Born From A Divine Gamble

He had only expected to see Calla instead of the whole group to come to his room but he welcomed them all warmly anyway.

"Hi, welcome back girls, did you have fun?"

He received a bunch of nods and yeses as answers and in no time, the girls were talking about their day and a bunch of other things.

He shared a hug with Calla while Harriett placed a lot of objects on the table. They had bought a surprising amount of things.

After recharging her energy with the hug, Calla went straight for the counters by the fireplace and started working on a meal with a smile. She seemed to have had a really good time today, Emp was happy for her and very glad everything went well.

He was curious to know how it all went and what were all those things for and the girls were happy to talk about most of it.

After he found enough seats for everyone, he quickly learned that Calla had been surprisingly vocal today. She had went through the day mostly answering with nods and shakes of her head but she did speak up much more often than usual.

They all seemed rather satisfied with their day and explained with enthusiasm to him what all those trinkets and items were along with why they bought it for Calla. They also giggled about some things they experienced throughout the day but they kept most of them for themselves. It seemed that they were unwilling to share all the secrets they talked about with him but Emp was fine with it.

He didn"t impose himself in the conversation and just sat on the sidelines and listened to what they were willing to share. From what he could tell, the general idea was that they appreciated Calla.

While she was preparing the meal, the only thing the girls criticized about her was how she gave some fruits to random people that were arguing on their way back. After hearing the full story, Emp just frowned in puzzlement.

"How is that a bad thing? I don"t get it. She did good."

They argued for a while about it. The girls were adamant that she shouldn"t do that because it was too dangerous. They had many arguments against it, including but not limited to the mysterious nature of strangers, the possibility of it all being a trap and simple greed leading to a tragic outcome. Emp understood their viewpoint but asking Calla to not help someone she could was like asking the sun to stop s.h.i.+ning.

"As far as I know, she has always been like that. If someone is in need of help in front of her, she will do her best to provide it. I think the only exception is if it involves fighting, then she doesn"t move at all and gets frozen in place. I can ask her to make sure that she isn"t alone when she does things like that so that someone can protect her if it turns bad but I won"t tell her to stop. This is part of her after all and I see it as a quality. Honestly, the only thing I"m disappointed about in that story is that the real problem wasn"t fixed."

"What do you mean?" Aglaya asked with furrowed brows.

"Why were two kids arguing over a piece of meat smaller than a big fruit?"

No one here was able to answer his question and just shrugged in confusion.

"Was it because they are gluttons or because they were very hungry? How come they were so hungry though, weren"t they working in that shop? Aren"t they getting paid for their work or is it so little that this piece of meat was all they could afford? In that case, why do they keep working there, why aren"t they changing jobs? Are they forced to work there somehow? Are they threatened? Calla could fix the consequence but not the cause and this is what I"m disappointed about. I feel there was a real problem there and no one did anything to help. I"m not blaming you all about it but Calla is right. If no one helps, won"t things just get worse over time? What if they get so desperately hungry later that they start stealing from others? If I had been there and I had done nothing, I would have felt bad about it later if something worse happened. What Calla did might not have been the best but at least, she did something."

The other girls had not expected to receive such a speech tonight and felt a mix of shame about their conduct and pity towards Emp for being so naive. They were just two girls in a sea of people. They would never cross paths again and countless others must have far bigger problems than being unable to eat their fill. As long as they still had some food to stave off starvation, a mult.i.tude of other problems would be more important for n.o.bles like them. Not because they didn"t care about the smaller man but because from were they stood, they would be often tasked to fix more pressing and general problems.

A n.o.ble couldn"t just go to every shop in his territory to make sure the owners payed their employee as they should, they needed to take care of roads, walls, guards, catch criminals and make sure the city as a whole would get enough food and water to survive. Someone further down the chain should take care of those small individual things, a true n.o.ble didn"t have the time to care.

