Chapter 634 Filling The Hole Pt 3
Before ascending the stairs, I turned to Jorum. "You can return now."
"Are you sure?" Jorum asked, and I nodded. I should have sent him back already, but my mind had been a storm. I had actually forgotten that he was still with me until he had almost run into me.
"I'm sure. I will find my way back on my own," I reassured him. His nervous gaze felt weighted with a sense of impending doom, but he nodded, turning to leave. As he walked away, I couldn't help feeling a tinge of guilt. But he was safer away from this, and I needed to confront this alone.
Ascending the stairs, I couldn't deny the opulence of the palace. It was a strange contrast against the exterior wasteland and the horror stories surrounding it. The entire way, I couldn't shake off a strange feeling, a sense that something monumental was about to happen.
On reaching the final corridor, a grand door stood at the end of it. Without hesitation, I pushed open the door and found myself face-to-face with her.
Dressed in a flowing silver gown, Xieus, the Dark Empress of Selvack, sat on a massive throne, a calm air around her. Her stark white eyes met mine with a muted curiosity, absent of any hostility. It was an encounter I had imagined a thousand times on my way here, but standing here, facing her, I was out of words.
Her soft voice interrupted my thoughts, "You are the stranger that fell from the sky? Have you finally come to end it all for me?"
Each of her words was filled with so much pain that it was ineffable to explain the depth of each word's despair. This unexplainable feeling was one that I had tried to hide from as I had slept. How long had I been asleep? How did I even get here?
Suddenly, I was hit with a rush of dizziness and staggered. I put a hand to my face to cover one eye, but everything was starting to get blurry.
---
Across the room, Xieus watched the strange creature stumble, and then collapse. This had not been what she had expected. She had thought for sure that this creature was a pawn of Eridor, but there was not a single drop of hostility emitted while it had been standing.
"Who are you?" Xieus asked herself, walking over to the creature that was clearly male, but of another species.
As she neared, she examined his unique features with a gentle yet clinical eye. He appeared like the other Morkath, but his skin and some other features were different. There was also otherworldly energy radiating from him, an energy similar to her own yet entirely unique. She felt an unexpected kinship, a strange connection to this sentient from another realm. It was overwhelming yet frightening in its intensity.
Seated on a nearby chair, she watched him sleep, an unsettled expression etched on his peaceful face. She found herself wondering about his past, about what kind of life he led before he ended up in Kathorn. His face held a kind of sadness and determination that seemed oddly familiar, and Xieus couldn't help but feel drawn to him.
"Who are you?" She whispered again, this time to the sleeping stranger as if she expected him to answer.
The silence of the chamber was broken by the sound of footsteps and nervous whispers approaching the grand entrance. Eridor's men were here. Xieus shook herself out of her trance and quickly moved toward the secret passage hidden behind her throne. She gestured for two loyal servants to carry the mysterious man before quickly following them to safety. As chaos unfurled in her grand hall, she left with the stranger, intending to find out the truth about him, and perhaps unravel her own truth along the way.
Having the stranger there raised a lot of questions. Why was he on Kathorn? What brought him here, and why now? His sudden appearance was daunting but also offered strange peace. He was different and filled with immeasurable power that was hard to ignore. Similar to her, he seemed distant in a way that resonated with the feeling of being out of place.
All this while, Xieus thought she was alone in her battles, facing the wrath of her own people. Seeing the stranger filled with power and yet as tormented as her, gave her a peculiar sense of companionship. The stranger was an unexpected twist, yet he unraveled a part of her narrative that Xieus had pushed away.
With the stranger now under her protection, she found herself confronting emotions she had once chosen to ignore. But everything had changed now. The narrative of dread and despair was interrupted, and standing on the precipice of the unknown, Xieus felt a strange relief. The stranger was not merely an interstellar visitor; he was like her - a god who ended up on a foreign world.
His arrival marked a surge of hope within her, and for the first time in too long, she felt like she didn't have to carry her burdens alone. She had seen enough of his apparent sincerity and intrinsically kind nature to convince herself that he was different, that he might just be the ally she desperately needed.
---
"Oh boy. This is a real doozy!" Truth said as I opened my eyes, and everything rushed back to me.
"What is going on?! Why am I stuck in this memory?!" I demanded, and Truth sighed.
"This is what happens when you don't deal with your problems, and you shut them away. You need to see this, and more, but this will do for now. A god you might be, but your failures are stacking."
"Then guide me! Stop letting me bump around in the dark like a fool!" I screamed, but my words were swallowed by the empty void around us.
"No."
"What do you mean no?!"
"This is your life, your failures, your inability to follow through with things. All of this is wrought by the choices you have made. Blame who or what you want, but that will only dig the hole you are in deeper. Stop running from the truth. It will always catch you."
Feeling as if I had been slapped, I stared at Truth in stunned silence. His words, as harsh as they were, held the ring of truth. It was I who turned a blind eye to my failures, who refused to face my inner demons and instead chose to bury them deep within, hoping they'd vanish. But here they were, rising to the surface, making me confront them. The reality was hard to swallow, but the weight of my actions and choices was glaringly evident.
"What... what should I do?" I asked with a trembling voice, expecting more harsh truths. But this time, Truth seemed more at ease.
"Face your failures. Confront the pain you've been avoiding. Only then can you find the strength to move forward," he replied, a softer tone filtering through. "This world tore you apart, and you forced the memories down. Only by facing them now will you have the strength to face Kadeon and keep history from repeating itself."
"I'm afraid," I admitted, my voice echoing in the emptiness around me.
"That's okay," Truth said, his tone gentler now. "Everyone's afraid. But you have to face your fear. Only then can you really move past it."
With that, I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the pain I would face.
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