Eve was an almost normal woman, as she sat there, meditating on the grass, her black hair fell in locks around her face, at sharp contrast with the paleness of her skin. She was dressed in a black leather outfit, tailored and fitted but not tight. Her boots came up to her knees and a sword lay across her lap, her right hand played with the hilt, simply carved but with a small diamond set in the centre of the cross guard. Her left hand was held out slightly in front of her, the palm facing the ground, although it was not moving, Eve was in fact using it to measure the air currents around her. That was the first thing that was strange about Eve, that she could control magic. Although this is not strange to Eve herself or her race, as every member of Eve's species could control magic, it could be considered a strange thing to humans, who only have a very slight command, if any at all, of magic. The second curious thing about Eve was that she had two wings sprouting from her shoulder blades, white ones, marking her as an Angel of Eden.
As Eve sat there, measuring the air currents, her eyes suddenly flew open, a piercing green, and she rolled to the left, taking her sword with her. Where she had sat a moment before stood another Angel, a male with pale blue wings, in his hands he held a wooden staff, covered in carvings, both wards and runes, battle worn, with the head of the staff shaped like a hawk, with a ruby eye. He was her mentor and one of her best friends, Elijah, an Elder One of Eden, the three rulers of the Angels and arguably the single most powerful beings in the whole of Mirum. Elijah was blonde, his hair long, stretching to his shoulders and had a rippled effect, so that he resembled a lion. His clothes were plain and unadorned, the only adornment was a pattern of three stars surrounding a tower that was emblazoned upon his tunic, and upon his right hand was a ring, upon his ring finger that was made of black obsidian, not fashioned into any likeness and seemed to draw in the light from around its surroundings, which always seemed darker as a result. Eve didn't like that ring.
Eve scowled at him, "what are you doing here? Today was meant to be my day!"
"I did say that, didn't I?" Elijah's voice had a soft musical lilt to it. "As to why I'm here." He held up his staff, "I want some practice and you're a very violent person so I figured you wouldn't mind."
"I am not violent!"
Elijah nodded his head, almost thoughtfully, "yes you are. And anyway, I can't practice with Abaven, he's too dull, Mara's in the infirmary tending her patients, and anyway she has the body of an 80-year-old human. You are the only other person in Eden who has a chance at beating me."
Eve threw her hands up on the air in exasperation, "fine, if you want to spar, we will spar." She got into a ready stance, "is magic allowed?"
"Yes." And with that, Elijah lunged, swinging his staff at her head, Eve ducked, feeling the rush of air on her face as the staff just missed, and aimed at cutting blow at his legs, meaning to disable him, but her sword hit his staff, which had moved faster than she could follow. She struck again, attempting to cut him from right shoulder to his left hip, but again her sword collided with his staff. They stood like that for a moment, their weapons between them. Eve snarled at Elijah and he laughed, a rather care free sound. Eve kicked at his stomach, but he dropped his staff, moved to the side, caught her leg in mid-air and elbowed the knee, shattering it, and she fell to the ground, in pain and dazed. Her sword fell to the ground next to her.
Elijah picked up his staff from where it had fallen and Eve placed her hands-on top of her shattered knee, she focused her magic and it poured into the wound, she ground her teeth together in pain as the bone mended itself. Even as she stood up, her sword back in her hand, her hair was matter against her scalp with sweat and she was breathing hard. Eve circled Elijah warily, keeping her distance.
Suddenly inspiration struck, and Eve dug her left hand into her jacket pocket, pulling out a handful of grass seeds. Elijah frowned at them, but then let out a little gasp of panic as Eve threw them at his feet. As if by their own will the seeds quickly burrowed into the ground, and then, obeying a swift upwards flick of Eve's left wrist, they erupted upwards, growing at an alarming rate, within a second there were grass blades as thick as cables and three feet long, and still growing. Another deft motion of the hand and they sprang towards Elijah, he tried to run but he was far too slow, the grass wrapped around his body, arms and legs and lifted him into the air, his staff fell uselessly to the ground. The grass continued to grow until he was encased in a great green cocoon, suspended in the air.
Eve studied her handiwork for a second, looking for weaknesses, but as soon as she was done checking it, a steady glow began to emit from within the cocoon, faint at first but getting brighter every second. Eve concentrated with all her might, it was her magic against his, but then let out a great cry, as if physically wounded, and the grass cocoon caught fire, great licks of flame burning along it's sides. The grass blackened and burned and fell to the ground, its prisoner released. Its prisoner was hovering on the air, he reached out with his hand, and the staff flew to it and for a moment, with the faint glow of the fire still lingering in the air around him, he looked like an avenging holy creature. He glided gently to the ground and took up another stance facing Eve.
Eve was sweating heavily and shaking slightly, brought on by the exertion of her efforts. Anger flared hotly within her chest as she saw Elijah was completely immaculate, not a hair out of place and with a smug expression on his face, but she was too exhausted to do anything other than stand up, and even that was an effort. Elijah sauntered up to her and placed his hand on her chest, she tried to beat him away, weakly, and he pushed and she fell heavily to the floor, her legs lying atop her sword. Eve tried to rise but before she could she felt a pressure atop her chest, he was kneeling on her, pinning her to the floor and Eve was too tired to fight him, he had won.
