The Second Carpenter

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X_I_ Ἀπὸ_Mηχανῆς_Θεός

Banerein awaited them at the horizon line as they reached the tip of the Scimitar of the north. In the cabin they were sitting behind the porthole glass that exposed their spirits to the mysteries of the night that leaked in to be scattered and manipulated into higher fantasy by the lantern that shone golden light on their skins. There was a map on the table on which Kleo was leaning, explaining to Bluemoon and Scarlet their path — the path they had to take to reach the next stage of their adventure.

"Now, you see, girls," she said with a maternal smile, "it is my duty — one of my duties — to find those like you. I do it because someone should; even though I'm not the only one. You came to me thinking yourselves as tools of destruction — of evil, even — but the nature of your gift is hallowed in morality, and it is you who give it meaning. The place I'm sending you to will teach you to control and expand your abilities, you will also find lots of friends there!"

"Sending us?" Scarlet asked with surprise. "You won't come with us?"

"You haven't been expecting me to follow you to the end of the world, my dear; have you? Worry not; you will be alright. Think of all the new souls you're going to meet. But there's a bitter side of everything. Being exposed to so many people will put your hearts at risk. I always say that you can ignore physical pain, that you can just not care about it, that it's only an illusion; but spiritual pain is caring. You just can't help it. If you didn't care, it wouldn't happen in the first place. But that's the way of life, you know? You will never find happiness without risking the fall into sorrow."

With the idea of meeting new souls, returned to Bluemoon the thought of the old souls, had they ever left her. "I'm running away from myself, aren't I?"

"What do you mean?" Scarlet squinted at her.

"The harm I've caused . . . I'm just leaving it behind. I thought I was leaving to prevent more harm; but what if I'm running away from what I'm responsible for? How do you cope with it, Scarlet? Or do you even have to? Tell me, how do you feel when you think of the past?"

"The past . . ." Scarlet winced through too many layers of sad expressions and bitter-sweet smiles in too little a time. ". . . Everything hurts . . ." then she took hold of herself relatively. "It's as if there was a tiny empire built by a family, brick by brick over years of love and struggle, and it gave me everything . . . everything anyone needed for a wonderful life, and I destroyed it with my own hands. It is still my nightmare. Every corner I glance at I find a relic of something valuable I have destroyed.

"I had been oppressed — I really had been — but who isn't? No one is surrounded by perfect people, for there are no perfect people. People always hurt each other. And since you spend the most time with your family, it's natural that they'd hurt you the most. But they also aid you the most. No one would do for you the things your family would. They are the only ones in whose loyalty you can trust. The only ones who'd sacrifice something for you. Yet I was so good at hating that . . . Revenge is so stupid; it takes everything away from you. I shouldn't have been alone; but I am.

"You know, I used to have a coin, one of the last of the coins forged in the previous emperor's time. It was given to me by my . . . By a family member. For a long time, I dwelt on the thought of whether or not to let it go. I wanted to let it go because it carried sorrow, and to keep it because it was still memory. I let go of it eventually. It was a loss; but it had its own value in happening. Because it gave me a lesson. I don't know if it was the loss, or the dwelling that preceded it; but it gave me a lesson. No one deserved me like family, and I had given everything to others and taken everything from them. But it was too late to know. My internal evil had gotten the better of me . . .