"We"re not saying it"s bad to help people, we"re saying it"s dangerous for someone like her because it"s clear she doesn"t know how to protect herself." Brenia told him.

"I get it but that one we can"t change. I"m not going to argue with her just because she gave away a few fruits"

The others knew full well he wouldn"t change his mind so they simply gave up. Instead, they talked about the play they had all watched together while Calla finished preparing the meal. Already, the good smell was spreading across the room making everyone eager for a bite.

Mable was rather excited about the play and like she usually did, she told him about the differences between the play and the cla.s.sic story with exaggerated gesture and a loud excited voice. Emp was glad she was back to her usual explosive self. Hopefully, it meant that she was already more comfortable around Calla and would stop looking so serious all the time.

"So pay oooooooooff yoooooooour debt Emp ooooooooor I"ll turn into a huge lizard and hauuuuuuunt youuuuuuuu!" She said while booing like a ghost.

"I don"t think lizards make the same noises as ghosts." Nessa giggled to her friend"s nonsense.

"What noise do they make then, eh? You never heard a lizard scream before, did you?"

"You didn"t either! Can lizards even scream?"

"They must do, how else would they talk to each other then?"

"Couldn"t they all be hissing like snakes?" He asked.

"That wouldn"t be as fun though. I"m going to hiss at your window all the time isn"t as impressive as haunting you."

"Anyway, how much do I even owe you?"

"I have no idea, I haven"t kept track." Mable shrugged.

"More like you didn"t care about keeping track because you already made up your mind." Aglaya teased her.

"No! I just don"t care about that money!"

"My Mable in denial is cute too." Aglaya said before grabbing Mable and pulling her into an inescapable hug.

"Wha! Aglaya no, stop! Not in front of Emp I told you! It"s embarra.s.sing!"

"Hahaha, the truth comes out!" Brenia pointed out in a fit of booming laughter.

"So that"s why I had not seen such a hug for a long time." Nessa nodded with an understanding smile."

Mable continued to complain for a bit until Aglaya chose to free her and Mable made a wronged face while Celtine presented Emp a list.

He looked through the first few things on it and quickly understood it was a list of everything they bought.

"Thank you Celtine, that"s very useful."

"What is it?"

"The list of everything we bought. Just so you know Emp, I was thinking the same as your wife on this, they spent way too much." Brenia told him with a tinge of amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Traitor, what do you even know about those things, you keep dressing like a death-seeker." Mable complained.

"I know enough to understand that a normal person doesn"t need so many necklaces just to spend a few weeks in this school."

Emp scanned through the list to see what the fuss was about. Celtine had been very meticulous and he had all the details of every items in his hands. It didn"t take long for him to see the problem along with the total sum of the spent money.

"You know, when I said that you could spend as much as you wanted, I did not expect the total to go over twenty red dragons." He said calmly.

They had spent over two thousand gold coins in a single afternoon.

Rica gasped at the amount and Brenia opened her mouth like a fish. Clearly, they had not kept track at all either. Calla almost collapsed behind him when she heard the amount and Harriett had to rush to catch her. Luckily, she didn"t get hurt and she didn"t drop the food on the ground.

"Did we really spend that much? I had not noticed." Nessa said just as calmly as Emp.

"It"s fine, it"s not even half a crystal." Mable waved off the price with her hand as if it was nothing.

Those girls really didn"t have the same understanding of money as an ordinary person. Not to say that Emp was any better. He turned around to rea.s.sure his frantic wife.

"It"s fine Calla, relax, I"m not bothered at all by that amount. It"s not like I would have to pay that every week, it"s just a one time thing."

"High n.o.bles really are something else." Brenia Sighed.

Once Calla was mostly appeased, he turned back to the others and got the Red dragon coins out of his bag. They were dropped on the table and pushed towards Mable.

"Seriously though, the haunting lizard thing was a joke, you don"t have to repay me that small bit of money." Mable said.

