Chapter 21 : Kazeko

The Wind Goddess Statue is a statue carved by the most skilled sylph to ever existed. The creator had no known name as she wished to remain unknown. The only thing known about her is her gender and her species, the others are unknown. Some dared say she herself did not know the answer to any other questions about her.

She carved the statue using a special rock obtained at the bottom of a dead volcano located near the Flaming Region. She travelled far to the location to get the stone and she had to ask for the help from the flame elementals there to help bring her the stone as she could not enter such a heated place. As soon as she obtained the rock, she thanked the people who helped her and paid them handsomely. Then, she brought it back to the Sylph Clan and began carving without stopping to eat or rest for 3 days straight. Any normal human would have passed out if they tried to challenge their bodies as such but as a sylph, she was able to survive a while without the daily supplement needed by most living creatures.

The stone was carved into a female sylph wearing a delicate ancient Greek robe. Her left hand was slightly outstretched towards the sky as if catching a fallen leaf. On her right hand, she held a staff that was carved with amazing details of different types of leaves. The top was carved in a separated manner like a deer's antlers. It had maple leaves, dandelions, poison ivies and other floral that somewhat resembled the four seasons carved on the end of each points.

Then, the creator laced the statue's staff with spade shaped diamonds from every existing elements. Red for fire, Blue for water, Green for wind, Brown for earth, Yellow for light, Purple for darkness. She also laced the dress of the statue with decorative crystals in different shades of green. And as a final touch, she added a lime green crystal crown on the head of the statue as a symbol of a high and respected status.

Now you might be wondering what motivated the creation of this statue. The statue was carved in the image of Kazeko which translate directly into the child of wind in Japanese. It was a symbol of recognition and honour towards the deed of the brave girl that had became the reason the sylphs were still alive now.

Kazeko was born and grew up blind and deaf, which resulted in her being vocally impaired as well. Her parents hated her and tried to poison her to death first. When that did not work in their favour, they tried to find other ways to be rid of her. They had even taken drastic measures as to drop her from high grounds on multiple occasions. The other sylphs did not try to stop the actions of these parents as they did not want to be left with the burden of caring for Kazeko if they do step in. For 8 years, Kazeko had been put through literal hell and she was unfortunate enough to survive it all. But she had a gift nobody knew as she was not able to communicate with others at all. She could not tell another soul even if she wanted to.

Due to her impaired senses, she was not able to learn simple hand gestures and nobody taught her how to write. She could have ended up dying without knowing a world or a life existed but she was lucky for her gift from the Gods. She was able to communicate with the Gods and learn basic stuff that was never taught to her such as speaking, reading and writing. That is right, Kazeko was a prophet. Prophets were angels sent by the Gods to the living realm to help them give the livings their commands and to be the Gods' eyes on the activities among the livings. However, Kazeko was did not luck out at birth so she could not entirely do the biddings of the Gods, thankfully they understood. So for as long as Kazeko could remember, the Gods were her family in soul and her body was just a vessel. A broken one too.

One day, the Gods told Kazeko about a future they foreseen. They sensed that the Sylph Clan would be attacked by the Siren Witches who recently learnt how to give themselves a pair of legs to travel on ground. They decided they wanted to be the most superior creature by eliminating the other creatures, starting from the weakest group - sylphs.

As Kazeko panicked in her heart, the Gods told her that the only way for her to save her clan was to sing to the attackers, only then would they cease their attacks. However, it came with a price which would be her life. Kazeko did not understand how her life would be on the line but she did not question it. Even though the sylphs had treated her badly, she was a sylph too and wanted to do something especially since she was their only hope.

When the Siren Witches arrived at the entrance of their land and proclaimed war, Kazeko walked to the front of the crowd with the help of her cane and stood with confidence. Everyone may it be the sylphs or the sirens were confused and paused their strides to war.

Sensing no more movement around her, Kazeko took and deep breath and opened her mouth. She chose to sing a song the Gods used to sing to her when she was having a bad day. Her voice was like no other, silky and sweet, delicate and elegant, soft yet strong. Even a siren's call could not come close to even compete with her voice.

Everyone stood still in shock and listened to Kazeko until she finished the last paragraph of the song :

May the stars guide me through the night,

Even if I have long ago lost my sight,

I cannot hear the words you might say,

But I do not care because I shall play,

By the tree, where we will eventually meet,

As death is cruel no matter what you say.

