[center][h1]The Unseen Rose[/h1][/center]

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What was it like to be alive? She knew she hadn't really ever lived, thus, she was just a dead thing that walked. That went through the motions everyday. Light the forge. Work the metal. Hammer. Hammer. Hammer. Hammer. On and on until the coals died and she was let alone to her nightmares. Day after day. Year after year. On and on forevermore. Still the question haunted her.

The young grew old before her eyes. They could never last like she. Could not endure the test of time. Yet they were always replaced. Something she could not do. The cyclical nature of such life was never lost on her. She knew it only stuck out because there was little else to notice. She had been sold so long ago into bondage that she could only keep track of time through faces. Master after master used her for what they saw fit. Maid. Tailor. Farmhand. Scarecrow. Laborer. Puppet. Monster. Smith. Some masters had been kind, whilst many others had not. They were of humanity, of elvish, of centaur descent and a few others. It didn't matter what they were, they were all alike. 

Despite any uncanny characteristics. Despite the lack of legs or multiple. Horns and fur and teeth and claws. All had flesh in some form and blood that kept their hearts beating. They were greedy and cruel and took and took and took. She was only a tool to them. A dead tool, yet still useful.

And she hated them.

It had been an emotion she came to know most. A companion that kept her husk working. She had been afraid to use it at first, in fact fear and confusion had been her only friends until it grew inside of her like a roaring inferno. No longer able to be contained.

So she had used it. To run away but always to fail. To revolt with the ones she hated less but always to be crushed in the end. Ingenuity was a common trait among those of flesh. She should have been killed for all her transgressions, if it wasn't for one simple fact- She was unique enough to keep working. The punishments still came though and her last failed attempt, so close it had been, had gotten her locked away in a dark windowless pit for what felt like an age. She didn't even want to think about it and so when she was at last let out, the fire had subsided. The hate burned only as coals. She was beaten. And now, chained and collared, stripped of any dignity and pride, Ema labored ever on.

She had been taught the basics of smithing but she was never allowed to work on anything. She was simply a hammer to stretch the metal, bend and shape it. It was a pitiful sight. She had at one point in time been meant for more. To bring life to her people but now the thought ached inside. She could not ever do so, for they would use her children as slaves forever and all would be lost. She would take such secrets to the grave, if she had been strong enough to kill herself. But in the end, Ema knew she was incapable of doing that. 

She was a dead thing but even dead things could cling to life.

[hider=Summary]
We learn what's become of Ema, our lone Aelos. Turns our she's been a slave for an indeterminate amount of time. She laments and has accepted her fate but a small part of her still hopes for something more. Will it ever happen?
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