Smoke still clung to the trees, the earth scarred black from the battle. Kael sat slumped against a boulder, sweat cooling on his skin, the shard's afterglow flickering faintly beneath his ribs.
Varic loomed nearby, casually dragging his axe through the dirt, leaving a deep scar in the earth. His grin was gone now. What lingered on his face was something worse—amusement laced with contempt.
"You hesitate," Varic said at last, voice low. "Even when the gods themselves spit in your face, you pull your claws back. Why?"
Kael's chest rose and fell with shallow breaths. "Because if I let go… I stop being me."
Varic barked a sharp laugh. "You think you are you? You've never been anyone. You were Hollow. Nothing. The shard made you something worth fearing."
Kael's fists clenched. "…That doesn't mean I have to become like you."
Varic's grin sharpened, wolfish. "Like me? Boy, I don't bow to priests. I don't beg the gods for scraps. Out here, I hunt, I take, I survive. That's freedom. And you could have it too—if you'd stop pretending you're anything else."
Kael met his gaze, voice quiet but steady. "If freedom means becoming a beast, then I'll die a man."
The words hit like a blade. For the first time, Varic's grin faltered.
The silence that followed was thick, broken only by the crackle of burning brush. Varic's eyes narrowed, gleaming with something dangerous. "You're not brave, boy. You're weak. Afraid of what you really are."
He slammed the haft of his axe into the ground, sparks leaping. "The shard is already eating you. Every battle, every kill—it drinks deeper. You'll break. Sooner or later, you'll be standing where I am now. And when that day comes, I'll be waiting."
Kael's gut twisted. The words were true, in part—he could feel the shard's hunger gnawing inside him even now. But he clenched his jaw, refusing to give Varic the satisfaction.
"I'll prove you wrong."
Varic smirked, shouldering his axe. "Then survive. Show me your 'humanity' can keep you alive when the beasts and the cult come for your throat. I'll be watching."
With that, he vanished into the smoke, laughter fading into the distance like a predator retreating into the shadows.
Kael sat in silence, trembling, his fists tight around nothing. He hated Varic's words, but the shard's pulse in his chest made them impossible to ignore.
What if he was right?
What if every step toward survival dragged him closer to becoming the very monster he swore he'd never be?
⸻
➡️ Cliffhanger: Kael rejects Varic's philosophy, but the seed of doubt is planted. He knows the shard is changing him, and Varic is proof of what he could become if he breaks.