I’m ready. Ready to sacrifice it all in order to capture this Shrine, to get one step closer to my goal. Cy’s Ryoku pool should have filled up exactly according to his mental math. Cy closed his eyes and took in as deep of a shallow breath as the dagger in his heart would allow. He pulled up his Menu.
[?9,290 // ?10,000]
Why didn't it fill? Did I forget to carry the remainder? Ah, hell. Whatever.
Cy walked through the gate. The world around him turned black on the other side, and Cy fell into the vortex void.
[Shrine Rule: The relative importance of your sacrifice will correspond to your Vessel’s power and overall potential.]
Cy crashed down into a sturdy chair. The wind was knocked out of him, but he resisted the urge to gulp down air. Instead, he slowly filled his lungs with air. His heart raced, desperate for oxygen, but he calmed himself down and controlled his breathing. Better have a look around.
He sat in a wooden chair before a long wooden table. To his right was another setup exactly like his, though no one sat in the chair. On his left resided two rows of benches, one staggered behind the other. In front of him sat an ornate wooden desk, raised up higher than all the rest. Its chair was also empty, and bronze judicial scales hung on the wall behind it.
Shackles ensnared Cy's wrists and ankles. They bound him to his chair. A metal restraint, like from a psych ward, wrapped around his temple and pushed it back against the rigid seat back.
This moment brought him right back to the executioner’s stand in Coralhaven. He broke out in a sweat. Feeling claustrophobic, Cy thrashed around to escape.
A Djinn appeared at the judge’s presiding table on high. Cy looked directly into the third eye. Rolls of curled hair flowed off its head like a wig.
?? Cyrus of no Surname, you stand on trial, accused of sacrificing those around you to achieve your own ambitions. ??
‘Stand’ on trial, now that’s a cute—
? Silence! ?
The Djinn slammed his gavel on the desk. Cy averted his gaze.
? ?A jury of your peers have been summoned to judge your misdeeds. ? ?
Four doppelgangers of the Djinn appeared on the stacked benches to Cy’s left side, three on the bottom row, one on the top. Each Djinn’s body trailed off into a tail of smoke.
“But I haven’t sacrificed anyone! I never killed anyone to get ahead in—”
? ? I warned you, silence. ? ?
The Djinn said slowly. A zipper ripped across Cy's lips and sealed them. The judge waved its hand around in the air.
? ? Show him of what he stands accused. ? ?
Another Djinn, another doppelganger, appeared at the stand to the right of Cy. You must be the prosecutor.
All the Djinn's tails trailed off. It seemed like they each terminated in a singular point near the Judge's tail. A fine mist grew from that singularity and filled the courtroom. Cy found himself in the midst of a funhouse maze, where mirrors lined every wall. Haze enveloped it, just like the courtroom.
Another labyrinth. Great.
Cy stood before a mirror. The shackles still trailed around him, and the metal band pressed against his head, but he could walk, so he walked, unsure of what else to do. Everywhere he went, he saw reflections of himself. Looks innocent enough to me.
He wound through the maze for some time until he rounded a corner and met with his first count. A young child hid behind a doorway and peeked into another room in horror. Another child took a stern beating from Patty back at the orphanage. Cy recognized the memory immediately.
I'd done something wrong, but he took the blame. I remember that, but what did I do? And why did he claim credit, so I could still go to school, or something? What was his name again?
“It was his idea to take the blame—and I did that later on for other kids.” It's kind of a rite of passage…
The visions vanished and Cy saw himself, at least his current age, again. So he continued his path until he crossed another vision.
Slightly older than the previous memory's reflection, Cy celebrated with Jules and Jules' parents. Liam threw down a stack of papers on their dining table. Evelyn smiled and admired Cy.
The visions shifted to the orphanage, of a dozen little kids sitting in silence and sadness.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Everyone wants to be adopted…”
Cy walked away. Now he was older, sixteen or seventeen. He played with a wooden crest of the Scholars Guild in his hands. He flipped the crest over to the backside where he’d inscribed the Rune for Alter with a knife. A child approached him, a younger Cy. The teenager got up and walked down a dirt path, hand-in-hand with the boy. A demon approached them and promised the older Cy visions of false power. Without looking back, the older Cy let go of his younger self’s hand and followed the demon.
“I am still on the path to becoming an Alter,” Cy protested. I never abandoned my younger self.
? ? If you never join the Scholars, how are you to become an Alter? ? ?
Cy spun around, but didn't see the Djinn anywhere.
Cy stormed away from the scene and farther into the maze. He stopped when he saw the demon again. He understood who it was, when another version of himself fled Coralhaven on a boat with the monster.
“This was when we left…" The first time.
Cy was tied down to the boat with chains.
? ? You gave up your own freedom to protect your…friend. ? ?
“Am I guilty of supporting and—and of saving my friend?”
He received no reply and wandered again. Next, he saw Jules and Envy in the basement of Pop's inn. This time, they were ensnared in chains. Cy picked up The Painter’s Vessel, his palette. Oh, come on, that's a stretch.
