The stars illuminated the cliff clearing once more, with only Claire and Arisz in the middle of the brightly lit bonfire. As sparks from the flame began to crackle, Arisz poked his silver shiny index finger outward, letting the flames refract light upon his translucent skin. Claire, who was still in a sour and suspicious mood from Alfaic's actions from the previous night, suddenly appeared piqued in curiosity in what he was doing.
"Your face reads jealousy, little one," Arisz deeply voiced out. His voice was as gritty as grinding rocks and stone to make flame. "Watch as when flame meets my skin, it fears the stench of battle in my bones."
"You don't have any bones, do you?" Claire chuckled, wanting to forget her past memories from the previous night. "Now that I think of it, how exactly are Figments born? As perfect as you are, there has to be some kind of magic involved."
"That's a secret," Arisz replied, coating his hand in more flame from the bonfire. "Your curiosity should be put in better places, such as the art of deception. You dove in to protect our allies today, but when you're all alone, an emergency escape route or tactic is mandatory."
"Hmm, wise words of Master Arisz," Claire said, folding her hands together and looking directly into the fire. She took the conversation in a different direction, believing that Arisz would speak honestly about the situation at hand. "You said earlier that you decided to come with us because of Lyn and I. What was the real reason?"
"That was the real reason," Arisz responded immediately. "The second reason is because of Alfie's face. He would always have that same look of hope on his face when we journeyed together, causing chaos for friend and foe alike. Then..."
"Then?"
Arisz paused briefly. "He changed, and that look faded away. I called him a weakling for giving in so easily. He ran away, left me in the darkness, until now. But I'd call myself a fool nonetheless for believing anything that the man has in store for us. Then again, I've got nothing better to do than to fight and spend time around you ladies."
After speaking about said ladies, Claire turned her head around, catching Lyn moving beside her. She rested upon a log and held her palms to the fire, heating them up. "How much time passed ever since then?" She asked Arisz.
"Fifty years." Arisz confessed.
"Fifty?!" Claire exclaimed.
Lyn's eyebrows curled downward, thinking of the past in detail. In particular, she remembered when she took him out of the protective barrier in the midst of nowhere, trapped endlessly in a disc where she was born. She remembered how he was taken out of his will, believing now that there was something further implicated as a result. Luckily, she had a walking and talking lore compendium seated in front of her.
"Blade went into hiding afterward, didn't he?" Lyn asked.
"Oh, yeah," Arisz said. "That's true."
"Why?"
Claire turned her eyes toward Arisz, wanting to know the truth as well. Arisz seemed to refuse to speak at first, but he went against the idea with another tremendously strange thought.
"Have you ever thought about the consequences of knowing too much?" He asked, standing up from his seat. "Humans are such complicated creatures. The moment they hear something, they believe another, even if the divide between lie or truth is hidden. Their hearts shatter and their minds break. Then they perform the one thing that they'll regret for their lifetime, and the rest is history..."
"Are you referring to him?" Claire asked, standing up with him. "To Alfaic? What did he do that was so regretful?"
"I don't know. He never told me. But I have a theory."
"His brothers?" Lyn asked. "Did they have something to do with it?"
Arisz shook his head, approaching the edge of the cliff. In similar fashion to Alfaic's hobby, he gazed up at the moonlight, reminiscing of the nights of fifty years past when his closest human friend would do the same with him. Lyn and Claire stood behind him, waiting for his decree.
"He would always speak of a promise that he made to someone that he loved," Arisz confessed. "The details would always get more muddy and confusing the more he would speak about this person. And every time he would, Alfie would burst into tears, regretting even bringing it up. He'd always want to go into hiding. He was always on the move. You could tell him to forget about it, and he would remember it twice as much the next day."
"Do you... know who he was talking about?" Lyn asked.
Arisz slowly and dramatically turned around to face the two, holding in his breath as he did so. It seemed that he had anticipated that the answer was confusing, so he held in his answer for several seconds. He then faced Lyn directly with an audacious expression that read something hidden between the lines.
"It was you." He said.
Lyn's eyes widened. Claire turned to face her, confused entirely.
"No, I'm joking," Arisz broke free. "He never said."
"Then..." Claire began.
