The sun went below the horizon as the sky was painted with the light of the white noon, basking Sentoraya with a peaceful glow that Eir could not help but find serene. Kaiyumi’s three moons always intrigued the valkyrie, ever used to Asgard’s orange sky. It reminded her of her first time coming to Templarius, bathing under a twilight sky of stars and planets filled with soft oranges and blues.

This alien world reminded her much of home.

She wrapped her arms around herself as she walked down the street as people were heading home. A year on this planet had taken a toll on her, shaking her faith and belief in the world. It changed her understanding in a way she could not revert. She once considered the people of Kaiyumi aliens, people under her world and could never understand what her people really were. She once considered their prayers and rituals amusing, praying for good harvests, successful ventures, unending loves, and ending of suffering. The pleading was always amusing to her.

But now she is the alien, praying for any god that would listen but none could hear her.

Eir continued down a smaller private road, getting away from the people heading to their warm houses, wanting to get away from this envy. She pulled at her tattered dress as she felt cold. She stopped and leaned against one of the buildings, gasping as she felt the burning pain of the wounds on her back. The pain nearly brought tears to her, reminding her what she once was; reminding her of the power she once held, she once gloated.

She turned her gaze to the sky, watching the stars shine out from the black. The tears grew stronger, knowing that Templarius is out there but no one has come looking for her. She felt cold and alone. She had no way home, no way to tell anyone she was still here. She was trapped on an alien world, powerless to help herself.

She decided she had enough.

She took a shuddered breath as she tried to get her emotions under control, pushing herself away from the wall and continuing down the road towards a large barnhouse. She looked around her as she slid open the door and slipped into the barn, the smell of hay and farm animals assaulting her senses. She continued down an alley of horse stalls, each horse whinnying as she went past. She came to a small stall at the end and the sight of her bed of hay and torn blankets nearly worked up more tears.

She went over to a large object wrapped in worn grey cloth and uncovered a portion of her burnt and worn armour; its gold sheen now dulled and turned brown. She removed a set of black beads with a single red feather on the end and a small silver knife from a part of the armour before wrapping it back up. The valkyrie turned the other way, turning herself north and setting down on her knees. She wrapped the beads loosely around her wrist and set the knife down in front of her before clasping her hands together.

“The worlds turn around the Tree as time turns around us,” she whispered in a soft prayer. “Sprint to summer, summer to autumn, autumn to winter, winter again spring.”

Her hands started to shake as she reached down and took the knife in her hands, choking back tears that she could not contain. “As we turn, we accept the cycle of life,” she continued as her voice broke. “Into our hearts, into our bodies, into our lives.”

Her tears broke loose as she began to cry, covering her face in shame, in anguish. She knew what awaited her but she considered it a better alternative than this hell. The shame amplified by Iris’s sympathy from earlier, her pity. The valkyrie tried to get a hold on herself as she lowered the knife to her forearm, taking deep breaths in preparation.

“No Tree can grow to heaven until its roots reach down to hell,” she continued the prayer. As she cried, she felt her shame be washed away and her guilt fade. She felt the pain within her now embrace her entirely and there was little she could do but give in to it. While she cried, she could no longer feel the pain as she felt the tip of the knife touch her skin, feeling the kiss of the blade and the warmth of a small pool of blood.

She closed her eyes. She had found her perfect end.

Suddenly, she heard a door inside the barn open. “Eir? Eir are you in here?” she heard a familiar woman’s voice call out, shaking the valkyrie out of her trance. She panicked and hid the knife under one of the sheets. Before she knew it, a familiar woman with long brown hair came into view.

“There you are, I figured you would be here,” Iris said with a relieved sigh.

Blood rushed to Eir’s face as her panic grew to new heights. “W-What are you doing here?! How did you find me?”

“I know the family who runs this place, I was asking around and they told me you sleep here,” Iris answered, kneeling down to pull the startled valkyrie to her feet.

“But why did you try to find me?” Eir asked while covering the cut in her arm.

“Because I want to help,” Iris responded with a smile as she clasped Eir’s free hand.

“You can’t seriously tell me you forgive me,” Eir admitted softly.

“It’s not about forgiveness anymore,” Iris corrected while she pulled Eir away from the small stall. “I won’t be able to forgive you, not for a while. But I understand what it’s like for you and I understand that you weren’t entirely at fault. So the least I can do is not be blinded by my anger and recognise your situation.”

“W-What do you mean?” Eir asked.

“I mean you can stay with us for a bit, a roof over your head,” Iris responded with a soft smile.

“Us?” Eir asked. She turned away and her heart stopped and blood went cold as she saw a familiar dark shadow with red eyes walking towards the women. Her vision darkened as her instincts told her to run, but her legs refused to obey. Her body shivered and her fear hurt her like stinging nettles in her skin. The world around her went silent save for the growl of his inhuman voice.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Hello Eir,” the Titan announced with a soft expression. The calmness in his voice made Eir want to run; the calmness of a creature that knew his prey had nowhere to run.

Unable to hear her own screams, Eir’s legs took control and she turned away and sprinted as fast as she could, her eyes catching a door on the far side of the building. She needed to get away, she needed to run. She cursed Iris in tongues for leading the Titan straight to her. Her vision slowed as her eyes locked onto the door, reaching for it to try and get away.

But she could feel it.

She felt the air hum and it turned her stomach as she felt a powerful force pull back on her body, causing her to lose her footing and fall to the floor just before the door. She screamed as she tried to lift herself back up, feeling an immense weight on her back that was holding her to the floor. She could hear footsteps approach as she screamed louder, drowning out the braying of the startled horses.

