The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix

  ~Excerpted from CythereaNoah’ha’s Book: Daughters of the Dragon Saints, Chapter 7, ‘Dragon Queens’: “Hanna’s grandfather was a traveling merchant. He had taken a wife from the people of the western lands. They were dark-skinned, seafaring traders. Stories had been told of their wanderings far beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Such a woman pleased her grandfather because of his own love for travel and the sea. Their children grew up feeling the heaving deck beneath their feet more often than solid ground. Hanna’s golden-brown skin was a gift from her grandmother through her mother. Her long, thick, brunette locks, sparkling cyan eyes, long sensuous eyelashes and rich full brows came from her father. It was said that some of his ancestors were the infamous warriors who roamed the land before her people possessed it. The women of that race were, as legend had it, among the most beautiful creatures to ever walk the planet and also most to be feared, they taking up the axe and javelin in battle beside their men.

  “… Hanna, though, chose not to remarry after the death of her husband. She had long before befriended Symeon and hoped that one day, after her youngest was grown and married, she would be able to convince her friend to make room in his life for her company. Circumstances never did allow this, but when Symeon’s feet journeyed to Ephesus, they would find their way to Hanna’s door. Symeon was an aged man and Hanna not much younger when Ishtar died in the arena. Neither ever returned to Ephesus, nor did their paths cross again in that Realm.

  Hanna went into the wilds of the North Country to reside with her late husband’s relatives, living well into her nineties. Symeon journeyed on to fulfill his destiny, eventually suffering a martyr’s death as was prophesied of him long before.”)