Mousai's POV

I had left during the commotion, returning every three weeks or so to see the same Freya staring out of the Veil, hoping Oracion would once return. A Shadow reveals one's true self, no matter the sun that casts it. So why is it...I couldn't see him until it was that close? Some humans had escaped the Veil, spreading across different lands and attempting to blend in as best they could...the others however, I cannot say the same for.

It was only until I looked into those eyes of his did I fully grasp how truthfully outclassed I would of been in the moment. It was only when the very plain around him began to warp at his realisation that I had an urge to flee. A man capable of manipulating the hearts of hundreds, a beast capable of bending the world to his favour. Whatever it may of been, however sly, however unnoticeable it was. He was surely tilting the odds in his scale just by simply being in that gamble.

Tortured, battered and enslaved...I always did wonder how he kept himself sane all that time. Perhaps it was his strength...? No. His fear...? Impossible. But maybe...just maybe, if he had someone to talk to, someone that understood him from a point nobody else could. A bond so strong it couldn't be severed by the chain of karma, something stronger than blood.

I had searched for Oracion briefly after that, hearing stories from the more sentient creatures he's passed in the world. Some describing him as immovable, sacred, towering, hypnotic, scary...heroic. All of it depicted nothing of the man I previously knew as he dawned whatever persona he feels he was born into. While he helped some for the sake of his lodging, he truthfully did whatever what was asked of him.

But all of this suddenly came to a halt, nobody knew where this man went as dreams from the Underworld began to surface. Whilst the three realms do not connect, it's possible to alter the other through some sort of imbalance, one that displayed itself in an ethereal cloud of angelic matter. Whispering the tales of a dream as brief images were shown upon it. All depicting the same colourless, featureless figure. All but a singular name being repeated time and time again, "Oracion, Oracion, Oracion" they all murmur to the world itself.

And with each whisper, came the dream itself, rising from the floor and solidifying itself. Resting within homes, swallowing life itself as these clouds try to fill the void that is Oracion himself.

At some point I even brought myself back towards Eragon's castle, attempting to see if he'd retrace his steps or attempt to visit Ira. But no evidence of him lays there as I received nothing but a glaring look through one glass pane in particular.

-

In my journey towards the Underworld I had hoped to of stumbled across him, hoping that he'd see these realities that are beginning to bend in his absent name. But with each glow and hum that my pendant released, my venture came to a closer end. Slowly, it lead me towards a land of waste. A place not meant to inhabit life nonetheless birth it but even then, things come here in hopes of making something out of nothing.

Mountains upon mountains of items are drawn here by the roots of the ground, physically pulling in whatever it deems as waste from different parts of the world and gradually building itself up. With the terrain unstable and hygiene out of the question, it's often avoided. That is until the dreams began surfacing around here. Swarming around garbage or the dead just in order to fuel the clouds with something.

Only once I climbed to the top of one mount in particular, did I notice a small glimmer of something familiar. Feeling my stomach sink gradually as I slide down and retrieve the dark material. The same metal that made up Oracion's sword. Piece by piece I find it littered across the ground and scattered like petals struck into the floor, around corners or under something.

With each piece I collect I can't help but feel my heart pound at how close I felt I was getting. But as my hands were being cut and torn by the blades, I couldn't help but slow my pace. Spending all this time trying to find him...I didn't know what I was going to say to him. This man that slaughtered his entire home simply because they saw him for who he was. This man who cast the shadow of a beast.

As I bend down to pick up one more, I could hear trash falling just barely behind me. I turn to it, noticing a figure turned away from me, not wanting to meet eyes with me. So nonetheless, I continue forward. Picking up another one but that same sound resonates again, urging me to turn back as the figure remains in that same position...only closer.

Again I repeat the motion, and again this same person repeats it. I'd approach him but something's telling me not to...begging me not to. I drop the shards on the floor, watching as his head barely turns as if to check that I've not moved yet. Rightfully assuming it's some sort of joke, I inhale in preparation of a test "Kill yourself." I whisper the command but his form doesn't budge. Instead his shoulders briefly move up and down as if silently laughing at something.

All this time I spent trying to find Oracion...all this time I wanted to see Oracion. But never had I considered that he managed to remain Oracion. I take off in a sprint, hearing garbage falling behind me in a desperate attempt to catch up to me. 'Why is he acting like this? Why is he doing this to me? How did he find me?' The questions race through my head.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

At some point down the edge of the land I feel something thud into me, pausing my entire body as I freeze up in fear, not even caring of the endless flora in front of me. I didn't dare to look up as I could already feel his warm breath along my neck, "Hmmm" he hums as a few of his teeth gradually begin to sink into my skin.

"Please" I murmur as my eyes bash the inside of my skull, trying to examine the new terrain that I'm in. A sigh of relief leaving me as I throw myself across the ground, hearing my amulet chime time and time again as it begins to float from my chest. Each of the royalty of the Underworld take turns in hiding the entrances, and fortunately enough for me...it was 𝘩𝘦𝘳 this time.

