"Not enough? Why the hell are you on about? Did you not see what I wrote?"
"I did, and my words still stand."
"WHY! I DRUGGED UP MY MEMORIES TO WRITE ABOUT THE GLORIES THAT MADE MY HEART TREMBLE, I DEFILED MY WILL TO WRITE ABOUT THE POWER OF YOUR FAMILY, I WARPED MY MIND SO I COULD WRITE ABOUT HOW ALL THE SUFFERING THE SHEEP GO THROUGH WAS MY FAULT, I RIPPED MY EGO APART TO PRESENT MY SOUL AND HEART ON THOSE PAGES TO YOU, YET YOU DENY IT ALL! FOR WHAT REASON COULD THIS HAPPEN? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU EVEN WANT ME TO DO YOU FUCKING BASTARD!"
He hands rings across my face as a slap from him smacks into my cheek, calming me down, as he says, "Did you even understand the task I gave you? I didn't ask you to break yourself down, I didn't ask you to praise me, I didn't ask you to entertain me, and I most certainly didn't ask you to apologise. I asked you to show me the evolution of Captivant, show me what in these 14 years, you've managed to become someone who can captivate the world. Right now, with everything you wrote, and everything I see, I barely think you've grown from who you were on that day. You can leave here whenever you show me I am wrong, but until then, I care not for anything you have to say. Evolve or die, Captivant."
With those words, he walks back to his corner, and I feel the weight of the world fall upon me. What am I going to do? How am I going to escape this situation? Show him I evolved? But I have, I have shown it all in the way that I talk, in the actions I take, in the battle I have with the putrid, stale, slave of a world, yet he continues to deny that I have, he continues to deny the power and progress I have made.
Is he saying, everything with Jabari, Fu, Wèilái, the generals, Ai, Warwick, the Miracles, and even with the action formed from my own will power, is he saying all of that is worthless, that it has barely moved me?
No, this can't be, it can't end like this, I need to write, I need to destroy him! Turning my body, I grab the pen off my desk and hold it over the pages in front of me, and vigorously bring it down.
Huh? What's going on? Why won't my hand move? Why can't I write? Come on, you have so much more to write about, you have so many more stories inside you, just remember the feeling that you had when they were born and realise them here and now in front of this page, with all the words you drenched into your soul.
I set my pencil down, and let the emotions in my rugged body flow out at full force, unable to stop, yet I feel nothing, no matter how much I try to push them or force them out, nothing comes out.
Oh, I see, I have nothing left. No feeling, no muse, no soul to push me forward into creating anything. In this world, I feel nothing except abandonment from the world I had once sworn myself to.
I can't write anymore.
-Break-
My mind went fuzzy after that. I had only been able to move forward as the thirst for Captivant kept me alive; it kept me going, yet I couldn't feel it anymore after that day. It was like Siegrund without a single blow against me, shattered my soul into pieces. The goals I had set in my heart, what I had hoped to reach with all the power I had stored inside, were a complete and utter failure. So I just stagnated, unable to move forward or backwards, as the path that had shown me the way forward had vanished into complete nothingness.
In those moments, I was far closer to death than even the snow of Fimbulwinter could hope to ever bring me, and in the face of all that I waited, and waited and hoped for something to come down upon me, and it did.
ΦCracking open the door in front of me, the man Captivatn refers to as his father stares into the dark lightless room, and their his eyes follow the light that shines from the candle the hallway were he sees sitting in a corner, his son with his thump near his mouth as he gnaws on his finger nail incessively while staring at his feet with his mind far gone from him. "Captivant?"
Raising his head slowly, he says, "Get out."
"I heard from Siegrund that you've barely been moving for the last few months, and wanted to come check on you. Is everything oka-."
"GET OUT!" Captivant yells, throwing a pillow beside him at full force towards his father.
Swatting it away, his father looks towards the moulded plates of food in the room, and says, "You haven't been eating, you know that isn't good for you."
His father moves over towards his son and says, "Staying here will only make whatever's bothering you worse. We've been able to spare a bit more water than usual, so you can have a hot bath for a while longer. I am sure it will help you out."
His father reaches towards his arm, but is swatted away, and moments later, Captivant's eyes are filled with life as he shouts, "AND IS THAT MY FUCKING PROBLEM! AS I WOULD EVER EAT THAT TRASH YOU PUT IN FRONT OF ME! IT'S BECAUSE OF GARABAGE LIKE THAT, MY MIND CAN'T FUNCTION ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THOSE GOLDEN SPOONED BLUE BLOODS. IF YOU CARE ABOUT ME THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULD'VE BIRTHED ME AS SOMEONE SPECIAL, MAYBE YOU SHOULD'VE MADE BEING A NIGHTFALL SOMETHING MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN IT IS. YOU FUCKING COW, YOU VILE PIG, YOU ROTTEN MONKEY, YOU UNTENABLE DEMON! WHY CAN'T YOU DO THE BARE MINIMUM AND JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"
His throat becomes sore as the force of the words he released brings a striking pain throughout his dry and malnourished oesophagus, causing him to cough repeatedly, as his father moves to pat his back.
