Among the flickering lights of an old dining room, lay two corpses. One, of a young lady who seemed to be in her mid-twenties with silver hair and hollow purple eyes. Her body was unscathed and her mouth was drooling. The other corpse was lying a few steps away, near a broken table. It was of a middle aged man. His face, a bloody mess… Cyril was standing there with a refreshed expression. Life blooming in his cold scarlet eyes and his shadow looked more tenebrous and vast…
Cyril was about to move as he was done with his business here, he heard a familiar voice echoing in his head, it asked with curiosity.
"You can spare me some time to explain your actions here, now that you're done with these two weaklings, can't you? Or are you still adamant on keeping me in the dark?
That voice was neither hostile nor friendly. It was masculine and the speaker spoke in a mannered and polite tone. His voice betrayed of the malevolence he harbored. That voice was something Cyril or anyone would label as a voice of someone who is very formal.
'You are unnecessarily chatty.'
Cyril grimaced as his voice echoed in his own head. There was a complete silence until he heard a soft chuckle in his head…
'Well, we need to work together as allies for our mutual benefits, don't we? That voice asked amusingly.
'Fine, ask what you want to.'
Cyril expected an immediate series of questions but, weirdly that voice didn't ask anything. However, when Cyril was just about to leave the restaurant he finally heard that familiar formal voice.
'Well, then. I've been meaning to ask you...was your main target this grey haired woman?
'Yes, she possesses photographic memory, and specializes in navigation and spying.' Cyril's voice echoed as he replied solemnly.
'Then did you kill this man because he was the only customer in this shop when it was about to close for the night?'
'Yes, I observed his daily routine for a whole week. He ate his dinner here at this shop, even on Sundays.'
'Well, it's surely beneficial for you. He was pretty sensitive to crimson energy just like this silver-haired woman.
Access to the military database is surely helping you a great deal, finding exceptional people like this woman and your other 'prey'. Who would have imagined that the 'Shadow Devourer' is choosing it's preys by using Jerenberg's military database?'
***
It was a fine evening, still about an hour till sunset. Students of the Whitewing high school were about to be in half an hour. It was a huge campus, with all sorts of sports grounds, swimming pools, gymnasiums, gardens and a main building, surrounded by the towering walls of the school dorms.
The main building consisted of classrooms, universal to all grades, staff rooms, a library, laboratories, indoor game rooms, club rooms, an auditorium, washrooms, and a few storage rooms. The main building had five floors including the ground floor and it was flanked by the female dorm on it's right and the male dorm on it's left.
A girl dressed in a white shirt, black tie and skirt was sitting on a wooden chair in a designated club-room with a lost expression on her delicate face which looked fragile, as if it were made of glass. She was wondering about the recent set of events happening in the world or specifically Jerenberg. How everyone had forgotten about Harold's attempted suicide, all of the tragedies that had occurred in the Klington civil hospital were also forgotten, with all the victims who were presumed dead, being alive and living their lives.
There were no records of Harold's attempted suicide and his paranormal activities. As if nothing had happened. Even though the girl had tried to remind her parents and friends about it, no one around her seemed to remember it.
But she knew that she wasn't daydreaming because something inside her whom she communicated with daily in a peculiar manner had backed up her by explaining her that this weird memory wipe out was due to either a divine or a cursed spell.
The young girl was initially at shock and disbelief when she heard an unknown female voice echoing in her head, but gradually she coped with it and slowly began to converse with it. That voice was indeed of a female but it wasn't of a human, instead that thing called itself a Zarden and referred to itself as Anna.
Anna was a very serious and nonchalant woman, she was very particular about art and music. She certainly had tastes. Her humour was almost non-existent and she hardly talked about anything except Zardens, their powers, how she ended up inside the human girl's body and of course her artistic and musical tastes.
Her voice was very sweet to hear, Anna could've been an amazing singer if not for her shyness. Yes...Anna was shy. She was not a recluse or an introvert. She was very mature and serious but somehow shy about singing. She was very proficient in her field of interest which was also her job that was healing. Anna told the human girl that she was an exceptional healer and if she desired then she could cure any disease or wound.