I run away from Oracion's still body, looking back every now and then but he just continues standing there no matter how much distance I put between me and him.

A sudden warm wind surrounds me as all the flowers sway in the distance across the field, some even losing their petals that add to a swirling spiral of them. Collecting and gathering into one large column of psychedelic colours. Each time one of them hides it, the location changes. Each time one of them hides it, its appearance changes. But there's something all of them have in common...it leads directly to the Underworld.

As I hold my hand out to the rainbow typhoon, I can't help but feel something heavy land in my spare hand. Skin that's rough and size nothing less of gigantic. I turn in an attempt to see who it is but my eyes refuse to look at his face. I decide to save myself from meeting eyes and instead head inside with him still attached to me.

But as I step through I recall one crucial detail...humans would begin to wither without the blessing of one of the royalty here. Oracion would die if he came with me.

'Is that such a bad thing?' I hear myself think. Feeling his hand twitch in my palm as if responding to my thoughts, a feeling I wouldn't be able to let go of for quite sometime as it seared itself into my skin.

With the sun cast out and the world silent, my senses realign themselves to the Underworld. A sensation that can't quite be described with humane words. With my head hung low I pull him along with me, now in knee deep petals as I try to figure out where exactly we are.

An aroma comparable to cinnamon and lavender dispersed throughout us as the faint trails of wind become visible along the different variations of seasonal trees. Each and every single one placed with delicate care, altered ripe to a divine artist's appeal and flourishing with nutrients.

'It's happening' My head responds to his faint breaths as his grip grows weaker by the passing second.

I distract myself every now and again with the replication of a simple bird, tweeting to each other in the form of glowing shapes. And just beneath each tree I can see exactly 6 narcissus surrounding each one, all swaying through the artificial wind produced in none other than Persephone's garden.

'He's dying' The thought crosses my head again, whether it be out of guilt or relief...I'm unsure.

We trod through all the flowers, feeling my energy leave me as they get thicker and harder the further I attempt to strive towards the centre of her garden.

I hold my necklace, hearing it chime out a singular word that connects us both. "Here?" I hear Z ask.

"Garden." I breathe out.

"Soon." He responds.

"Hurry." I ask.

But like an ice pick to my head, I feel a thought rush through me. 'Hurry for what? What's he meant to do for Oracion? He's alread-' his hand slips out of my own as his body makes an audible thud in the flower buds.

"Oracion?" I ask, simply too afraid to turn around.

"Oracion...?" I can practically hear my bones turn in my own body as I fight against my own will to see it with my own two eyes. I'm afraid of this man, more so than I ever have been of someone before him.

'What can't he do?' I think to myself. Deciding to not turn around and instead silently move forward. Forcing my body to move step by step like a concrete statue. And although I supposedly got what I wanted, I can't help but acknowledge how I don't feel a smile upon my face. I don't feel the joy or relief that I thought I would from knowing that creature no longer exists.

It was only when I could see in the far off distance, the man that I had promised my soul to. The body of three, with the consciousness of one. The ones we refer to as the first character of each of their names, Z. Only then do I feel some sort of weight off my heart for what I had just done.

So why is it...why is it that when I raised my hand to wave to him from the distance between us that I feel something fill that same hand. One with a pulse that was far stronger than before and a grip hand that was tighter than before.

"Your blood is running cold." I hear the words dance past the grin of his mouth. "My my, your body's shaking as if you've just been faced with the impossible." He cheerfully glees as I attempt to turn my head to face him. But once again...all I can bring myself to see is his chest, I refuse to see his face...I can't see his face.

"Ho-"

"How am I still alive?" He completes it for me.

"Pers-"

"Persephone's garden was it?"

"You sho-"

"Shouldn't know that name?" He completes it each and every single time, filling it in with answers he himself should be unable to answer but wording it as if he's learning at the same time.

'He shouldn't know it, he can't know it, nobody's ever told him her name.' I continue to think to myself but I can feel the sheer amount of weight of his eyes on me, glaring at me as he tries stepping closer but I step back.

"Of course I would know!" He shouts with happiness.

'He-'

"Can hear you?"

I step back again, "Stop, please stop." I beg of him.

"Give me a face then Mousai." He asks.

"What!?" I shout in confusion.

"Give me. A. Face." He places his hand under my head, forcing me to look up into an endless swirl of nothingness.

But I picture him, the man I had saw all that time before. The one that had returned after the death of Eragon, the face that he was wearing after being told that the root of his problems was himself.

And sure enough he lets me go, his face no longer covered by a cloud of mist as he now stares back at me with glowing eyes and silver hair.

The tension between us shatters as a voice echoes at the edge of my vision..."Truly an anomaly among anomalies...how is it that you're here as well?"

We both look at the woman with crimson hair with spiralling vines connecting to the floor as she tastes a fruit from one of the bearing trees.

The woman who fed the her fellow gods to a flower, all in hopes that it would bloom even more..."Persephone." one of the goddesses of the underworld.