Chương 130: Chapter 63: They Say That I Am

Astrid, however, found no comfort in the explanation or the prayer. The terror she had managed to keep at bay with discipline was seeping through. Her hand, the very one that minutes before had clawed itself until it bled, was trembling uncontrollably. —Will it get worse? —she asked, almost with a tone of childish grievance, as if the place owed her an honest answer. Selena turned to look at her, her expression speaking volumes more than any of her words. Astrid continued. —I…

I only wanted to come here because the King promised funds. Funds for my research on public risk education in peripheral villages… Her voice cracked. She looked at the ground, avoiding her eyes. —To teach people to recognize danger signs in their towns, to defend themselves, to… to not end up dying as children. I only wanted to help my family. A sob, dry and harsh, escaped her chest. —I haven't seen them since I entered the University of Kaelburg.

Tears, cold and silent, began to trace pale paths through the dust and tension on her cheeks. In the light of the ring, they looked like liquid silver. No one spoke immediately. There were no words of encouragement that would not sound hollow in the bowels of an ancestral dungeon. There were no certainty to offer, except that of moving forward or dying. It was Selena who broke the silence, not to comfort, but to confess, equating her burden with Astrid's.

—I came here for answers —she said, her voice clear and measured, a contrast to Astrid's trembling. This time Magnor and Astrid turned to look at her, but Alistair remained vigilant, staring into the shadows. Selena continued. —About who kidnapped me. An organization so secret it doesn't even have a public name, only shadows and intermediaries. His Majesty promised answers in exchange for this.

Alistair, perhaps to ease the tension or out of simple habit for precision, murmured from his corner: —The Omnipresent Shadow. It was the first time anyone other than Selena and the King had uttered that name in her presence. Selena only moved her head in a slow nod, confirming it. The name, melodramatic and yet exact, floated in the heavy air, adding another layer of mystery to her motivations. Then, attention turned toward Magnor. The giant, who had remained in silence observing their confessions, spoke.

His voice, for once, lost a bit of its usual cordiality, gaining a touching simplicity. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it —My request was more… prosaic. A tired, almost timid smile formed on his lips. —Emergency aid. For poor or destitute villages. Infrastructure, doctors, food… the basics that the royal treasury always finds excuses to postpone. The giant, always so kind, Selena thought, observing the genuine goodness in those eyes that had seen so much horror.

What kind of pain forged him this way? What suffering led him to want to heal, to protect, instead of destroying? It was as if Magnor had heard her thought. With the group's attention fixed on him, he continued, his tone low but laden with rocky conviction. —No child deserves to die from diseases that have had a cure for centuries. No mother should have to choose which child to feed. He paused, his gaze searching for Selena's. —I know the Countess understands.

She also studied the path of medicine and advanced healing. She knows that avoidable suffering is the greatest of crimes. Selena held his gaze and nodded, once more. But her response was not just about medicine. It arose from a deeper place, from an echo of another world that still resonated in her soul. —Human dignity. The words sounded like an axiom, a fundamental truth carved in stone. —It is innate to every sentient being. Regardless of faith, race, or social class.

She paused, and for an instant, something that did not belong to Erabergh flashed in her green eyes: the vision of a place where that dignity was not a pious dream, but an enforceable right. —We all deserve to have rights, simply by virtue of being human. Not by the grace of a king, nor by the favor of a god. By the fact of existing, of feeling. Her words, so radical in their simplicity, fell into the silence like stones into a frozen pond. Magnor observed her with renewed interest.

Alistair frowned, his theological mind processing the declaration that placed the human essence above the divine Flow. But it was Astrid who reacted with the greatest force. The blonde resonant wiped her tears with the back of her hand, looking at Selena with incredulity. —Are you sure that you, Countess, are the same one the rumors speak of? She asked her, but her voice was still strained and trembling, though it carried an intense curiosity. —The Crimson Duchess? The one they say was… bloodthirsty. Capricious.

Cruel. These were words that, if spoken in any salon of the palace to any noble with that title, would have cost Astrid her tongue, her freedom, or much more. But here, in the belly of the dungeon, beneath the light of an ancient ring, titles and rumors seemed to vanish, laying bare only the flesh, the bone, and the trembling soul inside the armor. Selena held her gaze, allowing a shadow of the truth, of her unfathomable paradox, to surface.

—They say that I am —she replied, and her voice was a sigh of infinite resignation, laden with a secret that no one in that tunnel, nor in all of Erabergh, could ever understand. There were no more questions. The answer, ambiguous and full of shadows, was enough. Or perhaps, simply, the exhaustion and the surrounding horror had reached a point where personal paradoxes no longer mattered. Magnor was the one who gathered the fragments of their collective determination.

He straightened up, his imposing figure casting a long, steady shadow against the wall of throbbing veins. —Let us move on —he said, his voice recovering its tone of practical command. —We must return to the terror of the dungeon. His gray eyes swept over each one, reminding them of their tacit oath. —Remember the protocols. Maintain the formation. Trust your training.

And cling to what brought you here, because that is the only thing, aside from the companion by your side, that will keep you sane when the stone tries to steal your mind. Without another word, he turned around and began to advance, venturing into the tunnel that pulsed like a gigantic artery. The sound of the monstrous heartbeat, the smell of iron and organic moisture, and the golden light of the ring bouncing off the rocky veins created an atmosphere of a vivid, claustrophobic nightmare.

They carried with them the newly shared confessions, the exposed fears, and the strange revelations that now formed a faint but tangible thread of shared humanity. It was a fragile amulet against the madness surrounding them.