Sokar sits quietly in his apartment 6 hours after he killed Felix, staring at the knife on his table with a blank look on his face.
…Why, why did I bring this thing with me? I should have just left it there. I killed him, I had no choice but to, right!? It was to protect myself. No, not just myself, others too! If I didn’t do that then he would have killed more people, what I did was the right thing. But... I could have turned him into the authorities, couldn’t I have? No, if I did what if he transformed into that monster again and killed the authorities, or what if he came after me afterwards? Innocent people would have died because of my mistake. And even if he couldn’t, he had to have been working with other people. He knew too much and was talking about whatever that new god is, he had to have more people with him, they would have broken him out. Killing him was not the wrong choice, it was the only option I had. I didn’t… I didn’t do anything wrong, anybody else in this situation would have made the same choice.
Sokar slowly begins to move his hand towards the knife.
I just need to get rid of this, once I get rid of it everything will go back to normal…
“You’re putting out a vile aura, your very presence taints and pollutes the essence of those around you.”
Felix’s words from just a few hours ago once again ring in Sokars head.
No… Even if I did completely erase everything, even if I did that it wouldn’t matter. There are more people out there with an ability to see essence like him i’m sure. And if there are then, then..! They’ll continue to try and destroy the life I love so much. Damnit... DAMNIT!
Sokar bangs his fists on the table in front of him in a fit of rage, and lowers his head down.
If he didn’t come here that day, if he didn’t bring that stupid jade here then none of this would have happened, my life would have continued on unchanged. It’s all his fault!
The boys face of horror and shock as the claw pierced his back flashes in Sokars mind, his face filled with anger quickly changes to grief.
No. I’m just making excuses, aren’t I? I murdered, killed somebody out of self preservation and all I’m doing is trying to find somebody to blame for my own faults. I’m just running away from reality. I killed somebody… This entire time I’ve been worried about whether it was the right or wrong thing to do, but I’ve blinded myself and kept ignorant to the glaring fact in front of me, I took everything from him. His future, his relationships, his passion, everything he will be, everything he was. All of it was wiped away by my hand.
As Sokar laments over his choice alone, Oswin sits on his throne listening intently to a young woman speaking to him.
“You know, it’s been a long time since we found an extreme essence, and Felix left before giving us any info on where he found it. We’re gonna have to find out when he gets back after dealing with the pollution. Speaking of which, what do you think caused it this time? I’m gonna guess one of the fallen was up to something again.”
Oswin looks down at her and waits a moment before speaking, his entire body giving off a royal feel, one of superiority.
“I can’t agree with you here. The fallen have never shown the ability to sever heavens thread, and yet Felix said whatever source he was following did. I think it’s something unique, singular. Of course it is possible a new fallen has appeared that has the ability to sever heavens thread, but I don’t believe it will be a fallen.”
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As Oswin speaks a gate appears out of thin air next to the woman, and a man carrying a body on his shoulders walks out of it. As he walks through it, the gate disappears and the man drops the body on the floor.
“Lord Oswin, I apologize for intruding, but...”
As the man speaks he points down at the body.
Oswins stares at the body for a moment with a cold gaze, and the corners of his lips move into a smirk.
“Felix.. You poor fool. I can’t believe you. You were so engrossed with me and my cause, you truly believed in me and saw me as a star, lighting up the eternal night that was your pitiful life. Yet you’ve burned out so quickly. But, maybe this is for the best. You were a sinner Felix let’s face it, you killed innocent girls who were of inefficient quality. I suppose it may be my fault, you compared them all to me and in your eyes they were just specks of dirt that didn’t belong in my presence. Ah Felix, poor poor Felix.”
Oswin shakes his head and the man who appeared from the gate with Felix’s body begins to talk.
“What should we do? He wasn’t much of a loss, but he was still one of us, and they also took his blessing.”
“Hmm... what to do indeed. Do I send one of the seraphims? No, this is too small of a matter for them to deal with. Ah! Call Abbadon and tell him to bring his protege.”
The man opens up another gate and walks through it, just leaving the body of Felix on the ground.
“Hmm. That’s an eyesore, would you get rid of it Cassiel?”
“Yes, Lord Oswin.”
The woman grabs the body and leaves the room, leaving Oswin to himself. After a little while another gate opens up, this time 3 men walking out of it. Of the three men, one dwarfs the other two, his height almost doubling theirs.
"Ah, Abbadon! Must I call upon you in order to see your wretched face? It's been months!"
Oswin looks towards the large man with a playful look in his eyes.
“Lord Oswin, Declan is willing to follow any orders you will have. If you need me to fight come get me, if not don’t bother me again”
The large man walks back through the gate not giving Oswin a moment to reply.
“Hmph. Well, Declan I have a job for you. One of us has been slain by an outside force and it’s your job to find whoever is responsible and deliver divine punishment. I trust you won’t disappoint me”
“Yes! Oswin!”
Oswins eye twitches as Declan calls him by his first name with no honorific.
“Yes... Well be off then. Ask somebody else to fill you in on the situation.”
As Oswin orders Declan to hunt down the man who killed Felix, Sokar still questions his choices from yesterday, looking at the knife he holds in his hands.
I can’t take away the fact that I killed him. It’s not something that’ll ever go away. It’s permanent, an uncleanable stain on my hands. I don’t want to forget either. I need to remember this forever, I need to remember that this feeling is disgusting, that it encapsulates what’s wrong with killing someone. I don’t want to kill someone again but if I ever have to again, then at the very least I want to feel this feeling again. I don’t want to become numb to the death of people by my hand.
Sokar closes his eyes and slowly remembers what happened yesterday in his mind.
Yesterday after the fight, when I grabbed that cross, runes flew into my chest and my Ka underwent an explosive growth. I wonder, just how much has it increased by? I’ll use the First Day to test just how much it’s increased by. Unlike Greed it has an actual cap on how much Ka I can funnel into it.
Sokar begins to focus all of his Ka into the Eye of Ra on his right hand. One ball of light forms and explodes, then a second forms and explodes. Finally, a third ball of light forms and explodes in a burst, using up all of the remaining Ka.
So its increased by half of the original amount. It doesn’t seem like that much, but the increase has changed my options dramatically. Yesterday, I focused all of my Ka into one hand of Greed, but that’s not smart. If there were more than one of them, or if he could have resisted the pressure Greed had on him then I would have been completely out of options. If there are going to be more people like this I have to figure out how to use this ability optimally, all I used yesterday was brute force.
Sokar opens up his eyes and stares at the knife in his hands, tracing the edge with his finger.
This’ll be a memento, something I keep close to me at all times to remind me of what I’ve done. Yesterday I made a choice that there’s no coming back from. The only thing I can do now is move forwards.
Sokar recalls the day his friend died and he received the jade.
I’ve been completely engrossed in myself, terrified that something bad would happen to me, and even blaming somebody who died looking to me for help. I didn’t deserve that level of trust he had for me… I’m the worst. Seeing death after a life of normality... I didn't have time to swallow it. One thing after another, I just can't deal with it.
A tear falls down Sokar's cheek. He finally breaks down from the built up stress, and suffers through the night realizing the severity of everything that's happened to him.