《Happy Ever After》 Chapter One This isn¡¯t a story about the beginning. This isn¡¯t a story about the journey. This is a story about the end. This is a story about what happens after the world is saved and the heroes lived happily ever after. This is a story about the villain. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª ¡°I think everyone is stupid Max. They have to be. Truly, they do.¡± Max gives a squeak before turning his small gray body in tiny circles. ¡°You aren¡¯t stupid though are you, Max? You¡¯re smarter than everyone else. So smart.¡± I reach for the small rat and Max freezes. His small nose twitches before he reaches over and bites the proffered finger. Blood pools and drops off my ivory skin. There¡¯s the sharp pain of skin breaking before the throbbing of my heartbeat consumes the bite. ¡°See? You don¡¯t trust me. You are so smart.¡± Max doesn¡¯t even give me the honor of a look. Instead the small rat continues its pursuit of its own ass. You have to wonder how far someone has to fall to consider a rat of all things smarter than everyone else. Pretty far. I¡¯m pretty sure all of my bones would have been broken if I were mortal. I¡¯d be dead if I were mortal.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Silvestr was mortal, but he¡¯s a different kind of mortal. The monstrous kind. It¡¯s awful to say that kind of thing about one¡¯s own charge, but I think I have the right to. He¡¯s the one who clipped Illarian¡¯s wings and snapped the heavy chains around my dainty wrists. My bones are still bruised from the incessant pressure of them. Max was a far better mortal than Silvestr ever was anyways. The little rodent was smart and honest. No lies about his deceit to be found. I guess Silvestr was also honest. In a way. The saviour of the world has to be honest after all. Where would we be if he wasn¡¯t. Free. That¡¯s where. We¡¯d be free. I think the worst part about this cage is that it is just me and Max in this gray abyss of iron until the date of execution has been decided. Insanity clings to me like a moth to flame. I could see it, in the fog. The accusations. The beheading. The ending. I could also see myself staying in this cage for all of time. An endless abyss of just me and Max and my own imagination. He took away my sight after all. Tore it away and threw it asunder. My soul still bleeds from the piece he ripped off. That¡¯s why Silvestr is a monster. He¡¯s a monster because of what he did to me. Because he shoved me out of the sky and watched me plummet to the ground below. - - - The first time I saw him I saw burning brimstone and death. An apocalypse for sure. Something where there are no victors and only death. I saw a demon clinging to his shoulder, wings spread wide and teeth bared. I saw the crimson eyes of death staring straight at me. It was like a dare, what I saw. A tease saying this is the end, what will you do? I told not a soul. Instead I sent him on his way and sent him to his death. This is where I should have been the hero of the story. Instead I end up in chains with an executioner¡¯s axe dangling over my head. What a curious thing the world is. I never saw it coming. Chapter Two ¡°Knix.¡± Silvestr¡¯s voice is smooth as velvet. He¡¯s standing there, at the edge of my cage with his short little stature and expensive clothes. He¡¯s a kid, with his chest puffed up with pride. Naive little thing, thinking he¡¯s in control when there is always something bigger at play. ¡°They said if you confess you¡¯ll be released.¡± Of course they did. I serve no threat now, not with my mind blinded as it is. I was only a threat because of my sight and as soon as they dipped me in poison all threat was gone. Max sits somewhere in the back of the cage. I can see his quivering body in the corner furthest away from the intruder. It should say something, about a rat fearing a mortal but not myself. ¡°I have nothing to confess.¡± He¡¯s disappointed, I can tell. I had watched the boy grow up, so of course I could tell. He¡¯s got the minute slouch in his shoulders, his eyes drifting to the floor. He always looked like that whenever I told him no before. ¡°You have everything to confess.