(500 years ago)
(Location: Celestial Realm, Axiom.)
After the sentencing of Asara and Kael, Arkiam (god of thunder) was still fuming. Most of the gods and goddesses had dispersed, returning to their realms and duties when a blinding light appeared in front of Arkiam.
His sentries protected him with their golden staffs and glistening bodies, adorned in their decorated uniforms.
"Who dares step foot on my realm?" Arkiam’s voice thundered out like thin streaks of lightning falling directly on someone’s heart to torment it.
The blinding white light slowly morphed into a female figure. Like the moon, she was milky and pure. With silverish long hair that fell way below her feet and spread all around her like a curtain of silvery threads. Her complexion was extremely fair and her small lips were pinkish.
Adorned in a sheer pearly gown with studded heavenly gems she had her very delicate hands clasped over each other.
The air around her seemed to shimmer as if thousands of fireflies had surrounded her.
Her long white lashes fluttered and her stunning eyes opened. Silver pupils stared back at Arkiam, the ones that held disappointment and hints of anger.
"Arkiam!" She whispered in a raspy voice with a tinge of annoyance to it.
"Aylin!" He rasped, some of his temper had watered down seeing the stunning woman. The blue eyes with silver outlines held long-lost affection.
"What have you done? You didn’t deem it necessary to inform me?" Aylin asked, her voice flowing in chafed notes. Her gaze was sharp on him, and the atmosphere tensed.
"I passed out a punishment. I don’t care if it was my daughter. An example needed to be made." Arkiam shifted uncontrollably in his heavenly throne.
"You mean our daughter or have you so conveniently forgotten." The air around her continued to shimmer and glow but in angered waves now, as if chaos had birthed those tiny dots of lights.
"You are exactly the reason she turned out to be so independent and soft. Falling in love with one of your lowly creatures when I had bound her with Kalthian. It’s all your fault." Arkiam lividly blamed the woman who still had his feelings in her clutches. Her timeless beauty still pulled the strings of his battered heart.
As usual, the man blamed the woman for all his shortcomings, even if he was a god.
"I take that as a compliment, better than to turn out as someone with no empathy. The only goodness to emerge from this union was our daughter, and you cursed her, too." she pointed with her delicate fingers.
Aylin’s words held her bitterness; her hair flowed around her in waves as if having a life of its own. It affected Arkiam and he couldn’t hold back his contempt any longer.
"If you hadn’t been so adamant to love your creations more than me and to go live on the moon. Maybe, our union would have lasted longer." Arkiam hadn’t forgiven his former wife for leaving him centuries ago and making Moon her abode.
The sentries helplessly watched this feud, standing erect for any course of action that was possible.
"Then you should have thought about that before being unfaithful to me. Do you think I left happily? I am not the kind of woman who would just sit and take her husband’s cheating with a grain of salt, even if you are a god."
Aylin calmly laid out her previous course of actions.
It was Arkiam’s constant adulterous acts which broke their union, her heart and her trust. This propelled her to create the concept of shifters, werewolves and fated mates.
A concept of love that would transcend every norm. To represent a bond so profound that it would tether two souls pre-destined to be together, creating a deep, unbreakable connection between them.
An idea where cheating would be nonexistent, as the bond would be exclusive and deep. They couldn’t bear to be with anyone else without getting hurt, physically and emotionally. Both partners would be wholly devoted to each other.
"Why are you here, Aylin? I am sure it’s not to remind me of my infidelity." Arkiam raged as if Aylin was wrong to bring forth his history. His bitter truths, the ones he overlooked.
"You are not fit to be a father, Arkiam. Someone like you should not rule the celestial skies. I cannot reverse your curse but I won’t let you control the faith of my daughter and her lover. I will shower that boy with so many gifts in every lifetime he will be reborn. I will turn him into an apex predator that won’t even fear any gods, especially not you." She seethed out putting forward her blessings for Kael and challenging Arkiam at the same time.
"How dare you?" Arkiam abruptly left his seat; the thunder echoed all around him, and the streaks of golden electricity danced on the tips of his fingertips. The sentries shuffled away, frightened of his wrath.
Aylin, on the other hand, wasn’t deterred. She continued to speak. The air around her had turned turbulent as if she was caught in a whirlwind of white light. Her silverish locks wrapped themselves around her ethereal body as her hands raised and a blinding light erupted from them.
"And when finally my daughter will be reborn, they will meet again. She might not have her powers or magic as you have locked it away. But she will have my strength, my determination, her loving heart and her wisdom. The curse will be broken, the path for it will be laid, and one day she will have enough people believing in her, standing beside her to give their lives for her. She will walk that path and emerge victorious," she triumphantly announced in an orotund voice which seemed to echo in every corner of Axiom.
"You can’t intervene in her life, Aylin. You can’t, you know the consequences," Arkiam’s eyes were an icy storm now, hearing the prophecy Aylin had just made.
"I won’t intervene, you have banished her to be alone. But I have strengthened the heart of my daughter, to such an extent that people will realise the goodness she holds. You made your own prophecy and I have made my own. When the time comes, I will make another one," Aylin continued to challenge Arkiam.
"I will freeze the hearts of those she will reborn with. No one will love her. She took my love for granted and I have made her coming life barren. She won’t be able to mate with that shifter. They both will suffer." That was the curse Arkiam had placed on Asara.
"Not everyone, Arkiam. You won’t be able to taint everyone’s heart. That’s my challenge to you. My daughter will find love and companionship. She will break your curse. Just watch as I plant a Tree of Hope. The tree which will be the main destiny of my daughter."
The wind swirled around the goddess of the Moon as she spoke her final words and disappeared. The chained pet Gryphon belonging to Asara disappeared with the moon goddess.
She left behind a very angered and bewildered Arkiam.
He cursed, and the thunder shattered the skies and struck several trees down below on the earthly realm. But he wouldn’t be able to find the "Tree of Hope" ; only people with hearts without malice could find it.
He bellowed out, "Kalthian."