Born From A Divine Gamble

Emp had killed in the past, it felt different every time but he never felt as bad as this. He felt sick just thinking about the possibility of doing that, this was just wrong. He could picture his previous fight alongside her vividly still, she was a friend, even despite what she did.

"What are you waiting for?" His grandfather said.

His stone face said nothing but his tone spoke volume.

"I don"t want to."

Even if he tried to not hit her so hard, he"d freeze her head with the hammer which was just as bad.

"But you know you have to, your words bind you." The elder said gravely. "It"s not about what"s right or wrong, it"s about the power of your voice, about the trust others can place into your words. We do not lie, ever, we do not go back on our words, ever. You told the girl you would do it so unless the girl changes her mind and frees you from your words, you now have to do it."

He was stern and commanding now.

Emp was shaken, his heart pounding inside his head. He wanted to say more but only managed to gulp back his feeble argument. It was with trembling arms that Emp lifted the hammer over his head, bringing it above Celtine to strike. He felt atrocious and believed anyone could hear the pieces of his armor constantly clacking. The huntresses looked away.

The hammer swayed in the air and before its fall, a delicate hand gripped his gauntlet. The strength in it was far from enough to stop his movement but he still froze completely when he felt it. The fingers of Celtine wouldn"t let him drive his hammer downward.

He looked up to see the tear-streaked face of Celtine. All of those tears had frozen on her cheeks because of the cold around the head of his hammer so close to her. Her face was reflecting his thoughts, her shaking head a confirmation of if his desire. Do not.

An intense feeling of relief washed over him. He let the hammer disappear into the bag, and Celtine hugged his head strongly as if to express that she was sorry, his face was covered by her cold arms right away,blinding him completely and remaining there for a long moment. He raised up his arm to awkwardly hug her back, careful to not touch her wound.

"She doesn"t want me to do it." He said after finding back his voice.

There were many whispers and sighs of relief from the huntresses, he even heard one of them fall like a lifeless doll from the release of the tension. He didn"t move yet however because he didn"t want to disturb the sobbing Celtine.

No one moved or spoke for a while, Connie might have started looking up again but no one dared speak. After she had for the most part calmed down, Emp asked her the difficult question.

"Do you want to face them?"

A slight tap of her foot gave him the answer and he moved his hands to grab her waist and bring her down in front of him. For one of her specie, she wasn"t that small but compared to the huntresses or humans in general, she was tiny and even if Connie was kneeling, she was just a bit taller than her.

Her posture was distorted, she was heavily leaning backward to hold herself "straight". Her face was a mess and she was clearly uncomfortable to stand in front of her tormentors like that but she was also clearly in a better state of mind than when she first saw them earlier.

It wasn"t that she didn"t fear them anymore or that she wasn"t angry anymore. She had chosen to face them and all the emotions she felt towards them. Two things enabled her to do this, to find the strength to free herself from her past. Those two things were her own resolve, built over her despair with her hopes towards the future and Emp, standing just behind her, willing to do even terrible things for her.

She stared at Connie, Jaska and more hardly and heinously at Tacey, took a long silent breath and gripped her pen strongly. She lifted up her board and started writing in common.

Celtine poured all of her emotions onto the paper and her message got very long in no time at all. She ripped out the filled page, extended it towards Connie and once she wonderingly took it, Started writing on a second page. She expressed all her grievances on those paper, Connie read them all out for her group of huntresses. It spoke about how the wound was still painful, how much she hated them and cursed her fate, how she despaired and wanted to die from all the misery.

The next page started with something completely different however.

< i="" still="" hate="" you="" all="" but="" i="" don"t="" want="" revenge="" anymore.="">

As embarra.s.sing as it sounded, she spoke about how very glad she was to have met Emp. How despite all this bad luck and suffering, she would never have met him if not for them. She said she loved each instant pa.s.sed at his side, speaking about how he treated her not as a slave but as an equal, despite her origin or many disabilities. Above it all, Emp had already promised her to heal her in time. She would eventually regain what had been taken from her. As he had once said, hurting them would not bring her back her wings just like taking her wings had not brought back their lost comrade. She could not possibly let Emp do something he would regret so much afterwards, she cared for him too much. If all of that was the case then there was only one reasonable thing to do.

