The Paragon of Eden
Chapter 14

“Hau,” she said. “How old are you?”

“I don’t know for sure. It translates a little weirdly almost everywhere I go. I hardly keep track of it.”

Deelia needed to clear something in her mind, a shade that cast itself on her face and threatened to vanquish all her joy. “You’re not older than you look, are you?” She suddenly hugged her bare shoulders, feeling cold, feeling without joy again. She shivered as the memories of the palace resurfaced. She was close to forgetting them.

“I don’t use Newwork, Deelia.”

He could have been lying, but he inspired such a stability within Deelia that she took it for truth. He was telling the truth. Deelia felt warm again, but it seemed like a storm had passed in her mind, and she felt numb.

“It’s getting late,” he said. “We should sleep before tomorrow.”

As he stood up, Deelia stood too and grabbed his arm. She wanted to be close to him. Had he always been this tall? His hair seemed longer than before.

They walked down the pathway that led out of the center room. They went to the surrounding floor, curtains on either side of them. The night had taken good care of the aesthetic here. It would do her good to get some rest. With Hau.

As she passed one of the curtains, she saw through a torn hole in a drape of purple cloth and caught a glimpse of something that didn’t fit in her mind. Destruction? Death? What place did that have here?

She truly was getting tired. It would do her good to get some rest. Up a few flights of stairs and through a few more hallways of white stone and detailed artwork, they came to a room full of drapes and cloth. There was no bed, but the ground was soft enough that she collapsed on her first step.

Hau followed suit, and he crawled all the way to the center. Deelia followed him, and then they lay together in the dark. After a little while, they went to sleep.

There were then dreams of past times, and future times, all involving peace and health. Deelia had seen more than a few malnourished and sickening avenues of life. It wasn’t just her, either. She saw other victims when she was captured by the pirates. These past two months weren’t without thoughts of the friends and family that she missed so much. What had happened to them was much worse than what happened to her. That was why she dreamt of happier times. She dreamt of the ice cream and the shopping and the clothing, and she even dreamt a little of Janue. He could have been a good person like Doht or Gerra, had she ever gotten to know him. Hau, though, was the only way she survived this long. He slept here, and he dreamt his own foreign dreams.

Deelia, however, woke up in the dark. She stood up, refreshed. There was no one else around, and Hau was asleep before her. He gave her thoughts to think, and though he wasn’t gone, his consciousness left Deelia without something.

She wasn’t without agency in this state either, though. She was primal.

Wide-eyed and without knowing why, she snuck out of the room and went down the stairs. She ran naked in the halls of the Sanctuary, and she came to the curtain that had disturbed her. The torn hole showed her things that still could not leave her mind.

As she saw past it again, she saw that same glimpse of destruction. It was nothing but a few cracks in the wall on the other side. Following the path that led beyond the circular floor, she found that cracked wall and saw more torn cloth. In the distance, she saw a few of the statue pillars, broken and fallen on the floor as if they had finally given up on bearing the roof. As she went to investigate, she saw that they culminated in an entire section of beautiful architecture, destroyed beyond use. That whole section was no longer able to be walked in.

Deelia ventured further out, still not satisfied with what she saw. As she walked, the night began to take on a darker shade. There was no warmth, but the cold was not unbearable either. It had no effect on Deelia. She ran softly in that cool breeze.

Broken buildings stood slanted in the distance, and cloth that had sprung from their tops waved forlorn in the wind. The scene before Deelia was open and uncaring, showing the massive waste caused by a battle. A good portion of it was missing, though, as if an explosion had been set off. The gap in structures was massive. It was far too large to be seen like this, in her naked person, alone, at night.

Scattered everywhere were the torn and mangled bodies of Warbacks, bolted and welded to the design and liking of pirates. Some of them seemed a little more advanced. Huge ships lay dormant, some still smoking and sparking and flaming, others as dead as if they had been there for centuries. There were fighter jets and lone cockpits, perhaps ejected in an attempt to stay alive. Their capsules contained burnt, starved, and stinking bodies of men who had fought for greed at first and then for their lives. And then they had failed, all together, in one complete scene of destruction. There was no sign of anything else.

Deelia stood there for some time. A great fear sprung up inside of her. Her thoughts were returning. They weren’t going to like this.

She bolted back the way she came. She ran until her muscles ached and she knew she would be glad to be back in the bed just from her sore limbs. She got tired, but she never stopped. The pain helped keep those thoughts at bay.

As she crawled beside Hau, though, she tried in vain to fall back asleep. She tried to banish the thoughts, but they kept on coming.

Why was the Sanctuary destroyed?

Why had Hau not told her anything about it?

Where were the other Angels?

Why was there so much death here?

Why was there so much death everywhere?

Why did it always follow this man?

Who was Hau, really?

He wanted to show her Eden. He had saved her and given her anything she could have wanted in life. Why did he do that? She was obligated to thank him, to repay the favor, however impossible that turned out to be. Her friends had always said she was innocent. She had such a clear, unfiltered emotional lens.

Perhaps she would see more in the morning. She could make good decisions then. It had only been a few hours since she was ready to let her whole person float away into nothingness, and now she feared making the wrong decision.

Deelia looked at Hau. He was fast asleep. He trusted her. Did he know she had that knife? She didn’t plan on using it, but it loomed like a threat over him. Like an option over Deelia. If he knew she had it, then how was he comfortable lying here beside her, fully asleep? She could kill him whenever she wanted.

Deelia thought of the times they had shared awake. Yes, they were shared. The two of them were one. They trusted each other, and they were happy for each other and looked out for each other. She hadn’t done much for him, but perhaps she would in the future. She wouldn’t kill him because he was the only one who could be there for her. He had saved her because she was the one for him.

Everything that happened after this night had to prove that to be true.