NationStates Jolt Archive

Throughout the centuries, I have strived to protect the innocent and punish the guilty with every being of my body…it has been the sole purpose in most of what I do, the reason why I act this way, the focus of my mind…there have been times where I could not have saved those I love…and those times I have been wrought with depression…even to the point of suicide, when I was almost unable to save five billion souls from the clutches of an raging sorcerer…but this time…I had a chance to save thirty thousand lives…thirty thousand people who did not deserve to die…and what did I do?...nothing….I did NOTHING…I sat on the frontlines with my datapad, picking crewmembers for my flagship, while thousands perished around me…only when I was severely injured, near death, did I see the stupidity of my actions…or I should say…my inaction…I can’t believe that I allowed those people to die…people I had sworn to protect and people that had done no wrong against us…what have I become?...DAMNIT…WHAT HAVE I BECOME?!

Shattering almost immediately when her fists rammed into it, the broken instrument panel of the aircraft inflicted sharp pain upon Siri O’Neill’s still terribly scarred hands. Thousands of small pieces of glass and metal became mired in her skin, tearing at the healing flesh, and causing her hands to bleed profusely. But to her detriment, some gauges on this panel were not analog and were instead electronic, so the force of the punch broke the screens, sending a powerful jolt of electricity through the elf’s hands. The muscles in her body suddenly convulsed because of this, slamming her head back in the chair and rendering her unconscious.

For thousands of years I was but the darkness that consumed light. I had no purpose but death. Hell was my gift to those I destroyed, destruction my key to survival. I had no purpose but death. I had no will but to destroy. My eyes were blinded to the affliction I placed many a soul in, my pleasure the pain I caused. I was death, I was hell, I was darkness. I was a Tyrant of the Sith.

I knew nothing of hope, I knew nothing of Free Will. I only knew pain and suffering. I only knew hate and rage. I only knew death.

One fateful day, one special event in time, it all changed for me. I met someone who gazed into my eyes and sought comfort. I met someone who pierced the darkness in my soul. This person, this being, tore at my darkness and shattered it into a thousand unbinding pieces. From that moment on I was no longer the tyrant. I suddenly became something more, something better. It took only a few seconds to realize, a few precious moments of time to comphrened.

I changed into a creature of light, of possibility, of hope. I knew the meaning of hope, I knew the meaning of love. I knew the meaning of life. I knew happiness.

From that precious moment forward I became an adopted father to an adopted daughter. I brought her up in my ways, gave her my understanding. I forsook my powers of darkness, turning them into powers of understanding. I tought her the ways of the Jedi, the Sith, and those Orders inbetween. I gave her the understanding of the ages. I gifted her with powers only a select few could obtain. I gave her life, I gave her a future, I gave her my heart as a father.

When I saw it was good, when I made sure her life to be in the hands of the Other who lived as I did, I went back into the abyss of time to rest. I was tired, I had done much in my short existance of Light to make even the most trained Jedi ashamed. I fulfilled the dreams the most honorable father could ever accomplish. I had done well.

I left with the knowledge that my precious daughter had the mental, physical, and emotional foundations set to withstand the tests of time. I left knowing for sure that neither trail nor tribulation would stray her from her future. I left giving her that precious future, enjoying the knowledge she would use it well.

I was content, I was at peace, I could finally rest for...

Melkos Unchanos awoke, his hellfire eyes ablaze in the darkness of eternal time. He had been asleep, content with his accomplishments. He did not expect to awaken so early from his well-deserved slumber. What was going on? What made him awaken? What cause him so much emotion...so much feeling....so much saddness...

Melkos could hear himself start to sob. He weeped. His skeletal face was defiled by streams of life-giving energy. His soul poured out from his sadness. He couldn't help himself! He couldn't restrain himself! What was happening to him?!

He stood in the abyss and reached through time and space, he must know why! He must know why he felt this way! No one in the entire universe could make him feel this way, no one could make him feel so sad! He would loose himself in the tears if he didn't fi-...

Time stopped. Eternity halted. He found his culprit. The tears stopped, his sadness stopped, and he stood resolute once more. He knew what he had to do, and he would do it at all costs. He must, for it was his obligation to his precious child.

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A scene of serene beauty engulfed Siri's mind. A hill rising from a beautiful valley of the most beautiful grass and flowers would be at her feet. Behind her, a large oak tree stood, standing tall and healthy. It moved, as if breathing, as if alive. The entire area would have this feel, as if it were one with each other, as if it all breathed in unison. Even the sky had this feel, it's sky blue color transcending eternity with it's grace.

