Chapter 23: Shedding the demons of the past
She looked out the window, her eyes red rimmed and tired from crying, two days ago she woke up home, here where she never wanted to be again. The artifacts had been placed back where they belonged and Blaise was informed, she was welcome back home. Father was happy, he had hugged her tightly and wept over her shoulder. It hurt her heart to know he had suffered her absence, but she could not say the same of mother and Akane. Hanabe was catty as always but no less pleased to see Blaise.
"You seem to be unhappy that you are here, is something the matter little sister?" Hanabe asked her after she had woken.
"The man I was with…Ace…where is he?" Blaise looked to her sister.
She was unable to move much yet, had been sleeping for days apparently, her legs could not handle her weight yet. She had used every ounce of her flames and it drained her of everything she had. Hanabe sat down beside her and tilted her head.
"You were with a man? How daring of you, mother has already selected your new husband. I do hope you didn't do too much with this interesting man." Hanabe grinned.
"I will not marry this man, nor any other besides Ace." Blaise stated firmly.
Hanabe sat straight in surprise, the usually shy and cowardly sister she knew was not the one she saw now. Hanabe smiled.
"This is better, I have never seen you look like that before Blaise, your eyes…they are very strong now. Tell me everything, tell me about this man you love."
It was hours before Hanabe left the room for Blaise to sleep. Father stood in the hall, his face was stunned and he didn't move even when Hanabe approached him.
"Father?" Hanabe put a hand on his shoulder uncertain of what was wrong.
"Blaise…she has suffered so much because of me."
"Father maybe…maybe you should tell her the truth now. It will not change how much you love her, but I think she needs to know the truth now."
He nodded slowly; his eyes still stricken.
Blaise pulled on her robes now and stuffed her feet into the slippers she was provided. In the hall several of the training priests greeted her warmly and even offered to walk with her.
"Please no, I just want to visit the graves, don't worry about me." She bowed to them and walked along at a slow pace, soaking in the home she grew in. When she was well again, she would be leaving for Ace.
At the small family cemetery, she took her time looking around, however a few minutes in she could not find his grave. Where was it? She never found it, Victor's grave. Anger filled her until the flames she had been distantly feeling burst in her hands and filled her whole body with a powerful energy. Little fire sprites jumped from her arms and ran around her as she stomped out of the family grave to find her mother and father.
They were in the middle of a conversation and while the old Blaise would have waited quietly for them to finish and then almost pleadingly beg an audience, she was not that terrified girl any longer. She pushed passed the men listening to her mother speak and stood at the front, demanding attention instantly. The men backed away en masse, the flames giving her a wide berth.
"Blaise?" Her father asked confused but pleased to see her up and about, the flames about her reminding him of his sister.
"This is quite rude of you Blaise, go back to your room. Honestly a robe?" Mother glared at her.
"Where is his grave? I asked you to bury him here, where is the grave stone? Where did you put him?" Blaise asked.
"Who are you talking about?" Father asked confused. "Whose grave dear? Are you not cold? You should rest." He approached her.
"Mother, where is the grave of Vincent? I sent a letter to father asking him to be buried on our grave site. Where is he?" Blaise looked passed her father to mother.
The woman stood regally and gave Blaise a cool stare down, for the first time in her entire life Blaise found herself standing up to that look and returning it with a heat of her own. This was nothing compared to what she had faced in the last year plus.
"A stupid question. I did not have an unknown hermit buried in the family grave site, I had him burned and scattered in the forest. You know better than to ask for such a thing of us, return to your room and do not bother me again with such nonsense."
Blaise let out a scream of rage that caused her fires to roar around her. Father stepped back shocked; this fire…it was magnificent. Just like his sister. Mother did not seem impressed however and glared now.
"How dare you! He is the only reason I was able to survive when I was cast out of this shrine. He deserved to be buried properly as I requested! You had no right to deny me my request!"
"No right? How stupid! I am the head maiden here; you are not even finished with your training. Do not perceive your success in returning the artifacts as a pass in your behavior. You redeemed your sins and are welcome back but I am still in charge and you will do as you are told!" Mother spoke harshly.
Blaise took in a deep breath and cooled her flames.
"No." She stated firmly.
"Excuse me?"
