Chapter 33 - The Queen and Her Tower

She didn't copy a book she wrote her own, and a Goddess found refuge there.

After the visit, the silence the throne room remained frozen in a strange calm the crystal no longer shone it breathed a slow, deep beat, like an echo of a sleeping universe the goddesses, gathered in a circle around Saphira, remained silent all had seen, all had understood something Amaterasu narrowed her eyes.

—"There's something here, something that watches us without eyes."

The Queen Mother of the West slowly straightened.

—"It's not a prison it's a consciousness."

Hera, grave, took a step forward her eyes fixed on Saphira.

—"It's you, isn't it you gave her life."

The little blue queen looked down for a moment, then nodded.

—"I gave her life i created her, but she was there long before me, within me she was waiting for someone to listen to her, someone to dream in her place."

The tower trembled it was not a rumble, not a cry, but rather a sigh the walls vibrated, the ground contracted once, like a heart of stone coming back to life and then, slowly, a red and black light rose from the ground an immense form was born, floating, feminine her hair undulated like filaments of shadow, her skin was made of tarnished light, as if every star had abandoned her to follow her her voice was a muffled murmur in forgotten thunder.

—"I am ARCANAA, goddess of balanced judgment the Tower is my body, and this blue child is my creator."

Saphira approached the central pillar she placed her hand on it the crystal sang a pure sound, impossible to describe, a note of origin, a promise.

—"One day  i read a book, the dark tower, but it wasn't a trap it was like a call i dreamed of a tower, but a gentle tower, a strong and powerful tower, and in that dream, there was a voice it wasn't mine, but it was waiting for me one day my brother Kael asked me to make a prison tower to lock up powerful beings and deities, and thus Arcanaa was born she called me from the dream world, and I gave her life."

ARCANAA, immense, lowered her knees to the marble floor the floor did not tremble she bowed.

—"Little queen, you are not a fragment of a dream; you are the dream gate through you, even the gods can be rewritten and exist through you, i was born."

Hera stepped forward her hands trembled she placed a palm on Saphira's shoulder.

—"I called you my daughter without knowing you were already a mother not of children, but of a goddess who extends infinitely into the dream void, not of flesh, but of dream i am proud, so proud…"

Saphira closed her eyes.

—"She protects balance, but I protect her she is not a weapon, she is not a warning she is my friend, my child, and this tower is her heart and her body."

Before fading, the goddess spoke one last time.

—"If you fall… I will close myself around everything that hurt you, and I will wait, even if eternity passes, even if everything burns, I will wait for you, until you are reborn."

She disappeared, but her voice remained in the walls the goddesses left the room, slowly.

Chang'e placed her hand on the stone.

—"You did not build a prison you offered a sanctuary to a divinity whom no one would have ever heard if you had not dreamed."

Amaterasu, as she left, murmured:

—"This tower is not a monument; it is a crystal lullaby."

And finally, Hera, before crossing the door, took Saphira in her arms she held her close to her heart.

—"My daughter, my queen, I love you."

And this time, Saphira replied, not with a word, but with a warm tear, fallen on the shoulder of the one who had held her and who had just understood.

End of Chapter 33 — The Queen and Her Tower