No Such Thing as Good and Evil

As the effect of the electrical shock slowly wore off, Shade got to his feet and grunted in pain. “I see she’s gotten stronger.” He groaned to himself. He dusted himself off, looked at the now fallen tree behind him, then back to the cabin, where there was now a comically large hole where he flew through the wall next to the door. He walked back to the cabin and through the hole.

“I see you lived.” Aerith said sarcastically.

“I’m not paying for that.” He responded, motioning toward the hole in the wall.

“I wasn’t expecting you to pay for it. You have to save up your money for slaves, right?”

He sighed “I only bought her because they were going to sell her for parts.”

“Well, that changes everything. What a heroic act. I mean it’s not like you’re a goddamned one-man army and could’ve saved all of them.”

“Oh, I should’ve gone out of my way to save everyone?" He replied annoyed. "And what of you? You’re strong enough to go around saving people, but instead, you’re playing mommy in an ‘Herbery’ in the middle of nowhere. You bailed on the life of saving people, a life I continued to live long after you quit, so I don’t need a speech from you on saving people.”

“I never quit saving people, I just changed how I saved them. Instead of the mindless, endless killing of bounty hunting and being an ‘adventurer’, I now save people with medicines and antidotes.” She snarled back.

“Well, next time I’m there, I’ll make sure to throw some of your medicines and antidotes at those slaves. We’ll see if that saves them.” He replied, Aerith grunted and turned away from him. “Honestly, I don’t care about what you’re doing with your life, and I don’t care about what you think I should be doing with mine. The only reason I’m here is because like you said, you can heal people. Can you just see if you can help her, then I can be on my way, and you can go back to thinking I’m dead for all I care.”

She looked at Faylen, who had been behind the two of them nervously watching the argument take place. She sighed, “Fine, follow me.” She walked through the gate to the counter and the door to the backroom. Shade followed and motions for Faylen to do the same, as Elmyra trailed behind the two of them.

The back room looked like a large kitchen mixed with a greenery. Pots and plants littered counters, with vials and bowls next to them all containing various leaves and liquids. Aerith though walked up to an empty bookshelf in the back corner. She moved the bookshelf to the side which revealed a hidden staircase. “Real original.” he said.

“What?” Elmyra said shocked. “There's a secret room behind that old bookshelf?”

“It’s empty.” Aerith replied somberly. “A relic from my old life, a life I had tried to forget, until another relic walked through the front door.” Then disappeared down the stairs as all the others followed close behind. She got to the bottom and flipped a switch, which caused all the lanterns to light up with fire from the red crystals within them and revealed a large, mostly empty all stone room that looked like a stereotypical dungeon, with dust and cobwebs everywhere. A large stone table, roughly the size of a person, sat in the middle of the room.

“Cool trick.” Shade said impressed.

“It’s not really a trick, most houses and buildings have them now. Have you been living under a rock all this time?” she said, and looked at him confused.

“Does living under the influence of alcohol count as a rock?” he joked.

Aerith paused, narrowed her eyes. “Wait, you know about… oh never mind.” Then turned to Faylen. “I’m sorry dear, but unfortunately, for me to get a good feel of what’s going on inside of you, you can’t be wearing any clothes.”

Faylen looked at the table than looked over at Shade nervously. She wasn’t nervous about disrobing, unfortunately due to her prior circumstances, she had been naked in front of many people. She was nervous because of where they were, and who this woman was. He had brought her to a curse breaker, but why? She already told him that she had been to many curse breakers, and none have been able to cure her. So, who was this woman who he thought could break what others hadn't been able to. And what were they talking about upstairs, her having echos?

Shade motions for her to follow what Aerith said, so she slowly disrobed and stood in the middle of the room naked.

“I would ask you to turn away, but from the sound of things you’ve already seen her naked, so I guess there’s no point.” Aerith said pointedly to Shade.

“I’ve seen you naked as well, are you going to disrobe too?” he responded with a sly smile.

“Elmyra dear, remind me to throw him through the other wall after we’re finished.” She replied calmly.

“Just more repair costs for you.” He whispered under his breathe.

Aerith, who heard him, ignored the comment. “Ok dear, now I need you to lay down flat on your stomach on the table there.”