"I don"t have to ignore it either though, I won"t miss those few red dragons anyway. It was all for my wife so it"s natural that I should pay."

"Mhnn... Let"s leave that there for now then and wait after the food to choose who this money belongs to."

"What does the food change to that seemingly pointless argument?" Rica asked.

"It changes that by then, Mable needs to know what she wants to do about Emp from now on and Calla needs to tell us if she"s fine with it." Aglaya Explained casually.

Even if she had said it in a very normal tone, everyone tensed up from the realization. Surprisingly, the two calmest of them all were Mable and Calla who finished preparing the meal as if nothing important had been said.

She had wanted to make soup but a good one needed a lot of time to take on a good taste and there where a few important guests tonight. She needed something good and quick instead. She relied on her instinct and a quick taste of the things she bought earlier to find a good combination and cook something nice for everyone.

The fruits she brought back were the true stars of the meal. She had some sour ones and some sweet ones, combined with spices, herbs and exotic ingredients like maple syrup, she was able to devise some incredible meal.

Like always, the moment that the meal was served to everyone, they all loved it.

Emp heard a lot of comments about how it was true that she was a better cook than the guys in the restaurant they went to and had to be told the story to understand what this was about. He found it funny but not unexpected, some people were just gifted in a field like magic for Penny and in this case, cooking for Calla. This was her language as well as her favorite thing to do, it was normal for her to be this talented.

For a while, the group enjoyed the taste of the meal and despite the quant.i.ty cooked by Calla, after a long time of only hearing utensils instead of voices, there was nothing left over.

The plates were all pushed aside and gathered by Harriett. Everyone remained silent and looked at Emp, Calla and Mable in turn, trying to figure out who would speak first.

Emp took the first step because he was really eager to know.

"So, what conclusion did you both reach? I am very curious."

He turned towards Calla first who answered him with a smile.

"As of yet, I"ve nothing to say against her or your friends. You were right, she makes me think of my little sister. If what I"ve seen today and yesterday is the usual her than I"m willing to let her give you an offering."

He was surprised to see that she was able to speak so easily in front of them. She was still not as comfortable as with her friends with them but it seemed she didn"t really see them as strangers anymore either. Emp nodded at her words and turned towards Mable.

She was the real unknown here, the approval of Calla wasn"t surprising at all, as long as she seemed like a kind person, she would have agreed. Mable was seemingly deep in thoughts, pondering about something. Emp pressed her on.

"I am not surprised about the opinion of Calla but I would still like to know what you are thinking."

"You"re too nervous Emp, calm down." Mable laughed.

"I am not that nervous though?" He said with a raised brow.

"You are. You always revert to speaking without contractions in your sentences when you"re nervous or worried." Aglaya pointed out.

"Do I?"

He turned towards Calla who just nodded in approval.

"You do, that"s the only way I found to know when you"re nervous or not because you don"t show it at all otherwise."

"Huh..."

Emp was rather surprised, he had not noticed. He had believed that the only special thing he did when he was too stressed out was to forget to breathe.

"Anyway, I"d like to know what the others think first. What do you all think of Calla? Would she or would she not make for a good sister?"

Rica was the first to speak, she wanted to help a fellow peasant girl.

"I think she is really kind, if it was me, I would be absolutely fine with her. She gave part of her food to Celtine when the staff would not, gave fruits to helpless kids and cooked us all something delicious."

Most of the other girls nodded and Nessa agreed with her own answer.

"She could"ve been consumed by her new rank and started acting like Heida but she didn"t. She is humble so even though she doesn"t know about a lot of the n.o.ble etiquette, I don"t think she could bring any trouble to Mable. In fact, I think that a calm sister like her could help stop Mable from doing her usual crazy acts. I give Calla a pa.s.s, I"m more worried about Mable making a bad sister than otherwise."

"Hey!"

There were a few laughter and Brenia spoke next.