"I said NO MOTHER!" Blaise screamed. The echo faded in the silence around them.
Mother was stunned, Blaise had never spoken to her thus.
"I have suffered under your cruelty, your unjustified punishments and your constant abuse of my person. But no longer! I will not suffer anymore at your hand and never will I ever be your whipping post again!" Blaise told her.
"How dare you speak to me this way! I am in charge here! And if you dare to deny my order you will be caste- "
"SILENCE WOMAN!" Father bellowed deeply.
Mother shut up and her eyes turned to her husband. Blaise saw her father standing there with anger on his usually kind face, his fists tightly held in place. He was in a rage the likes of which Blaise had never seen him in. Her eyes saw him in a new light, had he always had this aura about him?
"You will not speak to my daughter that way again do you understand me wife? She will not be caste out again and you will never mistreat her again or by the Goddess I will caste you out without a thought."
Mother gasped and the men around gaped at Father.
"You would speak to me thus? I am your wife! I have run this shrine at your side since we wed and bore you two perfectly behaved daughters? You would dare deny me my right as the head shrine maiden?" Mother raged.
Blaise frowned, two perfect daughters? Forgetting again was she?
"Three daughters." Blaise ground out angrily.
Mother looked at her crossly and laughed. "Actually two. You are not my child and never have I claimed you as mine."
"Silence Aiko!" Father roared.
"I will not! Akane and Hanabe are my daughters but you are not of my flesh and I have hated you from the moment your whore of a mother dropped you on our shoulders!" She fairly screeched.
Blaise stared open mouthed at her mother than slowly to her father. "Is this true?" She asked.
Father looked at his daughter now in anguish and it all hit her suddenly that it explained everything. She almost staggered back but father reached out to grasp her arm and pull her into a tight hug.
"You are still my daughter. No matter what the truth is now you have always been my child and I will always love you like it." He told her passionately.
"Mother, I heard that freak is in the graveyard, she should not be permitted to—" Akane approached the scene with Hanabe in tow and stopped talking quickly.
"Oh dear, mother seems to have spilled the beans in a bad way."
Tears she could not possibly have still ran down Blaise's face until she was blinded by them.
"Why? Who am I?" She asked brokenly.
"You are my daughter. Your mother was my baby sister, she was as beautiful as you are now."
"Why did she leave?" Blaise gripped his arms and pulled away to look at him.
He was crying again. "Selena did not leave you my sweet. She came to us in the dead of night in the middle of a storm. She had given birth mere weeks before. She collapsed at the gate and fought a raging fever for days, she died from the sickness. Her last words were of you, she named you Blaise Vesta and I promised her to raise you as lovingly as she would have. My little sister died loving you with every last breath in her body and that is a fact."
"She was a whore who ran off with a marine! She only returned because he spurned her and she had no place else to go!" Aiko declared haughtily.
"Mother that is a cruel thing to say to someone about their mother." Hanabe stepped forward passed Akane and walked to the side of her cousin who cried for a mother she would never have.
"What do you know? You were only a child when it happened, barely able to stand yet. You and Akane were asleep when I had to admit that slattern into my home and nurse her sick body. I was lucky not to have caught a disease." She folded her arms.
Father responded angrily to that statement but Blaise could not hear it. Her mother…her real mother had died…she was not the daughter of Akio and Rook. She was the daughter of Selena and…a marine? She couldn't process this, she wished Ace was here, she wanted him to hold her. She needed to go to him, to tell him…
"Who was my father?" She asked her uncle now.
He looked back at her after giving his wife a set down she desperately needed. "You are the legal child of Marine lieutenant Neriah Vesta. He was a handsome man; it was after I married that your mother met him and a year later when he was set to leave for a new shore Selena decided to follow him. They were very much in love; he did not leave her high and dry. He loved your mother and promised her the world if she would marry him. After your mother passed, I sought him out to beat him up for letting her die like that. He had died in a raid by pirates, he led the charge to defend the town they lived in and died. He sent your mother and you here before they were overrun by the pillaging men."
"They died…and left me here…." Blaise looked across to the woman she thought her whole to be her mother. "Why do you hate me so much? What could my mother have done to cause you to hate her so much?"
"Isn't it obvious? You and your mother are both freaks!" Akane declared.