The air smelt fresh of spring-time as the Suns majestic rays nutured the billions of flowers in the valley. A breeze gave the smell freely to Siri's senses. The valley seemed to be a piece of heaven, gifted from an unknown source. It felt a place of peace, of tranquility. She would feel safe here, more so than anywhere.

It would feel as safe as when a father hugged his daughter in a tight embrace

"Siri....why are you so sad?" A soft voice emitted from behind her, from the oak tree it would seem. "I was asleep. Your tears brought me awake."

Behind her a figure appeared, dressed in robes of white and grey. His skeletal head hidden by his cloaked hood. Eyes of blue peacefully gazed at Siri from behind, observing her soul.

"I cried Siri, my child. I cried for you." His voice soft and tranquil. "You called me back, child. Tell me, what is wrong?"

The presence of Siri within this place of serenity and splendor greatly contrasted that of her father. Instead of the bright robes that he wore, absolute darkness encompassed her, a manifestation of the pain, hate, anger, and guilt that she was experiencing. It whirled around her arms and legs, along with the rest of her body, weighing her down and preventing any movement whatsoever. The only two parts that remained uncovered by this darkness were her head, with large portions of her golden hair ripped out and the exposed scalp heavily scarred, and her hands that were marred, fingernails and chunks of her flesh missing and still trying to heal. All of her former beauty had been lost, and as now she stood in the midst of this beautiful environment, she could not help but cry out in grief over it and the feelings which she held.

From behind, Siri heard her father’s soft voice calling out to her. The attempt she made to turn to him failed as the burden upon her was too great. She could not make any movement towards him either and instead, in resignation, shut her eyes and spoke shakily as she desperately tried to hold back the already flowing tears.

“I’ve failed you…I’ve failed my nation….I’ve failed all that I care for…and I’ve failed myself…”

Her eyes then opened and stared sadly out into the distance. “When I was young…after my parents and brother had been killed…I vowed that I would protect my loved ones and all those who were innocent. I kept that vow for almost two hundred fifty years…but I allowed myself to break it…I sat idly by while Grummanian and Xanthalian forces massacred each other for no honorable reason…I was foolish…I could have stopped it, could have prevented all those lives from vanishing…but I didn’t.”

Tears rolled down her cheek as her voice fluctuated for she was growing more and more distressed. “I now live with that burden…all that pain…its weighing me down....after it happened, I punished myself because I was angry at myself for what I had done so I forced myself to see all that had happened…but I can’t control it anymore…its overtaken me and I can’t stand it…”

The weight on her shoulders began to greaten as she continued, her voice becoming louder and more crazed. “Every hour, minute, second, I can hear them…hundreds of thousands of voices…screaming out in agony…in despair…even when I sleep, I hear and feel their families mourning…wives…husbands…children…parents…the grief is overwhelming! The sorrow…pain…loss…it’s too much to bear…I just want it all gone…I want peace…please, make it stop!...Just stop!...STOP!”

No longer could she hold back the emotions and began to weep, tears streaming down her face and her body trembling. The burden upon her became unbearable, and she collapsed to the ground. The darkness quickly streamed over her body, covering her completely and slowly creeping outwards across the fields. There, like a poison, it began to kill the grass and any living thing that came in contact with it.

Melkos Unchanos stood behind his beloved Daughter, forced to endure the pain of watching Siri O'Neill torment herself so uselessly. His eyes widened as he heard her words. He listened to his daughter, very intently, taken in by her emotions. Melkos couldn't help but feel sorry for her, couldn't help but be taken in by Siri's blight.

His eyes, red orbs of energy, narrowed when she had got to a certian point in her depressing revelation. He watched her try to move to see him, try to see the one that let her feel comfort. He took in a deep breath of shock as he saw she couldn't. For in that one instant in time, Melkos would have loved to exhange his life for hers. His entire being cried in agony as he saw her pain, felt her pain, lived her pain in that instant. It was so unbearable, so heavy on his celestial shoulders.

His knee's wanted to buckle and force him to fall, to give into these extremely painful attacks. But he knew he couldn't. He had to stand there, had to keep strong. If for anything, he had to for her. Tears of pure blood streaming down his skeletal face signaling he defied the dark emotions, standing still to continue to endure his daughters onslaught.