Elijah stepped off Eve and held out his hand, which she took and he pulled her to her feet. She dusted down her clothes and picked up her sword from where it lay and turned to face Elijah
Elijah.
"You're getting better."
Eve smiled at him, "of course I am, and I had a good teacher."
Elijah smiled but didn't reply, and instead made a circling motion with his finger, ordering her to turn around. She did as he wanted, knowing he wouldn't be happy until he had checked. Elijah scanned her for any cuts and found some on the back of her knees where her legs had been cut by the sword as she fell on it. He placed his hands gently on the cuts and healed them, although at the same time rejuvenated Eve, removing her tiredness and pain.
When he was done, Eve moved away from him, taking in her surroundings. They were on what could only be described as a large garden, several hundred meters across and circular. From the centre paths stretched out to the edge of the garden and joined another path that circled the circumference of the garden, so the garden resembled a wheel. The garden was surrounded by a wall with doors facing north, east, west and south. The garden itself was filled with only the rarest and most impossible plants. Eve’s personal favourite was hidden away in a dark corner, and it was there that Eve was heading now. Elijah knew where she was heading and rolled his eyes, but caught up with her and they strolled pleasantly through the garden.
For a minute the only sound was the regular thumping sound of Elijah's staff.
"Why are you really here Elijah?"
"I wanted to check on you, make sure you were coping alright. The ceremony's only 2 months away after all."
Eve felt touched, but wasn't surprised; Elijah had an old soul and was constantly worried about others, sometimes it was like he forgot to think of himself as a person.
"I'm touched Elijah, really, but I'm fine."
"Good, that's good."
Silence again fell between them.
"Have you given it much thought?"
Eve didn't answer immediately, but instead knelt at a rose bush which bloomed petals made of rubies.
"Of course, I have"
"And?"
Eve picked a rose, "I was thinking nature."
Eve stood back up, rose in hand, and re-joined Elijah, and they continued their walk. It was Elijah again who broke the silence.
"You know you don't have to go through with this, there's no dishonour in backing out now."
Eve sighed, "It’s not about honour or dishonour Elijah, and this is what you've trained me for since I was a little girl, for 20 years, backing out would feel like a betrayal. I'm meant to do this, I'm meant to become an Embodiment, become your successor and take your place on the Council of Elders."
Elijah nodded, "good, it's brave what you're doing, because you don't want to do it."
"I never said that!" Eve protested.
"No, you didn't."
By now they have reached the corner where Eve's favourite flower was, it stood alone and was completely black, but a sad and black, unlike the malevolent darkness of Elijah's ring. The flower had no depth to it, becoming almost invisible when viewed from the side.
Eve handed Elijah her rose and sword and again knelt next to a flower.
Elijah spoke behind her, "why nature?"
Eve shrugged "it's what I feel a connection with."
"I see, can you tell me what an Embodiment is?"
Eve rolled her eyes, even a child knew this. "An Embodiment is a person of extreme magical power, who, when they achieved that level of power, became the physical Embodiment of an aspect of the world. You, for example, are the Embodiment of life, and as such have a connection with every living thing."
Eve poured magic into the plant in front of her, trying to learn about it, trying to find out how it existed.
"What would be the difference between the Embodiment of nature and me, the Embodiment of life?"
"The Embodiment of life, you, would only kill when it would save more lives than those taken, however the Embodiment of nature would not care about lives, only that the natural order was maintained and wild places kept safe, the lives taken or spared in such a mission would not matter."
Magic flowed back into her from the flower, and she collected the results, nothing, technically the flower didn't exist, and yet it lived. Sighing, Eve stood up and turned back to face Elijah, who handed back the rose and sword, the rose was no longer made of ruby, but it was now an actual rose. Elijah bowed deeply to Eve, holding out the rose in his hand, "for you milady."
Eve grinned and took back her rose; placing it behind her ear. Just then they heard footsteps from behind them, and turned to find an Angel, make with pale blue wings and dressed in the bronze coloured armour of a guard of the Citadel. He stopped at a respectful distance of 4 feet and saluted, his right hand was thumped on his chest, just under his left shoulder and he delivered his message, clearly, importantly.
"Sir and ma'am, you are requested at the Citadel by Abaven."
Elijah shifted his position so he was leaning on his staff.
"On what business?"
"Confidential sir, but he said it was urgent and that he required your immediate presence."
"All right, return to him and tell him we will join him shortly, and then retire to the barracks, you delivered your message well, and I will recommend you to your commanding officer."
"Thank you, sir."
The messenger them turned and left them.
Elijah turned to face Eve.
"So, what do you think?"
Eve frowned, "what do you mean what do I think? We have to go; Abaven wouldn't have summoned us if it wasn't urgent."
"True enough."
And with that they left they garden, heading for the Citadel.642Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg3koH7vSdA
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