Life’s

"Nossas vidas não nos pertencem, Elas pertencem à Vida."

"Our lives do not belong to us. They belong to Life.”

Present.

A citadel sits high in a land of valleys, walled off from a world that lay broken and burned. This place is called Salvation and it remains the last known place where peace resides. Survivors from after the war have been searching the globe but only the most blessed by providence will find this place.

Deep within these walls and corridor a recent newcomer, Val, sits in a therapy session with an older woman. The room is filled by the light coming through a window that stretches from the floor to the ceiling. The ceiling is high enough to almost allow an echo. A dense variety of plants cover most of the space around the edges of the room, even fully covering one wall in pink budding vines. Val sits on the floor amongst a assortment of these lush green plants, fanning the leaves in the warming morning light. A large sand hued cat sleeps on her lap that she is gently rubbing as it purrs like a motor. Her eyes are intently focused on the green, made yellow, by the sunlight.

“Who chooses the plants that are in this room?” Val asks.

“A woman who we saved many years ago. Why? Do you like the choices she made?” The woman warmly questions.

“I think her choices are exactly...perfect.” Val calmly states.

“To be completely honest I haven't spent much of my life appreciating this kind of beauty. I have been focused on helping those who find their way to us.” The woman says. "I don't think I have even stopped to smell those flowers."

"You may have allergies then, so be careful." Val warmly warns.

The woman sits at a desk in the corner of the room. There sits a picture of her with a much older man, a young girl, and a sand colored kitten. Next to that, another picture of a man in some sort of tactical uniform standing on top of an Alpha Saber mech suit. Near this image a metal lay flat on top of a third picture. Burnt threads from the former ribbon extend from the metal like a deformed, flattened fist in protest. The picture under this metal has the same man and her, both wearing A.S.K. flight suits and smiling brightly towards the camera. A giant Knight stands 6 stories high behind them in the distance.

On the wall behind her hangs a painting of a snow covered landscape made bright by a full moon. A long failing, but still standing, barn with a night owl perring out from the rafters, sits just off center of the picture. This desk is surrounded by sundrenched plants as well, yet the woman’s focus is on Val.

Val, without looking away from the leaves, says, "His purr is deep. It reminds me of my father’s snoring."

"You know why he loves to be held while he sleeps?" The woman asks.

“Because your daughter held him often?” Val guesses.

“You looked at the pictures on my desk. My father brought Dune back from my husband's ceremony. He heard him crying out from under one of the Knights in the memorial fields.” The woman explains.

“Similar to how you found me.” Val says.

The woman takes in this moment, gesturing to Dune and says, “Great symbolic weight sleeps peacefully, in your lap, Miss Val.”

Val looks down at the cat in her lap and smiles as she asks, “You both were in the military, but only he was a knight?”

“Mmm yes, he was. A great one who led the last assault against the Coasts. I wish I could have been with him there. Fighting by his side. My body couldn’t tolerate the submersion containers.” The woman reveals, with longing eyes.

Val, nearly cutting her off, says , “I saw them up close in battle twice. The sounds they make are terrifying.”

“They truly are awesome.” The woman says with some reverence.

“I was only ever afraid of them and still am. Even when I know one is dead in defeat, it still terrifies me.” Val says.

The woman, countering Val, responds, “Not if you know they are there for your protection.” The woman picks up the metal from the desk, smells the blackened threads and asks, “Where did you see a fallen Knight?

Val, without batting an eye, states, “I saw homes of people I knew and loved get atomized by them. With the families still inside.” Val now stands up, Dune still asleep in her arms, and slowly walks towards the woman. The woman pushes herself back and almost starts to stand up, but instead she relaxes and settles back into her seat.

“I’m sure you did. I wish the conflict never reached the place it did. It could have ended much much sooner if people could see who their true salvation is,” the woman states, “and not stand on false holier than thou grounds.” Val softens her face and leans over to look down at the metal on the woman’s desk. The woman keeps her eyes on her then she looks down to her still sleeping cat.

“‘The harsh realities of this beautifully crafted world. They remind us of what?’ Val quotes. “My dad would ask me this question as often as life would remind us of its realities.” Val says.

“What would your answer be?” The woman asks.

“His question is the beginning of a poem. He taught me the other lines as the answer. My mother wrote it to him as she delivered the bad news of her health, the day she had to give birth to me.” Val explains as her focus has shifted intensely back onto the woman.

Without taking the obvious bait to talk about her mother’s death, the woman says with prying words, “I must hear it.”

“I’d like you to try and answer it before I tell you the rest of the poem.” Val tells her with a veiled command. “I’d always attempt an answer from my own way of seeing the world first. It became a sort of exercise in our survival.”

The room goes quiet, then white bright, followed by a deafening sound that wakes the cat, and breaks up this peaceful exchange. An alarm follows, and the sounds of booted footsteps entering through the door. Soldiers in sleek submersion uniforms fan out into the room with a man in a jet black, vibrating, suit of armor walks directly to the woman.

The armored man addresses the woman, “General Ferris, there has been a breach in the outer court, also the sanitation generator field. Primary concern is access to the Alpha fuel cells.”

“We will have to return to this conversation a bit later on.” She tells Val. She shifts her attention to the warriors who await like trained wolves for her orders.

