354. Histoire bleue, 7
(Rose)
R - Again, I don't get it.
B - The heroin was looking for something else, the judges could not offer. A chance at redemption.
R - Wasn't that the point of the labours?
B - No. She was made a champion in exchange of life. It's very different to opening the eyes of an enemy and making it join your side by his own new volition. It's giving the true freedom of choice, instead of the consequence of a judgement.
R - So... If I understand, the only real victory for the heroin, was the ally she made of the foe from the first labour?
B - She did help the judge bring peace risking her life, that's heroism. But for her, her real and only act of true victory beyond judgements, that was making this friend yes. And at the end, she lost that challenge and it makes her feel bitter.
R - It's too complex for me... But...
She knows my question before I voice it.
~
What happens next.
The heroin returned to the land of humans now ruled by the judge, and went to confront it.
I have a life without purpose she said.
She wanted more labours and asked for them.
Because deep down, she wanted more chances to meet demons.
The judge knew where the demons came from, but didn't expect a mortal to be able to do something about it.
When the deads sail to the other world at night, some ships are sent to hell. Others suffer from piracy by the demons seldom. There was still strife to clear in the universe, but no longer in the lands of the livings.
If she wanted to see where the demons came from, she would have to sail to hell, and the land of demons there.
Some of them sometimes managed to reach the land of humans and life by means that remained unknown.
The heroin had now cleansed the world of their presence, so her new labour would be to investigate what hell truly was, and how demons could escape it. This was a land out of the reach and sight of even the judge himself.
To help her in her perilous journey to hell, the judge granted her a spell of immortality that would allow her to reach the lands of the dead with her body intact, her soul safe from corruption. She would be able to defend herself after the sail as she always had, and not be a defenceless soul facing hungry demons.
At her request the judge agreed and allowed to cast the same spell on her friend with her, and the forest beast which also agreed to come along.
And so they were transported at night by the judge to the bay where the dead gathered to sail.
They sailed over the sea of time on an empty boat. For in time of peace, few people's souls came there now. And the minor judge commanding the ship set sail with them toward the sea of demons.
The minor judge once had been a heroin like her, in another era long forgotten. The judge had kept her as a ship captain for the departed, as an honourable after life.
This heroin of another era kept a faceless hood like the judge, but remained of human and mortal stature and origins. She was eager to do more than just fight off demons trying to ransack the ship of the souls it usually carried.
With this new friend and opportunity, they sailed at great speed to the land they should never have gone to, where demons came from.
~
They escaped the great maelstrom and storms raging around their continent. They crashed onto reefs in the shore, but they made it, and soon set foot on the land of the demons in hell.
After the scarred and chaotic landscapes of the reefs littered with scattered wrecks all along the coastline, they entered the deserted continental land.
The unexpected friend of the heroin had sparse memories of this place, and guided them through the desert of iron black sands.
A scorched earth, with many ruins, but neither plants nor animals.
The friend helped them in the few battles against curious demons attaching them, but asking not to kill any of them.
She said she would show them why. The heroin complied but not the minor judge.
They reached an ominous tower. Entire fields of demons turned to stone surrounded the building, sleeping as rocks for most of the time. They rarely moved.
But there was one ritual occasionally happening at the top of the tower they would wake up for.
When one of them was to die.
Because when a demon dies, its soul is able to travel to the land of livings, through towers like this one, jumping into the air from its summit. Over these towers, demons had their only chance for a life after death, as demons amongst humans.
As it's not an easy travel, and because they don't have a judge there to guide them through, most demons' souls get lost or twisted on the way. But sometimes, some of them manage to reach their heaven still mostly whole, and to begin their afterlife.
If they began slaughtering demons in their own land and around this edifice, there would be an invasion of the world soon after. It would be unavoidable.
The heroin thought of destroying the towers, but the truth was that with so few demons passing through, it was likely these towers didn't help them much to travel. They were more like their churches, the symbol of their only hope.
The heroin understood that. Not the minor judge. This one destroyed the tower, awakening numerous demons around.
They fought their way out and escaped the broken place, and then the land of that first tower. They never encountered any army or demon lord ruling this area, only beasts.
They passed by many other towers on their way to the ocean to leave the land of hell. It was the endless same.
To sail to another land, they stole a rare find of a demon ship build from the occasional pillaged wrecks.
And rather than returning to the land of the living, decided to sail toward heaven instead.
Because the solution to avoid demons killing humans may lie out there instead.
And they reached paradise.
Where humans souls lied. Where they turned into pure souls and light, living peacefully there as angels, hooded like the judges, but with light instead of darkness.
An immense land void of war, lush, simply peaceful and bright.
They didn't have much to observe or do there. After a day to recover, they set sail back to return to the judge with their findings.
Meanwhile, whilst they were away, new demons had appeared in the human lands.
The heroin negotiated and debated with the judge what would be the future. She would help take care of the new free demons.
He understood that he had to consider a way to help the guidance and journey through the afterlife of the real demons, the ones dying in their own land.
The judge became wrathful, as it was doubling his work she was asking.
And he would no longer have time to rule himself over humankind.
He would be stuck helping people and demons going through their respective afterlife equally, and no longer troubling one another.
He agreed in the end, on one condition.
At the end of her life recently granted, the heroin would become another minor judge like the ship's captain, and serve him, helping him in his job for all eternity.
The judge was asking her how much she was willing to sacrifice for the balance of the worlds.
After she had seen the temptation of paradise, he was asking her to sacrifice her eternity in exchange of how she asked him to sacrifice his entire dominion over the living lands.
The heroin agreed. It was worth it. She gained a hood. She would wear it forever someday. For now, it was just a reminder of her promise.
As long as she would wear it, and help escaped or lost demons, or humans souls alike; then the judge of all things would keep equality in his care for all living things.
And thus the heroin became a legend, for humans and demons alike.
~
I can't speak.
Bleue's story makes me feel weird.
She's smiling because she's able to play with my mind that easily.
R - Was she happy in the end?
B - As long as she lived, yes. Of course, she encountered new friends.
R - And... after?
B - That's a story for another time maybe. I haven't thought of it yet!
R - Liar. I know you have.
B - I have some ideas but I want to keep them for another day. You can think about it and tell me what you imagine will happen.
R - Obviously, that death, her death, won't be the end of her story.
B - That's how it goes for the greatest heroes. They live on, one way or another. Just like you.
R - Mostly another in my own case.
B - Ah ah. Maybe... Maybe.
R - Is the judge a good guy or a bad guy in the end? I could guess he might reveal itself to be bad...
B - That's a good question. Talking with the other Nightmare made me think about it. What's good, what's evil, and how to judge it.
She looks somewhere distant. She thought about it far more than I did.
B - Judging the morality of one's actions is not always as easily obvious as it may first appear.
R - Tell me about it. That's my life since I live in this world. Guilt remains nonetheless.
B - There are... No more rules, from rulers above us. But we have our own values, and we still judge ourselves against them, and also each other... It matters a lot to us.
~