Phoenix rising

Memories of Shame

*****The Night King*****

It was finally time for him to get to know the woman he was about to marry. The first stage of the Trials were her memories of shame. The times in which she had found herself ashamed of her own actions or belittled by others. They will know her tonight at her weakest. They will know her weaknesses and she would be exposed to all who came to witness and recognize the marriage.

Wrath wondered if this stage would determine her justice meter, for truly, what they'll see would be a result of that. These would be those memories she finds shameful or detrimental. Memories she doesn't much appreciate or memories she would reject.

The first thing they saw was Kayla as a child, just a tad bit older than she was in the picture Wrath saw in the shrine she had made for her family. They saw her playing with her brothers as they lead her school. They saw her bully the less popular child in such a manner, Seether, her father was called in the principal's office.

"Kayla..." Seether spoke to her in that tone Wrath knew meant nothing more than a scolding. He drove the car and by the look in the man's eyes he didn't much enjoy having to do that anymore than Kayla looked willing to hear him. She had in fact rolled her eyes and looked out the window in a show of her defiance towards her father. Such would be the attitude of a young Phoenix.

"Kayla, you would listen to me when I speak to you!" Seether snapped as Kayla looked out the window even more stubborn than before. "Fine then, look out the window, but you would tell me exactly what you were thinking when you bullied that boy in class! Why did you bully him?!"

"Why shouldn't I, he's weak." she answered just as stubborn having Seether nearly loose his patience. Good thing he stopped at the red light otherwise they would've been in an accident. Seether found her answer quite angering.

"Weak?! Is that what we've teaching you at home, to prey on the weak?!" Seether snapped at her, but then she turned her head and looked at him more infuriated than her father was on her.

"No, you tell me stories of some king and queen which never existed as if they're real! You lied to me! There's no werewolves or witches, no fiery birds, no magic! There's just... people! Boring, plain people!" she raged at her father as some drivers begun honking at them angrily. 

Seether looked at her for a while, before he breathed in and begun driving once again, rethinking his strategy. "So you thought bullying a boy in your class was a better idea than talking to me about it?"

"So what?! If he's a weak moron, he shouldn't act all high and mighty." she muttered looking out the window feeling all too justified over actions.

"What happened, exactly, Kayla? And try to tell me the truth this time, you know very well I do not appreciate lies." Seether was surprisingly harsh to her. He only used that tone and attitude with the worst of the worst within their race. He was giving her an ultimatum and the girl seemed to understand the threat, though she was brave enough to endure it a while longer 

"I will take Mr. Ted from you for a week and let your class know you still sleep with the light on." Seether added as a death threat and well, Kayla looked positively appalled by it!

"He called you a liar! The class laughed at me and so did the teacher. She called it a bedtime story and no matter what I said no one would listen and I just asked where King Wrath or Queen Victoria are in the history book, at what page!" Kayla defended herself quickly "I didn't like the way they laughed and brother Daniel taught me how to fight, so I kicked him for calling you stupid and a liar, because you don't lie and you're the smartest person I know! You read everyday and all those people listen to you! Mom calls you wise and brother Nathan told me that means like twice as smart as smart people!

"The teacher pulled me away and since I won't stop, she showed me there's no Queen Victoria, no King Wrath and definitely no werewolf pack leader and King's Guard Blackfire! They all said and showed me that they are... fantasy... not real!" she protested feeling more betrayed than ever as her father parked the car in front of a nice prairie house. She had tears burning in her eyes, tears which Seether saw as well and by the looks of it, he was now sorry for the education he had given her. "You told me they were real! You told me the light defeated the dark! That no Demons or bad people won! You lied!"

"My love..." Seether sighed deeply thinking his answer true "...I told you those stories so you won't fear the dark..." he begun and now tears fell down her cheeks, truly betrayed, the final blow was given. Her father admitted to his lies... "Listen, kid..." he tried.

"No! I will never listen to you again! Liar!" she ran in the house as Seether was left in the car sighing deeply.