It was on the third page she wrote the important part.

< i="" forgive="">

I do not love you and I never will.

I hate you and fear you but I want it to end.

We hurt each other but it is over already.

Your words were right before, let"s put this all to rest.

I"m not as angry as I once was, I just panicked when I saw the demon earlier.

I am happy here and now with my Emp,

leave me please and cease to haunt my nightmares.

The past has taken roots, let the trees grow over it.>

That last part was a common expression in the Empire meant to tell another party to let the past lie where it belonged. Bad things might have happened once but new life always grows while feeding from the corpses.

Connie finished reading everything through a knot in her throat and soon enough, everyone else was bawling except for Tacey.

A great weight was lifted from the group of huntresses, they were finally free from their terrible mistake. Connie bowed one more time and tanked her in a heartfelt way, apologizing one last time for what she did.

The other huntresses present that time all came forward one by one and took Connie"s place to do the same. Each that did brought a bit of strength back into Celtine, giving her back the peace they stole in lieu of the wings and future they couldn"t restore.

The very last to come was Tacey. She was the demon herself, the taker of wings, the cynical and hateful woman who tortured her. Celtine tensed and the huntress didn"t bend, they stared at each other instead. She was unable to forgive what she perceived as the killer of her daughter just like that. Emp felt the courage of Celtine faltering in front of him, melting like fat on the fire. He placed a hand on her shoulder to bolster her will and all her tension left her with a long sigh.

She raised her pen again and wrote for Tacey.

< demon,="" i="" know="" how="" it="" is="" to="" have="" lost="" everything.="" i="" was="" stolen="" from="" my="" family,="" my="" destiny,="" my="" wings,="" my="" voice,="" my="" future,="" all="" taken="">

We were both a tree with a single leaf, we lost it all yet we still lived. Isn"t that the worst luck? >

"It is." Tacey agreed.

< i="" tried="" to="" die="" but="" could="" not,="" you="" are="" here="" too="" but="" we="" are="" not="" the="">

I have started to regrow, you have not.

If you do not intend to die then you must take flight again. Stop looking down at old overturned dirt.

"I" did not take your daughter, neither was it the wind, your decisions or her own choices. It was simply unlucky, Death chose her that day and there"s nothing we can do to change it.

Let us both rest. >

Tacey"s jaw clenched as she read this.

"Let you rest? How could I? My husband, my daughter, taken by cursed-bloods. The only reason you lived that day is because I didn"t want my Noey to have died for nothing at all. When we sold you for just a handful of coins, I wanted nothing more than to rip you apart right there and then. My life and that of my daughter both turned pointless in an instant! I"ve been so mad all the time, I dreamt about rampaging and murdering cursed-bloods in droves! I came here today because I followed Connie but I don"t need your pity and much less your forgiveness!"

Emp thought that her words were unreasonable and the way she snapped at Celtine was unlike the Tacey he met in Dark-glint. She was so full of rage even though Emp had been told that her daughter died from a fall. Celtine didn"t drive a dagger through her heart, at worst she just pushed her. Keeping so much rancor for an accident from a few years ago was excessive. He understood that someone could do or say something exaggerated in a fit of anger but time should have mellowed her emotions. Emp wondered if he"d feel the same if he was in her place. How would he react if someone close to him died just like that?

Celtine was unfazed by her screams, she kept writing.

< i="" see="" that="" you="" have="" not="" changed="" at="" all="" since="" that="" time.="" you="" are="" the="" same="" mess="" you="" were="" back="" then,="" i="" can="" see="" it="" properly="" now.="" i="" kept="" having="" nightmares="" were="" you="" came="" after="" me="" with="" a="" knife,="" i="" shook="" at="" your="" mere="">

When I saw you today, I felt as if all my growth had been a lie, I despaired that I might lose it all again.

Now that I see you bark and scream, I finally understand. I already grew past you. There is nothing left for me to fear, you cannot reach me anymore. I am out of your grasp, It doesn"t matter whether you want my forgiveness or not or whether you hate me or not. We"ll always hate each other but I give you my pardon anyway, I don"t have to carry that weight any longer.

