Face of Eternity : The Little Angel

The land below was dark, so dark that if you stretched down your hands, you could have felt the shadows like they were water.

I only had a vague idea of what the ground looked like based on the red eyes that shifted around it, like fiery dots in a sea of black.

Our cliff was so high above the dark dwelling beings, nearly touching the sun. They’d never reach us even if they tried. It didn’t look like they wanted to though. Like shade, they hid where the sun couldn’t shine.

“Yalda, do you see them all down there?”

“Yes, daddy,” I nodded. “They’re scary.”

I shivered and clung to my father's leg. I didn’t know why he brought us here, but I wanted to go home already.

“Don’t be afraid. This is what you were born for.”

He stretched up his hand, borrowing light from the sun above. A rod formed in his palm. When it finished shaping, it looked like a spear, but all shiny and bright.

He handed the spear to me, then said, “Those people are too far gone that they can’t see the darkness they serve. You’ll be the one to light the way for them.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I accepted the spear. “Okay, daddy.”

When father was sure I had the spear tight in my grip, he let go. “This is yours now. Learn to use it.”

I struggled to hold the heavy spear steady on my own, but I did my best so I wouldn't disappoint daddy.

As he recognized my determination, he smiled, brushing his hand across my hair. Then when he was satisfied, he walked forward toward the very edge of the cliff.

Where was he going? If he went any further...

He stopped at the edge. I heard him take a deep breath. "Yalda, I'll be gone for a while. So we won't be able to play anymore.”

My heart beat turned heavy, my eyes watered along with it.

“No more?” my lip quivered.

“You be a good girl. Listen to your Uncle, and remember your purpose.”

“Purpose…” I glanced at the spear, then back at father quickly. “What purpose?”

He wanted me to light the way for people so they could see in the dark, but how could I do that on my own? I needed him so he could teach me.

As I stepped forward to follow him, shimmering arms gracefully came down from the sun and held me back.

“No!” I tried to struggle, but the sun was too strong.

Father looked back, fighting to keep a stern face as he watched me weep.

“I promise I'll see you again.” His sternness broke with a smile, but he was crying. “When I do though, you’ll need to be ready.”

“For what, daddy?”

“For the day of darkness. Someone very evil is coming for humanity, Yalda. You're going to be their last hope.”

"Who, daddy?" I was anxious, I needed to know who was coming.

He turned away, gazing off into the depths below and ignoring my question. Then with one final step, he leapt right off the edge, diving down into the eternal darkness.

A flash of light followed, blasting across the land from below, blinding me completely.

"Daddy!"

-☆◇☆-

::Three years later::

-0659 Hours. Initiating wake-up sequence-

-…-

-Initializing Empyrion OS … initialization complete-

-…-

-0700 Hours. Wake up sequence complete-

-Good morning, Yalda (＾▽＾)-

My head was hurting. My crystal heart was pulsing fast with light. I squeezed tightly onto my stuffed unicorn just to relieve the pain.

“I had a bad dream,” I cried. “Daddy's dead.”

It wasn't the first time I've woken up like this, and I’m sure it wouldn’t be the last. I can’t even remember a time when I had good dreams.

The pulse of my heart increased dramatically. I opened up a status menu on my hotbar, knowing what it showed would calm my racing body.

A little line of light loaded up and was constantly spiking up and down, displaying a healthy heartbeat.

“Oh…” I sighed. “He’s still okay.”

Coming down from that mini heart attack, I ran a morning diagnostic on my body to make sure everything booted up okay. It looked like everything was good. All systems were green.

Luckily, no matter how bad dreams get, they end when you wake up. So otherwise that, nothing was going to drag me down this morning.

My name is Yalda, Yalda Asamo. Today is September 5th, and I turn six years old.

I've probably done more than a few things to make you curious about what I am. To put it simply, I'm more or less not what you’d call a 'normal person.' I'm still a person, you see, but with a computer for a brain.

Super cool, right? Actually, my whole body is mechanical. Where normal humans are made of flesh and blood, I’m more like a robot made of rubber and metal. But calling me a robot would be incorrect. I’m what daddy calls, a syntax life form.

