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“Stop me if I try to take the power for myself.”
“You better believe I will.”
Castaspella said, taking Shadow Weaver's hand.
It took her a moment to realize what she had just promised and fully grasp what her words meant. She promised to stop her if things got out of hand and kill her if she lost control. Casta hoped she would never have to fulfill her promise.
They continued to walk through the forest in silence, listening to the sounds of leaves in the wind and creatures around them. From time to time, Shadow would turn back to see if the sorceress was still following her. Then, she would look up at the sky, which was getting darker every minute, and tell Casta to hurry up.
When the sun finally set, and the few glowing plants remained the only source of light, they sat down to rest. Shadow Weaver leaned back against a tall tree with Casta sitting beside her.
They sat there for some time. It might have been minutes, might have been hours, Casta was too lost in her thoughts to know. As much as she tried to relax, her mind wouldn’t let her. She unsuccessfully tried to push away the thought of what would happen if they failed to do this. The fate of the whole planet was now in their hands. They couldn’t fail.
The cold night air was making them shiver as they lay on the dirty forest floor, looking at the shining stars above them. The only sound that could be heard was the whispering of the wind among the branches of trees that were probably older than either of them, occasionally interrupted by the noises of forest creatures. Until Casta's intrusive thoughts spoken aloud finally broke the silence.
-Be honest with me, do you ever feel sorry for the things you've done?
Pulled out of her thoughts, Shadow Weaver turned to her.
-Well, that's a weird thing to ask so suddenly. Why are you so suddenly interested?
-Just answer me.
She thought for a second before responding.
-Fine, if you insist. I do… regret going down this path in life, as nothing good came out of it, but I still couldn’t care less that a few people might feel hurt because of it. I did what I had to survive, and some people may have gotten caught up in that. But war is war after all, I would say a handful of bad memories is rather tame compared to everything else that's on the line.
Casta looked at her with more disappointment than shock, which later turned into an unamused, neutral expression. After all, what more could she have expected from her?
-Seriously!? Do you even hear yourself !? After everything you've done to Catra, Adora, and others. How do you not feel sorry? How can you call a lifetime of abuse and trauma “just some bad memories”?
-That's a slight overreaction. Even if they were hurt by it, it's not my fault they ended up in that situation. You should blame the horde for that.
-The horde that you were a part of and joined willingly.
-I had almost no choice, there was nowhere else I could have gone after the… events that happened.
-That I know no details about, so I can't judge you on that, but I feel you are changing the subject.
-I've said all I have to say for myself. I hope I've satisfied your curiosity. Now sleep, we still have a long way to go, and you'll need the energy.
Casta desperately wanted to continue the conversation, maybe hoping to get even a hint of a reasonable human response from the witch, as pointless as she knew that was. But at the end of the day, Shadow was right, they needed to sleep, and any more pointless words could not only be a waste of time but could also completely break the fragile, temporary bond between them. They couldn't afford to argue among themselves while sharing such responsibility. So, in a small attempt to ease the tension or maybe just out of basic manners, she just whispered in the darkness
-Goodnight.