¡± The words are snapped out, a scowl taking over his features and wrinkles marring his brow. Max still quivers in his corner. I¡¯m tempted to join him simply to escape the gaze of my jailor. ¡°What do I have left to say that I haven¡¯t already said?¡± I couldn¡¯t even speak after Illarian¡¯s wings were clipped. The words I had spoken left my throat raw and bloody. It probably took weeks to heal, but by then I was already locked up and hidden away like some dirty secret. ¡°Just say you were under his spell.¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Say you were!¡± If there was something to throw, Silvestr would have thrown it and watched it break. Instead the boy settles for banging on the bars of my prison. ¡°I never lie.¡± ¡°You do. You lie all the time. All you do is lie.¡± Max shakes like a leaf caught in shifting winds. The entire prison trembles with that small body and I¡¯m left in a world where nothing is still. ¡°I withheld the truth. I never lied.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the same thing!¡± ¡°And you are still a mere child who does not understand anything.¡± Silvestr staggers back, eyes wide as he takes in a shaking inhale. It¡¯s like a wound, I¡¯m sure. Me reminding him of what he is. Of who he is. ¡°I understand enough to know that you were in the wrong.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a matter of opinion. Nothing is ever truly black and white.¡± ¡°It is when you try to kill thousands of people.¡± Silvestr is puffing up his chest again, finding ground to stand on that he never even dreamed of. I¡¯m tempted to make it crumble under his feet. Max still sits in that corner; his thin rat tail wrapping around himself as if it could protect him from the outside world. Max is smart, so maybe he does have that power. I wish I had that power. ¡°Why won¡¯t you look at me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m blind, how can I look at something I can¡¯t see?¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t blind. Stop- Stop lying.¡± But I am. I used to see everything. Every possibility, every impossibility. I used to dream of the future. I used to be able to see people.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Silvestr blinded me. The little monster that destroyed everything, but was still revered as a hero. Figures, the underworld would do something like that. That¡¯s a lie. The underworld had simply bought the story sold by the best salesman. I hadn¡¯t tried to sell up my story and Silvestr had an obvious sell from the very beginning. My fault for not seeing a possibility that existed. One should expect the unexpected after all. It seems I never learned from my mistakes. ¡°You know that if you don¡¯t they¡¯ll just keep you locked away, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know that. I can¡¯t see. They could be planning my execution right now for all I know.¡± Max isn¡¯t shaking anymore. It seems he found comfort in his tail after all. The prison still trembles, but it¡¯s small tremors compared to the previous quakes. ¡°They aren¡¯t going to kill you.¡± ¡°Like they weren¡¯t going to kill Illarian.¡± The words taste like the poison he dipped me into. Bitter and strong. It tastes like suffocation. ¡°They didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°They might as well have.¡± Silvestr is frozen, scowl turning into a fierce frown and his eyebrows drawn in tight. He knows as well as I do that it is an argument he will never win. Just as he will never be correct in saying that I am not blind. Max peeks out behind his makeshift shield. Silvestr is turning away, a defeated slump to his shoulders. I lean back, pressing the back of my head against the cold steel bars and I let the fog consume me. - - - ¡°They don¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°But you do.¡± ¡°I understand everything. I might not see like you but I have seen it. I¡¯ve felt it in my very bones.¡± ¡°You should be dead.¡± ¡°We all should be dead.¡± ¡°I saw you die.