This chapter has been edited due to content. If you want to see the unedited version GO HERE.
"But then the Dark Presence, Scratch, left Alan Wake and entered me." Alex finished.
"How did it feel?" Eola asked and I glared at her.
"Excuse my companion, she sometimes forgets when to hold her tongue." I said.
"I remember feeling afraid and not much else. Like darkness itself was consuming me." Alex said as if he wasn't bothered., but the barely noticeable trembles in his voice revealed otherwise.
I could tell Eola's eagerness didn't sit well with him. I couldn't blame him as those unused to her ways would think the worst. He might think we could snap at the slightest moment. However, that wasn't our way. Alex wasn't threatening us and he wasn't prey.
Alex hadn't known much about this Dark Presence but what he had...the dark entities were part of a much larger war. My family hadn't even died in a battle, just a little skirmish. Something that had happened because...there wasn't ever going to be a reason. Life didn't hand out lovely little explanations to everyone for all situations.
The thing that disturbed me, most, though, was the fact that this Dark Presence could be far outside the reach of the Divines. While I loved Hircine above them, my Prince couldn't match their power or influence. So if something could threaten the Divines, the end of all things could be beginning.
If something could match the Divines in pure power and it showed interest in Nirn then there was no hope. Everything I knew and love could be at an end.
It was hard to keep calm and collected with those thoughts raging through my head.
"What if Alex draws the attention of the Dark Presence?" Eola asked. "It attacked us once and has been silent since then."
"And how he describes the Dark Presence is much different than it was those many years ago." I added.
"And back then it was just one location. One moment in time."
"Don't, Eola."
I watched Alex out of the corner of my eyes as I focused mainly on her. It was clear where my companion was going with this. She wanted to save me heartbreak and also help fight the war that was raging inside. But that meant crossing a line I wasn't willing to.
"Why would it matter if we sacrificed this stranger?" Eola asked. "We don't know him and it would protect our home."
"We don't know if that would work." I replied. "And what if the Dark Presence always had its eyes set on Skyrim? So, no, we're not ending a life just on the off chance we'd save everyone. I'm not crossing that line. Not today."
Both of us turned as Alex began laughing. It was a disturbing laughter born out of pain, hurt, and despair. It was the way Cicero would laugh. It was the way I laughed while my body was on the verge of death.
Had he just snapped? Would killing him actually be the kinder option now?
"I don't find this situation amusing, Alex." I said calmly. "Neither should you. So why are you laughing?"
"Because I'm stuck in some stupid ******* video game." Alex said once the laughing fit stopped. "Scratch is doing God knows what with my body and I'm stuck in a ******* game. And I'm not even the Dragonborn."
"I am the last Dragonborn. Why would Akatosh make another one if Alduin has been defeated?"
What did Alex mean by video game? I had never heard of video which would be the format such a game would take place on. I didn't know what video was but I knew what a game was. A game was a safe fiction to help perfect skills or escape the reality of life. Therefore the strange dryskin must think this world wasn't real.
"But that's not the point, Alex." I said as the man glared at me. "The point is that the similarities which connect reality and fiction are not finite. They are infinite. I've seen too much to think otherwise. In very simple terms, this world is real. I won't believe my friendships with others meant nothing. So you should stay silent on matters you know nothing about."
"I won't be lectured on reality by someone that doesn't exist!" Alex shouted.
With that one sentence I felt the world break from under me. Venturing into Hermaeus Mora's realm was less off putting. The Quagmire felt more real right now. This man who I craved in all senses of the word didn't think I was real.
Maybe...maybe it was best a bond didn't form between us.
"You don't know of what you speak." I said and anger seeped into my voice. "You had to rest for half a day because of something that isn't real. You've finished a meal that isn't real. You complimented wine that isn't real. You've had to take a bucket to relieve yourself of things that aren't real. This 'fiction' has taken hold of you. It is affecting you. You can't affect it to any great extent. So doesn't that make it real?"
Eola looked at me and then looked at the man who had dug a dagger into my heart.
Alex looked at me and something had changed in his eye. His expression was still hard but his eyes were different. It was as if the man I yearned for saw me. Not just as a character in a game, but as someone real and worthy of respect.
"I shouldn't have spoken to you like that, Kysnier." Alex apologized. "You didn't have to rescue me or give me shelter."
"Call me Kys." I said with a nod.
I called Bran to me and pointed at him to retrieve a book. He only released the book when I scratched behind his ear enough. Which meant my hand was sore by the time I opened the book and looked for the specific passage.
"I don't agree with Eola's plan of sacrificing you, but you can't stay here." I told Alex. "This journal recounts a way to successfully traverse different plans of existence."
"So you, what, wave your hands about?" Alex asked.
"With some spells you can perform them anywhere at anytime. However, this one is more complicated and the only place I'd perform it is in the College of Winterhold."
"How long will it take to reach there?"
Was there hesitation in the dryskin's voice? No, he wanted to return home. That was all. Everything else was an illusion created by my mind.
"Half a day." I answered. "But we'll need to make a few stops before we go there. We'll go to our first destination at dawn."
I went to get another bottle of wine and pretend I wouldn't be sad to see Alex go.
No comments:
Post a Comment