[You have developed a Trait: Defiance]

Vale didn’t need to open up his status and peer at it to know what it was and what it did — nothing. A Trait that gave him nothing.

Because it was something that he decided: to defy.

He decided he wouldn’t let his mind be tampered with; he wouldn’t let fate control him.

His very being — his self, his soul — ardently denied it.

It defied fate by seeking to rise above it all.

Then once at the pinnacle, he’d look down. Stomp on it. Twist his heel. Spit. And turn away.

Vale, standing on the water, overtop Diligence’s reflection, slid his foot back so he could see her face.

A beautiful face. One wearing a warm, caring smile. Her neatly tied, silky black hair pinned with a glowing butterfly ornament.

"Well, you said you wanted to talk, Diligence. Tell me, what more do you have to say?"

"Oh? What happened? You seem to have done a little more than bounce back... Did you decide Fleur meant nothing to you?"

Vale smiled — a sinister smile.

"She meant everything to me, at one point. An everything I have since lost and failed to regain over and over. Sure, Sloth can decide what she wants, but in the end it’s my choice to go along with it. Call our love a lie, call my life stringed and mandated — I don’t care. Because what matters, in the end, is my mind..."

Vale remembered what Mias said about defying fate. That if an oracle doesn’t see it, they won’t know. So then, if love, lust, everything is in the mind... fate is blind to it all; so how could it ever be called fake?

"And in my mind I decided our love was real. I also decided what I feel for my Champions is real; and that I should let you slaves to fate think you can control me. That is the choice I’ve made."

"Think, huh... You’re a curious man, thinking you have something like freewill."

Vale grinned.

"And you’re a damnable woman. One who’s stuck in fate’s web; so trapped you don’t realize you possess the key to free yourself."

For the first time, Diligence showed a pang of annoyance slide across her face.

"Don’t speak of something you know nothing about."

Vale laughed as he sat upon a raised dais of frozen whitewater.

"I can speak of it only because I know nothing about it."

The reflection’s eye twitched.

"Oh, really?"

"Oh, really... You don’t have to keep kicking into me fate’s hold over my life. I’m well aware of it now. But, I know something you don’t. Fate has no authority over meaning."

Diligence sighed.

"Fool... you pitiful fool."

Vale leaned back, resting comfortably on his water throne.

"A fool is someone who knows the truth and acts the part of rejecting it... Thank you for the compliment, fate’s bitch."

Diligence remained silent.

’I wonder what she’s seeing...’

Could the reflection even see without a mark?

And if she could...

Was Diligence seeing a mirrored version of the world?

’Perhaps that’s why she’s so obstinate.’ 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

If one sees everything in reverse, then truth itself must feel like a lie — and lies become the only truth left to cling to.

’What a pitiful woman you are...’

Vale laughed at the silence hanging in the air. Then, he began to recall the prophecy Sloth had given him.

He felt he’d made a choice...

Whether it led to life or death?

That wasn’t something he knew. Nor was it something he cared to know.

Vale felt like not caring to know was the very choice itself — a rejection of a fated path, despite having glimpsed inevitability.

Vale continued to recall the prophecy as his eyes settled upon the woman in the water.

’Never call for the ocean’s help...’

Vale felt he’d uncovered the meaning hidden within that line.

Finally, after an unknowable amount of time had passed, Diligence muttered softly:

"Well then, Fool of Lust, I have a question for you..."

Vale breathed in through his nostrils and smiled.

"Ask away."

"Do you know what an oracle derives the most joy from?"

"No. Enlighten me."

"It’s from crushing someone’s spirit with the truth until they have no choice but to follow — having them succumb to your version of fate..."

"And?"

"It seems I’ve made a mistake in my provocation..."

"Is that so? Well, don’t be so disheartened. In a way, I’ve resolved myself to follow your will with utmost diligence. So much diligence that I’ll be so predictable that I circle around to be unpredictable."

Diligence grimaced.

"I... know... I’ve witnessed that much already. So many branches have collapsed... So many who could have lived, now long for the grave."

Vale clicked his tongue.

"So be it."

"You don’t care if those who die are your own?"

"You should know the answer to that."

The reflection bit its lip.

Finally, Diligence shook her head and sighed.

"I see..."

It was obvious Vale cared.

He cared so much that he didn’t mind destroying whatever dared try to take them away.

But, other than that... he’d dutifully do his diligence as a pawn. After all, he hadn’t yet become strong enough to control fate, so he’d bide his time.

All of a sudden, Diligence chuckled and regained her initial composure.

"Lust, Val... I seem to have underestimated your idiocy. But, no matter, I can work with it... I’ll let you learn to regret your idiocy on your own."

’Seems I’ve struck a nerve...’

The regal and composed woman had thoroughly failed to control Vale, even with her ’unthinkable truths.’

Though it was clear she had more of those truths in her arsenal; but it was also true that Vale wouldn’t care for any more she had to say.

For if it was true, it was.

One couldn’t deny a fact.

But what one could deny was a fact’s importance.

And Vale?

He’d simply decided to stop caring about meaning in a meaningless world. Because meaning was only what one made it.