The Power of Revelation: The Truth Shall Set You Free

Chapter 31: Never saw nothing

The darkness was suffocating.

Ajax had realized that when he was forced to sleep on the couch, instead of in his room with his younger siblings. Left to his own thoughts without any distractions, without any peace, with all the voices in his head-

The boy whimpered silently, and curled in on himself. He couldn't make a sound, or the monsters will find him. If they found him, he was dead, so very dead, Ajax didn't want to die, Ajax wanted to go home, he wanted to see his family again-

Ajax clenched his hand, so out of it that he was completely unaware that he was gripping his own arm, and he nearly shrieked when he felt something constricting his arm. Tumbling off the couch in his panic, tangling himself in his suffocating blankets as he crashed into the ground, the teen tried his best to control his breathing as he snapped to attention.

The floor was cold, so cold, and young Snezhnayan pushed himself up, massaging his bruised elbow from his unfortunate tumble, and crawled back onto the couch. Pulling the blankets around his small, shaking form, Ajax tried his best to lull himself to sleep.

Keqing didn't know what to think. She knew that she should hate the Harbinger; heck, he had nearly drowned her home. But knowing that Tartaglia was so young, heck, he was probably younger than all the scholars in the Sumeru Akademia, and that he had most likely been tossed into the Fatui before he was barely a teenager...

Somehow, it put a bad taste in her mouth; she wanted to shove her lightning stiletto into every single high ranking Fatui officer who wasn't called Tartaglia, Childe or Ajax.

Days passed, and the boy went about his days, helping his mother around the house. but not being able to fight, to kill things, was harder than he had thought. His body twitched from the excess energy, every small noise setting him off. Darkness seemed to cling to him like a phantom, following him around, tainting everything he touched.

It was almost like his family could sense the corruption festering in his heart, as his older siblings frowned and looked at him with concern as they tried to talk to him, and his father actively tried to keep Anthon and Tonia from interacting with him, though that did nothing to stop the younger children from wanting to play with Ajax.

All the while, the Abyss ate away at his soul, greedily consuming the negativity within him like a delicacy.

Ajax tried, really tried to control himself, to push down and contain his manic energy. If he could just grab those miasmic whisps that wafted off him and throttle them, he'd very much love to learn how to do so.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Xiao let out an audible snort.

The idea that this tiny mortal wanted to choke the Abyssal taint out of himself was very amusing indeed, and if he did learn how to do so, the Adeptus would like to see it. He wasn't fond of Tartaglia, by any means, but if he was going to be so clingy with his lord, the less Abyssal taint on him, the better.

But how could he fight something so... intangible? It was like fighting with his own emotions, with himself; ultimately, it did nothing but give him pain and suffering. Ajax would rather punch his way out of his problems, since he clearly didn't know anything else.

Then one day, out of the blue, as Ajax swept under the couch to clean up any dust, a knock on the door rang out.

"Ah, coming!" His mother called out, untying her apron and opening the door, revealing a Fatui soldier. Ajax couldn't hear what the soldier asked, but his mother just shook her head, "I'm sorry, he's currently out, would you like to come in for some tea?"