In the end I know you are the one who has the most regrets for that time. You"re the one who felt the worst about that day, you"ve always been. I was in so much pain and so blinded by hate I did not see. My hate comforted you, you were not alone to suffer then.

I am done suffering though. You took my wings that day but you also took your own life, future, sanity and all. Every time you drove that knife into my back and I screamed my lungs out you destroyed yourself too, butchering your soul like you did my wings. Let your own wounds heal and let me go now, let go of your guilt. Let the girl rest and live anew, away from me. >

Tacey shook of pain and anger. She crumpled the message in her fist as tears started falling on it. She wanted to speak but every sentence she started ended after the first word of it.
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The other huntresses had been watching her interaction with Celtine anxiously until then and now that it had come to this, they were at a loss on how to comfort her. Connie simply whispered her name, trailing it off into nothingness as she stepped closer.

"It"s unfair." She finally said when Connie reached her back.

Tacey let herself fall to her knees, weeping.

She had not cried properly since the death of her daughter, keeping all the emotions locked away and hidden under her anger.

"My dear Noey, my precious lucky charm." She sobbed. "Why did she die? Why is it that you"ll get everything back and not me? What sort of messed up cruel world are we living in!"

n.o.body here had any answer for Tacey"s questions. Tacey ended up b.u.mping her head on the street as she cried and Connie rubbed her back in silence while her second in command emptied her emotions.

It was more than a bit awkward for them to watch Tacey cry at the school"s gate like that but Emp felt that just leaving now would have been worse. Emp wasn"t sure if this was better or worse for Tacey and the huntresses but he could feel that it was a big step at least for Celtine.

The red haired slave ended up turning around to request a hug which he provided to reward and comfort her. Emp had pretty much been a spectator through this whole thing. He hadn"t done much and barely spoke at all but he still felt glad, maybe even proud that Celtine got through it so peacefully. He was very happy that she wasn"t torturing herself with this anymore, that she trusted his judgment of them and that she trusted him so deeply that she believed without a doubt he would bring back her voice and wings.

All of it would come back so nothing was truly lost and therefore, she was able to let go of her anger even if the pain would never be forgotten. She was absolutely right, the past had already taken roots, it was better to let the trees grow over this nightmare.

He was impressed by how strong she was.

However, she still needed comfort now after having exhausted all her strength in that short confrontation. He let her relax in his arms, resting her head on his shoulder for the while it took for Tacey to come back from the emotional pit she fell into.

n.o.body had moved for the whole time, even Kaisla who was supposed to have left long ago had been glued to the scene. Speaking of Kaisla, now must be a good time to say goodbye.

"Kaisla, thank you for calling for us. I think they all needed to meet again."

"I"m glad I could be of use my lord."

"You were leaving for Dark-glint, I"m sorry I was sleeping when you came to say goodbye. We"ll see each other again in no time but I should still wish you a clear path and enjoyable road."

"Thank you my lord." Kaisla bowed with a smile.

"Were you going alone?" He asked her next.

"Yes, why does this interest my lord?"

"Obviously because travelling alone isn"t safe. Connie, are your girls on a job right now?"

"Uh... no?"

Connie felt like she knew what he was about to ask but wasn"t sure about how to react with what just happened.

Emp ignored her hesitation and smiled joyfully.

"Great, in that case, can I hire you to escort Kaisla all the way to Dark-glint? I"d pay you over there."

"But lord Emp, I don"t need the protection of some huntresses." Kaisla complained.

"My grandson is right." Intervened Aminui for the first time in a while. "Even the strongest shouldn"t move alone, anything could happen after all. If the huntresses won"t go with you, I will send out a squad of knights to escort you. I"m pretty disappointed you didn"t think of this yourself."

Kaisla pouted with a defeated air. She felt underestimated but Emp knew that some things like the time-stop sloth didn"t care how strong their opponent were.

"It would be our greatest honor to do this job for you." Connie finally answered his question.

He words felt stiff and awkward because she didn"t know how to properly speak with a high n.o.ble but Emp didn"t care. He quickly explained what he wanted them to do.

"Great, I know I can trust you to keep her safe. You know where Marcy live already so go there, I had my own house built just beside hers. It"s pretty big so you can"t miss it. You can just step in when you get there, you"re welcome in my home. I will be waiting there for you and pay you properly for the expenses along with a reasonable reward."

