I could feel the changes within my body. A bundling power surged through my body. At first, I attributed the strength to the body I was inhabiting, but it was not that.
From brief experiments, every motion I performed was too clumsy, and others were too rigid to be muscle memory. It seemed like the body was adjusting just as I was.
The experiments were shadowed movements of some dance or maybe a fighting technique. The movements were instinctive, as if the body remembered what the mind could not.
The tapestry of this power was not only woven into my body but also stitched into my mind. My psyche. For this, I noticed when I examined my new surroundings.
I was not in the room where I passed out. I was in a much smaller room. One compact and devoid of light.
Years of confinement within the four walls of my ward made me claustrophobic. Though I was damned in an even smaller room, I sat on the cold floor. Cross-legged and stark naked. Basking in the darkness that blanketed me. Within the dark, I was not crushed under the weight of fear. Fear of what the dark had chained to its shadows. Instead, I found solace. My mind convinced me I was where my heart was. Home.
I was studying the system tabs, having saved the best for last. I found myself staring at the persona tab.
[DISPLAY PERSONA]
~PERSONA 1~
>NAME: CASSIAN VALERIAN ATRIUS(Equipped)
>TITLE: NONE
>RANK: SENATOR TRAINEE
>AGE: 17
>AFFILIATIONS: House Atrius-Imperium Solarin- Dorm Noctis
>PATHWAY: Path Of The Argent Oath
>VIRTUE: Tier Two~ Chains of Decree – Manifest binding laws that are physically or magically imposing on the world to a varying degree.
>TRAITS: BLESSED BY THE DIVINE VARNIEL, CORRUPTED BY THE UNSPEAKABLE ONE.
TABS: STATUS-ATTRIBUTES-EQUIPMENT-MISSIONS.
[END DISPLAY]
There was too much information to discern, but the sporadic trigger brought random memories. Glimpses of what certain things were or represented.
The fact that I had a family in this life hit home the hardest. Adopted though. But having a family was nice—nothing much, just nice.
Then, lingering memories informed me of what a virtue was. It was the measure of divinity within my mind, body and soul. The divinity I assumed was from Varniel, a god of sorts in this world. The last aspect was the fact that before the incident, I was a tier one by virtue meaning the naming ritual might have bumped me up the ladder.
Much of the other information I hoped would be divulged as life went on. If it went on.
A scream bounced throughout where I was. Piercing through the silence. The screams grew louder and louder till silence took reign once more.
Then it happened again and again, each scream sounding even closer than the last, till it was his neighbour, then it stopped.
I heard the clattering of feet, possibly two people. The screeching of something being dragged loomed in the air. It stirred up tension. The air became thin, almost choking.
My throat dried up, and I stood up and took a defensive position.
Fear's grapple forced my heart into violent thumps.
There was the sharp clash of keys, then the clang as the key slotted into the lock. The grunt as the metal bars grated to open.
The boots went silent, signifying the invaders were before me.
The dragged chair settled on the floor. It creaked possibly under the weight of one of the intruders.
SNAP!
The thin air thickened, and wiry, dark red flames appeared, lighting the room.
I could finally see them. Two people. Gender put them apart first.
The woman was seated, slightly masked by the shadows, her features hard to discern. The man was towering before me. His hand shot out, gripping my neck and shoving me close.
His eyes burning into mine, the grip tightened. His face was mangled and lopsided. His left side twisted unnaturally, with its flesh melting. The melt took away his ear, left his eye exposed, hanging by some grace, and his lips smudged, conjoining into his jaw.
He grunted, then shoved me backwards. I crashed into the wall, and a grunt escaped me. He picked me up by my hair, dragging me towards the woman. She had vacated the chair, now empty, and I was heaved into it.
As the woman came into focus, her hands twisted in a weird gesture. I saw dark, thorny vines erupt from the ground. Snaking round the chair legs before binding and pinning my hands to the side of the chair.
Her hand cupped my chin, tearing my gaze from the vines to her. Her eyes were soft, warm and easy to get lost in.
Her face was round, her lips thin, making her look cute like a doll, not pretty, but all in all, she was beautiful.
Her smile was reassuring. It assured me of a blessing, a short moment of hope. Hope that I might just be okay. Hope I might not die.
" You are Cassian."
She was not asking but telling. It implied she might have known something I did not. Unlike earlier, I was very in control.
An ephemeral power was pushing the fear away, intoxicating me with the feeling that I should be the one in charge. Not to be judged, but the Judge himself or herself in this case.
A red line cut across my vision, then it vanished.
She released my chin, the warmth gone, dragging along the hope.
"Where are the bodies?"
"What bodies?" I asked.
"Bodies!" She dropped her smile, cheeks puffed up, trying to intimidate.
"What?" I feigned ignorance once more.
"You know," She paced backwards and moved to the ugly buff at the back, "It's rude to answer a question with a question."
She took the blade handed to her.
