Sorrow's Promise

Chapter 9

DiZ didn't have much to say as we told him all about our little adventure in the woods and how I was, apparently, now a Keyblade wielder. Mostly he just nodded, hummed a little in thought or agreement, and occasionally threw in an, "Interesting."

Finally Riku had me summon the Keyblade to show him. I got it right on the first try this time, and was pretty proud of myself. DiZ just nodded and hummed again, never showing any emotion on the small part of his face that I could see.

"Well, congratulations, child." His comment sounded insincere, like most everything else he said. I got the feeling that he didn't care all that much about anything that wasn't directly related to him and whatever the heck he was doing in this gloomy basement of his. "Now," he began again, rising from his seat. "I assume you would like to know the name of this new blade of yours?"

"The name?" I repeated, confused.

"Yes, every good weapon has a name." We followed him out of the room and up the stairs into the library.

"My sword is called Soul Eater," Riku offered.

"Hmm. Cheery," I quipped.

Ignoring my comment, DiZ ran his index finger along the spines of the books until he came to a particular deep blue one. This book he pulled out and began to thumb through carefully, leaving us waiting in silence for several minutes. "Aha," he declared at last. "This is the one, I believe."

He held out the book, and I stepped in closer to look at the drawing on the page. "Yeah, that looks like it," I agreed.

"Sorrow's Promise," DiZ read from the top of the page. "That is its name."

I scrunched my nose up. "Just as cheery. Well, at least it's pretty." Turning to Riku, I motioned towards the door. "If we're done here, I'd like to go shower. Assuming there is one of those in this old place." My arms and face were still streaked with blood, and I felt like I was coated in dried-up sweat.

"No shower, sorry," Riku answered. "Just the tub in the bathroom that's right across the hall from our bedrooms."

Thanking him, I exited the room, but stopped just outside when I heard the murmur of voices start back up inside. I stepped back towards the door and gently pressed my ear up against it, wondering if they were talking about me.

"...dark Keyblade?" I heard Riku say. "That's what I don't understand."

"You yourself carry a weapon born of darkness," DiZ replied. "Why is it so astounding that she would, too?"

"Because she's Kairi's doppelganger!" Riku exclaimed.

"Ah, yes, and Kairi is a Princess of Heart," DiZ responded.

"Exactly," said Riku. "She has a heart of pure light. So if Meli is essentially the same person, why does her heart have darkness in it?"

"There are many ways for darkness to enter a heart," DiZ explained. "From what I've been told, the two girls' lives differed quite greatly past the age of eight. Meli may have, at one point, had a heart of pure light, but her life circumstances caused darkness to be born in it somewhere along the way."

Their voices began to fade as, I assumed, they went down the stairs to the basement. Frowning, I took a step back away from the door. This whole light versus dark thing had me quite confused. Was darkness bad? It certainly was if you took Star Wars as any kind of example. Also, the Heartless came from the same black smoke that my Keyblade did, so that probably meant that they were from the darkness, too. Another point for darkness being bad.

On the other hand, Riku used a dark weapon and dark corridors, so he had to have darkness in his heart, too, right? He didn't seem all that bad. He had even been really kind and caring to me on more than one occasion. There was Roxas' use of dark corridors to consider, too, and surely someone as nice as Roxas wasn't on the bad side. I heaved a sigh, realizing that I wasn't going to get any answers just standing here in the hall puzzling over it. I would just have to see if I could pry an explanation out of Riku at some point.