Sunday of Purification

Sunday of Purification

"This world has never been fair" - Miya

It was bright sunny morning in the Kingdom of Alfeia. The kingdom was a tourist spot especially when it comes to summer solstice where it will hold its annual Purification Walk Festival. The fest is very important since it was in the honor of the purificating goddess who had given them endless purification during the day to let their harvest be bountiful without pests to trouble them. That goddess was named Miya.

Miya's name came from the cleansing goddess for she had ashen greyed eyes like the ever-swirling empty void. Her skin is brown fit for summer and her hair is hazel brown the color of the leaves during the end of the summer. But because of this and even though she was named by such deity, she was no more than an exile with her family living outside of the walls of the kingdom. She was judged the moment she was conceived as a witch that bears the ashen eyes of Miya which is greatly an abomination for them.

"Miya!" her mom shouted.

"Yes! Mom!" she replied. They were exiled fourteen years ago and from a baby Miya she had turned to a gentle lady. She never been able to make friends with the townspeople and often when she was fetched to get ingredients, she hides herself in a cloak.

She runs as fast as she could downstairs and in their little cottage, she took an apron and approached her Mom who was cooking. For years, she is getting excited to witness the Purification Walk Festival but her Mom won't let her. She never had been into the kingdom's festivities for years since her Mom won't even gave a single permission to do that to her.

"Mom..." she began to slice the tomatoes. "Can I-"

"No, you won't and will never be," answered immediately by her Mom.

"But..."

"No buts Miya, you do know how dangerous the world can be!"

Miya felt as if the world she once knew is already an alien to her. She could only see how wonderful it is in the books that she scavenged a few years ago when the kingdom was burning the old ones. The stories it inscribed in it are far more excellent in her point of view. It was already a blessing for her to see the world through a book but this is the beginning of her being thirsty of knowledge.

After slicing the carrots, she left the kitchen and ran towards her room. She couldn't help but to feel really down.

"Why Mom won't let me?" she said as she slowly closed the door.

Later on, she heard a knock on her door. A gentle slow and a single knock. She had a hunch on who it was and she was right. She digged her nails on her soft pillow and covered her face into it. She wants to scream on anger but she was the type of girl who had been upbrought with great care.

"I'm sorry Miya I didn't intend to - "

"It's okay Mom, I must abide your rule after all, and you are my mother - I know there's something behind you strictly prohibiting me to go outside... I understand that but I want to know the world Mommy, I really want to."

Her mom smiles when she heard Miya. It was the first time she seen her mom giving a very understanding smile. "Do you know why Daddy left us?"

"No!"

"It's because he died. He sacrificed his life for us to escape. That was just moments after you were born."

"But why?"

"He was burned at stake with our true mother!"

"True mom?" Miya looks on the Mommy she had known since she was child.

"I'm your sister, little Miya! My name is Milderette." she patted her head and petted it. Her fingers slowly drags and brushed off her hazel brown hair. "Mom and Dad left us ages ago and now, it's up for me to look after you!"

"But..." Miya can't put up the right words to say. She found herself dumbfounded and who would not be shocked when the world that you were put in was not the world it seems. She really thought that she is knowledgeable to her environment but it vanished right after secrets one after another were revealed.

Her sister slowly gets a book in Miya's shelf and slowly opened it. "Have you read this?"

"About the Little Miya, the Forgiving Purification Goddess' Vessel?"

"She was our local deity and it was said that every hundred years she gave upon a very rare blessing in one of our citizen in the Alfeia. She marks her blessing with ashen greyed eyes and a hazel brown hair. When a child was born with that marks, she will be honoured as the mortal replica of Miya in here. The city then will be blessed with a century of plentiful crops as her purification will never give up shining on their plants. But... when the priests in her temple know about you having ashen eyes, they were afraid about the vessel dethroning them and so they accuse us having an abomination of the vessel because you were born having brown skin and not white. They deceived the others by making them believe that you were a failure just because of your skin."

"Mom and Dad tried to protect you but all was too late since our old home was already surrounded so they gave me you as a newborn child to me and let us escape in the woods while they distracted the others. I quickly run as fast as I can in the forest even though I do know that there are wolves in packs out there. That's the moment where you proved to be the Vessel of Miya. You shine like a little lamp to guide my way and to keep the wolves at bay. I just kept running straight for two days, my legs were already tired and my body can't hold much any longer. Then we reached this cottage with all things ready. It's like someone predicted that we would come across this cottage and that someone was the goddess Miya!"

Miya looks on her older sister. "I am an abomination of the goddess?"

