42 Fine Lines of the In-Between (2/2)

Hikari retorted at her. Chalice furrowed her brows and indulged her. She thought deeply to herself with only one answer coming to mind.

”Fear. Fear led me here. You see lady Hikari, before stumbling to your place I have just finished off and slaughtered an entire gang of bandits who have hurt my companions.”

Chalice answered blankly as she stared at the garden laid in all its glory. She suppressed the morbid thoughts surfacing once again in her mind.

”You have gone through quite the ordeal, lady Chalice.”

She gaped at the nonchalant priestess. Doesn't she care? Chalice has just told her that she committed countless murders. She's actually indiferrent about it. Is she really a priestess or they have different standards here?

”However, if you don't mind me asking. You were capable of taking down these dangerous men alone, yet why do you say you were led here because of fear?”

Alright, that's it. Chalice gave up trying to fathom the priestess' train of thought. She might as well not think too much about it. If she didn't care about her murdering these so-called dangerous men, she wouldn't as well. Chalice somehow forgot that the feudalistic world was a cruel place. The priestess was bound to be used to such claims. She looked up at her silver eyes and sighed as she answered.

”It wasn't fear of those men that made me leave, lady Hikari. It was fear of myself and the darkness which has consumed me.”

There was a long while of silence between them. The resounding clink of Hikari putting down her teacup disturbed the solemn air.

”Do you truly believe yourself to be part of that darkness?”

Chalice nodded without hesitation. That was without a doubt. The tendrils of this hated stygian has thoroughly taken her soul. She couldn't possibly deny that. The priestess shook her head in her reply.

”Darkness is merely the absence of light, young lady. There is but a few who can be perfectly dark and perfectly light; entirely good and entirely evil. Humans are quaint creatures in a sense that they can never be completely dark or light, evil or good. They exist in the fine lines of the in-between. The gray areas. You told me that you killed those men with your own hands. But have you thought of why you killed them in the first place? You focused so much of your attention to the act of taking their lives and felt guilt because of it. Yet you completely disregarded the fact that if you haven't done what you did, you and your companions would have been dead under them.”

The priestess held her hand. The sudden warmth of her long, slender fingers and smooth palm jolted her rigid body. Her soft voice echoed in her ears, straight into her heart.