“Tell me, Matthew.” Maia said, sitting back down. “You take this average girl, give her some rough treatment at first, make her suffer and humiliate her. Then you take all she cares about from her. And lastly, you give her incomparable power in relation to the rest of mankind.

    “What is she supposed to think?”

    Matthew didn’t know what to say. He could usually respond in some way to anything, he even remained composed the first time he saw her. But his mind wouldn’t conjure any meaning out of what she had told him in the past half hour. It was a scenario hadn’t thought about even after being trapped in this place all this time.

    “It wasn’t a rhetorical question.”

    “I know, I know!” He broke out his stillness. “It’s just… I don’t know! You tell me!”

    She smiled. “That is not why I’m keeping you alive.”

    Keeping me alive. Her words hurt a little more than he thought they would. He sighed. “How can I know? I can barely believe the things that I’ve seen in this place, the things that I’ve seen you do. I don’t think I can ever understand how the girl that you’re telling about, whether she had those powers or not, could turn into a-” He stopped, sighing again.

    “A monster?”

    “No.” He said immediately. “Monster is… too simple. You are far more than that, possessing a certain quality that I cannot discern. Yet. Monster implies a certain wildness and ugliness to it, something abnormal. You are anything but. Your actions are precise, your demeanor is controlled, the way you carry yourself and treat your… toys, I’ve actually seen many of them thinking they deserved what you did to them. Those are not the actions of a monster; they make you-” He stopped again, looking her in the eyes with concern.

    Her smile grew broader. “Very flattering of you.” She said. “But they make me what?”

    He remained silent for a moment, still looking her in the eyes, eyes that had cornered him. He smiled. “I know what you’re trying to do.” He said. He then shifted his gaze down, tracing her beautiful body from head to toe with it. It was impossible to grasp the enormity of her abilities from where he was standing, it seemed like it had become just a story for him, shifted out of the logical part of his mind. Perhaps it was because her powers were anything but natural, but maybe that was the point.

    “Fine.” He said. “You wanted to know what a girl like that is supposed to think. A deity. A god. Or rather a goddess, in your case. That’s the conclusion she would eventually come to.”

    She let out chuckle, and then looked back at the fire, drawing in a deep breath. “Yes, a goddess, something like that. It took some time for me though. I wandered the deserted streets of the city for a couple of days, barely managing to find food and water to keep me going. I went to the hotel at first, but there was only rubble left for hundreds of yards around it.

    “Then, soldiers came. But not darkhairs, resistance fighters. Rumor had spread fast. But they found a weak little girl amongst many other survivors instead, almost shot me because I was wearing one of their officer uniforms, then took me with them.

    “The darkhairs’ armies had retreated in the confusion of that night, but then became poised to retake Karai, attributing the destruction to an unexplained natural event, of course. The resistance fighters decided the city was a lost cause, so they retreated and took along as many of civilians as they could, fleeing towards the mountains in the north.

    “Thus, I found myself living the winter through in the open, sleeping in the cold, still trying to understand what had happened that night.”

    ---

    “Here’s your soup.” Kris said, holding the bowl in front of Maia. “You better drink it while it’s warm.”

    Maia gave the resistance commander a weak smile, and took the bowl, nodding in acceptance. She shifted on her back, leaning straighter against the wall of a ruined house. The whole group was resting on an abandoned town north of the capital, trying to figure out a way to get to the mountains without being spotted.

    “Thank you.” Maia said, and proceeded to drink the soup.

    Kris regarded her for a moment, and then sat down beside her. He was a young man, in his early twenties Maia guessed. Handsome too, and she could see that he had a seen a lot in the past few months, which is perhaps why he took a special interest in Maia, he could see something more than a tame girl in her. She hated and welcomed it at the same time.

    “What’s your story, Maia?” He asked her. He had been asking the same question many times in the past weeks, and Maia always replied the same way.

    “I lost my family in Karai, and then you found me.” It had become like a blinking contest between the two. Who would lose patience first?

    He sighed. “What really happened that night?”

    I grew hundreds of feet tall, became a monster, killed countless people and destroyed much of the city. “I don’t know. I hid until it was all over.”

    “Do you believe the stories?”

    Maia remained silent. She did not know what to believe. It had been her that did all of that, yet it felt like it was only her mind that had conjured the images to cope with all that had happened to her. Like a wild, relentless dream she couldn’t wake up from.

    “You know,“ Kris said,“ you need to cheer up a bit. It won’t help you staying this-”

    A sudden blast came from one of the nearby houses, throwing pieces of shattered concrete all around. Maia let go of the bowl and put her arms around her head in instinct, as did Kris, but he quickly got up and shouted for his second in command.

    “Tanks!” The reply came. “I can see a battalion coming our way!”

