“Softer times indeed. But I'm a monster of monsters. A deceiver of deceivers. There is no rest for the wicked. None for the innocent either. Even as a woman of shadows there is a special kind of darkness that even I fear. And it lurks in every corner.”

(«^») Iris Exurrana

8E/438Y/12M/33D 9:48 AM

I ended up sleeping in much later than usual. But it was a good sleep. To be entirely honest I felt exhausted. I'd felt exhausted ever since we got on that fucking beach. I awoke fresh, and anew. The last month had been grating. For both of us. Aurora especially… even if I felt like it was Hell it was probably magnitudes worse for her…

And it was all my fault…

I opened my eyes to find Aurora's face nestled into my chest. My face flared red, but I kept myself calm.

That was definitely not how we fell asleep the night before.

I couldn't move without waking her up, so I decided it'd be best to wake her up right then and there. I took my free hand and shook shoulder a little, “Aurora, wake up. We've slept in long enough.”

Aurora's eyes fluttered a little as she yawned. She then sat up calmly, avoiding my stare while blushing madly. “Go-good morning…”

“Morning…” We distanced ourselves a little, “Did you sleep well?”

Aurora nodded, “I feel better now… at least a little bit…”

“That's good to hear. We're gonna be spending a few days here preparing.”

“What exactly do we need to prepare..?” She finally started meeting my eyes.

“I need to change a few of my gifts around, and mess with the enchantments on my sword. But I that'll take awhile. I also need to gather information on what the trial for the Flora Temple is so we're not going in blind. As an Ace it shouldn't be a problem, but at the same time I'm doubtful since I'm not used to the customs of Yn Dyr.”

“Iris, about that…”

“About what?”

“About you… and The Von… I grew up being told stories of them being mon-" She cut herself off mid sentence, “I mean murderers, and thieves… people blinded by greed…”

“Aurora… most if not everyone is driven by selfishness. Even I am… that's not to say we can't do selfless things. The Von is massive, and they're obviously driven by both. Yes, they are murderers and thieves. I've swindled, stolen, assassinated, trespassed, followed, investigated, and sold both secrets and stolen goods.” Aurora's look hardened, “But, we in The Von vow to never hurt the innocent and one another. We do what we do because we believe we're making the world a better place.”

“Isn't there a better way..? Just killing all of your problems… I believe everyone can be redeemed if you put in the effort…”

“Maybe that's true. Maybe it isn't. But there are particular types of people I hate and I don't care if they can be redeemed. I'd rather make them suffer and die for the ruin they bring others and the world,” I clenched my teeth and whispered, “Like the ruin they brought you…” I looked away as I said the words. It was something I felt I could never look her in the eye and talk about. It was most certainly true then.

Aurora looked away and grabbed her arm tightly, turning her knuckles white. She swallowed hard and spoke with difficulty, “What… what happened on the beach isn't your fault… it's mine for being unable to defend myself…”

That. That. That made me angry. More than angry, it made me go berserk. I stood up and slapped her as hard as I could, “The fuck are you talking about?! Your aura is about the same as mine!!! Of course you can defend yourself!!! You saw how easy I offed those two, you can do the same fucking thing!!! It's not that you can't defend yourself, it's that you won't defend yourself!!! You refuse to pick up that fucking knife of yours and use it!!! And it's because you think violence isn't an option, when sometimes it's the only option!!! Paradox is a dangerous fucking place and I can't be there to protect you every second of every day!!! I love you, I really do, but you're an idiot!!!” I stormed off after that. She was in shock the entire time but I didn't wanna know if I would make her cry once that faded.

(«^») 8E/438Y/12M/34D 6:48 AM

I would spend the the entirety of the next two days meditating on my gifts, and the enchantments on my sword. It would take around eight hours, and I was changing everything I had.

As for Aurora she ended up changing something but we'd been avoiding each other since the morning I hit her.

I don't know if she cried or not. I was scared she did, and I didn't want to make her cry. But I was just so angry with her that I couldn't help lashing out like that. Her total aura was the same as mine. She could defend herself. I knew she could. But instead she just looked away while I made sure nothing touched her, ignoring the bloodshed. And it made me angry. I hated pacifism. I hated it with a passion. I understand not wanting to hurt others but refusing to even defend yourself is too far.

