"Hi dad..." said his son, though his memory simply refused to give the name that belonged to him, as he was seating himself a few feet away, at the end of his bed, a bed that he at least still had great control over, the last thing he could truly still change using the authority of relations, his own creation.
Within mere fractions of a second he had changed the size, from many hundreds of feet, to a normal size, be it a bit boisterous, that was the authority of relations, that was his authority, the control over relativity, if one thing was that big then the other was that big, if one thing was small the other would be small, if one thing was alive the other would be alive, if one thing was hurt the other would be hurt, so many possibilities, so much creativity, so much power, he thought as he slightly smirked, unable to move his head too much, unable to even see his son.
Back when he had last seen his son he had been adorned with elegant clothes, long and overlapping, a golden belt made of the innards from a dragon Adelius had slain wrapped around his torso, his cloak, just as Adelius's had once been, made out of draconic scales, perhaps the gift to magical research and blacksmithing of his kingdom that the few dwarves in his service had thanked him for the most, despite him having raised their wages just a week prior, asking them to help with the raid...
Actually, that made him think...
He had made good friends out of those surprisingly small guys, they were rough around the edges, they were gruff, their beards were imposing, their age was comparable to even a ehetrians, and even the ehetrians tend to just give up around two hundred, it wasn't certain they truly died around that time, their females looked... surprising... to say the least...
Still, he had been friends with them, even learning their art of blacksmithing, something that later became a kind of hobby for himself, despite sometimes annoying the other smiths, if he were to truly call himself one, which, even he had to admit, he was not.
"You know..." his child whispered, silently, into the emptiness, though he must've known full well that Adelius was still able to hear him... as if wanting to hide something he knew he should no longer have to want to hide, or even require to try and hide... almost as if he felt he should admit...
Adelius sighed, he had been far too paranoid lately, every one of the maids and butlers that had come to him, even his royal guard, even the princess's and, well, princes, as the one in front of him, even his own wife, though she had seen better days as well, with her being, at least, in better health than him...
Actually, now that he thought about it, all those people had never really come to just talk to him, had they....
Right, they had only come to ask for things, to know how he was doing, though Adelius had long since understood that they just wanted to know how much longer they would have to wait, so much anguish, so much boredom, none of them had truly cared... well, aside from his wife, but he hadn't seen her in... a month, or something like that...
"Your entire life," is son continued after letting him take a break, almost as if he knew that he was thinking about what was being said, his only real way of passing time in here....
He should have asked the ehetrians to add entertainment to this thing, they had simply added what he asked, with their own architecture, though he had to admit, his eyes still blurry and looking up at the spiel of coloured light and the sun far above, filtered through the artifacts, the magical apparatus's, the windows, and even the bridges, that their architecture, at least magical architecture and engineering was very advanced.
"Your entire life," he repeated himself, sounding slightly arrogant, " you served others, didn't you?"
No, not really, Adelius thought, after all, when serving others, he and only done wrong, he had overdone it with justice, he had overdone it with help, he had overdone it with donations in huis youth, log before taking over the crow through force after the old king was fool's fodder, at least in his opinion.
"You thought everything you did was right." he continued.
Nope, he never thought that, Avere knew, after all, most he did was wrong in someone's eyes, some people would even argue the world was flat when he showed it to them from f#cking space, which he actually did once, being able to grow to that level, be it with the help of ehetrian magical engineers and his won mana, them not having enough resources for such a task, at least not for as little money as they charged him.
Truthfully, Adelius had never done what everyone thought was right, he had always done what he thought was right, and he had learned many a lesson from that, some good, some bad, and now he smirked inertly, annoyed at his child's ignorance to his stories, his secrets, his lessons he had taught him just a decade ago.
"Now you are alone, forgotten, forsaken, you are without anyone that truly loves you, you are a monster in the eyes of the people, a general of fear in the eyes of others, and a horrible person in the eyes of most..."
He laughed silently, not able to move his body, but having heard this same accursed tirade various times already, after all, that was his pain, unable to move, unable to defend himself...
When he had made his contract, the pillar had said his end would be without much pain, and he did indeed not feel much pain, but the process, just as the pillar had claimed, was not easy.
The first few times he had boiled with rage, he had controlled his bed, he had broken the bones of this child whose name he refused to even try and remember, perhaps the reason for their hate, and he was going to die, that was certain, but he did not care what he thought.
An offer was given to him long ago, he would at least not vanish, that was for certain.
"