"Amazing! We have never heard such greatness! What is her name?!" the head of the sirens called out in awe.

"Kazeko is her name, but she is blind as a bat and deaf, impaired in many ways!" Kazeko's father shouted out from the crowd.

"Remarkable! She looked so young!"

"If you wish it, then take her and spare us!"

At that, the sirens pushed their idea of ruling the world aside for the meantime and took Kazeko with them. Kazeko was brought underwater with no help of an oxygen supplement item where she almost drowned in the process. Oh how she wished she had died. Her fate was far worse than anyone could ever imagine. She was torn and eaten alive, her flesh firsts, her heart last. She was alive until the Siren Queen tore out her vocal chords and heart to consume, in hopes her gift of a melodious voice would be passed to her. But it did not, and Kazeko was tormented to death for nothing. Throughout her ordeal, she was accompanied by the voices of the Greek Gods and as she passed, her hands was held and she was brought to heaven to become an angel again.

Words travelled back to the Sylph Clan as they heard the fate that befell Kazeko. Her parents felt remorse, the clan felt guilt and the creator... she felt sadness washed over her. She wished she could have done something to help the poor child, but she was too much of a coward. A huge elaborated memorial was done for the dead to help the sylphs ease their guilt. They hoped by honouring Kazeko, they would be doing her some good as she had saved them all. They hoped Kazeko would see their praises from up above and forgive them for their wrong doings towards her.

Pathetic, the creator thought. She knew they felt no real remorse, they just did not want to be remembered as the bad guys in history. That was what motivated her to create the statue in memory of Kazeko. The statue was created to look like a Kazeko who was all grown up so everyone could see her and never forget that they had mistreated their saviour who never had a chance to grow up. More guilt on the father as he was the one who offered Kazeko away to the sirens like the coward he always was.

However, the creator made the statue too powerful that it was able to behave like a living object. It could grow and develop on its own will. The negativity it caused towards the ones who had wronged Kazeko had been absorbed into the gems on the statue while the tears of regrets from the sylphs would be absorbed into the rock as if it was a sponge.

After a few years, the Sylph Clan started to realise misfortune would come to sylphs who had done something bad. Whether it would be as small as yelling insults at someone or as big as murder, all shall be punished after they unwillingly locked their eyes on the statue that was placed in the middle of the Sylph Clan after doing the dirty deed. It was as if they were not in control of their bodies when they moved and were foced to looked the statue in the eyes. The punishment were never merciful and it eventually drove them insane. The sylphs beckoned the creator to remove the statue now known as the cursed Wind Goddess Statue. So she moved the statue to the outskirts of the town belonging to the Sylph Clan instead of destroying it.

The cursed Wind Goddess Statue was used to punish criminals by letting the statue punish them for their crime. The blood poured by the statue made it even more cruel and cursed. It got so powerful and blood thirsty that even if your only crime was slapping a person, you would be deemed dead.

However, there was a catch like many cursed items. It could only affect sylphs. If the statue was to be used by an outsider against the Sylph Clan, they would all definitely and undoubtedly perish. When the sylphs found that out, they immediately kept the statue in an underground secret room of the town chapel and locked it up to ensure nobody would know of its presence let alone use it against them. The sylphs in charge of cleaning it was made to swore to never lock eyes with the statue as it was thirsty for blood and would kill even a sinless and innocent child.

...

"Oh, so that's why whoever did it chose to use the statue. It's the perfect crime! He or she could blame the statue and said he didn't know of its abilities! They can even avoid getting hurt themselves!" Lyte exclaimed in realisation while Lisa sat there, suspiciously looking at Snow who seemed to know so much more than she should.

"And how do you know this again?"

"I have my ways. I also got some information from the creator who is a friend of my friend,"

"Hmm, you sound very suspicious, you know? You seemed to know more than a sylph would care to share with an outsider, let alone a reapress,"

"See, Lyte. I told you she would not believe me if I were to explain all that I know. She wanted me gone and this is the best reason she could use against me,"

"But Lyte! Doesn't she sound suspicious at all to you? She knew so much about that statue. I bet even most sylphs don't know the full story like her,"

As the two were about to start an argument again, they heard someone calling for help while running towards their direction.