"How will you get there before us?" Jaska asked, not as intimidated as Connie by his sudden upgrade of status.

"The magic of a divine treasure." Emp answered simply. "Let"s speak more properly over there after everyone calmed down from today."

He was saying that mostly for Tacey who was still in some sort of daze of sorrow.

"Sure, uh, I mean, on your order." Connie said, still awkwardly.

"Then may you all have an event-less trip." Aminui blessed their journey and in no time, hands were waved and everyone parted ways with various degrees of good and bad emotions lingering.

Once Emp was left alone with Aminui and Celtine who retrieved her place on his shoulders, the old man grabbed his arm and turned him around. He lowered himself to the eight of Emp so that their eyes would be level and spoke very seriously.

"Learn from this, don"t say things you do not mean, ever. That stupid habit took Chinui from us. Don"t do this again, it could have ended terribly today. I wasn"t trying to be mean, I"m trying to knock the truth into your head. Your words are your own prison, do not lock yourself in misery, do you get it? Learn to control your mouth now or you"ll end up doing the same stupid thing your father did. You"re lucky the la.s.s on your shoulders is as forgiving as she is."

His eyes bore holes into Emp"s head and his fingers held his arm like shackles. He was pretty intimidating but Emp couldn"t help but smile, he felt no pressure at all.

"You knew from the start it would all end this way, that"s why you worded your sentence like that back there. You wanted to remind Celtine she could put an end to this and you knew she cared too much for me to let me do this. I was too turned around to see it on the moment but its obvious. Thank you."

"That"s not the important part though, that doesn"t matter. If she had not stopped you I wouldn"t have either and that woman"s brains would have covered the pavement. I am being serious, learn before you regret it. The only laws that matter are honor, honesty and truth."

"I know and I am listening, I don"t usually say that sort of thing, it just slipped while I was confused after my souls were split. I don"t plan on doing it again but I can"t promise I won"t because I might do one day where I end up particularly angry like Chinui did. I want to do my best to control that but, I"m sure you"ve noticed already, there"s a line I can"t stand anyone crossing and there"s no way for me to know what I might do if this happens."

Aminui took a deep breath and let him go, answering with a disappointed sigh.

"Between the absurd promise you made towards the girl and the things you say without thinking, you make things difficult for the house. How come you had to inherit the same jumpy temperament as your father?"

"Who did "he" inherit this from then?" Emp asked him in a form of tease.

"My Korine for sure, she"s like fire, whoever pokes her gets burnt."

Emp chuckled and the old man shared a rare half smile.

"Speaking of mothers," Emp followed. "I really should speak about mine now. If you could arrange for us to leave the school for a few hours some day, I"ll bring you to meet her."

"Your mother is in this city?"

"Sort of but also sort of not. I don"t know if she"ll even be willing to speak with you but even if she isn"t, I"ll tell you everything I know."

"Then I"ll set it up quickly. I want to know what all this secrecy nonsense is about."

Emp understood that the old man was eager but he felt that he would probably be disappointed that his son didn"t actually get himself a wife but just got his blood stolen.

They didn"t go that same day because they were busy with training and also because Emp wanted to spend some time to care for Celtine. Even if everything went well, it had still been a very important and tiring moment for her so he wanted to be there for her and support her.

He didn"t know how one was supposed to support someone else exactly but at least he could stay close to her and share a silent moment of calm with her. He ended up sitting with Celtine and Harriett on the balcony and watched the sun go down with them leaning against him.

Celtine even ended up falling asleep with a smile.

"I"ve never seen her sleep so peacefully before." Harriett commented.

Emp didn"t have the habit of watching others sleep so he didn"t know if that really was the case or not but it was true that she looked very satisfied, fulfilled, relieved. He was glad for her.

He carried her to her bed a bit later and let her sleep in peace.

Harriett woke him up the next day because Celtine was still sleeping. They both decided to let her rest and Emp asked Harriett to watch over her, leaving alone for his cla.s.ses.

Mable asked him why he left the training field with Aminui the previous day and why was Celtine not with him. He explained the surprising events that happened yesterday to her and she quickly decided to go meet with Celtine to party with cakes.

