[Edanian Journey] Aal

Chapter 8: The Meaning of Days Gone

Ayawaka wondered whether it would have been better to remain ignorant. If what they had believed was a pilgrimage was really a path for harvesting souls, did that mean those who were not strong enough simply had to accept death? I told him there was no reason to accept such a senseless conclusion.

As he spoke, I learned more about the lives the Scouts had led. Each had their own circumstances, but all of them had once found themselves with nowhere else to go. They had found purpose in standing guard at the edge of the world, and Aal's commandments had become the rules by which they lived.

Ayawaka himself had once crossed the continent in search of the Blackstar. But what he found in Calpheon was the corrupted Redstar... The name <b>Redstar Scouts</b> had been chosen in bitter mockery of their own pursuit of false salvation. Though every one of them had taken up arms and joined of their own accord, Ayawaka blamed himself for driving them forward with false hope.

I told him he had not deceived his brothers, and that everything they had done could not have been meaningless. Their lives had not been wasted. The days they spent guarding the lowest reaches of the world still mattered.

Whatever Aal believed death to be, it could not erase the lives they had spent sustaining those who were still alive. When Ayawaka asked whether there was any hope left, I answered.

"Not in a god... but in mortals."

Ayawaka said that perhaps I could become the Blackstar. He asked whether I would still rise against a god even if I were struck down again. I told him I would. Our conversation left him certain of one thing: if another trial had been foretold, there had to be a way through it.

The only commandment we had yet to face was <b>sharing</b>. Ayawaka said he would take my mark upon himself. Sharing usually meant the strong supporting the weak, but sometimes everything had to be staked on the one person capable of forging a path ahead.

He asked me to prove that their lives had not been in vain. To become the <b>Blackstar who would carry humanity's hopes</b>.

Carrying that wish with me, I set out once more for Aal.