¡± ¡°You saw what you wanted to see to ease your concerns on what you also saw.¡± ¡°That makes no sense.¡± ¡°Neither does taking in a human child.¡± ¡°What-¡° ¡°You thought I didn¡¯t notice. I did. That¡¯s one of the reasons why we need to stop everything. Why we need to close the underworld off from the other realms.¡± ¡°But no one understands.¡± ¡°You do.¡± ¡°I only understand what I see.¡± ¡°And you¡¯ve seen our destruction.¡± - - - ¡°Max.¡± The rat looks up, his beady black eyes staring straight into my soul. ¡°You¡¯re smart. What should I do now?¡± Max creeps closer, his tail dragging along the frozen metal of my prison. I stretch out an arm, fingers resting lazily against the floor. ¡°I wish I could see.¡± Life would be easier. I¡¯d know everything again. ¡°I wish-¡° Max stares up at me through the gaps of my fingers. I curl my fingers and Max vanishes from view. It¡¯s wrong; not being able to see Max. Something horribly wrong. Like the dipping in poison and the clipping of wings. Max is my prison just as anything else and not seeing him is¡­ Wrong. ¡°I wish everyone died.¡± Chapter Three Max never eats. Sometimes, I think I never eat. I must, otherwise I¡¯d be dead. Demons can go longer than mortals without sustenance, but we still need it. I just don¡¯t remember eating. All I know of is laying on the prison floor and staring at either the nonexistent ceiling or over at Max. Maybe I just don¡¯t remember seeing Max eat. Maybe Max eats when the fog consumes me. I¡¯ll never know. ¡°Max, come here.¡± His ears twitch, his little nose poking up into the air. He doesn¡¯t obey of course. He¡¯s not a dog, he¡¯s a rat. He acknowledges in his own way though. ¡°Why are you here? Did you also try to commit genocide?¡± Max turns away, tail swiping across the floor as he skitters to the other end of the cage. It¡¯s answer enough, Max not wanting anything to do with those guilty of such awful acts. ¡°I¡¯m sure you are charged for worse. You carry diseases after all.¡± Max doesn¡¯t even offer a twitch in response. I am suitably ignored by the only company I have until someone deems me worthy of being visited. I don¡¯t see it happening anytime soon. - - - I hear screaming. The smell of flesh burning. Heat prickles my skin. Every single hair on my body is raised in alarm. My entire essence was my rapid heartbeat. The world would dim and sharpen in time with the fluctuating beats. There¡¯s a boy. No, not a boy.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I know that boy. That mortal. He¡¯s crying. The heat of dragon flames evaporate the tears before they ever fall. He must be one big blister at this point. The dragon- The demon- Burning brimstones surround me, the very ground too hot to touch. I¡¯m going to die. That¡¯s how everything ends, with my death. With our death. A dragon cries this blood curdling scream. It¡¯s of anguish, grief words could never portray. A family torn apart. I can see the children dying, burning blood starting the flames. I can- That was the first vision. It wasn¡¯t the last. He didn¡¯t die. He was supposed to die. - - - ¡°They¡¯ve come to a decision regarding Illarian.¡± Silvestr sounds as if the news he brings is grand. ¡°Illarian is dead.¡± ¡°They will return him his wings if you confess.¡± Silvestr continues as if I never spoke. The words are- ¡°You¡¯re lying!¡± My body is too weak to support my attempt to throw myself forward. My knees collapse as soon as they are forced to hold my weight. ¡°No. If you confess you both will go free. Illarian will have his wings back.¡± He stands so tall, stubborn as if expecting a fight. ¡°What¡¯s the catch.¡± There¡¯s always a catch. ¡°You will be bonded together. Unable to harm a soul, unable to lie. You will be banished to the gates of the underworld to live out your sentence.¡± It¡¯s cruel what they suggest. ¡°My sight?¡± ¡°What you have now is what you will have until the end of time.¡± ¡°So I will be blind for all of eternity.¡± It¡¯s cruel, so cruel. Everything about it is cruel. Harsh, unforgivable. It¡¯s monstrous and inhumane. ¡°You will see just like I can see.