The Fall of Eden

Chapter 17

Silence. Areli had waited long after nightfall before deciding to bathe himself. The bustle of men and women preparing for the fight to come had finally settled. The wind howling through the halls had faded to a subtle whisper. Areli wouldn't even open his mouth too wide for a breath; afraid to disturb the silence that he was finally permitted. He nodded at the bath servant to leave - who did so quietly. Then, he disrobed, folded his tattered garments and placed them on a table beside the tub. A tall mirror stood before him. His scars and tattered skin reflected back at him through the warped glass. Some scars had origins he couldn't even remember. He looked away before staring too long and stepped into the tub. At last, as his body sunk into the tub of water, he found true silence.

He let his head sink below the surface until he couldn't breathe and held it there. The quiet solitude comforted him as he drifted away from reality. He so badly wanted to feel nothing. He wanted to just fall asleep and drown into the night. His failures had been screaming in his ears every hour of the day since they arrived.

"You are something else, Areli." He heard the old man tell him in a distant memory. "You were created to protect these people. Your life will be different from the others. You will live and breathe to serve the innocent. You will survive on nothing but your bare hands, as they are the only tools I will allow you to have. When you are ready, you will bleed. You will bleed, and sweat, and fight to protect those you serve." Areli began to lose his breath, but he stayed. "And only then will you lead."

Areli burst from the water in a desperate gasp for air. A cry of hate and regret erupted from his lungs. His roar rocketed through the halls.

"You said I could protect them. I can't even protect..." Areli looked at his hands as if there was blood on them. "...children." He pulled at his hair, "How can you say I'm different?!" The salt of a tear reached his lips.

Then someone opened the door and peered in, likely the servant.

"Leave me!" Areli shouted at the servant. But when the door didn't close, he looked up.

"I... heard a scream." Bray said nervously.

"No. I..." Areli realized he had acted foolish. The entire hall likely heard him shout. "Forgive me, I... I hit my head." What a dumb lie. He knew she wouldn't believe it, nor would she let him get away with it - part of him hoped she wouldn't. Her long stare said it all. Bray was smarter than that. She had been through enough despair to recognize it on another.

"Me too." She smiled a little, allowing herself to step further into the room. "Or at least I feel like I have." She rested her back against the table across from him. She pulled a flower from a vase which sat alone on the table. The rest of the flowers were almost or entirely wilted. This one however had only a single dying pedal. All else considered, it was still radiant with life. Looking down at the flower in her hands, her face grew more solemn. "Nothing makes sense anymore. Just when I had finally found a place to call home, I somehow ruin it." She rubbed her thumb over a thorn on the flower. "I'm used to that part though. It's a habit of mine." She looked up at him and gave a unconvincing smirk. "But now - I'm off to fight a war against a bunch of... demons and wild-ones..." She paused while she scanned his face, "Alongside a stranger and his orphaned kids." She scrunched her lips together as she struggled to fight back tears. "There will be blood tomorrow." The flower began to quiver in her hands. "I've been around blood all my life, but never have I run toward it."

"I don't think you're alone there." Areli said, hoping to break her tension.

"Do you ever feel like the world is constantly changing around you, without warning. All your life you sit and watch, merely a spectator. Then out of nowhere it asks you to be part of the change. Like everything led you to this place and it's your turn to show your worth?"