After Mano left, I went to my room, almost running through my home, and into my room. Frantically, I gathered the crystals and drew out the symbols to summon her. Sitting in the middle of the symbol, frost wind surrounded me until the surrounding room turned completely white. Blinking against the bright white around me. The wind cleared to a big throne room, ice pillars all around, creating a thrown, and Crystal's monstrous form lay around the throne.
"Gia?" She asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"
"It's about Phoenix," I said, shaking a little from the adrenaline. "She'strying to avoid you finding her."
Her eye widened, first shock, then anger.
"That's a lie." She spoke cold, like what I said was slander on Phoenix's name. "She would never-"
"Mano is her blessed," I told her, cutting her off, "Mano told me this, and she believes she's hiding from enemies."
Crystal stared at me, her expression kept shifting between shock, and disbelief. I know she doesn't want to believe it, she loved Phoenix with all her heart. But... I know what was said, and I couldn't prove if it was true or not.
"No," Crystal said, her large form shaking a little. She couldn't accept the idea that Phoenix was possibly trying to hide from her. "She'd never... we promised to find each other, why..?"
"I... I don't know," I said, staying in place as she processed all this information. "If Mano tells me anything else, I'll come here and tell you."
"... do you know why I haven't seen or heard from Phoenix in all these years?" Crystal asked, looking at me.
"Well... no, you never talked about it before," I responded.
"all those many years ago," she began, "gods and demons were always at war with each other. Constantly fighting, constantly killing, some being revived, others rewinding time, even seeing the future before it happens."
"Like Phoenix?" I asked.
"Yes," she said, sitting up. "She was the bravest of our kind. She healed allies, demons, gods, and humans alike."
"What happened then?" I asked. Crystal settled in place beside her throne.
"... We had a battle: Scarlet was there in her first life, then... Phoenix and I were cursed. To remain trapped in these beast forms," she said, thinking about the past with Phoenix. I stayed silent, watching her, listening to what she had to say and why Phoenix might be avoiding her to the point of hiding. "We were separated after that. I promised Phoenix I would fight to find her again when we were cursed to be apart."
I watched her sad eyes staring off as she remembered the past. I stayed silent; she let out a harsh sigh, her icy breath curling as she exhaled, like frost freezing over a window.
"Do you think she blames you?" I asked. Crystal looked at me, sadness still in her eyes.
"...I don't know," she said. "If anything, she might just blame herself, or us both,"
I watched her for a long moment, just taking in what I know now. I know this isn't something easy to digest, but it's the truth. I stayed for a few minutes before Crystal turned her head away and sent me back. The surrounding white vanished, revealing my room again. I felt this icky feeling inside, and I couldn't stop thinking about what happened with Crystal.