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How did it feel to see one’s heart shatter? Would he ever feel regret, if he looked back on her face, met her in the eyes as pain stabbed her in the gut? As he took everything she thought was certain and turned it on its head?
She would never know the answer to these questions, not in a lifetime so distant from her roots; from her home. Dancing through the stars had been traded for world after world of pain- empires falling to chaos, lives traded and lost in the hands of forced traitors, worlds evolving through time and falling in capture- decades upon decades of worlds thrust in her hands. For once the rules seemed simple; find the one bound to you, and survive. Yet here they were falling through her fingers.
"We've been looking for you all day! We were supposed to be soulmates!” Scott screamed.
“We are!”
“Then why, Pearl, did you never come looking? Why did you risk your life in the Nether?” Because it would not have mattered anyway. Just another death under my belt, another world ending in pain. It did not matter what happened in the in-betweens, for she would fall again without fail.
“Does it really matter? We can still be-”
“No. You chose this, Pearl. I will never be soulmates with you.” Weak monster meant to die. Scott stepped away from her. “I’ve chosen something else. Someone else.”
“But-”
“I suggest you do the same.” He turned his back to Pearl, running away without a single glance back.
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Pearl was on the precipice of tears, wrapped up in memories and thoughts she could never escape. Thoughts that screamed of her incompetence, of the blood on her hands.
She was not always a tool to be used and thrown away. Perhaps she was never meant to be one, back when her days were as simple as playing in the emerald hills behind the house. Back before names held worth, precious things tied to identities and power.
Pearl could not identify the single moment when she looked at herself and no longer thought of herself as a carefree child but as a monster. The last time she felt like a person, worthy of love and attention freely given in the form of brushing of wings and gentle smiles. The only person glaring back at her now was a warrior dressed in scarlet garments, an unnerving smile gracing her face. It was better now, she supposed, to be uncaring in a world meant for suffering.
She strode past the cracked glass that adorned the walls of her hut, stretching out a hand to hook onto the posts holding the structure up. It was simple and sturdy in the billowing wind, safe as an outpost could be in the middle of what was less a home than a battleground. Rolling hills provided cover from peaking eyes, futile against the residents that made up the land.
“It isn’t much now, is it?” She whispered thoughtless words thrown at the wind to block the silence. A silence that still echoed louder, obvious in every breath. A silence that only proved how much of an unlovable monster she was, broken and weak and-
A wet snout interrupted her thoughts, breaking a cycle that would only end in sobbing. Silver fur brushed her fingertips, pushing against them gently. Pearl buried herself into the dog, hiding her face from the outside world.
“At least I have you, Tillie. For you, the world.” Tillie barked, tail wagging frantically. Pearl only smiled.
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Her name was not Hyades, not anymore. She did not hold the power she once had, the weight of her name. But she supposed she could adorn that title one final time, for one last hurrah.
The world would pay if they so dared lay one hand on what she claimed as her own.
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Scar was here. It was strange, to sit by one who had chased her down, killing her a lifetime ago, though he would never know that. They would forget, the betrayals and backstabbing and lives she had fumbled through time after time after time. They would forget, and she would remember, and she would wince every time they called her name. Yet here she was standing next to her murderer.
“Ya know, you really scared me earlier, when I saw your red clothes.” He spoke in a lighthearted manner, but still, a silent wound formed. Red dripped across her like blood, and she was a monster, but a monster could hide under a mask, and she could hide in a smile.
“Naw it’s okay! I’m not murderous for you.” He had done nothing wrong, not in this world. “Just Scott.” Scar laughed, and for a second the world was at peace.
“I think you should trap him,” and there was a murderous gleam in his eyes, far detached from the carefree look Scar had adorned only moments before. “Make it so he falls to his death.”
“I just want to hurt him, I don’t want to kill him.” Pearl had hurt him, killed him, in her mind a thousand times. But picking up the blade to stab him in the heart went against the very instincts in her bones. Bonded and broken, but never slain.
“How about torture?” She snapped her head up to Scar, looking him in the eyes. “I have snow, it would be a decent show. Knock 'em down on their feet.” He pulled out a bucket.
The smile on Pearl's face when she grabbed the bucket of snow was answer enough.
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“She’s insane”, they would whisper. Was it insanity to want to be noticed? Surely not, in a world of people who screamed, cried, killed to be recognized and feared. “She’s cursed,” They say to her face, and for once they are correct. It was a curse burdened by stars and eyes that saw everything and anything in the world. It was a curse to be considered weak and dull standing next to her kin. It was a curse to be Pearl, and it only brought destruction.
And so she stayed up in her watchtower, gazing over the land, only wandering the surface to provoke the ones who hurt her. Collecting and discarding alliances with ease known only by a general, unhinged in madness yet sound of mind. She was carefully distant. How can one trust when one has been cast away one too many times?
