The Crimson King

Chapter 18 | Hollow Bones

Hi everyone!
I hope you have had a lovely weekend. Here is the next Chapter - I really enjoyed writing this one :) so I hope that you will enjoy reading it too!
Much love,
Daisy x

____________________________

Chapter 18 | Hollow Bones

*

"And all
of a sudden I felt
really tired.
Like the world has drained
me for everything
that I had."

- via (Quotes 'nd Notes)

*

IRIS

Iris was unsure what she expected to see once she entered the palace. Part of her thought that it would be just as dark, and cold as it looked from the outside. As their little boat was sucked in through the doorway, she resisted the urge to squeeze her eyes shut, an irrational, overwhelming fear briefly overtaking her soul.

However, what she least expected at the moment she passed through the entrance, was to be bathed in a light, so dazzling, that she was forced to lift an arm to shield her eyes.

Without Iris pushing it forwards their boat gradually lost some of its momentum, drifting off in a slight spin as it slowed, and then stilled, in the water.

Iris squinted against the blinding light, unsure from where it was emitting, however once she had adjusted somewhat, she was able to lower her arm to see that one of the sources seemed to be coming from the water below her.

She peered gingerly over the side of the boat and upon perceiving what was reflected there, she sucked in a startled breath and looked heavenward instead.

High above her, in an almost identical position to the one that hung inside Aether's halls, a gargantuan chandelier glittered with incandescent light.  And then, as she raised her gaze further she saw that the circular ceiling of the entryway not only supported the chandelier, but – deeply embedded within the white jade – a beautiful stained-glass window rested. It was circular and seemed to be depicting the figure of a woman.

Outside, the sun appeared from behind the clouds, and the bright light illuminated the coloured glass fully, sending a thousand lights scattering around the white jade room, dancing off the surface of the water and glimmering over Iris's skin.
She gasped lightly as the figure etched in glass became familiar to her and reached out without thought, as though she could somehow touch the stained-glass hand that stretched down towards her from above.

It was the woman from Aether. The same one Iris had seen in the stained-glass mural, back when she had first arrived. The one the Lycans of Aether called 'Goddess of the Moon.'

With hair like starlight, the Goddess gazed down at Iris, one hand outstretched as though she longed to pull Iris out of her little boat and up into the sky to be immortalized in glass alongside her. Unlike her counterpart in Aether, this time the woman was depicted alone – the lion omitted from this particular portrait.

Because it was a portrait, Iris was certain. She might have been named as a Goddess, but Iris felt keenly, that this woman had been real at some point along the stream of time. Why else would such a face resonate with her so? Familiar, yet incredibly ethereal. Near, yet impossibly far away.

Iris gazed up at the ceiling for a while longer, and eventually her eyes drifted back down to absorb the rest of the room. She noticed that, like she had been, Azrael too seem entranced by the woman in the ceiling, his amber eyes fixated on her face, his fur glowing a deep, rich gold, in the sunlight that streamed through the roof. Iris smiled vaguely, perhaps the lion was present after all.