The Story of Aria and the Slayer

Chapter 11

“Yes. That was the beginning of my village. And I believe you can already make a pretty good assumption as to everything that happened after that. Everything up until now.”

Finally, Aria tilted her head to look at Miraan, ready to see the shock on the woman's face. Instead, the healer only seemed somewhat … sad. “He was your…” Miraan trailed off as though she didn't want to complete the thought.

“Savior, yes.”

The healer audibly swallowed and Aria winced, feeling her own throat begin to tighten once again. Then Miraan sighed. “I can't imagine how that would've felt. To see firsthand, the person who you believed in and admired taking away everything like it's nothing. Allowing—no, convincing people to begin a war and to take away life as though everything was just a mere game to him.”

Miraan had gotten it spot on. So Aria bobbed her head in stiff agreement. “My parents had to be the ones to get me out of my denial of what he had done. Though I had to get through the confusion and the pain and the betrayal on my own. I had to question if everything I ever knew and believed in was a lie.” She felt another tear spill from her eye, and another and another fell after it. “To be honest, it just felt like a bad dream. Like maybe I'd wake up and be alone again. I'd be in that dark place I was trapped in for so long. The place where I was abandoned. And I'm not talking about the streets of my old country. I'm talking about somewhere completely outside of the tower.”

Miraan hadn't said a word, so Aria continued, “When I'd finally gotten past the confusion, I was left with an anger that I couldn't hope to suppress. The ‘savior’ I once saw was gone, and in his place, was a monster.” She swept away a tear with her finger, staring at her lap as she did so. “As the years passed and I focused on my training back in the village, I began to forget about what had happened. I found a new perspective because it was just that much easier to focus on despising that monster if I'd never met him. If I'd only ever heard stories of a demon who began a war just for his own amusement and greed. For a while, I managed to convince myself that I hadn't really met him. Though it wasn't really a lie. I really hadn't met the true monster that was the Slayer.”

“But I guess I can no longer use that excuse,” Aria sighed, placing her head in her hands. “I've met him now. The one who took away everything I had. Twice.”

She flinched as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. Though she hadn't looked up as Miraan murmured, “Well, you're right that you can no longer see him how you wanted to, but you can look at things from a new perspective; yours. Not from the view of a child who'd been tricked by an act or a person who'd grown up hearing stories of a demon, but from your own view. Remember it all, and decide for yourself what you want to believe.”

Aria paused, taking in the healer's words. The woman might have been right. In fact, deep down she knew Miraan had given the best advice she could, and that it'd almost be foolish to reject the words. But Aria didn't care. She would be a fool if she had to. There was no other choice. 

She couldn't embrace the fact that she'd truly seen a new side of the Slayer. It'd be a betrayal to her parents if she saw their killer as anything but a monster. She needed to shun the idea of a son led down the wrong path because it gave way to sympathy. Something that would hinder her progress in avenging, or perhaps as Aria should've been calling it, getting revenge for her village, for her family, and for her. For the little girl that died on the first day of the war.

She removed her head from her hands, leaning back to rest it against the curved wall behind her. “My perspective, huh…” she trailed off. She looked to the horizon, at the sun that had only been a sliver of light in the distance. It had begun to slowly fade away, and for a moment, Aria saw a pair of youthful eyes, still so bright and full of hope, staring back at her. Then the light vanished from view. “Right now, I'm not sure what exactly I see. But I'll be sure to figure it out before I leave this world.”