"Speaking about this makes me tired. A long trek across the sea awaits, tomorrow. I'm going to sleep," He interrupted, moving toward the forest He used his spear like a cane, stepping slowly and crookedly down the inclined path. "Get your beauty sleep, ladies."
As Lyn and Claire watched him move away, he vanished in between the shadows. No words were exchanged between them until a few minutes later, when Claire decided to move the logs aside and rest on her back on the bed of grass directly next to the flames. Lyn, who eventually came to rest for the remainder of the night, kneeled by the edge of the campsite and pressed her palms together. She faced the stars and closed her eyes, concentrating on prayer.
"Who are you praying to?" Claire asked.
Lyn opened her eyes. "Some friends that I used to know," She said, standing up. She moved toward Claire and looked down at her. "They're gone now."
"Oh... I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Lyn said, shaking her head. "When they were alive, they prayed for the Rot Mother to give them salvation. Of course, their wishes were never met. So I prayed for them, knowing that they would find that salvation they longed for in heaven."
Claire blinked rapidly, looking toward her feet as a wave of memories surged through her mind. "Maybe I should pray for Szene and the others," She said. "After Qliphos, I knew that I was the one who put them out of their misery. Before that moment, they spoke to me as if we were family again, alive and strong together. They left... and I hope they found peace."
"Let's pray together." Lyn said.
The two of them kneeled together by the edge of the campsite and prayed for their friends and family for safety and peace in death, but Claire found it difficult to do so, oddly enough.
Minutes passed, and the two of them laid down together.
"Have you ever thought about what your future was after all of this was over?" Lyn asked, shifting her eyes to the stars above her.
"No, never," Claire denied. "Never thought of a world without the Rot Mother. But if I could live a life without death everywhere, I feel like I could do anything."
"Fifty years..."
"Huh?"
"Blade's been alive for fifty years and more," Lyn reminded her of Arisz's statement on Alfaic. "I've... only been alive for a few months now. It makes me wonder what he's been doing in those long years. All the beautiful places he's seen, without having to worry about the aether clouding the sky. Just limitless possibilities."
The more Lyn continued to speak about Alfaic in a type of voice that resembled a close bond forming between them, the more she was reminded of the previous night, a memory that she tried desperately to repress. But it couldn't be done any longer. She had to reveal it, intelligently, without paying the price of destroying the hope she had for the future.
"You're really quick to trust him," Claire said. "Even after he's lied to you so many times."
"Am I wrong to?" Lyn asked, turning toward her. "I know he has, but I can't help but believe him."
"You should be skeptical. His brothers tried to kill us, he was hiding who he was and what he knew about you, and-"
"I'm aware. But... I know it's much more complicated than that."
"How complicated?" Claire pressured on. "How do we even know if what we're doing is... real?"
Lyn gazed back into the stars again, letting the silence of the night caress her ears in solemnity. She lifted her right arm up and pointed up at the sky. A firefly gently landed on her index finger as aether swam through her fingertips.
"Imagine a shore as white as snow... a vast ocean with thousands of islands populating each corner of your very eyes... and a large boat that would freely swim through it all without a danger in the world. Sailing the seas now would be nothing but a death trap, but a future where all of us can push through to see all of these... is a future worth fighting for again."
"Again?"
"That was his life," Lyn clarified. "Blade and his brothers, before they were tainted by corrupt worship, would sail these lands every day, hoping to find something new on their adventures. Sometimes the outcome wouldn't be special, but it allowed for those special rare moments to be all the more special. Like meeting Arisz, or helping a village get back on their feet. He's had hopes and dreams that span longer than anyone else, and I can't help but align with it."
Claire rotated her body until she rested on her flank. She looked deeply at Lyn's face and was mildly surprised to see her speaking in such rhythmic decency, as if a real human was inside her soul all along. She had no clue of the stories that Alfaic had told Lyn, and perhaps if Alfaic's true intention was to secure the dream of a distant prominent future for all, then there must have been a plan afoot in his mind to make it happen.
"So when you say that you don't trust him," Lyn continued. "I understand. I really do. I can see it your way. I'm not trying to convince you to trust him. But right now, at this very moment, in my life where my birthright and purpose is to destroy and serve the Rot Mother... I reject it. I reject it all. Because I want to make this dream of his happen... no matter what. All the people who suffer every single day as a result of the Rot Mother and her disciples deserve to experience the same fairness as Blade once did. They deserve to see the beautiful world as it was before, where happiness is a daily endeavor. They deserve the right to live freely, live and die on their own terms, without having to live in fear," She turned around to face Claire, who stared deeply into her eyes with passion. "Just... like you should have once as well."