Faylen slowly walked up to the table, climbed up and laid down on her stomach. She twitched from how cold the stone was. Aerith then walked up to the table and placed her hands on Faylens back, in between her wings then began spreading around an ointment.

“Have you seen anything like this before?” Shade said as he walked up to the table beside her.

“Actually, lucky for you, I have. A boy with no echos at all, or at least that’s what people thought. But when his parents brought him to me looking for some sort of medicine, I could sense echos in him. After running some tests, I concluded he was cursed, but like this girl here, his parents claimed to have brought him to many curse breakers, with none being able to find it.”

“Odd, why can’t others sense them, but we can?” he asked.

“I’m not 100 percent sure myself of why, but I’ll tell you my working theory. As you know, echos flow through your veins like blood. Echos are of course produced by your soul. You don’t start producing echos until after you’re born though, after your soul comes into existence. The way people generally sense echos, is they sense the amount flowing through your veins, or how much echos you’re giving off at a certain time. A simple way to try and hide your power, is to stop the flow of echos through your veins. But more powerful people, like you or me, could still sense the residual echos from when they did flow through their veins. A more advanced technique of course, is to do what you can do, using your echos, to hide your echos. Honestly, it doesn’t really make sense scientifically speaking, and I’m not entirely sure how it works, but you can do it, so I can’t question it. Anyway, my theory is that people can’t sense her echos, because echos have never flowed through her. She’s never used any. My theory is that what you and me sense, isn’t her echos exactly, it’s her soul. Because of our so called ‘dark echos’, you and me can take peoples souls out of their bodies and manipulate them. What you and me are sensing is her soul, and her soul producing large amounts of echos with nowhere to go. Anyone who can’t manipulate souls can’t sense her echos. I’m guessing whatever bandit you ran into had some sort of dark power in his blood.”

Shade thought back to the wolf he killed. “His fur was all black, there’s a good chance he did, though that would be stereotyping fur color.” He paused. “Why do you think her soul doesn’t send echos around her body though?”

“A curse, like any other. Think of the slave collar. What does it do? How does it control the echos of its subject? It blocks, or limits the amount of echos the soul sends through the body. I’m not saying she has a slave curse exactly on her, but something similar, something that stops the soul from releasing echos. The reason I believe she’s never had any at all, is that the curse was somehow put on her while she was still in the womb, therefore when she was born and her soul began making echos, it couldn’t release them, making it seem like she never had any.”

Faylen lay quietly on the cold stone table, but her head was spinning. What are they talking about? Could I really have echos? No, don’t get your hopes up. You’ve been to many breakers before, and nobody could help.

“But if it’s a curse, shouldn’t other curse breakers have been able to find it?” Shade said confused.

“You would think, but for some reason they seemingly can’t. I’m not entirely sure why, but maybe it’s due to the soul again somehow, or maybe due to our greater ability to sense echos or maybe a combination of the two? I never looked into it as I never saw anything like it again, until now.”

“The boy from back then, what happened to him?” he asked.

She looked sullenly down at Faylen and paused before replying. “Back then, I ended up being able to break the curse on him. But right after I broke it, he died. I couldn’t save him. I haven’t done any curse breaking since then.” She paused again. “If this is like that case, I should be able to break her curse, but there’s no guarantee she makes it.” She finished spreading the ointment around Faylens back and took a deep breath, calming herself. “I just realized; I don’t think you’ve ever told me what this girls name is. Darling, mind telling me your name?”

“Faylen.”

“Faylen, what a beautiful name. Well Faylen, I’m ready to begin, but once I start there’s no going back. Like you may have heard, if I do manage to find and break whatever is inside you, you could die. I don’t consider you a slave of this asshole over here. Your life is your own. So, before I begin, I want to make sure. Is this something you wish to do?”

“Could’ve asked her before she stripped down naked.” Shade joked to Elmyra as he backed away from the table.

Faylen lay on the stone table in silence as thoughts continued to race through her head. She had long given up any hope at being cured, of being normal, of being anything other than a slave. She thought about what Shade had said when he was going to release her, how not all powerless people become slaves. But within minutes of leaving the safety of the town nearby his house, if it wasn’t for him, she would’ve been kidnapped again. She figured that if she didn't move forward with this, and he released her again, she would likely get kidnapped and become a slave once more. She thought about the torture and rape she experienced and shivered at the thought of it happening again.