"Well, I"m sorry to say it but I don"t like her."

"What?"

To mostly everyone"s surprise, she disagreed with them all, not even Calla had expected that.

"She"s spineless, she let everyone make every decision for her the whole afternoon. Also, she"s the hero type that wants to help everyone but she has no strength to back it off and no courage to face an opponent. A warrior lives and a hero dies I said but she"s even worse than that. She might be the sort to send everyone to death in an attempt to save someone she can"t reach. She"s a dangerous person to have around. She won"t be able to support anyone and will instead need a bunch of people to watch after her, she"s a huge weak spot. It"s true that she"s likable and kindhearted, I really do want to like her but I can"t. What I really think is that she"ll be trouble for Emp."

"How can you say that? What about the thing with the fingers?"

Emp had no idea what Nessa was talking about but everyone else seemed to know and Calla turned very red.

"I thought I had misunderstood her then but the fruits convinced me I was right the first time around. She was cowering in the dark then turned into a hero while she had no power, ran off by herself into what might have been a trap and resumed cowering right after. I"d never be able to trust someone like that."

Emp thought her judgment might be a bit harsh but he had no say in her opinions.

"I"m sorry." Calla said meekly.

Brenia answered in frustration.

"It"s pointless to apologize since we all know you would do it again. I"m not fine with it, you"ll end up killing Emp for something stupid."

Calla was saddened by the words of Brenia but had nothing to say for herself. The others all made some awkward faces, they didn"t fully agree but the point of this round of discussion was to express all their opinions so they couldn"t blame Brenia for being hard on Calla. They turned towards Emp to know how he would react about his wife getting scolded and found that he was taking it pretty well.

If a stranger had been this hard on Calla, Emp believed he would have been pretty upset but in this case, he wasn"t at all. Brenia was just telling them about what she thought was a dangerous habit of Calla because she didn"t want either to get hurt.

He was disappointed that she said she didn"t like Calla but at least, she did not hate her. Thinking about it, it wasn"t so surprising that the two would disagree with each other, if it had not been Brenia, he was about sure that Calla would have at some point voiced a complaint on her behavior. The two were just too far apart from each other in terms of behavior and beliefs.

Brenia would clash with things head on and feared nothing, she almost lived for a good fight. Calla, in reverse, could not stand violence and got easily scared of almost anything and everyone.

"I understand your concerns, I promise we"ll be careful. Thank you for worrying."

"When have you ever been careful before? There"s a reason why I keep calling you hero." She grumbled.

After that, she was done talking and everyone turned towards Aglaya. When it came to things related to Mable, she was usually the most critique so everyone expected her to have some very thought out answer. They were right, she had thought about all of this a lot.

"I think that her personality is good. It"s a great foundation and I think that she wouldn"t be a source of problem in a sisterhood. I mean in a relations.h.i.+p way rather than a security way." She added looking towards Brenia who just snorted. "I think she needs to learn a lot about high society though. She will reflect badly on the whole house if she can"t stand straight in front of others or understand n.o.ble speech or simply just act like a lady of her rank. Currently, she lacks dignity, and I would advise her to receive the teachings of a private tutor in etiquette, someone like Blackbull. With how she is now, thanks to her personality, I don"t think she could make any huge mistake or could cause anyone to loose face but she won"t gain any favors either. What we bought today might help but what she needs is education. If she can fix that than yes, I think Mable would benefit from having her as a sister, I agree with Nessa"s statement. As for the security concerns, I agree with Brenia but Emp had the same problem from the start."

"He doesn"t! It"s true he listens to others a lot but when someone pushes him towards something he disagrees with, he stands his ground and fight back! She would just take the hit instead and not defend herself." Brenia denied.

"I get that but it doesn"t affect the security of him of her sisters in itself. The only real problem is trying to fix things she can"t help by being too kindhearted. The two of them are the same, they feel the need to help every time and that is the only issue I have with this. As long as Emp can become the strongest like he said he wanted to than it doesn"t matter, he will just beat down any problem they encounter, if he doesn"t however, the two will cause problem for everyone close to them."