Claire was utterly speechless. She turned back toward the stars and placed both of her arms behind her head, resting herself as her body's tenseness began to ease up. They both inhaled the deep cool air around them. She relaxed her shoulders and smiled up at the sky.
"I'd like that." She whispered.
Lyn chuckled. "Me too."
The two of them laid in silence, continuing to bask in the night's silence. Autumn leaves that lost their sheen and luster in the moonlight brushed past them as a large surge of wind pushed through them. Their bonfire still stayed nice and bright.
"Lyn..." Claire spoke, lifting her empowered left hand into the sky.
"Hmm?"
"I miss... my parents."
Lyn sat up from her seat, leaning on her side with her elbow. Her eyes lit up, astonished by the sudden revelation.
"Your... parents? You remember them now?" Her voice rose.
Claire stood up and sat beside the bonfire on the log closest to it. Lyn noticed that she refused to speak upon it, so she moved in with her and sat shoulder to shoulder with her. She noticed Claire's eyes drooping down in regret while fidgeting her palms in absolute terror. Lyn pressed her palm against her back and rubbed it, attempting to soothe her.
"Hey..." Lyn whispered. "It's okay."
Claire shook her head and closed her eyes, letting tears rain down her cheeks. She was a fool. It had been the fourth or fifth time she had let her emotions control her. She didn't want to be perceived as a crybaby, but there was nothing she could have done in that moment to change it. Her eyes began to puff up and her cheeks flushed bright red. It wasn't until a few seconds later where she slowly creaked her head toward Lyn, revealing her bloodshot eyes and a lower-lip bite that nearly penetrated the skin.
"I've always known." Claire's voice trailed off.
Lyn's face froze completely with her mouth slightly agape. "Known... what?" She asked.
Claire angled her head sideways, body defiant at revealing the truth. Her raspy breaths were shallow and weak, as if she was dramatically ill and hadn't seen the light of day in years. Her arms trembled, no matter how much restraint she attempted to place on them.
Lyn watched as Claire finally opened her mouth slightly. She raised her left hand into the air at a snail's pace, watching it tremble uncontrollably beyond an insane degree. She gave a large inhale of grief as she closed her eyes, letting a second stream of tears down her face. She swallowed the deepest pit of emptiness she had ever swallowed.
Lyn's eyes trailed over to her left hand, wondering what it all meant.
"I killed them." Claire said. She thought her heart nearly stopped.
Blinking rapidly, Lyn wanted to deny such a thing coming from Claire's mouth. But she wanted to press further, knowing that it all had been confessed.
"Why?"
Claire lowered her left hand and turned ahead, knowing that Lyn's pertinent gaze was solely fixated on her. A wave of thoughts crashed down her mind, now that it was all open, all at once. Again.
"It's always been a curse, I said," Claire voiced out with what little strength she had; all of it was sapped to the void. "I wanted to know why I could do the things I could with this hand. I asked. And asked. And asked... only for no real reason in return. Then I wanted to know where I came from. Because one day, they called me Erpha."
Lyn watched as she leaned forward, pressing her palms into her knees.
" I wanted to know why. Why would they give me that name? What did it mean, and why do I have this curse on my left hand? So I looked for answers. They didn't like that. They locked me up for weeks, hoping I never discovered the truth. I accepted it for a while, until I didn't. I was... so mad. I was so angry. I was their daughter, and they wouldn't tell me anything. So one night, I burned it all down. The house we lived in... all gone. It was nothing but me and them. I held out my hand... and I asked them that one question that led to everything."
Claire shuddered.
"Am I your daughter, or am I your failure?"
Those words cut deeply into her heart, like a dagger's fatal blow.
"So I finally got an answer. They told me that I was never meant to exist. I was nothing but a liability. A means to an end. I didn't know what they meant, and they refused to tell me anything more. And they were right. I wasn't their daughter anymore. It was all clear to me. But I wanted to know more. I wanted to run, so I did."
"What... happened next?" Lyn asked, remembering everything that she saw that same night Nia opened her memories with her invented machine. None of it made sense to her. Why was it all connecting together? And how did she know of it?
