Chapter 1215 (2/2)

...Approving of the result doesn’t mean I don’t mourn for the costs. Of course I wish he could be saved. But he cannot. That is his karma. ...Child, karma is much more complicated than you think. Or rather, perhaps it isn’t. But if you can feel the echo of this moment in the past, you know why I cannot deviate. My karma is set. If I do not rely on my karma…

There’s a big difference between allowing something to happen… and taking my body and forcing it to occur, Vualla paid very close attention to the terrible feelings of responsibility, depression, and guilt that wafted off of the darkness. Do you truly mean to be the ones to take Eliot’s life? He’s our brother. Making that choice will change you.

There’s no other choice but to accept that. Immediately, emotions stopped flowing out of the core of darkness that settled over Vualla’s heart. The tremors running through it slowed and then ceased. With renewed vigor, it controlled Vualla’s body to remove a few slabs of stone and reveal Eliot’s bruised face.

Warmth continued to flow into Vualla through her connection to Randidly. Her nerves were practically buzzing with Eliot so close. It was a risk to wait so long to act. But she wanted to try. For the sake of the woman she might have been who had been driven to these lengths, she would offer her one more chance.

Vualla watched the darkness move within her body and said, He brought us orange juice.

There’s no choice! The darkness hissed. Yet the original version of Vualla controlled the current version to brush a lock of Eliot’s hair away from his face.

It’s not that there’s no choice. It’s just that the choice would mean you no longer know how this moment will go, Vualla took a deep breath. This would probably be her last chance to convince the darkness-Vualla. If she failed here… Well, then she would deal with it, one way or another. But Vualla dearly wanted to make this other version of herself understand the box she had painted herself into.

You would need to fight in a much more disadvantageous battle without taking Eliot’s life. And… you might lose. But you might win too, without having to kill your brother to achieve victory. Karma isn’t determinative; It’s just a record of what is. YOU are the one making this decision. And you can choose to save your brother’s life.

Please. Make that choice. Let me help you discover a new future.

For a second, the darkness-Vualla was silent. She looked out through Vualla’s eyes at the familiar, dark blue hair of her brother. And then, with a heavy finality, the darkness sighed. And this is why the young would drive our world to ruin by ignoring the wisdom and weight of history… child, karma is not simply a record. It is also the very real connections we have made, those that continue to affect us. It is the patterns that we use to define our own lives. It… is impossible to escape karma. Ignoring it and choosing ignorance is the path of a fool.

Vualla felt the darkness version of herself begin to move in a way that she had refrained from doing since Vualla had stopped her earlier; a tendril of darkness stretched outward toward Eliot to take the dimming fires of his life for her own gain.

In a purposeful mirroring of the darkness’ sigh, Vualla also sighed. ...I suppose that is your choice to make. To remain too afraid to deviate.

Ha! You talked so much about how easy it is to avoid karma, yet now you acquiesce, just as I did… The tendril of darkness shot outward and pierced into Eliot’s chest. Perhaps the lesson- eh…? You!

Vualla surged forward with those strange, glimmering bits of warmth she had carefully gathered from Randidly and smashed her will against the darkness. For a second it struggled, yet whenever Vualla needed more energy she just drew deeper and deeper from her connection to Randidly. The tendril of darkness in Eliot’s chest was retrained and then pulled backward.

The darkness-Vualla very quickly realized what was happening and began to struggle more directly to suppress Vualla’s consciousness. Her thoughts and desires smashed against Vualla’s. For several seconds, they groaned against each other, the two forces almost equal. The darkness-Vualla possessed much stronger images, but Vualla could rely on the potent energy from Randidly to make up for a lot of that difference.

More than that, Vualla’s own images were no longer as weak and shallow as they once had been. She truly had been carefully studying the darkness’ image for hours, an image that was extremely compatible with her.

She could perhaps only wield 75% of what she had witnessed. But with those strange, invigorating motes of energy, it was enough to buy time for the emotions that both versions of Vualla felt to come into play. As the images strained like stuck machinery, the emotions spread quickly outward. They met.

Vualla dearly wanted to save her brother.

The original Vualla felt like she had no choice but to kill him.

Vualla’s want began to devour the sense of fearful certainty the original Vualla felt. The difference between the purity of those images quickly became clear.

Bit by bit, Vualla burned away the darkness and regained control of her body.

What are you doing?!? The original Vualla howled. But the current Vualla used her own face to smile. Her eyes opened of her own will for the first time in hours.

“...fine then. If you insist on going by karma… we can go that route,” Vualla said lightly. Her grin stretched wider and wider. “But you know the bit of karma that I find the most compelling? The one where your wishes get pushed to the side by another version of yourself. So for the second time in your existence, watch carefully; this is a life that you could have lived.”

Vualla pressed her hand to Eliot’s chest and poured some of that nourishing warmth she obtained from Randidly into her unconscious brother.