A/N: I own nothing
She was laying face down, listening to the silence. She was perfectly alone.
Nobody was watching.
Nobody else was there.
Though she was not perfectly sure that she was there by herself. A long time later or maybe no time at all, it came to her that she must exist, must be more than disembodied thought, because she was laying, definitely laying, on some surface. Therefore she had a sense of touch and the thing against which she lay existed too.
Almost as soon as she had reached this conclusion, Clio became conscious to the fact that she was naked. Convinced as she was of this total solitude, this did not concern her but it did intrigue her slightly.
She wondered whether, as she could feel, she would be able to see.
In opening her bright green eyes, she discovered that she could see. She lay in a bright mist, through it was not like mist she had ever experienced before. Her surroundings were not hidden by cloudy vapor; rather the cloudy vapor had not yet formed into surroundings. The floor on which she lay seemed to be white, neither warm nor cold, but simply there. A flat, blank something on which to be.
She sat up and examined herself.
Her body was unscathed.
How curious. She was quite certain that Apocryphos had punched a large hole in her abdomen in order to remove the Heart of Innocence.
Clio suppressed a bitter laugh.
Oh, the irony!
The irony that she, who was destined to become a Noah and destined to be the mate of both the First Apostle of Noah and the Exorcist prophesied to destroy him, had been walking around with the very object capable of ending the Holy War hidden in her body!
The Heart of all Innocence.
But why? Why had the Heart been hiding within her?
"The Musician is the Key." Clio found herself looking around for the source of the voice but she could see nothing and nobody. The voice was female, soft and warm but with great strength behind it.
"The Musician is... the Key?" said Clio.
"Yes." said the voice "Without the Musician, the Heart of Innocence is worthless and its power, unattainable."
"What do you mean?" asked Clio.
"The Musician is the only one who can resonate with the Heart of Innocence." said the voice "That is because only the Musician can hear the melody of the Heart and only the Musician can reveal its beautiful symphony to the world. They were meant for each other. Like the two sides of a coin."
"Who are you?" asked Clio.
"One who has been lost for a long time." said the voice "One who lost nearly everything and sacrificed just as much in order to protect the sole remaining thing I loved."
"Are you... are you Eve?" asked Clio.
"I am." said the voice and Clio had a vision of a woman. She was a beautiful woman with long chocolate brown hair and eyes that were a unique combination of royal purple, charcoal grey, and sapphire blue. She wore a dressed in a white summer dress and there were white jasmine flowers in her hair.
"So am I... dead?" asked Clio.
"Yes and no." said Eve "Your soul has left your body but you... you are still connected to the Realm of the Living. This place is the Realm-in-Between."
"That explains a lot." said Clio "But why am I here?"
"There are events that must happen in the Realm of the Living." said Eve "Events that will not come to pass without you."
"So I have to go back." said Clio "And I will."
"I expected no less." said Eve "Now, it is time for us to become one and for you to rise again, like a phoenix from the ashes." Clio felt as though someone wrapped their arms around her and then everything vanished in a blinding light before memories began to flood her mind.
-~~-author's note-~~-
more agonizing waiting!
But don't worry, I will have the best part up in another chapter or two.
Apocryphos is so going to get it then!~
Please review as all reviews are used to combat the evil known as writer's block!