"They didn't let me. They held me back and wanted to keep me trapped, like their monster. I remember the last thing they said was for me to get back. Their faces... disgusted. And I knew they wanted no part of me anymore. I was still angry. So I killed them. And on that same night, I accepted the fact that I was nothing but a curse."
Lyn's eyes scanned Claire's face, watching her submit to her inner turmoil. She sobbed and closed her eyes once more, internally rejecting herself internally, over and over again. "I'm a monster, and I killed them-"
Before she could continue, Lyn spoke no words and leaned forward, tightening her arms around Claire. She pressed her chin against her shoulder as Claire's forehead shoved against Lyn's shoulder, embracing each other in the night. Claire continued to shudder through her breaths, losing everything that's kept her sane to this moment. She couldn't believe that she was telling someone that she hadn't known for long this truth; not even Szene and her adopted family.
But Lyn had other thoughts in mind.
"I know that's not true." She said. "I know you wouldn't do that."
"You spoke of heaven, where all your friends would reside in after death. And I know that if I was one of them, someway or another, I would be down there, watching all of you live without a single guilty conscience. I've never had any hopes and dreams like you or Alfaic. I deserve nothing in return. If the Rot Mother were to die, and all of this would be over, I deserve nothing. All I've had... is nothing. Absolutely nothing." Claire's voice grew bitter, seething at the thought of her having a future in peace.
"You have me," Lyn continued. "You have Ardine. You can change."
"I can't change-"
"You already have, Claire," Lyn moved herself back until she was arms-length away. She placed both of her palms on Claire's shoulders, like a sister would when their siblings were gone in the shadows. "You carry so much burden that you forget to lean on others for a change. All these people in the world, including I, have done terrible things. But that doesn't mean that there's no hope for us."
"I murdered my family, Lyn," Claire exclaimed, holding in her breath. "I never even told Szene and the others. And now I'll never get the chance to. How can I ever forgive myself for that?"
"I'm not asking you to forgive yourself," Lyn continued, firmly gripping her hands tighter on Claire. "Maybe you'll never be able to. But what will you do now? Will you lay on the ground and give up? Will you give up your lineage and die with them?"
"No, I-"
"Then why do you live?" Lyn interrupted. "Because you want to change. You want to forgive yourself. And every day you wake up, you fight, knowing that one day, you'll be able to. When the world is right again, you want to gain that right to live free and experience joy. And that... speaks... wonders, already for you."
"Lyn..."
"Do you know what I see when you and Ardine speak to each other? I see a father who lost his daughter speak to you as if she never left. And I see a daughter who cherishes that, knowing that she committed the ultimate sin that may never be forgiven. You're trying. I know it."
Lyn suddenly recalled the machine that gave her access to Claire's memories. All of it fit the puzzle pieces of her memories. But none of it mattered anymore. She rejected it, too.
"We can change our fate. That is why I fight, and why you should too. We can build something better for all of us, so that we can move on. And eventually, some day, you can forgive yourself."
Claire spoke no other words before diving back into Lyn's arms. Hearing her words calmed her drastically, and she took an entire minute to collect herself. She desperately tried to revert herself back to her prime.
"Claire," Lyn whispered. "We're here for you. We always will be."
"I..." Claire was utterly speechless. "Thank you, Lyn. Thank you for... everything."
"Of course," Lyn voiced out. "Just girl talk."
"Yeah. Girl talk." Claire laughed.
The two split apart for several minutes, leaving each to their own space. Lyn stood by the cliffside and stared out into the open moonlight, wondering if Alfaic and Ardine were safe. Eventually, Claire approached Lyn after collecting herself; her face was still sour and stricken with grief, but a hidden strength embodied her soul after their conversation.
"I'm going to try to sleep," Claire said. "I'll... never forget this moment."
"Will you tell Ardine?" Lyn asked, turning around.
Claire nodded. "I will," She said. "It'll be hard. But for now, I'll fight for this future along with you and the others. You were right. I've been alive all this time... and now I know what I have to do."
"For Szene." Lyn said.
The two of them stood beside each other, watching wonders in the night for the last time.
"Yeah," Claire said. "For Szene."
As Claire departed into the shadows, she turned around one last time to face Lyn's shadowy silhouette with a light smile.
She was so much more.