89 Lottery Winner (1/2)
A curious thing, returning from the grave. He found it hard to describe the feeling. It was like someone had robbed him of his peace, again.
This makes it the second time I've been denied. I am really that undesirable of a person? To have become despised by death itself…
Reed laughed weakly. He tossed out another scrap of bread onto the ground and said, ”I'm so unwanted, I've been given a third chance at life! I've must have broken some kind of record…”
A pair of doves strolled beside Reed as their heads bobbed back and forth like pendulums, hell-bent on eating every last scrap of bread on the ground. They seemed delighted, unlike their gracious masters…
”Can you not, Ka'an? You're alive — be grateful that the lifeweavers were able to save what was left of you. Had they not succeeded…”
”Whoa there, it was just a bad joke! Relax! I didn't mean it, of course. Which idiot would ever choose death over life? I'm glad,” said Reed, startled. He cursed himself and instantly regretted his words.
I've already won this lottery once. Winning it again feels so…
”Look… I'm just a little surprised. I had come to terms with myself back there, so it feels really weird right now, uh, being alive. I'm happy that I'm alive, sure, but I don't feel like a million-credit man. I can't explain it properly, even though I want to…”
Reed turned around and looked down at the fountain that'd been behind him. The gently rippling waves on the water's surface reflected an ever-so-slightly distorted image back at the boy.
There he was, clear as day as if he had never even been hurt in the first place. Not a single scratch on the paint, so to speak. It didn't feel real. He remembered the pain. He had not forgotten what had happened to him.
White-hot and relentless. Drilling itself into his skull, preventing him from even thinking properly. The smell of his own charred fat and skin wafted into his mind. The sight of his contorted, maimed figure before he blacked out...
It didn't match up. Reed stared at the boy on the water's surface — it felt as if he were looking at a stranger.
”It's you, Ka'an, same as you've always been. The Royal Lifeweavers labored for an entire month without rest, you know. Had it not been for their herculean efforts, you would have surely died.”
Reed had unwittingly become the Royal Lifeweaver's greatest masterpiece over the course of the last month. The difficulty of the assignment and the amount of work they had to perform proved such a monumental task that they had nearly given up hope that a successful recovery would happen.
The regrowth process had been prolonged even further because of the special nature who they were healing, in addition to their own concerns about the consequences any mistakes could have on him…
”To have revived fragments of a corpse back into… this,” said Reed as he stared at his reflection. ”Truly astounding. Even with the assistance of Anima and technology, this is still an awe-inspiring feat of skill. This place is like almost like a land of miracles…”
Lu'um nodded and said, ”That is the kind of the power we used to possess during our prime across all reality. We were capable of doing anything. Entire universes for us to use as sandboxes. Creation and destruction on an unimaginable scale as we prodded our reality's deepest secrets — the fundamental governing laws of this entire multiverse.”
Reed threw another chunk of bread out to his pals and said, ”Yeah, well… that isn't the case anymore. The only thing we have now are two dingy, little cages to keep the monsters out. One for the rich few, and the other for the poor masses.”
He stood up, threw the rest of his bread on the ground and said, ”Where's Lacrima? You haven't told me what happened to her ever since I've come around. Did she survive, or is she…?”
”She's still alive, but she's out of commission. I don't thin—”
”Stop. Don't even begin with that nonsense. Just… take me to her.”
Lu'um sighed and said, ”So be it. If that is what you wish…” She stood up and said, ”Follow me. She is being preserved in the Shrine of Succession.”
The Shrine of Succession existed deep beneath the original royal palace that the ancestral family had once lived in. It was a sacred place reserved only for the true heirs of the family — they who would carry the royal family's long and painful burden for the sake of the empire's prosperity…
It was not a place for the unworthy.
There was something about the place that made Reed feel uncomfortable. Something in the room felt uninviting as if he wasn't supposed to be there. Uncontrollable goosebumps formed on his arms the moment he stepped inside of the damned place like a malicious pox.
His body was reacting to something and he knew it.
”What was this place used for, by the way? I think you forgot to mention that on the way here, sweetcheeks,” said Reed.
”This was where the true heirs of the royal family would… forsake what made them mortal. They would offer it and in return, were given an incredible opportunity. This place is also where… she was born.”
”Is that so… Sounds like a terrible trade, if you ask me.”
Lu'um shook her and head and said, ”She's over here, past these doors. Listen, before you ent—”