¡± Silvestr mocks. He¡¯s surely got a sneer on his face but my sight is simply fog. I can¡¯t see freedom. Any kind of freedom, even the kind with chains. Max is sitting on the outskirts. Waiting. Listening. ¡°You lie.¡± It¡¯s always a lie. A trap. Confess, bury the chain and free yourself. Illarian was already dead after all. ¡°That¡¯s your area of expertise. Not mine, Knix.¡± Max cocks his head and then scurries to the front of the cage. Silvestr doesn¡¯t even glance at the rat sitting at his feet. He doesn¡¯t even flinch. ¡°So, what will it be? They¡¯re only giving you 24 hours to decide.¡± ¡°How slow do they think I am.¡± It¡¯s a pointless question. They think I¡¯m insane. A fool spelled into following another at best and at worst a seer driven into insanity by his own visions. Max still sits at Silvestr¡¯s feet. Trusting. ¡°Of course I will confess.¡± For the first time in a long time, Silvestr smiles. Chapter Four The sun shines. Somewhere, high above in the sky. Blood never spills. He closes his eyes and the world is quiet. A hand reaches out, fingers interlacing with my own. ¡°We don¡¯t deserve to die.¡± And we don¡¯t. We never will. Dragon fury will never rain down upon us as human knights prove themselves murderers. Fires will never be lit. The gates are broken behind them. Collapsed rumble burying every pathetic human beneath them. We are safe. The corpses of our brethern surround us and we are safe. I- I could never see why we were safe. The poison bit into the vision as I saw it. It rotted and merged and suddenly there is a fire- There is a cage- Blood drips down a dark back- Lungs gasp futiley as make believe wings, stretched out wide upon a dying back- There is a cage- In that cage is a rat. We are not safe. - - - Silvestr lied. Max was a fool. A stupid, stupid fool. The only person Max doesn¡¯t trust is myself. The confession they want is one of dishonesty. They only want to hear that I was a besotted fool following a mad man. The only wings Illarian would be getting were his bloody eagle wings back in their proper place. The only thing we earned was a bond turning us into nubile newborns. Defenseless. Powerless.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. It was a trap. One I was blind to see. One I was too foolish to spot. I should have known. I would have known before. But before I could see. Before I wasn¡¯t dipped into poison that ate away at my very being. Silvestr watches with cold brown eyes. He¡¯s no longer the child I remember. He¡¯s a monster now. A demon. Ironic that the mortal turns into a demon and the demon turns into something akin to a mortal. How disgustingly ironic. He watches and then he leaves. I imagine he takes Max with him. I won¡¯t be needing that prison anymore after all. Not when the chains have changed to cold, clammy skin. Not when my prison became another soul. Illarian breathes, his claws digging into my arm as we struggle to stand. We were stupid and blind. And now we pay for our mistakes, with bleeding wings and dying skin. We¡¯ve already lost and they have already won. Why they feel the need to hold it over our heads is beyond me. Why they must shove our mistakes into our faces over and over. It¡¯s like gravel, our mistakes. It leaves us bleeding and wounded at the very end. Silvestr sits upon his victorious chair whilst I sit in the dirt of my own making. My very own prison has betrayed me. It was a desert that led me to the oasis that was filled with poison. Max doesn¡¯t sit with Silvestr though. Max perches himself right by my feet as if he wasn¡¯t the one stupid enough to trust Silvestr. Which, he¡¯s right. Max was never that stupid. I was though. - - - Illarian is a broken soul. He¡¯s a worst cage than my previous prison. I miss the solitude. I miss the heavy weight of iron chains as they burn themselves into my skin. Max hides in whatever hole he can find. Seeking safety in the claustrophobic spaces. I¡¯m sure Max blames me for our eviction. Sometimes, I also blame myself. Most the time I blame Silvestr. And at the most desperate times, I blame Illarian. Poor, broken, stitched together Illarian. What they did to him sickens me. My thoughts at times sicken me. - - - ¡°Knix Emagen and Illarian Da¡¯rid are charged for crimes against the Underworld and Living World. Crimes including treason, homicide, destruction of peace treaties, heathonous acts against the Creators, and several acts of forbidden magic.