Incense and Instincts

Every cycle, every fire that returned to soot, it will always leave a mark on this world. Burying forefathers, burying ancestors, into a single shell made of sap. The wafting aroma that permeated the Temple of the Sun before the soaring screech of the phoenix.

Though ash is not everything that is left upon this world. Nature still existed. An empty meadow with the mourning wind breezed through the leaves, playing like instruments on the tree branches. Some of them sometimes plucked off, falling atop of Aephery's head as he watched them like a spectator in an orchestra.

The unreformed law of the wild and the law of nature still persisted even after humanity went extinct. Aephery had seen a couple of animals before coming to the sunken city in the sands, before meeting Mori Calliope and Nanashi Mumei. Most of them ran away from him, some of them ate him, some didn't really care about him.

Aephery's friend, the owl, sat nearby on a mossy rock. They had been travelling for almost a week straight, sharing stories among one another— mostly Mumei. The only tales that Aephery could tell was like uncomplete parts of a film, sometimes he recites it from the beginning, sometimes he recites it during the conflict, rarely remembering the end of anything he's been through.

Although Mumei could understand that feeling of forgetting something important as more and more glyphs and books disappear through time, she still somewhat dread becoming something like Aephery. Acting more like an Alzheimer's patient, too-child-like.

Hopefully, when they finish this and bring back humanity from its death, Mumei could still remember her name.

"Aephery." Mumei called, gentler than the rustling wind but audible. "I think this is enough rest. Let's continue."

The vessel turned and nodded before they wandered deeper into the forest they had found themselves in. As they did so, Mumei thought of the old deities, the council she and many other lesser gods were a part of.

Ceres Fauna, mother nature incarnate. An entity as old as when plants started to grow on the planet, protective of animals and flora. She was protective of Mumei as well, always so kind to her, but she wasn't kind to the humans Mumei protected.

Her wrath upon the human race was just, and Mumei could not blame her, Mumei could not blame anyone. When fire, a destructive energy that can burn away plants became a figure of worship amongst humanity, there was a dim in her bright eyes. Mumei could remember it.

And when the worshippers of the Everlasting Phoenix started to be thrown into anarchy, those fires were guided to anything that they could get their hands on. The planet was scorched in flames, and Fauna wouldn't have any of it.

Sandstorms, earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons, she threw everything at them to make sure they would stop. Mumei would beg her to stop and allow her to do something, but a decisive mother fueled by fury would not listen to the pleas of other people. The world was her child, and she will take any measures to stop the force that was harming it.

Ceres Fauna loved many things, but she loved the world more than Mumei, love nature more than humans who would trample on it. Mumei had already accepted that painful truth and backed away from her ever since.

A left drifted in front of Mumei's face, gently hovering down onto the blades of grass. The world was now green, greener than ever, but it never felt so empty.

"Temple." Aephery spoke, his finger pointing towards a ruined entrance in the middle of the forest.

"Ah!" Mumei quickly perked up. "I don't really remember a temple being so secluded from a settlement like this."

"There's ash." The vessel remarked. "I smell myrrh. I have to. Collect."

"Huh? Wait! Aephery!"

His white cloak flapped in the wind as he suddenly started leaping forward to the ruined temple. Mumei quickly gave chase, passing by the debris and concrete buildings that were surrounding the temple. It appeared there really was a settlement in this dense forest, only ravaged by nature it seemed.

So many people forgotten, Mumei thought to herself before shaking it off. Now was not the time to mourn.

They descended down the mossy stone stairs, Aephery's presence burning through the vines tangled by the entrance and evaporating any puddles around the area. Mumei only followed suit.

The old torches on the wall, despite having worn out of use, started to alight by themselves. Mumei kept a distance away from the vessel, the heat slowly burning brighter from him as they dashed through the broken corridors.

The pair passed through the labyrinth-like temple, going deeper and deeper into the earth as they did so. The walls that were inscribed with ancient writing were covered with roots as they did so, bricks were thrown all over the place as the pure harden soil kept this temple from falling apart.