A gag of pain, severe pain, hit his chest. His hands of bones reached up to clutch his white garment. Melkos Unchanos was hurting so badly his entire being was being tortured. It was an unimaginable pain he was feeling, the bright red orbs closing on themselves as he closed his eyes tightly. It hurt so bad, so very bad. He didn't know how long he could take it.

Her visions of horrible darkness flowed through his mind. It was hell. Fire engulfed his entire being. This was true darkness if he ever had felt it, this was true pain if he ever endured it. Melkos realized the extend that which his daughter had become burdoned. He tried desperetly to reach for her, to heal her. But each time, each attempt, he was denied by her very soul. His tears of blood continued as he wept, he couldn't intrude on her free will.

So he breathed deep, and stood, still crying blood.

Once he opened his eyes to her however, he suddenly realized that all that happened before was his link to her mind. She had never once spoke aloud. He was taken back so fiercely that he nearly fell to his knee's. He knew in his very being that for this to take place, she would have to be so gone into her depressive state that hardly nothing could save her.

Melkos extended his reach, extend his celestial hand towards her. The darkness that engulfed her was consuming her so rapidly that he knew he would have no chance to save her. He had to do something, anything. But, alas, all that resulted was her speaking to him of her sorrows, of her plight. His hand lowered in defeat, he felt he failed her. He felt he killed his very daughter.

His mind was forced to comprehend every word she said, burn in every pain she spoke. Her mind before had tormented him, but her words were like an increase of that torment. He could feel his very existance fading, her words about mid-way. His glowing white garments now ripped and torn from the oblivion presented to him. Actual blood seeped from each tear and rip, oozing blue energy like plasma.

Finally, as Siri O'Neill cried for deliverance, he fell to his knees. He watched her collapse beneath the weight of her burdons, falling into the darkness that now totally consumed her. He watched it spread through the land, defiling the sacred place and turning it into a hellstorm of fire and lifelessness. His arms met the ground as the reality of the situation crept in. Blood streaming down on the molten ground of rock from his eyes. He breathed as if he had no breath, and gasped as if each one was his last.

A sudden burst of fire ripped from Siri's dark caccoon. It engulfed Melkos completely, sending him back several paces as he cried in agony. He screamed in pain, his voice echoing through eternity. Never before since his rebirth had he experience such violent spasms of darkness. His very garments of white now fadded to a dark grey, exposing the life that still drained from him.

He realized he was in Siri's hell, inside her soul. The fire-burst erupted again, flowing across his being with such feriousity. His figure combusted into flames, spewing molten lava from his eyes, mouth, and very injuries. His robe was consumed, all that was left was a skeleton. The lava erupted skyward, then subsided. His skeleton turned to a puddle of bluish-red blood slowly, melting away as bits of bright orbs of light rose from the dying frame.

The hand of the creature rose from the ooze that consumed it, reacing. The red orb's of eyes barely registering as he spoke a whisper.

"My daughter...," his voice a rasp, "my daughter..."

Images of her life flashed before Melkos' eyes. His mind now consumed with the joy he had witnessed, and the triumphs she had achieved. Every experience replayed itself in crystal clearity, every emotion and voice beautifully registered to the speakers soul. He saw and heard it all once more, a gift from whomever watched over such beings as him Melkos believed. He felt his soul crying in joy as the happiness flowed into him from Siri's life, causing him strength to keep watching just a bit longer. Each victory gave him such strength, and he sobbed in happiness more and more.

Then, the images eneded into darkness. Slowly, a field of flowers came before Melkos. He looked down at his body, his hands covered in his old skin. He was human again, he was flesh in blood. Extravacant clothes upon his body of such beauty it left him breathless. The smell of the flowers entered his senses as he breathed, the air fresh and clear.

He looked up slowly, and saw a little girl standing before him. She was dressed in a white dress. Her ears pointed like that of an elves, and her hair flowing like that of the sea. He smiled down to her, knealing to her level.

"Hey little one." He beamed of happiness.

The little girl extended a hand and handed Melkos some beautiful tulips. He grasped them and smelled, nodding in approval. Somehow, he knew who these were for.

"Yes, I think she will like them too." The little girl didn't speak, but Melkos knew what she said.

The little girl waved, smiling brightly, then everything dissappeared.

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The pool of molten rock erupted in flames once more as a hand reached upward. In it's grasp were held the most beautiful arrangement of tulips, purple to yellow to red. Another hand erupted nearby, followed by the head of a man. His hair brightly flowing in a white flame, his eyes erupting in crimsom blue. He opened his mouth, and roared as if gaining some new strength. He thrusted himself from his resting place, standing tall on the molten wasteland.

