Ciara recalled the days she became a war maiden. The days where she gathered ALL the incarnation of the War Maidens that ever existed. She saw ALL possible War Maidens and saw ALL possible versions of the War Maidens granting her their powers and abilities. However, there were incarnations that synched up with her.

She recalled the memory of an incarnation of her within a timeline. It was a war maiden Ciara that had reached the end of the darkness after such turbulent wars that were fought on the fogs of the darkness. She saw a Ciara that carried a lamp in the darkness, her eyes straight on finding the exit of an isolated space in order to find someone.

Ciara witnessed her as a ghost that floated above this Ciara. She had a burnt face, her eyes had the dove of thorns, and the snake of woes. She was a Bleak Walker that was able to make use of the darkness to strengthen her heart. She didn’t know why, but this Ciara was lost in a space where time seems to be chaotic. It was a world with a kaleidoscope sky, she walked on the dunes, and sea of sands while facing monsters that were wrapped on black smoke.

Ciara, who had synched up with this version of her could not understand. She followed the woman throughout her journey, she watched her kill, and survive off the animals that had turned into a mutated beast. Along the way, she met travelers who were trapped with her, and along the way, these travelers gave up, for they had no hope to find. They all went for their deaths, knowing, that doing would succumb their souls into damnation.

“I will find you.” The Ciara of this timeline said. Ciara, who was floating like a phantom thought of what she was looking for. She was synched up with this woman, yet her thoughts were blocked off by mental force. So Ciara watched this version of her like a guardian angel, she watched her break through the isolated space. She saw this Ciara, looked up at the sky, tears flowing down her eyes, as she witnessed the sun. She outstretched her arms and laid down as if she wanted to recall the feeling of being bathed under it.

“I’ll find,” she said. “I can start a family with him, ah, can I still bear a child for him? Ah, if it’s you then you would surely smile, and embraced me within your arms, as you always have, isn’t that right, my love?”

She looked at her wrinkled hands. Her face wrapped in fear for the first time, which Ciara was surprised that she was able to feel fear. She did not know fear when facing the phantoms, yet she feared the moment she thought of her wrinkled skin. Still, this Ciara stood and marched through a wasteland, along with the ruins of the Kingdoms that once stood.

Ciara watched this version of her walked the lands in hopes of seeing someone. She questioned who the man she was looking for was, and what made this version of Ciara trek through dangerous lands? The answer to her question came. This version of Ciara reached a graveyard, and in that graveyard, where that tombstone lies, was the man she had been looking for. She took her life, and her blood seeped on the same ground she took it.

Ciara learned the identity of the man she wanted to be. When she did she was happy, and at the same time, she wondered how could a man endure so many years of rejection, beating, and insults, just to be with the woman who was too afraid of accepting a man who truly loved her?

Ciara didn’t understand and truly, she only learned that this Ciara had regrets, and her memories came flocking to her. The memories of this world’s Ciara, and her sufferings, and the love that she held back for a man who was weak, yet too stubborn to give up on a woman, became a part of the Ciara who was receiving the incarnation’s soul.

She saw their memories, and the times where they just sat side by side without minding the chaos, dreaming of a family, a warm hearth, and a home they could call theirs. It was a dream farther than the stars, yet they tried to reach it, and in the end, it ended with time catching up to them, and she simply didn’t have the strength to bear the weight of the world.

The opium she called hope had led to such end. Ciara, watched this version of her bled out, and then she saw those that knew of this grave and were shocked to find the war maiden of the heroes, lying dead on the same place where her husband was buried. She watched them bury the woman’s body next to this grave, and slowly, the vision that had allowed her to watch all of these dispersed, and she heard the thoughts of the woman, and her strength, and all she could offer, to Ciara. She saw this version of Ciara, walking to a different path, forever searching, as if she wanted to be with him. So she clung her soul to Ciara, and their souls merged into one. Her love was overwhelming, yet, she did not resist, for she knew that she had also fallen for the same man.

It was simply just fate that they would meet with this stubborn man. No matter what timeline it was, they would meet this weak stubborn man who had nothing but his love to offer.

The War Maiden Incarnation strengthened her power. She inherited what that version of her knew, and the curse that should have been given as well was thrown away by the curse of the Old Revenant that clung on that woman’s soul. The snake of woes, and the dove of thorns. The same eyes that she saw from the man who had delivered her to the three fates, the same eyes that captivated her.

