The Heir Of Ice And Dusk

Where I find a creepy old diary

I was led into an empty room, and then a guard locked the door behind me.

The only thing I could see was red wallpaper with a pattern of little stylized dragons and black flowers, irises maybe, but I had no doubt the trial wouldn't be easy.

But I had gone through a mind-altering and disturbing situation to get the Everto Stone the first time, and, after I failed everyone, I would stop at nothing the second time.

The door opened, and a knight I'd never spoken to entered. I'd seen him often, as Nia's second-in-command. He had a needle in his hand, and I didn't like the look of it.

"To be trusted with something like the Cubic Stone, you have to go deeper in your understanding of yourself," he said. "If this doesn't drive you mad, nothing probably will."

I didn't like the explanation, nor his cold tone. Besides, it sounded as if I was about to get more of the same treatment I got the last time.

"Did the Tamed Lion tell you how the Stone was found in the story?" the knight, who looked closer to a thug, asked.

I shook my head, unable to say anything from the moment my eyes laid on the long needle.

"They went back to the source of all things," he said, with sick satisfaction. "Maybe your name will prove your worth. What we need for a quest such as this is a holy fool."

"I'm young and barely experienced," I only managed to get out. "I am not... the holy fool you say by any means."

"In desperate times, every idea counts. Besides, many heroes of old were nothing but teenagers."

Then, he jabbed the needle into my neck.

I'd like to say that, after the piercing pain right under my jaw, I woke up to find the knight had left the room. But the truth was that I was not in the room anymore.

I heard Edgar's voice calling me. I thought it was probably the same old vision of the scaly monster I had to kill, the one with Edgar's face. And now that I knew about his destiny, I had an inkling as to what it meant.

But it had never spoken before.

The voice said, "Do you love me, Ryan?"

I didn't know why it was playing tricks on me. I was reminded of Ohda's words. I'd never even spared a single thought towards Edgar as more than a friend. Everything was too complicated. I didn't trust myself to give myself to anybody. I didn't trust anyone else to accept me as a burden, as I often was a weight pulling them down for my family since I was a child.

"I don't know in which way I love you," I replied. "But I certainly do."

"And do you think I love you?" his voice was a little mocking now, in a way I'd never heard it before.

"I don't care. I know that to some extent, you must. And I can settle for love, however small its percentage might be."

"Then..." the voice sounded puzzled now. "Why are you killing me?"

The scene changed, and it was a blurry kaleidoscope, and then the million little eyes I'd seen the time Mister Autumn drugged me. And then I woke up.

I wasn't in the empty room anymore, but on a bed, and, judging from what the hushed voices were saying outside my bedroom, I realised I must have won the Cubic Stone. I felt a little unworthy. I hadn't done anything but confuse my feelings and feel freaked out --- a lot.

After a while, Edgar opened the door and came inside. I tried not to look at him differently.

"You don't look too well," he said. I noticed Nia was at his side.