The Legends of Anigma: Ethiel Archer | ONC 2023

PART XI

For quite long, Ethiel sat on a branch outside the tree house, crying with an aching throat, looking at the village below.

Out of everything there was to see, his sad gaze fell over the families down there — especially the ones in which a mother was loving her children. The warmth he felt was making his heart colder. He wasn't envious; he was just furious to have such a fate. To scream or to cry, he didn't know. For all he knew, the crying inside him had become a numbing scream.

The videos — the truth — didn't make him feel any better, like he had thought. They had only landed a finishing blow on his crumbling peace. Questions were on an all-out rampage within his head. He neither had the strength nor the will left to find an answer for them anymore. The one question that bothered him the most was if his mother really loved him. He couldn't stop thinking if she actually loved him as much as she claimed to. All those moments when her abundant love showered over him, proving how he meant more than the world to her were right there, in a corner of his mind, a corner that the shadows of doubts and uncertainties had rendered invisible to the point they felt extinct to his clouded judgement.

His eyes were almost dry and yet they were flooding.

"Mind if I sit here?" Came Lord Veer’s kind voice.

Ethiel looked up. Lord Veer was standing there with Tifa in his arms.

"It's your village." Ethiel wiped his eyes and continued looking at the families.

Lord Veer put Tifa down gently and sat by him, all tall and mighty, making the atmosphere calming.

Tifa silently came around and sat on his left.

"It's your village as much as it is mine," Lord Veer said, and maybe he was smiling, but Ethiel didn't look. "After all it was your mother who helped me make this possible."

"Must've felt great, right?" Ethiel asked, still not able to look at him with tears in his eyes.

"To work with Alice?"

"To get her attention... her time... To be someone she cared for, to be someone she did things for... I mean, she was so great and when she is with you... it feels like everything is shining... and the heavens have come to you... Anyone would love that, right?" He shook his head.

"Would you prefer my honesty?"

Ethiel pursed his lips and nodded.

"I was happy and immensely grateful for having such a friend. I was blessed. But to tell you the truth, I felt like I was being punished. A part of me felt hurt when I was with her."

"Why?"

"Because she was never happy and I knew why," he sighed. "All the time, she'd keep talking about you two, worry about you two. She used to smile thinking of you, she used to cry missing you, and when she felt she couldn't do it, she'd look at photos of you." His chuckle sounded painful. "She might've been born in Anigma, she might've fought for Anigma, but her world was no longer Anigma — it was you. What she did, she did to fulfill her responsibilities. Things are a little complicated than they seem sometimes, and you often end up concluding wrong because you never knew what was actually happening. Actions and words are not everything when it comes to matters of heart — they are, more often than not, decieving if anything — the unspoken feelings, the unseen emotions, and the affection that was never felt because of the complexity of the circumstance sometimes is what truly matters. And I believe that's what the case was with Alice."

Ethiel’s didn't want his heart to be decieved any further. "Then why didn't she ever come to pay us a visit... in all those damn years..."

"I once asked her, when her pain had reached its pinnacle, why she simply didn't go and be with you for some time to make her heart light. I never knew what she was doing until now; she only told me she was doing something important and had to put all her time and effort into it. It was only natural that i assume she didn't have time to see you despite her longings. But her answer gave my heart the pain battles never have and never will."

"What did she say..."

"She was afraid she'd never be able to part with you two again even if it meant the end of everything and everyone. She knew she wouldn't be able to let go of the heaven she had found if she were to see it again."

All of that sadness, all of that anger, and all of those pented emotions erupted as Ethiel shattered and started crying brutally like a little child, his face twisting and turning without any limit.

"Then why didn't she?!!" He looked at Lord Veer. "Why?!!! We would've been able to be together again! I waited for her! I thought she'd come back! Thought I'd see her again! Thought we'd laugh again! Thought everything would be as it used to be..." His broken heart felt lighter as he spilled all of that smothered poison. "But what I got to see was her funeral... didn't even get to see her ghost... Why do I still love her?! Why do I still long for her affection..."

"Because deep down you know, she loved you. You know that whatever she did, she did with regrets and only to fulfill her responsibility." Lord Veer’s eyes understood him.

"It hurts Lord Veer... it hurts..."

Lord Veer took him in his arms.

Ethiel closed his eyes. To be in his arms felt calming for some reason. His fur felt soft, and his aura brought peace even in that gloomy melancholy. Ethiel’s breath became lighter again, and his emotional havoc started to settle slowly and steadily. It felt like he was in the arms of God.

"Ethiel, what has happened to you doesn't feel right to you, I know. You can feel sad. You can complain about your fate. You can be angry at it. But, I don't want you to think even for a second that she didn't love you."

"I just want my old life back... i want her back..." He stayed in his arms for a while; it was soothing.

Tifa’s little hand again patted his head from behind.

"I wish  I could spend more time with her...I wish I can bring her back to life..."

Suddenly, Ethiel’s heart skipped a beat and his eyes opened.

"I can... the Pyramid! It grants three wishes..." He looked up at Lord Veer, desperately expectant for a nod. "It's possible isn't it?"

"It is possible. However, I cannot promise you that it will happen. To put the effort is your right; the fruit of the effort depends of the will of the heavens. If that is fate, then no existent power can stop it, and If not, then all existent power shall prove futile."

"Then I will do this," he sat up straight again.

"What do you mean by I?" Tifa asked.

"Tifa..."

"I know what is in your mind, and I don't wanna hear it," Tifa frowned. "I already told you, Ethiel, my fate shall be the same as yours. Don't take everything on your shoulders and forcefully try to be a hero."

Ethiel looked at her, not knowing what to say.

"Your little sister cannot be convinced otherwise, Ethiel. Worry not, if you decide to embark on this quest, then I swear that I will take care of you two with my life and keep you safe from every danger that lurks this path." Lord Veer patted his shoulders.

Ethiel felt safer already with Lord Veer beside him.

"Thank you, Lord Veer. Really, thanks for your words."

All of Lord Veer’s words felt like a warm fire in amidst a cold, cruel night to him.

"Anytime," he smiled, suffusing the whole atmosphere with a lovely, comforting warmth.