Heart of a Diamond: A Rakta Diamond Story

After the End

Rakta had seen his death long ago. He'd savored the idea for a little over eleven years, and he was not disappointed.

He had always known it would end with Tamsus, because that was how it had begun.

The pain was less than he had imagined. Or maybe he had just lived in pain for so long he couldn't distinguish between the new wounds and the old.

He held on long enough to see the two events his heart had hungered after for what felt like forever. Hatter had challenged an Ace and he had won. He had challenged the Heart's Ace no less, and he'd won. Rakta felt a dull sense of gratification that he had been right about the Real Worlder.

Mavros had brought her own ruin right into the castle.

Then, she had died. Died at the hands of the Spade King and Rakta had been unable to begrudge the boy his pound of flesh. His life had been just as hellish as Rakta's, perhaps more so with the knowledge that he might have done something earlier to end her reign.

The girl had cried over him. Tears had splashed onto his skin, warm and salty and he had been astonished and grateful. Perhaps the tear marks would bear as his proof in the life after this, that he had regained a scrap of his honor. Perhaps they would allow him brief passage into the peace Avinos had resided in for these past years.

A peace he knew was not truly his to share.

Slipping away had been easier than he had ever thought it to be. When he was a boy, he had always imagined that he would hang on tenaciously. That death would have to fight and claw to claim him as her own.

He hadn't expected to run toward her with open arms.

There had been blackness, then... a golden field.

Rakta looked around, taking in the pale silvery sky, the soft, sweet breeze. Somewhere to his left, hidden by trees with emeralds for leaves he could hear the merry splash of a small stream. The scent of apples and cherry blossoms hung heavy in the air.

He inhaled deeply and was surprised by the way his chest expanded when it wasn't crippled by mourning and guilt. Rakta felt like he could jump straight up through the silver sky, like he could run for miles and never tire.

He felt gloriously light. There was nothing tying him down, nothing that weighted his shoulders or bowed his neck.

A soft swishing, different from the ripple of the grasses in the wind sounded behind him, but Rakta didn't turn.

He already knew who it was.

Avinos rested her head on his shoulder and he sighed, still looking around at this world of precious stones and valuable metal. For a moment that might have been seconds or years, he let the comfortable silence stretch between them, like nothing bad had ever happened.

But then, his question burned too fiercely. "How are you here?"

Avinos laughed and Rakta closed his eyes at the sound. It put the sound of the stream to shame. She turned to look at him more fully, taking his face in her hands. Her soft green dress rippled around her legs in the soft breeze, her feet bare on the ground. Rakta smiled at the simple cut and the color; one he had long ago come to associate with all the good in his life. She smiled and said, "The same way you are."

He smiled back softly, his eyes blurring slightly, though it was difficult to retain any sort of feeling beyond that glorious lightness. Chuckling slightly, he rested his hand against hers where it was still pressed into his cheek. "How long can you stay?"

Now Avinos frowned, before a quick understanding lit her beautiful sunset eyes. Her thumb rubbed along his cheekbone, wiping at the place Alice's tears had fallen and whispered, "This isn't the after, my Ace."