Chains of Vengeance

Chapter 25: Talk with Silence

Narinder slept for the next three hours, his mind lost in a dreamless void. It was the crowing of a rooster that awakened him, just as it always did. As he stretched, a smile formed on his face. It was curious how much he cherished the tranquil routine he had built. The serenity of having a planned day, a structure... something Narinder deeply appreciated after centuries of being chained.

Patiently brushing his fur, he stepped out of his house. He still had the Lamb on his mind, but far from bothering him, that image brought a strange sense of peace. His thoughts then drifted to one of the Lamb's allies: an ant who had given him several talismans and with whom he had shared adventures. Without informing anyone, he decided to leave the cult and teleported to a place he had seen through the Red Crown: the "Spore Grotto."

It was a location near Anura, with a constant autumn atmosphere and air thick with humidity. Leaves fell gently around the inhabitants of the grotto, who were mushroom people, small creatures darting back and forth. Narinder completely ignored them, his gaze fixed on his target: Sozo, the leader of that small community. He had come seeking a conversation, but what he found left him stunned.

There was Sozo, his body motionless on the ground, the signs of life already absent. Time had taken its toll. At first, Narinder was not overly surprised, but he felt discouragement swell within him. Not because of Sozo himself, but because all the plans he had in mind were crumbling in that moment. The weight of reality felt more evident than ever. He simply sat next to the lifeless body of the little mushroom leader, letting out a deep sigh as he began to speak.

—"You know, I think without realizing it, the Lamb mattered to me more than I expected,"— Narinder said softly, almost as if talking to himself. Sozo, of course, did not answer. It was a dialogue with silence. Narinder wasn't expecting a response, yet his words floated in the air, laden with subtle sadness.

He looked up at the ceiling of the grotto, contemplating the spores lazily floating in the air. —"I'm not sure what I feel... maybe I idealize the Lamb more than what he actually did. He freed me from my prison, and that certainly makes him important to me. But... I don't know."

As he spoke, Narinder began to rummage through Sozo's pockets, taking the gold coins he found as if it were the most natural thing in the world, an act that brought him no remorse.

—"I thought about bringing his body back..."— he continued, examining one of the coins. He turned it in his fingers before putting it away—. "But the truth is, I don't even know what I was going to do with him. Not even a week has passed since I was freed, and yet... these days have felt so long."

With an almost casual gesture, he tore off the large mushroom that adorned Sozo's head. He didn't even care about the fate of Sozo's body.

Sozo had been a figure in the Lamb's life, but for Narinder, he was merely a means to an end, an opportunity now fading before his eyes.

—"It's funny, you know?"— Narinder continued, leaning his back against the damp wall of the grotto, allowing the cold to seep through his skin—. "These days have been so intense, so full of emotions, that the millennium I spent in the Veil feels... less important, as if it were a long, distant dream."

The silence of the grotto was almost overwhelming. The spores continued to float, and Narinder realized that he truly no longer understood the passage of time. Everything had been different since the Lamb freed him. Freedom, so longed for, so painfully attained, now felt like a strange burden, a freedom that came with its own shackles.

—"What bothers me the most..."— he whispered, looking at the mushroom he now held in his hands— "is that I didn't realize sooner what the Lamb really meant to me. He was not just my liberator; he was... something more. An opportunity I never seized. I could have taught him so much. I could have talked with him, learned from his perspective of the world. But I was so focused on regaining the freedom that was taken from me that... I let him go."

Narinder squeezed the mushroom, not with fury, but with resignation. He remembered all the times he had seen the Lamb on their expeditions, facing enemies, fighting with a tenacity that even he, the god of death, admired. He had seen how the Lamb gained power, but also how he forged bonds with those who joined him. That kind of leadership, one not based solely on fear but also on sincere devotion, was something Narinder had never fully understood.

—"The Lamb... he... didn't just obey my will. He had his own fire, a fury that I never fully understood. His thirst for blood in battle was... fascinating. I blush to think about it,"— he admitted quietly, to no one. Narinder had always enjoyed violence, the brutality of battles. But in the Lamb, there was something different, something that blended that thirst with a greater cause, something that, in the end, made him much more than just a pawn on his board.

Narinder's eyes darkened slightly as he recalled those moments, the way the Lamb moved, relentless, mercilessly bringing down his enemies. And now, that fury, that power, and that body were lost in the Veil. Like so many other things Narinder desired, out of reach.

—"Not even a week has passed,"— he repeated, whispering into the void— "but I already feel... so alone. As if the weight of everything I lost were returning to me. My divinity... the twins... the Lamb. Everything they sacrificed for me, and here I am. Free, but still chained to everything I lost."

He huddled a little closer to Sozo's cold body, letting the humid air wrap around him. His mind wandered through those memories that, now he saw, had shaped him more than he was willing to admit. He was free, yes, but sometimes freedom was nothing more than another way to imprison oneself in the ghosts of the past.

Finally, Narinder stood up. There was nothing more to say. Sozo's body was merely a symbol, another reminder of how ephemeral life was. As he walked toward the exit of the grotto, he thought of his brothers, of the prison where they had once locked him away.

—"If it were up to me, I would lock them away too, in the same place they left me,"— he murmured, a bitter half-smile on his face.

But he knew that even if he did, it wouldn't be enough. The weight of everything that had happened, the losses and the decisions that had brought him here, lingered with him. With one last sigh, Narinder adjusted his clothes, and with a snap of his fingers, he vanished in a flash of red light.