¡± The judge had a cold voice. Something that sounds like steel and rain on a winter day. Silvestr sits somewhere to the left of us. I had sat there, patiently with my hands clasped in front of my weak decaying body. ¡°How do you plead.¡± It¡¯s not a question. They already know how it will play out. Just as I know how it will play out. ¡°Guilty. Under the spell of infatuation.¡± I¡¯ve always known how to sell a story when I tried. No need to lie, you just never tell people everything. Withhold enough so that people can come up with their own conclusions. People will always hear what they want to hear. ¡°To clarify, you are confirming that you were placed under a spell?¡± It was a trap. One I had walked blindly into. ¡°Yes.¡± The snares snapped shut and my future was set. I never saw that coming either. But it figures, because I am blind. - - - ¡°What if you are wrong?¡± ¡°Then we will all burn.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve seen us burn.¡± ¡°Have you seen us live?¡± ¡°I want to.¡± ¡°Then lets make a world where you can see us living.¡± Chapter Five ¡°I can¡¯t breathe.¡± ¡°Yes you can.¡± ¡°It burns.¡± He¡¯s crying. Pale eyes full of tears as he clutches at his chest. ¡°It¡¯s your mind setting you up for failure.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to die.¡± ¡°No, you aren¡¯t.¡± Max sits at my feet, out of reach and curious. Illarian¡¯s corpse continues to clutch at his chest. His bloody eagle wings set back in their proper place. His ribs remained broken, snapped in half. His corpse is all kinds of misshapen. His wings were still clipped, the demon resting on his shoulder forever banished. ¡°I¡¯m going to burn to death.¡± ¡°We already have.¡± The corpse is unseeing and unhearing. Eyes wide with fright as he keeps clutching at his chest. It¡¯s a mockery. My new prison was a mockery. I detest it. - - - Max hates Illarian. It¡¯s like he knows something is wrong with the corpse. I can¡¯t hate Illarian. It¡¯d be monstrous if I did. I¡¯d be the worst. After all, Illarian ended up like this because of me. Because I was too blind to see. I made my own prison, with poison leaking from the folds. Max doesn¡¯t understand that. He doesn¡¯t need to, as long as I understand. - - - ¡°I want to show you something.¡± The angel had told me. He had raised his hand and I took it.Stolen story; please report. I saw the queens and kings, sitting beyond the gate. I saw how they feared the unknown. The shimmering horror of our gate over the horizon. People react rashly when they fear. I saw destruction and death. I saw armies rallied. The gate burned, crumbled and they evaded. Knights sworn to bravery would find themselves in dragon nests. Newborn drakes will cry out, teeth not even grown. Steaming blood will spill and rock will melt. A mother¡¯s fury would rip the world asunder. We will die. ¡°But not if they die first.¡± ¡°That¡¯s something else entirely.¡± ¡°Not if you understand.¡± - - - The gate stands tall before us. As is our punishment, we were exiled to the outskirts so that we could see our failure every morning and every night. There¡¯s a cabin at the footsteps of the giant wall. Abandoned, rotten and falling apart. A roof over our head though. I can¡¯t leave without sentencing Illarian¡¯s corpse to rot. I¡¯m too weak to move the both of us and he¡¯s too weak to breathe without me. Max finds the rotting holes in the walls and claims them as his own makeshift prison. My own prison is one of fresh air and dying skin. Illarian doesn¡¯t know that though. He doesn¡¯t know much of anything anymore. ¡°We¡¯ll be the first to see the world burn.