Soul of Shadows
Epilogue

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They say that your life is merely a mirage. A fill-in chapter before you ascend to greater things. For my kind, there is no ascension. I do not rise to that great white land in the sky, but rather downwards, towards the depths of below. For it is written in our lores, in our myths and tales, that for thieves and assassins, for those who play games with deceit, there is no Heaven - only the Hell in which we can atone for our sins.

It is because of these myths and legends that I play the game I do. And I play it well, because if I don’t, I shall certainly lose and war will be upon us. I will be its instigator. And for a sin such as that, there is no atoning.

That being said, I do not fear. Not Hell, Heaven, nor their threats could make me fear the death which I so carefully tempt and I do not regret my actions.

After all, I’m a Sin.

And the Sins get to play the game.

Everything is a lie. Everything is a carefully crafted deceit and I can’t wait to play.

There is no afterlife for my kind, but is a world born out of war not a different kind of afterlife?

Is it to be said that there is not some kind of beauty in the worlds and laws that are created from death and destruction; does a person not undergo the same torment of death to reach the afterlife?

If a world after war is to be considered another sort of afterlife, then my kind stand a chance yet. A war is an unforgivable sin, so therefore the world born out of it must be a kind of Hell, the perfect dwelling for the denizens of the Dimension that flows through my very veins. Those who meet me will quickly meet their fate at my blade, with my mirage poisoning their minds with pretty lies and even more beautiful deceits, and with every passing second, my web will tighten, ensnaring them further.

My Sin is that of deceits and lies, and I am considered a patron for thieves and killers, for liars and the deadly, beautiful things of the world. I am the Demi-Sin of Deceit.

With my web tightening, I will begin a war that is not to be reckoned with, a war in which later generations will shudder at the very mention of, and with my victory, I will carve a new sort of afterlife for those of my kind.

I have won the battle, and I will win the war.

Even if it sends me back to where I began.

Love and war have always been entangled.

People have warred for love, have died for love, and have survived to see it grow again in the face of war. Never in my court has someone gone to war for love. It is a concept as foreign to us as peace was to humans. For deceit, for lies, for power- Those are the reasons we went to war. We went to prevent others from gaining power, or to end bloodlines.

Never love.

For love, we did nothing. It was never cultivated in our court, never encouraged. Yes, it happened, but rarely did it come without another motive. Money, power, a chance to get on the throne, descendants. That is what my court loved. Not a person, not a personality or a soul. We did not choose our lovers based on how nice they were, or whether they attracted us. We chose them on how much power they could get us, how much money they could add to our troves.

But I am at the top of the ladder. I am richer than almost everybody else in our court.

So what would I love? I do not need to find someone with power or money. I am already an Heir to the throne by birthright, so what would I marry for?

Going to war for love is a stupid idea, but if I am to be honest…

It intrigues me…

They say that there’s two kinds of strength in the world, and each person possesses only one kind. The first kind of strength is the sort my court thrived on; bloodthirstiness, and to be cruel and merciless, unfazed by the death that surrounds us each and every day, or by the brutality those around us can show.

The second kind of strength, and the kind that I can see shining in each and every one of my allies, is to find hope even in the most dire of circumstances, and to know deep down, buried within your very soul, that while you cannot guarantee everything will be okay, you will strive for it regardless. War brings out the cruelest in people, but it can also bring out kindness. It can band people together in a way that they may not have envisioned before. Cities can be built out of rubble, and friendships forged out of hardship.

I have seen the best and worst of people throughout this war, and yet I continue to fight for its end, no matter how useless and hopeless it seems.

I thought, once, that I was the first kind of strength, that I could fight my way through anything and come out unscathed on the other side, uncaring of what happened. I thought the second kind of strength was a flaw, and that if you blindly trusted in those around you, and hoped for the best no matter where you stood in life, you were a fool. I know now that the first kind of strength is not really a strength at all, but a weakness, and that the people who wield the second kind of strength are the strongest of us all.

They are the people who can look diversity in the face, and come out on top…

There is a darkness that grows in the hearts of every person you meet in the middle of a war; the kind of darkness that can consume everything in its path, and tear apart even the strongest of those around you. My allies and I have fought tirelessly, given everything to survive long enough to build a world worthy of living in, doing so even if it destroys us at the end of it.

We have lost far more than we have gained in this war, but we continue to fight. Giving up, for us, is not merely losing the war and surrendering to our enemies whims, but it is losing everything we have loved. It is losing dignity and face.

It is losing happiness, and love, and freedom.

The latter, I can no longer imagine giving up. Where once I had lived without it, these months with the people I now call my friends and family have shown me that I cannot live without freedom or love, that those two things are to be valued above all else.

I can leave everything else behind- I can lose morale if it means running to survive fighting another day. I can lose happiness under the hope that I will find it again in the rubbles of war, and the things we build out of that rubble.

I can even lose my sanity, and know that I will find it again.

But losing freedom and love? That is no longer something I can find myself leaving behind.

This final mission has shown me that I need those things to live, and without them?

I am merely surviving.

My life was decided for me a long time ago, before my first breath had been taken, before my mother had held me in her arms; even before my name was given to me.

My namesake has been the path my life took, a fate laid out for me, a destiny to fulfill.

Everything in my life travels in circles; good and evil, the battle between the two, and eventually, one will triumph, only for the war to begin again. Good and evil will battle forever, and only someone willing to rip up the path and start again will end the cycle. I have laid the groundworks for you to continue this story, to write a new ending for everyone. Go out there and forge your own way through this world, or any others you come into contact with. Do not be afraid to rip up the path and start again, because this time, the cycle does not end with me. This time, it will end with you. I have handed the keys over to you, a Time-Jumper who can change the course of the world, and of this war, once and for all.

Break the cycle, and change the course of history before the clock ticks over, and history repeats itself…

Good luck, my daughter.

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