"It's just f#cking freeing, ain't it, Avere?", his stomach curling up from the laughter.
"I guess so..." Avere uttered hesitantly, slightly tilting his head, already starting to feel lost in the conversation, feeling himself getting pulled into it, unaware that something like this had also happened with Leyk, back when he had first communed with Cades.
"Why don't you try it?" Adelius responded quickly as well.
"... sure, why the f#ck not..."
Huh, it did actually feel quite freeing when he just said it straight away...
"F#ck.. Sh#t... Ass#ole... B#tch...." he continued, uttering each word in a weirdly calm manner, but obviously with some humour behind it.
After he continued for a bit more Adelius however shook his hands and gestured for him to stop, still laughing, but now much less, the surprise of the entire thing having faded for the most part.
"So, after I corrupted you and made you curse more than ever before, why don't you tell me how you ended up here, if you don't mind telling a f#cking geezer that is..." he smiled warmly, though it also showed old and quite crooked teeth that must've come from both age and the magical and non-magical techniques back then being far less developed.
Avere however didn't really mind that, after all, he was certain that even he, himself, had to have yellowish teeth at the very least, not having brushed in over three months, though he also hadn't eaten much in the last months, so perhaps it cancelled each other out.
He wasn't sure whether he should tell his story, but nevertheless, perhaps because he just wanted to, perhaps because he felt the need to finally get rid of what plagued him so much, perhaps because he wanted to commune with another living being, or whatever Adelius really was, he was soon to grasp at the straw and start talking, though he first took a deep breath to calm himself down.
"It all started three months back... or at least I think it has been about three months..." he started, quickly being interrupted by Adelius.
"Probably not, this place changes people's understanding and perception of time, sometimes driving it forwards, sometimes slowing it, sometimes stopping it, sometimes skipping it, sometimes even reversing it, but most of the time it just accelerates time outside the mind..."
"Well, f#ck it then, it all started some time ago, back when ehetria hadn't, well, been eliminated, been destroyed, been burned, whatever the f#ck one wants to call it, probably some sh#t like the godd#mned fall of f#cking ehetria, the fall fo the winged, the burning of the godfors#ken chicken coup..." Avere returned to speaking, getting more and more agitated, before trying to calm himself down once more, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath to return to his normal self.
A moment later he continued, his eyes open again, his mind thinking back on everything Cades remembered, with Rondel and Arges intently listening in, as even they had not entirely understood it, though Avere, who right now, as always, was mainly Cades, did not understand any of that.
"Back when everything was still f#cking normal, if something was ever truly normal, " he gestured with his hands, wildly, " I had a sister, I had a mother, I had a father, just like every other ehetrian, just like every other person on that world, I had friends, I had a future, I knew who I was..."
"You knew who you were supposed to be?" Adelius asked, tilting his head, almost mockingly, but Avere didn't care, only Cades felt rage at that.
"Yes" he loudly agreed, " I knew who I was, I knew that I was an artificer, that I was Cades Kirgun, that I was someone who would become a great artificer, or who at least wanted to become one, dreams never end up becoming f#cking real in the end, don't they..."
"Dreams are just that in the end..." he said calmly, commenting, but holding back from intruding on Averes tirade of the past...
"I was Cades, I was Cades, I was my mother's son, I was my father's child, I was my sister's brother, i was my teacher's students, I was my future's holder, I was myself, and that could nto be taken away from me, i w-" he comntinued, almost obsessively-
"You were Cades, and that was taken, wasn't it?" Adelius said, his heart being slightly shattered as Avere now realized.
He didn't really have the presence of mind to care about that, but he did guess why that was the guess, and it wasn't all that difficult to know...
After Adelius had first tried to invade ehetria, he had been met with open arms and people willing to share and help with magical technology, with progress, with knowledge, he had become friends with them, people who had forgiven him and allowed him to keep his life, just to find out like this that they were all gone, that he was looking at one of the last members of that species...
He was hurting inside, there was no doubt about it, his wounds were heavy, even after many decades, perhaps even centuries stuck in this place, a place ehetria had built for him, not as a prison, not as a curse, but together, as a helping hand, to nurture his health, something he hadn't even entirely realized back when he and been alive.
That tower had been one of the last gifts he had ever received, the last true gift given to him for who he was, not for his title, not for his crown, not for his favour, just for his health, by people who truly cared, not even by important people, just by people.
Now, that tower was one of the last things he had, it was there for him even after he had presumably died, it was around him, it made his bed, it nurtured him when nobody else was there, it gave him places to be that were not just inside his own bed, though of course he wasn't just confined to this tower anymore after, well, dying.