Oracion's POV

I found myself being able to sleep almost peacefully for the first time in a while, a thought that didn't last long however as my dreams began getting invaded. "What was that figure I saw back at the castle?" Eragon's full bodied form speaks to me.

I don't respond.

He laughs, sitting back upon his blood crafted throne, "I can tell by your facial expression you're tired of seeing me everywhere you go, but I'm not the one who said to drink the blood from my dying body...was it that figure that told you to?" He asks.

"No." I answer.

He hums a bit as if thinking, "Was it instincts? Some sort of animalistic nature within you that made you think it was all for survival?" He questions again.

"I don't know." I answer.

"So what do you know Oracion? Because the truth is, I haven't left that castle in decades. But here I am now, granted the grace of being able to live within your body, watching your life through your eyes and being one with the blood that powers all those individual muscles as you brutalise your way through life."

"So?" I ask.

"So when you're alone, remember I'm here, always here...watching that loneliness creep upon you. Watching the discoveries you make along the way, watching you force yourself because you actually have something to live for." He laughs briefly before continuing with a sudden tension in his voice. "I'll be there for when you truly discover what mistake you've made by ingesting my blood. Much like your friend in the other room just has." He smirks, using a white cloth to wipe away blood that drips from his mouth.

My eyes try to open but my efforts are met by Eragon's soft sounds of laughter, "Rushing to him are we?" He asks.

"Eragon." I command.

He kicks off his throne, destroying it entirely into a blood splatter and walking up to me with a hasty approach. "No, you don't fucking understand that the only reason why you see me as the villain is because you saw I no longer had anything to lose. That is the only difference between us Oracion, fucking remember that while you continue waking up each day thinking you're doing something for good and not just your own selfish goals."

He spits in my eye, "You murdered Clementine"

He pushes me to the floor, "You killed Noah."

"And you feel...nothing. Felt like a true fucking vampire."

I open my mouth, "She used me-"

"THEY ALL USED YOU! THEY'RE STILL USING YOU!" He screams blood across my face as his figure turns distorted and stretched. "Name a singular thing they've done for you." He asks.

I look away from him, unable to answer. Hearing him kiss his teeth before grabbing hold of my arm and raising me to my feet. "Tss" Clicking his fingers and forcing me awake. "Good luck." I hear him whisper through the transition.

I ping my eyes open, smelling the scent of thick blood. Rising to my feet with haste but stopping when I bump into an odd coloured Will-o from the festival beginning, it's sparkles twirling around me as I prepare for the embodiment of positivity. "Hmmm...you." A deep rumble growls through the bubble, setting me back a bit as I look around for the source of the voice.

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Another one raises from the floor rather than descending from the mo-it's a solid ceiling, the will-o's can't get in. I reach my finger out to pop another, "So what's-"

"ORACION!" Mousai slides in through the door, narrowly avoiding the orbs as she grabs my finger. "They're...stomach bubbles...from the Apparatus, the festival's begun and all the Sene are rushing to the exit but we need to go."

She pulls me with worry as we go past Ira's door with blood stains spread inside the room, "Wait." I pull away from her, pushing the door open and seeing the gore house that became of the small space.

"The Sene on first glance don't have blood or organs as they have those phantom limbs to move around with. But the inside of their shells are where their blood and organs lay...their human organs." She explains.

"Wh-"

"They were children Oracion, he pulled their eyes out and broke open their shells with rocks." She continues to pull me as I try to process all the information.

She covers Eragon's head, tying it to my side before continuing to drag me to the entrance of the library where Ira stands, wiping the blood away from his mouth. "Ir-" I go to ask but Mousai grabs both our hands and looks forward with determination.

"What are we doing!?" He shouts suddenly.

"THE FUCKING CEILING OPENS!" Mousai panics as the giant stone ceiling above us begins to slide open, creaking in more moonlight by the second. "WE'RE JUMPING!" She screams, trying to time the clock hands spinning past us even more erratically than before.

The whispers, the singing, the chanting...all of it fills the air as the Sene sing for their wishes from the sides in the walls and from the land above. They're all calling to her, the Moon Goddess."

Just as we jump, a slither of moonlight lands upon her skin, causing the moon to screech out as the once pale light turns blood red. Audibly releasing what sounds like a stone organ being torn open, looking up to see a gold pupil from the moon staring back down to us.

We land on the platform, now spinning indefinitely as we panic where to go next. "UP!?" I yell over the moon's desperate howls.

"DOWN!" Ira shouts over as well but the idea makes me look down directly, noticing the darkness itself beginning to twist as if whatever's down there is awakening. Even so, he pulls me and Mousai along.

Just as we reach the spiralling pillar downwards, the moon's screeching suddenly becomes louder as the Apparatus bellows in response to it as if they're both singing to each other now. I try to grab Mousai as she covers her ears in pain but she flicks my hand away with ease.

"Mousai!?" I shout, trying to get her back but she steps away from me, facing downward as her ears begin to bleed onto the ground.

She looks up slowly, her eyes a pure swirling gold as she looks between us two with the word, "Sorry" written all across her face.

I immediately let her go as I run towards Ira, covering his ears with my hands but whether not it'll do any good is up to fate as Mousai's hair begins to ravel and extend outward. The world suddenly becoming deprived of oxygen and stealing the voices of the entire world below...all for her to release her next few words. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" her words as inelegant as can be.

The sheer pressure from her voice causing the ancient designs to crumble piece by piece, the books, the Sene, the very pillar within the centre now collapsing down into the Apparatus with us inside of it but not a single sound can be made. There were no screams, no crumbles, no whispers, not even the breaths of life could be heard as the world remained deafened.

I reach for Mousai as her eyes close from the clear strain that put upon her, extending my other hand to Ira. Falling helplessly is all we can do now as we each close our eyes. My skin feeling as if a thousand hairs are running across it, digging under my skin and marking my bones as its own.

Pain

Pain

Pain

That's all that can be felt as not even a scream would help in this moment.

Even amongst the dark and writhing pain however, I can make out a figure. Something no bigger than a teenager, walking towards me over the valley of shadow. Their finger glows as they begin to erratically write in the empty space with a white colour, 'This won't kill me, for we can no longer die. Find one of us again if you wish to learn, as it befalls me to lie.'