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Joel and Etho were neither friend nor foe, but still, every ounce of her soul screamed danger, danger, danger. Danger is the children of old, cold madness twists in their veins, hidden and powerful. Danger, for they had slain her once before, but all was forgiven when all forgot. But she pulled laughter from her bones, and called and joked with the two men, smiling despite herself. Joel grinned back, and Pearl could pretend that everything was alright.
“Watcha got there?” Etho spoke, his voice deep and true and full of mirth. Pearl held up the bucket.
“Just a little something, to annoy my bounded.”
“Gonna show us?” Joel said, sliding over towards her. Pearl nodded, stepping away from the two men.
She dumped the contents out on the ground, snow pouring out in a miniature blizzard, landing at her feet. Pearl stepped into the powder, tucking herself in a little ball. It only took a moment before her skin began to burn, dull repetitive pain thumping in her skin.
“It’s just a little tickle!” She exclaimed, chattering teeth pulled back in a grimace. “Just a little tickle tickle!” Anything to make her soulmate, partner, enemy, soulbound suffer. Anything to make them feel an inkling of the agony of a broken heart beating weakly in a monster’s chest.
“You look… cold,” Joel spoke in concerned measure. Fresh snow dusted her eyebrows, her eyes crazed in swirling red anger.
“I’m very cold, actually a little shivery right now,” A smile blossomed. How did it feel to be warm, to be cared for? It was a feeling of distant memories; her body would never feel warmth again. What was a little more ice pouring through her veins?
Pearl could feel the pain in her gut, her fingertips slowly turning black. It was alright, she supposed. They would leave ebony scars on her skin, but surface scars healed (She wondered if mental wounds were so simple to heal).
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Pearl dug her hands into the soil, pushing into the granulated dirt. Rhythmically pulled at the stalks of wheat she grew, because for once in her life it was something she created that lasted. The hands that had been carved for bloodshed and branded for destruction now tended crops in the sky. They were shaky and uncertain but they were proud; speaking a language foreign to them.
Maybe there was peace in the weeds of teeny gardens scraping the sky. Maybe, but what good was it to hope when the inevitable came rushing down like a mighty river? Soon every plant Pearl tended would disappear, gone the moment she closed her eyes one final time. Maybe she could look after the wheat for a lifetime, but it would not be easy. After all, there were still thorns in the grass.
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Pearl had not wanted to kill. It was never her intention to have lives bleed from her hands, not in this world. Pearl was a murderer, a monster, but she had only wanted good. Yet here she was, blood on her hands as she ran through the fingers of Tillie as she sat by the dead dog, and swore to avenge her one last time.
Pulling from power long abandoned, strands of code and purple magic flowing through her vision, wings burst through her clothing. Her eyes glowed violet, beautiful and deadly, matching the hundreds of eyes appearing in the air around her. Her name was Hyades, just for a second, a distant memory of a title and power. Power that now poured in every being of her soul, focused and steady and strong.
And throughout it, pallid and pale skin burst past the branches, crackling laughter sang in the tune of warriors, and blood and strength poured out of her. Hundreds of luminescent indigo eyes chanted run, run, run, child of wars and battlegrounds, you have angered the queen. Now suffer in your defeat, for her patience has run thin and there is nowhere left to hide. White crystal wings bursting in glowing purple strands, an ax adorning her hands, for once portraying the strength hidden within her skin. The queen had come, and no one would stand in her way.
“I’ve played along for just a bit too long, haven’t I? Makes you all underestimate me, poor little Pearl abandoned and alone, hmm?” She strode forward, oozing the confidence of a predator whose prey was already caught. The battle had scarcely been fought, but Pearl had already won.
“After all, there is a reason I am as feared as I am mocked.”
“Impulse, she’s gone mad! She’s losing her mind!”
“Have I now? Maybe I always was. Or maybe you’ve just forgotten. Need I remind you?” She sneered one final time, before lunging forward, ax arcing gracefully through the air, cutting into the man’s shoulder. Twin cries rang through the trees as she dug deeper into flesh and bones. Yanking out the iron weapon, the chase continued.
“How dare you ally with those who kill all I love? How f*cking dare you!” Pearl tore through trees, silky silver bounding at her side.
“I never touched them!” He glanced behind him, just for a second. Just a second long enough for him to stumble slightly.
“These are dogs of war! Call the dogs of war!” She gained on the man, pushing and pushing, wings catching the air to make her just an ounce faster, just a millisecond closer to the man who had torn down the only thing she cared about. (She could still feel her heart pounding for her bonded, but she ignored it. She did not care for him.)
Pearl called out to the hunters at her feet. “Get ‘em boys!” Dozens of dogs came to her side. She would not need them.
