Thoughts of her have managed to infiltrate the quiet moments of my waking hours. Her image has visited me on more than one occasion in the Dreaming. A world of possibilities present themselves, and I find myself drawn towards the brighter of those. I find myself considering the question of redemption, both as it may apply to my own life directly, and how it might also apply in the case of Matilda.
Should we elect to continue on down the road upon which we have embarked, I can be fairly certain there will be more casualties. Some of them will, no doubt, be willing participants in the violence and mayhem that seems inevitable. Others, I suspect very much like the lass that Matilda ousted from her body before making an appearance at the club, will be innocent victims, guilty of little more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Matilda... can she be considered a victim, too, bound to a fate that she may or may not have deliberately chosen, knowing the consequences?
The general knee-jerk reaction seems to be condemn the demon, if for no other reason than it is a demonic being. Condemning a demon simply for being a demon seems to be the age-old practice of vilifying anything different, condemning any other thing for the sake of its origins, species, or race. What if the whole cycle of attack and counter-attack is based on a tragic misunderstanding, on prejudice and stereotypes and fear brought on by ignorance? I have to wonder what history, or existence itself, looks like through the eyes of a demon; how would the story told be the same, or different?
Can the current cycle be anything but frustrating to a demon? Could that explain the generally sour disposition? After all, it would seem to take an effort of some degree to move between locations. It requires more effort to interact physically or mentally with the new location. If I had taken the time and effort to interact with a location, only to have all my efforts undone, chances are good I'd tend to feel disgruntled. I cannot imagine repeating the whole cyce time and time again to be anything but frustrating... although some would say that cycle happens, body and spirit, to all living things.
But if this plane has more appeal than another, if in a place more pleasant than the other, would it not be in the best interest of the visitor to prolong the time spent here? For although peace has its risks, peacetime risks seem fewer than the risks associated with a war or an active battleground.
Might the age-old cycle be broken and Matilda be redeemed? And, if so, how might such redemption be attained? What actions and what price are associated with the redemption of a demon? What is the chance that Matilda might be redeemed? And, if such a possibility were to be presented, would such a thing interest Matilda?
In trying to guess at Matilda's motivation, it occurs to me that I know nothing about what the wants and desires of a demon might be. As unsettling as the thought may be, do we and demons share enough of a common ground, a similar enough values, that such things as damnation and redemption translate from my human centric and anthropomorphic framework to Matilda's world? And, is such a thought, perhaps a precursor to dialogue on the matter, tantamount to treason... or worse?