MEMORY OF DAYS LOST
“Ya got a minute, Fil-Fil?”
It was more than two months prior when Loki Familia first stood before the gates of Knossos, ready to set foot in the man-made labyrinth, when Loki approached Filvis with a question.
“I’m glad you’re helpin’ us out on this mission,” she said with her usual smile. “But where’s that hoity-toity god o’ yours?”
“If you are referring to Lord Dionysus, he is not here,” Filvis replied. “I am carrying out his orders to provide you with assistance.”
Filvis’s words, however, were not the truth. Dionysus had told her nothing of the sort. Filvis was there on her own initiative for a very specific reason.
“Hmm…” Loki mused. “All right, then, one more question.” She opened one eye just a crack. “Is Dionysus tryna hide somethin’ from us?”
Filvis shuddered. The keen, probing gaze of Loki Familia’s goddess sent a shiver down her spine. But her unrest lasted only a moment. The next instant, she calmly closed her eyes and assumed total silence. That was the only way to keep secrets from a divine interrogator who could see through any lie.
Although gods could detect falsehoods, they lacked the power to read people’s minds. Filvis knew all about her god’s misfortune in the heavens but couldn’t speak to Loki about it for fear of turning her suspicions against him. And so she summoned her sole defense: silence.
Loki shrugged and sighed, and suddenly the intense, interrogative mood lifted. She opened both eyes fully.
“Let me ask one last question, then,” she said. “Why do you care so much about our Lefiya?”
This time, Filvis’s answer was immediate.
“Because I wish to protect her.”
There was no lie in those words. Filvis Challia was intent on keeping Lefiya Viridis alive. An inexplicable compassion moved her to do so—a feeling so strong that it drove her to defy even her patron god’s command.
Lefiya didn’t know. When she had called Filvis beautiful, she hadn’t known how much that meant to her. She didn’t know how much her honest words had changed Filvis’s thoughts, changed her very self.
Filvis loved her. She loved that kindhearted girl as a true friend and sister-in-arms. That love was who she truly was, and no one could take that away.
Despite lacking her omniscience, perhaps Loki discerned that truth after all, for the goddess allowed Filvis to rejoin the party.
“You’re her knight in shinin’ armor, ain’tcha?”
Filvis’s only reaction was to blush and quickly walk off.
“…”
Why was it that she remembered those words now?
The group stood before Knossos again, ready to begin their first assault—the very same passage in which that memory had occurred.
The air was tense. The hall was packed with adventurers, each ready to move at a moment’s notice. They all awaited the signal to begin the assault.
Filvis stood among them, still struggling to unpack her feelings. She glanced at the girl standing to her side.
She was staring straight ahead, toward the gates of Knossos, hands wrapped tightly around her staff. Tense yet with a burning look of determination in her eyes.
“Begin!”
The voice of their commander issued from the crystal. The adventurers let out a chorus of cries. Filvis set off running with the girl at her side and swore an oath that no one could hear.
I will protect you.
With that vow in her heart, Filvis marched into the labyrinth where her fate awaited.
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