Then she thought about dying. Would dying be worse than living as a powerless slave? She thought about Shade not believing in the gods. She had always believed in them and was terrified Shade was going to eat her soul when they first met. But what if he was right, what if they don’t exist, what does that look like? What does no longer existing look like? Never ending nothingness, darkness? This also caused her to shiver.

“If I’m cured, would I still be weak? Or could I become strong.” She said in a nervous whisper as she remembered them talking about how much echos she may have.

“It’s hard to say, but judging from what I can sense, you would be quite strong.” Aerith smiled softly.

Faylen took a deep breath as she came to her decision. “I would rather die than stay a weak slave. If you think I can be strong, then I wish to go through with this.”

Aerith nodded, then without saying another word, her eyes turned black and her hair began to fly behind her as if a tornado had just rolled through the basement. Then, Faylens eyes turned the same black as Aerith pumped echos into Faylen as she tried to find the curse. Shade stood next to the Elmyra calmly, but Elmyra looked on nervously, hands clasped together and eyes wide open. “I assume you’ve never seen her do this before?” he said.

“I’m not even sure what it is she’s doing.” She responded.

“Curse breaking. Your mother used to be the best curse breaker around. That is before she retired to play with plants apparently.”

“Just as I thought.” Aerith said. “A simple low level echos blocking curse.” She then slowly raised her hands off Faylens back, and from her back, black mist began to come out.

“What’s that?” Elmyra said, eyes wide.

“That’s the curse.” he responded.

Aeriths hands reached all the way above her head, and the mist stopped protruding from Faylens back. Then the mist in the air disappeared and Aeriths eyes turned back to normal. “The curse is broken.” She said as she looked at Faylen nervously.

Faylens eyes then turned back to normal as well for a second. Then, she began screaming a blood curdling scream while she viciously writhed around in pain on the table.

“This is what happened last time. She’s going to die.” Aerith said defeated, eyes wide as she slowly backed away from the table.

Shade in a panic tried thinking of what to do as light began to come out of Faylens eyes like a lantern. He tried sensing her echos again, there was a ton of it, flowing out all at once. “Her echos, it’s the echos. Her body can’t handle it. Her soul has been making echos for years with nowhere for them to go. Now it’s all being released at once. Her veins can’t take it.” He then turned around and raced up the stairs. He darted through the back room, into the main lobby and picked up the slave collar off the ground. He then darted back down the stairs, ran up to the table, grabbed Faylen and stopped her from writhing around. Then he placed the collar around her neck, re-connected to her, and used the connection to block the flow of echos from her soul. Faylen then stopped screaming, and the light coming from her eyes dimmed and disappeared.

“Are you okay!” Elmyra yelled running over to her.

“I’m…fine.” Faylen responded in a gasp. Then slowly sat up and tried to catch her breath.

Aerith looked over at Shade shocked at his quick thinking, while Shade was just staring at Faylen. She then walked over to the clothes on the ground, picked them up and brought them over to Faylen. “Put these back on so the perv stops eyeing you up.”

“I’m not looking at her body.” he said in shock as he stared right at her. “Her wings.”

Aerith looked at her wings and her eyes went wide again. Her wing were now a bright rainbow, with the colors seemingly moving throughout the wings. Her eyes were now also a bright gold, and her hair was a shining golden blonde. “Rainbow wings?” She gasped.

Faylen slowly got up off the table and put on her clothes. She then took a look at her wings herself. She paused for a second, began sniffling, then fell to her knees and began sobbing.

“What’s wrong?” Elmyra asked.

“It must be a lot to take in.” Aerith replied. “Having thought your whole life to be some devil spawn with no echos, to now finding out you’ve probably been cursed from birth. Come Elmyra, let’s leave her alone for a while. Faylen, when you’re ready, come upstairs.” She said, then disappeared up the stairs. Shade followed and Elmyra waited for a second before she turned and went up the stairs as well.

The 3 of them sat at a round table in the middle of the main lobby. “A princess?” Elmyra asked.

“Doesn’t have to be a princess, could be a bastard child of sort, or a dukes or Duchess child, but yes, rainbow wings with golden eyes does usually mean related to some sort of royalty.” Aerith replied.