It was later that day, while the girls shared pastries, that he set out for the temple with Aminui and a bunch of knights. The man had not wasted time to extract the right to leave the school with Emp from the duke. While he was away, all the girls were to hang out in his room and feast in their own way. He didn"t know how many exactly were invited but since he wasn"t there it didn"t really matter.

The old man had no idea where Emp wanted to bring him yet so it was normal that he brought knights with him. If they became of use however, it would have nothing to do with his mother as Aminui would soon discover.

The crowds would split widely as they walked, whole streets were emptied of all life on their paths. No one dared stand in the way of the representatives of one of the two ruling families of the empire. That was one of the things Emp really disliked about the name, what were people even running from? They all got scared of the name without knowing anything about the ones holding it and Emp thought it was frustrating.

They crossed empty streets for a short while and walked up to Love"s temple. The poor girls giving out flowers didn"t know what to do when all the pa.s.serby ran off and all those working in the vast garden stopped what they were doing to watch the row of knights led by the two Muracier. Emp led his grandfather right at the entrance of the path leading to the pyramidal temple.

"Here? Really?" His grandfather commented.

Because of how hesitant Emp was to talk about his mother, he had expected some girl with a terrible past, maybe a criminal or even worse, a cursed-blood. He didn"t think he"d end up walking up to a temple full of flowers.

"Yes, we"re going to the prayer room upstairs." Emp confirmed as he took the first step on the path.

Aminui looked left and right at the curious believers and signaled his knights to follow, stepping onto the trail as well.

Inside the temple, the familiar pool of paper wasn"t as crowded as usual, people made way for the group he led and lined the walls close to all the blinded writers. Even the music stopped momentarily when the musicians and singers saw the knights walk in.

He ignored mostly everyone and told the lady sat in front of the pool that they were just going to the prayer room. Relief spread around the room and the music resumed as if nothing had happened.

Emp did not understand what it was they actually feared about the Muracier name, they were the protectors of the empire after all. Was it just the n.o.ble rank and what was a.s.sociated with such a rank? Did they think that because they were there it meant that something bad was happening nearby or that one of them was a dangerous threat?

Whatever the case was, the center woman nodded amicably and presented the stairs behind her politely.

Emp climbed the stairs with his grandfather and a small amount of knights while the rest waited downstairs to keep watch on the entrance.

Upstairs, the feeling was just as usual, exactly like it always was.

"Emp, who are we meeting here?" Aminui asked, scanning the crowd of praying people severely.

"Hopefully, Love." Emp stated. "Just pray and if she wants to she"ll answer us."

The old man raised a brow trying to figure out what Emp actually meant by that but he wasn"t trying to trick the old man.

He took the praying position as he thought about how she would be upset again that he didn"t come often.

"If you know I"ll be upset about that, why do you still not visit more often." Love complained right away.

Emp opened his eyes to discover that the world had turned grey again. She came to talk.

"Since you can come talk to me whenever you want, why do I have to walk all the way here to speak?" He answered her.

"Didn"t I tell you there"s a difference already?"

Her divine form floated down and closer to him until she was just in front of him, wrapping her arms around his armored form for a tender hug.

"I can"t hug you if you"re not there or in my trial room because I need an anchor to manifest."

Her hug felt extremely warm despite his armor standing in between them. It was as if she went straight through it and pressed herself against him directly. Emp returned a short hug and let her go as she retreated.

It was only then that he noticed that she was wearing some sort of long jeweled veil over her face, hiding her eyes and features. He had never seen her do that before.

"Why are you wearing a veil?"

"Well I don"t want to turn this old man insane, it would be a shame for his wife."

Emp glanced towards Aminui to see his reaction. If a single word had to be used to describe his reaction, it would be "confusion" but it was far from satisfying to describe it like that. He looked lost, frozen in a mix of fear and awe as well as tormented by a storm of sudden questions. Of course, that was to be expected, neither Emp nor Love were surprised.

"Yes, I know you have more than a wife." Love followed. "You have four, two of those you actually love. I blessed your first Marriage and your wife convinced you to marry three of her friends who were all attracted to women rather then men. She wanted you to protect them and allow them to share their lives together in peace. You never touched any of them even though you fell in love for one, you respected what she was and remained faithful to your first love which stills burn to this day, this is why I allow you this audience today. You allowed love to flourish where it would have been otherwise difficult and it is deserving of praise."