"Your mother was a burden to this shrine before I came along and if it was not for me, she would have continued to be so." Akio declared angrily and then her eyes widened as her husband turned to her in a rage.
"What do you mean until you came? What did you do?" He demanded.
Akio looked away and shook with rage, how dare they all treat her this way? She was the daughter of a pure line, more beautiful than any and a coveted bride. Her word was law was it not? Everyone treated her as it was and that was how it always was.
"I told her to leave, I told her that her uselessness was not welcome and she should leave."
"You had no right!" He raged moving away from Blaise and advancing upon his wife.
"I have every right! I am in charge of this shrine! She could not perform her duties and she failed as a priestess of the Goddess! I did what was best for the shrine!"
"You mean for you?!" He roared. "You didn't want to lose your position as the head of this house because you knew my sister was the rightful heir! Because she was the one Chosen by the Goddess to wield her power!"
Blaise was shocked, her mother had the flames too? So, another had suffered because of this curse? She shook her head.
"I am the one who has the right to the shrine! I worked hard from the time I could speak to take over as head Maiden! I was not going to be overlooked because of some freakish power given to that slacker!"
Blaise shook her head.
"She was chosen! You cannot deny the will of the Gods!"
"I will! They should have chosen me!" Aiko bellowed.
"No, you would not have been able to handle the power." Blaise said calmly.
Everyone looked to her now.
"This fire is not a blessing; it is a curse. No one who has received this flame has had any happiness. But I will grab what I can while I live. I am leaving." Blaise told them all. "Have the shrine, have your petty lives and your secrets. Ace needs me and I will go to the man I love." Blaise walked away from them.
Aiko shook with rage; this little brat was just leaving like that? After everything she had done? Causing all of this!? She reached out to grasp Blaise's arm, her hand flew back ready to strike the girl she had hated for so long, her anger closing her mind. Blaise turned, eyes cold as steel and before Aiko could land the blow to intimidate Blaise with, she was on the ground herself, pain burning her own face and nearly blinding her.
Akane let out a gasp of shock and outrage, rushing to her mother's side to aide her.
"You forget yourself aunt. I have killed scores of my enemies, do not think that I would stop myself from killing you. By your own deed, I hold no love for you." Blaise walked away; the men around parted letting her pass.
"How dare you strike mother?! You are a monster! I don't know what James ever saw in you instead of me!"
"What do you mean by that Akane?" Hanabe asked her loudly.
Akane gasped audibly and stammered her denial but only Hanabe and a few of the people heard her. Father watched Blaise walk away unable to stop her, unable to speak. That was not his precious little angel anymore, this was a grown woman who had been hardened by the struggles she was forced to endure. Hanabe was surprisingly the only one capable of speaking, she was not surprised by any of this.
She bowed to her cousin. "Good bye Blaise, for what its worth, I did not hate you."
The words didn't burn like they should have, they didn't feel like they should, there was no feeling of togetherness or bliss, no love lost. Blaise truly had no reason to be here, but she had plenty of reason to go to Ace. He had encouraged her, defended her, stood beside her and given her affection she had never enjoyed from another before. Father had loved her but not the way she needed; he had done his best to create peace in his home, but there was no peace for her here.
"Blaise, you cannot leave!" Father chased after her as Hanabe ordered the men about.
He followed her all the way to the room she slept in and watched as she stripped her robe and removed her clothes. She didn't care that he was there and he saw fully the trials she had overcome. There were scars all over her body, her beautiful soft skin was tough and tanned now from the sun. She yanked her clothing on, ignoring his presence.
"Blaise please, don't leave like this."
"I am going to Ace; he needs me and I refuse to leave him to die at the hands of the Marines!" She found her swords and pack in the closet.
"Blaise, that man is a pirate. He broke the law and is to be executed."
She paused for a moment. "I will not let him die." She answered his statement with her own conviction.
"What is he to you?" Father asked, his heart dropping to his feet knowing her answer would end everything.
Those beautiful eyes the same shape as his sisters yet different in their color landed on him, in them he saw a woman. One who knew her own heart and would not be swayed from it.
"Everything." She tugged her pack onto her shoulders and walked past him out of the room.
