635. Etches of Unfairness

635. Etches of Unfairness

The doors of the Floor of Judgement sealed with a colossal thud. Frost led Michaela deeper into her own domain, her back turned to the Arbiter. She did not need to ask what Frost was thinking right now.

Her body language and her quick but silent strides told Michaela everything she needed to know, and for that reason, she finally stopped pursuing Frost precisely when she also came to an abrupt pause.

The sudden silence of their clopping steps stirred unease into the Nexus as a whole. There was much Frost wanted to unbottle right now. Her fists curled as she desperately held herself together to avoid exploding with accusations.

So, with her back still turned to Micheala, she calmly spoke.

“Why was it so hard to tell me the truth?”

She didn’t ask about ‘Her’, Iscario, the Princess, or about her tragic past.

No. Right now, Frost just wanted to know the reason why all of this had to be gated away from her.

“It was for your own good.”

The Arbiter wore a somber expression, her grand feathers shuddering, as did the ones on Frost’s Coat of Prejudice. Sincerity was carried by voice, but Frost did not accept this as a reasonable answer.

“Was staying cooped up in your Floor for my own good as well?” Her words were like a knife that was plunged into the chest of the Arbiter.

She further twisted it.

“Remind me, you were only blind when I first arrived in this world. Nothing else was wrong with you. Hell, you slaughtered the Exalted the moment you became an Archetype. For fifteen years this Nexus only saw one change, and that was your introduction of the Arbiter’s Trumpet. I shrugged it off because it didn’t matter to me. The past is the past. But hearing you tell me that this – this fucking silence was for my own good makes me wonder if it was your intention to let Iscario send me to Grandis.”

Her words were filled with doubt.

Frost didn’t believe it per say, as it was the Arbiter who ultimately saved her in the end from her Corruption Event. However, she let her mouth run regardless, spewing vitriol as she turned on her heels to face the Arbiter with orbs of light for eyes.

“Michaela. If this really was for my own good, then how did you allow your own son to betray the Nexus? To nearly kill me of all people? Was that also for my own good?”

Michaela’s expression didn’t change. But her solemn eyes carried untold regret. Her authority as the Arbiter didn’t falter even in the face of such accusations or emotions, unlike Frost who was swept away by it.Rread latest chapters at novelhall.com

“Seeds of doubt would have been sown if you knew that it was my own flesh and blood that betrayed you. Long before this shared moment. It never crossed my mind that my Iscario would have partnered with Uriel and the Broken Torn. In retrospect, it was foolish. That child was raised on her teachings, masked as my own like the denizens of Paradise.”

Suddenly, a dark expression befell Frost.

“Then if I were to drag Iscario in front of you like a beaten dog... If I were to slit his throat and parade his head across your floor, and paint your walls red with his entrails – then would you stand in my way?”

“I will not.” Michaela announced. “All things must be judged accordingly. Not even I am immune to the weight of my sins. Frost. My pride has cost me eons of desperate attempts to hold something that was once tangible. At some point I learned that the flow of this turbulent sea is not a current that even a Star or a God can contest. Rouge waves will come. And they will remind us of the unfortunate cycles we are bound to.”

“Unfortunate? Don’t make laugh. You keep telling me it’s for my own good, but you throw words like ‘it can’t be helped’ and ‘in due time’ when you were always more than capable of answering. To do something... Of course nothing is going to change. Michaela!”

Frost approached the Archetype, both hands grasping onto her sacred garbs like a thug.

“Why have you given up!? Wasn’t it you who shoved Anna in the right direction!? So that she can a stand for herself!? What’s the point of giving advice if you yourself refuse to be an example of it!?”

“... Retrocausality. You...”

Then, she retracted her hand again.

“... should not have done that.”

Silence instantly invaded the Floor of Judgement. Frost’s expression went blank as her mind became disconnected with reality once again. Surely, she heard wrong. Yes.

There is no reality where the Arbiter, the mother of the Princess, would tell her that it was all meaningless.

“Michaela. This is your daughter. From the past. Why... are you refusing her...?”

“Fear not. It is not that I am refusing her. It is that...” Michaela did not know how to articulate her emotions. “... I feel immense sorrow when I look at it. I know that I will only hurt that one even when cradled in my arms. The symbol of a blade best suits her. A scabbard implies union.”

Something deep within Frost’s heart cracked.

“I know best that the relationship between her and I... cannot be described as a pact, but as a double-edged sword. When I embrace her, I expect to be cut up by the thorns of the Captured Star.

Hm. It’s unfortunate. As with all things. Nothing can be true to the original. Aside from you. That hair... carries remnants of the truest aspects of ‘Her’, beyond the time of the Captured Star.”

The crack travelled through her chest like it was being carved by a dull blade. Her sense of reality wavered, the world distorting heavily as her mind fell in a deep, dark pit far away from the light of the Floor of Judgement.

“... Is that what you think of me?”

The Nexus quaked unexpectedly.

//////// < WARNING > ////////

< Your Emotional State is rapidly rising >

< Unfair Tale is attempting to manifest as the First State >

//////// < EXTREME WARNING > ////////

< INSTABILITY IMMINENT >