//------------------------------//
// Volume Two 
// Story: Hecate's Orphanage 
// by BlackRoseRaven 
//------------------------------//

Volume II: The Sphere of Internal Conflict
~BlackRoseRaven

Excerpt from A Happier You, by Burning Desire

        We want to romanticize the devil, make him beautiful and splendid even when we present him as the ultimate evil, because we want to believe that in order to lure us in, to corrupt us, evil would have to offer us more than just power or bribery. We want to believe that to be effective, evil would have to be handsome, and charming, and alluring. We want to believe that we would never give in to the base, to the primal, to what he really represents, when all too often we are eager to have any excuse to embrace that part of ourselves, to scream at another about their inferiority while pumping up our own superiority.
        We are monsters, every single one of us.
        And yet we can recognize these failings, these weaknesses inside ourselves. We can strive to overcome them, to be better than them, to evolve from there. We can recognize that simply because we might want to call the person in front of us an idiot, or shove our way through the line, or steal some shiny rock some other person has, we don't because it's wrong, in broad strokes. In the smaller, our motivations are perhaps more selfish: because we recognize that something bad will happen to us, because perhaps that person is larger than us or has more friends than we do, or perhaps because it is ingrained into us to feel that some things are good and deserving of reward, and some things are bad and deserving of punishment. .
        Or perhaps, because even if much of us is made of monster, there will always be a part of us that is made of something else. Not pure, perhaps, and sometimes not even good, but better. That pushes us toward nobler ends and means. That recognizes, whether out of empathy or pride, that we must earn and find our own path in life.
        And because of the vicious cycle, that is what also pushes us to romanticize, and rationalize, our demons. To explain-away rather than confront. To excuse rather than take responsibility. To hide in tribalism and ignorance and willful blindness and echo chambers.
        What are we all, but spinning rats who scream that we are complex and misunderstood and great minds trapped in small places, happily chasing bad decisions and regrets and new ways to blame old mistakes on other people.
        But in a world that expects us to be wonderful and terrible together, to be mediocre and inspiring all at once, how could we ever be anything different until we learn that we must do our best to be the best people we can be solely for ourselves, instead of trying to blindly please a world that only wants to see us at our very worst.
        The only life worth living is a life spent being alive, instead of just existing.
        And the best way to live, is to live a life lived in the service of others, for the betterment of ourselves. 



One day, my dear, you'll learn that we're not all as strong as you.
And one day you'll know that nothing is harder than surrendering to what you call 'weakness.'

- Stories of Hel, Canto IX, Verse I