Fyn Turau Eternity

I wince again, as harsh flecks of sand sting the skin of my face. The baking desert wind rakes my body. It almost feels as if it's blowing clean through me - that there's hardly any substance left of me at all.

The sunlight pounds against my retina. Will I ever get used to this? I feel it wearing me down with every passing moment. Each step is an effort - not just against the sun and sand and wind, but to pull my self away from everything still clinging to me. The memories of faces, and voices, and friends. The memories of the darkness, and the horror, and the blood.

And the rats.

Tormenting fears swirl and lash within my mind. It's still not too late to turn back… to accept retribution, and ultimately redemption, for my crimes. To face up to what I've done. I don't have to lose everything - my friends, my family, my home. And PRINCESS. I don't have to plunge everything into further chaos with my disappearance. It's not too late for any of that. And there are still, after everything , still rats left - it's not too late to finish them off either.

Around me, the empty buildings rise blankly, scoured white like ghosts, resounding with silence. Above, the sky - after all these years, the sky - a blue so bright it's painful - soars onwards to infinity.

The bare road stretches on, towards the sun on the horizon.

I keep walking.

Written by Ralph W.

“I wanted them to come back for years,” said PRINCESS. “I didn't tell anyone. Everyone else just seemed to be happy they were gone. For a while, I thought I'd… scared them off with what I said to them at Servus.”

She paused for a moment.

“I don't know if that's true or not. Would Fyn have stayed, if I'd said something else? Were they running from justice, or just running away from their own mistakes?”

Again, a short pause.

“I don't think it matters. I hope Fyn's happy, wherever they've ended up.”

“If you saw them now,” responded Alexis, “what would you say? How would you feel?”

“I've thought about this a lot,” said PRINCESS. “I was so angry at Fyn, I didn't even stop to think. Once they were gone, though, it was just like I'd lost my Mama, all over again.”

PRINCESS smiled, though her smile was clearly weak.

“I'd still want them to answer to the community for what they did, but I think I'd be able to forgive them. It would take a while, and things would never be like they were, but…”

Her smile grew stronger.

“I don't believe in evil people.”

Alexis nodded along for a few seconds before standing up. “It was nice talking to you, PRINCESS. Would you like me to come back next week?”

PRINCESS' avatar nodded. It had been a long time since the massacre, and whatever hurt she'd borne had long since faded. Still, those scars were a part of her now, so she talked to the people of Principality about them any chance she could take. Fyn had hurt people. Hell, Fyn had killed dozens of people all in his quest to protect her. Still, PRINCESS had trusted them and let them in where only her Mama had been before.

She'd long accepted that she'd never see Fyn again. She didn't need to. But she would never be the kind of person who could force someone out once they'd found a place in her heart.