    “Everyone!” Kris shouted. “Line up the houses! Prepare!”

    Then he looked at Maia. “Seems like our game will have to come to an end here.” He looked disappointed.

    “Give me a rifle.” Maia said. “I can fight.”

    “What? No.”

    Maia stood up. “You have the weapons, but don’t have the men. Give me a rifle.”

    Kris considered for a moment as gunfire started to come from both sides. “Maia, you’re still just a girl!”

    “What’s there to lose?” She said. “I’ve seen enough in this war. Give me a rifle.”

    He looked at her for a few more moments. “Fine. Come with me.”

    A few minutes later, Maia found herself with a rifle, lined against a wall on one of the outer houses, mostly pinned down against a barrage of gunfire that came from the battalion of darkhairs.

    They had superior training and equipment, including armored vehicles with which they’d routed all armies of Maia’s nation. On the other hand, the resistance fighters were largely composed of frightened young men, mostly farmers. They had mounted a little fight over the last months, but now it would be all over.

    Maia though remained calm. She did not care what was going to happen to her, she had been through enough.

    “You’re quite brave for a girl.” Kris said after he took a shot from a hole on the wall.

    “I don’t think it is bravery that you’re seeing.” She said.

    “So, what’s your story then?”

    She smiled. Another high explosive grenade by one of the advancing tanks blasted one of the nearby houses off, and they both ducked for cover.

    “So, this is it.” Maia said. “It’ll all end here for us.”

    “Well, at least we die fighting.”

    In a sudden, something stirred within Maia. She didn’t understand why, but the implication that she would die today woke it up. She wasn’t ready to die. She was going through a journey, one that she needed to see the end of, and dying was not part of it.

    The thing then burst out, shooting through all her veins and nerve ends. It was the same feeling, the same power. Somehow, the prospect of death awakened it, and Maia realized it had always done so in the past, the ultimate trigger which had been her falling from the hotel in Karai.

    It was back, and it felt like she had always known how to control it.

    She threw the rifle on the ground. A petty tool compared to the power she felt flowing within her. The other fighters saw it, their anger growing at her apparent cowardice, and Kris looked disappointed, but Maia smiled.

    Next, she stood up, and began undressing herself.

    The redheaded soldiers watched with mouth-gaping astonishment as Maia shed her coat first, then her makeshift jacket and trousers, and finally her boots, standing stark naked in the chilling cold, prompting an eerie silence within the battered buildings of the town.

    “What the hell are you doing?” Kris said with a subdued shout. “Have you gone mad?”

    She looked at him. “I don’t want to shred my clothes. I’ll want them when I get back.”

    Kris frowned, his gaze shifting up and down Maia’s body. He clearly didn’t know what to say. It didn’t matter to Maia, they would all understand in a minute. She drew in a deep breath, then moved out of the cover of her tree, and slowly stepped out of the buildings, walking towards the battalion of darkhairs.

    Their faces were too far to make out properly, but she could see their surprise. Surprise and lust, of course. What would a simple soldier think of her anyway? That she’s a whore, that she wants to use her body to survive. She wouldn’t fault them for thinking that way, nor would she be surprised if one of her own kind decided to shoot her in the back. But somehow, she knew innately she shouldn’t fear something like that from both sides. She was more than a mere mortal.

    Where are those thoughts coming from? 

    She felt the power grow stronger, demanding to be let out. The chill of the wind disappeared, and each step in the snow melted it around her feet. Her stride and posture were confident, her hair fluttered like a symbol. She stopped about fifty feet outside of the town, feeling guns pointed at her both from darkhairs and redheads alike.

    She took a look around for a moment, and then closed her eyes. It was time.

    “Release.”

    If there was an analogy to what it felt like, it was that of the power within herself shaped in the form of a smith hammering against her body again and again, shattering it each time and then reforming it in the blink of an eye, continuously forging a little larger version of her body. She could feel each part of her it, from her fingertips to her toes, being violently broken up, and then sewn back together, but a little bigger. And it was incomprehensibly painful. She did not know how one could withstand such pain and remain conscious, but when it was over, the pain vanished in an instant.

    Maia opened her eyes, looking at the blue sky above. She could feel the difference, just like the first time. She felt heavy, but still possessed the strength to remain standing. And this time, knowing what was coming, euphoria engulfed her.

    She looked down, spotting a billowing cloud of dust- no, snow, around her. It dissipated quickly, revealing the astonished gazes of the darkhaired soldiers at her feet. They were insignificantly small compared to her, mere insects that could not hurt her however they might try. Even their fearsome armored vehicles looked petty, like small toys.

    Eveyrone was frozen on their spot, even the Kris and his resistance fighters when she looked around. Maia figured she was a sight one never dreamt of to behold, so none of them knew how one should react, or think. She decided to break their spell.

