Concerns

Berion sat on top of a tower, his feet dangling from the wall as he was looking down the mountain side. The lights from the town at the base of the mountain were bright, the celebration was in full swing. Even from this far away, he could feel the ripples across the Space as so many people moved around. Everyone who lived there was someone that was saved by the Unchained, who had been a victim of the world. Those who had been oppressed, pushed down by the tyrants of the world, the slaves, the beggars, the abandoned.

They were in mourning. One of theirs had fallen. Maya was dead, and Berion didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know how she died, what happened at all. But she had missed her check in, there had been no signs of her. They had sent scouts out, and discovered a site of a great battle. Evidence that made it certain that Maya was dead. Their lead scout had an ideal that allowed them to recreate the past, see the images of it.

Berion had watched Maya’s last days. The return of the ideal wasn’t complete, the power of whoever it was that got to Maya was too much for it. All that they had seen was Maya, and the last days of torture that she went through, her torturer was only a hazy blur in the recording, barely seen. But their actions were clear.

Berion closed his fist, tightening it slowly until his nails started biting into his skin. Just before he pushed them through the skin, he pulled back, mastering himself and forcing calm over his mind.

They had lost people before, their cause was one that forced them on a road filled with dangers. And yet, somehow, it always came as a shock. What happened to Maya… with all the power that she had gained, the gifts that the yeti had given her, none of that had mattered in the end.

There was always someone stronger.

Berion didn’t join the vigil in the base town with the others, instead he remained in the fort on top of the mountain. He felt… responsible, but also very much conflicted. So much death over the years, and for what? They had barely changed anything. Tyrants had died, and new ones had taken their place. But they were all just so insignificant. Kael wanted to do so much damage that whatever the plan the forces behind the Framework had got thrown fully off course. To demolish the systems that held an iron grip on the people living in this world. To bring about chaos, through which people could thrive and grow in power. A bloodbath that would kill many, but give the survivors something that very few were able to achieve now.

Once, he had believed in that vision wholeheartedly. He was angry at the world, angry at the people who had enslaved him and twisted him so that he never knew anything but being a slave, angry that no one had ever tried to help him. Until Kael.

He would close his eyes and dream that every slave was set free. Dream of killing every slaver in the Great Empire, his hands crushing their skulls until their gore spilled through his fingers. Bad dreams. Death and blood had never felt right to him, he had worked hard to push those thoughts down. To try and not be the same monster as those that he had known in his life.

And now… now he was older. He had seen so much, and sometimes he wondered, what truly had they changed. Sometimes, it felt like the only thing they had succeeded in accomplishing was spreading more death. He knew, he knew that they would have to do more still, that more people would die, but at the end they would…

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A new world, built from the ashes of this one. This one that they hated so much. And yet, the words that Zacharia, the Warden, had spoken, made Berion’s mind filled with doubts.

His sense focused on a dark spot in his perception. A square area that he couldn’t feel anything from, cut off from Space, protected and warded. If he pushed, he could break through, he could see what was happening inside. But no matter how it twisted him inside, he hadn’t done it since that first day. It was a mistake, what he felt, what he heard was… There were things that Berion considered evil, and the yeti, the things that he did to gain more power, to understand and learn, they were monstrous.

Kael was willing to pay any price to strike back at those who had done horrible things, who oppressed and carelessly murdered. And the more time passed, the more Berion doubted.

Yet, he had a life debt toward Kael. He had set him free, taught him everything that he knew, taught him what life was meant to be. He had shared his dream with Berion, showed him through his Qi and technique a world filled with Tranquility, free of monsters, of pain, of struggle. It was such a beautiful place, an ideal that Berion wished to be true with all of his heart.

They had done good, he knew that. The Dome had caused a lot of death, but the Great Empire had fallen. The slavers that had held millions in bondage were no more, the chains were broken, freedom had come for some, and relief of death to others. But…

It was easy to continue, to follow in the same way he always had.

If he ignored everything, he could still believe that he was fighting for that dream. But if he just opened his eyes, he saw the things like the yeti’s workshop. Horrors and pain.

He raised his hands and carved runes in the air in front of him. Practicing. Runecraft came easily to him, he was better at it than the others. He understood it, knew how to best use it to augment his power. The yeti had taught them much for the services they had provided, he had given the others gifts that Berion had refused, but knowledge alone he had taken. It felt wrong somehow to deny knowledge. It wasn’t evil on its own.

Others had taken yeti’s gifts, the weapons and armor, and they relished in the power it gave them. And the worst part of it was that Ra’azel had kept his side of the bargain. He had given them power, and now he had even improved on it, just days after they learned of Maya’s death, the yeti had finished upgrading all of their gifts. Even Berion was terrified of the things he had seen Kael able to do now. Ra’azel had a grip on them all now.

Berion didn’t know what to do, he saw his friends walking step by step into the darkness, searching for the light at the end of it, and he feared that they would never come out. Zacharia’s words echoed in Berion’s head; everyone deserved a second chance, an opportunity to redeem themselves, to make a different choice.

Sometimes, he wished that they could turn away, that they could abandon their pain and focus on building something for themselves instead of tearing everything else down. But their pain was deep, it was part of their Souls.

He carved runes, using them to twist the Space alongside his own power. He listened in to the conversations down below, of ordinary people in their homes and those that walked the streets, that sat on benches or gazed at the stars. So few of their conversations were focused on what Kael and the rest were doing out there. They worried about their lives, about their families. They wanted what everyone wanted, happiness, safety, purpose.

They were here because they had nowhere else to go, because they had no chance in the life out there. Because they had been abused, because the Unchained had saved them. They felt obligated to help. It was wrong, they shouldn’t be here at all.

They were at the mercy of those stronger than them, again, only this time they their masters cared about them.

Berion closed his eyes, and thought about what the Warden had told him; about teaching others to be better.