¡± Max is the only one that answers with a twitch of the ear. Illarian is too busy trying to understand breathing. He used to understand everything. They broke him. They clipped his wings and broke his mind just as they dipped my mind into poison. ¡°Isn¡¯t that ironic? We try to save them and they break us.¡± Illarian is still staring with his wide pale eyes. Claws dig into his dark flesh and blood trickles down onto the floor. This wasn¡¯t what Silvestr imagined, I¡¯m sure. Silvestr always lacked an imagination. When they sentenced us he probably imagined the shop, but instead of a small mortal boy sweeping the floor there was a broken angel. He probably thought I¡¯d still be selling fortunes as he sat in the shining light of the underworld, worshipped as the one who saved them all. It¡¯s wrong of me to blame only Silvestr. I know that. He was simply the one who stood in my way. ¡°I¡¯d say we¡¯d get our revenge, but they destroyed us a bit too much for that didn¡¯t they?¡± Max darts off into the shadows. Illarian still stands there, bleeding and forgetting to breathe. It must be hard, to breathe for so long without lungs and then to suddenly find yourself with them again. I can only imagine the horrors he went through. It¡¯s why I can¡¯t blame his corpse. It would be unfair. I simply sat in an iron cage whilst he was dangled on the cusp of death. His lungs replaced his wings, the demon stripped from his very bones and skin flayed open to show the truth. It¡¯s why they struck the bargain to begin with. There was nothing left to gain by keeping him. Silvestr never lied. He simply withheld the truth. ¡°They were smarter than we were.¡± The words are toxic to say. My ears are the only ones to hear them. ¡°I hope we all burn.¡± There were still dragons left after all. Chapter Six ¡°I saw you.¡± ¡°You saw nothing.¡± ¡°What are you-¡° ¡°Silvestr. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°Maxwell was there too.¡± ¡°Silvestr.¡± ¡°Knix-¡° ¡°Stop.¡± - - - The corpse they threw at my feet was already rotting. Silvestr was a liar. ¡°It has been decided. We will bind your powers and you will be exiled from the underworld.¡± I had no power. There was nothing left for them to take. I was wrong, they took my freedom. They took my very air. - - - ¡°Illarian.¡± Max sat across the room and he watched. I¡¯d rather talk to him than Illarian. At least Max was sentient. ¡°I can¡¯t-¡° ¡°You can. You can.¡± Illarian just stares, chest flaring open as if it was still an open wound. I hate him. I can¡¯t, but I do. I despise this corpse. This prison.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. I need to keep a clear head, to ignore the fog of my sightless eyes. It doesn¡¯t help Illarian. All it does is hurt us. But it hurts. Everything hurts. Silvestr was right when he told me I¡¯d get what I deserved. He might not have meant it then, but it came true. I got what I had coming. Max creeps closer and I just want the stupid rat to vanish. I want him to die. I don¡¯t mean that. I don¡¯t, I don¡¯t. If Max died I would be all alone. I couldn¡¯t handle it all by myself. I¡¯d break and die if I was all by myself. This nightmare would never end if I was on my own. Illarian would be an inescapable prison and I¡¯d die in his clutches. Max is the tiny bit of my sanity that I have left. I can¡¯t wish for his death. Just like I can¡¯t hate Illarian. - - - ¡°You don¡¯t understand! I- I-¡° Illarian can¡¯t speak. Not with the runes engraved in his flesh. He¡¯s tucked up against the wall and all that¡¯s between us and failure is me. They rage. The demons. The dragons. The angels. Silvestr. My boy. The one I saved. He stands there, tears welled in his eyes but this time there is no fire. It¡¯s just us. Us against the world. My world. ¡°They will kill us. I saw it! I can feel it in my bones!¡± Silvestr looks broken, absolutely broken. As if the blood on my hands was his. It wasn¡¯t. It never could be. ¡°Why?¡± It¡¯s all he asks of me. All he ever will. He finds every single excuse he can, but he still asks. As if he would be happy with any answer I could give him. He never is. He never learns. ¡°There¡¯s always something. Some catalyst. It¡¯s the only thing that could save us!¡± ¡°Why?!