“Drop in! I want Knights up and whoever is here to be reduced to less than ash!” The General commands. “Commander Dillon, I want you to stay with Val and keep her safe.” As she says this, Val can’t keep from looking up to the general with a look of defiance.

…

8 years ago.

“Nossas vidas não nos pertencem, Elas pertencem à Vida.”

“Our lives do not belong to us. They belong to Life”

The sun is high enough in the sky that Val can see it just above her daddy’s shoulders. As far back as she can remember her father has been pulling her through life, always teaching her along the way. He would constantly remind her of the deep truths of life. “Our survival is about more than just living to fight another day. It is about being the seeds for the growth of a new world."

Val knew her father was a man who could see past the oppressive realities, that crushed most everyone's hopeful vision of the future. She has seen and met many men who were cowards and only spoke of bowing to the ones who sought to save us, or destroy us if we rejected them. Her father was the best man she knew.



…

Present.

Val is pulling flowers open from the vines on the walls as she tells a story to the cat. She is handling the pink flowers with utmost care, being sure not to shake the pollen loose. Commander Dillan lays hiddenn on his back under the vines and potted plants in the cornner of the room.

“The last night she was with her father, before being found out in the fields, he said to her, ‘As long as I’m alive, I’ll keep you alive, And I still have a lot more to give to make sure you have a future.’” Val says to Dune who walks between the plants she is working on. "He left her alone in a field and she watched him run off with a group of men." She continues.

She now starts to pulls off the pollen from the stamen and keeps it piled in the palm of one hand. The thoughts of him are always in her heart, whether in a dream that wakes her or… “‘Val, you are my reason for my life. You are the key.’ he tells his daughter.” Val says with anger in her voice. A dream that wakes her or a drifting thought that makes her wish she was dreaming."

Val stops what she is doing and turns as General Ferris, only gone an hour, glides back into her office, and says, “Please continue. We made quick work of the intruders.”

Val turns towards Ferris and waits until she stops and remains still.

“That’s what my dad told me the day before he was killed. That I was a key. Of course he told me this every day since I was born. Every day. He kept me alive and now I’m here in a place where I know I’m really safe.

“He got you to us all the way from the outer walls. Must have had a blessing on his life.” Ferris says.

“He was the blessing. You know every morning I wake up feeling safe and I know this place is the deffinition of safty, but I keep thinking it’s only because he’s in the other room even when I know he’s not.”

“That’s beautiful. Can you tell me about your journey to us?” Ferris asks.

“He told me last night that my mother would have been proud of the woman I have become. The fighter I have become. She would have been proud to see what I was willing to do for our people.” Val says.

"Last night? How?" Ferris asks.

"Yes he sent me a message through you one of your soldiers." Vay answers.

"Vallery, how did your mother die?” Ferris asks her. Val steps forward as she answers, “She was reduced…to less than ash, General.” Ferris steps back and stops as she hits the wall, bumping the painting of the barn and night owl.

"He was too but not after starting a fire that will burn your tyrannical hold on the world. It will simply be blown away then forgotten." Val says with dignity.

“I see.” She fights the weight to look to the ground and asks, “Your father is Bastian Almeida. The man we just killed.” Ferris manages to say, with shortened breaths.

"Yes you killed him and probably my uncle and cousins. We will all die but not everyone can hold onto their dignity as they do." She says with pride.

"He was the one who designed our first man controled mech suit." Ferris says. "He killed my husband."

Val takes this in, but doesn't let it slow her intentions.

“I wish you had been there with him too, fighting alongside him. Maybe since there would have been two of you, maybe my father would have allowed me to kill you. I nearly hated my father for not allowing me to kill the brave knight Gavin Ferris!” Val says, with the coolest ease.

“You will never make it out of this room. Unless you allow me to leave and make a place for you to thrive. I can do this for you. You can enjoy the sanctuary that we have built here.” Ferris says, with drained confidence.

Val responds, “The woman that you saved, and allowed to choose these choice botanicals, was a woman who watched, your saviors, execute her husband and son. You stepped in the blood ground a long time ago and you have not been able to wash it from your souls.”

Val then holds her fist up and in front of her mouth, opens her palm revealing a pile of uniquely fine pollen, then takes a deep breath and blows the pollen into Farris' face. The room flashes hot, white.

…

A citadel, walled off from a broken and burned world, remains the last place anyone would venture, to seek to find hope. When power abuses and calls it love, we must remind ourselves that real love cannot be bound by our weak titles and ideologies. Love is love and all the counterfeits are easy to spot. Love is not a cage or bondage…it is freedom with boundaries.

…

“The harsh realities of this beautifully crafted world. They remind us of what?” Bastian asks 13 year old Val. “That we are blessed to have what we may lose. That we are Life’s.”

Bastian kneels down and holds his daughter’s face and says, “You are wise beyond even my years Vallery Maria Almeida!” He then continues to walk as he talks to her. “It will take us a very long time to get to where we are going, but once we finally arrive, you will be able to plant a seed in the heart of the fertile ground.” Val smiles and grabs her father’s hand as they walk away from a still smoldering Alpha Saber Knight. Val holds a pink flower that she smells with a smile.