Aephery could feel it, the heart that was still preserved inside this temple. As they grew closer to the centre of the temple, shards of emerald could be seen dusted across the floor. Aephery paid them no mind, not even when they pierced his feet and drew blood from his footsteps.

Mumei however, stopped for a moment to inspect them. It was no doubt, by the largest shard that was still preserved, this was the holy masks they'd wear during rituals. Crafted by the most skilled of blacksmiths and carvers, the high priests would adorn these during important sermons or when they were to be in the presence of the Everlasting Phoenix itself.

The owl quickly stood up, having lost Aephery in her sight but the bloody footprints still fresh, she dashed forward with the wind as her propeller— until one of the charred roots on the wall snared her by the waist.

"What the—" One moment to see what had caught her, and one moment later her face had gone paler than a ghost.

"Please, stand down." She could hear her, standing at the beginning of the hallway. A voice that could lull someone into a false sense of security, a voice that Mumei once would turn around and smile to.

Soft, gentle, like a whispering gale in the night to put you to sleep. The snores of a terrifying beast, only waiting to be wakened up by a naive adventurer. Her footsteps only walked straight, even when there were holes in the floor, for she walked atop of newly grown life.

Every step, the horror that was imprinted into Mumei's mind as she struggled to break away from her death trap.

A hand was placed upon her head, the memories that Mumei wanted to forget to ignore the pain.

"Mumei, it's fine. I'll take over from here."

Aephery had finally arrived at the ceremonial area of the temple. Most of the walls had been broken apart, the altar thrashed and the golden chalice nowhere to be seen. Only a giant tree sitting in the middle of it rooted so deeply into the earth.

That smell he had been led by, the fragrance was its strongest beneath the massive tree. It had been squashed, buried, never to be retrieved by anyone. But to him, but to the Everlasting Phoenix, it was just like expecting a wooden box to still be intact after being thrown into a pit of fire.

The vessel took one step, and a geyser of flames burned through most of the vines and moss surrounding the area. The water leaking from the ceiling evaporated into a mist, the darkness cast away to the very corners of the room as Aephery approached the massive tree.

The roots started to alight, embers flying around the place. The aroma wafting from the centre intensified, Aephery reached out his hand to touch the trunk that started to turn black.

Before he could make contact, another hand reached out from the tree and grabbed him by the neck. A pale hand jutting out from the dark wood, slowly burning down to the arm as the figure raised the vessel higher than his feet could touch the ground.

When her face came out from the tree, her seething words that flames could not describe translated themselves.

"So, burning my child is not enough for you, Everlasting Phoenix?" Words hissing hotter than steam leaking from a pipe. "You tricked Mumei into thinking that relinking your pointless flame can save her?"

The brief moment of fear and confusion painted upon Aephery's eyes faded as the gem began to glow. The vessel gripped mother nature's arm before delivering a swift roundhouse kick to the face, freeing him and charring her expression.

"What happened, was unfortunate." The vessel massaged his throat, little embers rejuvenating him. "But I do not lie to my people."

"Lie to your people?" In the room brightened by the orange light emanated by the flames, the phoenix had brought with him, Fauna's face burned brighter with fury. "Your people led themselves to extinction because of you! My forests, my animals, my own children as well who were less than willing to get themselves involved in your mess. Is this YOU trying to take responsibility?! Burn the world again?!"

"The world must see flames to reignite humanity again!" The phoenix retorted. "I understand your wrath, mother nature. I, too, wish that I could stop them from destroying the world unjustly. Your child will live through this trial, I promise thee."

"Promise this, promise that. All your words are hollow once I saw the last of my children burn in your hoax flames."

The tree behind Fauna began to move as if it was coming to life like a puppet on strings, guided by the unyielding anger of a mother.

"If you plan to finish the job by killing my last child, by igniting the world into a sea of flames."

A face carved upon the tree's husk, a mouth of a hole full of cries wanting for its mother to soothe it. The fires hurt, it burns, it burns so badly. It cried, it cried for the mother to make it stop.

The phoenix took his stance, unyielding to end his flames.

Mother nature glared her fullest as her words spat vitriol.

"Then you must kill me first."