The Third Sun (Daughter of the Phoenix Book One)

by Victoria J. Price

  “You hold the dahlia of the Lady Noor. Come, child,” the old woman said. Her eyes reflected the colours of the forest as she approached, before settling into a beautiful violet.

  Fia hesitantly stepped forward, and the black obsidian unfolded into a real flower in the palm of her hand. The witch reached out and picked it up with care, closing her eyes as she did so. She drew in a deep breath and returned it to Fia’s hand, closing her fingers around it. When she let go, it was a stone again. Fia blinked at her palm, wondering if she’d imagined it.

  “Welcome, Fia,” said the witch. “I am Kharsee, friend of the Lady Noor. We have been waiting for you.”

  “Is Noor—is she alive?” Please be alive, please be alive.

  Kharsee smiled. “Yes, alive and very well, I am pleased to report. She gave you this dahlia with good reason. We do not let just any stranger into our forest.”

  Fia resisted the urge to pump her first in the air, but didn’t stop the grin she felt spreading across her face. Noor is alive.

  “Now, I am sure you have many questions, which I will try my best to answer, but first you must tell me everything—from your arrival in to Ohinyan, to now.” She guided Fia to a seating area covered in moss, set down amongst the flowers and trees of the forest. In the centre, a small fire crackled into life as they approached.

  Fia began with the cemetery in London. It felt like a lifetime ago. She described how she and Noor had been attacked when they’d set out for the nearby coven. She spoke of the creatures she could understand, and the absurdity of it all, omitting the part where she could hear Erebus. She didn’t doubt how loosely he might interpret the meaning of friend, but she was certain it would extend to any of her new acquaintances.

  She finished her explanation and slumped down into the moss, finally grasping the distance she’d travelled, and how far she’d come since arriving in Ohinyan.

  “Very well,” Kharsee finally said. She’d been silent, listening to Fia carefully. “Now, what do you wish to ask me?”

  Fia let out a low whistle and rolled the little bird charm between her fingers. “Noor, will she be safe? What about Ohinyan and Erebus? What will happen to the sun, and how can I help with any of this?” Her words tumbled on top of each other.

  Kharsee smiled, wrapping her cape tightly around herself. “I will answer as many questions as time permits. But first, I owe you an apology, on behalf of the witches. We should not have asked Alexander to retrieve you. It was…short sighted of us. A distant relative of yours, Talina, was a member of the coven Noor first tried to take you to.”

  A relative…She was related to the witches of Ohinyan? Fia knew so little of her family history—there was no one left to ask. She waited for Kharsee to continue.

  “Talina fell in love with an angel when she was young. He showed her a window to Earth, taught her how to walk through, and together they would heal the dying and save the lives of those that were almost lost. But when her coven found out what she was doing…”

  Fia watched the fire, afraid of what was coming.

  “You must understand, Fia,” Kharsee said. “Long ago, that same coven worshipped Erebus and did not accept the angels’ dominion over our world. Erebus despises angels, so for Talina to be involved with one of them…Her coven tricked them, trapped Talina and her lover and burned the angel alive. Talina was banished to Earth, forbidden to return, or she would receive the same fate.”

  Burned the angel alive. Fia looked away from the fire. The thought of burning wings made her stomach turn.

  “So you see, Fia, you are a child of Ohinyan. We knew where to find you because we have watched Talina and her blood line since she left this world. This knowledge has not been shared with the angels.”

  A child of Ohinyan.

  “Was Talina like me? Could she…talk to creatures?” Fia asked.

  “She was a loquere, yes. Like Talina, you have a gift. And like Talina, you can wander freely between worlds.”

  Something knotted inside of Fia. She stared blankly at Kharsee, shock coursing through her. “What?”

  Kharsee was quiet, as if she were waiting for her words to sink in.

  “So Alexander just has to fly me back through? That’s it?” Fia asked impatiently and felt the knot grow tighter. Alexander had escorted her around what felt like half of Ohinyan for this. This. So much time wasted, when there was so much else for him to attend to. She pushed the thought away.