"Let's just hope you're more your mother's daughter than mine, Kayla. Even with your temper growing hotter each day as if the Phoenix begun awakening once again, I pray to the Goddess you'll never have to witness the insanity which has taken over my race. Please let her be more human than nightdweller!" Seether prayed in the car as Kayla heard his mumbles in the house. She couldn't look angrier at her father than she did now.

He doesn't know, the voice of her Phoenix spoke in her head as they saw its reflection in the window. You should tell your father, kid. Tell him the truth. Tell him it's my fire and the dark which plague your dreams. He can teach you how to stop it.

He's a liar, Kayla's voice came through her own thoughts as she glared at her father still. He lies to mom and my brothers about the nightdweller race and now he lies to me, calling you a fantasy. 

And you lie to him about me, the Phoenix answered.

I will not tell him the truth until he would tell us the truth. If you want anyone to teach me anything, you should start doing it, because I will never ask father to do it, Kayla sounded more stubborn than ever,

Kid, if you think you can force my hand into anything you clearly have no idea who you're dealing with. Until you tell your father the truth, you will not hear or feel me, the Phoenix vowed.

Suit yourself. Both of you just two liars! Cowards! Kayla raged in her thoughts and ran once again as the memory shifted.

This time she argued with her mother, her brothers, anyone that came her way, trying to make them believe there was more to the world than just humans.

"Kayla, enough!" her father snapped at her one night when she was throwing a fit during dinner. She wanted to argue, but her father would have none of it "IF you don't stop this behaviour of yours you will be grounded and you will not go to your friend's slumber party tonight!"

"But I'm not lying! I'm telling the truth!" Kayla jumped up on her legs almost desperate.

"And what's your proof?!" Seether boomed at her.

"I can hear it, okay?! I hear the Phoenix!" Kayla raged at him as the lights in the room flared a little and Seether looked at her rather startled now that he saw her magic manifest right before his very eyes.

"You're just imagining things, sis!" one of the brothers spoke all endearingly to her.

"You're a bit too old for this, Kay." the other brother added with a sigh.

"I'm not lying! I'm telling the truth! Why would no one believe me! You should believe me!" she looked at her father in tears all over again.

"Kay..." Seether's tone turned ever so lovingly...

"NO!" she raged and turned to leave in a run towards the armchair which held a backpack and a teddy bear.

"Where are you going?" Seether's tone turned ruthless all over again.

"To my friend! I don't want to see you! Any of you! I hate you!" she raged and ran out of the house with that backpack and the teddy.

"Seether..." her mother looked at her father. "You should talk to her." she added knowing the truth as Seether sighed deeply.

"Not tonight, my love. We'll give her tonight to cool off that temper of hers and tomorrow I will take her with me and settle this matter once and for all." he added as her mother frowned.

"You can't be serious Seether! It's her birthright!" her mother argued.

"Her birthright is here with us, where she would stay, where she would grow up! I will not have my blood take our daughter from us! This is our family and I will have none touch it!" he boomed getting up from his chair as well.

"Yeah, well, if you want little sis to be like us, father, you should do it faster. She's already melting toys when we're teasing her." one of the boys spoke.

"Last night, while you worked the night shift, father, Kay had a nightmare. We decided not to tell you, because all three of us think this should be her decision to make, not ours or yours, but... you should know she almost burnt her room down." the other added.

"Why the hell are you telling him that?!" the other brother argued.

"Why?! She's manifesting more and more and neither of us know the first thing about magic, except the things father did to protect us from that... man." his brother countered just as strongly "Truth is, Nathan, we don't know how to protect her or how to stop her. Hell, what would the other people do when they see a 10 year old girl burning s**t to crisp just because she's throwing a temper tantrum! She's gonna be 10 tomorrow! She's too young to have that kind of magic manifest based on her whims!

"She should make the choice herself, yes, I agree with that. But, until she can make that choice, father should find a way to either teach her how to control it or have it suppressed! Or we can move to a bloody island until she's fully in control of her magic so we won't have to make stupid ass excuses each time something burns or flares up!" Daniel brought up some good arguments.

"That Island might not be such a bad idea." Seether looked at them amused.

