Heir to a Lost Sun

Semira

SEMIRA

Semira watched her father emerge from the gaping black mouth of the limestone passage and wondered what he'd think if he knew his beloved daughter meant to kill him. Liana, Semira's younger sister, followed him, her face haggard and dirty.

Upon seeing Semira standing there in the dark, he passed his torch to Liana, then took something out of a metal case and held it up. It looked like a playing card in his hand-thin and metallic, with no discernible use. As her father stopped in front of her, Semira asked, "You've been gone a month... was it worth it?"

He put the item back into its protective case. "Our visiondreams never told us what it does, though I'm confident once we learn what it is our journey will not have been for naught."

Semira wrapped her fingers around the glistening, wet stalagmite beside her and squeezed. Why did he have to mention the Dreams? He knew she hated talking about them. She was a scion like him, yet the dreams had never come to her.

They have found it. The item must be destroyed, the voice in her head raged.

The voice had first come to her after a terrible fever three years past. The best healers in Sunholm-Semira's home village in the dangerous subterranean regions of the Nether-had not been able to cure it and had believed she would die. Somehow, she'd lived. And as she'd been recovering, the voice had begun to whisper. At first she'd mistaken it for her own thoughts, but it hadn't been long before she'd realized it was something separate from her, a mysterious presence lurking in the dark recesses of her mind.

"What's with the frown?" her father asked.

Semira let go of the stalagmite and wiped her hand on her pants. She'd not meant to let him see her bitterness. "I'm glad you've returned, Father."

He gave her a long look, then stepped forward and embraced her. "I know you're upset at me for not taking you. It's dangerous heading so deep into the Nether, and I didn't want to endanger both my girls."

That wasn't why she was angry and they both knew it. Semira didn't have visiondreams, which meant she was an outsider in her own home. That was why he hadn't taken her.

Something caressed her soul. You are special, young one. You do not need the dreams. You will save us all.

Her father pulled away and kissed her on the forehead. "I must leave you now and meet with the librarians so they can study the artifact. We'll talk later." He patted her on the head and took back his torch, then moved off toward Sunholm.

Liana hugged her next and didn't let go until Semira hugged back. "Are you alright?" Liana asked as she pulled away.

Semira ground her teeth together and nodded.

Look at Liana feigning sisterly love, Semira thought. As if she'd not come along and ruined Semira's life. Semira had once been Father's favorite... until Liana'd had her first visiondream. Oh, Father loved Semira still, but he was also disappointed in her, and his disappointment had eventually led her to hate him. Even worse, she couldn't help but hate herself; she was different from the other scions, and they never let her forget it.

"I had another vision last night," Liana said. "It was of a woman with white hair and gray eyes. She stood on a jagged precipice above a lake of fire wearing glorious, shining white armor, and had a metallic bird perched on her shoulder. Broken human bodies lay all around her and hideous machine beasts were tearing them apart. It was horrible." Liana stepped back a few paces. "The strangest thing of all was... she looked like you."

Semira frowned. "But I have red hair and blue eyes. How could I look like her?"

"Her face, the way she moved... it was so like you."