25 Reflection

"Emi?!" Alya was taken by surprise when her lost friend walked up to and hugged her. It felt calming, it differed from the way she usually felt. It was warmer, she had forgotten that her life was about more than just killing.

From the moment she had awoken missing her ability to walk and see, she had lost a part of her. Without the memories of her past, her actions felt distant, there was no connection to the people or the things around her.

Only then did Alya realize the changes inside of her. The way she had abandoned Olaf and killed his soldier without thinking was inhumane. The two revolutionaries she had met in the garden, they were dead because of her. She had never killed before that time, yet done it without hesitation. She never liked violence, but without missing a heartbeat, she had a record of a dozen murders.

Emily rested her head on Alya's, they were both crying. They both felt the happiness that had dwelled inside them since they were seperated, but they also experienced sorrow. They had lost a part of their relationship. Without the other knowing, Alya and Emily would continue going their paths. They would fight and kill, the time of laughing, of trying to learn magic in their village was over.

That time they returned to eachother fragmented in their minds. Their goals changed from beeing together to something grander. Both wanted to fight in the revolutionary war until they could no more.

Like she always did, Emily spoke up first, "I thought you had run away when I woke up without you." Slowly, she had to force the words out of her chest, "I thought you left me alone with the danger of beeing apart of the revolution, but you're here."

"That's right." On their way back home from the magic academy, Alya and Emily had been informed by a slave that there would be a gathering the night of that same day. Alya had decided to go without beeing able to tell her friend, but she met Emily in the forest close to the small, empty farm.

The image was burned into her head. The deep black forest, sky and ground contrasted by the dancing fires of torches. Men and women, most of them slaves had gathered there. A single person stood on the podium they surrounded. It was the man that had spoken to the two before. It was also the same man who was wearing a silver key, sitting inside of the same inn as them.

"What happened to you?" Emily took a step back to look at Alya's full body. Her lower body rested on the chair instead of legs, it seemed slightly uncomfortable, but Alya at least used a pillow. The change in eye colour was just as concerning. Emily had never seen nor heard of such a thing happening.

"I don't know. I have no idea how I left the barn where we slept together that night. I also don't know how I lost my legs and my eyesight. I just woke up on a street somewhere in Polia." Alya knew whatever had transpired, it was the reason for her spotty memory.

"As long as you are alive." Emily smiled, "Do you plan on going up north soon? The Locks will start to resist eventually, but you don't seem in the position to fight."

"Oh, I'm going. I have magic after all." Alya smiled as she gripped the wheel on her chair.

"Have you learned any knew spells?"

Alya nodded, "Well, yeah." Even considering their closer relationship, she felt like hiding the truth. She wanted to hide away everything. The tome, the spells and the killing. Alya hoped she could open up about it one day, but that moment was not the right one.

"Well, we'll talk about everything some other time. Tomorrow there is a lot of work to do." Before preparing for an all out war, they had to set a structure up inside the city and the parts of the country they took over, which was most of the southern half by that point. The Amelia Opera was the biggest city they had, it would take some time for the revolutionaries to start governing smoothly.

Most of the people at the harbor would not take part in that. They were soldiers now, they had committed to fighting for the cause. Like Alya and Emily, they had seen battle and were determined to keep taking part in them. Most had killed by that point, many had lost their friends, but it was not enough to halt them. There was something more important, these things were worth sacrificing for the sake of regaining what had been taken from them. Their families, culture, country and lives the former slaves had been stolen by the Kingdom and both them and the people around them were ready to take them back.

Now that she felt empathy for the people around her once again, Alya had also gained the feeling of frustration. She hated her responsibility to kill. She wanted to spare them, to convince them with her words and feelings. She wanted to know if it was possible to achieve piece, but it might have been to late into the revolution now that so many had died.

The people around her were certain the only way was violence. Alya was inclined to agree, changing peoples' hearts may be impossible for a stranger like her. A person who was convinced by his enemy to change sides was likely extremely stupid to begin with. Like Alya when Olaf found her like a prince on a white horse. She had been blinded by his compassion. Were she a slave, were she ugly or a commonly disliked person, he would likely have left her lying in the dirt.