Ersia: Raven Dawn

Viena wakes up late and all alone in the room. She slowly walks to open the window and faces the blinding ray that pierces through her eyes. She had never woken up this late in the morning, and it felt so strangely relaxing for her. Even so, when she couldn't find Randia in the blurry shades of radiance, she panicked.

"Ran! Where is he!?"

The girl took her purse and donned her wool cloak hurriedly before going outside to search for Randia. When she was about to leave, a piece of paper fell from the hood of her cloak. She noticed and tried to understand what was written. She knows that Randia wrote it, but alas, she is illiterate.

The girl came down the stairs looking for the innkeeper. She found him by the veranda, tending to the flowers and the dead leaves. He takes a glance at her in an indifferent manner as he keeps tending to his business. That is until Viena stands before him and offers him the coin in her palm.

"Your dad wrote this for you because you two are playing hide and seek in order to make you learn to read?"

"Yes! What did he say?"

"If I told you, doesn't that mean that all the hassle will be pointless, though?"

"Tsk. Nevermind. I'll find someone else."

"Hey, hold on, will ya?"

The innkeeper blocks Viena's way, smiling awkwardly. He decided to not question her any further and take up her offer. Before he read the scrap paper out loud for her, he was taken aback for a second by how artistic and elegant the handwriting was. The classic cursive penmanship reminds him of his own mother who passed away twenty years ago.

"Hm. He told you to come to the southern hill at eight if you want to understand more. Otherwise, he will leave."

"What?! Oh no, he doesn't!"

"Are you sure it's from your dad? It doesn't sound like someone playing around."

Viena took back the paper and pushed the coin to the innkeeper's belly before immediately making haste without saying anything. However, the innkeeper called out to her from afar.

"Take it back!" shouts the innkeeper as he sends the coin her way.

Viena nodded and took back the coin from the ground. Then, she sprints like she never did before. She races with time and dashes along the wind as swiftly as her little legs can. She gasps for air, but she won't catch her breath.

This is the first time Viena finally finds a purpose in her hollowed life. Now that she sees a glimpse of change on her horizon, she will never let it go, no matter the cost. She won't get back to how things used to be. She would crawl with her chin if she had to.

After ten minutes of sprinting, she finally arrived and found Randia washing his laundry in the nearby river.

"Y-You!" Viena screams at him before her body finally gives in and she throws up heavily.

Randia ignored her and kept doing his laundry before lining it up on a clothesline he had previously made with sticks and rope. Afterward, he approached Viena who was kneeling on the ground. He offered his waterskin to her.

"You pig! Why the hell would you do that?!"

"A morning exercise is important. But it seems that mannerism is even more so."

Viena gritted her teeth before standing up and taking Randia's waterskin angrily. When she was chugging it down, Randia pushed her head down until she went back to her knees.

"Sit down while you eat or drink."

"Mmfc! Mdrngin dere!"

"And no talking while you do so. Especially talking rudely to me."

The man went for a walk and Viena followed while nagging at him nonstop. They walk uphill where they can see a broader horizon laid before their eyes. They stopped under an oak tree nearby and took their seat.

"So? Aren't you going to tell me something about myself?"

"Am I?"

"Huh? But you said I was dying!"

"Only if you keep using your magic."

Viena looked downhearted. She cannot do much without her magic. It was the only way of living she had ever known ever since her mother passed away.

"How can I live without this power? Most people don't even give me the chance to interact the second they see my eyes. They call me-"

"Cursed child. Mistari. Demonborne."

". . . How do you know?"

"Because I've traveled far. And I know some people don't care much about such things. Just like the innkeeper."

"That's because you have something to give to them. You have the coins."

Admitting some truth to Viena's words, Randia went silent. Then, Viena lay her head on the man's leg and looked far to the farthest leaves of the oak tree.

"Huft. Tell me, Ran. Is life really this difficult?"

". . . It is, at least to some of us."

"Is there any way to make it easier?"

"Learn."

"Then, will you help me learn about things I don't understand?"

"I'm not sure I'm good at teaching others."

