07
{ the brokenhearted. }

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' s h e
w h o
r e m e m b e r s '

- -

ESEN THINKS OF TALES AS SHE LAY ON THE GROUND, CARESSING THE COLD BODY OF THE MAGICAL DEER. The enchanted creature who instead of bringing clarity unto her senses, did nothing but worsen the current situation and made it more complicated than it already was.

The deer's tale. Maybe it was a fable. Telling lessons through actions of animals that are humane.

Perhaps it told the story of a deer who could have left, but chose to stay and help a woman then met his ultimate demise. Fables are tales you tell to children, when you tuck them in their beds for goodnight. Be careful of Esen Rietvield, she brings death to those who tread near her.

"Letter Magic: Fire!"

A ball of fire is hurled towards Esen at a pace she does not manage to catch on to. She attempts to swerve out of its way, but the flaming letters latch onto some pieces of skirt and her skin.

"The Magic Council?" Esen murmurs to herself as she sees the insignia of the most powerful council in the continent of Fiore emblazoned in the mage's clothing.

"State your name!" One of the mages order her and Esen tilts her head in curiosity, shouldn't they have asked that before hurling magic at her?

The burns hurt, that much is certain, but Esen knows that they will heal later, so she pays it no attention and lets the placid expression on her face remain. She raises her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Esen Rietvield."

"Search for her name in the archives," the one who hurled the letter magic told one of his subordinates before turning back to Esen. His face has a long, jagged scar across it, framed by muddy brown hair. There are spectacles perched on his nose. "Esen Rietvield, under the authority of the Magic Council, you are under arrest for murder of the sacred deer."

Esen does not say anything.

"Johann, sir! We've located her, but there seems to be some irregularities," the lackey says. "Among the eighteen Esen Rietvields in our archives, we've found her face but the files are registered to someone who lived fifty years ago."

"And yet here she is in her youth," the one named Johann murmurs.

"Sir, Esen Rietvield, she's charged with murdering her husband! She vanished, was presumed to be dead, but there's no mistaking it. She killed her husband and through the use of magic, she may have preserved youth."

"Interesting..." Johann murmurs. "Arrest her. The penalty for those crimes if proven are death. She may have some tricks up her sleeve so exercise caution."

"I don't have anything," Esen responds, her arms still raised in surrender, her face void of emotion. "And a hanging will do none of us good."

"Silence," Johann screams as some of the mages around him circle her and prepare for attack.

"I did not kill the deer," Esen murmurs. "As far as I am concerned, I have cooperated with you. You have no reason to arrest me. The other accusations are far fetched and insubstantial."

"Silence, woman!" Johann yells again. "If you were really innocent, then there would be no reason for you to not go with us."

"I will not go with you," Esen speaks firmly.

"Capture her," Johann orders. "Use force if necessary."

Esen evades the first volley of magical arrows from one of the soldiers. She really doesn't want to fight them, she's been trekking this world for ages now by becoming apathetic to all its causes. She is just a mere observer in its tale, she has her own matters to settle. Another blast of a substance that resembles acid strikes and this time she blocks it with a puddle of water. The rain has brought forth weapons she can use to her defense.

This time, a beam of acid makes its way to her. "Fine," she mutters under her breath before gathering the murky puddles together and shielding herself with it.

"Vine!" Johann yelps and vines begin growing underneath her and crawls toward her feet. "Fire!" Fire is chucked toward her with a speed she cannot reach and she raises her arms to try and defend her face when darkness envelops everything.

It's like a newfound spring, bursting from one spot of land and spreading everywhere. This time, the center is Zeref and his eyes are no longer the warm obsidian night sky, it's a vicious red cast upon his hardened face.

Bodies begin to fall one by one. The mages begin to run toward him, but Esen is quick to protect him with lances of water and waves choking the living daylights out of them.

Two of the mages intend to protect themselves with a contraption made of metal, like a strong impregnable wall, but Esen concentrates the swirling mass of water into a line and slices. The metal tears apart and so do the bodies seeking protection in it. Blood waters the ground. Esen does not blink.

A fallen body thrashes. Johann, she figures, but not for long. Balls of darkness target the still moving body and Johann screams, a dark lightning harming every inch of his skin. Tick tock tick tock. And death. Esen blinks and turns to Zeref whose eyes have now reverted to their normal state.

