I sometimes think of what was. The time when Rei said she’d stay with me forever. Sometimes I feel…. I feel more than I should. Slingers never dwell upon the past except to learn lessons from mistakes which must not be repeated.

Rei…

Rei was different. I vowed to be there. When she needed me. And I failed her. Failed me… us.

It’s hard to forger. Difficult to remember. It’s been so long, the flashing knives and the flames. The Keep that failed. The rubble that won. Even justice cannot always triumph or protect you from that which you fear.

 

All it took was treachery. And the Slingers came too late. We had too much to do. Rei died crying out my name and nothing, nothing in all the world can make me feel whole again.

I cannot remember what happened afterwards. We were after revenge. Justice had to be swift and it was…brutal. It is always like that. In the end. When the end comes, you know only afterwards.

The magic star failed us. All that was left were flawed flesh and broken beliefs. That I learnt. The course you keep is the only course you have. You want to know why I was the last one? The last of the Slingers to pass through the doors of the Master’s Keep? Because I believed when others didn’t. Because I knew when others only suspected. Thus the burden remains forever with me. I did not act and I should have.

Fear of being wrong stayed my hand long enough for treachery to undo us.

So, I am now alone. Alone. And Rei is gone. Sweet Rei...