8 Perfection is born

The skeleton sat, looking down.

It was nearly complete. The black cocoon had shrunk so much that it barely concealed the naked form of the woman lying beneath. Tall and graceful she lay, a lithe body of inhuman white with perfect black hair that cascaded around her figure.

Slowly but strongly her chest rose and fell, a sure sign that she was soon to awaken.

"Hurry and awaken my dear. For you are the key to this cell."

A sudden laughter burst out from the skeleton, one so ferocious and powerful that it seemed like he could die from it were he still living. Even the small morsels of Eva that remained shook and shuddered at the sound, it was like the cackling of a mad demon.

Using his crooked fingers the skeleton gently brushed the nearly translucent shell that kissed onto the cheeks of the woman.

"We have such a journey ahead of us."

He could feel it now, the surging beat of the woman's heart, a continual pulse of ever increasing frequency, one that can never die.

The final shred of Eva had finally found its place… perfection had been borne.

Finally, it was time.

Shattering like glass, shards of the black cocoon fell towards the floor, spinning haphazardly as the skeleton's laugh followed, growing more frenzied as the glass cut into the hall, carving through the stone with ease, slicing the rules of this world.

"Stand my dear. Stand and let me stare upon perfection."

As if on command the woman's figure rose from the air in which she lay, with delicate, almost sultry movements she righted herself, standing gracefully before the skeleton.

Like two shining beacons in a star lit sky her eyes opened, two purple orbs of illustrious expanse, a pair of small galaxies spinning to themselves as she gazed upon the skeleton before her, the being that chose to grant her true freedom.

Through her eyes she could see his past… all of it in its entirety. Tears fell from the woman's eyes as she began to cry.

"Why do you cry?"

"Because you cannot."

With gentle movements she embraced the skeleton, trying to warm his cold dead bones in her grasp, his name a whisper on her lips.

"Asmonon."

"That is my name no more."

Speaking slowly the skeleton's body never moved, he merely let himself be embraced, he had no need for such skinship.

"Asmonon was the name of a fool who died, withered and decayed, he rotted in the dark, only his regrets for sustenance. My name is Koel, a long dead name with only a single meaning..."

"...Demise."

"And what of me? I know myself as Luhra and yet I am no longer she. What is to be my name?"

Looking deep into the skeleton the woman awaited an answer.

"Perfection needs no name. But I will give you a title, one that you will be referred to. You will be the partner of demise, you can be called Lyrea."

Lyrea spoke softly, even with her eyes that let her pierce into Koel's past she still couldn't decipher the meaning behind all of his knowledge.

"What does it mean?"

"Pain. It stands for pain."

Once more Koel laughed, the audience to his own internal joke, a dark comedy that only he understood.

Embraced by pain and awaiting demise Koel laughed into the dark hall, never needing to stop for breath as it echoed out, shaking the world he was in as Lyrea leant onto his chest. For in her eyes she could see and feel the man he once was rather than the thing he had been reduced to.

As the laughter rang out, only a few words escaped the skeletons open maw, trickling their way to the ears listening in.

"Hello… Old friends."