Haru: ᶶàྲྀ¶¶á  / ½©ááá¶à¶ 

Opti¶¶á: ᶽ¶àá  / ƶáã 

Haru stared at the little girl standing at her hip, a miniature copy of herself. On the other side of the doorway, in the kitchen was a gray silhouette looking at the exit to this unknown house Haru found herself in. After the argument she observed, the house fell quiet. The two locked eyes and the room suddenly grew distant despite Haru standing still.

Like the first time passing into this unknown space, Haru again found herself standing in an infinite void. The room was now about the size of a dollhouse, positioned ahead of and beneath her. Rustling behind caused her to turn suddenly. Sitting on an invisible seat above was Opti.

He cradled his head in his hands and stared down on the house, now far below all of them.

“Opti.” Haru called out to him. Her voice echoed, like last time.

The voice caused him to jolt, but he didn’t change his posture even a little.

“There were a lot of things I wish I could do different.” Opti responded. “Get another chance, make things right.” He sighed. “I always told myself things were like that because I was under so much pressure. That I could make it up to them later.” He sat up and shook his head. “But looking at it from this angle, it sounds like I was just making excuses for myself.”

Haru looked down at the room afar. “What would you change?” She started to worry, sensing that this was a place that he found himself in often. Though Haru didn’t know why she felt this way, it seemed this was Opti’s own private place of rumination.

Opti slid his palm up and down his face and grumbled. “For one, she was right. I was never home.” He pointed toward the lone figure in the kitchen.

Haru turned to him. “Did she understand what you were trying to do?” She didn’t know who he was talking about, but that wasn’t important.

He shook his head. “N—no I don’t think so.”

“Did you try explaining?” Haru crossed her arms.

“She understood what the deal was.” Opti looked away. “She was one of the best artists that I’ve ever known. If there was anyone that could have really understood what I wanted to do, it was her.”

Haru placed her hands on her hips. “Then why was she so upset?”

Opti motioned meekly toward the room. “This moment has played in my mind for a long while.” Then he looked away, wincing. “Everything changed and hasn’t gone back to normal since.”

“How did things change?” Haru’s posture eased.

Opti opened his mouth to speak and then snapped it shut and shook his head with eyes closed. “We’d been through a lot together. From being inseparable in high school to long distance after graduating.” He sighed. “I’d always mess up somehow and she’d play it off like it was no big deal. But this is when she decided to stop forgiving me, for good.”

Haru stared at the house in the distance, monochromatic and still like a picture. She turned to the little girl, frozen just like the room afar, still standing as if she were leaning against a doorframe that was no longer against her little shoulder.

“What about her?” Haru motioned toward the child.

Opti leaned back to look around Haru and his expression lightened the moment he found who she was pointing toward. He stood and walked down an invisible flight of stairs to reach the same level at which Haru and the child stood. He sighed and squatted down to eye level with the unmoving child. Then the three shifted through space back toward the house, all of them standing still.

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The girl, still motionless, returned to her position against the doorframe and staring into the kitchen.

Opti, still squatting, stared at her from the other side. “I often hoped she wouldn’t see us argue, but that was just wishful thinking.”

His mood seemed to have lightened slightly, but there was a heaviness prominent in Opti’s low shoulders and sagging head.

“Who is she?” Haru said.

The ray of sunshine that was a smile broke through the dark clouds that was Opti’s demeanor. He broke his attention away from the girl to look at Haru. “She’s who I modeled you after. What made all of the sacrifices worthwhile. My daughter.” His voice echoed once more and everything surrounding Haru faded into the void.

Haru found herself floating through nothingness again.

Then, just like every other time she moved through area transitions, the other side of the portal she stepped through before materialized in front of her. They were in the throne room antechamber. Ahead was a massive set of metal double doors that reached high into the darkness overhead. To her right was an open wooden door that revealed a set of stairs descending downward. To her left was another open doorway which had a staircase ascending. At her feet, a tattered red carpet with shreds of gold embroidery on the fringes.

“There’s no mobs here.” Opti looked around as he advanced into the room, stepping past Emu, Alara, and Taci. The legionnaire hummed. “And it looks like it’s still unlocked.” He motioned toward the throne room double doors, which were slightly ajar.

“It might be a trap.” Haru called out from the back of the group.

Alara scoffed. “That’s the only way that worm could ever hope to win.”

Emu looked at Alara and sighed with a nod.

Taci looked at Haru. “Too much effort. He should have been more aggressive from the start.”

Haru wondered why they were critiquing the potential threat.

The five continued toward the throne room. An unsettling feeling washed over Haru as they drew closer. Dark power emanated from behind the double doors, and a shadowy mist wafted out from inside.

Before the throne room doors were within reach, Opti drew his sword as he moved to grasp them. A surge of heat blasted the antechamber as the legionnaire came in contact with the metal gateway. He latched on and winced as the blazing air surged out from within the throne room. Opti closed his eyes and gritted his teeth with a groan, seemingly unwilling to retreat despite being in pain.

Alara, Emu, and Taci didn’t look phased by the torrent of hot beating down upon them. They stood, deadpan as the scorching air wafted around.

Haru stood fast behind Opti. Each moment, the rush of wind grew greater, becoming a gale threatening to sweep her from her feet. She braced against the door and clenched her body to stay upright.

Opti, with a scowl on his face, wedged his shield into the doorway and pulled himself into the tempest blasting out of the door. The moment his foot entered the throne room, the heat and wind ceased in the blink of an eye. Within a few seconds, the air grew stale, stagnant, almost putrefied.

Alara, Emu, and Taci looked at each other with emotionless expressions and stepped through the throne room doorway, brushing past Haru, following Opti without a word and entirely unphased by what just happened.

Haru, gasping to catch her breath, recovered from the surge and righted herself. Hesitantly, she stepped through the door while looking around behind them, worried something might come up from where they just came.

The throne room was wide and tall. The red carpet led to a set of three shallow steps up to a platform which had two wooden thrones spaced apart, side-by-side. Hanging on the walls were tattered banners, colorless, frayed, and unrecognizable. On the leftmost throne sat Irae. He was sprawled across the seat, with one leg hanging over the arm, and his head hanging over the other. One of his arms dangled off the front and the other strewn over the seatback.

“My, my, my,” the demon started, “what a serendipitous series of circumstances we’ve found ourselves in.”

Haru walked backwards, watching the doorway as she rushed to close to the rest of the group.

Irae picked his head up. “Here we are,” the demon looked at Opti, “back right where we started.”

“It’s intentional this time, I assure you.” Opti flicked his sword and rolled his shield arm.

“I’m sure it is.” Irae rolled his eyes. “Just like every other time you took out your anger on those you loved. You just wanted me to show up, delivery in 30 minutes or less.”

Opti looked away and closed his eyes for a moment. “I was wrong. Is that what you want to hear?”

Haru felt a sudden jolt of pain in her chest from the infection, which ceased as fast as it set in. She turned to face Opti, panicked.

Irae scoffed, spun to sit up in the throne and then threw himself to his feet. “No!” He spoke jovially. “That’s the opposite of what I want.” The demon began to saunter down the steps.

“Then why are we here?” Opti spoke through gritted teeth.

Haru felt that same spark of agony from his anger prop up once again.

“You are far too easily excitable.” The demon smiled and tapped his fingers together. “It’s my favorite thing about you.” Irae stopped on the last step, looming over Opti. “See, the reason we’re here is simple.” He leaned forward and put his hands on his thighs. “I’m going to milk you like the pretty little cow you are, for all eternity.”

The demon produced a toothy grin with a mouth full of spiney, disheveled teeth.