"You came back...?"

He nods.

"That's a terrible idea," Esen points out.

"I know."

And despite the blood and the corpses littering the earth where they stood, Esen smiles at him.

- - -

Esen sleeps and in her dreams, she dreams of a woman again. A beautiful woman with eyes of the warmest shades of colors and dark skin glimmering of starborn constellations, a woman who has eyes the colors of the forest and the lips in the shade of blood, a woman who smiles at her like the sun is on her teeth and it's blinding. The woman feels real as it caresses her cheeks and she speaks and it's the melody of the universe. The woman tells her how we endure. How love is a wonderful and powerful thing that can build and create.

The woman is wrong, Esen thinks as she pulls herself into a seating position, gasping as the aching in her chest worsens. She gazes at Zeref's sleeping form and the ethereal blanket that covers it in a shade of blue. His eyelashes and lips and his breathing and how loving him will be the best and worse thing ever.

Love hurts.

She rises to clear her head, walks aimlessly and just like always, the water draws her closer. The lake is a small body of water, but it's calming. She stands in its shores and lets the gentle midnight breeze caress her hair and cheeks.

They both yearn for one another, but refuse to hurt so they drift away and wear masks.

Oh, how alike they are.

Eyes open and she feels the heat. She hears the boiling of the water in front of her and she steps back, but but the sound and the sight pull her closer.

Esen walks closer closer closer, draws near to the water churning bubbles as steam arises. Beads of perspiration trickle down her forehead and Esen places a foot on top of the water, it feels like glass underneath her, scorching glass and she surges forward.

She traipses closer to the center and there is a cold chill across her limbs even when the lake is boiling. The chill feels like fingers and they slowly guide her arms upward. And then it stops, the water stops, the heat is gone and the chill is there one second and the next it's gone. Esen sees light and she blinks and the water is no longer below her, but above her and she realizes that she is submerged deep in the water and Esen blinks again.

Up above, there is the sun that casts light on the lake and there are bubbles escaping Esen, and she surveys everything around her and there are flickers turning vivid at every passing second.

In the olden days, Ankhseram, the God of Death ruled the universe alone.

The universe was a mass of nothingness with only the stars older than the God himself made it an abode.

One day (although you wouldn't exactly call it a day because time was still a distant concept), Anksheram found one star with a peculiar behaviour. The stars were burning, so hot they turned cold, but this star,  bright beautiful star was warm. It was the perfect kind of warmth and when Ankhseram raised his hand toward the star to touch it, the star split open and inside was an entity.

The entity opened its eyes and it was beautiful. Ankhseram felt wild feelings for the entity. The concept of love was born. Ankhseram and the entity joined together as lifelong partners and the entity evolved into a goddess with the name of Seren (sometimes, she was called Stella or Thebe).

Seren was different from Ankhseram, where he was cold and unfeeling to the emptiness of the universe, Seren felt it and she tried to create something to alleviate the dreadful feeling. She failed. The creations melded into the darkness and vanished.

Ankhseram had loved his other half so much that he used his power to create what she had failed to create, he crafted creatures, but this time, the creatures were lost in the vast nothingness of space. Ankhseram tried again, but this time, before the creatures, he created places where they could be in.

He created a planet. Seren found it lonely for something to be alone so she created other planets too. Ankhseram made creatures again, but they disappeared in the planet he had created because nothing could sustain them. Ankhseram picked a star and had it provide for the planets. But there was too much light, so Ankhseram let darkness dwell in the planet. It could not be contained so it moved to other planets too. There was balance then, but the planet could still not sustain life. Realizing that it would not be enough, Seren created lands and pastures, she created oceans and rivers and lakes.

She made it for other planets too, but the results were all different. Ankhseram realized that the pastures and mountains were bleak for they were always basked in darkness and the places where there was light was too blinding, so he flicked his hand and made the planets rotate and revolve. Days and nights were created. To create balance, Seren created time so that there wouldn't be too much nights and days.

Now, Seren was nowhere near as powerful as Ankhseram so the time for the days and nights were not perfectly balanced (as they should have been), there were longer days and longer nights. Seren's inadequacy in her powers also affected the planets she had created, but that tale is for later.

