Ashes of Vile

31

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Merciless Inamorata 

A drunken fate submurge in a typical winded concussion; far darker and greater than the world can uphold. If the whirls of unison embarked the fatal balance of the universe, it would crumble and fall. There are much bigger destined things that are simpler to fortake. Its biggest one being a promise. A promise is a tight golden string that bonds two individuals in destiny and dedication. But the rarest and most difficult promise is a promise to oneself, only having you and yourself to resist any urges to betray one's self. Cassidy Idgen promised herself that she'd trust herself more, and she had also promised to make use of the source. One of these ways being her recently discovered possibility: strengthening the biggest strength, August Vile.

The source had perfectly wrapped around the assassin's daggers and was stinger than its usage normally would. August and Cassidy were still cornered from making a decision. They had hidden in one of the abandoned spaces of Ashgrim which used to be a laundry room during the old days. However it had lost its clean slate and was merely a barged unoccupied area not decent enough for human living. They sat across from each other, zero words between them. On one end of the room, Cassidy laid her back tiredly on the wall and rested her hands on her knees, looking down at the floor, trying to keep her mind from being all empty. She couldn't think. For the first time in her life, she couldn't think of anything. And instead of panicking, she quietly watched August on the other far end of the room who tightly held on her dagger and aggressively cut the bottom part of her shirt. It was a thin and long cut of fabric which she wrapped with no remorse for her own pain around her wounded shoulder. The cut had exposed a part of her stomach and Cassidy had just then only realized August was physically fit which most likely was a result of her tendency to be active in battle or stance.

August looked up after caring to her injury and caught Cassidy's eyes swiftly turn away to the wall, seemingly more interested of it. "Control is divine." August spoke out into the silence. Cassidy looked back at her with a questioning gaze which was returned by August's nonchalant usual look. "Don't rely on the source to do the work for you or else that day will happen again. It will burst out of you and instead of manipulating power, you'll be swallowed within its chaos."

I didn't ask for this, Cassidy said. It was all she could blurt out. August sharply sharpened the blade she gripped and looked up at her, her hair falling into places like dominos. "You're weak."

It wasn't the response she expected. Cassidy picked up on the tone and copied it, "What?" She asked with a defying tone. "I said you are weak." August said much clearer and louder. "Not wanting to be a part of a ridiculous thirst for power isn't the same as being weak." Cassidy defended. August Vile tightened the stripped cloth wrapped tightly on her bleeding shoulder and dropped the dagger on the ground and leaned back comfortably on the wall. "You think you're strong?"

"I don't necessarily think I'm strong. But─" She unsurely said.

"But you don't think you're weak with or without the source?"

Cassidy fell silent. August leered. "You've got such a mean streak." Cassidy crossed her arms and let her eyes trail on August's shoulder which blood bled through her makeshift bandage. Cassidy, unable to stay within one spot for a few minutes without chattering her mouth away, pushed to further their conversation. "Why do you do what you do?"

Silence. If the silence wasn't painful enough, she had noticed a shift of behavior in August which looked as though her sour attitude dug deeper in her pitless heart. August picked up the dagger and stood up. She tucked in the dagger and peeked out the window. "Where are we going?" Cassidy asked as she stood up as well.