written for Flash Fiction Friday Prompt #357, event hosted by @flashfictionfridayofficial
Story: Original Work (Ao3 Link)
Content Warnings: Context is a larger original story that contains consensual incest between cousins. This piece only has SFW interactions.
“Do you know what they call it when opposites attract?” asked her father one day. She was standing near the railing of the balcony in their tower house. He was sitting behind her, in a cushionless dark-wood armchair, looking thoughtful but stern.
“What do they call it?” asked Cela, curious.
“Controlled Chaos,” was her father’s reply.
“I see,” she had said, turning to look him in the eye, trying to read his mood, which was difficult to do with a man such as him. She didn’t make any further comment, leaving the words to hover in the air between them like a pair of dice frozen in mid-throw.
That was only a few years before the incidents that brought her to live with her cousins.
Back then she hadn’t fully understood what her father was talking about. Now that she reflected on it, she presumed it must have been about the clashes of ideals between those inside the Order and their enemies.
Her father believed that it was a dangerous thing for opposites to attract, that Chaos could only be controlled until it breaks out of its shackles. “Chaos, when caused by a clash of darkness and light, could be deadly to those nearby.”
It’s not so black and white, she would say now. But she kept her lips sealed. Now was too early for that revelation.
She turned another page of the book she was reading, then took a moment to glance at Syden, who was asleep beside her on the bed. They were in his room, enshrouded by the dark curtains of the canopy bed.
The obsidian bed covers made his light blond hair stand out in contrast. It swept over his pale, peaceful face, obscuring his eyes somewhat. She watched his chest rise and fall gently with his breath.
Why couldn’t they see what she saw so clearly?
Those who her father called the “enemy” were not all the same, not all full of malicious intent. Some of them just wanted to survive, and were only fighting to defend their kind, the same way humans fight over land or to protect their families. What was especially dark about that?
Was it her who was blind? She did not think so.
The “enemy” had some of the same powers as those in the Order, but were treated differently by the realm because of their line of descent, among other things. What choice did they have but to fight back?
They were not the same thing as non-human monsters.
She thought about Syden, all that she knew of him in the past, all that she had learned over the last two years in which they were together.
He was good to his siblings, to his parents, even to his strange pets. Of course, there were fights, but what family didn’t have them? Nobody’s perfect.
She had seen his drawings. Yes, they were dark, sometimes so dark that one had to wonder what was going on in his head… But there was also a lot of light in them, and even love.
She knew what her father would ask. “Why does he need to be involved? Why doesn’t he just stay put where he is, with his family, and his inheritance?”
She didn’t know the answer to that, but she did not think the reason was to spread evil. She was sure of that.
Cela looked at Syden’s sleeping face again, and could not bring herself to call it anything other than the picture of innocence. She knew what evil really looked like. And she sensed the difference intuitively.
She got up off the bed, taking care not to wake him, and walked over to the balcony attached to the bedroom.
She had had a dream, in which her father had come to her as a looming figure in his military uniform, and said, “I fear for you, that when the darkness takes over, there will be no one around to help you.”
And she had replied, “Only if you abandon me, father. Will you make me choose between family?”
She looked over the balcony. Unlike at her own home in her own land, the view here was not one of a clear blue sky. It was an expanse of trees, as her aunt and uncle’s mansion was located next to a forest. As it was still day, she could see in the spaces between the trunks, where occasionally a little animal would scurry around, or a bird would flit between branches, making leaves flutter.
She loved Syden more than anything. She could not see him as an enemy.
Yes, there was a pact between them that bound her not to pry into his business in the foreign lands. As long as he was loyal to her, he was allowed to have that space to himself, for now.
She knew him. If her father knew him better, he too would see what she saw: that those who were seemingly opposites were not all black or white.
But somewhere deep inside, she had to wonder if there would ever come a time where she would find herself at a crossroads, and would have to choose.
If so, she determined, she would face that choice bravely.
There are times in life where we all end up friendless and alone, she reflected as she stood, feeling both delicate and strong. It was getting a bit chilly for just a light summer gown.
“Hey,” said someone from behind her.
She had been so deep in thought that she hadn’t heard him getting up.
He stood behind her, in his cozy, long-sleeve white shirt, with a hand over his mouth to stifle a sleepy yawn.
“When did you wake up?” she asked.
“It got cold in the bed, and I noticed you were gone... Are you alright?”
The sky was darkening. The reds and russets were beginning to leak into the sky above the treeline.
“Yes,” she said, smiling. “Just had a bad dream. Come watch the sunset with me.”
