November 15th

Even though I knew the voice, my eyes opened only to darkness before me. The expanse above my face was nothing but a chasm of nothingness and blank empty thoughts. My body was feeling the absence of strength as well, as if the muscle had deteriorated. No movements seemed easily possible.

I saw a slow but eager shadowy figure slowly come into my vision. Too drained to be able to react properly.

The shadow continued to speak in a calm, yet somber tone. Like always. But this time it seemed to have a different sort of delivery.

“Let me say that I applaud your victory but I am not a man with no common morals, my boy. I applaud your vigor but I know that it must have been hard to hurt your friends and sadden that young maiden of yours.” I felt his silver tongue back in action. Mocking me. Angering me. Willing me.

He stopped and took a calm breath in. The sound slithered along my ear canal and laid itself bare to dig deeper. A quite unpleasant feeling.

“You are willing to sacrifice control for the good of the many. That is admirable. Very much so and even though you won’t believe anything that I say, I will say one more thing before it is your turn. I am truly proud to have you as the vessel for my soul. You have truly great strength and pure determination. It makes me feel at ease and honestly, makes me want to mess with you a little bit more. In the joking sense of course. I am not trying to be that cruel. Even though you may think me as.”

I heard a deep sigh and clicking of boots hitting wood in this absent space for a few seconds. Then silence that was quickly disrupted with no discernible location of the voice.

“That is all, Denny.” I felt the full presence of him sink slowly away.

Left me to silence. To think. To ponder.

What kind of violence may I have truly caused? I saw all of the awful things done to the many innocent souls in the village. I took vengeance for those that will never be able to do that now.

I started to think deeply about what I wanted, what I got from that fight, and why I had chosen such a path.

“Was my choice truly bad?”

As if I was not in such a strange situation already… I heard a reply.

Yes.

And the voice sounds oddly familiar.

“Why do you answer ‘yes’?”

You killed many to only save one.

It was my own.

“I used the power to take vengeance for the ones who cannot anymore.”

You did not, Denny. You chose to take the quicker and easier way out just to save one soul of Shia. All that you truly had to do was survive long enough so that the others would have time to come back.

“The group would not have come if I had not used The Dark Veil’s power to cause the skirmish outside the shop.”

No. That is what you believe to be the only way. The others were alerted by the explosion, not your rampage. If you had simply taken Shia and ran, it would have been enough to get help.

“But…”

YOU were the one that could have stalled. YOU could have hurt more than just the Tealwoes. YOU could have been patient but ended up almost hurting the one that you love. Do YOU truly believe that what YOU did was the right thing to do, Denny?

“I… I… I want to believe that I do. I am not strong enough to fight on my own. Much rather survive if that explosion had gone haywire. MY strength after The Darkness took over caused the explosion in the first place. Also, running is a tricky way to go about that type of situation. What about the distance, the weaponry of the enemy that was unknown, the murderous intent in the air, the broken ground underneath what once was the village, etcetera? Those are all factors that are accountable for why that might not have worked! My speed can only carry me so far, just as my regeneration can only let me go so far.”

The silence returned. The ebb and flow of calm had returned.

A small voice was heard, muttering three words.

Do YOU truly?

………………

“This mess will take forever to clean up. Kyo, I want you to go and round up any survivors with Elsa. Me and Shia will watch over the young fellow to make sure nothing bad happens to him. Or in turn us from him. We will search the shop and the surrounding houses to search for any people or anything useful as well as assembling Denny’s armor once we are finished.”

“Rodger!” Both Elsa and I agreed in unison and started to head across the once lush field now scorched with ash and debris.

Houses were caved in and now toppling over into the next as if a tree ripped from its roots from the powerful storm that had swept the area beyond. All shrubbery had disappeared, almost as if they were never planted in the first place.

The silence was almost unbearable. Sickening to say the least.

“This… This is too cruel. So many families. All ones that I grew up around when I came to visit. So many people, nay innocents, were slaughtered for less than a comparable reason. We may not know the reasoning yet but whatever it is, whoever gave it… They will pay. I swear by it.”

Elsa’s eyes were sullen but a harsh aura lurked behind them as she spoke those words. Her face was plastered of one of nothing. Blank. Unnervingly understandable. She couldn’t take all of the sadness, hate, and confusion that ran through her mind. So, she chose to show nothing.

Nothing that I could not read though.

I understand her too well. So, I better not dwell on that for now.

The surrounding area was filled with cracking and swooshing, sobs and screams, nervous laughter and nervous hatred.

The sounds started to seamlessly overlap each other in weird ways. Suspicious and oddly reminiscent ways.

But one particular sound started to overpower the rest.

Crackle.

Crackle.

The dirt underneath my feet started to change shape from the shifting of my stance. My hand grazed past my sword and closer to my dagger.

I was at the ready.

My dagger was pulled and outstretched slightly in front of me as a slow but steady shadow-like figure started to come from around the nearby building.

