A/N: ahaha…I really need to slow down and learn to focus on one thing at a time, but it's hard when I'm constantly getting inspired to write something else. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
'Til next time
~shine
More Than You Know~When All You're Given Is Hate~
Frowning slightly at her reflection in the mirror, Aisha sized herself up. While not the prettiest girl alive, she supposed she was rather cute. Her hair, violet in color, hung freely down her back when unbound, ending just past her shoulders in waves. When she did style her hair, she always kept it in pigtails, tied by dark purple ribbons. Half-lidded violet eyes stared back at her with some measure of self-loathing, a slight scowl etched onto her face, baring perfectly white teeth. Casting her eyes down at her figure, her self-esteem plummeted.
She wasn't the bustiest girl alive; she still couldn't compare to Rena, and that was a rather unfair comparison. Not that she wanted to, of course. The last thing she wanted was to be ogled by guys she hardly knew or liked. Her figure was lean and fit for a girl her age, well toned and still showing curves in all the right places. However, she realized that girls her age didn't wear the clothes she did, even if they were forced upon her by a powerful demon as proof of their contract. Even if he was rather cute, he could be really pushy at times, and Aisha hated it. But there wasn't much she could do.
As a result, she was teased nonstop by Eljerk, Rena often threw furtive glances and sighed when she thought Aisha wasn't looking, and Chung, bless his soul, tried talking to Angkor every chance he got to ask him to let her change. This usually got the young prince blasted in the face with a dark fireball, but he didn't give up. Raven looked away whenever he spoke to Aisha, and Eve looked disapproving of her attire but learned to accept it. Scowling even more, she punched the mirror as hard as she could, ignoring the cuts on her knuckles and the shocked cries.
Tears streamed down her face freely as she numbly let herself be tended to. She didn't even bother to pay attention to who was there with her. She didn't care. Perched on her shoulder, Angkor stared at her worriedly but she ignored him too. Why should he concern himself with her emotional state when it was his fault she was like this in the first place? Aisha brushed him off, ignoring his protests and stood up to leave, only to be pushed back into her seat by a strong hand.
"Aisha, what's wrong?" She heard the person say. Frowning when she recognized the voice, she tried again to get away, but when they pushed her back down, she teleported. "Aisha! Damn it all! What's your problem?!"
"Since when did you care what my "problem" was anyway?" Aisha shot back, glaring at the red head furiously. Taken aback by her reaction and at a loss for words, Elsword stood there staring. Aisha scoffed. "I thought so. You don't care at all do you?"
"W-what? What's gotten into you? Of course I care!"
"Why? You never seemed to care before."
"Why would you think that? What have I done—" Elsword cut himself off, realization hitting him. He lowered his gaze. "Oh."
"Yes, Elfail, "oh" is definitely the correct response. Congratulations, now you're one step closer to graduating from heartless jerk to clueless asshole." Aisha spoke bitterly, turning on her heels and storming away. Elsword blinked and stood there for a moment before cursing under his breath and going after her.
… … …
Aisha ignored the looks of disapproval she got from the people of Velder. Although it stung that they still didn't trust her, even after she had helped protect them from the demon horde, she no longer cared. Shops that were previously open closed their doors to her, children fled from her in terror, and when a ball bounced along her path, if she offered it back, the children merely ran home screaming. Scowling bitterly and burning the ball in her hands, Aisha left town, fresh tears forming in her eyes as she heard curses thrown at her back, and sighs of relief when she finally left.
She hated people. Their petty superstitions irked her to no end, and they judged her based on word of mouth or by her attire. Several times she had been assaulted when she refused to accept offers of money from drunken men in exchange for lewd acts that both disgusted and appalled her. Their drunken laughter and lecherous smiles only served to lower her already crumbling sense of self-esteem, and yet when guards came to break up the commotion, no one ever believed her to be the victim. It was always her fault and she should "learn to dress better". If all she would get from them was hate and fear, then so be it. She was tired of trying to please them and make them see her in a different light.
