Finding Contentus

Chapter 32: The R&R Tale (1)

What... does it mean to be strong? He asked himself again with how it was possible for the man in front of him to have undergone so much darkness. To still managing to find the tiniest sparkles of light without ever being a true monster.

At least, of his own free will disregarding the inhumane insanity that corrupted him to be that way. Just the thought triggered a tenebrous wave of blistering dejection to course through Ramsis as he was now forced back into square one.

What that red haired woman Brianna said was indeed true. Not that he doubted her words necessarily. This was just something personal that he simply had to find out for himself.

To hear and see first hand...

That the man in front of him was truly a "good" and naturally flawed strong man, through and through. That the man in front of him was truly an innocent victim through and through. That the man in front of him was only forced by the most extreme measures of unimaginable torture and suffering possible to become a monster that he had fought and battled against for so long to never become.

The man in front of him—

"Ramsis."

Even the way he said his name with no hint of malice or ill will served to dampen the conviction of Ramsis even more when he met his gaze to see a surprising sight.

Renero was grinning at him, mockingly, as though he were some supreme deity looking down on a weak and puny mortal of the world.

"Do you see now why we were, why we are, and why we will always be the strongest? If you say that I killed two million people in my year of trapped powerlessness in Primalstasis as I continued to devour and destroy everything around me with all the uncontrollable violent feelings, desires and infinite suffering that I had accumulated throughout my whole life; then imagine how much more damage, blood and despair could have been shed."

"Imagine if the whole race of Racaans did the exact same in unleashing all their aggression and all their potential power to perform such unspeakable evil. Imagine how many innocent families would have been slaughtered, families just like yours."

His expression turned into one of a demonic dreamy haze that Ramsis almost wondered whether or not the gates of hell would open any second now.

"Can you see it? Can you hear it? Can you smell it? Can you feel it? The fear, the misery, the pain. The scenery of nothing but hell. The scenery of nothing but death. The scenery of nothing but blood and bodies. The scenery of nothing but pure evil."

"Take that which you saw from my year of destruction and your personal scars as one of many victims and amplify that to the entire human race. That way, you can understand what we Racaans had to go through our entire lives. That way, you can understand me as your so-called enemy."

Renero knitted his brows and altered this devilish look to a solemn expression with a little shake of the head.

"If you wish to deem our way of 'Peaceful Defense' to be foolish and weak after hearing my story, then so be it. You humans of Metro are even weaker than I thought if that is the case and are unfit to hold power. Those with the most power have a duty to use it responsibly and in the right way. That is what we decided to do. Not because you humans deserved our non retaliation when you very much deserved all our wrath, but because we deserved our own peace away from ever becoming the things we are not. Monsters. For the true monsters in this world, are the primals."

Renero's solemn expression of torment visibly darkened and for a moment it looked as though he was about to break free from his chains and attack Ramsis.

"And you humans."

This moment dissipated quickly when Renero inhaled a deep breath, and exhaled a short one.

"Of course, as I said before, this doesn't apply to every single human. Quite frankly even now, I do not see you in that way completely either with what you have done to my people here in Petora. I choose not to see all of humanity in that way. One cannot simply judge a whole race of people solely based on a specific portion. Since light and dark really does reside in us all."

"And there was a time in which we were allies with the light of humanity by the Natalia province and their allies in Membus and Fountain. We were neutral with Kimba. Quite frankly, the extreme cold there wasn't to our taste or liking to live there anyways."

"In any case, we Racaans never wanted to get our human allies involved in our cursed lives with the human enemies of Metro. Not to mention the fact we attracted the primals to us as a threat, and by extension them. No, that would be other unfortunate causalities to add to our eternal pitiful conscience. That is why we had to migrate and find our own land that we could call home."

He clicked his tongue with a rise of bitter anger and agony.

"Until — Pharaoh came and showed the power of a true monster in destroying all of Mootlakeng, and all my people as well as the primals in one go. All of them, gone, just like that in the blink of an eye."

"Just when I had managed to rebuild myself after several long years with the lovely human people here in Petora, with my current wife Minaleese and my daughter Kakara, life deemed it fit to teach me another lesson of failure. That the Racaan way was always doomed to fail from the forces of the world and fate, with the only thing I could salvage being that of my two children, Genesia and Neosa."

Renero frowned deeply, increasing his body heat again and by extension, the temperature of the room.

Absolute silence became of the room.

"Until — you people from Metro came along. To haunt me once again. Now, my three children are lost and the people of Petora want nothing more than revenge," Renero said this quietly with malevolence, disrupting the silence and surveying Ramsis like an open book that still had its pages closed to him.

Pages he had to tell from his end.

"Although, something tells me that your story is different. No, I know it is different. You are the first to actively seek out to actually speak with me, let alone a Racaan face to face with no disturbing elements and outside forces. And correct me if I'm wrong..."

Renero's shadow surrounding them grew like a black fog as morphing flames burnt an open stage for Ramsis to step onto.

"But I just get this sad feeling that you were never allowed or given the choice to be a free man of your own will. And when you finally did find some freedom, the forces of life and fate deemed it fit to smite you with a lesson in punishment for trying to break away from your sworn duty, and trying to break away from the 'way' of Metro. The way you were taught all your life from your family, your people and the way you couldn't escape away from. Am I right?"

Time seemed so far away for them in which neither spoke for a while.

Renero continued to look at Ramsis, expecting some definitive crack behind his own mask with the clear complicated feelings he could see cracking and etching their way onto his face. Ramsis didn't bother to hide this crumbling disintegration, in taking his eyes away from Renero to stare back up at the portraits of his current family.

The only light in the world that Ramsis had ever truly known. The only light that he had ever wanted. The only light and blessing that allowed him to be a free man.

He chuckled to himself ironically with a gritting cough of stone. Renero saw the damage inflicted on his throat and the strain he had to put in order to laugh sardonically in the first place.

With hardened eyes, and an expression that only a permanently damaged soul could have, his face — more so the handsome side, twisted into a sickening smirk that practically made Renero's veins wriggle like worms.

"It's funny, and stupidly unfunny, how I can only understand myself the most in the presence of the man who just has to be my enemy."

Next chapter: The R&R Tale (2)