My feet slid to the side but was ready.

Before I was able to react, I heard a familiar thud underneath my feet.

“Don… Don’t move. Or… We will continue to fire.”

Elsa and I both gave each other a quick glance. And Elsa offered a simple rebuttal.

“If you cannot tell from my voice, then I will introduce myself. I am Elsa Tifla, the leader of this once beautiful village, and this is Kyo Koura Azuraine, my second in command. We are out here looking for any refugees that may still be alive in the village. If you are in fact a friendly, I advise that you lay back your weapons and come out of hiding. But if you are aiming roughly around where my head is and intend to fire, you will be dispatched faster than the drawstring will be able to be plucked. Do you understand these terms?” Elsa spoke in her rough, forceful tone. I have never seen her more likeness to myself than in that moment. Robe covering most of her body, stance stiff but merciful, strong and enticing.

Three youths slowly stepped out from behind the scorched and distorted building. All three of them were of Alfertain race, roughly in their late teens, strong warrior types. One archer, a warrior, and one akin to a rogue.

They started to whisper to each other in hushed tones. They truly looked like a unit but also unified in their uncertainties. They were sure, yet unsure in their auras. I was truly intrigued.

They stepped out fully from their cover with their weapons raised above their heads. The disorder and fear that I felt from their group had disappeared.

“We are three warriors from the guard in the neighboring village of Tyuka. My name is Jolai. The gorgeous, white haired girl standing to my right with the broadsword is Leka. The strong boy by my left with the dagger and hood is Yanta. We came to the aid of your allied village once we saw the smoke rise above the tree tops. We had assumed that it was a possible forest fire but came to realize it was quite horrific indeed. We came in the night under our own volition without orders. We did save at least four families ranging from five to six each from ages three to eighty.”

“I appreciate that more than words can even say. It truly means everything for another village to be so willing to help another in a time of true uncertainty and need. But I do have a few questions first, if I may?”

“Proceed, Miss Tifla.”

“Won’t your commander be a little angry to have such young bodies missing from the count? Also, why were you hiding from behind the house, strategy or fear?”

“We are three out of our villages top five soldiers, even though we don’t see it most times. Our commander lets us roam where we must if it means that the village can remain safe. And regarding your other question, being honest, a little of both. We were escorting the last refugees we saved safely to one of the standing houses and then out of nowhere, an explosion. We took immediate action and ducked away behind any cover possible. Then we saw something fly from the building from which the explosion came from. Fire everywhere and within seconds, blood and bodies along with it. We did not know what to do and were a tad fearful. Nothing had such an explosive force like that. So we kept quiet and calm the best that we could. As you have heard from my voice, that did not go over well.”

“You guys are brave enough to come to the aid of our village. To help with the Tealwoes as well. We are in your debt and gratitude.”

The young girl, maybe around fifteen years’ old spoke up and gave her sentiments.

“We thank you for your humble sentiments but we cannot accept that debt. We chose to come here under what is right and just. Even if it was small, we were happy that we could help. And want to share a sincere sadness and offer our humble sorrows for the families of the ones lost today.”

The young boy with the hood walked up to Elsa with a solemn smile and handed her a letter. He then proceeded to take a step back to his original position without a sound.

Elsa read from the letter in a tone that I would say it was meant to be written in.

“Miss Tifla,

I am sorry that I have to write to you what I have to say, as for I am unable to speak. The offer that the other two have mentioned is that we want to take you, the others of your party, and the refugees to our home village for safekeeping and to speak with our village leader. It would be of sincerest hopes that you agree because we only want the best for all of you.

I thank you,

Yanta.”

I look over to the hooded man. He gave me a nod while keeping his solemn smile in the same shape as before.

“I thank you all. I will have to reference with the rest of my party. If you would like to gather the rest of the people, we can go talk to our group about the state of one of our members. He was the one that caused the explosion that caught all of us off-guard.”

“That sounds perfect, my lady. We shall wrangle up any of the remaining civilians. Just don’t make us wait too long, okay?” Jolai gave a nice smile as the group started their path to the other houses.

Elsa and I started to make our way down the path as well towards our group. I wanted to give my two cents on the situation and thankfully my mouth also did.

“I feel almost at ease around them. Almost. They have a rather useful vigor about them but still something may have been… off. The only problem I could see is that it is hard to have people help in this world out of the true goodness in their heart alone. I will ask you this, Elsa. Is their village truly trustworthy?”

Her brow furrowed a bit but it subsided rather quickly as her voice went from serious beforehand to neutral again. It did have a rather sharpness to it though. It impressed but slightly scared me.

“I am not truly sure. They have helped us at random times with random food and water shortages, asking nothing in return. So, I want to say yes. I believe that with the strength that we have with us and the healing abilities that Shia can provide… We should consider going. The village is a day walk from here and we can have a nice, friendly, little chat with our new friends: Jolai, Leka, and Yanta.”