She moved towards me with intent, her eyes gleaming with malice.
She pointed the blade at me," So be a good boy and tell where the bodies are?"
"What?" I cannot say why or even fathom that I was toying with my captor.
My mouth did not articulate what my mind thought. I watched her face scowl, killing her beauty.
"I hope you last longer than your neighbour,"
Her blade descended, a strike as quick as lightning, straight into my lap. Had I not been tracking the blade, I would not have known I had been stabbed.
"Anticlimactic,"
"My thoughts exactly," I said.
I felt it.
I was falling into character, or rather, was I falling out of character? Spiralling out of a persona, falling back to the familiar, just as an actor did.
If that were the case, then this would be a severe case of method acting.
The woman frowned even further, the contours on her face deepening. She pulled out the blade, looking at her partner, calling up ideas from him. He grunted, picking himself from the corner.
He balled up his fists, driving a blow to my gut. Nothing. Not even the gasp of air as it was expelled from the body, nothing. He followed up with a punch to the face, then another, then another.
Each punch breaking down the persona, pulling me away from being the familiar Tim or the foreign Casian. I just needed the last nudge. A gentle shove into being The Stranger.
I could feel it. The slight tilt of the mind. A scale was being tipped, and I could not tell what was being weighed.
"Had enough?" I taunted. I spat a thick phlegm of blood on the man's boot. I looked him dead in the eyes.
The woman pushed the man backwards," Enough!" She placed the blade in my chest,the tip drew a drop of blood," Where are the fucking bodies?"
The blade was shoved an inch into my chest, not deep enough to bleed. It was just shallow enough to cause discomfort and just enough to tip the scale.
I could sense something fading.
"We should just kill him," The man said.
"Then what do we say?"
"That they disappeared. Which is not exactly wrong,"
"Okay, we do that."
[MISSION]
~SURVIVE~
Rewards:??
Failure: Death
[END DISPLAY]
My sight was blurred into a chaotic mesh of colours that clashed with each other. I pulled my focus through agony. The colours slowly morphed into blobs of light. I recognised what was happening. Revelation was activating.
The bulky man towered over me. His silhouette buried in a thick, ashy fog that seemed to be layered over deep, red cracks, which exposed him for who he was. Only human. My mind churned once more, my focus sharpened even further. The fog and cracks disappeared, only leaving silver threads.
All these threads originated from the man who had stepped forward for the execution. I finally understood what was happening. I focused on the string pointing to his neck.
A soft melody flooded my ears, the sound getting more profound as he stepped forward. I had to think. My virtue.
"BREAK!" I voiced out. My voice deepened, oozing authority. I directed the orders to the vines, which snapped.
Once free, I launched forward. Driven by instincts.
"STOP!" I beckoned. The man stopped in his stride. His one good eye showed his surprise.
My hand had followed the path of the string to his neck. Grasping and snapping it in one smooth motion. Even before I could process what had happened. I had lunged towards the scrabbling woman.
I followed the thread that directed me to her stomach. My fist rammed into her stomach, the next thread made her chin rattle with a left cross.
I facepalmed her, catching her as she staggered from the blow and smashed her into the wall. The wall cracked along with her head. A bold line of blood daubed down the wall as she collapsed.
She was alive.
I caught her by the hair, propped her up, forcing her to meet my gaze.
"How do I get out of here?"
My mind turned once more. Pulled into an acute focus as I stared down on the woman. The silver strings snapped as the situation was not dictated through combat. The red cracks resurfaced as the ash fog fumed over her. A thin blanket of smoke covered her and the red cracks and from it I caught a scent, a rancid smell at that. I knew what it was. I could smell her fear. How the tables had turned.
I pulled her up even higher so I could hear her mumblings.
"Go to hell," she mumbled incoherently. The smell pushed up even more.
I bashed her head in once more. Killing her.
I did not go back to the familiar. Contrary to my initial thoughts, it was never about dancing in between being Cassian and The Stranger, but between my only two personas, one being Tim and the other being Cassian.
The decisive, strong show of power was Cassian. Tim was the weak, introspective one, like now. To survive, I had to be Cassian, not Tim.
I had to shed that identity and peel it off. I felt my soul shudder, then came the pain as a piece of my soul tore off. It was like pulling out as one would when tearing off meat from a bone. The past flashed. Memories of the old me crumpling into a void. Ridding me of the boy named Tim. Too weak for life on Earth. A gambler of fate. A Blasphemer willing to sell his soul. The part was being devoured. Offered up.
In its place was a hole. Tim was gone. I did not mourn him, for I was now Cassian Valerian Atrius. The Stranger. The divine emissary of The Unspeakable One.
[DISPLAY]
~ OFFERING ACCEPTED~
~He rewards you ~
[END DISPLAY]
There were large explosions that shook the cell. The chaos voicing its presence beneath the darkness. Through chaos lies opportunity. It promised freedom, and I was eager to comply.