Emp lacked all the details that would make him understand what she meant properly but at least he understood that Aminui was in her good books, at least for now.

"He "is" in my good books, he"s even trying to bring some more good girls to your attention. As the G.o.ddess of love herself, how could I not like that?"

Emp just made a wry smile while she continued speaking joyfully.

"So you brought me this old man to present me to him as your mother. This pleases me greatly because I feel you don"t recognize me as your mother often enough. I made you after all, this clearly makes me your mother more than that Marcellia."

Love petulantly crossed her arms and floated a bit higher as she leaned backwards to lie down on an invisible couch.

"The poor man is so bloated with questions he might just rupture from the inside. Come on son, tell him clearly, what am I?"

She took that superior air, so proud of herself as he explained what could easily be figured out from the previous exchange.

"Grandfather, this is the G.o.ddess Love who created me. This is no illusion or lie."

"I... I can hardly believe it, even if the truth is blindingly obvious."

Love suddenly turned upset after his sentence, switching from a condescending air into a wild storm in a heartbeat.

"Of course I haven"t done that with your son! As if I"d ever do that with a mortal! Even if he had been incredibly seductive I wouldn"t have, ever! No, I just used his blood."

"Then, doesn"t that mean that he"s not really my grandson?" Aminui asked, taking a step back in front of her anger.

They had not talked about how she could read minds but Emp was pretty sure that by that point, Aminui knew.

"It all depends on how you think about this." Love explained as she slowly leaned back into her nonexistent couch.

"From a biological standpoint, he definitely could be considered your grandson. There is as much of you in him as if he was born the normal way from the union of your son with a mortal woman. My son didn"t lie when he said that Chinui"s blood runs into his veins. It"s just that no woman carried him inside her womb. If you consider your family as those under the effect of the old order from the king of truth than he isn"t, there"s no way I"d have let my son carry such an annoying order."

"What order, what are we talking about?" Emp asked curious.

"Uh, the old man described it as a curse to you. It"s just a stupid order the king of truth gave a long time ago and forgot to remove before everything around him went to h.e.l.l. "You and your family can"t speak any lies anymore." I think it was, anyway, it was in the way so I made sure Truth wouldn"t enforce it on you. And yes old man, this means that my boy can tell lies, he just doesn"t because he"s a good person."

Love somehow ruffled his hair from across the room and through his helm which was pretty disturbing for Emp.

"He"s as much a Muracier as any other potential kids your son could have, the only difference is that I freed him from what you call a curse and he"s got a bit of G.o.ds into him. Born full grown, he was raised by no one and had to learn from almost nothing but look how fast he improves. Is he not a great heir for you? He"s just been alive for less than four years but he caught up with everyone else around him. He has a bit of Sage, a bit of Luck, a bit of Strength and a chunk of me. I think you mortals call people like him demiG.o.ds even if that isn"t actually quite right."

Emp couldn"t help but wonder what an actual demiG.o.d was like while Love spoke in some more length to answer all of Aminui"s questions.

They even brought up the subject of the two souls he had and it was confirmed that indeed, the soul he kept in the crystal was what remained of Chijou"s. That was the part that shook the old man the most.

The talk came to a close as Love told him in a serious tone that she needed Emp to visit the trial room of Life and ask her to fix him.

"Fix me? Am I not fine?"

"You are, sort of... It seems you have inherited my disability, you need her to fix it, I can"t do it even if I ignore the rules."

"What disability?"

Emp never noticed a disability, it was quite a big word for something he hadn"t even noticed.

"Not saying, it"s my turn to keep secrets, just fix it, you won"t die from it, I can promise you that. Just hurry for me will you? It"s torturing to know you"re in the same boat I was."

With that, Love retreated inside her statue and the temple was brought back to life.

Aminui stared hard at the statue for a long time, lost in thoughts. Emp let him do that while he went trough all his previous talks with Love to find that disability. He could not put his finger on it even if he had the feeling it should be obvious.

The two men ended up leaving with their respective serious airs and a tail of confused knights who wondered why they didn"t meet with anyone.