Stepping out of the shower, steam rising off of Nemia's skin. She grabbed for a towel, neatly folded over the rod running on the outside of the glass door of the shower. Rubbing off the excess dripping water before wrapping her hair gingerly into the towel. Her feet padded along the cold stone floor over to the sink. Smearing the condensation off the mirror hanging above.
Her silenced and content thoughts were dispelled as she stared at herself in the reflection. Recognizing herself only partially. Leaning closer, looking past the streaks left by her hand on the mirror. Focusing on the flakes of gold glittering in her eyes, mixed with an eerie gold ring wrapping around the outer most edge of her iris.
With a closer look, her head twisting from one side to the other. She noticed the fact that there was a light dusting of gold shimmering on her high cheekbones. As if she had took a blush brush and lightly spread a shimmery gold blush across her cheekbones.
'You shine as beautiful as the sun itself, my dear child.' Solis' voice crept into her mind. Feeling as if the suns warmth had soaked her to the bones, spreading through her. Calming. Gentle. His voice lighting up even the darkest parts of her mind.
Nemia pulled away from the mirror, but still kept her eyes focused on herself. 'Was it necessary? Changing my appearance in the way you have?' Her nose twitching from mild annoyance.
A chuckle echoed in her mind. 'There was no control of what my awakening would do to your body aside from the actual mark itself. But it suits you, wear it with pride, my child. There is nothing that can be done to change it.'
She could feel his pride filing his soul inside her. She on the other hand, still wasn't impressed. The flash of Nemia hearing her mothers distorted voice from the plant Julia had enchanted. 'You have my eyes."
Nemia winced inwardly and pulled her gaze away from the mirror. "My eyes were one of the last things connecting me to my mother. Yet another thing pertaining to you that has been ripped from me.' She sneered, glaring at a small crack in the stone on the floor.
Solis' soul shifted within her. 'I could not control it, Nemia. You have so many other things to connect you to her though, dig those claws of yours into them and dare not let go.'
Nemia's head drew back slightly and her upper lip curled in a distasteful confusion. 'What, a pregnancy journal and Julia?' She scoffed, looking back up into the mirror, leaning in as if to stare into Solis through her fixed gaze in the mirror. 'I get ghosts. Have ghosts. At least before, I got to be able to look into my mothers eyes. Even if I didn't know they were her eyes till very recently. Now that's gone.'
Solis pushed himself to the front side of her mind, getting the sense that he was looking at her from the mirror through her eyes. 'You didn't only have her eyes Nemia. You are an extension of her. Your mothers blood runs through your veins. The red, curly hair is a dominant feature in all Trugheta women. The spirit you have thriving within you, that's the Trugheta lineage shining through in a fiery passion. Your willpower alone is cut straight from your ancestors, mother included. You are surrounded by your mother, my child.'
Nemia glanced down into the bowl of the sink, her hands gripping either side of the metal basin. She hadn't thought about the fact that she had other features that could tie her down to her true lineage. To her mother. A soft smile tugged at the edges of her lips. "I hadn't thought to look at it like that.'
His soul slinking back into the depths of her mind, he spoke in distance. 'Most never looks at the bigger picture. Hold your head high, my little Trugheta warrior.' He was slinking further away, starting his decent into the mark on her chest.
'Wait! One more thing, before you... Go?' She shook her head slightly. 'The woman in Dorian's memory, Solena. She was marked by you as well, right? Was she another vessel?'
Solis stopped, his soul freezing in place. 'Yes and no.'
Nemia waited for him to continue. But a minute passed and then another filled with nothing but silence and Solis' soul had still not yet moved. Her brows pulling together in his lack of explanation and his mind was shut down from hers completely. 'Solis?' She called into her mind.
His soul stirred, but he remained silent.
'What do you mean by yes and no?' She shoved the question into her mind, her patience wearing thin.
A sigh seeped through her mind. 'She was a capable warrior, but when Kyth entered the war, decimating battalions and villages alike. She came to my, now long forgotten, temple. Praying to me day in and day out for my help, in any way possible. There are rules among us God's, ones that cannot be broken. I couldn't just strike him down, I wasn't supposed to intervene at all. But this was the family I had helped create asking for my help.' He paused for a moment before continuing.