Melkos had been reborn once more.

Garments of silver adorned him now, a golden belt tight around his waist. He looked at a devistated part of the landscape, dark and terrible to the minds eye. He walked forward towards it, each step making the landscape shiver in fear, die, then be reborn as grass and tulips erupted. Whatever had overcome his celestal being, whatever had given him strength to return, flowed outward into the land. Within just a few steps close to the lump of darkness the entire landscape had been reborn a-new. The dream of paradise returned to its proper state.

When Melkos reached his destination, he knelt. His eyes burning a dark blue, his hair flowing silver still. He reached into the darkness as it tried to reject his purest form, failing as it screamed in defeat. He grasped his daughter from the blob as it died away, holding her close as his soft gaze befell her tormented figure. He held her, knowing she could be saved now.

The tulips he held he placed on her chest, watching as her crippled hand took hold of them. In the center of his dark blue eyes, an Iris of Crimsom Red shown. His smile gentle, and his skin flowing greyish-white. He rubbed his hand across her head and her hands, her hair, body, and flesh being healed. He knew he could deal with that, he could. But her inside was her, and all her. He continued his smile as he softly spoke, sounding more man than spirit.

"My daughter....I came back for you. All I ask is that you come back to me."

His hand clapsed around her hand, holding tight as he held her in his lap now.

EXPLODES into BUMPAGE

The burden of darkness, now flowing over her, consumed Siri’s mind and body, plunging her into an abyss of madness. Every distressing moment that had occurred in her three hundred years of existence rushed through the entirety of her thoughts, to every portion of her mind, and forced her to relive all of them in rapid succession, from the brutal murder of her parents to her own subsequent deaths to the numerous rather realistic visions of the massacre of her people during the previous war. But, unfortunately, her mind was not the only segment of her being attacked in this personal hell as her body was slowly torn to pieces with limbs being ripped off, bones cracking and breaking, and immense pain tearing through her. Siri wanted to scream in agony and to flee from this terrible place, to anywhere instead of there, but she could do nothing more than endure what was being forced upon her.

The experiences seemed nearly endless, constantly burdening the elf with the painful emotions and clouding her eyes with the terrible sights that they contained, until finally, it had mysteriously ceased its hellish scenes as the shroud lifted from her eyes.

Now, she found herself standing on the edge of a small medieval-styled town, its poorly-constructed clay and wood houses lining each side of the empty dirt street. Through her hair blew a gentle summer wind and warm radiant beams of sunlight shone down upon her -- a comforting feeling instead of the pain from before. And her green eyes gazed around at the desolate town before turning back in front of her to the only three people around. She found them to be a familiar and welcoming sight when she had noticed who they were -- her father, mother, and older brother.

Because of her torturous thoughts of before, Siri felt compelled to run to the warm embrace of her parents, to the only place of safety and comfort that she knew of here, to that which she had missed so much. But she could not move an inch, nor could she speak, for it seemed that she was unable to control any portion of her body, save for her eyes, which quickly snapped towards her moving hands. To her horror, they were not her own but instead that of a man’s -- rough, thick, and clutching the recognizable Imperial broadsword of her homeland.

When sharp steel blade swung forward, her eyes widened as she was unable to turn away from the gruesome sight before her, unable to stop this nightmare from happening once again. Only a single swipe from the man’s muscular arm cut her family down before her. Siri heard their screams of agony as they collapsed to the ground, gaping wounds bleeding profusely across their chests.

She was finally freed of that which had been keeping her restrained and rushed over to her family, dropping the broadsword from her grasp and falling to her knees in an attempt to help in any way she could. But nothing could be done. Once again, she found herself on the ground, clutching her parents closely as she had done those centuries before, helpless and in anguish. She felt as if she had failed them and cried heavily, her arms across their chests and her head buried between them.

“What have I done?!” she painfully screamed out.

“You have done unto them as you have done unto us, Chairwoman,” roared two hundred thousand voices in unison.

Siri’s head bolted up from the ground only to see the view which lay before her. The bodies of hundreds of thousands of uniformed soldiers, the dead of the battle between Xanthal and Northrop-Grumman, were spread out across the fields, horrifying her even more.

“No! Stop it!”