"Oh, hellnaw! I'm not leaving my girlfriend behind, or my friends and I will not move from you guys either! We are a family!" Nathan snapped at him.

"What if that Isle has a strip club?" Daniel argued.

"Well, then, sign me up." Nathan grinned at him.

"Boys!" their mother looked at them amused, then at Seether "Please, my love, reconsider your decision. If we have to move, we will. Just don't take the choice from her."

"You all need to understand that magic isn't all good and fairy godmothers granting wishes. The stories which I tell Kay every night are real. Very real and the magic within her is extremely dangerous. It took me a very long time to control it or my temper for that matter. Not even now, stripped of my magic do I have full control of my temper, such is our nature.

"Because of that, people would come to get her. My kin, people like me, with magic, craving power and control. Without my magic, I cannot protect us from them or her, for that matter. When she will manifest her magic for the first time... Not like this, these are just hiccups, the beginning, the tell tales of her being my kin, they will know and they will come.

"If I don't take her magic from her, we would have to run all our lives. She would outlive us all and most likely, they will win and we might even have our memories stripped of her. We would not remember her, but she would remember us and she would not be allowed to approach any of us, not even me. Not anymore, since I was banished.

"Do you want that life for her? Because I do not want that life for my daughter. I want to live in peace, with us, among us, without magic." Seether told them all too serious and they had considered his words for a while.

"Then why tell her those stories?" his wife asked as the man sighed deeply.

"In case anything were to happen to us and she would fall victim of those people which want her magic, she should know her history." Nathan answered looking at Seether "I know you're smart, father, but you should have more faith in us. We'll protect our sister. Always." he added as Seether smiled at them lovingly.

"I know." he sighed deeply "And you are right, she should make the choice herself. However, until that time comes, we must have her magic suppressed. I'll make the arrangements for tomorrow morning. This has been going for far too long."

"What would that mean for Kay?" his wife asked "I've seen what it meant for you, but what would it mean for our daughter?"

"She's young, my love. Her magic is not bound to her yet and it might never be bound to her. She'll be fine. At most, she'll remember it as a dream and nothing more. A phase in which she believed a fantasy more than reality. It would not affect her growth in any damaging way." Seether made his wife feel better, but he didn't exactly told her the truth. 

The reality was that children stripped of their magic from such a young age would never truly feel like they would belong to any world or reality. They would settle eventually, but it would never be a full life. Half of them would be permanently missing and there would always be a part of them wondering what has been lost. 

Even so, Wrath could see the justice in Seether's decision. After all, his daughter was a Halfblood and with him stripped of his magic, banished from the race, she would have no protection. Better for her to wonder a full human life for the parts she would be missing than to live an eternity enslaved to a pure blooded royal.

Her memory then shifted to her waking up that very night, walking up to her house in the very dark she feared so much. That's when they saw the horror of Seether's death and that of her family. How they tried their best and failed, how the great and terrible Demon Hunter Archduke Seether has fallen as useless as a fly against a Demon.

The next memory they saw was her waking up in the ashes with Blackfire standing before her, in that snow of ashes... the ashes of her loved ones. She didn't speak. Her Phoenix tried to speak to her, but no answer came from Kayla. Overbearing silence as they could all see their future queen's emotionless expression. Clearly, she was still in shock, reliving that horrible night they've now all lived with her. 

They saw Blackfire bringing her before the Court, demanding her birthright to her father's fortune and how the Council mocked Seether's memory. She was mute, yet the Phoenix raged in her head. A full week passed before she answered the Small Council's provocation.

"Call me whatever it is you wish to call me..." Kayla spoke for the first time in the Court of the Small Council "It is true, my mother is human and my father was the previous Phoenix. I carry the Phoenix within me, I had chosen its fire and I was given its ashes. 

"The beast within wants more fire, but I do not wish anyone's death, however if you insult my father or his memory before me I will unleash that fire upon you and I do not care what war it would bring or how it would offend anyone's memory of my father or his doings to protect you all.

