To Daniela
Facing Oneself.
“Why don’t you want to speak to me, Shura?”
The voice did not have anything reproachful in it. Aioros, as in every night for the past years, had come to Shura in his dreams. The man he had looked up as almost his own brother, had died by his own hand—and he, Shura, had been living with his spirit since that day.
“Shura, don’t turn your back on me.” The ghost would say. And Shura would keep walking in his dreams, never facing him. He dared not do it.
How could he explain himself? Before, he had had no need to do so. He had been righteous when he had killed Aioros. Shura had done what his duty had demanded from him.
However, nowadays, those nightmares had happened repeatedly. Hour after hour, the Saint had awoken his breathing uneven. Aioros had come closer to him. Every time he had returned to his dream, Shura had felt Aioros’ breathing touching his neck. Again and again, Shura would try to sleep, just to fall in a state that would allow him not to go through that anymore.
Capricorn feared Aioros. An unspoken feeling of guilt had been growing within him for many a week already.
What if he had been wrong? What if the doubt in his heart turned out to be something real?
Once again, he tried to conceal his sleep. Praying to Athena so it would happen. A sort of a prayer said to the God of the Dead, so that Aioros’ soul would not haunt him that night.
“Why don’t you want to speak to me, Shura?”
Shura did not avoid the other this time. He turned and looked at Aioros’ shape before him. It was exactly as that day when Shura had just returned to Sanctuary after long time training.
“I fear you, Aioros.”
“How so? Am I not your friend anymore?”
“You betrayed the Goddess—I killed you for that.”
“But that’s the past, isn’t it?” the ghost said the words, moving closer to him and signalling the way to follow him on his walk.
Shura obeyed, and for once in many a year, his dream was in peace.
Ariadne, December 25, 2005