The Shadow behind the Light

Chapter eight: Zenithe

Zenithe was sweet and young. His hair was golden brown, darker than my wings but lighter than Ezen's hair. Zenifere never kept him around long though, he said it was to protect Ze, but i know really that this is his replacement and when Zenithe was old enough that he would overthrow Zenifere. Aleahx was the 'protector' of Zenithe, his guardian angel, his angel with dark wings. I liked Aleahx. Zenithe in technicality is Ezen's child. He was never technically born. He was created using Ezen and Zenifere's genetics. For a person who was literally created from nothing, I really do not like specific engineering in genetics, creating organic beings is just unnatural, then again I am one to talk, I am not natural.

A while after she met Zenithe, Ezen found a set of underground tunnels underneath Quirl Castle, under her lab to be specific. I remember this specific time-Ezen was blind in her left eye, she never made it obvious as she was quite special aware- Ezen was working on the tunnels, trying to make the staircase retractable so an elevator platform could be fitted. She was sitting on her lab floor facing a control panel, the door was on the left. She was listening to music and was just focusing on the panel and wires and all that. If a danger happened then the system would alert her, so she couldn't hear the main world, even with her Jargon hearing. Gowelleah entered the lab and Ezen didn't hear or see him as he stood on her left. Gowelleah didn't know that Ezen couldn't see him so he tapped her on the shoulder. Ezen is quick, not as quick as me, but quick. She snapped around before realizing it was Gowelleah. She then had to explain herself to him and actually tell him that she is half blind. It was quite funny to watch them be siblings and laugh about a very serious incapability.

Zenithe was no older than 110, when Quirl got a flag from Aleahx. Zenithe and Aleahx were at the rebuilt Bixeanvi Castle. And Bixeanvi Castle was under Queakeare attack. You're probably thinking, why were they even there after all the bad things that happened there concerning Queakear influence and the fire? The Castle is secure, it should have been. Ezen flew fast, followed by Zenifere and Gowelleah. She managed to fend off the last few, there weren't many in the first place. The outside grass and entryway was coated in the blood of both sides. As Ezen marched through the main archway, the same archway that killed Milóz, i was flooded with memories. Junifere didn't remember, I made sure of that, he's been through enough, he doesn't remember Milóz. Zenithe ran up to Ezen, tears streaming down his innocent child's face. "Aleahx. They, they killed him" Zenithe cried, hugging Ezen. Ezen followed young Zenithe towards the back of the main atrium. Aleahx laid peacefully on the cold floor, his chest was weakly moving and his bright orange eyes were open, his heart was weak, I could hear it in his chest. There was a large wound. It was already bubbling and burning, he must have been struck by his weakness. I can smell it, Thorns, I tell Ezen, the blades are made of thorns, Ezen's weakness, the weapon which can kill Gödes, his own weapon, the weapon I created. It's killing him. It's my fault. I know what she will say, the one next to me, It's not your fault, or, don't blame yourself for the past, but it is my fault. In the end, it's always my fault. That's what they all tell me, that is what I am.
"Ezen," Aleahx whispered, Ezen leaned into him closely, "sometimes death... is the most rewarding thing of all..." And just like that, it was over. Aleahx is dead.

Zenithe returned back to Quirl after Aleahx's departure. He was buried on the hill with Milóz. I didn't return to Bixeanvi ever again after that until I blew it up after the blood burdens were recovered. I don't regret that.

I liked Aleahx, before he died. My story works in ways of wonder, I think. Everything is ironic, in the end. It's ironic that the one who helped shape and create me would want to destroy me, after everything I have done for them. It's ironic, my entire story. Everything happens for a reason, but is it true? Telling this story back shows that my true fate is not yet revealed. I don't know how this will end, so how should you? If I lose this battle, you are to tell him. Because if I do loose, if his predictions are right then the phoenix is to destroy me, the shadow. But who do I leave this to? Why Tréa? Why Raven? Why me? Why was i created? For balance? For freedom? I was created, unwillingly and unnaturally. I DID NOT ASK TO BE HERE. I must be quiet. I'm sorry Juni. I can't wake him. I'm looking at the other pair of skin wings, in front of me, and I am thinking that this isn't the same tyrant we overthrew. This isn't a demon. This is a boy who was forced to become a man too quickly, trying to hold his power because that is all he has ever known. His skin wings are the same shade as Juni's, dark mysterious red, not maroon, a burgundy color, red like blood of the guilty, not the blue of the innocent. Eventually everyone's blood is red. We are all guilty. I hate this. Waiting. Trapped in a dark dusky place, away from the shadow, it's not like I can leave anyway. I am probably crazy, or worse.