"As for the choice you've given me, Warrior Academy and serving under a Royal Pure Nightdweller or the life of a bloodwhore to the Pure Nightdweller which would buy me like some product on a self, I've but one answer. I do not know what a bloodwhore is and you may mock me for it.  My father never told me what a bloodwhore is or mentioned one in the stories in which he spoke about the Court or the manners of the Court, or the brave and noble Covens of the Nightdweller Race.

"So, before I tell you my answer, can any of you, please explain what a bloodwhore is?" she asked, her tone carrying little to no emotion.

I've told you what a bloodwhore is, the Phoenix raged at her. Tell them you can hear me and they will never dare to say such words to you! Tell them, Kayla!

Shut it, or the next thing I do is jump in the deepest ocean just to make sure your flames would never resurrect me, Kayla's voice came as a bleak threat.

Your father tried it before, a few times and he  was weaker than you, he never fully accepted my magic, as you had left yourself burnt by my flames completely. He survived it, you wouldn't have an issue with it, though you'll grow to hate the pain of drowning continuously.

Whatever. Only the King is immortal. My father renounced his magic, It is not impossible, Phoenix, Kayla reminded her magic as her magic went mad at her.

"You will live for the pleasure of the nobles. Whatever they want you to do, you shall do. You will live a life of luxury, protected, should you catch the eye of the proper Pure." one of the councilors answers "Should you chose this life, girl, I shall take you the first decade of your life."

"You'd want that, won't you?" Blackfire growled at the back disgusted. "How dare you make such propositions to Seether's daughter?!" he boomed "Had you forgotten everything he did for us, for the nightdweller race?! I told you, he and his family had been attacked by Demons! The enemy is back! We are left without the Phoenix Demon Hunter, without Queen Victoria and the King is missing for three centuries! We have no army! And your biggest concern is to thwart Seether's only surviving child?!"

"Rumors with no proof." the head councilor spoke.

"Rumors, Hale?!" Blackfire boomed "What more proof do you want, the girl is before you!"

"Head Councilor, Hale, for you Blackfire and if you wish to retain your favor with the Court, you should mind your tongue and manners!" Hale boomed at him, as Kayla turned and looked Blackfire.

"Is this Hale, the Vampire which fled the last battle and struck a deal with the enemy almost costing our race the victory?" Kayla asked as the Court went mute.

"How dare you?!" Hale nearly hissed at her.

"Dare? Head Councilor Hale, I wonder, what would the King say when he returns to see the man which led to Queen Victoria desperate self sacrifice to save our race lead his subjects. Or what he would make of the Court which allowed it to happen." Kayla sounded like a much older creature than the one she was just a few months ago. But, these were the words of the Phoenix passing her lips, not anothers. In her silence, she did not ignore her magic. She just had a better or more brazen strategy in presenting her threats.

"You little..." the man looked maddened, his fangs already showing.

"You think you scare me? You're but a man. There are scarier monsters than you, Head councilor Hale." now these were Kayla's words, not her magic speaking them.

"Warrior Academy is! Have fun scrubbing the floors and serving the Pures as a slave for the rest of your life, you retched wench!" Hale declared as Kayla breathed out a smile and turned back walking towards Blackfire.

"What were you thinking, Kayla? We talked about something before you went to Court. You were to refuse their offers and come to me." he told her all worried once they were back to what looked like a hotel room and Kayla looked at him directly. "Now you'll go to a place where I can't protect you and you'll be forced to stay there for at least two decades before you may step outside the Academy."

"I will go the Academy Queen Victoria made for us Halfbloods to have a chance at freedom in our race and I will win that right by using my father's magic." Kayla told him "You can't protect me, Blackfire. I don't want to be protected. I want the Demons to find me, just as I want to learn how to kill them as they killed my family. If you think you can stop me, go ahead and try it. If the Phoenix won't help me, eventually, I will find a way to do exactly what I want. As father said many times, where there's a will there's a way and my mind is set."

"You're a kid, Kayla. Live before you cast your soul to the war." Blackfire looked at her worried, but her eyes grew even colder.

