Chapter 4 – Final Act of Glory
Seeing my old home from a distance
fills me with a strange sense of nostalgia and disgust. I can’t dwell on my
past for long since the sun will soon rise. My black flames break through
buildings and whatever stands in my way to clear a direct path for me to get to
my house. Before I can reach it, the chariot that I conjured loses its form and
launches me forward before disintegrating. Everyone is looking at me strangely.
They’re probably looking down on me for what wasn’t my fault. My power is
quickly fading so I use the last of it to surround my house so my family doesn’t
have a way out. I break down the door and enter to smell mother’s cooking. Going
into the kitchen I see her with her sword drawn and my sister with her.
“Procella?” my mother says.
I create swords of black flames
without saying anything and begin to attack my sister and mother, but my swords
soon dissipate into nothing. The icy barrier around the house starts to fall
and I struggle to keep it up. I need something else to kill them with so I try
taking their swords from them only to be pinned to the ground.
“Procella!” my mother says.
“Kill me if you can! I’m already
dead!” I say while struggling against them.
“Stop this already!”
“Why should I? Killing you will
give me the glory I need to be taken seriously again.”
“The pursuit of glory has destroyed
this family! It killed your father and tore us apart.”
“Why do you care so much now when
awards and fame were all that was on your mind?”
“Because I finally see what it’s
done to us. I’m sorry for expecting so much from you, Procella. I share the
blame for the atrocities that you’ve committed.”
My mother and sister back off and
sheathe their swords.
My sister turns her back to me while
trying to keep eye contact and says, “I’m sorry too for putting you down as
well. I’m also sorry for sabotaging you so I could do better than you.”
What they say calms my rage for
some reason as I stand. I don’t understand this. I want to hate them. I want to
kill them, but I also want to cry. How can such simple apologies do this to me?
“I-I don’t care if you apologize to
me!”
“Procella…”
“Sh-shut up and die already!” I say
as I throw a useless punch at them only to be embraced in return.
Now, I can’t help but cry. I want
to hate this, but I can’t for some reason. They seem to be crying along with
me, which is the most surprising part of this to me. Are they actually being
honest with me?
“It’s okay, Procella. We’re here
for you as we should’ve been from the beginning. You can start again with us,”
my mom says.
“No, I can’t! I’m already dead and hellbound.”
“Don’t say that Procella. Believe
in God’s mercy like you used to.”
“Stay away and forget me!” I say as
I push them away and run out of the house.
My walls of ice have already melted
and guards are surrounding the house. The morning sun is in the sky so all the
power I once had is faded away, but the ones that I have now allow me to narrowly
escape the guards and the city. After hours of walking, I make it to a shore
where no one else is. The waves violently crash against the rocks. Just looking
at it makes me want to jump in and resume my punishment at the bottom of the
sea. There’s nothing left for me here. My name is worth less than nothing and I
can’t be the Queen of the Seas anymore. I’m pathetic.
“Is this what you wanted, God?” I
say to the sky, “You wanted me to admit my faults, so I did. I was wrong. I’m
sorry for killing so many people and stealing so much for my own glory when I
should’ve been glorifying you. I really am sorry and don’t know what else to
say but that I’m begging you to have mercy on a wretched soul such as myself.”
The waves from the sea grab me and
pull me in as if it was alive. I’m then pulled deeper and deeper into the sea.
What else should I have expected as a response from God for my sins? I don’t
fight what is happening to me as I sink further below into the sea until I come
to a stop in the darkest depths of it. Is this going to be my fate for the rest
of eternity? Is this going to be my Hell?
What’s this? I feel my black flames
begin to fade. If they do, I’ll really die. When my flames were stoked by the
dark rituals and I was given immortality, the contract said that I would keep
these things as long as I kept the black flames burning. This is a release from
that contract that I didn’t think could be broken by anything other than the Flame
of Cognizance. I feel scared not because I’m dying, but because I’m going to answer
for my mistakes.
To my surprise, I don’t feel the
cold embrace of Hell, but a warm cleansing flame that burns me to my soul.
These are the flames of mercy and justice found in Purgatory. Is this truly my
reward? Was my confession acceptable? It seems so.
The End
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