“That was the best route for us, even they agreed! And it made us stronger than we ever thought possible.”
The metal band jerked his head to another mirror, where Cy killed Jules and Envy in all sorts of brutal and novel ways. He tried to look away, but the band wouldn’t give. He shut his eyes.
? ? Why can't you look upon your actions? ? ?
“But, we had to…” Right?
The band released Cy, and he walked around a few more corners to a dead end. Selene sat in a blacked out room. He recognized a few of the security guards from the casino. They beat her and beat her. She never gave in.
“We knew the risks, but we…” Cy trailed off, unable to finish the thought—made a lot of money.
Maybe that’s why she hates me so much. That must have been after the last time I saw her there. Am I—Is this really…
Cy turned around, desperate for a new path, only to find two more dead ends, each with another vision of Selene. Both times, he fought her. Once in Aquilantis, and once in Coralhaven, and both times he spared her life when he had a clean shot. And both times he put his friends in danger.
“I thought murder, not mercy, was a crime?"
Cy wasn’t sure which way was up or down, or left or right in the haze. He staggered through it, eager to find an exit, but the next vision disturbed him the most so far.
The memory was from just a few days ago when he tortured Patty. He looked away, which the metal band, much to his shock, allowed.
“Guilty of that one. I have no defense." No remorse, either.
The band snapped him back around. Cy watched Patricia agonize over her worst memories for several hours. By the end, he nearly hated himself. The Djinn never showed him the ending, when the Script had ended, so the last moments he saw were of her sobbing into the floorboard, pleading for the pain to stop.
Cy himself pleaded for this moment to stop. And then he realized that he was in a similar state to her in that vision. What happened to you, Patty? What memory could have done that to you?
He breathed heavily despite the dagger. The pain and discomfort of it felt good, almost righteous, deserving in its own way.
“Alright. We’re caught up to today. If that’s all you’ve got—”
? ? We are nowhere near finished, Cyrus of no Surname. Behold. ? ?
Cy saw a woman he didn’t immediately recognize. She laid down, wept onto a cold stone floor, and decreed her innocence, over and over. Isolda’s double…
? ? She could have escaped Coralhaven, from its cataclysm. But instead, she was melted to death by the friend you keep saving. ? ?
The smoke and fog around Cy grew denser. I’m not supposed to sacrifice him, like in earlier visions of killing him in training, but now saving him is a bad thing? What is going on?
“I didn’t kill her, that woman,” Cy said flatly. "I didn't put her there, either."
? ? But she was innocent, and you left her to rot in her final moments, though she knew she was exonerated. All for the safety of yourselves. ? ?
“At least she knew she wasn’t crazy. Better than I can say right now."
? ? And you find that merciful? ? ?
Cy waved away the smoke. “What else you got?”
The Djinn laughed. Cy headed back into the maze. He came to a wider area, lined with mirrors all around him that reflected his current self.
Dead children replaced his many reflections in panoramic view. Cy tried to look away from his fellow orphans—children he’d grown up with, some that he’d just recently spoken to and seen in the crowd at his execution—but the metal band forced him to see it all.
“Do you still think Wrath is worth saving?”
Cy shut his eyes finally. The last act of free will I have.
? ? Ah, yes. Turn a blind eye. What is your defense, Cyrus, of— ? ?
“Awful. It’s awful. I’ve seen enough. But… What’s the price of the whole world? All of their lives, too? Is the exchange fair?”
? ? Open your eyes, ye who stand accused! ? ?
Cy obeyed in fear. The children were replaced with the rest of Coralhaven. Crows circled the sky. Vultures circled the ground. Men, women, children, babies…
Patricia. Smitty. Hal. Sal. Evelyn and Liam… A baby girl Cy had never met before.
“That wasn’t me! Why am I on trial for that?” Surely this will end…
One final vision filled the room’s mirrors. At one end sat Envy. At the far other end sat Jules. Both were completely broken down and without support. Cy grew angry, annoyed.
“Everything I do is wrong—I needed to get them to safety!” He looked around the smoke and mirrors to try to find a way out. This trial has run circular. It’s going nowhere.
“I didn’t cause that disaster. Neither did Jules.” He walked out of the room and back into the maze.
? ? Selene took you hostage, you and your…friend, Envy. Is that on Jules, too? ? ?
Cy took a left turn. “I’d say it’s on her. I tried to save her.” He took a right turn.
?? You try to save everyone, don’t you? ? ?
Another right. “What’s wrong with that?” Straight ahead.
? ? Where do the sacrifices end, Cyrus? ? ?
He followed a slight bend to the hallway. “To save the entire world, I’d sacrifice it all.”
Cy ran into a dead end.
Instead of seeing another vision, his current reflection stared back at him. Judgmental son of a bitch. Cy punched and shattered the mirror and found himself in the courtroom again, with a bloodied hand.
? ? The jury will begin their deliberation in but a moment’s time. Please, take your seat. ? ?
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