Selphine

Selphine smugly looked down upon us, then jumped down and landed in front of us, giving up the high ground advantage without a care in the world, as clearly we were flies to swat for her. I could now clearly see what the object that she had been holding in her hand was: The Hourglass that Arthur originally used as a test to get initiated into the masked order, before using it himself when forming the new order.

“Hold on.” I said before anyone could do anything. “Before we start, I want to know something.”

“What?” She asked questioningly.

“Why are you doing this?”

“What do you gain by posing me such a question?”

“I don’t gain anything. I don’t need to waste time for Arthur to build up his strength or something of the sort, we’re ready. Like I said, I’m just curious. I want to know what drives you.”

Louise stayed back silently as I began chatting with Selphine, who let out a sharp laugh.

“What drives me? Are you stupid?” She kept laughing. “It’s simple, isn’t it? I don’t want the world to end, I want to keep living.”

“You aren’t alive, Selphine, not as long as you live in this place.”

“And how exactly do you know? You haven’t even been living here for a month, and yet you already claim to know everything, although you know nothing.”

“We both know you’re lying to yourself. The Void eats all your emotions, you’re stuck in perpetual emptiness. I don’t know who you were before coming here but surely that person is long gone.”

“Good. I’m happy she’s gone.” Selphine gritted her teeth, trying not to lose her cool. “That’s what I was trying to do the entire time, and I finally got it. But now, you’re trying to take everything away from me, so why wouldn’t I fight back?”

It was only after hearing those words that I finally realized. How could I have been so blind? The clues were right in front of me, but it took her literally spelling it out to realize that we were literally the same person. Those words of hers…They were the same ones I had used to lie to myself, to run away, to lock myself away in the void.

“I see.” I calmly replied. “I understand that thought process of yours, Selphine. After all, until very recently, I’d been operating the same way.”

“Yet you foolishly did a u turn and are now vouching to destroy the very foundations of our beliefs.”

“Your beliefs are bullshit, it’s just an excuse you made up to make yourself feel better, because you know you’re wrong. I managed to understand this early on, but if I hadn’t, and if I continued on that path for a bit more, I might have even turned into another you: Desperate to be someone else, someone you aren’t, but it’s impossible.”

“Of course it’s possible.” Selphine snorted. “I’ve done it, after all.”

“You haven’t done anything apart from deluding yourself.”

“You little-Shut up already!” She finally seemed to lose her cool.

“Are you angry?” I asked, but she had already calmed back down. “No you aren’t, of course you aren’t. I’m kind of surprised it was this quickly, but it makes sense, since you’ve been living in this shithole for who knows how long.”

“What point are you trying to make here?”

“Nothing, I’m not trying to make any point at all. I can’t taunt you or try to make you angry, because you’ll revert back to an emotionless slate within seconds. You’re a slave to The Void, all because you’re a coward.”

“I’m not a coward!” She yelled, but her anger once again quickly defused.

“Of course you are, you didn’t want to feel sad or upset so you cut off your capacity to experience any emotions at all by coming to this place. What word do you have to describe what you did, if not cowardice?

Louise had remained silent during the entirety of the conversation, watching us intently, but not interfering. She knew now that there was nothing left for her to do, so she slipped out. I knew what she was thinking, she wanted to go help Emmett. I didn’t stop her, instead choosing to focus on Selphine, who was now the only person in the room with me.

“Why are you judging me? What’s wrong with any of what I’ve done? I haven’t harmed anyone, have I? You’re the ones who want to kill us all, I’m simply defending myself.”

“You won’t die, you’ll just be expelled from The Void.”

“It’s the same thing!” She suddenly screeched, the look of terror remained on her face for much longer than the anger did, clearly showing her fear of leaving this place.

“It’s not, you’ll go back to Earth and-”

“No!” she yelled. “I can’t go back there, none of us can! It’s basically dying! You might as well have pulled the trigger yourself!”

With the look of terror now slowly returning back to a neutral expression, Selphine placed the hourglass into a portal, closed it, and then immediately conjured up a thunder bolt that was about twice as large as her from thin air instantly and sent it towards me.

I suddenly felt different, as if I was looking into this body and wasn’t controlling it. He’d taken charge.

The bolt stopped in mid air, colliding with a shield the person that was currently residing inside this body had created. The shield and bolt both disappeared.

Arthur made eye contact with Selphine and both of them smirked.

“Time for round two.” He whispered calmly before the two began launching hordes of spells at each other.

Arthur sent a huge flame towards Selphine, which she managed to catch with the palm of her hand, instantly disintegrating it. She then proceeded to counter attack by sending waves of lightning crashing towards him, but he easily dodged. A small lightning blade managed to hit him in the side of his arm, but he quickly brushed it off.

The two faced off against each other, their smirk now turned into a full on smile. Of course, eventually that smile would disappear, but all they had to do was fight more and keep recreating that thrill that came with the fight. And so, they charged at each other once again.