Tidal Florette - A Painted Soul I

Favian - 44

Abba... Papa... I'm so sorry I can't finish it... I want to trust them... I want to trust Yumi... You'd like her, Abba, she's always putting things through a humorous lens like you did... but, I think she's hiding so much... so much I can't see, but you could have gotten through... You could have helped her, made sure she was ready to finish the cure... She might even impress Papa, she seems so determined with everything she does, I don't know if she ever gives up...

I feel like giving up... Not that I have much choice

Favian understands the divine cell has made the short amount of actual time he's been in the dark since Warden Lykke left feel like months have passed. He knows the burn on his chest is still fresh. He knows he should be screaming from the pain, but he ran out of screams weeks ago. If there was a point where he hoped someone would take him to a normal cell or treat his wound? That hope had faded long ago.

What if she already let it go? I know she had things she needed to do and I didn't want to acknowledge that... Wait... no, it's not been that long... I forgot again... They might be coming to help me right now... her and Sapha... They'd try to save me, right? Well... I don't know why they would... what am I good for anyway?... Yumi shouldn't have been pulled into all of this after what happened to her home.... Sapha couldn't actually care about saving me....

Oh... I forgot again... They were gone... they already left...

I pushed her too far... Sapha warned us we were rushing her... But there wasn't time... This was inevitable... the temple is everywhere and for whatever reason they don't want the moonlit cured...

That's why they killed you, Abba... Papa... They're never going to listen... never going to stop and remember there was a time before all this where they would have cared... What turned them into this? What would make them think the moonlit want to take over? We were just trying to survive... trying to find a way to join mortal society... trying to find a way to go back home... I guess... it wouldn't be my home... Nowhere really is at this point... I don't understand what happened with Nightfall, but it couldn't have been an invasion... I don't know who would have wanted that...

My fathers... they couldn't hurt anyone... They died... trying to make everything right...

And now I'm about to follow them...

"It's all a lie."

Favian is startled so much he nearly jostles the chair into falling over. The cell is too dark to see anything, but he could have sworn he'd heard his father's voice. "Abba? Are you there?"

He feels the familiar, carefully examining gaze of his Papa. "Think child, search your mind. What is the truth of Nightfall?"

"The truth? The goddess Aruna invaded the realm because the Ignited Temple was growing too strong? The night cults were scarce and vulnerable... She didn't anticipate Aelionos cursing the nightfolk."

His Abba's voice whips through his mind. "We would devote our entire being to Lady Aruna. Our bodies, our minds, our lives. If she ordered us to invade we'd suffer the curse as she ordered. But is that what happened?"

"No... you retreated underground... everyone who could make it to the depths before the madness took them hid away..."

"And yet we raised you to believe those things, just as the mortalfolk believe. Why?"

A tear rolls down Favian's cheek as he realizes how much he's missed his fathers. "If those beliefs are false... then who benefited most from people believing them?"

He can feel their patient presence. "Aelionos? Aelionos did all of this... What happened to Aruna? The elder gods?"

The heat of frustration swirls around him. "The cure was only the beginning. This is not your end..."

Suddenly the presence vanishes. The cell is empty once more. Favian's chest aches from straining to speak, but his mind is racing on other things.

If it's all a lie... there may be so much the temple knows about the truth... or even worse they may know nothing at all... but this makes so much sense, if something happened to Aruna and the elders then that would explain why Aruna herself didn't lead an invasion... It would explain the secrecy and aggressively controlling behavior of the temple... And it would certainly explain why the moonlit took me in... But if a cure is not the end, what is next? Someone must have the answers...

You won't have the time to find them... Not unless they save you...

But you're not worth starting a war... Yumi's gone anyway... You failed...

It's all over... I'm sorry Abba... Papa... At least you might be proud that they caught me because I couldn't help myself... Couldn't resist the chance to flip through some weird books...

A smile tugs at his mouth and he can't help but laugh. Even though the pain from the brand on his chest makes him tremble, he can't stop laughing.