Myra sat alone on a stool near the giant harp in her room. She strummed a piece gently but thoughtfully. As she became more enveloped by the resounding tones, her fingers raced through the strings. The more she plucked, the more the melody resonated in the surrounding space. Finally, her song slowed until she released the final string, its pitch fading with the reverb.

She sighed.

“What is it?”

Kaizen stood behind her in the doorway of the room. He was initially taken aback by her noticing him, but then remembered the kind of people he was dealing with.

“Um, I-I got lost looking for my room,” He stuttered out.

“It’s the one right after this one.”

“Ah, I see. Thanks.”

He slowly disappeared from the entrance and the sound of his footsteps receded gradually.

Myra sighed again.

“That’s not all, is it?”

Kaizen peeked his head back into the doorway and stared at her. She turned and looked at him with a face of slight annoyance. Intrusions were a pet peeve of hers, but after seeing the sincerity in his eyes, she relaxed her gaze and pointed to the edge of her mattress.

“Sit.”

“I don’t know if it’s okay to sit on a girl's bed out of nowhere.”

“It is if you're not a creep.”

He narrowed his eyes but begrudgingly accepted her offer.

She started another piece on the harp as he waited patiently.

“So, what is it?”

“I just…wanted to say that you were right. I haven't been very focused until now.”

“I know. I’m usually right.” 

He narrowed his eyes again.

“Anyways…I’m sorry for being a hindrance until now. It’s that…”

He sighed.

“Fulfilling my father’s final wish was supposed to give me purpose. Now I’m left more confused than when I started.”

Myra stopped playing.

She took a deep inhale and breathed out gently. She spoke again without turning to face him.

“A word of advice, Kaizen.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t allow your dad’s dream to become the thing that ends you.”

The room became quiet. Myra’s clock ticked away above her bed as the harp’s strings rumbled to a stop. Kaizen was not sure how to respond. Myra’s head whipped to him and her face looked as serious as it did back at the Sanctuary.

“I’ve lost so many friends, those trying to be what the Saints are…what we are supposed to be.” 

She stood up from her stool and interlocked her fingers above her head before stretching on her toes. Even with her relatively baggy pink t-shirt and sweatpants, he could tell that she was well toned. Her gymnast-like physique didn’t really suit her prim and proper personality. Myra reached over to her desk and picked up something that she dangled for Kaizen to see. 

“That’s a beautiful necklace,” Kaizen commented as he leaned in to get a better look. The necklace’s chain were several interlocking gold links with a beautiful red mineral scraped into each loop. Still, the most impressive thing was the pendant. It looked like a small glass droplet and contained a blue energy that swirled inside of it furiously like a tornado. The necklace had so much shine from all its features that it made it difficult to look at. Kaizen’s eyes started to water.

“This is an Alephite tear. A gift given to each Saint upon successful completion of their training,” Myra educated him.

“It must be priceless if it has such a requirement.” 

“Indeed. But it goes beyond that.” She took the necklace and placed it around her neck to clip it on.

“This necklace binds all of the Saints together, not just in role, but also in function.”

Kaizen tilted his head in curiosity. She pressed her fingers against the pendant and closed her eyes. The energy slowly swirled to a halt and settled into a pool.

“We were…gifted our power by the Most High. Power that can tear the earth or calm the seas. And we are charged to use these gifts to protect our people.” The energy behind the glass turned into a tiny spiked ball inside the pendant.

She held up her index finger towards him.

“Now let me ask you this. Which do you think it is? Were we given our abilities because we are special?”

She held up a second finger.

“Or are we special because we were given these abilities?”

Kaizen pondered for a moment.

“The former.”

A pillow hit Kaizen dead in the face.

“Ack!”

“Incorrect,” Myra responded callously.

When Kaizen removed the pillow from his face, he saw that Myra had already resumed her position near the harp.

“Maybe you’ve lived on the ground for too long, or perhaps you’ve unknowingly idolized us for years…but you are very incorrect.”

“We are not special, not in the grand scheme anyway. ” She began to pluck away at the strings again. Unknown to Kaizen, she was playing her own cover of the hymn ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God’.

“Next question. Who holds more value? The Chooser? Or the Chosen?”

Kaizen paused for a cautious amount of time. He rubbed his chin for a while before presenting his answer.

“The Chooser.”

“Correct. You’re improving,” Myra assured him as she continued to play. 

“At the end of it all, anyone could have been the Saints. We are not infallible beings sent to save this world. We are merely an extension of the Most High’s will. There is nothing for anyone to envy and we have nothing to boast.”

“But the very fact that the Most High gave ‘you’ this incredible position and abilities…does that not imply that you are special?” He protested.

“I never said that there wasn’t a reason why ‘we’ were chosen. I’m saying that reason…the one you’ll soon understand, does not make us more valuable than any other follower.” 

The volume of the harp increased as Myra placed more emphasis on the strings.

“I don’t know what stories you were told of us, but the Saints are not heroes. We were not formed to inspire or model. To be honest, compared to the average follower, some of us are a bit … broken.” Her eyes dropped and her voice fell as she spoke that final word.

The piece Myra played lingered in its end. She turned on her stool and leaned in towards him. Kaizen watched her eyes as her irises glowed slightly. The hue was a beautiful shade of gray that was complemented by white streaks. It looked like the purest form of marble.

“Final Question. Why did the Most High assign these gifts to a select group of followers? Why not empower the whole population?”

Kaizen felt his chest tighten. He understood that this sole question was the entire purpose of the conversation. He nervously opened his lips to speak.

“Because the purpose of those gifts…the responsibility…the strain… can only be borne by certain individuals.”

Myra continued to stare at him. 

Kaizen continued, “The Most High cares for his people. So he only bestows this burden to those who can bear it.”

The room became quiet once more.

Another pillow hit Kaizen in the face without warning.

“Excellent. You do understand.”

Kaizen removed the pillow, confused.

“Then why did you…”

“That one was just because I felt like it.” Myra confessed.

Kaizen frowned, annoyed.

“Anyone can try to fill our role, but not everyone can execute our function…no matter how hard they try. That’s why the Saints work alone.”

Myra pulled on a string on her harp absentmindedly without looking at it. 

“So why…”

Pwang!

The burst string lashed her finger, and it began to bleed. Still, she remained unfazed and looked down, trying to contain her frustration.

“Why is everyone so happy about bringing a civilian into this?!”

Kaizen was stunned by her sudden display of emotion. He hadn’t realized how strongly she felt about this. Regret began to swell on his face as the reality of her perspective settled in.

She noticed his expression and sighed. 

“Well, the one silver lining is that Arch won’t let anything happen to you. That much is certain.” She removed a tissue from a nearby case and wiped the blood off her finger’s edge. She looked back at Kaizen for a final time.

“Just don’t make it hard for us to keep you alive out there, okay?”

Before he could process what she said, a large gust of wind filled her room. The gust encapsulated his body and raised him into the air. Suddenly, he was thrown into the hallway, and he slammed into the wall.

AH!

The door to Myra’s room slammed shut. Kaizen picked himself up from the ground and assumed that whatever happened must have been related to her abilities. After arriving at the door to his room, he paused for a moment.

“Wait…Is she worried about me?”