Sempiternity (COMPLETED)

IV

Arend's life was impossibly changed when he realized the full weightiness of the girl who spared his life. He began to feel things he had never felt before, but even so, everything she made him feel was familiar. As if he had once harbored the swirling emotions in his heart, but had locked them away, deep and secure. She unlocked them effortlessly with but a look at him. 

He resented the fact that she was changing him. He hated how she made him feel, absolutely despised the ideas she gave him and the feelings she implanted.

But he could never hate her.

After they had introduced each other — he was apparently her Master and she was his Key — they silently left the warehouse and Arend had led her to walk through the streets with him. As always, he had no real idea where he was going, although now this was out of plain shock instead of him thinking and not paying attention. Everything about the girl defied logic and forced his mind to run around in circles. No matter how hard he tried, there was no way for him to explain what had just happened.

Hours had passed with the two of them walking, neither of them speaking. But Arend found that the silence was comfortable, and that it didn't make him feel irritated or awkward at all, unlike when he was in the presence of anyone else. He would look at her sometimes, glancing over her impossible attire and her perfectly sculpted features, and could feel his entire body growing warmer. But when she looked back at him, he had no choice but to look away. The thought of her looking at him on equal footing when she held so much power above him — when she was so innately superior to him — was absurd. It made him feel ridiculous. This entire thing did.

But it didn't matter. None if it did, he realized. Not when she was by his side. She filled him with a feeling he had never known before. Like the androids that scarred him so long ago, his cold, empty heart was being given a nourishing fluid, one that was of a substance previously unknown.

At this point, he looked around and saw that they were near the dark plains of the city's outskirts. He had unconsciously wandered to where he frequently went, and even now, he was standing still with his hands in his pockets, just staring out to the ruined world before him. 

The night was out in full by now, and the moon was nowhere to be found. Darkness of the deepest depths permeated the night and the land in front of him, and he was not the slightest bit uncomfortable by it. If anything, he felt at ease, for he was some place where — with the girl standing beside him, uncomfortably close - there was no point feeling threatened by anything in the world at this point. Not with her kind of power.

He would have felt perfect, just standing there next to her and never having to speak, but she asked him a question and he felt the hopes of his night be dashed into pieces. Still, her voice was pleasant and soothing to listen to, albeit with much less magnitude and power than it held before. When he realized she had finished speaking, but that he hadn't caught any of the words, he looked to her with a look that was slightly sympathetic. She returned the look with divine patience and not an ounce of irritation; he had never seen such kindness in a person before. It took him moments to gather his wits again and reply.

"...I didn't catch that." His face begin to redden again as he took in the features of her face and those odd tear marks that seemed etched into her skin, and he looked back to the plains. "Say again?"

She mimicked him and looked forward, staring at nothing. He wondered if she was questioning and observing like he always did, or if she was really just doing as he did. "Humans did this, didn't they? Ruined the world. Scarred it." As soothing and sweet as her voice was, a wounded tone of agony was definitely recognizable in her voice.

"...Yes. Yes we have. It's disgusting. I hate it."

"I know. I've seen everything. I know everything. The history of the world is nothing new to me." Arend couldn't help but look at her with confusion at the things she was implying. For once, the girl did not return his gaze, and continued to stare forward. For once, he realized the scars beneath her eyes made her look like she was constantly crying, and that her obsidian tears had been etched into her flesh.