A Hero in the Dark: 2nd Edition

Chapter 95: A Vision Softly Creeping

It's dark. I don't know where I am—in space, a void, a sky without stars? Something like that. But wherever this is, it's familiar somehow, like I know my way around. How odd.

There's nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to feel. I'm alone. It's quiet. I walk around, walk on nothing, not even air; I sift through a blank black void hoping to find something.

It's until a while of hovering through darkness that a chair appears ahead, floating just like I am, and a boy sits in it, a leg crossed over the other, arms over his middle, blond hair, head down. He doesn't look up at me for the longest time, but still, I know who he is. I've seen him before... a long, long, long time ago. "Pittacus?" I ask, trying to sneak a closer glance to see if it's really him; it is. "What're you doing here? Where are we? What's going on?"

"And here you are asking me more questions," he replies, seemingly annoyed or ticked off. "Expecting answers. How resolute of you."

"What?" Is he mad at me?

"I'm disappointed. You betrayed us—Lorien and I. We've given you everything, granted you with ergokinesis, granted you with such rare and divine strength, and still, you abused it."

"I—I didn't mean to..."

"Didn't you?"

His words halt me to my core. He knows. He knows I lied. I take a step back, a careful one, fearing that if I don't, he'll get up to slap me, or worse, to kill me where I stand. "I'm sorry," I say. "I know what I did. I should've never lied to either of you. I don't know why I did. I thought what he was doing was right, but I know now that he wasn't. He never was. I'm sorry." I'm crying, shedding tear after tear even though I try to hold it all in. "You don't know how sorry I am for what I did. I believed in him, but it was the biggest mistake of my life. I could've gotten your people killed. I could've gotten John killed... I know I didn't do the right thing; I know it. I don't know what I can do to prove to you that I changed... because I did."

"How can I trust you now?" he asks, and I swear the question nearly makes me break. I don't dare look up at him. I keep to my knees.

"You don't have to," I say between sniffles. "Just don't be mad. Please. Don't be mad."

"That would require understanding why you did what you did, Emily," Pittacus asserts, "and I do not." He looks down on me with an obvious grudge. "I tell you what. Go to the Loric now and show them your worth, the worth and responsibility you have over this Legacy."

"Of my—"

"Your ergokinesis, yes," he says. "Prove to them you are worthy to wield it."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"That's up to you to decide," he says, "and depending on what you say, what you do, and how you use the ability, I will decide then whether or not to forgive you." I swallow. "Is that clear?"

"What if—" I gulp, sigh. "What if I don't think I'm worthy of it?"

All he does is smile, in that perfect way that John does that uplifts me to the moon. He drops a hand down to my shoulder, walks around to rest the other on my other side, and grips me tightly, like a brother might hold his little sister to protect her from evil. He squeezes my shoulders in an iron grip that instantly reminds me of Setrákus Ra, and as soon as it does, I feel that retching black sludge—burning into my wrists, twisting in my stomach, killing off my Legacies, rotting away my core... destroying me in full. I grit my teeth, try not to scream, but scream regardless.

I squirm in his hold, but Pittacus' hold is firm. I don't think he knows what he's doing; I don't even know if he's doing it at all or if it's my own warped memories.