Aglaya ended with that. She didn"t take a side and just stated everything that came to her mind. She left everything to Mable instead because she couldn"t take the responsibility of making such a decision for her.

For Mable, after the afternoon they had, things didn"t seem as complicated as they were before. The words of the others didn"t really change her opinion either. Despite what Aglaya kept trying to tell her, she didn"t care much for rules of conducts, her personality was way more important for her. She couldn"t stand all those n.o.bles hiding behind protocols and polite masks in order to hide their faults. She"d rather stand with people like Emp and Calla than those hiding all their thoughts even if they appeared better.

As for what Brenia said, she liked Emp precisely because he was that sort of person. Saying that Calla wasn"t fine for this reason would be stupid. What were guards for anyway if they couldn"t protect a single lady trying to help those around?

She believed that not many would have the guts of targeting Calla. Not only was she representing the dream of so many little girls wis.h.i.+ng to become a n.o.ble from nothing, if she continued to act like she did today, it wouldn"t be long before everyone in her territory started loving her. People don"t like it when those that are caring for them get hurt, they would all be protecting her instead.

Aside from being bitter that she managed to get Emp first, she couldn"t find anything she really disliked about her. She was just an agreeable charming person. She felt that there could be some way worse things in life then ending up becoming her sister. In the end, the choice was simple. Either she saddened herself for no reason and got nothing or, she gained Emp and a kindhearted friend.

She had everyone wait while she thought of all this but the choice wasn"t that hard.

"I guess it doesn"t matter who keeps the money, my pocket or your pocket, they"re like the same." She ended up telling him.

Emp understood what she meant and felt great relief, likewise, the others smiled hearing her conclusion. Calla just slumped down on her seat following the disappearance of the surrounding tension.

"Do we split it half and half for now then?"

"Alright then, let"s do that. You still have to complete the list of task I gave you though, don"t forget it."

"I won"t."

The coins vanished from the table in no time and everyone rose from their seats to leave. They all wished each other good night and went their own ways after pa.s.sing his door. They didn"t forget to thank Calla for the food and give some excited comment to Mable as they left.
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Rica wasn"t usually in the group so she was, in a way, the first person to get the proof that Mable and Emp were indeed in some sort of relations.h.i.+p. She would probably tell Frits about it and the boys in the cla.s.s would all know soon that what Emp had declared in the cla.s.sroom a few weeks ago wasn"t just some random nonsense.

As for Brenia, she didn"t seem disappointed or sour about this conclusion. She had just wanted to help them after all, she was simply concerned. It had not been her goal to split Emp from either Mable or Calla.

After everyone had left, Emp and Calla didn"t stay up much longer and went to bed. Once inside the covers of their bed, they still talked for a bit however.

The first thing Calla told him was an apology.

"Sorry that Brenia doesn"t like me."

"What are you sorry for? It"s not your fault if she doesn"t like you. It"s not even really you she doesn"t like, it"s just the way you confront problems."

"I"ll try my best to have her change her mind."

"You don"t have to, it doesn"t really matter."

"It does, you know, she said she admire Celtine because she goes against her fears. I think she has her own fears she can"t go over and I want to help her."

Emp didn"t get why it was so important but her words reminded him of what Love once told him about Brenia.

"What do you think that fear is?"

"I don"t know, maybe this is why she really doesn"t like her friends taking risks."

"I"m not convinced, I think she would have told me long before if that was the case. Instead, she told me that story about that hero guy she mocked."

"Do you like her?"

"Not in the same way I like you."

"But not that far off either, right?"

"Possibly, I"m not sure. You know I"m bad with those sorts of things."

"I do, I guess what I"m asking is, would you take it if she gave you and offering?"

