Shadow Slave

She studied the smiling man silently, drops of crimson blood falling into the fire from the human heart he held. The fire danced as it licked his hand, scorching it — his silky skin, once smooth and pristine, was swelling with blisters and breaking now, revealing the sizzling flesh beneath.

His bright smile never wavered.

A vast and hungry madness was hidden in the depths of his glistening grey eyes.

She sighed deeply and looked at the dark sky.

”...We have never met before.”

With that, a slender arm revealed itself from the nebulous folds of her mantle. Receiving the bleeding heart between two claws, she studied it for a moment, then casually discarded it by throwing it into the fire. Noctis let out a short laugh.

His gaze slowly travelled away from Weaver’s fearsome mask, becoming lost in the dancing flame. After a few moments passed in silence, he spoke in an easy tone:

“Hope has been imprisoned for a thousand years. And humans have enjoyed a golden age for a thousand years. One cannot help but wonder if there is a connection between the two... prosperity and hopelessness, what a pair.”

Noctis looked at her again, the smile draining from his stunning face.

”They say that we are prospering, but when I journeyed beyond the borders of the Kingdom of Hope, all I saw was strife and desolation. By the moon! I could not tell who was crazier, those funny people dwelling in the distant realms or me.”

He shook his head and sighed.

“It really made me wonder... what had Sun God been thinking when he called upon us to become immortal guardians of Hope.”

His gaze turned cold and dark.

“Say, Weaver... I won’t ask you why the Lord of Light imprisoned Hope. But tell me the truth — why, why didn’t he simply kill her? Why create this long and tiresome charade?”

She looked down at him for a while, then laughed in a thousand chilling voices.

”You must really be mad. Are you really pleading for truth from the master of lies?” Sitting by the fire across from the stunning man, she cast a thoughtful gaze at the dark sky. A cold wind rose, and the pale visage of the moon was obscured by clouds; then, the contours of her mask turned blurry, and it disappeared, revealing...

Nothing.

There was nothing but darkness hiding beneath the fearsome mask.

Noctis seemed to forget how to breathe, looking into the darkness with trembling eyes.

A raspy voice resounded in the silence, making the flames die.

”Have you heard? My brother, the Prince of the Underworld, has broken one of the divine tenets. He has encroached on the purview of the gods and created a race of living beings to settle his lightless lands. No one but the gods had been able to create life before, but now, the Demon of Destiny created life as well... we daemons are inclined to perform impossible feats, are we not?”

Noctis frowned.

”Why are you telling me this, Weaver? How does that answer my question?”

She laughed.

“Because I am known to appreciate deceit, and this is a brilliant lie”

Noctis studied her in confusion.

“What? That Nether created the Stone Saints?”

She shook her head, obscured by darkness. “No. That the gods can create life.”

Leaning forward a little, she reached toward the embers and pierced the ashes with her seven fingers, making sparks fly.

”No one can create life, Beast of Twilight. Not even the gods. All they can do is reshape it — that is what Nether has done, as well, to create the Stone Saints.”

Paling, Noctis leaned back and asked in a dazed tone:

”What does that even mean, though? Hey, Weaver... oh, I meant great Weaver, the Demon of Fate... as far as lies go, this one is not even that convincing, don’t you think? From the primordial dragons to the smallest of mice, there are all kinds of creatures populating the vast realms. I really expected better from someone known as the master of lies. I was really looking forward to being deviously cheated, fooled, and deceived!” Noctis shook his head in reproach.

She looked at the dancing sparks.

”It’s the same old story, from before the dawn of time. The seven gods were born from the Flame of Desire, just like the seven daemons were born from the Forgotten God. You humans were born from stray sparks. How were all the creatures that the gods created born, then? Where did the sparks that gave them life come from?”

The sparks burned away, their frail warmth swallowed by darkness. She raised her hand from the ashes.

”All life comes from the Flame of Desire, in the end. When the gods were creating the first living beings, they merely tore pieces of themselves and used them to breathe life into their creations... just like the Forgotten God did to breathe life into us. My brother, the Demon of Destiny, was the one to fathom that truth — so, he took sparks of his own flame and placed them into his own creations. That was how the Stone Saints came to be.”

She looked at Noctis, who was listening to her with an odd fear in his beautiful, mad eyes.

“That is why Sun God cannot kill Hope. That is also why the gods have grown small and feeble over the ages, having spent their flame to populate all the realms.”

Noctis shivered.

“Small... feeble...”

A moment later, a sudden laugh escaped from his lips, vanquishing the ominous silence.

“And here I was, thinking myself the most arrogant man in all of Kingdom of Hope. Leave it to the infamous Demon of Fate to call the great gods small. I am ashamed, I am in awe... I have no words, really!”

He wiped the tears from his eyes.

“But how does one connect to the other? I still don’t understand why Hope has to live.” She smiled.

“What will happen if she dies, Beast of Twilight? The Shadow Realm cannot contain us, daemons. Death cannot swallow us — he had already tried, and failed. That is because we’ve never been truly alive, to begin with. We are mere manifestations of a greater flame, and even if we are entirely destroyed, the sparks that give us life will simply return to their source. To the Forgotten God.”

Her laughter made the world cower.

“And make Forgotten God complete. Was that what you wanted to ask me, Beast of Twilight? Is that why you carved your heart out under the full moon?”

Noctis looked at her with a pale smile, then inhaled deeply and slowly shook his head. “No... not really.”

He let out a joyless laugh, then grinned. ”Instead, I wanted to ask you to help me free Hope”