Oops… I mean synthetic life form. Sometimes my vocabulary is a little glitched.

So anyways, what does a synthetic life form do on her birthday? Well she eats cake, of course! And opens lots of presents.

Well, actually I wasn't that spoiled. I only got one gift per year, but it could have be whatever I wanted. Except for a real unicorn. Because apparently, we didn't have anywhere to put it.

To be honest, the only thing I wanted was to see my daddy again. Nobody knows where he's been for the last 3 years. That heart beat was the last connection I had to him.

He was the greatest scientist ever and could do anything. He even made me. No mommy and no storks involved!

Until he comes back, and he promised me he would, my uncle was in charge.

Uncle usually greeted me in the morning, but he was late. Maybe he was doing some job around here and got really busy. That meant I had to get dressed alone, which I could do, because I'm a big girl now.

"Sssssss…"

Uh oh! A snake was slithering toward me on my bed!

Tee hee… I'm just playing around.

"Samael!" I cheered. He was my friend, Samael. He’s really sweet, and wouldn’t bite a soul. I know, because he sits on my head all day!

I let him slither up into my white hair and he gave me a ponytail off the left side of my head. I don’t know why he liked being my scrunchy, but I thought it was cute, so I didn't mind.

“Good boy.” I pet him on his little noggin. He liked a good snoot booping from time to time. “Boop!”

"Ssss."

That was how he said thank you, probably.

Anywho, I had to get dressed.

I always had a hard time picking the right dress, and an even harder time putting it on right. So many strings and strands, a young ladies fashion was always so complicated. Uncle was getting really good at styling me up to look pretty because of that.

I wanted to show him that I was a big girl and could do it myself. I mean, I am six, after all.

Let's see… The purple one? Nah… What about blue? Nope…

See, I wouldn’t have minded wearing one of those. The issue was that they were too complicated to get on by myself.

“Guess it’s the white one today.”

That one was my favourite because it was comfortable and easy to slip on.

I tossed it in the air and jumped right through the middle. It tightly fit around my body, but comfortably. Just when I thought I was so proud of myself, I gave the mirror a look to notice I'd put the darn thing on inside out!

"Dang it!"

*Bzzz*

And wouldn't you know it? Uncle was right outside the door…

“Uh-oh!”

"Young Mistress…" that was Uncle! "Good morning and happy birthday."

A big and yellow crystal bee flew into my room. He hovered down to my level, carefully inspecting how well I'd dressed myself.

“Uncle!” I smiled, trying to hide my mistake with a thumbs up and smile. “What a great day for a birthday, eh?”

If he noticed my dress was inside out, he’d never trust me to dress myself again! It was big girl time, so I had to lie or die…of embracement.

“It will be when you fix your clothing,” he chuckled.

“Dang it! Nooo!” I fell to my knees, hitting the ground with my clenched fist. "A travesty! I have been dishonored..."

It was all over. Good game. I’d never be able to dress myself again. Just when I thought I was getting old enough to do it on my own.

“Relax.” His little bee arms picked me off the ground. “Just fix your dress.” He flew in close to my face, the digital eyes on his front display looked disapproving. “You’ve been playing too many video games again, haven’t you? No wonder you’re acting so dramatic.”

“Well…I…uh…maybe…?”

If he found out I was playing the games with the little M in the corner of the box when he goes into sleep mode, I was going to be in big trouble…

"That's what I thought," he sighed. "Regardless, please readjust your clothing."

Despite my drama, the dress was pretty simple to flip around. Stretchy too, if I may add.

“How is the progress on your armour skin this morning?” he asked.

“It's doing okay. The diagnostic said the alloy is hardening properly.” I gave a quick knock to my brownish purple chest piece.

My armour skin was like an exoskeleton. It was going to get stronger as I got older. Anywhere not covered by that was a rubbery material that was also pretty strong.

Once the dress was fixed, we both made our way to the dining room for breakfast. Outside in the hallways was a gravity lift. We had to take that to get down to the dining level.

A ring of light surrounded me and pressed closely, then I started to descend downward into a tube of thin air.