'Unfortunately, her body was incompatible with mine, no matter her strength. If I had fully merged with her, she would have been ripped at her own seams. So instead, I done a partial convergence with her. It was the only thing I could do.' He stopped again, this time opening himself more to her. Letting her feel his flash of pain from the memory.
'For ten years, she scoured the region. Trying to catch up to him, following his path of destruction. Witnessing so many innocent lives being lost to such a murderous dragon that thought he owned the world because no one could stand against him. Once finally clashing high up in the Carpathian Mountains, it was then realized that even with her already proven strength mixed with my lended strength still wasn't enough to wipe the evil from this plane of existence.'
He stopped again, for several moments. His feelings and thoughts conlicted. 'She managed to escape, just barely. Then, with my aid, The Twelve was found. A task that each member knew would be their final. Acceptance in their position, guided by their faiths. There was a spark of hope that rolled through the lands.' He barked out a sickened laugh, Nemia feeling a wave of repulsion coming from him.
'Then, the night before they were to march on Kyth in the Carpathian Mountains. A vision came to me, Kyth would return. The Twelve wouldn't be there to stop it. But there was a hope hidden within the vision. A woman would emerge, born of my mark. The prophecy seeping into the vision. I knew what I had to do then.' Another pause in his speech. Another flash of pain from memories long buried surfacing in Solis.
Nemia's heart constricted, she knew what was coming next. Her chin trembled with his pain.
'That morning, as she rose. I told Solena the vision, the prophecy. The only way to make the prophecy happen, however, was for me to enter the Earth's plane through the blood of another and utter the prophecy myself. To bring the possibility of a savior, she sacrificed herself. Kyth shackled in a pitiful human form, I ripped through Solena. Foretold the prophecy, our prophecy. Back on the heavenly space in time us God's reside, Mysterian. I was imprisoned for helping Earth with Kyth, for 300 years. Losing contact with the Trugheta clan, on return there were only two sets of the clan members left. Ones who I didn't recognize except by surnames and iconic features.' He hinted the last bit at Nemia with a nudge in his mind.
Nemia's shoulders sagged, her eyes staring into their own depths. 'So, we both lost things from the prophecy. For me, my family and for you... Your children. Having to...' She let the thought trail, not wanting to repeat what he had done to Solena in the end. Blocking him out of her personal thoughts.
'Yes. We both have lost precious things to this. But we will save so many more. With my godly powers and your fiery, determined grit. None will stand in our way of what is right.' He spoke with a renewed, emboldened voice by the end. Washing the memory, and the feelings that go along with it, down his metaphorical drain.
Nemia nodded to him, at herself, in the mirror. 'May evildoers tremble in our wake.' Nemia's eyes flashed brightly in her reflection, Solis' way of agreeing with her statement without speaking. Feeling him start to slink back in her mind again. Letting him this time, she had pestered him long enough for now. She still had so, very many questions left to ask. But even a god needs to breathe.
She unfurled the towel from her hair, walking over to stuff it back over the bar on the shower door. Using her fingers to comb through her untameable, wet mess as she pushed herself back out of the bathroom. Dorian laid sleeping in the same position she had left him in, the thought to curl back up beside him strong. But as she struggled her fingers through her thick, damp hair, she decided against it.
Instead, going over to the dresser Dorian had told her was hers now. Her clothes and new clothes Samuel had been informed to get in her size, was packed neatly into the drawers. Reaching for whatever was on top, grabbing a bright pink blouse. She lifted it between two fingers, the style of the blouse in itself was fine, but that color was an absolute no for her. Tossing it onto the top of the dresser.
'Well, that goes to Julia.' She mused to herself, sifting through until she found a dark olive toned, silk blouse. Finding some black dress slacks in a drawer below. Gong back to the top drawer to snag some laced, black underwear with a gold trim and a bra that almost matched. Only missing the gold the underwear had.
Slipping the clothes on and grabbing her mothers pregnancy journal of the nightstand on the side of the bed she had claimed. Taking the book over to the window, using the full moon's light to not bother Dorian with using any other light. Sitting herself on the stone shelf the pushed open window created. Flipping through the pages, scanning them with a saddened smile.