It was quite hard for Daji to understand the logic of this world, but what could be expected from the Land of the Lost Souls? When she fall to the depths of the cold ocean, she discovered herself as a human at heart. Then she was crucified to the Regalia of the Armada. And like a dozen of minutes ago, she talked to an unknown doe who tried to convince her not to give up. Yet the scene changed again.
Maybe it was her mind setting all those things in her last seconds of life?
She heard a lot of myths about the Eden, the Hell or the Purgatory but it was closer to the Greek mythology and its Rivers Styx, Phlegethon, Acheron, Lethe, and Cocytus which all converge at the center of the underworld on a great marsh.
Mentally, Daji decided she would call it the Other Side.
She walked.

Hours.
Days.
Months passed.

Time was just a notion here, as she placed an hand on her chest. Blood was still fresh. Maybe she died just a minute ago? Something at the horizon intrigued her, she decided to explore the swamp.

A wide stained-glass window, with a religious figure. She frowned a bit. It looked like her, yet it wasn't her thing to be so peaceful and relaxed. The statue on the left was obviously a remind of her past as an assassin for the Dogma, as the one on the right was her time being the grand-admiral of the Armada.
Something grabbed her arm. A child that looks like her.

- Who are you? she asked

The young vixen stayed mute, but tears were visible on her cheeks.
A familiar tone spoke.

- Remember the days when you were nothing but a child living in the fear of losing the ones you cherish.

Daji turned her ears towards the assassin statue. She remembered quite well how she could speak back to those days. The cold agent who made the black operations of the Dogma

- Remember the days when you devoted your life to prove the humans our kind was worth a place within their societies.

The child continued to grab her arm, trying to bring her back to the starting point

- Remember the sacrifices you made to achieve the victory.

It was another tone, and Daji knew it was the grand-admiral who spoke

- You achieved a victory, yet many things are still to be done. It would be naive to think that the situation will evolve into the one you're hoping for if you're deserting.
- I deserve my rest! I'm sick to fight and to send my soldiers to the death!
- So that is what you sacrificed me for? I spent my youth in missions and has drown my blade in blood, so you could be an egoist coward? Is that your definition of an hero?
- ... I just want the nightmares to end.
- It has ended. The Fall of the Earth will sign the end of the Great War.
- The best is yet to come.

She looked toward the unknown figure. The stained-glass windows seemed to speak in a calm tone

- Don't betray the expectations our kind has placed in you. You and only you will be able to unite our two kinds and to live a long and prosper peace. Embrace your future, don't lose hope in yourself.

The child tried to comfort Daji with a smile. What was it, the ghost of her past, present and future, telling her not to give up and to live, for the future generations?
Something torn her heart apart. Something she was able to put a name on.
Guilt.

- I, I... I want... I... Can't... Just by... myself...

She took her head between her hands and screamed :

- A-- Aesir!

Everything disappeared in a bright light.

---

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Seems that Daji's journey on the Other Side is coming to an end after all!

The accelerated video about the stream is here - https://youtu.be/pf9lWie8NAg

Kitsune Daji and her ghosts © Amiral Aesir

Watercolors, the 16th May 2016.