But the girl wasn't interested in medicine, as she liked only one thing which was to fly. When the young girl told Anna about her dream to become an air force pilot in Jerenberg's armed forces… Anna didn't say anything instead Anna requested the girl to let Anna take her place, or simply put, Anna wanted her to transform.
The girl didn't object but certainly harbored doubts in her mind. When the young girl's body underwent the transformation process. She felt like she lost all control over her body, and her soul felt light. She wasn't feeling anything except the sense of hearing and seeing. She saw her body, or rather her body which had transformed into Anna, standing before a mirror in her room.
Anna was tall, around one hundred and ninety centimeters, and had a lithe physique. She was graceful and breathtakingly beautiful. Her hair was long, blonde and silky. Her alabaster skin was smooth and soft. She had radiant violet eyes with a hint of coldness in them. Her beauty, looked quite otherworldly.
Anna reminded the girl that Zardens had grey skin and black sclera, and that she was in her shapes-hifted human form, but she looked exactly like this in her Zarden form, the only difference was that she had black sclera, grey skin and a crimson 'plus' mark on her right cheek, which symbolised crimson healing. That day the girl named Elisa Adelstein learned that Zardens could also fly with their wings.
Elisa was still lost in her thoughts, she recalled how on that night Anna flew in the sky with a look of pure happiness and satisfaction. It was as if a caged bird were released from it's enclosure. Anna's inexplicable joyous expression clearly depicted her desire and longing to fly, and to keep on flying for eternity.
As Anna flew over Klington, her skin turned a shade of grey, her ivory sclera, which resembled that of a human, turned pitch black and her angelic white feathery wings became conspicuous. She stopped moving and just floated in sky, staring below at the well lit metropolitan concrete forest. A serene expression appeared on her countenance.
Anna lingered for a while and her voice suddenly echoed in her own head
'It's Christmas today, isn't it?'
Elisa wondered why Anna would ask this question out of nowhere. She doubted that Zardens celebrated Christmas. But Elisa didn't waste much time and answered quickly as her own voice echoed.
'Yes, but why would you ask this?
Anna smiled softly as she heard Elisa's question. A hint of melancholy taking place in her beautiful violet eyes.
'Nothing, I just asked this for my principles' sake.'
Elisa frowned or rather she tried to until she realized that her body wasn't hers anymore, for a while at least. Curiosity evoked in Elisa's mind about Anna and her principles. Suddenly Elisa heard Anna's voice echoing again, she said:
'Watch.'
Elisa complied and focused her vague sense of sense of vision, which gradually sharpened. Anna raised her right hand towards the moon, clenched it into a firm fist and then relaxed it into a palm.
Anna performed this quickly, but also with intricate gracefulness. After her strange set of actions, the moon turned crimson and then...
It started snowing, however it wasn't some natural phenomenon. Instead, crimson snowflakes were falling down slowly, Elisa was dumbstruck by Anna's strange spell. Elisa possessed the superficial knowledge of crimson healing spells, but she certainly lacked a practical demonstration and when she witnessed it, it was nothing short of spectacular, almost unbelievable. The moon looked crimson, but it didn't look ominous at all instead it felt like the moon had turned into a temple of prosperity and well-being.
Strangely, no one in the city paid any attention to the crimson moon and the falling crimson snowflakes. It was as if only Elisa and Anna could see them.
The next day at school Elisa read the newspaper, and it said that, apparently, no one in Klington had died yesterday night . All of the sick children and a few who were at the brink of death were miraculously healed of their wounds, diseases and trauma. Everyone had forgotten about their pain, strife and sorrow for that night and enjoyed Christmas to it's fullest. The times of Klington named this incident "The Majestic gift of Santa".
It was truly amazing, if someone were to put it simply.
Elisa snapped out of her reverie as she heard the announcement of dismissal, when she was packing her things up and was about to leave, she remembered Anna's royal title and how befitting it was to her actions.
'Princess of Prosperity.'