The wind was fast and every breath was longingly refreshing. The tips of his fingers and nose were cold as his freezing cheeks. He lay down and looked up to the sky, where dark blue clouds swirled beside the glowing moon. Some distance away, there was a sky full of stars twinkling against each other's light.
"You never see stars in the Ling City," Ralph muttered, waving his hand up at the sky as Eve came and takes a seat beside him. "Although I've never seen any other places as advanced as Ling ever since I left it."
"Do you miss it?" Eve asked.
"No," Ralph snarled quietly, making Eve look. "What's to love about that place anyway?"
"Had something happened there?" Eve asked quietly.
Ralph took a deep inhale, letting the scent of the sea fill his mind. "Ling was the one place I vowed to protect with my life," he began. "I've been defending it and fighting for it my whole life. But turns out I was wrong. The reward for years of giving is the death of my only friend."
"Do you... Hate it?" Eve whispered.
This left Ralph speechless. He knows he's supposed to. And he knows he does hate something. But he can't grasp what. Ling? He doesn't hate Ling. The Government? Perhaps.
"I don't know," was all he can say. He turned away from the sky, burying his face into himself.
Eve exhaled, exhausted, behind him. "The guards on the Bread, I've spent my whole life till now being tortured by them. Yet I don't hate them. Most people on the Bread did not come by their choice, slaves, and guards. They're victims, too. I don't want to kill them. I want to free them."
Ralph's brow furrowed harder. There are a million things he wanted to say, but when they reached his mouth, he only manage to bid Eve a 'Good night'. Then he turned away and said no more. Eve sighed, then got back up and disappeared into the cabin.
What have I been fighting for? What am I fighting for now? Is it just merely an answer- Or is it something else? He wanted to disappear. He doesn't know what to do. Pulling his coat over his face, he lay in the dark for a long while, questioning himself.
"If you stare at one bright star for a long time," Kanitha voiced beside him. "you'll notice a lot of little dim stars beside it."
Ralph removed the coat covering his eyes and tried it dubiously, it worked. He focused on a bright red star. After a few seconds, he found other stars with weaker light twinkling beside them. The uncanny thing was that when he shifted his gaze onto the small stars, they'd melt back into the night, becoming invisible again.
"Impressive, isn't it?" She says, stretching her arms towards the stars.
"Mhm," Ralph hummed in agreement. "What did you do to me in the prison today?"
Kanitha remains expressionless.
"The question you should be asking is what did you do to yourself," she looked down at him. "You've lost your mind. Your power is strong; but if you're using it on people weaker than you, what different are you from the Government?"
"Those people there deserve it," he bristled, sitting up. "Don't you hate them? Don't you want them dead? Why are you defending them?"
"I've never wanted anyone dead," Kanitha mumbles in a hushed tone. "You, of all people, should know this better than anyone else, Ralph Ling. Death is irreversible."
"I do," Ralph hissed. "So what? Do people not die away each day? Does it make a difference if I killed them or if they trip and break their own neck? There is no one, no life, that deserves to not die."
"Killing is the bottom line," she only emphasized. "Perhaps every life would come to an end, but every form of life is equal. And as an answer to your question, Ralph, it makes a difference. A very large one."
YOU ARE READING
Alasla: The New Age
Fantasy"What killed him isn't me. It's the world." Ralph had never asked for much. Not even his own identity. But when his best and only friend got murdered by the man he calls father, he was forced to set off on an expedition to unravel the truth of this...