  “Yes, child. For you alone, that is all it would take.”

  “Can all witches travel to Earth?” Fia wondered if Noor had been to Earth, and what she might have thought of it.

  “No,” Kharsee said. “There are very few remaining who can. It is a closely guarded secret, one that has been hidden from the angels, even amongst other witches. But as with many of the other myths and histories of Earth, all Earth witches once came from Ohinyan, so we know Talina was not the first to cross over.”

  Secrets from the angels, there was so much to Ohinyan she didn’t understand. “Cross over?” Fia asked.

  “Our worlds seem to be slightly out of alignment with each other, the material plane of your world sits higher than ours, which is why all the windows here seem to be in the sky.” Kharsee reached for a stick from the fire and began to draw in the ashes around it. “There are many worlds, and ours are just two of them. But there are two planes of existence or two realms. That of spirit and that of matter. All worlds, like Ohinyan and Earth, are connected by both physical matter and the spiritual realm that encompasses them.” As she spoke, she drew interlinking circles encompassed by a larger one, her violet eyes reflecting the firelight. “We are made up of both matter and spirit. And when we die, our body—that which is matter, remains with Ohinyan—or in your case, with Earth. Our spirit becomes part of the spiritual realm.” The witch drew a figure of eight for Ohinyan and around it a circle with a cross in it for the Earth.

  Fia leaned onto her knees for a closer look. “We have these symbols, too. This one represents infinity. And this one represents the Earth, with its equator and meridian.”

  “And that is where they differ. The ends of each line represent the four elements: fire, air, water, earth. The circle around it represents the fifth element, aether. Aether is what fills the universe…it is the travelling of light and gravity, or of worlds. Some say that the spiritual realm resides in the aether,” Kharsee continued.

  “And the sun affects the elements, so the dying sun will affect the aether, too?” Fia asked, pushing herself to her feet.

  Kharsee nodded.

  Fia chewed her lip and paced, piecing everything together. “The windows between Earth and Ohinyan, what will happen to them?”

  “They are becoming unstable, more unstable with each passing day. They may even shut completely.”

  A quiet whistle escaped from Fia. “But not permanently?”

  “We do not yet know.” Kharsee shook her head and threw the stick into the flames.

  Fia followed the trail of embers as they flickered up into the air. “So angels won’t be able to travel to and from Earth?” She thought of Sophie, alone and waiting, with no angel to come for her, and countless others like her.

  “That is what we think, but we cannot be certain. Do you know the history of the angels?”

  “I know a little,” Fia replied, settling back down into the moss. She’d lost all sense of time. The light was strange beneath the canopy, and the colourful foliage cast long shadows in the firelight.

  Kharsee smiled. “Ah, but do you know how they came to be?” Her violet eyes sparkled. “Light is born from darkness, and so the two are interwoven. At the very beginning of time, a phoenix appeared in the aether.” Kharsee threw something onto the fire, just as Altair had done on Fia’s first night in Ohinyan.

  She thought of her kickboxing club motto as the flames turned into a phoenix, wandering alone in the aether. I shall rise again.

  “It spent many days in darkness, searching for others. The dark
ness had a name, Ahriman, and he would whisper to the phoenix, taunting it in the empty void of the aether.”

  The flames blackened, and a swirling cloud of darkness whispered incomprehensible jeers and taunts. “In the loneliness of the darkness, the phoenix bore two children: a winged son, who could command the air at his will, and a daughter encased in flames. They were to be a beacon of light in the darkness. Together, they were a symbol of limitless light and hope.”

  “They were siblings? An angel and a Makya?”

  “Yes, child, they were, once. But as light is born from darkness, so to darkness it can return. And that is what happened with the Makya. The boy, Gabriel, was too swift in flight to be caught by Ahriman’s heckles. He used the winds to carry himself to safety, but the girl, Terah, she could not escape. Without her brother, Ahriman’s darkness consumed her and in the embrace of darkness, she became the Fire Mother.”