Her sister slowly pulls a strand of her hazel brown hair "No, you are not! If you are then Mom and Dad won't sacrifice themselves for you, silly."

"Come here, I'll show you something beautiful!" her sister hurried as she dragged Miya across and out of the room into the deep cellar door that upon opening blasted a bomb of dusts. It was dusty indeed for it was last opened more than ten years ago.

In the darkness, echoes of steps dripping in the cemented spiralling stairs that goes downstairs were heard. The sudden falling of temperature makes the cold air imminent around the place. Darkness shroud the surroundings not even a single speck of light can be seen.

"Fair lights of deepest night, shine me a guide for my sight!" poetically her sister said.

One by one emerged a mysterious gleaming sphere of light that floats in all direction and in mid-air! When Miya touches one of it due to curiosity, it pops and disappears like a bubble while leaving rainbow sparkles but it reconstruct again and formed another sphere and this time much bigger. With the place lightening up like a chandelier slowly turning on to give light, everything is revealed.

The small clearing that she found herself in was indeed very fascinating. There's a small fountain and the single one to say in the middle of the cushioned refined gray sand. She felt it very soft to her feet as her sister smiles and slowly turns around to go upstairs.

"Sister? Where are you going?" Miya said as she noticed her sister leaving her.

"I must not step into the sanctified ground of Miya, it'll defile her honor for a mortal to step in the ground where she had died." Her sister said with a solemn looks on her face. She only took a quick glance of Miya before continuing walking. "Besides, you must be getting hungry! I'll cook cookies for you and a make some lukewarm milk," she added with a bright smile before shutting the doors with a loud noise.

Miya turned around and looks on the fountain that is sprinkling crystal clear water. She slowly dragged her feet towards it and touched the cold and rough crevice in one of the statue that it portrays. It was made in marble and Miya could still see how legendary it was from back then but presently, it was nothing more than an image of a girl standing with her toes while pointing her two arms wide open on the sky. It was covered with moss but on her head lays a gray rose.

"Sing me a song that will fit for my regrettable wrong," she said as she tried to rip of the moss that covered a set of inscribed words in the statue's chest. It was like a riddle.

"Song? Wrong?" Miya looks puzzled on what she just had recited. She doesn't have the brains for it, she is not intelligent enough to decipher manually or too lucky to stumble on the answer fortunately without effort. But she did remember something - a song that she was taught when she was five years old by an old lady who wandered around in the forest.

"Sing thy song when you are ready. Dear child, sing it with pride because you are the key!" she could still remember every words that the old woman said after she taught her a small and childish song. It is just like a rhyme though it contains much meaning to what the goddess Miya really is.

Miya readied herself to sing the rhyme. It was short and easy to remember but actually, it is quite long and she just altered her perception to it since after repeating it thousands of times, she had already memorized it. The melody, pitch, tone and the lyrics are perfectly displayed like written in a clear ink in a white paper inside her mind.

Dancing through the fields, a goddess emerged in thin air

She had been materialized because of people's wishes

She owed them especially the Alfea Kingdom on where she built her lair

She lived there happily for years and years

But then disaster struck and everything goes astray

She can't do anything but to fulfill her role

She never deserted the world and gave her last ray

To let the world survive, she is one of the beings who gave their soul

In her last breath, she imparted her divinity to a sole child

Tear part of its soul and embedded hers within

That child blessed by Miya is a child which is mild

She's the one bringing purification to the countless sin

After reciting the rhyme, everything sparkles as the fountains slowly fell into debris and the water that once spouting upwards and in all direction slowly flooded the sandy pavement and before long it already covered and reaches Miya's knees. It is rising at fast rate making Miya alarmed and quickly dashed through the stairs but when she is about to grab the cellar door, she sees the water turning into ash grey liquid before it sparkles and vanished in thin air.

Curiosed and intrigued, she stays for a minute and just for a minute to see what is going to happen. When it all vanished, in the place of the fountain was a lady sleeping peacefully in the sandy rough yet comfortable ground. She was slumbering undisturbed and calm. She was just like the image of the statue and the great difference between the two is the lady down there is made of flesh. Rosy lips, long eyelashes, well-endowed chest, fair-skinned, rich hazel brown hair and the only feature missing is the ash gray eyes and if it matches - undoubtedly she is the goddess of purification, Miya.

"Hello! My other part..." the goddess welcomes Miya when she came back downwards. She was still rubbing her eyes and it seems she was completely aware of her surroundings even though she was still half-asleep.

