ASHLEIGH.
"The Goddess of War being disarmed is the best sight I had ever saw." He was invisible. He has an armor in front of his face. I don't see if he's flustered that he disarmed me. But then, at that time, I was desperate to come out of the arena, so I tackled the blade, and kicked him in the legs.
It didn't work at all. It just cornered me until I was pinned down, and someone was shouting at the stands. The sword threatened my neck to be slit, but I hold it, and I didn't even realize that I was holding the blade, as strong as I could. The blood trickled down at my face, but the contender pushed it down further, making me squeal out of pain.
I have to push him, but with the strength sapping out of me, I failed to do so. The whole crowd was getting wild. I don't know if it was a cheer for me or for my contender. Someone must have thought I was a loser at this point. With the blood continuing to trickle down from my hands, the man behind the mask whispered, "You are such a loser, Devi."
When I look at the blades filled with blood, I felt the sickness in me. I've never seen much blood in my hands. I couldn't help myself from getting overwhelmed. Ashleigh Howell must have a fear of blood, because my vision swirled around my eyes. I can hear different sounds from all of my ears, but I can't decipher where it was going.
My mind swamped to a different darkness. My whole vision went black as I lost consciousness.
I'm sorry. I failed the trial. It was all over my thoughts as I got myself out of control.
...
I had a dream. It unfolds in a haze of shifting images, and it is a dreamscape where the reality slips like sand through my fingers. It is just out of reach, and I can't even touch that reality. The fabric of time and space stretched and pulled in directions. My vision was muted with colors. The shadows were like twilight just before the dawn.
A face emerges after a while. It was first an indistinct blur, but as I tried to focus inside the dream, the feature has sharpened. It's a face similar to the Queen of Ashes. She looked like a cruel, beautiful, and haunted. She has high cheekbones and cold gaze.
It flickered like a flame caught in the wind. It was a constant shift of expression. The Queen's vision was slightly sipping out of focus on that predatory game. There's an unsettling sadness behind those eyes. It was an unspoken deep and sorrow, and it felt though as if it had spanned lifetimes.
The Queen of Ashes reached out from beyond the dream. It was to touch something within Ashleigh's soul, as if it was something long buried and forgotten.
Before I can even fully grasp that gaze, the dream shifted once again in another vision. This time, she found herself. I was lost in the worlds, because the next time I saw myself in a dream, I was standing in the midst of a lush, verdant field under a sky. It was streaked with soft pink and orange hues. I see how the world itself has bathed with the afterglow of some lost, celestial event.
Two figures approached, and it was distant at first. As they drew nearer, their forms become clearer.
It was a man and a woman. It was intimate. Between the two of them, they shared a kiss. It was slow and tender, as though they have forgotten the weight of the world. The man's face was unfamiliar, and I can't even decipher it in the shroud of the dreams. His arms held the woman intensely, quietly, as if he was saying everything he cannot say into words.
In that fragile moment, I had felt a pang inside my heart. It was like I was affected that kiss, like I caught them up in an act. Like I was the one who caught them in a visible line of red flags. The atmosphere becomes thick with emotion, and it was tender and sorrowful, so powerful that sometimes, it almost feels as though the very world itself was holding its breath.
As quickly as it began, the scene faded. It left Ashleigh in grasping at the wisp of the images along with the emotions dissolving. I don't fully understand them. The dreams were drifting away, and it was leaving me with only the echo of a face that might have been the Queen of Ashes. It was like our souls were intertwined with each other. The love and memory transcended through time.
Then, as if she has woken up unconsciously, her eyes open, and she felt a trickle of tear falling down her lids. My vision adjusted, and the ceiling looked like a sanctuary of peace and strength. It was a serene haven created to the violence of battle with the healing power of tranquility. I must be suspended in the twilight realm, or I have been deluded that I was inside a charm.
The walls were luminous when I observed the whole surrounding, and it was pulsing gently with the rhythm of my heart. It was a subtle and constant reminder of the life and renewal. It was soft, ethereal mist, coiling around the room like a living thing, and it was almost moving with an almost sentinel grace, and it was calming the air with each breath.
There was a running water. I don't know where it was coming from, but it made me conscious in the reality. The water was humming with energy, carrying the healing aura. I couldn't feel any tiredness in my body. I swallowed, and sat up, and held my head. Before I even realize what was I holding, I felt a sense of pain.
I looked at my hand, and it was covered with bandage. I tried to remember what happened, and it flashed before my eyes. I fainted in the arena. I failed to prove myself at that final trial. I wonder what happened. Did someone already took my place, and it was not my own again?
I pursed my lips. I looked at the corner, and at the side of the tall, elegant throne, carved with a pure obsidian, was a woman sleeping at the side of it, her arms were crossed. She was wearing a peach dress, that has its sleeves covering a bit of her shoulders, and ending at the floors. She was sleeping, but her head was bobbing.
When she wakes up, she looked around as if to recognize she was at the same place, and her eyes looked at me. She was surprised, and Atelier, as I remembered her name after I slept for so long, flee out of the room and shouted. The majestic door opened in a creak, and the Kig and Queen of Ashes appeared. Their forms were on flaming aura, embodying a realm of destruction and rebirth. It's as if they were worried somehow about an inevitable scene.
Their cold eyes pierced through the Goddess, and there is deep, unspoken tension in the air.
I gasped, because that woman might be the wife of no other than Abraxas. She must be the reason why I had to hide behind the wall. I looked down, not meeting their eyes, probably to scared to explain myself that I was lost from the final trial... and I wasn't the one they would choose for the battle.
My mind raced. I had to grapple the fact that with the mysterious visitations and conflicting emotions, there was a troubling sense of an impending conflict. This ethereal room is testing my strength. I know that, because they're measuring it going back in my veins. I have to be strong in order for me not to be dispatched from this castle---
"Are you okay now? We are so worried that the final trial was held and we asked the candidates to go back to their chambers." The woman came to me and held my hand, even sitting down at the available chair beside me. I looked in her eyes, and I felt familiar with that recognition. Ashleigh must have seen this face before, aren't she? Or was it... just a coincidence?
My hand has cloth around, and when she held it, I felt a pang of pain. It was unusual for me to get wounded and not even cry a single tear.
The King also stated, "We can't lose the Goddess of War just because of a trial. It was supposed to train your strength. We don't want your weakness to triumph when you're already facing the Devil Godkin."
I don't understand what they're saying, but I felt used. I don't see Atelier behind them, so I just looked at the King, and furrowed my eyebrows, asking, "Why do I need to follow your orders when I am nearly killed earlier?"
And that's when... they exchanged glances at each other. Is there a pact that my mother... no, it's not even my mother... it's Devi's mother who is deciding about her daughter... that they agreed on?