Back to Home

Stars and the Mirror

There weren't many stars to look at in the Backstreets. Everything was cloudy, even at night. Up in the sky there was only darkness, and a gloom that never left.
In an apartment, a Salsu of the Blade Lineage has set his old mirror in front of him. Cleaning his blade all by himself was too boring for his liking.
A sword can be blessed with white all it wants, but it cannot change that it has slain hundreds.
It will eventually rust like any other blade.
Yi Sang Blade Lineage Salsu
How long has it been since we've last spoken?
The Yi Sang in the mirror was of another world - So this reflected by the differences. That being, his wings.
Wings that the slayer will never have.
Sang Yi Yeonsim
Long enough that I've missed your presence, my friend.
Yi Sang Blade Lineage Salsu
Hm. Aren't you a sweetheart.
Their conversations are always different. Comfortable, yet foreign the silence was. Between Sang Yi who was seemingly perfect and the Yi Sang who took more lives than necessary, their bond was solid even when so far from each other.
Sometimes they disagreed with each other.
Yi Sang Blade Lineage Salsu
Tell me.
Yi Sang Blade Lineage Salsu
Are you not afraid?
Sang Yi's smile doesn't falter, even when he knows what is about to be questioned.
Yi Sang Blade Lineage Salsu
Does it not strike fear in your heart that the one you hold close is a cold-blooded killer? You have seen it, every time I visit.
Yi Sang Blade Lineage Salsu
I find your loyalty most curious. So tell me why you stay.
Closing his eyes for a moment, Sang Yi thinks of how to formulate his words. Of course, there was only so much he could do when he can't reach out to hold his reflection.
Sang Yi Yeonsim
I wonder too, at times. When we first met, back then, there was a gleam in your eyes that I hadn't ever seen with any other murderer out there.
Sang Yi Yeonsim
One cannot help but be interested in what could bloom if I continued my journey in life with myself. I want to understand what you dedicate your world to, and I want to know if I can help in any way.
Yi Sang Blade Lineage Salsu
That does not answer my question. I asked if you were afraid.
Sang Yi Yeonsim
Hmm. In the best way I can put it, Yi Sang, I am too interested in wanting to be part of your life to worry if you will end mine.
Sang Yi Yeonsim
You can shatter the mirror, but you can never shatter me.
This answer was a fact, but still Yi Sang was unsatisfied. He could never truly break the gate that holds him and the reflection.
When he looks up at Sang Yi, the Wings behind him float and glitter about as though they were stars in a brighter sky.
Shining and watching over him with all the emotion each speck could ever carry.
Yi Sang Blade Lineage Salsu
Your mistake is thinking these bloody hands are worth holding.
Sang Yi Yeonsim
They are, and I am more than happy to share the burden of your sins.
Sang Yi Yeonsim
The blood in your hands is mine as well.
Yi Sang Blade Lineage Salsu
How foolish. You think you know everything about me.
Hands wiped of red brushed against the surface of the mirror, his blade set aside. The reaper of many souls knew his other self could read him as one would with their most precious book.
Counting the stars around them was as futile as opposing each other's worth.
Yi Sang will continue to deny it with his body, and Sang Yi will always retaliate with his heart. In their own, twisted dance, this too was love.