The Meeting

The throne room of Kozodia was empty, its conqueror nowhere in sight.

Shadows, which seeped through from the Anryo before, rapidly overtook the land since King Kojingi fell. His concubines and servants who were spared the massacre and fled the palace spread word that the one chosen to be consort went mad and slayed him and the ministers in one fell swoop.

With the Kozodia bloodline extinguished, so too were the Goddess's chosen bearers of light that kept their kingdom illuminated and free of their immemorial threat of the darkness—the Mieitais.

Nora had braced herself on her journey to the conquered palace from her little cottage bordering the Anryo, prepared to whip down anyone who stood in her way. At least, if there were any. The cities, towns, and the palace itself were devoid of any opposition, even months after everyone was forced to evacuate and the Mieitais could settle in.

Even so, it took her an agonizing amount of time to ascend the flight of stairs to the throne room, and kick down the gates for the confrontation she never wanted to have.

But the only traces of the one who sought to destroy the world was even in the ruined hall at some point, were the remains of the old rulers, and the veil of darkness flowing outwards from the windows. A roaring veil of shadow that only those like Nora could enter.

Kojingi should have been one of the skeletons. But at this point, there was no distinction between him, minister, and servant. If it was possible to tell by their scraps of clothes, Nora had no clue. But she didn't want to keep looking.

The mural behind the dusty throne—the original artwork that showed the Kozodias at the creation of the world from the shadows—was smashed, fragments strewn across the steps. The face of the Goddess above that dreamed the world into being was just a crater beyond any recognition.

Banners that had the star-shaped imperial crest—the same that taped up many homes in Kozodia—and numerous paintings of a thick-browed king with a receding hairline surrounded by women were all similarly torn up.

Only one portrait was left untouched. A small portrait frame, on the throne itself.

Titled 'In memory of the dearest sister.'

It was a painfully familiar woman, whose pink hair and eyes Nora mirrored. She vaguely resembled the bald king, but with none of the ugliness. Her captured smile was as soft as in life, her gaze lovingly filled with the same light she once held.

"Rorie...?" Her name escaped Nora's lips, her vision blurring as she looked away.

She could almost hear her waving them over, holding their hands. But she shook her head as she wiped her eyes.

Nora was here for a reason. One that Rorie wouldn't have liked. She had to stop the one behind all of this, but she should've known that the throne room would be empty.

Thrones, authority, power. None of those ever interested her, for as far as she knew her.

But where else would she be, if not here?

Rorie's vacant, gentle stare out the window gave her a direction to look.

---

Nora leaped several stories out the window and landed unceremoniously.

If the royal gardens of Kozodia were meant to be greener, then those days were long past. The countless flowers—each said to represent a life that had to be 'Purged' because of the Mieitai—were wilted en masse.

The shadows that swallowed Kozodia whole denied all sunlight. The wind was still, and it was almost just as deathly silent as the rest of the palace.

Except for one faint, unmistakable hum.

Her eyes widened, her boots crunching against the desiccated grass as she rushed to the source of the humming deeper in the gardens. Past a dense array of dried vines lay a place that was sealed off from the outside world.

A large, cracked slab that had the imperial crest carved into the shimmering ivory stone stood beyond the deep corners of the garden. It was pristine and white, in contrast to its decayed surroundings, its glimmer taking on the role of light that would peek through the foliage if there were any.

It was as if it was still lovingly tended to, no doubt courtesy of the cloaked figure kneeling before it, past the steps above.

A woman, whose long, midnight hair flowed down the equally abyssal mantle draped over her. She was kneeling before the memorial, hunched over as the familiar melody continued softly from her.

Her back was turned, but Nora instantly knew who it was. Not in the palace, not sitting on that throne, but here.

The one she hasn't seen in so long, and the one she desperately didn't want it to be.

"Shirei." 

She called out hesitantly as the humming stopped. Every step she took overwhelmed her with a flurry of emotions she could not name. The melancholy that permeated the space was suffocating.

"...Nora." 

Her head lifted, but did not turn. "I didn't think you would have ever left home, let alone be the one to come here."

Nora's voice hitched as she stopped in her tracks. "I had no choice, Shirei. Not when you're doing this."

"I suppose. Did you come alone?" Nora could hear the weariness in each word. "What about the others?"

She steadied her gaze. "They're keeping everyone safe in the Anryo. But nobody wanted to fight either of us. And those that did, they couldn't set foot here."

"I see." Was all she said. "That makes sense."

"What about you?" Nora asked in turn. "I thought I would have to fight my way to you, but there was hardly anyone, not even Rete. Why are you also... all alone?"

