Broken Providence

EXTRA: Claire and Belm's Conviction

Claire

I should've known.

I should've known.

Arielle was always doing things I never understood. She healed quickly, she was always so advanced and able and she was allergic to oats.

I should've known when Aleodei came that that was her voice. that was her body, that was her.

I should've known when we were in the garden and when she knew my birthday.

but how could I have known? I saw her being crushed with rocks. I felt her final breath. I said goodbye to her for the last time.

How could I have not known? she was my love and I couldn't recognize her touch when Aleodei reached for me. How was Belm able to understand or comprehend so easily? how was she able to turn against the only thing we've ever known as our home? what did she know that I didn't? What has she seen that I haven't? Aleodei was so different than Arielle. She was colder, more serious, angrier, sadder, lonelier... a miserable being focused on one thing. It wasn't the Arielle that I knew. That's why I couldn't realize it, realize that Aleodei was Arielle. It wasn't the horns or the pointy ears- maybe it was a little- but I couldn't recognize her because those beautiful bright grey eyes became unrecognizable as they dullened and looked tired when she removed her mask after a year of being at Trinity. Those weren't the eyes of my Arielle, but I knew that already, I already knew Aleodei.

---Belm---

Despite the caution I held and the weary way I looked at Aleodei, I admired her work and ethic. She knew what war was and while I was bitter, and so horribly embarrassed when we sparred, she proved that she was no joke. When she showed us she was Arielle, I didn't see it. Arielle was always so smiley, so light, so bright I hated it. how could she during a war? she was so optimistic and she made Claire hopeful when she shouldn't have. I caught myself feeling grateful Arielle had become Aleodei because she grew up, she experienced pain like I did and it forced her to muster the strength to destroy the Infernals and even Lady Monarch who was probably the most powerful in the land. I had heard of Drigenife's from General Bultorni but it seemed she was different. She was so much more powerful than what he described, but she was also just and peaceful. I decided to help her because I knew that I could no longer suppress my anger towards Trinity, for what they were doing to the children they found. They send them to a far-off facility meant to "keep them safe" but in reality, they beat them and forced inhumane conditions on them to see if they had the power of cores, and disregarded the rest as losses of war. Aleodei would fix this broken providence, she would cleanse the evil and sow good. I believed in Aleodei more than I ever have in Arielle.