Path of Dragons

Book 6: Chapter 60: Absolution

“So, what do we do?” asked Dat.

“Um…we need to kill her,” Elijah said. “I think. The quest just says to illuminate the shadows, so I’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean.”

Sadie barely heard the discussion. Standing so close to her companions was a special kind of torture. Even Ron and Dat, both of whom had barely triggered Sense of Sin before she’d made the wrong choice of specialization, were nauseating to look at. Not only were they surrounded by a cloud of murky sin, but they’d also begun to look like monsters. Waxy skin. Pockmarked cheeks. Thin hair. Their every flaw was magnified until they became, by anyone’s measure, ugly.

But none of that compared to what she saw when she looked at Elijah.

To her eyes, he was truly evil, and in a way that exceeded anything she’d ever witnessed. Even the zombies and other undead back in Hong Kong couldn’t measure up to what she saw when she turned her gaze on Elijah. He had all the same characteristics as Ron and Dat, but far more exaggerated. He was like something out of a horror movie, the sort of person who, when they stepped into frame, the audience immediately knew that they were the villain.

And to make it all worse, Sadie knew it was Sense of Sin at work. She knew Elijah didn’t really look like that. And what’s more, she knew the story behind his sins. Did she believe he was entirely justified? No. But she also didn’t think she would have acted that much differently. Sense of Sin didn’t care about any of that, and neither did her perception of the world around her.

The thoughts and feelings swirling through her mind elicited no small degree of guilt, but she didn’t have the time to figure out how to live with it. Instead, she’d thrust herself into another challenge, partially because she hoped it would be a distraction.

And it worked, after a fashion. So long as she had a threat in front of her – or a task to be completed – she could ignore the results of her most troubling ability. Yet, in moments of peace, she could not push it aside.

“What do you think, Sadie?” Elijah asked, his voice dripping with venom she knew wasn’t really there. Even his smile, meant to be reassuring, carried with it a note of cunning dishonesty – like the world’s sleeziest used car salesman.

“We move on,” she said. “We’ll figure it out when we get there.” Her tone was curt as she added, “Unless someone else has a better idea.”

She found herself glaring at them all in turn. Even Kurik, whose only real crime was surliness, earned her ire. No matter what she’d tried, she just couldn’t help it. The best she could come up with was to forego all expression, but even that carried with it a significant aura of disdain.

Thankfully, no one else had anything to add, so they soon set off through the halls. Due to the ubiquitous shadows, she couldn’t see anything outside of the ring of flickering light cast by the torch, but it felt like there were hordes of monsters waiting in the wings. She had never really been afraid of the dark, but her experiences in the challenge of the Umbra made her rethink that position.

The palace was huge. Easily a mile wide and featuring multiple levels that required exploration. And Elijah insisted that they needed to inspect every last inch, leading them to the tops of tall towers and into scarily spotless dungeons. But aside from the intended purposes of such areas, nothing really changed. The décor remained similar, following the same chaotic theme, while each hall blended together until Sadie lost track of where they really were.

But slowly, they progressed toward the center. The only indicator that they were getting closer to their destination was the thickness of the shadows, which grew so dense that the radius of their torches shrank to almost nothing. The group huddled closer together so as to take advantage of light, which only exacerbated the effects of Sadie’s skill.

She didn’t just see their sins. She smelled them. She tasted them with every breath. And what was even worse, she felt those sins burrowing into her skin and threatening to corrupt her.

Over and over, she reminded herself that it wasn’t real, that she’d seen her companions’ nature and found them to be good people. Yet, with the weight of so much sensory input bearing down on her, she couldn’t stop herself from being affected. It was almost enough to elicit tears.

Yet, Sadie was tougher than that. She wouldn’t allow the skill to defeat her. She refused to give in. So, while it was overwhelming, she’d been dealing with overbearing odds ever since the world’s transformation. She was used to it, and she applied the willpower, earned over years’ of fighting against an endless tide of undead, to her situation.

That helped.

Marginally.

Though any stride forward was one for which she would be appreciative. Besides, it was the only way she managed to maintain her sanity while in such close proximity to so much sin.

And then, it all came crashing down when they finally reached their destination. There, sat a ka’alaki woman. Normally, Sadie had trouble distinguishing between the genders of the natives of Ka’arath, but in this instance, she was certain. There was something about the way she held herself. The way she moved. Graceful, yet with distinct purpose.

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However, Sadie could only focus on the cloud of disgusting sin surrounding her. In a split second, that grace became something else entirely. Until that moment, Sadie had never seen anyone with an aura of sin as thick as Elijah’s. However, this ka’alaki woman put the Druid to shame. If Elijah had killed thousands, she was responsible for the deaths of millions.

Perhaps the count was innumerable.

Clearly, she was the lone surviving elder of the sect of assassins, and she wore that evil like a cloak of pure sin. Sadie’s hand tightened around her sword’s grip, but she held back. Because she knew just how powerful that creature was. She could feel it, and not just because of the pulsing ethera. Shadows swirled around her like a typhoon, angry and ready to become a raging storm.