“Eir! That’s enough!” Iris exclaimed as she knelt next to the screaming Templarian as she clawed at anything she could get her hands on. “Arylos, tell me you have a way of calming her down?”

“Me poking around in her head will make it worse,” the Titan responded while staying back with his glowing orange eyes. “Literally anything I do will make it worse.”

Iris sighed, giving up on the Titan who had a habit of making things worse. She had an idea come to her as she popped the knuckles in her hand. With the sound of thunder, she slapped Eir across the face, briefly snapping the Templarian out of her mania.

“Eir! Focus!” she exclaimed while holding the Templarian’s face to look at her. “He’s not here to hurt you; he’s holding you down because I told him to.”

Eir felt tears well up in her eyes as her fear began to take hold of her again, feeling the weight on her back pinning her to the floor. She whimpered under her breath as Iris rubbed the cheek she hit, a part of her feeling bad for hitting the terrified Templarian.

“Look, we’re here to help, honestly,” Iris whispered softly. “I’m sorry I hit you, but I need you to remain in control, okay? If you can do that, Arylos will let you go.”

Eir took deep breaths as her heart ran leagues in a minute. She tried her best to contain her terror, focusing on that she can’t see him even if she can still feel him. She kept her focus on Iris; while not the best option, it was better.

“Alright,” Eir responded softly, slowly getting control of herself again.

Iris smiled and gave Arylos a nod. The humming in the air ceased and Eir could feel the weight on her back go away, allowing her to sit back up. She rubbed her eyes to clear away the tears.

“I’m sorry,” Eir softly admitted while sniffling.

“It’s alright, I can understand your fear,” Iris responded while patting the valkyrie’s shoulder. “To be fair, when I first saw him, I should have had a similar reaction to you. I kind of did at first, but he’s really just a big elderly dog that you can hug.”

“Okay, I don’t know if I should be flattered or offended by that remark,” Arylos scoffed while crossing his arms.

“You shut up; you’re a big huggable dog and you’re going to like it,” Iris spat back with a sly smile before returning her attention to Eir. “You can come with us to our house so you don’t have to be in this barn, alright?”

Eir slowly rose to her feet, taking it all in as her eyes started to moisten once more. “Why would you do that?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Iris responded while standing up as well and giving Eir a big smile and a pat on her shoulder.

Eir felt a touch of warmth drive away the cold in her, but she didn’t know if she deserved it, if she wanted it. She slowly turned to Arylos, feeling fear come over her as she looked into his red eyes. She rubbed her hands together, afraid to speak to him, but she knew she needed to.

“I swear to fuck if you’re about to ask me for my forgiveness or permission I might actually hit you with my shoe,” Arylos barked while cracking a smile and coming towards Eir. “You need neither from me. Quite frankly, if Iris determines you don’t need either, then that’s good enough for me. Your debt is to her, not me.”

“But I attacked you too,” Eir cut in with a shy voice.

“Who cares?” Arylos laughed. “At this point, it would be easier to list those who haven’t attacked me. You’re not attacking me now, so I don’t really care.”

Eir couldn’t help but feel shame and embarrassment but couldn’t find any words to bring Arylos. She watched his eyes glance to her arm and he gripped her arm tight with his clawed hand, glaring at the cut in her forearm and his eyes catching the beads wrapped around her wrist.

Arylos let out a sigh as he started putting the pieces together. “You were pushed to that point, huh? You gave up, didn’t you?”

Eir blushed and tried to pull her arm back but Arylos held her fast as he lifted his other arm and bit into his loose yokui with his fangs, tearing off a shred of the cloth. “You’re not only homeless, but without a world,” he whispered under his breath as he began tying the cloth around her cut. “You’re trapped here on a foreign world with no home to go to, no people to call your own, no way to get back to the home you knew. You’re alone, afraid, and lost.”

Eir felt as though a knife was shoved in her gut as she listened to Arylos’s words. “I know what that’s like all too well,” Arylos continued as he finished tying the cloth strip. “You don’t belong anywhere, forever an outsider in this world that takes from you and doesn’t give back. But you latch on, bite back into it and find yourself something to hold onto; make a home for yourself. You must remember that while you still have life in you, you also have fight in you.”

Eir whimpered softly as she tried to contain her raging emotions. Her sadness and fear, anger and terror, it all came rushing back to her. She remembered that she was forever cut off from her home and she did the same thing to Iris by destroying her village. This Titan gave her the same punishment, knowingly leaving her stranded to suffer like this.

All because he knew this pain himself.

“And you know what that all means?” Arylos continued as his face carried a warm smile. “It means that so long as you’re alive, you can resist just a little longer. There will always be a tomorrow to push towards, a horizon to run towards. Keep your sights on that, and it will make you stronger. Accept and embrace the pain because it reminds you of how far you’ve come and how much further you have to go.”

Eir’s mind went blank, refusing to think as her muffled cries overtook her. The agony of life came rushing back to her, the pain on her back, the pining for Templarius’s twilight sky. It was all too much for her, like she was dragged out from drowning in an ocean. Her legs stood strong and steady as her mind broke down.

Until she let out all of the pain in a sobbing wail, letting the tears flow freely like a waterfall as she remained standing against the pain. He was right; she was still alive and that meant she could fight, and she determined herself to fight. She felt her heart beat in her chest and it made her feel more alive than before. She felt Iris rest a hand on the defiant valkyrie’s shoulder, bringing her a hint of comfort.

“Thank you,” she voiced in between her cries. Eir, the Spear of Justice, felt truly alive.