"My childhood ended with my family. If Hale didn't force his decision on sending me to the Academy, i would've picked it. I would never humiliate my father by saying I'll want to be a bloodwhore to you, even if you would've never done anything but make sure you replaced my family the best way you could. If I didn't knew you were a good man, Blackfire, I would've killed you for ever thinking you could ever replace my father." Kayla said and turned in her bed with her back at him "You're not my family, I'm not your pack and you'll never be anything but the friend my father trusted."

She knew she hurt Blackfire's feelings with her words, but she wasn't speaking out of term. She was right and Blackfire was wrong to assume he could replace her family in any way. He apologized for assuming so, but she didn't give him any answer, so Blackfire went on telling her how the Academy would be for her. She listened, but she never answered back. That was the only time she spoke to him and the last. She never even said goodbye to the man which came to save her. The man which defended her. She hated him. She hated it all.

Even in the Academy, she took the humiliation she had to suffer without a comment or an argument. She never fought back or tried to defend her father, for she hated him still. She hated him for the full decade which she attended the Academy, graduating much faster than anyone else. She hated every noble or Pure, but she never so much as jumped in anyone's defense for quite a while.

It wasn't until her second trial, the next day that they saw it took her about 7 years to answer the bullies at the Academy. About 7 years of constant bullying to finally show her true colors and defend those less advantaged. Her answer was merciless. Quick and relentless! Before long she had every student in there fearing the Halfbloods, as they were now united, listening to her, obeying her and they had not just the numbers, but the strength, for she was the strongest most dangerous nightdweller in existence.

It wasn't until the third day that they saw just how far she went to gain more magic, more power. As the Phoenix, growing stronger for her meant only one thing, death and pain. Her own death and her own pain. She had to burn through it all and she did it without a second thought.

On the fourth day, they saw her achievements and her victories were countless! She was truly a force to be reckoned with and an extremely dangerous being to go against, for she had no mercy to spare anyone. It had became quite clear, the death of her family had cost her anything human left in her. Any shred of kindness was burnt with the remnants of her blood.

"Who the hell died and made you my goddess?!" a warrior in their Coven asked while challenging her power during a meeting. This didn't look older than a few weeks. This memory of hers... "Just who the hell do you think you are trying to dictate the way I live my life?! If I want to beat my Mate, I will! It is my right, I am the man of the family!"

"And I am your Coven's Leader and I have the right over your life and death." she said and then she shot him right between his eyes "I chose your death." she added with a straight face, no emotion passing even then.It was as if the tragedy she had to suffer had condemned her to a life with a stoned heart.

 "Any other man in my Coven willing to tell me how you have a right to abuse the women of my Coven?" she asked as silence fell between them. Wrath begun to understand for a while now just how important emancipation was for the women of his race. The abuses had gone for far too long, if Kayla's memories served as proof.

"Good, let it be that silent the next time I ask, for if I hear so much as a rumor of a single woman or child abused in any way in my Coven, or the Covens subjected to my rule, I will personally peel off that man's skin clean off his body and have his head displayed on my walls for all to see what my opinion over this retched patriarchy of yours is.

"I will have none of that s**t happening under my roof! If you don't like it, go to the Small Council or some other rebel coven. Hell, go f**k yourself wherever you want, but I will want to hear the woman's and child's say over it before you do. For if they chose otherwise, they will stay here, free of your tyranny, free of your judgement and unfair treatment for as long as I draw breath in these lungs of mine!

"Take your anger or frustrations to the enemy, the Demons, not my kin! Not my Coven!" Kayla boomed in her Court and all her men bowed submitting to her will. She was their queen, there was no doubt of it. Albeit tyrannical in her ways, but a respected commander nonetheless.

"Now someone clean this disgusting mess of a man off my floors! Blackfire, make sure his family is well taken care of no matter what decisions they make from now on. If I hear they're not well taken care of, you will answer for their disobedience! Is that clear?" 

"Perfectly, Leader." Blackfire bowed his head respectfully as Kayla bit down, but walked away, the memory fading for the last time. The Trials having ended on that note, a very powerful note, Wrath must admit!