"Who are you?" rudely Miya asked her. It's not her fault. She's just plainly interested on knowing the identity of the woman.

With a compassionate smile, the goddess stands up and dusted her robes on the sticking sands between the fabrics. "I'm you and you are me. We are one yet different. I'm a goddess - a memory of a former goddess. You could consider me as an illusion - a remnant of Miya who was imparted in that fountain. I'm waiting for years and aeons to someone an incarnation summons me and at last, you had successfully did that. Congratulations, Miya's wish will finally come true."

A bit disoriented and confused, Miya projected a very funny look and it was obvious like it was written in her face that she can't cope up on the conversation. "I don't understand," all she said covering the embarrassment with a slight smile.

"It means that you finally live up to make Miya's wish to reality."

"What is her wish?"

"Her wish was to found an incarnation fitting to replace her in the divine skies. I am an illusion and a vessel that will channel all her powers and knowledge to you. In short, I'm a person who will help you become the goddess Miya."

Suddenly, it felt very hot as if something was burning. Smoke scent slowly mingled in the air, suffocating Miya. She coughed very hard and jerked her both hands in front of her face to cover her nose and mouth. The feeling of growing heat around her was making her skin burn slowly. She looks on the illusion of the goddess as her eyesight fades out because the smoke is thickening. Just then -

"Sister!" she remembered Milderette going upstairs to cook cookies and prepare her lukewarm milk. How could she forget it? Anxious, she didn't even know that she was hurrying upstairs. One step after another, echoes of a flesh contacting with the hard stairs roam around.

Slamming the cellar door wide open, the smokes burst forth and invade the basement. The smell of it was nauseating as the burnt scent of wood, fabrics, rubbers and more mingled with each other. Coughing really hard, Miya slowly lifts her left foot and enter the cabin which she had been living all of her life. Everything was wearing down; some are already burnt to the ground. The heat meets her with its hellish smile as her skin seared in pain. She hurried down towards the kitchen but didn't see anything in there.

"Sister!" she shouted desperately, the anxiousness was present in her voice.

She hurried again upstairs, opening her room's door so as with her sister but it was empty aside from the things burning. Horrified and out of time, she pushed her capabilities beyond its limits. Her eyesight dims out as she can't properly breathe amidst the smokes. Her pace in running slows down to a walk. Moments, she is barely walking as her energy depletes out to zero.

"Mildere...tte," she knocked out of consciousness and fell to the floor with face on the harsh wood.

***

Warmth pulls her away from the devouring darkness and emerged again in the burning cottage. The smoke is thickening and she doesn't know how long she had been lying on the floor. With a small cough, she regained full consciousness and used all of her remaining energy to stand up but she barely carried herself up. She grabbed the nearest cabinet and used it to support her.

"Miya..." a small whisper echoed and darted towards her amidst dense black smokes.

"Sister!" alarmed, rushing adrenaline made Miya pulled her sister so fast and dragged her outside the door. She desperately struggled to heave her sister at the same time maintaining her consciousness as she can hardly breathe.

Finally, at the sight of the door, Miya took full charge and carry her sister in her back and smashed through the door. The logic of unlocking it with the doorknob was completely invalid in her mind for panic was already wreaking havoc in it. The numb pain that quickly surface on her shoulder on which she banged it to open the door earlier was painful as being stabbed with a knife. It seems she broke a bone or displaced it if she was lucky enough.

Wheezing and taking strong and deep gasps was the pacing of her breath as she lay down her sister in the ground. Her eyesight blurred a moment but she could make out a figure of somewhat a man. When her sight stabilizes, she felt a searing pain in her head that it knocked her unconscious. The only thing she could lastly remember was how smooth the grasses are.

"Kill! Burn the Witch! Serves her right! The abomination must not be allowed to live," hatred pierced her ears as she finds herself unmovable. Something smites in her wrists and ankles and she felt her body very worn out.

Miya was shocked then to see that she was restricted and tied into a log while surrounded with it. She was being burn at stake! Beside her was her sister who was very pale without blood in her lips or cheek. When she reached for the pinky finger of Milderette, it was cold as ice. Those eyelids that closed surrounded by discoloration of her fair skin into violet marked a certain truth: her sister is dead.

"No! Sister!" sad and grievous, Miya wiggled out of the tight ropes and chain to attend to her sister. "Milderette! Wake up!"

"Wake... up!! I said wake up! Didn't you say you'll bake me cookies and make me warm milk? Do that now, sister, please do that now! If you won't I'll... I'll..." tears started emerging out of her eyes as she can't express how she will face the future without her sister. The horridness about struggling on her own in the savagery and torture that the world may throw at her is just enough for her to bear.

