#fire&stone

tagging: @chishiio @neshamahs @ceruleanstep @fleetingfictions @writer-who-sometimes-writes

The fae kingdom was still young, the queen newly crowned with her husband at her side and the mortar between the bricks of their castle barely dried when the Great Haskalah looked down upon the land and saw the strife and danger that was bound to invade their kingdom in a world so fuelled by greed and hunger. Looking to protect those she had breathed life into the great goddess sent the queen a gift of protection, a guardian to serve the royal family throughout the ages. So it was that the Phoenix was created and sent down - on a beam of sunlight guided by the pull of the moon - in the form of an egg which appeared in the throne room fireplace. Too hot to touch, the new fae queen and her husband watched the egg for days in anticipation until finally it cracked and from the golden shell emerged a small bird with feathers of fire. It took two months for the bird to grow to adulthood, and on the night of the full moon the bird burst into flame and a young maiden with red and gold wings remained in its place. She learned their ways and their language quickly, announcing when she was able that she had been sent to act as a protector to the royal family, to look over them as Haskalah's hand on land. She trained dutifully in the art of combat and war, and took her place behind the queen and her mate with the sort of honour bound loyalty that was unwavering. The first time that she died protecting them they placed her body in the fire as that had been her origin. Another bird arose from the ashes and on the next full moon the girl they had named Ethne in honour of her fire birth, returned. In celebration of her return and to show their appreciation of her sacrifice, the queen chose a last name for her, Aylin, which meant halo around the moon as she was their halo of protection. She served that queen until it was her time to pass on to the golden forest, meeting her own death many times over and with each facing the flame and returning on the following full moon. She never aged, but grew in wisdom and experience. Ethne served the royal family unfailingly for 1400 years, and at the end of this time period she died a normal death, her body found one morning in her chambers. Her body was placed on a pier and burnt, believing they were returning her to her creator Haskalah. In the ashes of the pier they found an egg. Once again the egg was kept in the flame until finally it hatched to reveal a bird, the same that had appeared to the first queen fourteen centuries prior. The bird grew and developed and at the end of two months when the full moon arrived the bird caught flame and when the flames dispersed the form of a young woman with wings remained. She was Ethne, but not. Her body and mind remembered the ways of battle and guardianship, and her loyalty and devotion to the royal family remained, but she was a new being. The Phoenix reborn.