Kerii… she acted far more recklessly than the mortal boy’s memory bore. Maybe it was due to the sight of her friend having died, for death in one’s close vicinity often brought sour and depressed states to emit to the surface. It was a depressing hour for her, but the bird in her presence wasted little time and continued. Coda might’ve suffered the most from Daiko’s death – as it befitted creatures of pure, instinctual mindsets with raw, primal emotions to stir within them. Creatures, animals, or simply the races beyond the sentient civilizations of man, elf and beastfolk… their feelings were always pure. Purer than sacred water. Purer than a diamond. A man’s tears could be out of a desire to gain favor or to guilt-trip someone, but a creature’s tears were always sincere.
And yet, Coda had stopped crying… for she felt a kinship with the Bird of Fire. It was a sudden turn to a calm state for the friendly raptor, and Kerii would be sharp enough to notice that. Alas, the Phoenix had a story to tell.
“Let me tell you about the young man who called himself Daiko,” its voice echoed, resonating across the walls and bringing a feeling of condensed authority to saturate the air, “And then, you might be able to let me perform my promised mission…”
The Phoenix’ story took place in Worth Woodsea, over 20 years ago. The story was about a settlement of Savannans, and a specific one at that – those who were gifted with long lives among mankind. They had fled from their homeland over a century ago and settled in a few places in Fiore, bringing their endangered culture along with them – a culture that revered the Phoenix as a gift from God and a source of eternal life. Their concrete jungles were houses of exotic but ancient nature and design, decorated with carvings and sculptured walls, ceilings and frames displaying ancient mythos from tales of old. The Phoenix held the most influence in these carvings, and many walls were protected by its wide, spreading wings of stone embracing the rooms.
However, there was a reason why they had fled so many years ago. Their source of long-lasting life… some elders had lived the lifespan of elves, but how come? Simply, the workings of a wrongdoer from old times; the Phoenix had been sealed in a prison, this prison being a large, round stone plate that they took along with them. The Phoenix’ powers of life could be sapped and injected into humans regularly, but it required a link – a bridge of sorts that had to symbolize the lack of their wish and the core of having their wish granted.
Since they wanted eternal life, it meant that they scorned the finite and mortal… they scorned the day when their own blood would wet the ground. And thus, the dead blood of hand-picked individuals were necessary to tap into the seal and drain the Phoenix’ powers, which was covered up as a ‘blessing and test of determination’ and as a chance to become a member of the Clanic Fathers. Yes, they only chose male sacrifices, for women were needed for reproduction, but the nature of the ritual and the lie that covered it up was not something that any sex should ever go through.
In the case that you were chosen, you would be slaughtered on the stone plate. Your blood would then activate the seal, and for a temporary time, the Phoenix’ magic would engulf the settlement. But Clanic Fathers? The notion that the sacrifices were saviors? Lies whose origin had begone to forgetfulness. Even the choosing of the next Clanic Father was based on massless assumption of some clairvoyant ability to choose them out.
In this cultural blood-pool, there was a widow with her newborn son. She had named him Daiko, after the white and large carrots that grew in the northern woods. She held such immense delight and love for him, but what horror a mother would go through if she were told that her newborn child was the next Clanic Father… it led to bloodshed. The mother wanted to save the child, and the shamans wanted to stop her. The child had to die. It had to die, for it was the right thing… wasn’t it?
What was one child’s life for the life of the entire clan? These sacrifices only took place once a decade, and the mother would have plenty of time to raise another. But she was reckless in her approach of her dead child’s remains, screaming in horror… and she did something unpredictable. She broke the stone plate.
A Phoenix who had suffered imprisonment in such a long time would also lose its patience and cool, and thus it unleashed its wings of fire upon the population. Worth Woodsea looked like it was suffering a forestfire, and almost all members of the clan were incinerated. But the mother lived, albeit against her own wishes as she cried: “Burn me away! Kill me! End me! Bring me back to my son! Bring me back to my child…!!!”
The Phoenix realized what had happened. The poor child’s life had been robbed from it. A newborn never got the chance to speak its first word or eat its first meal or drink its first cup of water. How… heart-choking. It felt as if its blood was freezing to ice under carpets of hell and oil.
And that was when the Phoenix decided to, in a way, grant the mother her wish… but its blood could only make the living immortal, not revive the dead. At least… no, it couldn’t revive others so easily, but it could revive itself! That was it! If it merged with the boy’s own dead flesh, then maybe… just maybe…
And that was when the forest fire died out. Not a trace or an ember left… nothing but a confused, teary mother and an infant’s live cries and sobbing…
And now, Kerii knew as well. What Daiko was. What had happened to him long ago. Not even Daiko was aware of this, and the bird of fire made sure to inform her of that. “I am Daiko… or at least, I was for a while. In a moment of desperation and empathy, I decided to become a living human, and thus my mind convinced itself that I am Daiko Flayme… but in the end, I am the Phoenix. I have always been, and my time is almost up. I must give birth to myself once more, and become an egg.”
The Phoenix took a deep breath, because Kerii’s expressions were just as… tearful as the mother’s. It brought sour feelings up from times past. “… D-… Tell me, Kerii, for I must leave soon. I have a world to see, and a life to restore. Every 500th year, I turn back to an egg and undo myself. From the ashes of my old self, I return to life once more, and yet… this heavy feeling in my chest won’t go away. I may be Daiko Flayme, but my mind is not the same as before. Daiko’s mind is not mine, but at the same time, it… is.” It was like an identity crisis, really.
“I… do not want to part. I promised his mother that… he would live. Flying away in this state would be a coward’s act, and I am no swindler… so tell me! Open your heart and proclaim your wish with all your might; do you wish to see Daiko Flayme again?”
WC: 1265
TWC: 2131