Angrily, I meditated. I reflected on my gifts, what they were, and rebuilt them. I also changed their chants. My first gift I didn't change too much. I just mortified to act less like magic and more like a traditional weapon. I also added more effects to it. Effects that I could manipulate for the duration of the spell. I didn't know how I could fully utilize them, but they would be handy nevertheless. Maybe a stroke of brilliance would hit me and I'd come up with some new use for it that would completely change the tide of a battle.

Which is exactly what I was hoping for.

The morning after I was done I woke up the way I went to sleep. Facing the wall, a few feet from Aurora. I sat up and stared at her for a moment, gritting my teeth. I did and didn't regret my actions at the same time. I tossed my blankets to the side, and started getting ready for the day.

(«^») Aurora Faelina

8:22 AM

When I awoke, I found myself still facing the wall. Partly out of frustration, both at myself and Iris, and partly shame and my inability to face her. We hadn't spoken at all since that morning. Whenever I would enter whatever room she was in she would pick up whatever she was doing and take it into a separate room. She avoided me like The Deadlands of Vyra.

Although I doubt she's actually sane enough to avoid The Deadlands. She'd probably just shrug and march right on in and come back three days later fine and dandy.

And…

As much as I hate to admit it…

That's one thing I found so attractive about her. She exuded defiance. Fate was the dealer. The game was rigged, but she outplayed the house time after time, through sheer force of will.

Even if she was a thief, and an assassin. Someone who stole secrets for money, and ruined people's lives with them. She always had reasons beyond just vials. In fact sometimes I think she enjoyed the job more than the reward. The act of pulling strings in society behind the curtains. An act that most would be appalled at but are safer for. Even if she did the work of a villain, and acted like one too, she had the heart of a hero. And I loved that about her.

I did cry after she left the room that morning. But not because she hurt me. But because she was right.

I was trained to fight. My magic wasn't offensive at all, but they still had their uses in a fight. But I was scared. I was scared of losing, and making the end result worse.

It's not that I didn't want to hurt people, I just didn't the backlash of fighting back.

I was more willing to just give in and hope for the best.

But Iris was right… Paradox is dangerous, and giving in would've spelt death several times over if it wasn't for Iris.

And Iris… from the moment I was thrown into that basement she was willing to risk her life for me. She quite literally took a bullet for me. Even though I was a complete stranger to her at the time she wasn't willing to let me die in that basement.

The past month and a half had been Hell. After what happened on the beach I felt like I had lost all my worth as a human. I felt like that was robbed from me. The thought that Iris should just abandon me was constant.

It's not just that I had lost my purity in a sense. But the fact that I had given in sunk in. The fact that the only thing that could ever keep me safe was Iris. The fact that I treated her like dirt. The fact that I called her a monster. And the fact that, despite all of this, she didn't just toss me into the ocean and left me to die.

She didn't care about any of that. In fact she felt guilty over not being able to stop what happened on the beach before they could do any real harm. She literally told me that was just a tool. A tool that failed her and should be cast aside because it was faulty.

The one person I loved most, the one that thought of themselves as a tool to protect the world and nothing more. The same person that defended me time after time, and was willing to die for her cause because she valued it over her life.

That person was breaking, and it was all my fault.

That's why I cried.

So I decided it was time for me to stop acting like a damn child. To face the world and do what needed to be done.

I spent some time meditating on my gifts. Changing them slightly to make them more powerful. I spent more than enough time to change my gifts, though. I needed to mentally prepare myself for what was to come. I needed to be there for Iris, just as she was there for me. And I needed to fully understand and accept what the consequences for that were.

By the third day I was still dealing with the emotions from the fight, but I was as ready as I possibly could be at the time.

I woke up, I got ready, and I met Iris at the door. She gave me a hard stare which I returned.

“Move.”

“I'm going with you.”

Her frown deepened, “Why?”

“I can't sit around and do nothing. Not while I know you're trying to do everything. I'm done being protected. We are doing this. Not you. It's high time I've taken responsibility for myself.”

“I don't need you. You don't need to do this to yourself. I'm perfectly fine on my own.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

I inhaled, I counted to three, then exhaled. Then I hit her. “Liar!” Iris’ eyes widened, shocked. “I know you're lying. You can't do everything yourself. You desperately want to, but you know you can't.”

“Watch me try anyway.” She pushed me out of the way and opened the door. “Watch me do the fucking impossible,” She said as she rushed out of the door.

(«^») Iris Exurrana

I made my way down into the city. Aurora didn't need to become like me. She just needed to learn to fucking defend herself when she needed to. I could do all heavy lifting. I was an Ace after all. There wasn't a single thing I couldn't do on my own.