This is an original work, copyright 2003 Pure Yaoi.
The cathedral loomed up around the Red Cross knight on all sides, warm and grey and firelit. Behind him the priest still stood, hands extended in benediction, but he was no longer listening. His crusade was over now, his mission was ended. As he pushed open the massive wooden doors of the church, only the blackness of the starry night greeted him. Only the long path of his own future lay before him, leading off into the woods, toward what he knew was waiting there.
The priest in his white robes had laid hands on him and on his sword, and called him "hero" and "blessed." His crimes of murder had been forgiven by the Holy Mother Church, for all that he had done in the defense of Christianity and the Word of God. They called him a holy warrior and he wore the blood-red cross of Christ on his chest, and his sword spilled the blood of the evil creatures that would drag men's souls down to Hell.
And now, when God had triumphed through his hands and the evil had been driven back again, the priest had told him to go in peace.
Go? Yes, he would.
Peace? Yes, he would find that.
The path away from the cathedral led into the dark nighttime woods, but he had no fear. Those things that lurked in the dark did not dare approach him any longer, not after he had dispatched so many back to whatever hell they spawned from. Only one creature of the night approached him any longer, the one who was waiting even now beneath that ancient tree where they had first encountered one another.
Pale white and gleaming in the faint starlight, the creature waited. It looked so like a man, but he could not risk calling any name, nor going so far to think of it as "he." It was the unnatural spawn of human and devil, and it held no place in a world split sharply into realms of good and evil. No other creature in the world knew the weight of the sins that lay on the knight's heart. No other being would accept his final decision to put that guilt to a final rest. It waited, and it spoke.
"So now it is over, is it not?" Old speech and old words, like a poem or a prayer.
"Yes." He spoke quietly, never looking directly at the unearthly being who lingered a few feet away. "My service is complete. My path... my path ends here."
The creature turned its head a bit away, then turned and led the way deeper into the forest. "Not quite here. A little further, Knight of the Cross."
In all the dark forest there was no sound except for the faint snapping of twigs and leaves beneath their feet as the two of them strode through the night. Though the other started out ahead of him, and though its stride was twice as long, he matched its steps so they walked side by side. No warmth came from the immortal being at his side. It was just as well. Warmth might remind him of life and turn his feet from the path he was on. Still... to have some creature there beside him, even if it did not breathe or feel, was a kind of comfort. At least, he thought, in all the world there will be some memory of this night.
They stepped out of the treeline and faces the vast expanse of the star-pricked night sky. The ground ended not far from the forest, in a sharp cliff that overlooked the calm waves beneath. The end of the world, it seemed, this sharp edge. Beyond it there was nothing but sea and sky, the stars faintly mirrored in the deeper blue of the cresting waters.
"This," the creature said, "is the end of the path. Mark well, Knight of the Cross. This is your future."
He looked up then at the noble, pale face, which could only be described as beautiful no matter how damned the being was. "A short enough future," he said, matching the low tone of the other.
Glacial grey eyes turned down on him, blank and devoid of emotion. They did not frighten him, though -- when he looked in the mirror, he saw similar eyes, cast in violet. "Longer than you think. You will walk through darkness and you will not see where you are going. Only the night will lay before you, until the final step is taken and you fall into the sea."
Turning then, the creature that was neither alive nor undead put its hand on his shoulder, the first touch that had ever passed between them. "The sea will be your salvation, Knight of the Cross. What you do tonight will damn you in the eyes of your Church, but one day, your soul will be rescued by the sea."
He held very still, looking down into the light waves that lapped against the base of the cliff. The cold hand fell from his chain-mailed shoulder. A slight breeze blew past his cheek and he knew the creature was gone. The last steps of the path that they had walked together would be his own.
The only thought that held in his mind as he walked forward, looking up into the stars, was the faint hope that in all its immortal years that being would retain the memory of this night... that some mind in the entire world would know the truth of his damnation and salvation.
He fell. The stars fell with him, hurtling and rushing down and down, falling into the sea as he did...
... the warm water wrapped its arms around him and held him safe, the weight of his armor helping to pull him down and down...
...peace... anshin... he did not know the word but it felt comforting on his heart, as even the faint light of the stars slid away...
... anshin... peace... an...
..."Shin..."
[ close window ]