The Eternal Phoenix & The First

Anare stood in the crowded streets filled with panicked people. She had been here many times already. She began to walk, her steps as light as air as she went against the flow of people with ease. She took a right, passing by her home. She took a left, ignoring the faces of her neighbours as they rushed by. She followed a road and came to a stop in the middle of a bridge. The wail of the air raid sirens echoed through the city.

She looked up and watched as a tiny black speck grew larger and larger. She felt nothing as the bomb detonated above her, instantly vapourizing any living being unlucky enough to be caught at ground zero. But not Anare. She had already died like this once, her shadow burned into the concrete of the bridge. She returned here often; a reminder of the searing pain she experienced for that one, near-instant moment.

She opened her eyes and sighed softly to herself. She didn't remember going to this room.. she looked to her side, seeing the door still closed and the sigils active. She looked to her right, and her heart immediately sank. Marin was staring daggers at her. Anare sat up, the pieces of what happened already clicking together in her mind. Marin knew, there was no point pretending.

"Thank you for taking care of me, Marin. I will answer each and every one of your questions, completely and truthfully." She stated quietly.

Marin continued staring for a few minutes, question after question racing through her mind. She had a few false starts, not quite sure what to say. Anare made no move to offer anything, or help. Finally, Marin began.

"You're from my world, that much is obvious.. what happened?" She asked.

Anare looked up at the ceiling and sighed again, "I remember having a birthday party that morning. I had just turned nineteen, I think. I remember being blinded by a light that seemed brighter than the sun itself, and burned by a heat so intense I can't even begin to describe it."

Marin's eyes widened, but she remained silent.

"I remember little else besides an instant moment of searing pain, and when I next opened my eyes I was laying in a scorched field, in this world." Anare finished.

There was a long moment of silence between them. Neither made eye contact, but Anare spoke up again, "I always wondered what happened.. After waking up here I just assumed it was some kind of magic."

Marin shifted slightly, looking suddenly uncomfortable. "No, not magic. What you're describing sounds like.. Like it was a bomb, the first of two dropped on our cities. I learned about it in school.." She shuddered and clutched her legs tighter against her chest.

"A bomb.. I wish I could remember more." Anare said to herself.

"Why did you make the room look like that, then? And why doesn't it look that way anymore?" Marin asked, gesturing to the room around them.

"I could never get the image of this room out of my head," Anare began, as she deactivated the sigils that painted the room in a different form. "So I recreated it, to try to get it out. But, I felt that if anyone were to find it this way, there would be questions I couldn't answer. So, I hid it away. Made it look like any other room in the house." She didn't bother reactivating the sigils to hide it again.

Marin looked around the room and placed her hand on the tatami floor, a slight laugh escaping her, "This really does feel like an old room at a friend's house or something.. do you really remember nothing else?"

Anare sat in silence for a moment, trying to recall any faint memory from so long ago. "I.. remember screaming. And.. some sort of loud, continuous wail."

They sat together in that room that no one but Anare had ever seen before. Marin spoke of everything she could remember from her history classes, while Anare listened with rapt attention.

Calliope awoke, their entire body burning as it always had. Their sigils jumped to life, their senses sharpened and their skin hardened. Ice flowed through them, but the fire still burned just under the surface. Even after so many uncountable years, it burned with the same strength as always.

They could hear the constant rush of blood through Mari's body, the non-stop muttering as she puzzled out her sigils. Calliope laughed softly and stretched, their body stiff after days spent sleeping. It was time to check on progress.

The rest of the house was quiet, the barrier was still holding strong. Before Calliope turned the handle to Mari's door, they froze. There was another heartbeat in the house. They quickly ducked into Mari's room and silently closed the door behind them.

"Morning Calliope," Mari called out casually, entirely unbothered by their sudden presence. Calliope had no time to inspect the spellwork.

"Shush! There's someone else in the house! I don't know how they got passed the barrier but I'm going to pierce their heart with an icicle!" Calliope hissed to Mari, their nerves flaring up at the thought of a stranger in their house.

Mari spun around and held her hands up, "Whoa whoa whoa it's okay, I brought her here!"

Calliope stared for a moment, "You.. brought a stranger into my house?"

"I.. needed her for the spell." Mari replied, suddenly looking a bit defensive.

Calliope was still hung up on the fact that Mari was able to bring a stranger into the house. "How?" They asked firmly.

Mari stiffened up and looked at Calliope, "How uh.. how what?"

Then, Calliope actually noticed the sigils in the room. They stared, their eyes tracing through every pattern they could find. It was an immense spell, every possible component was there, every problem Calliope could think of accounted for. The only thing that was missing..

"A catalyst." Calliope suddenly said, now ignoring that Mari somehow managed to get through their barrier. They'd address that later. "You need a catalyst. That's what she's for."

"Yeah I-- how'd you know she's a she? Nevermind. Look, I think the spell is almost done. I need the source of a strong connection to something on the other side, so, I figured that Marin's mom would do the trick. I haven't been able to find out of course, because she hasn't woken up since I brought her here.." Mari looked genuinely annoyed, which was something Calliope hadn't seen often, but was beginning to find entertaining.

"Come then, we shall wake her." Calliope said before leaving the room and making their way to the source of that heartbeat. They had a few things they could try..

Upon Calliope's couch lay a woman that appeared to be in her late fourties, with bone straight black hair matted to their face, and the gaunt appearance of someone who hadn't eaten a proper meal in the last six months. Calliope looked at Mari, then back at the woman on the couch. "What's her name?"

Mari looked, in a word.. disgusted. "Rin. Kagayama Rin." She replied, even just the name seeming to fill her mouth with bile. Calliope stared curiously at Mari, wanting at first to ask questions, but leaving it for later. Calliope nodded, "What got her into this state then?"

"Heroin." Mari stated as matter-of-factly as one possibly could.

Calliope laughed loudly all of a sudden, their voice echoing through the empty house, "Is that all?" they said, before sigils appeared above Rin. It was easy enough to clear it from her system, even easier to reset the pathways in the brain. The hard part would be whether or not Rin survived the shock of that reset.

The sigils shifted, Calliope's water going toward stabilizing Rin's system. "Right. Wake her up then. This is the first time I'm attempting to stabilize them before they wake up, perhaps it will improve survival rate?"

Mari very much wanted to say something, but instead shuffled behind the couch and hesitantly grabbed Rin's shoulder, before giving a surprisingly rough shake. "Wake up!" She shouted suddenly, making even Calliope jump, and their smile curl even wider.

'First will come the screaming,' Calliope thought to themselves. 'Then the convulsions, then cardiac arrest.' They thrilled at the chance to experiment with their magic, and braced themselves for the screaming.