The glow of her realm hadn't faded. My body was slumped, but my mind wasn't free.Meridia lingered, her light curling around me like a cage made of radiance.
Her voice cut through the silence, cool as tempered glass."You have the gall to question Me again, mortal?"
I forced myself upright, jaw tight. "I'm not asking for your blessing. I'm asking for the truth. You can threaten me all you want, but if I'm meant to fight—if I'm stuck here—I need to know why. What's really happening."
A flicker in her aura. Annoyance, maybe. Or amusement. Hard to tell with her.
She floated closer—or rather, her presence pressed harder, weightless and suffocating all at once. "Truth is not yours to demand. But if your crude persistence keeps you from falling into the Abyss, then—so be it. Ask."
I clenched the Beacon tighter. Its pulse steadied me, just enough. "Hermaeus Mora. You know something about him and me. About why I'm here. Tell me."
The light quivered. I swore I felt her temperature spike—anger, sharp and immediate."That name defiles the air." Her tone dripped venom, each word a curse. "A parasite, cloaked in ink and eyes. The Wretched Abyss is his title, and rightly so. He claws at threads not his to weave. Mortals, realms, secrets—all dragged into his foul collection."
Her fury rolled like thunder, but I didn't back down. "So he dragged me here? That's what you're saying?"
"Dragged. Stolen. Twisted." Her light sharpened into a narrow blade across the void. "Your presence in this plane was no act of fate. The Abyss reached, and you were… misplaced."
My stomach sank. Not chosen. Not destined. Just stolen.I bit my tongue hard enough to taste blood. "So I don't belong here."
She didn't answer immediately. The pause said more than words. Finally:"You belong nowhere… yet here you stand."
That stung more than I wanted it to. I sucked in air, forced my voice steady. "Then why are you watching me? Why are you interfering, if I'm just Mora's scrap?"
Her aura swelled, pressing down like a hammer. "Do not think yourself worthy of My attention." The words snapped like a whip—proud, dismissive. Then, softer, almost against her will: "The Beacon binds to you. It clings when it should have chosen another. It answers your hand when I would not have granted it. Even I cannot wrest it away."
I glanced at the Beacon. It pulsed, steady, calm—more loyal than she was.
"So you don't like me, but you're stuck with me." The words slipped out sharper than I intended. "Great."
The light hissed. "Insolence."
"Truth," I shot back.
Her glow sharpened, then faltered. A brief flicker, like her pride had been nicked. "Do not mistake tolerance for favor. You defy Me, you throw My gift as a weapon without reverence, and yet—" Her tone cracked for a heartbeat. "—you are not yet consumed."
I froze. "Consumed?"
Her silence pressed harder than her words. I stepped closer, refusing to let her dodge it. "What does that mean? Consumed by what?"
Finally, she answered, voice low and venomous. "By Him. The Abyss feeds on strays. Mortals brought where they should not tread are swallowed whole, piece by piece, until they are nothing but whispers in his endless sea. That is your fate, should you falter."
Hermaeus Mora. Watching. Waiting.My skin crawled.
But then she added, sharp again, as if to cover up the softness: "Yet you resist. Crude. Arrogant. But unbroken. For now."
The weight in my chest burned hotter. "So I'm some experiment? You and Mora staring at me like I'm a rat in a maze?"
"Not experiment. Not rat. Merely… conflict given shape." Her tone chilled again. "I watch because the Beacon forces Me to. Mora watches because it is His nature. And you—" Her light flared bright enough to sting my eyes. "—you walk a blade's edge. Whether you fall or stand is not yet written."
The Beacon pulsed warm in my palm, almost in answer.
I drew a slow breath, lifted my chin despite the ache in my body. "Then I'll stand. No matter how much he pulls. No matter how much you sneer at me. I'll stand."
Her silence stretched. For a moment, I thought I felt it again—the tiniest flicker of something like… approval. But she buried it quick beneath her cold fire.
"Do not presume, mortal. Stand if you wish. Fall if you must. It changes nothing."
Her words thundered final, cutting the air between us.
But I saw it, buried in her voice. It did change something. She just wouldn't admit it.