AN: Hi everyone. This is the second story I’ve posted on fictionpress, so please enjoy and give me some feedback after you’re done. This will be a three-shot short story uploaded in sections for ease of reading. As my other story “Beyond the Horizon” is an experimental work in preparation for this story, you’ll find a lot of similarity in both plot and writing style. Actually, this, too, is another experiment. While quite a number of things seemed to have failed (from what I've heard in reviews so far), there are still some things that I want feedback on, so please tell me any problems, big or small, that you've spotted!

Summary: Why love when you know you will not gain anything in return? Like a moth jumping into blazing flames, he cannot explain why he is willing to stay with her as a mere tool…

Edit: Due to kind feedback from my reviewers, this story has been editted many times and it would be impractical for me to list out all the edits. Please check the reviews for a list of the kind individuals who have contributed to this story. Thanks!

Willing Tool – Part One

A slender silver crescent crowned the dark expanse, cradled in invisible hands that held it high above flickering shadows. Its placid silver glow stretched infinitely across the still woods to diverge into unclaimed paths; skimming the tops of canopies, darting between quivering leaves, sinking low with the bending ground to reach past the obstructing undergrowth. One such ray grazed the edge of an equally placid surface, and like water meeting cold glass, the beam froze temporarily in its spot before lashing out in a violent reflection. What the light met was a sword of which the tip was dug deep into the ground, its blade polished to such perfection that it was not an ordinary mirror, but one that added a dangerous glint. Even so, there was a single flaw; a notch on the still edge from which there was a window to what was behind the weapon - the eye of a lifeless man.

Though the luminescence was soft, his contours were rigid and sharp silhouettes lined his thick arms even in their relaxed state, but their limpness made the very power they symbolized seem so insignificant that it was easy to overlook their importance. Instead, what demanded attention was the only eye that was showing through the cut of the sword; a murky pool of brown with little evidence of the man’s consciousness.

It was a deep pool, seemingly bottomless, and it sat there in its sleep. Other images found no reflection in the pool because the water was too stagnant from staying so long, but when he looked up at the spot where the rotting pine needles just rustled ever so slightly, a silent tempest stirred the iris so brutally that a young woman’s face appeared instantaneously on the rippled surface.

“Why?”

From what little movement his lips made when he uttered that word, it could be determined that he, indeed, was alive. The newcomer did not seem to take notice of the abrupt halt in his speech as she moved into the clearing and sat on a rock beside him.

“How many are with you?” the man continued to ask. She looked up at him with a confused face, but it was not met with any sympathy on the man’s part; only a very indifferent glance.

“What do you mean? I came on my own accord,” she answered.

The man smiled a little with a sharp exhale, betraying a bit of his bitterness but only a bit; he didn’t mention a word about this as he replied, “I see.”

There was a moment of silence between the two, with both of them thinking over different things. The man was pondering about his past with this particular woman, but she? She was merely pausing because she didn’t know how to phrase her request. It was stupid of her to think over something so trivial, he thought to himself while watching her silently thinking face from the corner of his vision. Since he had been with her from childhood onwards, he knew her as though she were his very palms; every line, every callus needed not his eyes to see for he could feel every inch of skin. But of course, he knew too well that it was in her character to be so naïve. It was her purity and her sin, and more importantly, it was the reason he chose to hide while not wanting to decide whether she was worthy of love or condemnation. This brought back memories to his dull eyes that now shone with delight of the past, and subconsciously, a genuine smile crept up his face.

Seeing his blissful expression, she gained the courage to voice her mind, “Haito, to be honest, I have been trying to find you for the past few months.”

“I know,” he answered almost simultaneously, as though he knew what she would say beforehand.

“Then you must really hate me to hide so hard. It took my dispatched men quite a while to figure that you would be in Ema.”

“Yes,” he answered, which caused her to turn immediately in his direction with a surprised look on her face. For the first time that night, he met her eyes softly as he continued, “I hate you for never understanding my jokes, Dia.”

“I didn't ask for your opinion,” she snapped.