“It also explains why she was thrown out. Can’t have the public find out about a royal having a kid with no echos.” Shade said.

“But if she’s related to royalty, that means someone placed a curse on the child of a royal. And if it was as I think, as she was still in the womb, someone would’ve had to have access to whatever royal woman was pregnant to place the curse on her.” Aerith said back.

“Maybe some sort of hired assassin? But why not just kill them, or kill the baby after its born?” Shade replied.

“I don’t think so.” Aerith said. “A hired assassin able to get past all the royal guards would have to be quite powerful, this was quite a low-level curse, amateurish really. To me, it seems like it was placed on her by someone the mother trusted. Or at least, knew.”

“You might be right.” Shade replied, then paused. “Well, we’ll probably never know. The first order of business is figuring out what to do now. You don’t happen to have any remedies that strengthen the body or veins, do you?”

“I have some that temporarily strengthen your muscles, but veins aren’t exactly muscles, though they work like them. Realistically, the only way is for her to use her echos and slowly strengthen the veins.”

Shade sighed. “Well, there’s an issue. She needs to have the collar on to regulate her echos flow. But slave collars need to be somewhere in the general vicinity of their master, otherwise they don’t work. Meaning she would have to stay with me or else she would die.” He paused. “Or someone could constantly place various echos blocking curses on her, then break them as she outgrows them.” He said looking toward Aerith.

“Oh no, you’re not pawning her off on me. If you’re worried about her training, you should train her yourself.”

Faylen then slowly walked through the doorway and through the gate in the counter, then silently took a seat at the table, eyes still red from crying.

“Feeling better?” Elmyra said. Faylen slowly nodded her head.

Elmyra got up and walked behind the counter than came back to the table with a small glass container. “Here, take one of these a day, it should help with some stamina. If you feel any of the side effects written on the back, stop taking them.”

Faylen grabbed the bottle, then looked at the back, then over to Shade.

“She can’t read.” He said.

“Can’t read? Aerith replied surprised.

Faylen shook her head while looking down at the table.

Aerith sighed, then started tapping the table in front of her repeatedly while looking around the room in thought, then looked over at Shade. “Alright Shade, I have a proposal for you. Elmyra here wants to become a knight for some reason. She’s planning on a year from now attending the knight academy in Alessandria.”

“The one Gaelin works at?” Shade asked.

“The one and the same. I hate to admit it, but when it comes to a fight, you’re much stronger than I am. I’ve found that Elmyra is quite strong for her age, and she could use some training from someone strong like you. I propose you and Faylen stay here for a while, you help train my daughter in combat and in return her and I will teach Faylen some basic things, like reading, writing, and maybe some potion making as well as various other things involved with the Herbery. Of course, while training Elmyra you can also train Faylen so her veins get used to using echos. Thoughts?”

Shade leaned back in his chair. “As little as I think you want me here, I equally don’t want to be here.” He then looked over at Faylen. “You know, before we came here, I was going to release her. Well actually, i did release her. I took off her collar, and led her out of my house, which is when I realized she had all this power in her. Though I think I also realized it when I drunkenly purchased her, but I don’t exactly remember. Anyway Faylen, like Aerith said earlier, I don’t consider you my slave either, that collar is just there now to regulate your echos. You don’t have to answer this now, we can stay here a few days while you think about it, but now that you have echos and aren’t cursed, what is it you want to do? Based on that answer, I’ll give Aerith mine.”

"I'm not your slave anymore?" She asked looking at him.

"No, not my slave, not anyone's slave. You're a free woman. Though you better not freak out like you did earlier. You have power now, well some at least, and you need to wear a collar in order not to die, but that's besides the point. Honestly, i feel bad for what my drunk self did to you, but my drunk self is also the only reason you're still alive so i guess evens even right." he replied.

