Rest in Peace

Seen it was futile to take the necklace off from herself, Emma tried to run away from the air temple. Air, however, is a goddess, all she had to do was to create an invisible air wall in front of the door that blocked Emma's only way out of there. Emma tried to fight with the wall and get to the door, but simply as that, Air transformed the wall into an air stream that pushed Emma back to the middle of the room.

"Why did you attack Everblade? What truth are you hiding?", she asked Emma and gave the woman a death stare, as if telling that if she lies, she will suffer, and suffer a lot. Her anger was explained by the fact that her people died... And this person just might be the one behind it all.

Emma tried to escape Air's grasp, struggling from one side to another, but Air was just holding her tightly with the air around her... The woman fought back for a few more minutes until she realized how useless her effort was and finally gave up, looking down to the floor with an expression of guiltiness.

"I... I am so sorry... I am really sorry!", she shouted, A little bit of despair in her tone of voice. "Air, you know that what I did was get closer to you, not kill them all... That wasn't my intention!", she confessed to the goddess. They seemed to know each other before, but Air was clearly confused, letting Emma free while trying to remember who this woman is...

"This voice... 'Closer to me'... Your face... These are all so familiar, it takes me back to when my people were here. Are you... Are you Emma? Emma White?", Air asked and at the moment, Emma seemed a bit troubled, with her hand on her chest. But with a deep breath, she nodded to Air.

"Yes... Umm... It's been a long time, right?", she asked, forcing a small smile across her lips, don't she looked ashamed.

"Yes, a long time indeed... But... Why? Why are you apologizing? What did you do wrong, exactly?", Air asked the question that we all had about her and she looked to the floor again.

"It's... It's all my fault, Air... All my fault. I wanted to be closer to you, I studied about you, I showed my knowledge, I showed to you everything I did in your name..."

"Yes, I know... I saw your devotion to me in your eyes, words, breath. And I raised you to the second most important person in the village, you were important to me, as much as I was important to you..."

"Yes... But... But I wasn't satisfied, Air. I let my selfish desire lead me to kill the most important person in the village. He was the one who heard of you the most, he was the one who directly heard everything from you when I wanted to be this one... So I poisoned his food to... To... T-to do what you forbade us from ever doing, Air, to kill him... I... I-I... I am so sorry..."

"I still don't get it...", Jeffrey said. "If you poisoned his food only, how... How did you kill the entire village?"

"That...", she said and gulped a little. "Well, the chief and his family are to have different food served while we're down at the mountain... I just needed to poison the food separated specifically for them... I was going to kill him and his family... And I did that soon after we finished walking around the mountain for the seventh time..."

"On the seventh day? That way, you could ensure that their lives would at least give this village an eternally lasting blessing while you would also secure the position of the most important person in the village... A pretty smart, but still evil plan, Emma... It's not easy to forgive such a mistake", Air said to her. Upon hearing that, Emma kneeled before her goddess and forehead against the ground in humiliation.

"I know... I didn't know that the food we had stored for the rest of the people would be spoiled and rotten when we were about to serve the meal... We had to... We had to distribute the special storage of food made for the leader's family to the rest of the people and... And I... I was a coward then, I didn't want them to punish me... I didn't want to face the consequences of my actions and stayed in silence while everyone died... And I couldn't bring myself to continue living, knowing what happened with them... I just couldn't... So I ate the poisoned food as well... I even now was a coward and tried to run away from you, I am so sorry. I... I will accept whichever punishment you have for me, I know I will deserve every little bit of it", she said and Air closed her eyes for a time, considering the words that Emma just said. When ready, she opened her eyes and extended her hand.

"You shall be punished, but only after the souls of your village having been told the truth of what happened...".

And with the told order, Emma was forced to go to the middle of the village to pronounce herself as guilty for what happened and to tell them the truth about the incident they suffered.

"People... I have... I have an important thing to say to you", she started to talk, visible fear in her eyes. "This... This village died long ago... We live in the world of the dead make some great deal of time already... It's all my fault, I poisoned your food with the selfish desire of securing to myself the position of chief of this village... And I... I am ashamed, but... But I hope it's not too late to let you all rest in peace knowing the truth..."

A moment of silence stayed for a few seconds, until Emma was pushed back, fell on the floor, and was forced to cover herself. I suppose the people of the village were there, angry with her and attacking Emma even though she can't die.

"I know... I-I know... Please stop and calm down... This necklace allowed me to talk with Air, the goddess, once more... And she said she will punish me accordingly...", she said and slowly uncovered herself... It seemed like the attacks stopped and she stood up again, looking down to the floor.

"Please... Make them stop talking, Air? It... It just pains me...", Emma said but Air looked seriously, with a hand on the shoulder of the woman.

"This is also part of your punishment... They will not go away, they will not rest in peace until they are avenged for what you did to them. After the war with the dead gods, the duty of helping the dead rest in peace fell on the shoulders of the four entities... On my shoulders, actually... And I have neglected my duty for a long time too. I must compensate for the time lost while also judging you, Emma... Your punishment is to be my representative in the dead world and help me give peace to the dead... Until I say you have paid the price", Air said and Emma looked slightly happy to her goddess, with a smile of surprise and happiness. I guess it would mean they are going to be together from now on and Emma couldn't be happier about it... But was that really a punishment if she's gonna enjoy it?

"Ah, Dagger... I haven't forgotten about you, don't worry... Thank you for doing the job of my representative in the dead world, they will rest in peace once she's punished... Here's your reward", she said, using her air to bring the frozen bottle with the water element out of the shoulder bag and putting something inside it. After that, she returned it to my hands

"You're now one step closer to your objective Dagger. Now... Be gone... I have much to do with my new representative of the dead world"

"I see... I will be going, then", I said and walked out of the mountain with Jeffrey and Beech, still thinking, however, how that was really a punishment for Emma... Well, if in the end everyone can rest in peace, I suppose that's fine... So I just let the two be and focused more on my own adventure, searching for the next element.