C21 ♱ Chapter • 21 ♱

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There was once an ancient king who fell in love with a being completely opposite to him and as the romance between them developed, a curious phoenix watched them.

"What a fool" she once said as she snuggled into her nest "isn’t it obvious they won’t be able to be together? Look at them... they’re too different, they’re natural enemies."

The mermaid, who has always been by the side of the phoenix since the day she was born, smiled. A weak, friendly smile.

"If you think they’re so silly, why do you keep watching? Isn’t this the 16th time you’ve been here? Looking at them? What? Fell in love with her? Or maybe for him?" The mermaid provoked "no... did... fall in love with both?"

The phoenix has snitched.

"What the hell are you talking about? I’m a phoenix! I don’t fall in love unless I want to! And everyone knows that love is something questionable and made only for mortals to think that there is something beyond the basic motif of reproduction"the proud phoenix grumbled and the mermaid who had more and more fun watching it - especially in the way the phoenix acted -, just continued.

"Are you sure?" Mocked.

"Shut up" The phoenix muttered "I can’t hear them if you talk like that" she said holding part of the fire in her feathers over the mermaid, who was sitting next to her.

The mermaid laughed, having even more fun with it, but calmed down slowly as he snuggled in the warmth of his friend. In the end, she also had fun watching that couple.

Then there, together, they continued to see the two evolving and gradually both the mermaid and the phoenix saw themselves more and more accustomed to watch the couple and with time came something new. Miraculous.

A baby!

"How can it be real?" The mermaid was the first to say "they are from enemy races, it cannot be real!"

But the phoenix snorted.

"It’s obvious that it is, they are higher beings at the end of the day, so what’s stopping them?" she asked and the mermaid sighed feeling slightly indignant.

"Well... it may be, but..." The mermaid whispered "I’m sure HE won’t like it."

The phoenix disagreed, after all it was he who sent the young celestial away from home, he was responsible for throwing them one in the arms of the other. So how dare he judge them or even punish them? No, it was unreal.

Unreal, that’s what she thought - a shame she couldn’t be more wrong.

When the angels discovered that the sister - the favorite of their God -, was pregnant with the one who reigned and took for himself the underworld and the judgment of all souls, they decided to hunt her.

"How can you?" the phoenix screamed too angry to keep watching and too eager to turn her back and just walk away.

"I said" The mermaid murmured sighing as she threw herself back "they would never accept... It was too obvious. Don’t you remember? You said that yourself."

The phoenix has grunted.

"And who cares? They love each other and..." she stopped, it didn’t even make sense.

Why should something as silly as love be taken into consideration? Perhaps... had actually spent too much time watching those two.

They had changed something in her and that for a phoenix was personally offensive, because she was perfection and nothing changes perfectly.

"Enough" mumbled "I won’t watch anymore."

"Why?" the mermaid asked, but the truth was the phoenix didn’t want to answer. I didn’t want to admit it.

The truth was that she would not say even once that silly couple had changed something within her heart.

They had made her believe in love.

Then she walked away and as she said she would, did not return to the well of Serene Waters to watch the couple again and again as she had done for all this time.

She was determined never to go back, never to allow herself to look back, but one day, after a long time - she returned and when her eyes landed on the well, she saw it.

There was no sign of the heavenly who was always with him and the baby being in his arms had a terrible curse embedded in his soul.

It couldn’t be real - she thought, but she still knew it was.

Something had gone very, very wrong.

"How?" murmured, but there was no one to tell her, no one, not even the mermaid who accompanied her throughout her life.

"What happened?" she continued to ask, her eyes fixed on the well "please show me... please."

She practically begged and when one of her feathers fell on the water, she saw everything turn.

The phoenix then watched, watched as they hunted the couple. He watched as they fled to hell and as they thought for a brief moment that they would have peace. That they could finally have a happy ending and then the betrayal came.

The betrayal that dragged the heavenly to the heavens, the betrayal that condemned his baby and when the king finally received the fetus practically dead by the curse, nothing remained to him.

"Why didn’t anyone do anything?" She practically screamed, but the well shook as if trying to say that someone tried and when the image again became blurred, she saw the mermaid. The mermaid who accompanied her, the mermaid who with her watched the stories of the two and the mermaid who that day, when she was not and tried to destroy the heavenly - threw herself into the mortal world and fought a power fight with the one who for them - called himself God.

That day the phoenix screamed, she cried with all the pain she felt tearing her heart and along with her despair she felt the despair that the king carried in his chest.

The despair of losing your child, the despair of losing your love.

It was dark, it was scary.

"Let me help" she found herself saying in front of him as her feathers became crimson hair and her eyes now resembled rubies "I have nothing left to lose... so let me help."

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