"But you are the best one for me! Because as I told you, normally people won't even care!"

Randia let out a breath before pulling up the backside of Viena's shirt and making her sit. He also sits with a straight back and crosses his arms. His deep blue eyes are staring right at her bright crimson eyes.

"Then ask your questions."

"Wah! Really?! Well then, uh . . . um . . . Let's start with my eyes! It's the biggest pain in the ass so far! What do they mean by a cursed child? Did my mama really married to a devil?"

"It is a mark, owned by those who made a forbidden pact with the unholy deity, Mistus, and all of their descendants."

"Then, are you saying that he was one of them?"

"Presumably, yes."

Randia put his hand on the oak tree bark. After a few words of incantation, a small part of the bark instantly turns into a few pieces of paper. Then, he lit up a small fire on his finger to draw on the paper with a unique technique. The result is a black-white depiction of a long-haired man wearing a crown and a diamond embedded on his forehead.

"This is Mistus. The nemesis of Ersia during the war between The Alliance and his devotees. That time The Alliance had - Viena, are you listening?"

"Y-Yeah! Yeah, I heard you. But . . . is it not hot?"

The glittering eyes of Viena are a clear sign that she's paying attention to something else. Even without her realizing it, her hands are already about to reach Randia's finger. Her curiosity is immeasurable, and she doesn't even try to hide it.

"Do not ask your question if you're not going to pay attention."

"No, Ran! I understand! Mistus and his followers are enemies, and then they had the same eyes as mine as it was with my mama's husband. I'm all ears!"

As Viena speaks to him while checking his finger thoroughly, Randia's sour face softened a little.

"Did that answer your question?"

"Yeah, thanks. But now, I don't think it matters anymore. It's all in the past and there's nothing we can do about it, right?"

Randia is quite surprised by Viena's acceptance of things. Although he doesn't know for sure whether it's her honest opinion or just unconscious lip service of her distracted focus. It's hard to believe it when she looks like a little baby who has found another toy.

"Hey, Ran! Why don't you teach me magic instead? It would be really cool if I could make a rain of fire or a thirty-meter river tide!"

"Your purpose of learning is very questionable," Randia flicks his fingers on Viena's forehead, making her stumble.

"Aw come on! I will never hurt good people with magic!"

"Good and bad is merely a perception, if not prejudice. Unlike this paper, the world is unclear and full of stories. It was not made of black and white."

". . . Including Mistus and his friends?"

". . . Who knows? Each ought to think and seek for their own truth."

Those eyes again. Viena has seen them a couple of times now, the look of a weary wanderer. The look that is only given by the hardest seaman who sailed the most devastating wave. She wanted to know what he had seen during his journey, but given Randia's prickly personality, she knew she shouldn't ask too much for now.

"Alright okay, okay. Let's just say that I want to learn magic so I can save people's lives!"

"And what if the lives you saved took the lives of others? How will you take responsibility for that?"

"Huh?"

"Sometimes, you save more lives by not saving some. Devils are evil because they have no choice but to be. But those who had the choice to be many things, but choose to be wicked instead; What kind of evil do you think they are capable of?"

Viena looked away and turned silent.

"That's right. They can do the unspeakable, worse than the devils themselves."

What Viena doesn't know is that Randia is talking about himself. His gaze is filled with scorn and disgust as he lowers his head, avoiding any eye contact. The things he experienced are unimaginable to Viena. The only thing she can understand albeit slightly, is the persisting hard feeling that she can sense.

Now, she wants to know more about him just as she wants to know more about magic. To make it happen, she needs to make him stay by any means.

"Can I spot one if I see one? Can I notice a man-shaped devil amongst the crowd?"

"No. Even with my eyes, you will never know. Even when you are armed with millions of doubts, you will never find out until their ill manifest. They are as unreadable as death itself."

All that Viena had to think about all this time, is to stay alive until tomorrow. Thus, this dance of words that is swirling around her is hard, new, and confusing, but she doesn't hate it. On the contrary, she wanted to know more, to feel more, to think more, and to experience more. That's why she needs him to keep the door to a bigger world open.