"I guess so." He answered honestly. "I can"t really picture her doing it though. I think she is more likely to kill me for thinking about it than she is of doing that."

"I think she"s hiding something, about that and her fear too. I just don"t know how to help."

"I"m happy you want to help but don"t try too hard. She doesn"t like to be pushed."

"I won"t."

"Should we not talk about Mable instead? Or your afternoon? Did you have fun at least?"

"I did, I learned a lot and your friends are really helpful. They were patient with me and explained a lot of things to me without being too hard. I"m glad Rica was there to show me that I was not that much out of place. I"m sorry I made some mistakes though. When we were buying clothes, they asked if you were a low, mid or high n.o.ble to know what sort of clothes I needed and I answered high without thinking, sorry."

Emp made a pout but he wasn"t really angry.

"It doesn"t matter, I"m pretty sure Aglaya had guessed so anyway. She can"t find my name with just that. Instead, I"m more curious about what you learned."

"A whole lot. They thought me about so many things from shoes to behavior and even ladies-in-waiting."

"Ladies-in-waiting? What did you learn about those?"

Emp had a hard time figuring out how such a thing came up in a normal conversation.

"They said that n.o.ble ladies and girls often spent a bunch of time alone because they couldn"t just go out and have fun with the common folks. They told me the school was the exception, the only time they were allowed to break the rules and have fun outside before they returned to their families. Because they don"t want to be too lonely, n.o.ble ladies often pick a few lower ranked n.o.bles to be friends with and stay with them all the time. Those are the ladies-in-waiting, they are mostly loyal friends and sometimes prospective sisters, they can help with all the tasks the n.o.ble lady can"t do alone and more importantly, share a friends.h.i.+p that would be hard to find otherwise. They were wondering if I"d need a few ladies-in-waiting myself because as the wife of a high n.o.ble, they thought I wouldn"t have that much time to spend with my old friends and they thought it might get lonely. They took Aglaya as an example of perfect lady-in-waiting, pointing out how she kept helping Mable and took care of her."

"Aglaya is a lady-in-waiting? Is that true or was it just a way t explain it to you?"

"It"s true, Mable said she had many but Aglaya was her best friend of them all."

Emp thought it was unlike Aglaya to reveal such a thing to others. She liked to keep information for herself to hold the advantage. Perhaps she felt bad for stealing his rank from Calla and decided to offer an equivalent information in return.

With Aglaya being the daughter of a count, the lady she was serving needed to be of a higher rank and thus, this told him that Mable was at least the daughter of a duke just like Nessa. This piece of information would have been hugely important if he had cared about her ident.i.ty but he did not. He only cared about the person herself. He might be able to deduce her name with this information and a lot of work but there was no point in this. If he had really wanted her name, he could just have asked the book of answers. For him, all that was important was that Mable liked him and that he liked her in return.

Him and Calla spent a few more minutes discussing of things she had learned before they both fell asleep.

*-*-*-*

G.o.ds play with man like dolls and are the explanation to many things in life but sometimes, the world itself can birth its own oddities and bring them on the play-field. One such oddity was birthed in this empire long ago, in a fort south of Grandbois.

The girl grew up in madness not of her own but that hidden in the words of her fellow man instead. The most sordid of sentences were uttered carelessly in her presence but even after complaining to her lord parents, no one would believe what she heard. Not an isolated happening, such an event repeated itself time and again to the point that even her parents said things to her that no one should to a child.

The girl, only heir to the family, was branded of insanity but she kept claiming the most absurd of things.

One fateful day, the truth revealed itself to her. They spoke and spoke but never did their mouths move. She had been oblivious to the fact because it had always been so. Whether she heard voices that were never there like everyone believed or she heard unsaid thoughts kept private and pilfered by her uncontrolled power.

Experiments of her own followed by rigorous tests imposed by her mother proved the second to be true. The girl had been born with the power to feel the thoughts of others.