She sat there quietly for a moment, and he went to get up, but before he did, she responded. “While we were walking here, I spent a lot of time thinking about what you said after you killed those 2 bandits and raped the other.” Aerith shot Shade a disgusted and angry look, while he tried to pretend he didn't see it. “ I still think what you did to that bandit was wrong. I think doing things they do to others makes us no better than them. But i thought on why i didn't care about you killing the other two. I don't think it's because society doesn't care about killing like you claim. I think most normal people would, so i thought about why i didn't." She paused and shivered before taking a deep breath. "I’m not over what they did to me, the rape, the torture, the pain. Its only been a few weeks, but I’ll never forget and I’ll never get over it. The way you guys talked about me; you made it sound like I could be strong, powerful. That’s why I went through with this, even knowing I could die.” She paused again, then began to look extremely angry. “You know what I want? I want revenge. I want to free the other slaves and kill all those shitty slavers. That's why i didn't care about you killing those bandits, because if i could've, that's what i would have done as well.”

He looked at her with shock as he was rather surprised by her answer. Just earlier today she seemed to be in complete shock by the very sight of dead bodies, now she says she would have done the same thing and wants to kill scores of people. His look turned from shock to skepticism as he replied. “Revenge wrapped up in a noble cause, sounds great. But can you actually do it? Killing a ‘bad’ person sounds simple, but no matter how ‘bad’ somehow is, killing is killing. Not only that, but odds would say that during your quest some innocent people will get caught up in the crossfire. Are you sure that you can handle killing people, taking lives? Many people say they can, but I’ve seen those same people become broken, depressed and suicidal. A life of killing either turns you into a monster or a depressed alcoholic running away from your past, like me. Do you really think you have the fortitude, not just physically, but mentally to actually kill scores of people? Do you think your closet is big enough to house all those skeletons? The well in your conscious deep enough to hold all that blood?”

“I… don’t know. But I won’t know until I try. Knowing what those people are going through, the torture they are experiencing every day, and knowing that I might have the power to stop it, how could I not try to?” She replied defiantly.

“Aerith and I tried for years. We killed and killed and killed, and slavers kept popping back up like rats. All we got was blood on our hands, and ptsd in our minds. Eventually, I guess, we both just kind of gave up.” He said softly.

“Maybe I’ll end up the same. But you two were doing it for money or because you thought it was right. But you don’t have the connection I do, the pain I have. The memories, the horror. The drive to kill them is much stronger in me then it’ll ever be in you.” She replied with fury and intent in her voice.

He stared at her quietly for a moment. The frail, quiet, emotionless slave he had bought was now a strong looking girl who talked about killing scores of people. He wondered when this happened. Did she think about wanting to kill me while my drunken self used her? He looked her in the eyes and found the dead eyes that had gave up life before now had fire and determination in them. He then looked over at Aerith. “Well, she’s right, there is really only one way to find if she can handle killing people, and that’s to kill people.” He paused. “Does the nearest town at least still have good taverns in it?”

“Yes, there’s dozens of taverns.” She replied with a smile.

He sighed “Fine, we can stay for a few months, but don’t be mad if it turns out I’m a bad teacher. Also, Faylen, if you really want to stop slavers and save people, maybe you should yourself try to become a knight. We should go visit Gaelin at some point and see if he can get you into that Knight academy. It would probably be much better training than anything I can provide anyway.”

Elmyra looked over excited. “Yes, we can go together! Most people who go there are all nobles, so I was worried I wouldn’t know anyone, but if you’re there that would fix that!”

“You’ve known her for maybe an hour.” Shade joked.

“But by then I will have known her for almost a year!” Elmyra responded.

“You’re just trying to pawn her training off on Gaelin, aren’t you.” Aerith said crossing her arms.

“Yes, but it’s also the best course for her. Even if she decides not to become a knight, the connections with important people there will come in handy. Also, like Elmyra said, a lot of nobles go there, maybe she can find something out about who her parents were, if she wants to that is.”

“I don’t care who they were, they threw me out like everyone else.” Faylen said coldly.

“Maybe, maybe not. You don’t actually know who you are, where you came from, or what happened to your parents. Just guesses. You don’t have to look into it, but it might bring some sort of closure.” He replied getting up. “Either way, I’m going to go take a nap then go into town and drink my eyeballs out. I’m guessing you have guest rooms, unless you want to sleep with me like the old days Aerith.” He said with a wink.

“I would rather die. The first 2 doors on the second floor are both guest rooms, take either of them.” She responded.

“Rather harsh.” He mumbled, then walked over to the stairs and disappeared up them to the second floor.