"Please sister, don't you dare leave me alone. Please do... NOT... leave me just like... mom and dad," Miya desperately moved wildly but surrendered as she looks on her sister.

When she leans her head, another truth was revealed. She heard whisperings among the crowd that gather around her. They are villagers of the Kingdom of Alfeia, the fortunate ones and the one who killed her family. Hatred pierced again her ears as whisperings grow much stronger, it was a nightmare for Miya - a nightmare she wants to wake up upon.

"Look at her!"

"Disgusting, right?"

"She's the abomination! How ugly?"

"How dare she stole the image and soul of our goddess?"

"Death upon the witch!"

The murmurs of the villagers hurt more than being tortured in Hell. Some are scared of her, some are angry, others are smiling. Every crevice of their faces was sinister, others are innocence that was being deceived and some looks like a demon.

Tears started to fell upon her eyes as the crowd clears a straight path. There in the end and just a meter away from the stake, she saw a man dressed in robes coloured with grey and white. He looks like a priest or something like that as Miya can vaguely recognized him. Scared, frightened, horrified and terrified were the feelings that dominated her chest.

When he stopped and turned to face the crowd, all of them silenced down. It seems everyone respects him. "Today, we will finally end the torment that this abomination had brought upon the land of Alfeia. Today, we will be freed from the curse that this being held upon and mark this day as the day that Alfeia will grow more abundant and stronger. We will finally overcome another big obstacle that the kingdom of Alfeia is facing. So does anyone have an opposition of this girl's guilt if not, one by one light the woods.

The countdown started towards the death of Miya. She sees the sea of people one by one tossed a candle around her and put ablaze the stake. Sweats covered her entire body as the heat slowly opens its mouth to devour her. The flames grow stronger every minute and it proudly shone on Miya's eyes.

As the fire grows, Miya's emotion becomes clearer to her and it seems the frightened Miya was just a curtain that covered a darker side of hers. An image fleeted in and it was the image of how her parents were killed in the stake. The anguishing cries they screamed at their topmost breath were unbearable. And now - slowly, she leaned her head besides and found her sister, Milderette's lifeless body tied into the wood. They were treated lower than dogs. The pain accumulating within her was just like a flooding river - it was already enough that they killed her parents and exiled them but today, they had taken her sister. They killed her sister - they had taken away her only reason to live in this world no matter how cruel it is.

Hatred fuels her heart to linger more to survive. Incoherently, she tried to make up the words but what spout out from her mouth are just few words that she whispered in a low voice. "I... hate... all... of you."

"Including this world... This world has never been fair since from the very beginning." She added moments after four tears that came out from her both eyes.

The illusion of the goddess looks on her disappearing self. She waned in and out in a grey light. A tear fell in her eye as she slowly picked out the last light in the sky that is getting smaller being invaded by the dark and thick violent storm clouds. She was just behind the current incarnation of Miya who was tied into a big stake. She did not frown on how disappointed she was on the representation of who must succeed the goddess herself because it will end her reign and her reoccurring existence of what a little part of her soul was embedded in the world. The goddess will be forgotten.

As the light became a thread in the sky and can be barely seen by a naked eye, it began raining. The cold touch and embrace of drizzling raindrops goes through the illusion of the goddess. She looks on Milderette's body and slowly used a piece and last essence of her life energy to revive Miya's sister. She held out and opens gently her left palm which revealed a small bead of greyish light.

It floats towards Milderette's lifeless body and became one with it as the body waned with grey light upon contacting with the bead. This was her first and last gift to Miya as she slowly turns graciously and walks away from the girl. Each step she takes, fleeting sparkles that get carried in the wind slowly emerges out of her feet and erased it as it goes upwards until it was only her head left.

"I wish you luck on your life, Miya." The last words she said as a single strand of her hair only remains and it begins vanishing just like with the glittering dusts.

"But you know what - no matter how unfair this world is. I still love it because this is where I lived my small little happiness. This world is full of forgiveness and I accept that fact. It may be cruel in the surface but this world is much more forgiving in the inside." Miya added after a small smile as she faces upwards towards the sky with her tears mingled with the rain.

The illusion of the goddess stopped when she was already in the stairs and her last essence will be wiped out. Before she knew it, she was restored fully back with all her limbs and body intact with each other. Her smile never faded as her body was regained but this time her smile was not the smile she just made. It was a sweet smile - a smile that somehow cannot be erased in her face for a very long time.

"Good job Miya - a goddess of purification..." the illusion said.