The next day
**********
Arella grills her two confidants, Mikil and Gibral, and her nephew, Azrael.
"What do you mean I told you not to tell me any of this?"
"M'lady, before your return, we were put under strict orders to never leak any information of your past and to never push you toward a particular destiny or decision. In short, we were told to protect and train you until such a time that the full truth became known to you."
"But what became of me, and why did I wish to return? What purpose was it to serve?"
"M'lady, we are not able to..."
"You're not allowed to tell me if I don't already know. Got it."
She turns and stares at Azrael. "But you are under no such oath. And I can tell by your uncomfortable demeanor that there's something you have to say. Spill it."
Azrael clears his throat and strokes his trimmed black goatee twice before replying. "If I may be perfectly honest?"
"Of course. Anything less and we wouldn't be family, no?"
This brings a brief smile to both their faces. "Yes, true. The truth is that you failed. Your mission- at least that which we believe you were sent to do- was a failure."
The young woman frowns. "How so? What went wrong?"
"You did," is the reply. Gibral looks at Mikil, startled, as Azrael continues. "That we have descended from the Aenil is true. That apparently you ascended as a chosen one and given a divine task is true. That there was a dark storm coming- a cloud of change, uncertainty- is also true. That there was a taint enveloping the world- that, too, is true. And you believed that your role in the big picture was to rid the world of the darkness- to bring light to all the shadowed places until the dark had been eradicated."
He stops to brush a dark lock from his face. Arella, until now, standing and pacing, sits. All of this seems so very familiar- as if she'd heard it all in a dream long ago.
"But you learned- too late to correct your mistake- that eliminating the darkness was not your calling. Indeed, it could not be the calling of anyone- mortal or Aenil. For the light cannot exist without darkness, and vice versa. To rid the world of darkness would be to destroy it- and thus would eliminate the light you sought to bring forth. You failed because you did not understand your mission."
A look of deep sorrow strikes Azrael's face as he looks at Arella. "Tenebrae and I spent years studying what had happened, digging through the manuscripts you had unearthed, and piecing together the details..."
Gibral interjects. "Excuse me, who? And what manuscripts? I was unaware of any of this."
Mikil holds up a hand to his friend. "Tenebrae is... or was, the younger sister of Helios Raiva. As for the manuscript..." He looks to Azrael.
The man nods. "I spent the bulk of my military career in Minas Ithil, on Atamara, with the sister of your good friend Helios. After your passing and his, Tenebrae received a strange package from the Far East containing the things her brother had left behind for her. Among those things were a number of writings. Many were his own records of events. Most were documents written by you regarding what you had unearthed and been taught. A few of them were even older, including the Book of Promises."
"But that's impossible," Arella cries. "I only just saw the book on display deep inside the temple."
"Ah yes. A copy. A hand-written facsimile. Made by you, of course. Helios had the original in his possession after you left, and sent it on to Tenebrae with her inheritance. And so we had all that the two of you together had compiled. And plenty of time on our hands."
He pauses. "Does any of this sound familiar?"
"Yes," she replies, sucking in air. "Every bit of it."
"It wasn't about making the world wholly pure," he continues, as if reciting. "Without the darkness, there is nothing to hold up a light against. Without some evil, purity becomes the mundane, not the exception. Light and darkness. Good and evil. They both must exist for either to exist. The Aenil never had an agenda to bring about one or the other. All along, they were seeking..."
"Balance." The four of them all found themselves answering together.