  A Makya woman appeared in the fire, surrounded by a cloak of darkness. Her hair was the same colour as Fia’s, but her eyes glowed crimson.

  “Over time, Ahriman nurtured Terah’s gifts, and she looked to him as a father. The phoenix thought she had lost her daughter forever, unable to see that love had grown in the darkness. Together, Gabriel and the phoenix fought Ahriman whilst the Fire Mother watched and wept. Torn between darkness and light, she became too tormented to help.” The fire swirled with darkness and light and flashes of orange and gold.

  Fia’s cheeks warmed as the fire intensified, and the light obliterated the darkness.

  “Eventually, light won, and Ahriman was defeated. But just as the phoenix bore children, Ahriman bore a son. Erebus. The Fire Mother was devastated by the loss of Ahriman and begged her mother not to destroy Erebus. The phoenix realised that the darkness was now part of her daughter and feared for her life if Erebus was destroyed, too, so she trapped Erebus inside the dust from a dead star, forming Ohinyan around that dust and imprisoning him in darkness. Our sun restrains him, enveloping his prison in light.”

  The fire turned black once more, swirling into a sphere as a planet formed around it. Ohinyan.

  “And when the sun dies?” Fia asked, her heartbeat pounding in her chest. Fire, air, water, earth. She pressed her fingers into the moss, as if she might feel the energy Ohinyan contained.

  “Erebus is planning his escape. His whispers have already been heard across Ohinyan. As the sun grows weaker, Erebus grows stronger.”

  “And the Mizunese grow weaker, too.” Fia thought of Yahto’s demonstration just a few days before. “What about the angels, the other creatures in Ohinyan?”

  Kharsee shook her head. “This I do not know. There are many gaps in my knowledge, but I have told you all that I can. When the sun dies, a time of darkness will fall over Ohinyan, and from it, we can only hope will come a time of light.”

  Fia counted her breaths. What if Erebus didn’t need the sun to die in order to escape, what if he only needed it to be weak? Her head spun. “How do you know all of this? Why don’t the angels have this information?” It seemed strange that the protectors of Ohinyan knew so little.

  “How does the grass know how to grow? I know these things through time and through living, as living things do. Witches do not share their knowledge so readily with others.” Kharsee smiled. “As for the Lady Noor, she makes her way here via the Makya airship. They plan to bring war, and they plan to use you, Fia.”

  “Me?” Fia felt the familiar tightening in her chest, a lump in her throat that made it hard to swallow.

  Kharsee nodded. “Lorn, the Makya leading the army, has a history with Alexander.”

  Fia cleared her throat. “Yes, one of the angels told me. Lorn had proposed a union to Alexander and he rejected her.” Her chest fluttered at the words he rejected her, and she instantly felt guilty for it.

  “Something like that. She told Alexander they could rule over all of Ohinyan, the great Fire Mother and the descendant of Gabriel. She felt their power could be overruled by none.” Kharsee held her hands out to the fire, and in the flames Fia saw a Makya woman with long red hair, brighter than her own.

  “But Lorn wanted power, destruction, and darkness. Alexander represents everything that is light in Ohinyan, and he wanted nothing to do with her. Lorn never quite got over the rejection so it seems. She wishes to capture you in order to force Alexander and the angels into revealing the location of Alythia,” Kharsee finished, and the image of Lorn faded.

  “But they’ll never reach it.” It was a wish, more than anything.

  “In these changing times, who knows what can happen?”

  Fia shuddered at the thought. An army of Makya were on its way because of her. She thought of the children throwing snowballs back in Mizune, of the way Altair’s face lit up when he spoke with his son, and she clenched her fists into balls at her sides.

  “Lorn will be coming here soon, and we must all prepare to fight,” Kharsee added.

  “We tried to tell the Mizunese, but they won’t help us.” Fia poked a stick into the fire. It was a great risk, even she could understand that.

  “Yes, I imagine you will need more than words to convince them. They have many reasons not to help. Painful memories and fear, fear that holds them back.” Kharsee paused. “But for a loquere such as yourself, I think you might find other ways to convince them. Do not think it strange, child. It is a gift.”

