Molly was still sitting on the couch as she hugged her knees and stared into the distance, watching her past play out before her eyes.
She continued her tale, "We lived a few hours away from NLA in a small community of various mythic races; we even had a few mythic humans living with us.
We had no problem with them, as they had reached their mythic status on their own without using the dead bodies of other mythics.
We used a combination of abilities and technology to stay hidden from humans, made easier by the fact that very few people still travel the no-mans land.
Luckily, the ability to make a human shell that hides our real selves is a fundamental ability that anyone who uses the world's energy can perform.
Since this same ability would also hide our energy emissions, it was standard practice for all myths to remain in their human shells at all times since you never knew who might be nearby enough to pick up our energy.
Occasionally, some of us would travel to NLA to buy supplies, but for the most part, we didn't leave our community for fear of being discovered. So, I lived the first twenty-two years of my life in isolation.
Luckily, we still had access to cyberspace, as we had a few fantastic netrunners living among us. We still had to be careful, but for the most part, the netrunners kept us safe. My father was one of them. Well, adoptive father."
Still hugging her knees, she started shedding small, icy blue tears. Ivar wondered if she still even realised where she was or who she was telling her story to, but clearly, she had wanted to let it all out for a while now.
As her tears slowly fell, she continued, "I was the only blue phoenix there, as my adoptive parents had simply found me in front of their house one day when I was still a baby. I have no idea what happened to my parents, but everyone there accepted me as one of their own."
She giggled a little despite her tears, "In fact, they treated me as a little princess. Phoenixes had always held a position of royalty among other mythic races.
Of course, that position has greatly diminished since so few of us are left, but for the monotonous and isolated lives of these myths, treating a little phoenix as a princess was a great way to add some spice to their lives."
She smiled a little sadly, "I sometimes felt like I was no more than a toy they enjoyed playing with, but then I would see their kind smiles, and those thoughts disappeared like snow in the sun.
She chuckled, "Besides, I won't deny I enjoyed the treatment; sometimes, I ran around acting like a little tyrant and other times, I would be the benevolent princess, but they always indulged me.
And I knew they could have treated me very differently.
It's not like any of our lives were that great, and taking it out on the only phoenix there, a species that used to be treated like royals, would be… well, it's called 'human' nature, but really, many myths are no different."
Intense hatred then returned to her eyes, together with the blue flames, which now seemed to freeze her tears, as they came out as little frozen crystals instead of liquid water, "Something I realised especially when the Oni betrayed us."
She gnashed her teeth and continued, "The Oni had been relatively new additions to our community, barely a year or two, but we welcomed them with open arms.
They weren't particularly friendly, but they behaved themselves and followed the rules, so we paid them no mind.
But one night, I was awoken by screams and sounds of fighting; I ran outside but slipped on… on the blood of my adoptive father." Her eyes had lost some of her hatred to be replaced with deep sadness as the crystal tears started dropping faster.
"He had his hand on the doorknob, probably trying to reach me, but a large hole had been blasted through his back, as those kind eyes of his had gone dull forever.
At that moment, I froze, unable to truly comprehend what I saw, until a voice pulled me out of my thoughts. It was my adoptive mother.
She probably saw her husband lying in his own blood but didn't even take the time to mourn him as she pulled me along, and we raced through what used to be our peaceful little community."
Fury reappeared in her eyes when she continued,
"That is when I noticed the enemy were human troops in combat gear, armed with weapons specifically designed to deal with myths, and right alongside them were the Oni, killing their former neighbours with not a care in the world!
Some of them even seemed to enjoy it!
And right in the middle of it all was the most fearsome man I had ever seen; just looking at him made me quiver; he must have been at least rank 3, maybe even rank 4.
He was bald and tall, with piercing black eyes; the right side of his face was heavily scarred, and his right arm had been completely replaced with a mechanical one.
But I paid attention to none of those things, as the only thing I saw were the blue flames burning in his one good hand."
She started shaking, "I recognised those flames straight away, as they were the same as my own, and the only way he could have gotten them was by becoming a myth with the core of a blue phoenix.
But… But the moment I looked at him, he also looked at me, and I saw the creepiest, scariest, greediest smile I had ever seen. I knew right then that if I ended up in his hands, my fate would truly be terrible."
At this point, Molly had utterly lost herself in the story, completely forgetting where she was or who she was telling the story to, as the words simply flowed from her mouth at the same time as the scenes replayed themselves before her eyes.
It had been ten years since this all happened, but in all that time, she had never had the opportunity to tell it all to anyone because most people were still ignorant of the existence of myths.
She had never even met another myth since that day! At least, not that she knew of.
She continued, "My mother also noticed the man looking at us and recognised the look in his eyes. She warned me that the man was after me and told me to run. She told me she would be right behind me, but I obviously didn't believe her.
So, like the stupid kid I was, I refused to leave and wanted to fight together with her. I loved my mother, and dying together with her seemed preferable to fleeing alone. I only later realised how selfish that thought really was."
At this point, she had actually started leaning against Ivar, lost in her memories as she was; she was simply looking for the closest source of warmth while being lured by Ivar's smell and his relaxing pheromones.
The blue fire in her eyes had gone out as her tears once again flowed in liquid form,
"I didn't notice the despair on my mother's face when she realised I wouldn't flee because all I had in my sight was that terrifying man who was killing all of my friends, all of the people I considered my family.
But… that was also the reason I didn't notice when someone knocked me unconscious from behind. The last thing I saw was my mother charging at that man with the blue phoenix fire while casting a grateful glance behind her before I fainted."
At this point, she fell silent, and Ivar simply waited for her to continue, "After an unknown amount of time, I woke up in an apartment here in the slums, empty for all but a corpse covered in blood, facing the door.
I recognised him as one of the mythic humans who lived in our community alongside us, and I immediately started piecing together what must have happened."
It seemed this was the man who had knocked her unconscious and then, somehow, got her to the city but was mortally wounded in the process.
Her voice had lowered to a whisper as she continued,
"As all the events from earlier crashed over me, and I came to the full realisation of what happened, I just sank to my knees and cried silently for hours on end, afraid the people outside the apartment would hear me.
It was only days later that hunger drove me to leave the apartment. Luckily, I had accompanied the suppliers in our community a few times, so I wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the city.
After that came two years of barely subsisting as I scrounged or even killed for food and nearly drowned in my depression… until Nova found me."