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The single unifying factor behind everything that torments me. The darkness, the silence, the cold, even time itself is merely a puppet in the hands of my true nemesis. The nemesis I cannot hope to fight. The nemesis that I am as much a part of as anything I have struggled against during my time in this place. A hundred years in darkness. Thousands of days in which to live my nightmares. Millions of moments in which to suffer at the hands of my inner demons. A hundred years in the heart of the abyss to pay for the sins of my sister, and it has taken me until this moment to stop blaming her for every single day. A hundred years in purgatory seems almost too short a time to learn so valuable a lesson.... The shadow comes at the time of her choosing. There is no point in waiting, no reason to be anxious or impatient. Time only has a hold over those who make demands of it. Seeing that my calm will not be shaken, the doppelganger relents and shows herself, armed for battle. For several minutes the shade simply circles me, watching for any response. During the entire period I remain still, unflinching, giving no indication that I have even perceived her arrival. My illusionary foe weaves through the darkness without even the faintest sound, trying to make me doubt my ability to follow her movements. Irrelevant. Darkness is only frightening when you do not know what it hides. Silence is only an enemy for those who wish to hear. This time, I will force my duplicate to fight alone, instead of warring against the entire world surrounding me. The shadow makes her move, lunging forward with unearthly speed. A thousand times we have danced this deadly dance. For the first time, I lead. Last time, I was a mere echo, reflecting the movements of the shadow a moment later and an order of magnitude weaker. This time, I am a perfect mirror. Both of us lunge forward with our blades extended in flawless unison. The shadow stops as the point of my sword presses into her chest just above her heart, her own similarly hovering over my skin, neither of us able to continue forward without impaling ourselves. We separate, and begin to circle one another as the shadow searches for an opening. This time, I am the duplicate, turning each of her own attacks back against her with infinite patience. Before long she launches a blur of frenzied strikes at the greatest speed she can muster, testing my ability to physically match her skills. I answer each slash with a minute adjustment, a subtle dodge or a soft parry, making the battle a constant game of inches. I am like the water. My surface reflects what lies before me. I take whatever is brought against me into my depths, growing stronger and more diverse for it. Though every aggression seems to move me, I simply flow back into place in the motion's wake, unharmed, unchanged. Untouchable. |
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