His smile widened as he lifted his strong arm to pat her head the way he had done for countless years before his departure; its movements looking livier now. Even her hair had not changed; those wavy raven lengths still so soft under his touch as though they were silk that flowed between his rough fingers. From a death-like life to such happiness; his emotions swung suddenly all because of seeing her. To continue living in this illusion, he wanted to forget that she was here for a purpose other than visiting him. So long as they didn’t speak, he could convince himself that nothing had changed between them since long ago; everything would once again be fine.

“Haito?” she called his name. A part of him was screaming about how he should stop dreaming although he merely silenced that voice by throwing it into the imaginary ocean of his mind so that its annoying sound became muffled. But when she called his name again, the voice returned, this time with more force. The pain was real. It lashed at him from the bottom of his heart, tearing him so that he could not ignore it again.

Finally, he withdrew his hand, and with it, the passion in his eyes dissipated into a dark corner where it lay out of reach once more. All that was left was regret.

“You shouldn’t have spoken, Dia,” he muttered as if speaking to himself.

“What?”

“There’s no use thinking back now. Tell me, what is it that you want of me?”

She looked to the ground shamefully. Even someone as gullible as her could tell that he was holding back his sadness to bring up the subject, but when she glanced up at him, his face was telling her to stop running in circles.

“Can you come back to me?”

It would make any man happy if his one and only love decided to accept him and ask for his return, but as for Haito, he remained skeptical…for, she was not an ordinary woman.

“You mean returning to Dia or the Second Heiress of Temire?”

“I am-” she started, but he cut her off sharply.

“You are not!”

The two of them kept quiet as they stared intently at each other, once again thinking about how to win this fruitless argument that seemed to have commenced long ago.

“I don’t see what you're getting at. I am who I am! Dia is the Second Heiress and the Second Heiress is Dia. Like it or not, I inherited the position to lead this country and there’s no room for anyone, even you or I, to debate about this issue once it was settled a long time ago.”

“I don’t care! Even if the whole country of Temire sees you as the Heiress and nothing other than that, I can see you as Dia and just Dia.”

“That’s nonsense. Being the Heiress is part of who I am!”

“Then abandon that part of you, or else…”

He retorted loudly, but he stopped right at that moment. He couldn’t believe what he was about to say.

“Or else what? Or else you won’t return because you hate me for being the Heiress?” she jabbed sharply through his last shield, making him feel so weak that he wanted to vomit.

“I don’t hate you…” he mumbled in a soft, agonizing cry. He gritted his teeth and knotted his brows, hard, so that he could maintain what little dignity he held in front of her.

That was why he ran away. He was too tired to continue their opposing stance. Even if he felt like a zombie without her presence, at least he could always reminisce about their simple past.

“Then why do you hate me for being the Heiress when you were the one who chose this future, Kiri?”

This comment made him sick. He didn’t need to be reminded of his position of being the Kiri, the Heiress’s advisor who was chosen by the former Heir who ruled the First Dynasty, and that it was he who gave Dia the position after the past ruler died. He remembered that fact all too well, and for every living moment, he had rued that foolish decision. He admitted that Dia’s lineage was only an excuse for him to put her atop that throne, because in reality, he made the choice only so that they could always be together.

To sew two fates together with the black thread of politics? It made him laugh.

“I was stupid back then, and now I regret, but I suppose it’s too late to go back?” Haito asked.

“And so you run away, leaving me to face this nation on my own? Do you know that I came because this is the last path that I can take without facing death?”

Sounds of footsteps rang at that moment, catching their attention immediately. There was ringing of metal against metal, but as abruptly as it had commenced, it ended with the sound of liquid splashing onto unseen bushes. Shadows emerged from around the clearing while leaving their opponents' corpses behind; each carrying sharp weapons licked with crimson that appeared as dark splotches under the night sky. She seemed to recognize their uniform, polished steel armor padded with navy blue fabric that lined the edges of the metal plates; the sight of which made her weak at her knees as she collapsed in a heap behind his standing form.

“My…my guards…they killed them,” she stuttered.

But her trembling form was settled by his firm grip on her shoulder.

“Yes, they are dead…but I’m still here.”

-End of Part One-

AN: So that was part one. Hope you enjoyed it. Please give me some feedback; constructive criticism is more than welcome! I know it’s a confusing chapter so feel free to ask questions. If the question will not be answered in the rest of the story, I’ll gladly make changes to this chapter to clarify things. Thanks for reading!