Ankhseram then created the flowers and the trees, the bees and the buzz, the dragons and the goblins. Then he raised his arms and humans were made. He tried to create others in the planets Seren had made, but her powers were inadequate so the planets could not sustain life. This would have saddened Seren, but she was too enraptured with the creatures from Earthland to mind.

The humans were dreadful creatures, Ankhseram only had apathy toward them, but Seren loved them so. One time, the humans raised their voices too much that the creatures Seren had created that had melded into the darkness got drawn to the sound. These creatures were revolting and they hurt the humans. Ankhseram did not care. Seren did, but she could not hurt the other creatures because in a way, they were her creations too. She cast them into the lower levels of Earthland (the place would be called Hell later on and the creatures: demons).

Ankhseram's failed creations were the next to get drawn by the sound, but they were different from the demons. They were created by Ankhseram, the most powerful after all. They were beautiful and they had wings for the vast emptiness of the universe. The humans felt lonely and cheated that they were never going to be like those creatures so Seren, moved the creatures higher (the place would be heaven and the creatures, the angels).

Era after era passed and Seren continued to love the humans, devoted herself so much to them that sometimes, Ankhseram felt the pang of jealousy. She loved and loved so much that sometimes she would dwell in the planet and be with them. Generations after generations, Seren felt too much attachment and fondness that she gave them a piece of her. This piece was not an object, but a concept. It was something that gave the humans power, it was magic.

Magic was something that the likes of the humans would be too ludicrous to have, but they did and that alerted Ankhseram, they were almost gods, he thought, he had to stop them. And so, he created death. The humans would not be gods, could not be gods for they were fleeting and mortal.

Seren was saddened, but Ankhseram had already prepared the necessary actions and he surprised the goddess by creating a creature just like them. One that was reminiscent of the humans, but like them. Just like what he did with the humans, Ankhseram created a home, the castle in the sky, and he ordered servants for the creature he had created. That was a princess wrought from stardust. She was unlike Seren who was already blossoming by the time she came from the star, she was small and Ankhseram was horrified to discover that she was mortal.

Seren loved the baby too, so she took a piece of her life force to turn the baby into immortal. Her power waned. That was the time, Ankhseram found out that Seren's life force had been tied down to the humans. To their belief in her.

Seren raised their daughter and to her it was only a matter of days, but to the humans, it was centuries. Seren stopped dwelling in Earthland and stayed in the golden palace Ankhseram had created. They had servants and worshippers and down below, the humans believed.

Eons passed and Seren started growing weak. Their daughter had grown, but Seren's life force was slowly draining. She had crafted magic from her life source and another piece of immortality for their child. Eventually, the humans stopped believing and Seren entered a state of in between living and death because of her remaining immortality.

Ankhseram mourned and in rage, he descended unto the Earth and made his presence known. He could not destroy them, he thought of Seren waking from her eternal sleep and finding out what he had done so instead of killing them, he created diseases, he created calamities, he harvested fear left and right and they worshipped him.

Seren and Ankhseram's daughter kept growing and she too, was enamored with the humans. Eons had passed since Seren's descent into eternal sleep and Ankhseram had set upon a rule to never be nearer to humans. The princess broke that too and when her father had found her, he intended to punish the humans.

He crafted curses, two, for a man and a woman. The first was for a man, a boy who was constantly defiling the life and death he had created, the next,  girl who was descended from the first humans who forgot Seren. Ankhseram's daughter, unable to see her favorite humans got in the way of the curse and she was struck instead.

Ankhseram screamed and tried to take it back but it was too late. The curse had set its sights and she was dragged to Earthland. Years passed and the girl grew into a woman. Ankhseram was fearful of her slowly descending into death so he stopped her time at a certain age. He loved her so. The exact details of the curse were perfectly clear to Ankhseram, "once they fall in love, one of them will die." So he raised his arms and created lovers for his daughter, ones that would stop her from meeting Zeref. Ones that would die as well. And when they did, she would endure. His daughter was a goddess, but she was just like her mother and Ankhseram couldn't stomach the thought of her daughter near to death.

He reminded her so much of his beloved. The girl was his favorite creation and it broke his heart to see her suffer. Her daughter, one he crafted himself from stardust and ichor, from the life of his beloved.

The girl was later named Esen.

-

e n d.
[ thank you for reading chained flowers. ]
c o m i n g:
08 | "the fighter."