A blank smile traced across Shiniel's face, enhanced by the wild wind blowing against her cheeks. She slowly blinked, once, then twice.
"Yeah… believe."
Her left eye flickered. Slowly glowing more intensely, like a lamp lighting back to life. A harsh, violent red spread through a wing-like crest, almost the same as the one Lorelei had seen etched across her back. That very same crest was now tracing her pupils.
"As soon as we land, run towards Arsetlan. The border between the two should be obviously clear. There, they won't catch you. If it ever comes down to it, do not fight the Order.
"That Eye of yours, if I go by logic, it can stop time, right?"
Lorelei confirmed her question. But seeing the ground getting dangerously closer to them, her heart raced even more against her ribs.
I don't want to die.
Lorelei didn't want to feel such horrendous pain. She didn't want her body splattering against the ground and painting the rocks with her insides. Truth was that she wasn't scared of dying. She was scared of the pain of dying.
"I think it lasts five to seven seconds…"
It was the feeling she felt while stopping time for the first time. But… Lorelei didn't want to stop time. That would mean hearing these hammering ticks in her mind. The ticks of a clock blocking her train of thought and driving her mad. A pain she feared more than death.
"Use it if you ever need to… Tru- No… Believe in me. I will find a way out of this."
Shiniel herself wasn't sure of her words. Confirmation wasn't available with the Order chasing them. Wherever they went wouldn't be safe.
Wherever there is light, the Order is present. Wherever there is sin, the Order looms. Wherever there is life, the Order thrives.
A chant Shiniel had etched in her mind ever since her youngest age.
Dawn won't be present to light the sinful remains. And dusk won't be present to darken its fall.
"I repeat, Reili… Do not fight the Order."
For it shall set light over dark. For it will set humankind as one.
Shiniel turned Lorelei's body on the same side as hers before forming ice ramps behind them, curving upwards and releasing them back into the air. She did so to slowly reduce the momentum of their fall, thereby reducing the physical pain it would inflict on their bodies. As the ground became mere inches away, a dust storm closed in their direction. From their distance, there were four, five, even six figures approaching at an extremely high speed. Lorelei was sure that if she were to be attacked at that speed, there was no chance her brain would connect thoughts to movement.
Shiniel curved the ramp forward and launched them, gliding across the rocky ground. Their bodies bounced off, treated like mere bounce balls, turning their organs into a mix of flesh and blood. By the time they came to a halt, Lorelei's vision had already croaked. She crawled, vomiting. Saliva dripped from her mouth as her limbs crossed each other, crawling forward. Every action became a struggle against her body's limits.
Just like Shiniel had said, what seemed to be the border was marked with a straight line separating the fresh grey, mixed with the tiny herbs growing in between the rocks, from a colourless white. Almost as if the world beyond the frontier had been absolved of its colours. It was where she had to crawl, escape the fate lingering behind her and start again. Like always.
It was the same every time. She would meet new people, form some kind of bond with them, but right when she believed that was where she belonged, Lorelei, by her own hands, would tear it away from herself. Or some kind of exterior phenomenon would, something she considered a curse.
What will happen to Shiniel?
What about our contract?
What will happen when I cross this?
What will… I do?
The curse was herself, and she had already acknowledged it. She was the cause of all these deaths, whether it was directly or indirectly. And once again, she would have to restart anew. Her groans became louder as the border cleared, free from the wave of dust. Lorelei reached her hand out towards it only to be violently stomped down.
White boots pressed her arm down against the edge of the rocks piling below her. A scream escaped from her lungs as she felt her finger curl into the ground beyond the frontier. The boots pressed even harder until her arm snapped, without any second to take in the pain. A white blade reflected her face before striking down her fingers that managed to cross the border.
"Reporting. Status of target: Alive…
"Physical damage: Several organs seemed to have stopped functioning. Twelve broken bones. Due to necessary measures, everything above the right-hand phalanges was cut off."
Another voice came in almost simultaneously with the other. Coordinated with the same demeanor and the same tone.
"Second nature report. By the lowest probability of appearance. Mrs Shiniel Fareway has decided to return."
At the mention of Shiniel's name, Lorelei felt her heart stop.
Mrs Shiniel…?
Multiple footsteps surrounded her before kicking her flat on the ground. Lorelei groaned, having her back stabbed by a larger rock. Her eyes, which until then had only been half-open, widened at the sight of Shiniel gazing down at her from a few steps away. The wing-like crest that had formed in her left eye had now spread into a gigantic form behind her back, hovering between the bottom of her back and the top of her head. Almost like wings, the shape of her spine was traced right down the middle.
"Shi-Cough-Cough"
Her body was lifted into the sky before being slammed back, almost kneeling. Her silver hair parted on both sides of her neck as she felt the blood seeping out of her open wounds. Her mind had built enough tolerance to stay conscious, but was not fully capable of reasoning. It was then that Lorelei regretted developing that tolerance. The pain ached her from within, burning her even more vividly than it ever had.
