First Step of Acceptance

"Once there was an immortal queen, the strongest on all of land. She had seized everything there was, the air, the water, the spirits and the people. But she was kind and loved by her people. The land was prosperous and there was no plague anywhere. Her people sang her praises, revered her, worshipped her and to them, there was nothing greater, and for good reason, for she had a heart of gold. Yet, the queen was bullied by the fate her family. Her house of seven, they were kind to her beyond what she could have asked for. But unlike her, they possessed no greater strength or wisdom."

"The queen who had an eternity to live hated her solitude and wished that if only her house of seven, her family could live forever with her, she would preside over her land as a goddess. Riddled in her misery, she searched for an answer which came to her in the form of a sage. The sage was clad in white, with a long beard trailing behind him. He gave the queen the cure of her miserable dilemma. If the queen divided her power into seven fragments, she'd be accompanied by her family till the end. The queen was elated and she did as the white sage had said."

"But the house of seven, misled by the enormous power they had now found, struck misery upon the land. There were plagues and famines and floods all over the land, and the people were ripped of all the peace and happiness they once had. They begged their goddess, the queen, to lift the curse. But the queen didn't move an inch. The white sage appealed to her, down on his knees, knowing she was the only one that could save the land and her people. But the queen, wallowing in grief, refused. The white sage turned away, forever wandering the land and providing relief to people for as long as he could. The queen, eaten by sorrow, took her life and the house of seven laid waste to the land for all eternity."

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I hadn't spoken a word to Lady ever since we got back. After her announcement about the execution "party", all of the others scurried off to their own corners. Chopper told me to wake him up when everyone was ready to go. He intended to catch a quick nap. I nodded to him and remained alone in the huge hall. June's typewrite was the only sound that echoed there. She was awfully slow despite how much time she spent on it. Perhaps considerate of the noise it would create if she was typing fluently, she always kept a huge empty duration after every click.

For me, who felt abandoned with no room to relax in, this sound was a melody. I listened to it in silence for a long time before deciding to take my leave. June never left Valhalla, so I figured that she wasn't going today either. Since she made no preparation to leave, I knew I was right. I walked over to her table in the corner, she barely looked up before stopping her fingers from any further movement.

"Do you know where I can find Lady?", I asked, feigning a weak smile.

She stared at me in silence for a while, then pointed outside, "In the forest."

I nodded and waved her goodbye as I left Valhalla on my trail towards the forest. I had nothing to say to Lady in particular and in fact, as I was walking there I was so lost I didn't even know where I was going. It wasn't until her pale figure came into view that I was brought back into reality.

There was a small spring in the forest, rather concealed among the thicket. It was, perhaps, only known to the Valkyries. This was where we often headed to take a relaxing bath. Unlike the rest of us, Lady never bathed in anyone else's company. Deli pouted about this, since she was really fond of Lady. Chopper, too was like that though I had joined him in his freezing cold baths often during our travels. But it wasn't that he was shy, instead he was too lazy to do anything whenever he got back and he was rarely back anyway. In fact, the only people that really cared about that spring were Sight, Prophet, Deli, June--who'd get dragged there by Deli--and I. I had initially thought that like the others, Lady didn't prefer to take baths in the open.

I was wrong. And it was proven to me when I saw her figure moving out of the water. She had perhaps heard me coming and though she acted like she wasn't modest, I found her so. I couldn't care less about modesty though. But I moved behind a tree and faced the other way until she was done dressing. She was far too unimpressive to be peeking on anyway. I remember what Jean V. had said, I realized he wasn't talking figuratively. Lady was just a girl even now, a frail, weakened girl. She was younger than me, and here I prided myself in being the youngest Valkyrie and yet the sanest.

In that short glimpse I had caught of her, I read a story. The countless scars, they were unlike Chopper's. They weren't just battle scars, her scars screamed a lot more agony, a lot more pain. They were scars of torture.

"Peeping-tom?", she appeared smiling after having buried herself in her over sized, bulky clothes that made her look like an old hag.

I didn't reply to her, I barely turned her way.

"Who's hangin' in your place?", I asked right away.

Her smile deepened, "Someone awaiting their turn, a prisoner, I think."

"You think?", I scoffed at her, "How's it feel making someone hang for your sins?"

"Rather uneventful", she replied shortly.

I glared at her, finally.

"Don't you just...", she smirked in the vilest, most enchanting way I had ever seen, "...hate me?"

Something in the way she said it, just shook me down to my roots. Those words had been more real than anything she ever said. And I found myself at a loss, a tense drop of sweat ran down the side of my face and I just kept staring at her, wide-eyed, with no answer to give her.

Her smirk slowly died away and the light which had shone on her face for the first time went away along with it. She turned away and looked at the spring, it was glimmering.

"I'm going to make the whole world burn. I want to see it writhing in pain, painted in my color. If the world won't accept us...then it can just become ash."

Her words still echo inside me. Had I known the calamity brewing inside of her, I would have loved to beat some sense into her. Yet there I stood, clueless and with nothing but pity in my eyes, and a burning rage in my heart.

She then turned my way and smiled, opening her arms, inviting me to do what I came there to do. I myself hadn't realized until that moment. I took a step towards her and that morning, I beat her senseless.