  “Like what? And why now, why never before in my life could I speak to animals? I just thought I was going crazy, back on Earth, hearing all those voices.”

  Kharsee shrugged. “There are many things that could have awoken this gift within you. But it has been with you since birth. Perhaps passing through the aether has heightened your gift. But it was always there, and now it always will be.”

  “Even if I return to Earth?” Fia couldn’t bring herself to imagine it, wandering around London and talking to pigeons and squirrels, alone.

  “Even if you return to Earth.” Kharsee nodded. “Embrace it. It sounds like you have already learned to listen well in the time you have been in Ohinyan. Nurture your skill, don’t neglect it. You will need it in the days ahead.”

  Fia wanted to ask more, but Kharsee rose to her feet, stepping out of the mossy seating area and away from the fire. “Do not be alarmed,” she said softly.

  Through the thick canopy and colourful foliage came a great black bird, its wings outstretched as it flew fast and low to the ground. It came to a standstill a few feet away from Kharsee, dropping a piece of parchment from its beak. Kharsee knelt before it in a bow as she collected the parchment. “Thank you,” she murmured as the bird flew away.

  “You can talk to the Shadows?” Fia asked, on her feet now, too.

  “Not quite,” Kharsee began, “illusions are not a very effective means of communication. Your friends will be expecting you soon.” She smiled.

  “Countess, the others are waiting for you.” A man appeared through the trees. He spoke quietly, but Fia didn’t miss the urgency in his voice.

  “Very well,” Kharsee replied. “Come here, child, it is time for you to return to your friends.”

  “How? And what will happen to Noor and the airship? Are you coming to Mizune? Will you fight with us? Will I serve whatever purpose it is that you needed me for?” Her questions tumbled over themselves, as they had before.

  The old witch opened Fia’s palm, placing in it a small violet stone, shaped like a tiny rose bud. “Keep this, alongside Noor’s. It might be of use in the times ahead.”

  Fia gazed down at the little stone. She didn’t know what to say.

  “Noor will be fine, and you and I will see each other again soon. There is a valley not far from here. You’ll find your way back to your friends from there.” The witch raised a slender hand to point.

  “But I—”

  “You may ask more questions when we next meet.” Kharsee smiled and disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

  Chapter Twenty–Four

  Noor


  If the Lady Noor had not already known of the airship’s position by posing as a Makya guard, she would have known from the excited buzz filling the corridors that they were nearing the south, towards Mizune, her home, Fia, and the others.

  The ship was vast. When she’d arrived, she thought there were less than a hundred passengers on board, but now she knew there were several times that. What was worse, they had been joined by the Makya’s latest recruits and three smaller ships, and from what she had heard of Lorn’s discussions with her brothers, the passengers numbered a small army.

  Noor had discovered as much of the layout of the ship as she could, and in doing so she had learned about many of its inhabitants. The most abhorrent of which were a large group of mercenaries originating from the foothills of Ortesh, below the bleak mountain range bordering the Nord’s country. They looked similar to the Nords when in human form, but they were rougher around the edges. Their big, brutish arms and necks, calloused hands, and scarred faces singled them out at mealtimes. Amongst them was the odd Asharian, and some others Noor did not recognise. Collectively, they seemed to think they would bring some extraordinary talent to the battlefield, speaking loudly of their past successes to whomever would listen.

  She considered taking a blade to each of them as she walked past a doorway where they dined, snippets of their drunken tales escaping into the corridor, but thought better of it and let her hands fall loosely at her sides.

  “I will crush the angels in my bare hands, one by one,” the largest man said. He sat at the head of a table, a group of six or so accompanying him. His head was shaved, and a black tattoo ran down the side of his neck in a language Noor couldn’t read. When he banged his fist on the table, it sent wine splashing from their mugs. His tattooed arms were bare, and above tattered brown trousers, he wore a grey, rotten vest. Their weapons were crude, mostly battle axes, daggers, and maces, and Noor detested the way they spoke—forever goading each other and ready for war.