Blood pooled beneath her feet, a slow, crimson tide spreading across the cracked and uneven stones of the temple floor. The breathless air crackled with the sound of scraping steel and whispered prayers to gods long since silenced. Gia tightened her grip on the jagged obsidian dagger in her hand, her knuckles white beneath the silvery streams of moonlight that filtered through the gaping holes in the ceiling. The ancient ruins of Chichen Itza surrounded her, towering like titanic sentinels of broken time, their weathered steps echoing with the ghostly memories of drums and chants.
Her dress was a vision of defiance amidst ruin: a pristine and intricate gown of alabaster weave, its hue dazzling against the swirling shadows of the darkened jungle. In this setting of Mayan antiquity, her garment bore no seams, held together with impossibly fine stitching befitting an age when magic and craft were indistinguishable. The dress, though modest in cut, hugged her figure like liquid silver, an ethereal blend of elegance and strength—each delicate fold of the woven fabric invoking the scales of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent-god. Its flared, ankle-length hem shimmered with subtle patterns that moved like ripples across a tranquil lake, catching the faint golden embers of the ceremonial braziers left smoking nearby. Around her neck gleamed a torque of jade and gold, a relic Gia had found—and stolen—mere days ago.
“Give it back,” hissed a voice from the shadows, a guttural growl that sliced through the silence. Her assailant emerged from the yawning maw of the temple’s inner sanctum: a man cloaked in obsidian armor, his chest bare but for the bright streaks of blood-painted symbols across his skin. He was the High Priest of Xibalba, or so his followers praised him, and in his hand gleamed a macuahuitl—a vicious wooden blade inset with shards of jagged obsidian.
“This?” Gia twirled the torque around her fingers, her gown glowing like frost against winter soil as she pivoted deftly. “You’ll have to come take it.” Her voice dripped with challenge, but her pulse hammered like a war drum beneath her cool façade.
The High Priest let out a bone-rattling roar and charged, his feet pounding against the stones with the force of a jaguar in flight. Time seemed to buckle as Gia ducked and rolled, the hem of her dress brushing the blood-soaked ground before she sprang back to her feet. She slashed with her dagger, only to be parried by the High Priest’s weapon, sparks flying as obsidian met obsidian. Her every movement was fluid, the dress moving with her like a second skin, its flawless folds never impeding her agility.
Behind them, the altar shimmered with a faint, unnatural light. The jade artifact, pulsing with an ominous teal glow, rested atop it—a relic born of the ancient gods, said to hold the power to rewrite the fabric of the waking world. Gia’s gaze flickered between her opponent and the relic. If she didn’t claim it, he would bring forth an apocalypse of unspeakable proportions.
The story had begun only days earlier, when she first infiltrated the cult posing as a masked initiate. Clad in a hooded garment of white linen, she had blended seamlessly among those whispering acolytes who lit torches and chanted beneath these same temple stones. Yet, she wasn’t here to worship or plead for salvation. No, Gia—an operative for the rarely-seen Raven Guild—had been dispatched to steal the jade relic before it fell into the wrong hands.
Only she hadn’t planned for him. Renan, the one the acolytes called “High Priest,” had sniffed her out the moment she stepped foot beneath the jungle canopy. He had even dared to spin her lies of devotion and divinity, a charade that dissolved as quickly as her blade had sunk into his second’s flesh not hours ago in the dead of night.
Now, back in the present, Gia was battling not merely for the artifact, but for survival. Renan’s strikes were heavy, his attacks relentless. Though he loomed over her, broad-shouldered and filled with the raw power of a man raised under sun gods, hers was the cunning of shadows and storms. Her dress caught the moonlight each time she pivoted, the glowing fabric an ironic symbol of purity in a temple steeped in death.
“You think you can use it?” Renan snarled, swinging his macuahuitl with such force the very stones beneath them cracked. “The gods will burn your soul to ash!”
Gia slid under his blade, launching herself upward and planting her heel against his chest. He stumbled back into a pillar, his weapon clattering to the ground for only a moment. Long enough. She dashed toward the altar, her dress billowing around her ankles as though propelled by an unseen wind.
The torque hissed as the artifact met her outstretched hands. The burning jade light coursed through her veins like wildfire, threatening to tear her apart from within. Gia gritted her teeth and screamed, channeling every ounce of her intent into the relic. The light around her blazed brighter, engulfing the entire altar chamber. She was no longer mortal. No longer Gia. She was light incarnate, a goddess made flesh, her white gown transforming into living flame beneath the weight of the ancient gods’ judgment.
And then, there was silence. The light faded, leaving her breathless and kneeling atop the altar steps. The High Priest lay unconscious, his armor charred and smoldering.
Gia stood, her dress now a shadow of its former white, singed and soot-streaked, yet still defiant. It clung to her like a memory, alive with power as she descended toward the jungle path ahead. The gods had given her one chance, their silence heavy in her ears. And she would use it.
“Perhaps,” she murmured to the torched ruins as she vanished into the treeline. “The gods aren’t done with me after all.”
The night consumed her figure, but the jungle whispered her name.
And the world would never be the same again.
Genre: Action/Adventure set in the Mayan Civilization with mythological undercurrents.
The Source…check out the great article that inspired this amazing short story: White Textured Dress Styled with Urban Grit and Modern Romance for Effortlessly Chic Cosplay-Inspired Looks
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