¡± It¡¯s the only word he knows. ¡°Because we¡¯d die otherwise.¡± ¡°You¡¯re killing us now.¡± ¡°But not everyone and not forever.¡± - - - At the trial the only thing Silvestr asked was, ¡°Why?¡± Chapter Seven ¡°Max.¡± The rat looks up from it¡¯s hole. ¡°Are you happy?¡± Of course he isn¡¯t. How could he be? He was in a prison of his own making. No, he wasn¡¯t. I was though. ¡°Will you ever be happy?¡± Max turns away and goes deeper into my prison. - - - ¡°It hurts.¡± Illarian pauses, claws tracing his own throat. ¡°It hurts to breathe.¡± I could imagine it would. Corpses weren¡¯t made to breathe after all. ¡°So don¡¯t.¡± Illarian just stares at me. His chest unmoving ice as his claws scratch at fragile skin. He looks heartbroken. Lost. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that.¡± ¡°Yes you did.¡± ¡°I always lie. You can¡¯t trust me.¡± He coughs up blood and I can see his wings being torn off over and over. I can imagine the crack of his ribs, the tearing of flesh as they reposition gasping lungs. I want those lungs to keep breathing. I do. I really do. ¡°Only when you are scared.¡± If I close my eyes, it¡¯ll be just like before. If I close my eyes I can pretend neither of us are broken. I can ignore the hoarse tearing in his voice and the ever looming fog in my mind. Max nips at my ankles like the petulant prison he is. There¡¯s no point in pretending. ¡°I¡¯m not scared.¡± I¡¯m furious. I¡¯m spiteful. I¡¯m-Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°I¡¯m terrified too. So it¡¯s okay if you are scared.¡± Illarian pauses, clenching his claws deeper into his chest before, ¡°You aren¡¯t alone.¡± - - - ¡°You can¡¯t just name a familiar Maxwell of all things.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± He¡¯s petulant. Pouting and staring straight up at me with those big brown eyes of his. ¡°Because he already has a name for one. And it¡¯s undignified.¡± ¡°I actually wouldn¡¯t mind being called Maxwell.¡± The familiar is stupid. A werewolf of all things. I should be proud of Silvestr for mastering the human art of binding; but it is just so foul. What would I have done if the curse worked on me? Kill the boy, I suppose. Maxwell wasn¡¯t like that. The familiar was one of those lowly parasites that required another to survive. ¡°See, he doesn¡¯t mind.¡± As if that was supposed to entreat me to the name. It doesn¡¯t, nor will it ever. ¡°It¡¯s repulsive.¡± ¡°But Knix!¡± ¡°But,¡± I glance over at the flustered boy. ¡°you did good.¡± The grin he gives shines so bright that I temporarily go blind. - - - ¡°Why?¡± Silvestr had asked at the end of the trial. He had asked that when the old chains were lifted off my broken wrists and Illarian¡¯s bloody eagle wings were returned to their proper place. ¡°Why what?¡± I didn¡¯t even need to ask. There¡¯s a lot of reasons for him to ask but he¡¯d only really ask after one. All the others he could figure out. All but one. ¡°Why him?¡± If I was a liar I would have told him it was to hurt him. Despite his beliefs, I was never a liar. ¡°Convenience.¡± Some could say that, that answer was worse. The way he flitches back says it¡¯s the worst thing he ever heard. As if the blood on my hands was Silvestr¡¯s. As if the blood was from the monstrous human rather than the disgustingly loyal dog. ¡°You always lie.¡± It¡¯s the only revenge I can take on him as my fate is sealed. ¡°You always live in denial when you hear the truth.¡± - - - In the cage was a rat. This small, miniscule thing. It deserved to die. Everything deserved to die. I want it to burn. Burn and burn. Like my mind. Like the acid dripping down my flesh. Like my bare skin against the frozen metal of my cage. I reach for it, for its death and my hand is met with air. It was there, but I couldn¡¯t see it. It didn¡¯t exist. My sole companion, one made from the insanity of the poison and I couldn¡¯t- It wouldn¡¯t- I hated that repulsive, disgusting rat that taunted me. It sat at the edge of my reach, distrustful and full of spite. It watched and gloated as I was left to rot. That stupid, stupid rat. Oh how I wished for its death.