AGG: Devil Side Stories

Valerie 1

Commissioned by Binge Reader

Word Count: 1029

…

“Remorseful?” A girl who doesn’t even reach my shoulder speaks to me. We stand upon a plateau of monstrous corpses as far as the eye can see. In the distance, there is a man adding more and more to the expanse of flesh and bone. “Good.”

Her name was Coda, the Aspect of the End, and tens of thousands of feet away was Li Song, the Aspect of Conflict. Two sides of the same coin. Natural enemies, but also natural allies. They worked with one another as easily as they could try to kill one another.

One is a young man whom I’d saved.

The other is a girl who was trying to save me.

“How?” I barely manage to consider not speaking to her. Coda reminded me of my father. He would simply be present, and in  the next moment I’d be spilling the whole of my thoughts to him. That was simply who she was, and, despite all my years of training,  I was incapable of surmounting her. “How can this feeling be good?”

“Mistake made. Mistake regretted. Mistake remembered.” Coda’s English is passable at best, but the simplicity is striking. Or, maybe, it was just her gaze. Meeting her gaze felt like falling through an endless, deep darkness. It was intimidating and fearsome, at first glance. However, more and more, I remembered the embrace of res. “You are well, Valerie.”

I wasn’t well.

I’d all but tried to force an Aspect to follow a path against his will. I’d spent almost a month and a half unconscious, because I’d been unwilling to bring him along to a fight, and my loss resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands. The world was struck, I wasn’t there to fight for it, and millions died.

Song had burned.

I’d read the medical reports.

His whole body renewed itself, aggressively ousting tumors the size of baseballs from his body, and it was fortunate his bones naturally reset properly, elsewise Divine assets would’ve been required to simply see them healing freely.

Then, after everything he did and suffered through, I’d told him that he was wrong to do it all.

I’d blinded myself, seen only one path for him, and hated him for everything he’d done that differed from what I’d envisioned.

Once upon I time, I’d wondered how I’d created a creature such as the Silver Maiden, but now I had my answer.

“Cease.”

The word, that simple word, incites every nerve and warning in my mind.

In less than a second, I am ready for a fight for my very existence, ready to pull the trigger on a weapon I’d swore to never use.

Then, the attack I’d prepared for pressed against the cheek of my armor.

“Cease your self-flagellation.” Coda speaks and I listen. Some part of me tells me that it’s a siren song, that I shouldn’t heed the End, but it’s the same part that insists Li Song shouldn’t be allowed to continue his current path. It is my Pride. That damnable thing that refuses to allow for any path that I did not prescribe. “Suffering is needless.”

What is the promise of an End? The answer was simple. Eternal rest. No Heaven, no Hell. Simply to rest and dream forever. I am a half-Devil. My life can be taken from me, but I cannot let it go. The End means no more indecision, no more mistakes, and no more suffering.

I am incredibly selfish.

I have had the best in life.

Never have I truly suffered.

Yet, here I am, wondering if I can ask for everything to End, because I cannot have the world go as I want it to for the first time.

“No. Pain is pain. No matter what, who, or why.” Coda can see through me with ease, and give answers to questions a father could never tell his daughter . I suspected my father knew everything I felt, every frustration I had, but all he can say is soldier on and continue, even when he’s gone. “Wanting peace is never bad.”

It has always been: keep moving forward, to never look back, and never cease training. There will always be another threat, so vigilance is required, and rest is only for the weary. Have children, so that you’ll be able to pass the torch unto them, and support them while they take the brunt of the next burden, but never fail to rise to the occasion.

For all the millennia I’ll live, I’ll be fighting, working, and planning. The days will come when I’ll be retreating, resting, and comatose. There might be years between every crisis that will arise, when the next threat would appear, but it shall only be a matter of time for me and mine.

I’d thought Song would want to stay away from such an existence, but I’d been completely and utterly wrong, and he accepted it with all his might. Perhaps, I’d seen him as someone to live through. If I could convince him to live peacefully, the Aspect of Conflict, then there was a chance I could do the same in the future.

But, he’d refused, and now here I was.

I am Valerie Creighton, therefore I must fight.

I must fight, therefore I am Valerie Creighton.

“You weep inside, but not outside.” Coda’s words make me shake. I do not want to hear them anymore. I have responsibilities. I must see this right and proper. Yet, as I stand before the Aspect of the End, the thought enters my mind to ask her what I should never consider. She answers before I even ask. “Yes. If you ask, I shall. No matter the consequences.”

I hate how much comfort the words bring me.

They are words that promise war and suffering the moment I ask for it.

I should’ve loathed the very notion, yet the words allow me to breath.

Indeed, Song and Coda were two different sides of the same coin.

One, I could barely stand to accept.

The other, I could barely resist.

One way or another, they were going to be the death of me, that I knew.

…