Bdubs turned towards the girl. A final stand in futility, for who could stand against an angry godling? Who could cut down a child of war and magic and stars? Yet he fought back with a vengeance, scratching at her body, landing a hit here and there. Wolves tore at his feet, weakening him. Pearl stood with a bloody ax raised high.
“Young will die today, Bdubs!” She plunged her ax into his shoulder, once, twice, Bdubs buckling his knees in pain as he tried to stay upright, to continue fighting and-
There was a second, one last moment, where Bdubs stood, looking her in the eyes, before falling. It was only a moment, but the world stopped, and his body thumped on the ground to a silent world. Pearl stood over it, glancing at the body of a man she could have called a friend in another life. His clothes were colored red in blood. Her hands were covered in scarlet stains.
“I’ve gotten my revenge.” Pearl turned, features flickering in grief, not an ounce of guilt for the men she had slaughtered. What were a few more murders in her ledger, after all?
“Tillie? Tillie baby? You lived to the last moments. You got em, baby. You got ‘em.” She spoke in a whisper. “For you, the world will burn.”
A heartbeat, pounding into a melody, one last funeral song to her one companion. One final moment between death and life and hatred that burned in her bones. Pearl bowed her head at the dead dog. Peace and longing on a bittersweet note. A peace only disturbed by a blur of motion and the soft twang of a bow.
An arrow flew past, hitting a wolf in its throat. Pearl whirled around, spotting the archer, wings flapping out in irritation and surprise.
“Excuse me, Martyn!” She exclaimed in breathy air, latching an arrow into her bow. “I didn’t think you’d be the one to betray me!”
“Which one is she? Where’s Tillie?” The man yelled, slashing the throats of every wolf in his way. A bang rang out. “She’s been the one corrupting you this whole time! Where is she?”
Pearl cackled, shooting an arrow at the man. “She’s dead! And soon you will be too! ” She unsheathed her sword, slipping the bow across her back fluidly. “Get them, babies!”
“Martyn!” Cleo shouted, running in to stop Pearl. Cleo blocked the swing, giving Martyn a few moments to run. Blood poured from wounds that covered her body. Cleo was weak.
“I don’t feel any remorse!” Another bang rang out, Cleo shouting in agony as fireworks burned through her skin. “You kill my dogs, you might as well be killing me at that point.”
Pearl dug her sword into scarred flesh, blood splattering over the ground. Cleo sobbed one last time, a thousand injuries draining life from her eyes. Scarlet covered her face, dripping and pouring in waves until there was nothing left. Cleo was dead.
Pearl was alone.
(She would be lying if she said she had not cried. Cried, because no matter what she did, the blood was on her hands.)
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“I didn’t think it would end this way.” He stood atop a hill, gazing at the watcher in full glory.
“You turned it around.” He stated icy cold in his eyes. They were the eyes of a murderer, they were kin.
“I did.” And when she met his eyes, there was only rage burning there.
“I didn’t have a lot of faith in us. But I had faith in myself. And look at where we are now, amidst dead bodies and sacrificed souls.” The words were sweet on Pearl's tongue, yet heavy in her bones. “I think we’ve won.”
He smiled sadly at her. “I think you deserve it.”
“Scott, what do you mean?”
“You do, but in the same way.” His hands struck the flint and steel together, a spark landing within the dynamite, igniting it and casting his face in a haunted glow. “Tillie death do us part.” A blast sounded out, white and orange and grey surrounding them in waves, rolling pain in her stomach as he burned, scars littering them both, painfully burning and ebbing. Pearl could see nothing, hear nothing but the ringing of TNT, gunpowder in her lungs, agony flying through her skin and bones, and one last time catching Scott’s eye through the smoke. It’s over, It’s over, It’s over, reaching fingertips in one last desperate attempt to save them, black spots flying over eyes, flashes in cold and heat like she had felt it all before, burning and burning and pain and sorrow and-
Void. It was dark in the in-betweens of death and life, cast in shadows of space and realm. The void was a home that Pearl had not felt in a long while. It was a shock as cold as ice slipping down her back and through her hands. She had died. She was home.
Pearl whispered to the stars surrounding her, coating her in an immortal sheen. “Did he just sacrifice himself for me? We were the last, Scott.” She swept her eyes over the constellations. “I think I forgive you after all.” There was nothing else to say.
The stars reached for her skin, pulling her along to another path, another realm. Pearl glanced into the void one final time, tempted to push against the forces keeping her from home. But she let herself be led once more, slipping in the cracks between death and life and paths unaltered.
Somewhere in a brand new world, a soul slipped into shape in a hole surrounded by people. Somewhere in their ranks was another like her. Somewhere she would wake up, lifting herself off the earth to meet their eyes. Somewhere the world cried out.
PearlescentMoon has joined the game.