Innocence One-Shots!

3rd Place: Areida by vanessa5836

The third place winner of the one-shot contest was Areida by vanessa5836!

This could totally become a whole story all by itself, and vanessa5836's stories always have very unique character names! The premise was super unique, and I loved seeing moments of my story through a totally new set of eyes (and character)!! Your one shot & character strayed a bit far from the Innocence-canon, but were clearly thought out & I saw a lot of parallels/themes that were really cool. I was so sad by the end!!

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I held my breath as he passed, trying to brace myself for the intense pain that I always felt when I sensed how close he was. He couldn't see me, but I could see him oh so clearly. 

William.

I had been watching him for at least a century before he went home, but I suspect more time has passed since then, since time changes, depending on the realm.

William came to my Island home, Neverland, around 1883 according to him. Each realm has different versions of time, and in Neverland, time is slower, so when you go to the realm with no magic, more time has passed there than here.

You might be wondering who I am? well, my name is Areida. I'm what happens when the most powerful Siren in existence falls in love with the most powerful Kapre. Though both are considered villains, or at least dangerous, their love, in addition to their land and water magic, managed to create me, a wielder of all light and dark magic, including moon magic. 

Unfortunately, that creation broke the ancient laws of magic, set by some unknown force. My very existence defies nature.

Long story short, my parents were destroyed by the Council immediately after my discovery, and I went into hiding. A thousand years after this occurrence, all of the creatures who knew of my existence were dead. It didn't matter anyway. I lived in my own realm.

Somehow, when I was only 200 years old, I created my own realm. It was designed to put a clear layer of magic over all of the other realms, separating me from all other beings and creatures. I could observe, and not be disturbed. It was supposed to be painless.

Most beings of magic, particularly the villains, can sense how much power another being has, and me magic could pretty much blow all of theirs out of the water. (That is probably the primary reason why I'm not supposed to exist. Most of the time, when beings are more powerful, everyone else wants them destroyed. Funny how that works.)

Anyway, I tried to just go about watching people, and sometimes even slightly influencing their fates, although not too much. At first, I spent all my time in the realm without magic, but every once in a while, when a human proves themselves worthy, they are able to see through the layer. They see me, freak out, and I strongly dislike having to erase memories, but I am forced to. It is probably one of the most energy draining and disgusting things I've ever done.

For the most part though, they don't see me. They only kind of know I'm there, but ironically enough, most realms even know of me by another name, other than Areida, and I kind of like it.

Karma.

Most think that Karma is a kind of magic or fate, but no, when someone says Karma, they are actually referring to me. When you let your dark side have control, I believe there should be a consequence, so I make sure that in your future, something equally dark happens to you. Vice versa with light. 

I never even wanted my life different. I just accepted it as it was, and tried to help as many people as possible. After I got tired of the realm without magic, I tried out all of the other realms and settled on Neverland.