Aksaith
Legacy Name: Aksaith

My arms were well-restrained, but my hands were free. I was always brought up to the back of the house, moving silently. The sunset light would hide the flames for a while, they told me.
They all burned quickly. With any help purposely delayed, there couldn't be any problems. A few times I saw the families inside, banging on the windows, their fearful eyes on me. The crackling fires silenced any noise they could have been making.
Somewhere deep inside, I knew everything was wrong. I knew I needed to help them. I knew it wasn't right to watch people slowly die, trapped in their homes, while the one responsible stared blankly back at them.
It was that man who first told me it was wrong.

“Do you know what they do to you?” He asked, back-lit by the harsh fluorescent lights. The top of his head, his white hair, faded into the brightness.
My hands bound as they always were while inside, I shuffled my sore legs. Maybe the chain connecting me to the floor was something to be discomforted by, but I barely every noticed.
“You know they're making you kill people, right?” He turned to me and looked down, towering over me. His hair covered almost half of his pale face. Being able to see the black suit under his lab coat made him look less washed-out.
I rarely spoke to anyone or thought much of them. My caretakers were constantly rotating, but this one had been watching me for a while. He'd started to annoy me, since all he seemed to do was ask questions.
“Do they even call you by a name?” He pronounced things weirdly. His voice was different than everyone else's.
I shifted myself to show him something. Underneath where I usually sat, I'd carved letters into the tile floor out of boredom.
He squinted his light eyes. “...Aksaith?”
“It sounds like what they say to me.” It felt weird to talk, but hearing what I called myself spoken out loud cleared my head.
He said nothing else, but gave me an odd smile before leaving the room.

“You're being brainwashed.” I didn't know what the word meant. The chain connecting my shackled hands was being tugged roughly as I sprinted down the hallway after him.
“Do you know who you are? Where you came from?”
I felt angry. I had a nice home, wherever this was. They fed me and let me sleep whenever I wanted.
“I'm saving you.”
I shut my eyes in pain as light flooded the room we entered. I had been there before, the room of windows. It was the only place where I could see “outside”.
The shackles suddenly fell from my hands, and the man and I stood facing each other. He looked down at me with something like sadness on his face. “Aren't you pathetic?”
My body twitched. “What?”
“They don't even know what you are. They use your blessing for horrible things, instead of trying to learn about it.”
Blessing? What was he even talking about?
He stepped forward, his one visible eye squinting. “They have no respect for your power. But I do. I want you to share it with me.”
I stepped back. I suddenly noticed how tall he was, how his hair shadowed his face.
”Dear Aksaith, just come here for a moment.”
I remembered that my hands were free. My head was clearer than it had ever been; I don't think I had been taken out of the lab for a few days. I hadn't heard the special words, except from him, as my name.
I still didn't like how he said the first “A”.
He grabbed my left wrist, his nails digging into my skin.
I didn't hear what he said. Everything turned red and orange as heat surged to my hands. I threw myself at his chest and felt his breath leave him.
Very quickly he grabbed me from the ground by my shirt. He lifted me with seemingly no effort at all.
My head smashed against glass and I saw stars around his furious face. I struggled and kicked, feeling his clenched fists against my neck.
“I'll kill you, monster!” He gritted his teeth as he pushed me against the unyielding window. “The damn dog dares to bite its master!”
Weak sparks crackled between my knuckles as I struggled, but his eyes held me like ice. I tried to focus, to think about my power for the first time in however long I had been there…
And it burst from me.
I sent him flying with the force of it, almost like an explosion, but he still stood.
My head pounding, I tried to back up against the window as he came for me again. I'd only heard brief mention of demons in my life, but I was sure then that one was staring me down.
His entire body was aflame, and he was laughing as he grabbed me again. His eyes had become wild and he smiled as he pulled me back.
The next thing I felt was immeasurable pain. He was on top of me, his palm pushing down on the sore spot on my head. I heard his laughing through my ringing ears.
I could see that glass was everywhere. Had it been red before? The left side of my face was mostly numb, but wet. Something like instinct took me over and I scrambled free of him, running. I couldn't see out of my left eye. Barely able to think straight, I reached up to touch it.

“Please help me,” I could hear myself whining, weakly. My legs were shaking, my white clothes stained with the blood still pouring from my eye. Trees whirled around me as I stumbled through wherever I had gotten myself. All I could hear was my own pounding heartbeat.
“Please, please, please...”
I fell forward for what I knew was the last time, unable to keep my footing. Every muscle in my body gave out, and I waited for the ground to rush to me.
It never did.
There was a strong grip on each of my shoulders, and a soft voice from somewhere above.
I waited for questions, constant questions like from the white-haired man.
But the three words came clearly and calmly. “You'll be alright.”

Every step was agony. The force of my feet hitting the ground shot straight up to my head, to the gaping wound that was once my left eye. Once in a while I'd let out a pathetic sound, and the grip would tighten around my shoulders.
“Just a little farther. I'll take care of you.”
I leaned my bloody head against him. His voice took away almost all the pain. I closed my other eye and just let him lead me.

When I woke up, I saw him for the first time. He was smiling at me, his bright eyes standing out against his dark skin. His hair was black and wild, but didn't hide his face.
“They stitched up your eye.”
I lifted my weak arm to check, and felt rough fabric.
“You, um...” He looked away. “Well, the rest of you looks fine. Just bruised.”
“Yeah.” My voice was scratchy and shaky. I stared down at my flame-less hands. “Um, I'm Aksaith. That's my name. Aksaith.”
“My name's Gale.” He took my hand in his and lifted it. I followed our hands to meet his gaze. “Do you have anywhere to go?”
I glanced from our hands to his eyes. His face was slight and comforting, his hair floating like feathers from the lightest breeze of someone passing by.
“I can go with you.” I held onto his hand and tried to smile. “I um, I can promise… I can promise that I'll protect you.”
He seemed confused by what I said, but gently lowered his hand. “That sounds nice. I get myself into trouble, sometimes.”

The hospital didn't let me go immediately. Gale insisted that I was a friend of his that had fallen out of a window, which was partly true, at least. He paid for everything, somehow, and they actually believed everything he said.
I almost did, too. He was… charismatic.
He led me by the hand out of the hospital. We were in the middle of a city, which I didn't recognize at all. I must have blacked out most of the way there.
“You don't have to stay with me.” He didn't look at me. “But I won't make you leave. You're free to do whatever you want.”
“I'll stay.” I said immediately. I'd never been given choices or freedom before. I barely even knew what they meant, then. “I… need to keep you safe, after all.”
He laughed. It was light and airy, and I swore I felt the wind pick up, just a little bit. “Sure. Let's go, then.”
My steps felt stronger than they ever had.

[Art by Monzaemon]
[Profile, story, and overlay by me]