Gathering Spirit Energy in his hand, he grabs his father and holds it away, causing him to back off, then taking a few moments to collect himself, he says, "Captivant, I have a job for you to do."
"What? Does it look like I am going to do an-."
"CAPTIVANT!" He shouts, forcing the boy to silence. "You've been freeloading off of us for a year, and regardless of whether you're our blood or not, anyone who reaps from this land must sow as well. Get up and follow me, or else I will call someone who will drag you around in your underwear for all to see."
He turns to move, and gripping his fist Captivant gets up and starts walking over to his father as if the blood in his body is about to turn against him and strike each corner of the room, yet before he can manage to do that they both exit the room, and are greeted by the sight a mass of ragged souls, far more than he has seen in some time.
His eyes glaze around trying to take it all, but his father continues and he follows him, ignoring the rage in his body he tries his best to keep himself upright, to keep his mind focused on the task in front of him, for in his heart a single fear drugs up; that if he got lost in the crowd of all the people around the house, he would disappear.
-Break-
Location: Village of Zaad Ziener; Northern Forest
Walking through the woods, struggling to keep up without the Spirit Energy flowing through his body, Captivant says, "So you managed to keep this area untouched, if only you could've done that for the rest of the village."
"If you want to make a complaint about the increase in numbers, you could attend one of the Village councils, but I am sure they would stone you to death."
"Since you're still alive, I am sure that despite their postulating, they have no real power. Besides, I can assure you, I have the ability to crush any would-be farmer attacks in one blow."
"It's the one thing I can give you over the people who protect these fields."
"You talk kindly about them, but those same sheep who roam our family's fields had no issue beating and tying me up throughout the day."
His father turns his head to face him and says, "What of it? It's not like you were a kind child at any point?"
"AS IF I HAD DONE ANYTHING THAT DANGEROUS, THOSE BASTARDS COULD'VE KILLED ME."
"And your actions since then have gotten people killed. Your what-if is somes truth."
Turning his head into the forest, he says, "Talk all you want, but you preserve this forest when you could have it cut down, and turned into housing for others, is your own fault."
"Have you ever used your brain to comprehend why we haven't done such a thing?"
"It's obviously because you and the rest of the coalition of farmers have a giant issue with damaging what you call the spirit of the land."
"Do you really think those principles would have carried over nearly 2000 years, across all of your ancestors? Even ignoring the housing, there is ample farmland here; they could easily double the arable land that is currently in Zaad Zeiner's portion of this forest alone?"
"What are you getting at?"
Stopping, his father reaches towards the ground and slams his fist into it, before making a forward motion and following this, a door the size of my house door opens from the ground and moves away.
Staring at Captivant, he says, "Come along, Captivant, we have some work to get done."
-Break-
As they work through tight corridors, Captivant's eyes gaze all around at the strength and details of the dark corridor they walk through with confusion and wonder in his eyes, and as his amazement reaches its peak, his father says, "What do you know about Blestemate?"
"The Cursed Country? I know the basics, especially things regarding my hero Queen Dumitra, one of the oldest and probably the strongest human being alive. Specific cultural details weren't something I researched, as they loathe outsiders."
"Then do you know why they are a religious country?"
"Many people were followers of the Messiah, or who are called Telonists, following Telonism. Yet it wasn't widespread as Charles hadn't fully spread his power towards the Beast Claw during the end of the Beastkin.
Many have theories on how the Nightmares were cursed, with their own being the most accepted story, that a dragon cursed the land instead of them being twisted by Demons. And in their despair, they tell of a figure, a man, a priest who came and said the words, 'The Devil Comes in a Beautiful Form, so do not judge a man by how he looks, but by the power of one's soul.' Simple words, but for the people who had been cursed and branded as one of the seven beasts, it gave them the strength to move on.
But the priest didn't stop with just those words; he had dedicated his entire life to helping them, even redirecting his own country's resources to them to help them live during harsh times. The name of that priest was St. Mika Nightfall, your ancestor, and that's why, until today, we still support the people of Blestemate. It seems we have reached our destination."
Reaching the end of the corridor, they walk into a large open area, which is filled with giant fields buried underground, full of all kinds of produce that shouldn't be able to be grown, all tended to by a large series of machines, and as his eyes lay upon it, light flows back into them.