Alchemised

by SenLinYu

“This was ours…” She swallowed, blinking hard. “They took it from us, but it was ours.”

I thought that we could suffer enough to earn each other.”

She didn’t know if she could be a good mother, or if wanting to keep this baby wasn’t just her selfishness rearing its head. Her inability to let go. To love someone. To be needed.

“I’m the one who blew up the West Port Lab,” she said quickly, before the rings could spark. “I used to help Luc study pyromancy theory. I wasn’t supposed to, but he did better with companionship, so I studied it, too, even though I didn’t have the resonance. I used those principles and theory to design the bombs, and then I used necrothralls to plant them. Because I am the last member of the Eternal Flame.”

“The first promise I made to you was that I’d be yours for as long as I live. I’m keeping that one.”

“We have to stop hurting ourselves for each other,” she finally said. “Both of us. We’re not going to last if this is the only way we know how to love.”

She studied him sadly, realising their difference: He didn’t have any dreams about what he’d do or be after the war. He had never even allowed for the possibility. He had no idea how to do anything but be a soldier.

“We said always, didn’t we?” she asked, her voice strained. “Always. Well, if you don’t want that promise in full any longer, I’ll give it to you in increments.” She clutched his hand tighter. “Every day. I’ll choose you. That way you’ll know it’s still what I want.”

“I’m sure there will be good days and bad days for us. Too much has happened to ever really put it behind us, but if you choose me, and I choose you, I think we’re strong enough to make it.”

How different it could have been if the international community had decided to put even a negligible amount of effort into caring sooner.

“Love isn’t as pretty or pure as people like to think. There’s a darkness in it sometimes. Kaine and I go hand in hand. I made him who he is. I knew what that array meant when I saved him. If he’s a monster, then I’m his creator.”

she doesn’t deserve to be forgotten like this. She shouldn’t be a footnote. This shouldn’t be the only entry she even has. She deserves her own chapter. She deserves a whole damned book of her own.”

She was a non-active member of the Order of the Eternal Flame and did not fight.