The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix by Ava D. Dohn Page A

give an audience for her
heart’s anguished release. I would not contend with her tears,
would not permit them.”
    Lowenah stopped, sadly staring down at the floor. “I
made my little child suffer silently in dreadful agony all those
countless ages from that time forward, denying there being anything
at all wrong in my perfect little universe . Everything must
remain as I had made it, as I had dreamed it, as I must have it. Perfect! It had to be perfect! Everything must remain dreamily perfect . After all, that had been my design from
the very beginning. It was my world, my dream, my vision. No one
had a right to spoil it, even my cherished little child.”
    In silence the two sat there, Lowenah gently
stroking Darla’s upper leg while looking down at her other hand
that was wrapped around her knee, pulling it close to her breast.
Darla stared deeply into Lowenah’s face, pondering, wondering. Who
was this person sitting next to her, the one giving her birth? Was
she really her mother? Had Darla truly been born?
    Darla was the youngest of all of Mother’s daughters,
having only been told stories about her birth. For her, those
stories were all based on faith. She did not remember her birthing,
or the day of rage and rebellion, nor did she remember Chrusion,
the kind and gentle lover, the festivals, Tolohe’s anguish, or even
Mihai’s attempted murder. All these were little more than tales
spoken softly in her ears at times in her life when she was
expected to make important decisions. For all the years of this
wicked age, Darla had accepted, through faith, all these tales as
though they were truth. She had accepted them all, unquestioned, as
though they were fact, and she lived her life according to those
facts.
    Now, at this turbulent moment, new disturbing
revelations were being poured out upon her in a flood, too many
revelations at once, and for what purpose? Was it true that she
accepted them all with mere faith, and was it with possible
credulity she was expected to accept these new revealed truths, too? A shadowy foreboding crept out from behind
long-secreted doors of doubt, making her troubled heart jump in a
confused beat.
    It was at that instant that Lowenah glanced over
into Darla’s face, the girl’s disquiet and uncertainty growing in
it. ‘So it is. So it shall be. Yes, so it must be.’ Lowenah sadly
mused in silence. The hour was soon coming where faith could not
win the day. The child must choose to battle using forces other
than faith. A silent war waged between mind and heart would decide
the fate of all mortal things in that hour. Another eagle flew in
the skies of hope, must fly, for the bird of faith would fail the
day. ‘Yes.’ Lowenah thought, ‘Another bird must win it.’
    Lowenah was playing it close to the edge. The fate
of the universe rested on the decisions of one person, and that was
cloaked behind the facade of a Prisoner Exchange. All life hung in
the balance of that decision made, as it had so many times before,
yet her children did not know, had not known, and would not know of
even this coming day’s uncertainties, would not know until… until
all the links in a very uncertain, fated chain were forged into one
unbreakable mass, the last of those links welded in when Michael
would finally unleash her demons to the eternal abyss.
    Lowenah allowed her foot to drop to the floor as she
leaned close to Darla and began playing with the girl’s fingers.
Looking down at Darla’s hands, Lowenah quietly continued. “Then,
one day, a woman, my daughter Anna – She was called ‘Krystolenia’
by her lovers in those days, meaning ‘Solar Spirit ’ – my
beautiful daughter Anna came forth to dance before the crowds at
the Great Juncture Festival of Lauaninue. Yes, back in those early
times we gifted names upon all our important festivals. My
daughter’s dancing was so alluring and sensual that, from that day
forward, all of those great events were called the ‘Festival