Quickly, her power was put to use by her ever practical father. Criminals would parade in front of her and in moments, the truth of their guilt or innocence would be revealed for all to hear. Focusing on developing her unique talent, she grew in power until instead of simply voices, she could witness their deeper thoughts like dreams or play performed for her entertainment.

This practice however, coupled with her inability to stop seeing those things, corrupted her beyond human reach.

Every time a criminal was brought to her, she was able to see the crime as clearly as if she had been there, as if she had done it herself. With the high frequency at which she welcomed criminals in the halls of her parent"s home, she grew to believe that what she saw in the heads of those she spoke to must be true no matter what. Confusing reality for simple imagination, it did not take long for her sanity to leave for some more welcoming and better structured forest.

Compa.s.sion dulled by years of interactions with the worst of mankind. The girl now young woman had grown unable to see the difference between a murderer and a servant getting reprimanded and thinking he wished his boss would die in a fleeting moment of anger.

For her, thinking of something was the same as having done it. Someone would step over a sleeping cat in the way, picturing for a split second what would happen if they stepped on its head by accident. They"d feel disgusted of the thought and forget about it but the girl would not. They had murdered a cat in front of her eyes.

This woman spit in the soup served to her parents.

This man scammed her father out of hundreds of gold coins.

This one simply stole everything in the treasury.

This servant was thrown in jail for thinking something indecent but was somehow out again now to think it.

Her own mother cheated on her husband with some hunk of a twin-horned man.

This other man did unspeakable things to her, defiled her dozens of times and left her on some bed like a rag.

She snapped like a twig in front of this torture.

She bawled for his arrest and everyone protested that no such thing had ever happened. But it did, she had seen it clearly, felt it like the reality it was.

The lord worried for his daughter as he saw her become stranger and stranger. He feared he might have to lock her up somewhere to stop her from doing something insane.

Of course, she saw this too. She did not remember if it had happened already but she forgot how she escaped or if it was about to happen.

She knew exactly what the cells of the dungeon were like, she did not want to go there. Feeling betrayed by the her lord father, she ran away from the hall.

Like fire in a dry field, thoughts spread around faster than she could outrun them. She was mad, she had finally turned insane.

A guard stopped her, or attempted to, she could no make the difference. On moment he was praised for stopping her mad dash and the next he was stabbed by her. Did she or did she not kill the guard? Even her did not know, at this point, she couldn"t be sure whether it was his thoughts, reality or simply her own frenzied thoughts. To her, all of those were the same.

She had stepped on the cat, burned people alive, raped dozens and murdered countless. The thoughts would not stop, "her" thoughts would not stop.

She found herself on the roof, an inch from the long drop. In the mind of hundreds, she was already falling.

She was soon surrounded, or was she? Standing or falling, she did not know where she was.

Around her, many caught her and many more failed to and watched her break her bones on the ground far bellow. Her father saved her and she cried in apology in his arms, but then he failed and she fell, next she was dropping with a guard trying to catch her and then she was again saved by her father, this time she was struggling to free herself from his embrace.

Too many running thoughts, the amount just kept escalating, burying her own under their crus.h.i.+ng weight.

"Stop thinking." She pleaded in agony.

For a split moment, everyone thought about not thinking of anything. An instant of clarity in her crowded mind. She was stood on the roof, not falling. Did she do those things or not?

The clarity broke down with the focus of the giant crowd, they started picturing others failing at thinking about nothing, a million scenarios flew into her mind again. The final bits of her own self collapsed as she saw her own death in thousands of grotesque ways.

She was a monster behind countless crimes, she needed to stop. Standing and falling are the same anyway.

Her thoughts were silenced for good that day. No one is guilty of their thoughts, saying otherwise is proving yourself guilty of just as many crimes. Actions speaks louder than words and thoughts are devoid of sound for a reason.

--- Guilty thoughts, Woes and heroes of our woods.