Shirei took a deep breath. "I forbade them from joining me. All of this is mine to bear, and mine alone."

"What is? Taking over Kozodia? Revenge? Destroying the world?"

There was an uncomfortable silence. "If only things could have ended with me as queen. But that throne he sat on is a lie. Their 'light' was a lie. Everything about them was a lie. I can't change anything as they were, Nora. Being consort to a lie doesn't give you that power."

She clenched her fist as her head pointed upwards, as she spoke with a conviction that still lacked any pride.

"The only way from here, the only way to make real change... is to let the shadows cover the world."

"Shirei... What do you mean by that?" Her fingers twitched as she took a step forward. "What is there to change, when there'll be nothing left?!"

"I will explain later. We will fight, Nora." Shirei's head shook with a wistful command that left no room for argument, or even a real desire for bloodshed. "But not here."

"Not in front of her."

Nora quickly ascended the small steps. "'You don't mean...?"

"Yes." She shifted herself slightly, revealing a small inscription left in stone, and a small podium in front of a bouquet of dried flowers that held an unmistakable silver whip, the sight of which hit Nora harder than any physical blow could.

"This is where she's resting now."

Kozodia Rorie

"Rorie..."

Before realizing it, Nora found herself kneeling next to Shirei, as if she picked up a silent invitation to join her.

Nora was able to see her face for the first time in forever. She was still recognizably Shirei, but her sharp features from before held an exhaustion in her blackened eyes that wasn't there back then.

The conqueror of Kozodia, the one trying to destroy the world... Right now, it felt like that person wasn't in front of her.

And she too stopped being the hero who had to defeat her.

Just for this moment, standing before Rorie again, they were back to what she called them.

A word they never heard of until they met her.

"You look a lot older," Nora noted.

"That's called aging," Shirei responded similarly. "Humans wrinkle, their hair loses color, or they sometimes lose it outright. You aren't supposed to look the same after all these years."

"Rorie never changed, though. And I kind of took after her."

"Well now she's... Never mind." She stopped herself before focusing back onto the furled whip.

"...I thought I should see her, one last time." Shirei began. "In case she had something to say to me... Even if it's something like 'it was a mistake to ever give you a chance.'" Her voice wavered ever so briefly.

"You know she would never say that," Nora assured the lamenting figure next to her.

"I know." She looked away. "Still, to think that the woman who found us that day was the princess, not a simple villager who lived right outside the Anryo. Do you still remember that day, Nora?"

"I could never forget." Nora's eyes traced the star-shaped head of Rorie's whip. "We were hiding in the Anryo because we hurt somebody and scared everyone. And she was the one who found us."

"...Do you know why she was there that day?" Shirei asked. "Why was she so far away from the palace at that old cottage, while her 'brother' was living in mansions?"

Nora just looked down. At the time, she didn't. But now...

"They made her fight, because only she was able to use that whip," Shirei continued regardless. "And that day, she came out to the borders to Purge the Mieitais...

"That day, she was supposed to kill us for what we did."

With those words, 'Shirei' vanished, the person next to Nora now but a shadowy suggestion of a human, a long-haired silhouette with no other distinct features that could be seen through her abyss.

"After all, we're just 'Mieitais' to them." Shirei's voice reverberated, echoing without a mouth to move. "Unknowable shadows born from the darkness outside the Goddess's Dream. Pure evil that only imitated those of Kozodia's world of light, and didn't belong."

Nora took a deep breath and allowed her own form to waver. 

Her pink hair and blue leather longcoat—that Rorie called lovely when she first made them—faded away for the shadow that she and Shirei always were underneath.

"But she didn't hurt us. She just swung her whip at some trees instead, and fed us a lot of fruit." A small, warm giggle escaped her as she recalled those memories, of them happily munching down on something so delicious as Rorie watched them, crouched. "She then took us into her cottage and looked after us, teaching us so many things about Kozodia, how to get along with people, how..."

"...To be a family."

Nora didn't move to wipe her shadowy tears as they fell into her body. "And love. Not just us, but everyone in the Anryo too."

"She was the only one who thought we should have light, too." There was an ever-so-faint suggestion of a smile over Shirei's nondescript face. Neither of them ever knew what 'light' really was before her, other than something that denied them for what they were not. "She dreamed of a world where we could all live together in peace... I wanted that just as badly. An outcome where everyone is happy."

But that smile didn't last long.

Shirei's appearance reverted to her human form, the one who conquered Kozodia and is drowning the world in shadows, as her cloak fluttered in non-existent wind.

"If only she became queen." She growled, digging her nails into her palm until they merged.

"If only they didn't kill her."