Slowly stepping backwards to escape from this sight, she stumbled over a corpse, falling squarely on its chest. It began to grab at her, to restrain her with its decaying arms as she tried to scramble away from it and this sea of bodies, to somewhere, anywhere, from this place. Spotting a rickety house nearby, she broke away and fled into the two roomed structure.

“Must get out of here…must…” she rambled out loud to herself as she scanned the room around her, looking for any relief from her torment.

Siri noted an abandoned meal, still fresh and steaming hot, on a flimsy wooden table in the main room but took particular notice to a sharp knife sitting at one of the place settings. Grabbing it and clenching it into her fist, she rammed it into her chest for a quick death she had hoped for, but found that it merely passed through her, causing not even a scratch against her body and frustrating her greatly.

As the elf slammed the blade into the table before her, a light tap was felt on her leg, quickly attracting her attention from her frustration. She snapped her head around and found a young human boy standing at her feet, along with about fifty others -- human, elven, and xanthalian alike – their eyes red and wet with tears.

“Why is my mom and dad gone?” the boy asked between sobs, his body trembling before her.

Her emotions rose up once again inside her, forcing her to try to flee from yet another scene, and she darted towards the door, the old floorboards creaking and cracking underneath her heavy footsteps. A few even broke, enough to send her crashing through the floor into a dirt-covered crawlspace beneath the house.

There she huddled, covered in dirt with her arms and legs near her chest. She could do nothing more than weep for all that had happened to her as thoughts of regret, despair, and suicide ran through her mind. She was tired of the constant barrage of scenes that terrified her, that stirred up these emotions, and was even to the point of death just to make it stop.

“I just want to die!” she cried out, hoping for some relief from her agony.

Behind her came a response, the voice of a child. “Why?”

Unconcerned about who or why someone was speaking to her, Siri yelled, “I want all this to stop! I can’t take it anymore!”

“Then make it stop. You and you alone have the power to do so.”

“How?! I can’t seem to be able to…it just keeps coming and coming! There is no end!”

“You’re the one who created all of this in your mind.”

“But I had to!” yelled Siri, her thoughts tumbling over one another, conflicted by her reasons to end this but also to keep it going.

“Why?” the child replied calmly, unaffected by Siri’s screams.

Siri slammed her fist into the ground angrily. “To punish myself for all that I have done!” Finally snapping her head around, she found herself face to face with a young elven girl, standing underneath the opening in the floorboards. The light overhead shone down upon her golden hair, causing it to almost glow.

The little girl pointed through the little gaps between the boards that covered the walls to the three bodies lying out in the street. “You did not cause nor had anything to do with that.”

“I could’ve saved them!”

Her radiant green eyes turned back towards Siri, and her head shook twice. “No. If you had tried, you would have been dead. You know that as well as I.” The other bodies, the two hundred thousand Xanthalian and Grummian soldiers, appeared amongst the elven family. “And yes, you did cause that. But what good is it to continuously punish yourself over it? It only serves to make you miserable and everyone else around you…nothing more.” She lightly stepped over to Siri and rested her hand on her shoulder. “You made a mistake, people have died from it, but you need to learn from it and move on. Brooding over it will not bring them back nor will it make your future any brighter.”

Siri embraced the young elf and shut her eyes, a small amount of tears streaming from them. She truly regretted what she had become and wanted this nightmare to cease, feeling that enough punishment had been brought upon her. The thoughts of suicide and despair had disappeared from her mind, and she breathed a sigh of relief as the burden upon her was lifted.

“I’m sorry,” were the final words she spoke before she opened her eyes and discovered that she was in the arms of her loving father.

Melkos Unchanos looked down at his beautiful daughter, stroking his hand through her smooth blonde hair. Their surroundings had changed dramatically from the molten hell they were in a time earlier. Now, a sun shined down from a beautiful blue sky. Melkos held his daughter in a dazzeling field of flowers and and crisp, clean grass that spanned to infinity. He dared a gaze up. His now human complexion blending perfectly with the surroundings. He blinked once, then looked down back at her.

"I heard what you said." He continued to stroke her hair, "I forgive you, if you ever did anything."

Somehow Melkos seemed less knowing than before. As if something had changed about him. Melkos knew it, deep within himself, that this experience had changed him. He couldn't put a finger on it, couldn't clearly describe it. But what came to mind everytime he thought about it was Mortality. Indeed, he felt more mortal.

"Do you feel better?"

A faint whisper, one barely perceptible through the gentle, soothing wind whirling across the landscape, had given Melkos the confirmation that he sought.

