alonzo failed to return. Fearing the worst, Lucrezia had the Ever Burning Flame fashioned into a beacon, so that Alonzo would see her love shining for him and return to her. Sadly, the months stretched onward, leaving Lucrezia to wait and watch alone from the lighthouse tower for her love to return. Then, nearly two years later, a sailor from her husband's ship returned with terrible news. The ship had been lost in a storm, and Alonzo had died. Lucrezia went alone to the top of the lighthouse where she was later found dead. The Ever Burning Flame was alleged to have burned away her spirit because she could no longer be with the man she loved. Over the next two hundred, over a dozen heartbroken young men and women were also found dead at the site of Lucrezia's death. Legend has it that The Ever Burning Flame burns away the spirits of those broken-hearted and forsaken by love." Daiki's voice faded away, and in the circle of Dark's arm, Emiko shivered.
"But that can't be right," Emiko said after a moment, frowning. "Dai-kun wasn't broken-hearted, was he Dark-san? He cares for Risa-chan, but--"
Dark shook his head. "It isn't Risa-chan," he said simply. Emiko's eyebrows raised in suprise, and she opened her mouth as if to speak, but Dark gave her shoulders a last squeeze and released her. Taking the book from Daiki, Dark quickly skimmed over the paragraph that had just been read. "This is all you could find?" he closed the book amidst another cloud of dust.
Daiki nodded.
"Well then," Dark turned to The Ever Burning Flame, "We will just have to wing it."
"I have been lonely for so long, Daisuke," Eve snuggled closer to him and ruffled his hair affectionately. "It gets cold when the flame goes out for so many years."
"Umm, but I thought you were an Ever Burning Flame," Daisuke shifted his weight away from her, trying to get breathing room between them.
Eve smiled nostalgically. "I was once fed by unending love, but when that love was extinguished so was my flame. Now I can only help those who's hearts have been bruised to forget."
"I don't want to forget anything," Daisuke Protested, "I want to remember it forever..."
Eve laughed softly, "Dai-kun, you have been hurt and are very confused right now," she soothed sweetly, "you have great love and great pain in your heart. You will feel much better when you let everything burn away."
"Burn away?" Daisuke pulled back from her sharply, "That's what's feeding the flame?"
Eve smiled enigmatically. "In part. But nevermind that. Tell me about these people you love, Hiwatari-san and Riku-chan."
Daisuke sighed and closed his eyes. "Riku-chan is very special to me, but do I really love her?"
Eve laughed again, this time with a bounce and toss of her hair. "Of course you do, Dai-kun. I can see it in your heart. You love her for her gentleness and her determination. You always have, you just didn't know it till now."
"I love Hiwatari-kun. I love him because he needs to be loved, and because he has been hurt so many times. I can't explain it any better, I just want to erase the sadness from his eyes," Daisuke felt a hot tear slide down his cheek and smiled sadly. "Can I love two people? Is it fair that I want to?"
Eve's dancing silver eyes turned serious and sad. She leaned forward and kissed Daisuke softly on the cheek. "You have so much love to give, Dai-kun," she said sadly, then turned her face away.
Eve's body rippled again, as if comming through a heat wave, and Daisuke felt her body change again. The limbs grew longer, her chest lost it's curves and her arms felt stronger where they wrapped around Daisuke. The silken flow of Eve's form fitting dress had become a smooth button up shirt and loose fitting silk pants. The flowing tumble of silver curls smoothed into a silver sweep of hair that fell over the unchanged face.
"I'm sorry, Dai-kun." The young man flicked the gleaming hair away from his solemn gray eyes. His face was the same as Eve's, but his voice was a mellow baritone."It's hard for me to stay in that form when my mood changes."
Daisuke, caught mesmerised by the sorrow in those deep silvery eyes, shook himself. Bowing his head, Daisuke looked away. "You aren't really a girl?"
The boy smiled faintly. "No, I am not really anything. I am a bird because that is the way the artist crafted me. I am a girl when I'm happy, because my favourite memories are from a time when I knew a woman who was the most beautiful when she smiled. I am a man when I am sad because I can remember the sorrow in a man's eyes as he walked away." He tightened his arms around Daisuke again, pulling him back to rest against his smooth chest. "Memories are a burden, Daisuke-kun. Sometimes the easiest thing is to lay them down and forget them. Look at this light around us. This is the light of your spirit, and once you forget all of your pain and sorrow, you can be beautiful light forever."
Lulled by the cadence of the youth's voice, Daisuke closed his eyes. Perhaps it would be easier to forget...What about Hiwatari-kun and Riku-chan?
"Is it wrong to love them both?" Daisuke murmured aloud, still listening to the beat of the boy's heart in his chest.
"No," came the soft reply, "Some people are only capable of deep love toward one person, and they couldn't be happy any other way. But you, you have so much love inside of you that you would die if you didn't give it away. But the heart is fragile, and easily wounded. The more people that you truly love, the more you will hurt. Do you really want that?"
Daisuke sighed deeply and didn't reply. The heartbeat beneath his ear was comforting, and he couldn't think of any reason to go back to a life of pain and heartache. A gentle hand caressed his face softly and wrapped around his shoulders, holding him warm and close. Daisuke felt himself drifting into sleep.
The fires flared higher in the braizers as Emiko and Daiki drew a circle of energy closed around Dark. Emiko's face was determined as the light flickered over her features and down her ceremonial robe. Daiki's aged face held the same resolve, and Dark took a deep breath. He could not fail them and lose Daisuke.
Dark drew a midnight black feather from his robe and held it between the fingers of his right hand. Holding it in front of his face, he closed his eyes and began to chant. To his own ears, the chant seemed distant and strange, the harsh German sounds were alien in his mouth. Energy poured through his body, making every extremity tingle like an electric current ran through him. Opening his eyes, he narrowed his focus down to a point.
Barely breathing, Dark continued his chanting. His vision had irised down to the feather. Faintly at first, then with a sudden luminous brightness, the tar-black feather glowed purple. Holding himself rigid, even as his slender body trembled with the strain, Dark poured more energy through his body, pushing it out his fingertips and into the feather. The glow around the feather crackled and sparked like violent violet lightning, arcing to his fingertips and back to the backbone of the feather. It was difficult to look directly at it now, it's light eclipsing even the golden flame pouring out of The Ever Burning Flame.
Dark faintly heard Emiko gasp and call his name as one of his knees buckled, nearly breaking his concentration. Grimly, he locked his joints and forced himself to stay upright as sweat poured down his face. Dark's vision blurred, then doubled. His fingers throbbed and he felt the last of his energy funnel through his arms and into the feather.
Taking a deep breath, Dark opened his eyes. He held the feather straight out before him, end pointed at The Ever Burning Flame. "Goldene Flamme, die offen ist zu mir," he intoned, then flicked the feather into the burning beacon.
The feather struck the golden flame, and for a heartbeat gilded sparks battled with violet flames. The golden light flickered out, and the feather poured all of Dark's stored power down into the open beak of the silver bird. As the last of the violet flame dissapeared into the bird, Dark swayed once, then collapsed unconscious to the floor of the chamber.
"Dark!" Emiko ran to Dark's side. Her face was pale and pinched as she cradled Dark in her arms and looked up at Daiki. Unable to offer any comfort, Daiki said nothing.