After all, why should a princess of darkness seek the approval of those far beneath her?
Wishing she hadn't pushed Angkor away, Aisha turned back towards the inn, but thought better of it. He would come find her when he wanted her for something. Instead, she summoned her staff and floated away.
She didn't know where she was going, exactly; she wasn't sure she would have gone to any of the places she had in mind in the first place anyway. She let the breeze carry her, flying high over the houses of the Residential Area, past Hope Bridge and high above the Palace, stopping only once to glare down at the young princess waving excitedly for her to come over. She ignored the girl, going back onto her unknown path.
She came at last to the ruined Southern Gate, where the signs of battle had yet to be cleared away. She remembered the struggle to defeat Chloe's evil beast quite well; the terror she felt that day could still be felt even now. If it hadn't been for Raven's quick thinking and the creature's lacking intelligence, they'd have been crushed flat beneath its feet. With a well-timed Shockwave and Aisha's Phantom Breath spell to leech away the mana the creature had been gathering for a powerful laser blast, Elsword And Chung would not have been able to get close enough to deal any damage. Even Rena's arrows and Eve's robot servants didn't seem to be helping at all.
Why she had come here, she didn't know, but at least it gave her some time alone to reflect and think.
Sitting down in the shade of some rubble, Aisha drew her knees up to her chest and cried. For years she had struggled with rebuilding her lost magical abilities, for years she suffered the teasing glares of her peers when news came that she was no longer the best of the best of her year and beyond. When they had found out that her skill now rivaled that of a toddler's, all the people she thought had respected her had turned on her, sneering and pushing her around and bullying her. When she ran away, she knew they were taunting her, calling her worse names than just "coward".
When she joined the El Search Party, she sought to better herself, to expand her already vast knowledge and shape it into something more. To become someone that no one would ever make fun of again. That was before she met Elsword, and every day since then had been amusing to say the least. When she made the choice to study dark magic, he didn't judge her. In fact, he seemed to understand her need to grow stronger and had sought her out to learn magic.
Dumber than a rolling stone though he was, she was surprised at how much effort he put into everything he did. From simple things like summoning fire into his fist to incantations and formulas, he learned slowly but his ability to apply what he learned was nothing short of prodigious. From then on, rather than forcing him to study on his own until he sufficiently deciphered the text, she simply read it aloud to him, had him practice and then taught him how to understand the text later.
They had grown pretty close since then, and she had started to like him more and more, she admitted, though grudgingly. He did have his moments when he was pretty cool, and sticking up for her was definitely a huge plus in her eyes. He was being manly and sweet, and she couldn't help but fall for him.
However, later in Altera when they'd had their first big fight, things went downhill from there. She didn't know why he had been so cruel to her, and she didn't know why she had struck him so hard, but since then they'd been at odds yet again and she stopped helping him. He ignored her when she spoke to him, and she would just hit him if he got too close. When their eyes met, she could see the days that had been, the times when she had almost blurted to the clueless brat how she felt. Days that would never again come to pass.
When she was approached by Allegro with the chance to grow her powers yet again, Aisha walked with him, leaving behind what she thought had been an apologetic Elsword. His face changed to a scowl soon after and he turned away. Aisha wanted to scream at him at that moment, but chose not to.
Allegro had told her that if she wanted to increase her affinity for the dark arts, she would need to begin by absorbing darkness into her body. For three days she had sat and meditated, doing exactly as he said, but in that time, she had met Angkor, a powerful demon who was sealed away by a strange seal. She could feel elemental energies radiating from it, and while her first thought was to ignore him, he'd made her an offer she certainly didn't want to turn down. For his freedom, he would give her all the power she wanted. To control the shadows and all who dwelled within as their princess. She released the seal and accepted the deal. Not long after, she felt the near endless stream of dark energy and El as promised and as an extra…detail as he called it, her clothes had changed, and so too did her nightmares begin.
