Blade(Part 4): Midnight

Chapter 27: Elia

Even though her parents had told her to go to her room, Elia stopped at the top of the stairs to listen to the conversation that they and Maisa were having with the stranger she just met. She told Elia that her name was "Tsukomi", she was ten years old, and that she was from a country called "Torriban". Dameon rushed from inside the house and broke them up before Elia could learn more about her, though. She sensed a feeling of dread from her father when he came out of the house with Maisa. What did he think Tsukomi was? She could hear their conversation from upstairs, and was both confused and unnerved by what was being said. Tsukomi's entire country was at war, with two powerful lords proclaiming themselves to be its ruler, and neither one willing to accept the other's claim.

"I don't know how to help you, Tsukomi," Dameon sighed. "I don't fight anymore."

"I don't ask you to fight," Tsukomi promised. "I only ask for your wisdom. I ask for advice about how to bring my country together again."

"That's over for me!" Dameon shouted. "Now leave."

"Dameon," Shala scolded. "The girl's come all the way from Torriban. We have a spare bedroom, don't we? You are welcome to stay a few nights, Tsukomi."

"Thank you," said Tsukomi, bowing her head. Suddenly, Shala quickly turned her head to Elia, who quickly pulled herself behind the wall to hide from her mother's eyes. She had already seen her, though, and warped in front of her with her fists on her hips.

"We told you to go to your room," Shala reminded, with her eyebrows raised.

"Why is Dad being mean to Tsukomi?" asked Elia, to change the subject. Her mother wouldn't scold her any further. Instead, she bent down on her knees to meet her eye level.

"Listen," she said. "You're young. You see good in everyone you meet, but your father doesn't. Everything that happened to him in his early life took that trust away from him. As far as he's concerned, Tsukomi is a stranger that just showed up on our doorstep, and we've told you about strangers."

"She told me her name, she told me how old she was, and she told me where she's from," said Elia. "And she's nice. I haven't sensed anything wrong with her."

"I know," Shala sighed. "But remember, she's a Blade of Midnight, just like your father used to be. Her reason for fighting is anger, hatred, and revenge."

"I understand," Elia promised.

"Do you?" her mother wondered. "You know what your father is. That makes him a target to the Peacekeepers. You know who I am. It makes me a target for monsters and demons. Elia, that makes you a target to both." She then reached her hand to Elia's head and softly brushed her hair.

"You're our daughter, Elia," she sighed. "We just want you safe."

"I know," said Elia. She understood perfectly how any parent would want nothing more than for their child to be safe, and she understood who the Blades of Midnight were. They had experienced injustice and corruption at its absolute worst, and Elia hasn't. She knew how her father was robbed of his childhood when he was just five years old, and forced into slavery for the next ten years. During that time, he saw two Guardians executed by a Skaolan lord. Soon after, a Blade of Midnight came to him and offered to train him in order to exact justice for what was done to him. He wouldn't learn that justice and revenge were two different things until later, though. Not long after he met Shala.

"Should I still go to my room?" Elia wondered, in jest. She and her mother both chuckled.

"Only if you want to," Shala answered. "Actually, the sun is going down. Bed by eight o' clock."

"But it's already seven!" Elia whined.

"No 'buts'," Shala hissed, with her finger raised. She then leaned forward and kissed Elia's forehead before standing up and going back downstairs. It was already late, and it would only get later, and too dark to play outside. Elia went to bed, waking up the next morning to the sun shining in her face through the window of her bedroom. She could barely reach to the windowsill to look through it, but could easily make out the ground between the house and the forest. Elia saw Tsukomi sitting out there with her legs crossed. She wasn't moving, and her eyes were closed. She was likely deep in thought. Elia quickly dressed herself and went outside, seeing that Tsukomi was still there. The sun must have been hitting the young Blade right in her face. Her eyes were closed and her dark hood was down. She was letting the sun hit her.

"My dad doesn't trust you, does he?" asked Elia.

"No," Tsukomi answered, opening her eyes. "I'm a stranger to him, and you."

"I think I know enough," said Elia. "You want to save your own country, so you came to find the help of someone who knows how."

"Why won't he help me, Elia?" asked Tsukomi.

"He thinks you're only fighting for revenge," Elia answered. "Just like he did at first. Somehow, I don't think that's true." Tsukomi was silent for a moment, and Elia could sense a feeling of guilt from her. That wasn't the only thing she could sense from her, though. Feelings of sadness, loss, and anguish were present in the young Blade's mind. Elia reached to her hand and wrapped her fingers around hers. Tsukomi's sadness died down a bit, and looked over to Elia with a smile. Elia smiled back, knowing she brought her comfort.

"You're kind, Elia," Tsukomi sighed. "And as for your father, he isn't entirely wrong. I've lost people I cared about because of the war in Torriban. There has been much collateral damage as a result of the use of the dragons as combat mounts. People whose deaths were unnecessary have died by the thousands, including my parents."

"I'm sorry," Elia sighed.

"My brother and I meant to come to Chardan together to seek your father's wisdom," Tsukomi continued. "But before we left Torriban, we were attacked by Samurai that served one of them, and he was..." A tear fell from her eye as she stopped talking. Whatever she was going to say must have been too painful to repeat.

"They are cruel men," Tsukomi wept. "Both of them." Suddenly, Elia could sense her father's aura nearby. He was around the corner of the house, probably listening to Elia and Tsukomi's conversation. He heard everything that Tsukomi said. Elia then began to sense a feeling of guilt from Dameon. She knew exactly why. The words he said to Tsukomi were harsh, and he denied the pleading of someone who wanted to save their own country. Elia stayed sitting with Tsukomi for a while longer, and heard her father going back inside the house. She placed a small, wooden box under the window to stand herself up in order to listen to what he and her mother were saying.

"I shouldn't have turned her away," Dameon sighed. "She lost her entire family to the war in Torriban."

"So, you'll help her?" asked Shala.

"Yes," Dameon answered. "It'll make Elia happy. I can tell that she and Tsukomi are already friends."

"Well, that's good," said Shala.

"Yeah," Dameon agreed. "Yeah, I'll take them both into town later."

"Both of them?" asked Shala.

"What I'm going to say to Tsukomi is something Elia should also hear," said Dameon. "She has to understand why we fought twenty years ago."

"You don't plan on telling her that she has to fight herself, do you?" Shala hissed.

"Not yet," Dameon promised. "But eventually, she'll have to in order to defend herself for when we aren't around anymore, along with why to fight."