The world is not what you think. Love isn't what it seems to be. Life is a cycle of magic. And Scarlet is the girl who has that magic. Once they called her a halfling, an aberration that shouldn't have existed but now others say she's special.
In a...
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"A man's true heart is shown in the hardest of times," she spoke her wisdom that condemned me with every step we took toward the training grounds. A criminal and a true persecutor.
I knew why she was leading me there, to the place he spent his time lately.
"You must do it, Lucas. You must be the one to mediate. Find the strength in yourself and be the man you're supposed to be."
Once Oracle had shined like a guiding lighthouse at the edge of a cliff and I'd pined for that land's reprieve, for that shelter from the sea of grief and heartbreak. Now, she was still the same, only she wouldn't send me to safety; this time she would crash me into the rocks to my very end.
Having sought me out to feed me her poisonous reason, a vision she claimed to have seen months ago and one I cared not a whit about with that dying heart of mine, she was trying to make me admit and bend to her venerable stature for the last time. For the first time, she was trying to have me forgo everything I held precious in my life, even that very life.
"Be the person you should," she went on, urging, commanding me to showcase that person-hood I wasn't even convinced I had in me to manifest.
More bitterness added to my torment as I recalled the part she said I had to play.
I wasn't a man possessed by his own greed, not at all, but what she was imploring of me this time exceeded all of her previous entreats.
Was I even capable of quitting my own life? Was it even humanly possible to do it?
Faltering several yards from the training field, her feet shuffled her in front of me as she whirled her body to face me. Her small, frail hand flew to mine, encasing it within hers, clutching it in a tight, desperate grasp.
Her sightless eyes met mine, pale blue boring at my insolent spirit and giving the impression they could see it all, both the outside and the inside.
"You have a different future, Lucas, and it's not to remain by her side but much greater," she chanted the words like they were some kind of vocal gift she was bestowing or maybe a secret that mustn't have been revealed but she was unveiling it nonetheless.
For my benefit and hers.
Jaw clenching, "You don't have the right to ask this of me, Oracle," I clipped out, her fortified reason weighing on my conscience as I did refuse her request. "You know what's in my heart and you just go on and demand I be your martyr!"
It was the first time I'd ever wanted to hit a woman, the first time I'd rebelled against Oracle too, but how could I not when she never stopped a moment to consider me? How could I just yield my future because of her or her Goddess' caprice? Even if it was so others would live, even if it was so the woman I loved would be loved, I couldn't do it. I was not ready to... disappear.
