Chains of Vengeance

Chapter 77: The Blue Chain

Narinder arrived at his cult under the midday sun, but the brightness outside contrasted with the darkness he felt inside. His body moved almost by inertia, walking towards his house without stopping to speak to anyone, without even looking at the cultists who watched him out of the corner of his eye. The tension on his face was evident, but no one dared to question him.

He entered his home and closed the door behind him, as if he wanted to isolate himself from the world. He took Kallamar's ear, that relic that now tied him to a destiny he did not want to face. He sat on his bed, his gaze fixed on the ear, thoughts crossing his mind at full speed. Sweat began to run down his forehead, and his breathing became heavier, more erratic.

As he looked at the ear, the memories of his betrayal and of that fateful day came back with force, like an uncontrollable torrent. "I have to do it," he repeated over and over again, like a mantra, trying to convince himself. His hands shook as he held the relic, and a lump formed in his throat.

He gritted his teeth in rage, trying to justify what he was going to do. "He deserves it... he sealed me in the veil like I was trash..." His words came out in a whisper, barely audible in the solitude of his room, but the weight of those words did not calm him. Deep down, he knew that his own soul was rotten, long before he was sealed.

"Maybe I did deserve to be sealed in the veil..." he thought, while his mind assaulted him with memories of his own cruelty, of the decisions that led him to become what he was. "I am worse than trash... I am death, and I do not deserve to be free," he told himself, while guilt overwhelmed him, as if the weight of his sins crushed him more and more.

Narinder's breathing was quickening, his chest aching and he felt like he couldn't breathe. Every thought was a dagger that cut him deeper, and the pain was unbearable. He knew what he had to do, what he had promised himself he would do, but the reality of what it meant to corrupt that relic was tearing him apart.

"I have to corrupt the relic... I have to seal Kallamar and get my revenge," he repeated desperately to himself, trying to keep control. "I've come too far to turn back now..." But the anguish wouldn't let him. Tears began to well up in his eyes, first slowly, then harder, as the weight of his future actions crushed him completely.

Narinder, the god who had caused so much suffering, now stood on the edge of an emotional abyss, tormented by what he was going to do. He wanted to convince himself that it was necessary, that it was right, but deep down, he knew he was about to commit another cruel act, another that would take him even further away from any possible redemption.

Sunk in his despair, Narinder stood there, Kallamar's ear in his hand, trembling and crying silently.

Narinder's body trembled, but not from the cold. It was the weight of his decisions, of the invisible chains that bound him to his destiny, that made him shudder. He pulled his relic out of his belongings, looking at it carefully. The claw, symbol of his power and his vengeance, shone in the dim light that filtered through the window. He ran his hands over the chains that adorned it, those same chains that had held him for so long, both physically and emotionally.

He looked at the yellow and green chain, and for a moment the memories of his brothers assaulted him. "Is Leshy still terrified in some dark corner of the veil? Is Heket... as stubborn as ever, perhaps still mired in her sadness?" His heart clenched at the thought of them, his brothers of the old faith. They were a part of him, more than he cared to admit, but they were sealed away now, imprisoned in an endless darkness.

He squeezed his eyes shut, as if he could push those thoughts away, but the images were still there, like ghosts that wouldn't leave him alone. He knew what it was like to be sealed, what it meant to be torn from the world and relegated to an existence of nothingness. And above all, he knew that he himself had been the architect of his own fate.