He was unable to respond to this, forced to watch his beloved daughter leave. In the courtyard however Aiko and Akane had started fighting Hanabe who was surprisingly more vocal than normal.
"Stand aside Hanabe! I will punish that child; she will obey and she will marry as she is told!" Aiko was still spouting nonsense about marriage.
"She should be brought to heel immediately! That monster nearly destroyed the shrine!" Akane declared with certainty.
Hanabe had enlisted the men to hold the two women back and not let them pass.
"Enough out of both of you, mother Blaise will be rescuing Portgas D Ace and then most likely marrying him if they decide to do so. I do not doubt that she will choose to stay with him until her life has run its course. As for bringing her to heel perhaps it is you Akane and not Blaise who has much to answer for." Hanabe brought out a small orb that was cracked. "And while we are on the subject of answering questions, mother could you explain why the orb of the ocean as been cracked in this manner? This fissure could only possibly happen if someone who is not authorized to use it takes it from its place and attempts to access its power, power only permitted to the chosen maiden."
Both women refused to answer and Hanabe simply raised a brow at them both. Blaise walked to stand beside Hanabe, peering into the little orb.
"You tried to give this to Blackbeard. You promised to give him power if he brought me to you so that you could force me to marry and keep me under your thumb. The jokes on you, Blackbeard isn't interested in this little trinket, he has a much bigger desire." Blaise took the crystal and threw it at Aiko's feet, shattering the thing and releasing a wave of power that curled around the two women. "Until all of your lies have been revealed you will only speak the truth you both so often twist and hide. Have fun." She bowed to Hanabe and walked to the gates.
"Blaise! You are still my daughter! Even if you choose to leave this place!" Father found his voice and announced loudly his hearts contents.
Blaise did not look back. His love was never in question, but it was also never enough. In the town below she stood at the docks, nodding to the young man who prepared her small boat that Hanabe had ordered done. Whatever happened to the shrine now was not her problem, the artifacts were returned and now she was free to pursue her heart.
"Don't you die Ace; I have much that needs to be said to you." Blaise declared.
xxXXxx
Ace had grown weary of talking of the past, of speaking of things he was probably never going to see again. But Garp was not leaving yet and it seemed there was more to be said to him. He didn't hate Garp, he didn't feel as if he was an unwanted child by the Marine Captain. Perhaps Ace did have more to say to the man who took him in and protected him from the persecution of angry people hunting down pirates after his birth fathers' death.
"I heard you traveled with someone, a girl. Kidnapping women, now are we?" Garp asked sedately though the undertone of outrage was below the surface, he was being casual which was unusual.
Ace laughed. "No, not kidnapping. Truth is I couldn't get rid of her at first, and then…. I didn't want to." He admitted.
"Tell me about her."
"She is the most beautiful woman I have met, not beautiful in the sense of her looks though she certainly is lovely to look upon. She has this vivacity, this fire about her that drew me in to her. She was so different from the women I am used to, so honest and brave and…kick ass. She didn't need my help and she made no qualms about showing her own skill in battle. But when she cried…her tears would drop little flames, and her eyes would look like fathomless pits of sadness that could fill oceans."
"She sounds like a catch."
"Except she isn't a catch, she isn't some item for a man to find in a chest or a prize to be won! Blaise Vesta is a woman of her own making, a woman who could be as cold as burning ice and as hot as the whitest flames." Ace looked at Garp now and then down almost sadly.
"You did something stupid?"
"She was scared of me fighting Blackbeard, terrified of confronting him and I mocked her fear, I broke her heart because of my foolish pride." Ace looked up again. "She was a sheltered shrine girl who loved adventure, and despite her hatred for pirates she…she opened her heart and loved me."
"Hm."
"I should have told her then; I should have taken her into my arms and kissed the air from her lungs. Then told her how much I loved her."
"You should still do that." Garp stated gruffly.
Ace shook his head. "I will probably never see her again. But I hope she lives a happy life without me, I hope she gets to be happy even if I am not there to see it."
"You truly love her?"
"Yes." Ace smiled softly. "If you ever cross her path, please tell her…that I never stopped thinking of her, that I loved her through the end."
Garp nodded, his throat constricting with emotion until it choked him. Ace had come to love someone and be loved in return…his boy.