***

The memories of ALL the war maidens still flowed into her. This time, it was a war maiden that recalled the memories of the other war maidens. She fought while holding on the same man who she remembered. She thought this man to be her greatest knight. She thought him how to be strong and be brave. The man became a leader, however, he was not that good. He simply didn’t have the talent to lead the way to the darkness.

The man fought side by side with her. He fought without minding his health. He didn’t bother about his health as long as he could serve the woman that gave her everything. She trusted him well and yet that same trust broke that man. He was led to the deepest parts of the darkness and was devoured by the fogs of war. His head on a spike, and his body torn, eaten by vultures.

Ciara felt nothing but rage from this War Maiden, and this War Maiden had killed without minding, her ending was walking to the gallows, where those who she saved ended up hanging her. The war maiden before her was hung while smiling as if she could finally see the man again.

The flow of energy was like a stream of visible notes tapping on his heart. She was thrown into a chamber with a wide table. On the table has two steaming teacups, and a kettle was placed on the middle of the cups. She sat on the left, the other woman sat on the right.

“Who are you?”

“And who are you?”

Ciara thought she would have a revelation at this moment. However, the woman in front of her seems to look idly at her. Her face was burnt, her hair was short, and she had a giant scar around her neck.

“You sure are beautiful,” the woman said. “You’re me aren’t you?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t lie now,” she said. “I know what I am, and that look on your face says it all. Really, why do we end up this path?”

“I don’t understand.”

The woman that looked like Ciara snaps her finger. “I’d tell you to focus on duty and let love by the second. But, I am tired, and within all these years...I tried that.”

“So what do you want from me?”

“Live for family,” the woman said. “Once you realized that in the end family is all you have, then there is nothing worth living for. We fight for nations, and we fight because we have a duty for the people. But why do we fight for all of this in the first place? Was it all because we love our country this much? The country, the people that mocked us for this face? The one that killed, burned, maimed, and tore our family apart?”

“It’s for the good,” she added. “I told myself it was for the good of mankind. Still, do you know my time ended? We survived, and he survived as well, and by the end of it all, they wanted a scapegoat they could use to appease the evil, and so they took him away from me.”

“Him?”

“You know him.”

“Did you stop that madness?”

“The Holy Light wanted proof that I destroyed the enemy. He...was annoying at that time, and they thought I wanted him gone, stop pestering the cursed woman who saved the world, and they drag him, stripped him of his honor, and put him in a trial in front of a mob that wanted him dead. They cursed him, spat at him, said that he was the devil, and I watched in the booth, with a coat on my shoulder.”

“How could you?”

“It was one of the ways to make people believe. He had cases of being beaten up by me and they gathered witnesses of his nefarious deeds and his harassment of me. He plotted against mankind and he was branded as evil. It was minor politics, and we didn’t even have to bother with such charade. That sort of lies.”

“...”

“Speechless? It was stupidity really, a woman who made a choice out of impulse and had his loyal soldier treated horribly because she was annoyed by his constant chasing love. Did you know what his last words were?”

“I love you,” she said blandly. “He was always brighter than anyone, and he was not much of a fighter. However, he was smart enough to deduce that he was stabbed in the back, and was treated like a political scapegoat for no other reason than to make a show for the world.”

“You let this happen? Did you feel anything,” Ciara’s eyes became that of a demon.

“I did. I watched him get burned on a stake.”

“Disgusted, aren’t you?” She said. “No need to hide it, I know what I did.”

Ciara stood up from the table. “Tell me, what did you think when he burned on that stake?”

“I loved him,” she said. “Ah, I wish I could rewind time and just slaughter them, but how could I when it was my duty?”

“The world owed you!” Ciara grabbed hold of her collar.

“That they did. That’s why I’m here to be a stupid a reminder of what you shouldn’t do.” She stood up as well. Her eyes locked with Ciara. “I will not ask for your forgiveness. I will never forgive myself as well. That’s why I want you to do things differently, and since you’re the one that had it lucky.”

Ciara slapped her hands. She walked to the door that opened out of this void.

“Don’t let the Pale Shine Lady see you. Kill any time wraiths you find and take their essence. You will be our strongest, and none shall stop you without the curse on you now.”

Ciara stopped for a second. The woman that looked like Ciara sat back on the chair.

“You will be going after him, and he will be going after you. I hope that one day, you will walk the same path, come to an understanding, and for the love of God!”

She suddenly stood and turned towards Ciara with tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Stop chasing and rejecting each other damn it!”