Fates Entwined (A TodoBaku ff) ✔

XLII

"Shoto... Shoto, wake up... Shoto!"

His eyes flew open, wincing for a moment at the harsh white light seeping in through the window, blinking to clear his vision. He was in his bed, alone, yet he knew what he would find the minute he turned over and sat up. 

"Shoto, dear." The voice called again, as gentle as a summer breeze, floating away into the silence.

With a deep sigh he sat up, slowly turning to make eye contact with his visitor. She looked the same as last time, the delicate rindou flower that rested in the Maiden's hair a darker shade than everything else around them. 

"Are you alright, Shoto?" He nodded, unsure of what he wanted to say to her. She had helped him discover so much of his past and his family, yet the uncertainty that came along with it had done nothing but put pressure and worry on those around him. She sighed at his silence, moving away from her familiar position near the window to perch at the side of the bed. From here, Shoto could see her youth: from her smooth skin to wide eyes yet to be burdened by war and suffering. 

"There are things we should discuss, Shoto." she began. "I have heard your words, your thoughts, for when they part from you they flow through me. You hold uncertainty in your heart and fear in your hands. You must let these things go, if you are to help this world."

"If you know of my feelings, my past, then why have you not helped me before?" he asked, voice stern and tone bitter. "You only appear now to cause more confusion, and when I have once again hurt others." He was tired of this state, wanting to return to how he was weeks ago when he began to find both his place and his stride in the Tribe lands, only to have it pulled from underneath him. 

"I apologise, dear one. But I am only with you in spirit, and one cannot disrupt the order of the natural world. Yet," the woman paused before continuing, "I have felt your pain, as I have seen it for many many years when my feet too walked the earth before uniting with the Goddess above."

"Am I talking to you, or to her?" 

"Both, for we are one and the same. As are you."

"You say we are the same but I do not think so. I am not like you."

"I believe the contrary, Shoto. You wonder why you have been chosen, yes? Why we have waited for you-"

"If you know my thoughts then you need not repeat them." He interrupted, tired of this game of chase. He only wanted answers, what more would he have to give to get them?

"You have great power, Shoto. Not only in your gift, your wonderful and unique gift, but in your heart and your words. Your spirit inspires, it leads, it gives hope to all yet you cannot see it in yourself. The parts of yourself that you hide, you must let them free and embrace your true gifts. To maintain harmony within the world you must make peace with yourself," she paused, carefully resting her hand over his left palm, skin almost translucent, "there is nothing to fear."

"That part of me has caused nothing but suffering."

"In the wrong hands."

"Like Touya's?"

"Your brother's fate was decided long before he was born, it was written in nature. Yet now he rests, at one with our ancestors and the Goddess above. The king is the true cause of that suffering but you are innocent, Shoto."

"I am far from it." He pulled his hand away, the cool and light grip washing away like a flowing stream of water. 

She sighed, a soft and delicate thing; as she did, the room around them started to blur, darkness seeping in through the open window lattice and below the doorframe. "I believe you are being called back, so we do not have much longer to talk. You have already come so far, dear one, you should not turn away from that. There is more to learn, and that can only happen if you free yourself from your chains. That power within you which you so desperately hide, liberate it and the world alongside. Rest now, Shoto. We shall speak again soon..."