Inscriptions started slowly enveloping her, circling around like fireflies. They tightened on her limbs and shackled her body to itself. Lorelei felt her neck being squeezed by them, her wrist being crushed, and her ankle being torn. There was no escape from the Order.
She lifted her head up, and Shiniel was still there, gazing down at her in obvious disgust. Even if her cold expression hadn't changed, the disgust was clear from her eye movements.
"Confirming target's capture. How should we proceed?"
A loud ring rang in her ears before fading into a screech. What seemed like an intolerable sound for her was a message for the others.
"By your will."
All the white figures standing behind her dispersed, except for one. It turned back to her and raised its arms in the air. Almost similar to how any spell would be chanted, its lips moved abruptly in disorganised tones. From the particles and inscriptions, a sort of standing tomb was formed. A roundish iron tomb, with at the top the depiction of a woman's face.
"Proceed with caution."
Single-handedly, the white figure dragged the iron coffin behind Lorelei and opened it. Tiny spikes lined every corner of the inside. Sharp brown spikes serrated the coffin. He adjusted the white gloves over his hands and pulled Lorelei up before slamming her inside. The spikes instantly pierced her already wounded body and released the voices she had been suppressing at the shock of seeing Shiniel untouched. The cover slowly creaked closed as he pushed it. The light of noon faded in her eyes as she stared at Shiniel from the little gap.
You betrayed me…?
Even though Lorelei had chosen to believe in Shiniel. Her heart decided to trust her and not just believe in her. It was a feeling she couldn't stop. The feeling of being able to trust someone. She had yet to experience all the ugliness this world had to show. She knew someday that nobody would come to save her, that she would eventually need to let go of the only thing guiding her purposes: the figure. Even so, when Shiniel revealed to her the reason why she lived, Lorelei felt like Shiniel trusted her. Or was it just a fluke to play on her feelings? To capture the angel. To sell her out to the Order for the sake of her own purpose.
Shiniel had sold her out to the Order, but her will to live remained true. What she told Lorelei was undeniably the only reason she still strove to keep her physical body. "I want to find my father."
Their eyes met, one last time, before the coffin of spikes fully closed, piercing her body from every direction.
You betrayed me.
0 001 001
"Remember?"
Lorelei's eyes struggled to open, feeling something—someone—forcefully shut them.
"Remember, Rei?"
A hand was placed over her eyelids, forcing them down. Soon after, her nose managed to pick up a fresh scent. Multiple different scents overwhelmed her worn-down senses. The pain of the spikes was still sharply engraved in her mind even though they weren't present here. In what the figure called her mindscape. That frail voice was speaking to her, telling her to remember. That was the figure. The soft warmth she felt contrasted with the frigid cold of another part. That was the figure's lap, where her head was softly resting.
"Remember when they called us fiends?"
"Yeah…" Lorelei softly muttered.
A little chuckle escaped from the figure. A cry of grief hidden behind that chuckle. There was nothing to laugh at, for either the figure or Lorelei. But she understood what that chuckle meant.
"Was it Keith? I think… Someone once told us, 'Some people see more ugliness than beauty in the world. Some others see more beauty than ugliness. It's all because some are born closer to its foundation, to its core, whilst others are born further away, at the surface.'
"Do you think we were born unlucky? Did you ever wonder what would happen if we had been born closer to the surface? It's a memory that person engraved in me, a question that refused to fade amongst its peers. Even… even after all these centuries."
She felt the figure's hair slowly wrap the contours of her head.
"You can give up if you want… I don't want to see you hurt like this."
Her voice seemed distant, trapped inside a box Lorelei had no access to. She thought by now she understood the figure, that they were one and the same, but the truth she vehemently denied was laid black on white in the back of her mind, repressed alongside the memories of Lorelei.
I don't know who you are.
You told me we were one and the same, but you never opened up to me.
You only guided me without telling me your intentions.
You say you don't want to see me hurt, but you don't warn me.
You never talk about the other versions of us.
You never talk about me.
About you…
I don't know you…
"I'm the only one who understands how much it hurts to live like that. It's fine if you let go, Rei. It won't make me sad. It's time for us to let it go."
The figure slowly raised her hand over her eyes. The light had been completely devoid of its meaning. Here, only darkness lay; her hair covered them both. Face to face, they looked at each other. Her eyes displayed her words, and the flowers blooming on the other side of her face explained it all.
There was never anywhere we belonged.
"We can never find somewhere called 'home'"
Nobody knows what we went through.
"Nobody understands how we feel."
We aren't one and the same. It isn't me who's different. It's you.
"I don't want to give up."
Arc 4: From a place of love
End.