Grief changed people, it broke and molded them in odd angles that didn't fit back in anymore. No matter how hard, how desperate, no one would ever be who they were once they'd experienced loss and death. And the woman with scarlet hair had seen and felt more than any mortal. She was burdened with a restless soul that ever hungrily craved damnation.
Her eyes never shined that brilliant jade, her cheeks had hollowed significantly, her hair had lost its vibrancy and she never wore a smile like she used to.
A name was a peculiar thing. The power it held was unmatched and the weight it carried crushed every being. One name was a blessing, two was only natural, but three? Three was a curse.
And she was cursed with three names. Three promises. She had took a vow, ages ago, when she was a mere child frightened, alone and angry at the world, at Master, at herself. She soon killed that child. The scars circling up her arms like poisonous vines told the story of a lonely girl whose soul was stained with blood of the many.
She knew she could heal them if she'd only willed it. But it wasn't right, to forget the lives she'd taken, the chaos she'd unleashed upon the sinless. Could she really? Forget the screams and pleas? The heavy burden of her responsibilities and mistakes buried in unmarked graves?
She never had.
And yet she craved the solitude of her lonesome life. It had been easier then, she could find solace in her own chaos. She could remain a nameless terrible thing soaked in the blood of a thousand saints. She wouldn't have been a mother anymore. She wouldn't be haunted by the burning image of blackened corpses behind every blink.
Don't blink.
"Lucretia?"
A promise to the dead.
The woman looked up from the table to see the jovial face of Aleksander. She wanted to rip it off. "Yes." She smiled.
"I want you to meet someone." He extended his palm for her to take as his lips tugged into a grin.
Lucretia complied wordlessly and walked with Aleksander out of the hut. The cool air nipped at her cheeks but she didn't care as the silhouette of a woman came into her view.
