Why?
...
Why me?
...
Too many questions were going around in his head, making him weaker. In just one week a lot had happened. Although he supposed it was something he should be used to...
However...
Why this?
He asks himself dryly
He doesn't see the way his long hair gets tangled between his fingers, after all, the painful migraine won't let him sleep.
He's been holding on pretty well so far, but he's almost reached his breaking point so soon enough to...
A single frustrated whispering sigh came out of his mouth...
The dam doesn't break immediately. It never does. He would never allow it to. But his hands tingle. It itches too much from that fight. He saw it 500 years ago. He saw her constantly in his nightmares, even encountered her once his journey was over. He knows the other gods are not as aggressive as she is, he knows she was simply trying to protect. It was unfortunate that her choice led her to be seen as the antagonist.
It has been too long since you fully entered a domain created by beings from other worlds. Beings similar to his own kind. It was familiar but at the same time very strange. To be in the presence of another's prowess, so similar to his own, yet unable to replicate it.
He stares at his hands for what seems like an eternity. He doesn't even notice how his bare, calloused hands tremble. He cries for what he has lost. She thought she had run out of tears, but today she has lost more than she should have.
Lost his sister, his other half.
Lost his powers, his only proof as a star.
But now he has lost his beloved.
The one person he promised to protect and care for, the one person to whom he dedicates his entire existence since he lost the only one important to him. He has lost his Furina
He was so close. All he had to do was reach out and take her hand. His beloved was simply there. But he couldn't do it. He was helpless. Contrary to what that person might have said about not having to rely on powers that were not of this world, he was powerless to reach out and take back what was rightfully his.
So once again, something incredibly important in his eons of years was forcibly separated from him. Simply because his nature was kept under lock and key without his consent.
The tears are warm from the rage that fills this mortal body.
A rage he has been repressing for years since he came into this world.
A rage that is only momentarily quelled by his love and adoration for his chosen ones.
A rage that could mean the end of this world if her powers were not blocked by that being.
That goddess. The same red star. That damned goddess.
If it weren't for her, he wouldn't have been separated from his sister. If it weren't for her, his wings wouldn't be clipped and he wouldn't be forced to make this journey through the seven nations and play the spectator.
Ah, but then he would not have had the privilege of meeting her... His blue star. Her love of stories. His love of knowledge, of the unknown. His love for her.
The tears are cold. They look like crystals in the false moonlight. A trembling hand covers her mouth. The loneliness is unbearable, but he endures it anyway. As hot and bright as the star may burn, the space around him is beyond freezing. So when the flame of passion is almost extinguished?
What will be left to protect the star from the cold?
She doesn't know when she had fallen to the ground, on her knees. But he continues to sob silently, letting his mind race from one end to the other. He is often grateful that he has learned from humans how to feel. A skill not passed down to him naturally, but one he has cultivated over the hundreds of years he has existed. But it is at this very moment that he regrets having learned something so painful. For every second he has to endure, he curses every version of his past self for thinking it was worth the experience.
Rising weakly, he looks at himself in the mirror. The Traveler's character is gone. The iconic braid is gone. He can't see his eyes. He can't see his body. He is as alone as the day he regained consciousness.
Again, he lost control. Now, though, he's coming to his senses.
He focuses on reshaping himself. In the image he prefers. The Traveler's body returns to him. A lithe, strong body with long blond hair. He stares at his reflection.
How many people trust him wholeheartedly because of this face? How many friends has he made during his stay here? How many times has he been trusted to be the savior of everyone's life? He is pulled from everywhere, playing every role he is told to play. Be it human or deity.
Now that he thinks about it. His situation is no different than hers, is it?
But that's not fair. He shakes his head. The feather in her earring tickled his neck.
She was a victim of someone else's grand plan. He has no right to compare himself to her. After all, much of his own suffering was caused solely by his own actions.
The friends he chooses to make, the paths he chooses to take, are all fraught with difficulties. He knew this all too well at the time, but accepts them anyway with a soft smile.
Furina is home. She is still recovering. She is safe.
A hand rests on his chest. She closes her eyes, imagining that adorably beautiful face sleeping comfortably in a bed, recovering from her injuries. A sigh of relief escapes her lips and with it, all the negative emotions she had been keeping behind a dam.
He will come back for her.
Aether opens her eyes to look at her reflection. A warm smile spreads across her face as golden eyes narrow to give a gentle expression.
But until then, the show must go on.