“You have arrived,” the assassin said, looking up. She stood, and through the cloud of sin, Sadie could see that she was wearing a hooded robe of pure shadow. However, in her hand was a small ball of light. It was no bigger than a marble, and it gave off no more light than a flickering candle. But she held it close, as if it was an item of great reverence. “I have been waiting.”

* * *

Elijah knew they were in trouble.

The surviving sect elder was part of it. She was extremely powerful, though when she rose from her throne – and that was the only way to describe her massive chair – Elijah saw a slight hitch. Moreover, he could sense that her ethera wasn’t quite focused. It was similar to the effect of Stormbind, though not nearly as absolute.

In short, as the guide had suggested, she’d been weakened by the activation of the weapon.

But Elijah was less worried about her than he was about Sadie. The Crusader’s entire body was tense, her every muscle contracted. She was practically shaking with hatred and rage, as if she could barely control herself.

It was confirmation that something had changed. Sadie had never been particularly accepting, but she’d never let her nature or her Sense of Sin ability affect her in a battle. But Elijah knew that if he didn’t step in soon, that would change.

So, he did just that.

Raising his voice, he said, “I take it you’re the last surviving member of the Shadeborn Sect.”

The ka’alaki cocked her head to the side. “So I am,” she said. “Woe unto me, for I have seen the fall of everything I deemed important. Come. Kill me, if you can. My most potent remaining regret is that my pride will not stand aside and let you win. I will fight back. I will kill you. But on the off chance that you are capable of putting me out of my misery, please know that I never meant to become what I became. I –”

“Liar,” Sadie rasped.

“What?”

“Sadie, don’t –”

“I called you a liar,” she insisted, brushing off Elijah’s hand as she stepped forward. Her jaw flexed, and she held herself ramrod straight as she leveled her sword at the powerful elder. “You hide behind circumstances. You say that they pushed you into corruption. Yet, you had every opportunity to right the ship. You set out to do the right thing, didn’t you? You wanted to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. Then, you became the very thing you were meant to fight. Now, you want us to pity you? You expect us to believe that you had no chance to stop the fall? Well, I don’t. And if you claim to believe otherwise, you are a liar.”

The ka’alaki assassin rolled the little, glowing marble in her hand. Elijah could sense it burning her fingers as she stared at the floor. Then, she looked up and said, “You speak of a subject you cannot understand.”

“I understand honor. I understand being true to yourself. And you failed on both counts,” Sadie said. “How many innocents have you killed? Thousands? Do they outnumber the guilty who fell before you?”

“No.”

“And yet, you still see yourself as you were. As a noble warrior who was willing to rid the world of filth. You were never that. You believed it, but not deeply enough to matter. Otherwise, you would not have fallen.”

“You do not know me. You are but a child,” came the reply, but only in a rasping whisper.

“I am your judge. If you truly believed your own lies, then you will not fight my verdict,” Sadie said, her eyes practically glowing with purpose. “Admit your sins.”

It was only then that Elijah felt ethera swirling around her. But there was more than that. Something he couldn’t really perceive. It only took a second for him to realize that it was Faith.

When the elder assassin answered, Elijah knew that Confession was in play.

“I never cared about the powerless,” the ka’alaki said, her eyes downcast. She collapsed to her knees. “The only thing I truly cared about was growing stronger than my sister. She was the golden child. Our parents saw that she was better than me, and they supported her every endeavor. Meanwhile, I was fed scraps.

“That was when I found him. The Father of my sect. He showed me the way. He gave me the tools to overcome my weakness and surpass Iami. I killed her a few years after I joined the sect. She’d beaten a maid to death. I was so happy to hear her name whispered by the shadows. I did not kill her quickly, either. She suffered for a long time before I finally ended it. After that, it was easier to use our mandate as an excuse. I started manufacturing names,” she explained. Raising her eyes, she admitted, “They were all people who wronged me as a child. My parents were among them. Their friends, too. Schoolmasters. Trainers. Former lovers. I killed them all, and the shadow grew.

“Thousand of years. I continued to progress, becoming one of the most powerful members of the sect. And we became…we were an institution. An open secret. A true power. The records show that Yloa authored our fall, but in reality, it was me. The moment I corrupted our purpose for personal gain, we were doomed. Those are my sins. You asked me how many people I killed. I do not know how many lives I took with my own blade, but millions died because of my actions,” she said, her shoulders sagging.

“I thought I could…I thought I could punish myself with this,” she said, holding up the glowing marble. “It corrodes the shadows. But it is only an annoyance, and it is less than what I deserve.”

As the ka’alaki assassin’s head fell in shame, Sadie strode forward, sword in hand. When she was looming over the broken creature, she said, “I will give you what you deserve. What, in your heart, you truly believe you deserve. I will release you from your sins.”

“Can you do such a thing?” asked the surviving elder, looking up with glistening and somehow hopeful eyes.

“I can,” Sadie said. “I offer absolution. Do you accept?”

“I…I do.”

“Then bow your head and accept your fate.”

Miraculously, the creature did just that. Even as her body shook with fear and sadness, Sadie’s sword erupted into bright light. Faith and ethera continued to swirl as she brought the blade down.

The ka’alaki’s head rolled free, and a notification appeared before Elijah’s inner eye.

“What just happened?” whispered Ron.

“I don’t know,” Elijah admitted. “I really don’t know.”