    Remembering the eerie way her body worked at this scale, she adjusted for it by slowly raising one foot, hovering it above one of the armored vehicles they called tanks, and simply let it fall on top of it.

    The piece of metal could not contain the weight and buckled in on itself, then exploded on all sides, spreading gushing warmth beneath Maia’s foot, too harmless for her. She smiled broadly at the effect, and the wave of panic that spread on the darkhairs. Some shot at her ineffectively, most simply ran. They were pitifully slow.

    Her smile faded at the sight. It reminded her of the horrors she had witnessed while being Syl’s pet. The way they had killed her kind so casually, as if they were cattle. They had to pay.

    She raised her other foot, and this time aimed for a dense spot of fleeing darkhairs, planting it with careful deliberation on top of them. They stopped, stumbling into the icy ground as the shadow of Maia’s foot engulfed them, raising their hands in panic. Their bodies withstood the pressure for a split of a second before she felt them burst, splattering blood around her foot, dying the snow with its crimson color.

    It was so easy.

    Maia stood motionless for a few moments, looking at the flowing red blood. She had just killed with intent. It was no accident, she was not mad, lost or thought it all a dream. No, she knew precisely what she was doing, and she felt indifferent about ending their lives so casually. Why? Was she no different than them? No, somehow she felt the reason was deeper than that.

    She felt a peculiar sting on her thigh, which caused her to look away from the blood towards its source. Along some soldiers, one of the armored vehicles took a shot at her. Still too harmless, but it infuriated her for some reason. She took a step towards it and grabbed it, a little surprised that it weighed more than she expected.

    She turned it around, and its turret fell off along with three people that stumbled out of it and into their deaths far below. She felt the tracks of the hull move though; there were still some inside. She clenched her hand, and ground the can of metal in on itself. She was amazed at how much force she managed to produce with her hand, twisting the metal and crushing the hull easily, causing it to burst in flames.

    Then, someone appeared out of the hole where the turret should have been, flailing wildly due to the flames burning on his clothes. Maia watched as he managed to squeeze out of the confines of the crushed hull and crawl in panic, trying to put out the flames with his hand. He did not apparently know where he was since he slipped from the hull and fell from Maia’s hand, bouncing on one of her breasts before he cruised to the ground like a streaking comet, bursting in red when he it.

    Maia let go of the hull, and cupped her breast with one hand. So damn easy!

    She then saw dots of red moving on the ground and around her. Resistance fighters. They had come out of the town, pursuing the fleeing darkhairs after Maia had practically routed all of them in a few steps. She smiled, feeling a little proud too. There still were a lot of darkhairs alive, running towards the distant ridgeline of the forest, so Maia decided to make it easy for the resistance fighters.

    She took a few steps towards them, then leapt and smashed her foot on the ground, shattering it in the immediate vicinity and causing it to quake for several hundred yards, throwing everyone off their feet.

    She put her hands on her hips, admiring her work as the resistance fighters closed in. She was unstoppable, and she laughed, laughed for the first time in months.

    But then it faded when the redheads reached the fleeing darkhairs, and proceeded to massacre them without remorse. Maia watched as all around her, victims became perpetrators, the roles reversed, and there was absolutely no difference. Her kind was just the same, only circumstances differed.

    She should have felt joy at that moment, proud that she represented hope for her kind, but instead it all drained away and was replaced with a feeling that surprised her: disdain. She suddenly resented everyone at her feet. Why was she becoming arrogant all of a sudden?

    She shook her thoughts off, and scanned the ground, searching for a particular uniform. She spotted the darkhaired officer somewhere in the midsts of the chaos, captured by three redheads and forced on his knees, a rifle on his head. Maia took a step and then crouched down, brushing the redheads away from him with a casual move of her hand, and then picked up the officer, standing back up.

    When he regained his bearings, his face was that of pure terror, and reverence. “Listen to me, carefully.” Maia said in his language. “Tell the Sovereign to arrange a meeting, least you want all your cities burning. Understood?”

    The officer nodded rapidly through his shaking form. Maia then walked to the ridgeline of the forest, and lowered the officer on the ground. “Go.”

    After watching the officer run through the forest for a few seconds, Maia turned around and watched the battlefield. All the violence, all the terror and anguish that men caused to each other, and all the tools they devised just to kill each other, it looked all so petty, insignificant from her vantage point.

    She lowered her head and held her arms in front of it, clenching and unclenching her fists, trying to understand the state of mind that she found herself in, but only did so where she saw a single, indiscernible bird fly just in front of her face.

    She waved a hand close to the bird and watched as it struggled to maintain itself through the gushing winds she generated. All her life, she had been just a mote of dust suspended on the wind, unimportant, destined to be used for the purposes and benefits of other people.

    But now, she was the wind.