Less Than Three
Amber Michelle K.
myaru@earthlink.net
-*- Valkyrie Profile belongs to Enix, and whoever else was involved in creating it - this story is for entertainment only. Spoilers for the A ending are present, so read at your own risk. This takes place right after the event at Weeping Lily Meadow in Chapter 8, but before the big confrontation. -*-
I find it hard to believe, sometimes. Usually so clear-cut and vivid, life itself has once again turned into something I can't quite comprehend. Existence itself, even.
I trace - carefully - the runic inscription etched into the prison that holds Silmeria's soul captive, and feel it give ever so slightly under the pressure of my fingers. How deceptive... It seems soft to the touch, even warm, with Silmeria's presence, her aura... but despite every effort, I have never been able to break through it with my own power. She lay trapped in a diamond made from her own life force, and I can do nothing to free her - it is humiliating.
But humiliation is the least of it. I long for her, more than anything... not to touch, but to feel her companionship once again in this body that we share, together with Lenneth, the way it had been upon our birth. I don't know what Lord Odin was thinking when he created us, three seperate beings dependant on each other for our very lives... I cannot question his intent, but I still wonder. I still curse him under my breath, during the lull in my gathering of souls, and I cannot help but resent the handicap he has placed upon me by binding us together like this.
Silmeria, you would be a welcome voice to hear right now. A wonderful presence. Our Sister has left us alone - left me alone. Lenneth has chosen the weak, changeable essences of her Einherjar over us, her sisters. I stand before you alone, and shivering in the deadly quiet that now resides where she used to be. Where you would be, if only you were not trapped in such a diabolical fashion. Where is our Lord's justice? This would not be, if things had been just a little different.
Why has Lord Odin seen fit to allow us to be separated? I cannot abide this feeling of being alone; I was never meant to feel this alone!
My fingertips run over the runes... twenty-six, thirty-seven, symbols for powers that even a vampire lord should not have been able to command. Not for the first time, I wonder if he has been aided by the Vanir, perhaps Hel herself - he was certainly her loyal servant, was he not? I do not carry on my war with him just for my own pleasure... although it is certainly a battle I have always enjoyed. Brahms is a worthy opponent...
Silmeria, I miss you... You sleep, unaware of our pain, but I can see it beginning to etch itself into your face even as I stand here thinking. You too feel the emptiness of our Sister's departure... If you were awake, you'd cry, wouldn't you? And perhaps this time I can't blame you for it. If I were weaker, just an inch more sentimental, I would join you - I wish I could. My eyes are hot, wet with the toll Lenneth's departure has taken upon me... I want to let it go, and scream my defiance of her decision, but not here. I cannot, will not soil my dignity here, in the castle of my greatest adversary. I will not give him that satisfaction, ever.
We were never meant to be less then three, Sister. I feel it - the skeins of the past entwined around my limbs, the possibilities of the future locked around your prison... but the quivering chains of the present fall slack between us, no longer held together in our Lord's balance. It languishes, and this world feels our anguish... the war rages in heaven, but without you, we cannot see our future any longer! Without Lenneth, we cannot even control the present.
We are doomed... Twilight of the Gods indeed...
Silmeria... what would you say, if you could hear me express these thoughts out loud? You would laugh at me, wouldn't you? You would throw your arms around my neck and respond with your infuriating fatalism, and tell me not to worry myself over such trivial matters. 'Lord Odin will take care of it,' you would say. 'Leave the burden of saving the world to him. We only control Fate, you and I.'
I long for your confidence, Sister. I show this world my cold, unwavering resolve, but deep down, I do not feel it. Not anymore! I've lost what made me whole - first you, and now her. I'm not even a complete soul any longer... I long for her presence again, our sentimental, misguided Lenneth. I had only meant to teach her a lesson, before she fell into her slumber - I never wanted to harm her, or destroy her.
What have I done? Please, wake up, and tell me that everything will be okay! Tell me that I have not just sealed our fate, and doomed us to forever be incomplete and alone! I don't want to be alone, Sister... I'm afraid of being alone. I cannot abide this feeling, this emptiness, this cold void that is stretching between us!
Silmeria, help me, please! Don't leave me in this lonliness... Don't leave me alone as Lenneth did! Wake up!
A tear steals down my cheek, all by itself, and splatters onto my armor. My hand clenches into a fist, and I pound on the impenetrable wall of her prison, willing her eyes to open and gaze at me as I am gazing at her. Willing her to break free of her sleep to show me that she is alive, beneath those chains of ice that even a god cannot penetrate.
The runes pulse, shedding light that I know all too well is her own... power she had weilded before it had been turned against her. Teeth clenched, I slam my fist into the incantation again, hardly caring that it is futile. Maybe she will feel it. Maybe...
"Silmeria! Wake up! Please!"
"That will not help you, Valkyrie." Brahms. Accursed, his voice is another shadow over me, and my pain grows worse, heightened by anger.
I can hardly believe that is my own voice, echoing from the walls and arches in broken, aguished tones. I have never screamed in my life - not in pain, not in sorrow, not in anger... Never, until now. I have never cried, until this moment, when all seems lost to me. My Sisters, my power, my Lord. The order of the world, shattered.
My confidence... shattered.
Silmeria... I beseech you, please... for me... do not leave me! Do not die! I need you! We are Sisters, you and I - we are one. And we will be again, I promise you... We alone will survive this twilight descending upon us, if I have to defy Odin himself. Perhaps, in that regard... I can even forgive Lenneth for her transgression. Perhaps... somehow, she is still alive. A foolish hope perhaps, a sign of desperation, but it is all I have now as I descend from your prison to meet our eternal enemy.
Here, everything ends - it will all be decided. You will be freed of this coward, Sister, and we will take up the burden of fate again together. Even if we truly have lost Lenneth, and we long for completion to the end of days... I will save you, my Sister. I will show Brahms that the love we carry within will never be defeated by the likes of him.
Come to me, my Sister... let our eternal battle with evil begin again!
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