Seth Alexander.
The moment I heard that name, I staggered back. My breath caught in my throat. My mind raced.
I had drinks with someone in the underground city, who told me about Seth's past—a stranger, and he also mentioned Seth returning to the kingdom to plead for his parents' sins.
"Why can't I remember his face?" I whispered. "Why am I sweating?"
Yesterday, I'd heard the crowds. "Demon," they screamed. "You don't belong here!" I ignored it then. I thought it was another zealot being cast out. But… now it all connects. The explosion at the palace. The chaos. It all lines up.
Seth. He was here.
As I pieced things together, a head rolled to my feet.
Blood. Screams.
I turned. A child's severed head.
Zaraia.
Time slowed.
Atom screamed. A sound so raw it seemed to tear reality.
Then—he stopped. Eyes empty. Lips trembling.
He fainted.
I fell to my knees.
Tears poured from my eyes. "Even if this is the past," I whispered, "even if none of this is real... it still hurts."
"It hurts so much."
The judgment was swift.
"Atom will be sentenced to 200 years in the lower dungeons. He will be fed once a week. He is now considered a Nightmare Lesser."
I followed them. Watched as they threw him into the stone cell and locked the iron gate.
"Good riddance, filth. May you rot."
Hours passed. Silence. Then… movement.
Atom stood. Walked to the prison wall.
And began to smash his head into it.
Again. And again. Blood burst from his skull. Still, he continued. Relentlessly. Like something inside him had finally shattered beyond repair.
The cell dimmed.
A dark shadow fell over the prison.
A man stepped from it. Wings of shadow unfurled. A rift opened in the void behind him.
"Master," said a creature, bowing low. "We have a most unusual guest. Shall I dispose of him?"
A figure stepped from the rift. Cold. Commanding.
He sat across from Atom and smiled.
"How would you like to join my army?"
The creature gestured toward me.
"Shall I take care of him?"
The man waved a hand giving me a death stare which made me feel unease.
"That… is not our problem."