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Confrontation | Chapter 12 →
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I lay bloodied on the cobbles, the wound in my side very nearly gushing a fountain of blood. I was going to die. Of that there could be no doubt. The thugs who had jumped me had dealt me a fatal blow and I was going to die here on the street. In that moment, I could not help but cast my mind back over a lifetime of failure and disappointment. I could not help but see the humiliation and misery I felt at every juncture. I had dreams like everyone, but each one of them had been singularly crushed by my very own people.
As my life ebbed and the darkness took me, I found myself standing in a field. A man unlike any I had ever seen before stood before me. He was not a Citizen, I was certain of that. No, this was the voice from the grove. Here was my would-be benefactor and my people's would-be destroyer. I did not know how he had taken me to this place or how it was I came to be uninjured here, but there I was and there he was: the world's greatest evil.
"Xilar," the figure said sadly, his face solemn and drawn. "Was it worth it, Xilar? Was the running and fleeing worth the pain and agony? What have you gained by rejecting me so harshly? What have you lost because of that choice? I am forgiving though, Xilar. Come to me and I will take you as my own."
"I have already told you I would never betray my people for you.... I shall not serve you and your dark intentions now or ever....." With this, I threw myself at the man with a fury, pummeling him about the head and face with my fists, seeking to claw out his eyes. I turned every bit of fury I held inside against him. And I even managed to gouge a tunnel of flesh out of his right cheek, which blossomed crimson under my assault.....
For my efforts, The'Galin laughed. His laughter was warm and somehow reassuring in spite of the cold dread it caused. Was I already that polluted that darkness felt good to me?
"You have only to call out to me if you change your mind, Xilar.... Call out the words 'I accept' and all shall be fixed....." With these words, I found myself again laying on the cobbles bleeding, battered, and very clearly dying, the field seemingly but an illusion in my mind. Yet I knew that it was real, that The'Galin could spare my life or let me die here. I would not serve him. I would not betray my people.
"Why if it is not Xilar the dragon mound," a mocking voice came, familiar somehow. I turned my head and saw Leiax, one of the Fire Lord's communicants.
"Leiax... I have been hurt badly.... I am dying.... please fetch aid....." I croaked desperately.
"Aid you?" Leiax grimaced coldly. "I would sooner mate with a Zard."
Leiax walked closer and kicked me once in the ribs.
"See you around, dragon mound."
So this was it? I was to die here on the ground in the city I had always known and loved. I was to die a no one, a failure. What sort of eternity would be waiting for me for my failure? I could only imagine the torment. I had no honor or privilege and nothing to show for my years. I had nothing to offer the gods. They rejected me in life and would almost assuredly reject me in death too.
Yet I persisted, the pain growing and the light fading; I persisted hoping but knowing it was for naught.
In the end, moments away from death, I merely mouthed the words that would destroy the world, the words The'Galin knew I would say all along.
"I accept."
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