“Yes,” had come the simple, one-worded response from the clearly exhausted elven woman, who now was nestled so securely upon her father’s comforting lap that she had not wanted to leave his caring protective gaze in the slightest. A resounding peace flowed through her for the first time in her life, pushing away all the pain and heartache that had previously consumed her. But she understood that this moment would not last, and should not, for despite her newfound understanding that perhaps it was wrongful of her to torture herself day in and day out with the sins of her past, those energies must be put forth towards other tasks, other actions that would redress the wrongs that she had committed.

Her slender hand, weakened by the ordeal that she had been through, squeezed Melkos’ slightly, as her eyes gazed upon into those of his own. “…but…I can’t settle for just forgiveness. I can’t simply be content with only that,” Siri finally said. “There are so many lives out there that I’ve broken, and it wouldn’t be right for me to do nothing for them. I have to atone for everything I’ve done, in whatever way would be best for these people. It’s the only way any of this could ever be laid to rest…”

In the radiance of the sun, the oak tree now clearly seen behind, with Melkos in his human form, he smiled down upon his daughter. He did not whisper nor utter a word for a long while, simply gazing back into her eyes as she did into his. There was a connection there, something formed from darkness and nurtured to a mature light. A single tear slid down his lightly tanned skin, falling onto his forearm in a dazzling sparkle that reflected the suns light. His hand continued to stroke through her hair, his body remaining still as he simply took her sight into his memory.

This was a special moment for Melkos. For the first time he felt, he knew, his daughter had accepted victory over defeat. Her desire to do right, to take a path that seemed hard yet screamed justice, filled him with so much happiness. It was coming to a train of thought wherein he believed this was the turning point in their relationship as an adoptive family, that Siri would no longer need the guidance of her chosen Father. Despite the apparent ramifications, he felt deeply honored and joyful at the prospect. It told him that all his work was not in vain, that his effort to bring her a better life was not useless, that indeed she had matured into the light. The darkness around her he could barely remember now, just by gazing down at Siri and thinking these things. A new image, a new future, seemed to form in his mind's eye. One that spoke of Light, of Joy, of a Great Leader.

Finally Melkos Unchanos closed his eyes, sighing lightly as he gazed upward, enjoying the feel of a sun's warmth on mortal flesh. His hair a brighter silver, more rich and vibrant. It flowed longer now, down to the middle of his back and embracing a breeze that chanced by. His eye's opening, revealing mortal eyes with an immortal blazing blue iris. Another tear fell for Siri's Future. One more following for his. Closing his eyes again, he gazed down upon his daughter, his voice changed dramatically to a soft spoken well-aged whisper. His smile showing more expression than before.

"My daughter," he said while tilting his head slightly to the side and stroking her hair with his fingers, "My beautiful daughter. How you have grown." He slowly blinked, "From the day of my torment and darkness, I never found hope in life." His smile widened, "Until you found me." He stroked along her hair more, softer and a more caring stroke, "Until you saved me."

His hair, retained by his wide masculine shoulders, flew with another gentle breeze smelling of ocean waters and springtime. He gazed in the direction of the breeze's origin briefly, exposing a long red scar that went from the back of his head down to his neck. He never mentioned this before, and didn't seem inclined to offer explanation. Perhaps he simply didn't know, gazing back at Siri O'Neill. "There is so much about me I've always wanted to tell you, ever since you began learning." His smile remained, his expression peaceful. "Though through our time together your story, your life, has encompassed more of my existence than the many lands I have lived in." He nodded slowly down at her, "Your desire for this good, for this justice, and for this memory is one I know you can do." He righted his head, still smiling down at her, the sun's ray's shining through where his hair loosened across his shoulders and head. "I have seen it, I believe. But it is more of a hope, and therefore something that I know you will do eventually."

His expression seemed to grow sadder after he finished speaking, something evidently bothering him. It didn't show like wildfire, just a simple change of a few facial features. Perhaps she would notice, though Melkos hoped not. He did not desire to tell her the other part of his thoughts, the one where he believed himself far from her as Siri grew in her way's. It was something that at this point he couldn't imagine, but knew it would happen eventually. Even if it were to come to pass, he knew he'd have to keep his emotions quiet for her sake. The hardest thing was watching the one you helped grow up leave your protecting arms for the future they so deserved. Melkos Unchanos did not want to take that from her simply because he loved his daughter so.