Aisha sighed. She tried to hold her head high and feel proud of the choice she had made, but what pride was there to feel when everyone looked at you with hatred and prejudice? When she only meant to help, they flung holy water at her and held up crosses to push her back. Such things didn't affect her, mind you, but she didn't want to bring more trouble to herself than she already faced. Enraged by the insults and curses thrown at her daily, Aisha was quickly driven to regret her choices, and deeper into despair. The one person, who had chosen to forego any respect he could have gained had he not stuck up for her, her only guardian against injustice, now sat idly by and left her defenseless. Chung could do little to abate the people's ridiculous fears and rumors, and even Rena's fury did little to help. To them she was like a plague, one that must be stamped out before it spread.
Never had Aisha felt more hurt and betrayed in all her life when she looked to Elsword for help, only to be rejected so cruelly. His eyes simply stared at her, fixing her with their indifferent gaze and she'd had her answer. He didn't care. She was on her own now. Had Aisha not chosen to keep her cool and pretend that their words didn't hurt her, she would have crumbled on the spot. She merely did everything she could for the Velder Garrison without being asked, using her spells to do no harm to whatever knights were in the way, foolishly blocking her from doing her job.
And now, here she was, broken. Her strength sapped away, her confidence gone and her many faults laid bare. Broken hearted, broken spirited, crushed. Perhaps Angkor had been right in the beginning. Once she made her choice, there was no going back. What peace she had gained in her life, what harmony there had been and understanding she had reached would forever be gone if she were to take her place as Princess of the Void. Had she not been so foolish and obsessed with power, perhaps she wouldn't have had to endure this pain. It was her own damn fault for being so stupid and hard headed. Perhaps she deserved what she got after all.
"There you are," the familiar spoke, the sound of beating wings brought her out of her misery for a few moments as she looked up. The fat purple and white bat looked at her with worry, settling himself on her arms and folding his wings about him. "You know, your friends have been looking all over for you."
"Let them look. If they cared as much as you think, they'd have found me by now." Aisha muttered darkly. Angkor sighed, waddling up the length of her arm and dropping into her lap to rest. "Why are you here, anyway? Aren't you supposed to be trying to bury yourself in Rena's cleavage by now?"
"I was worried about you more. It's rare that you leave without me, so I had a feeling something was up." The familiar answered. Aisha shrugged. "What's on your mind?"
"You can read my mind. You should already know."
"I'm respecting your privacy and asking, rather than invading your thoughts for once. Even I can be a gentleman, you brat." Angkor huffed. His antics didn't amuse Aisha, however, but she was grateful that he didn't start reading her mind. "Is it about that Elsword kid?"
"Why would I think about him?"
"Because you still love him."
"Wha—"
"I may be old, but you humans are easy to read, child. You still look to him for support. You still want to be near him. You love him." Aisha blushed but said nothing. Sighing, Angkor burrowed deeper into Aisha's lap. "I'll never understand you humans. You contradict yourselves so often, it's amazing you can tell your head from your ass. You love him, yet you want nothing to do with him. He blames himself for your moods, yet he does nothing to make you see that he's sorry."
"It's too late to apologize anyway." Aisha replied finally. Surprised, Angkor stared up at Aisha who looked back with fresh tears in her eyes. "I'm not going back. I don't know where we're going to go, but it's not back to the others."
Angkor merely sighed and agreed. If she didn't want to go back, he wouldn't force her. He only hoped that she was able to make peace with herself. The happier she was, he would be able to share in that happiness. "It's almost midnight, mistress." Angkor spoke. "We'll be able to do a long range teleportation from here. Shall I choose some place isolated?"
"Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice." Aisha spoke. Angkor melted into the shadows a moment later, and soon she could feel the familiar surge of power spreading through her. Two dark wings sprouted from her back and covered her seated form. In a whirl of dark energy, she was gone.
… … …
Elsword watched the scene with wide eyes. He was too late. The only thing that ran through his mind at that point was how he had failed to get there on time. As he rushed forward to stop her from leaving, two dark red eyes glared at him from the cyclone of dust and dark power, freezing him to the spot. He could only watch as in the next moment, she vanished forever. "Aisha!"