The Condemned!

I stared at the spider, for it was the spider, who was standing in front of me as a beautiful woman with spiders scuttling over her fair arms as she raised them and pointed toward me.

"I stand in your way, young one. Tell me, what truth shall allow you to pass by me this time?"

Silently, I stared at the spider.

Harshly, the spider spoke. "You have only one choice. Defeat me and you shall pass."

"What is your name?" I asked softly.

"What?" the spider said, caught off guard.

"What is your name?" I repeated.

"I-I don't have a name" Faltering, the spider replied.

"Then I shall name you Atros," I said with a smile.

"Atros... a good name. A dark name. Do you think of me as malevolent, child?"

"Not at all. I named you because of your light that is hidden beneath, gleaming dully." I spoke with a tilt of my head.

Pausing, she nodded her head in acquiescence and said, "Let Atros be my name now, as you wish."

Thinking, I abruptly spoke out, "What if I had not made the choice to take the left door at that intersection?"

"Then you would have had to face all the challenges without the improvement that the stream brought you," she replied, smiling.

"Ah," I grunted, and then grinning, I looked at her before hefting my dagger and holding it out in front of me.

Shaking her head sadly, she too readied herself, arms in front as a dagger materialized in her hands too.

Then she watched with wide eyes as I stabbed the dagger... towards myself.

Blood sprayed in the air and my heart stopped as I took my dagger away from my chest.

I watched detachedly as my lifeblood flowed and she watched, aghast, as I stood there.

Then my legs buckled, and I fell and she ran forward and held me before I could touch the ground.

Lowering me carefully, she laid me on the ground and looked at me.

Peacefully, I gazed back and coughed.

"Why," she murmured.

"I am you. You are me. I am nobody." I whispered.

A tear sprang into existence in Atros's eyes and slowly flowed out, falling like a pearl on my face.

"You truly understand," she said with a heartbroken smile.

"I do," I whispered.

"You do not judge?" She asked, still with the same smile.

"I do not," I said, as strongly as I could.

Gently, she stroked my hair back, and leaning down, she kissed my brow.

"Athra'l elevar sal Indral," she whispered, and the blood stopped flowing out and warmth began spreading through me, my heart beating again.

"Athra'l elevar sol Indrol!" She shouted and my reflection burst out of me, running as fast as it could - only for black chains to wrap around his black form and immobilize him.

"Athra'l elevar sil Indrole!" She commanded, and I rose into the air alongside the reflection and I stared at him and he stared at me.

Unblinking, Atros rose to the side of the reflection, and then she opened her mouth and screamed.

Covering my ears, I crouched down in pain, but the reflection seemed in worse pain than me as he shrieked in torment.

"Indral!" Atros shouted, and the reflection began turning white slowly.

As Atros's face was beaded with sweat, her arms rose as though to hold up the world and time passed slowly until with a gasp she faltered, and the reflection - mostly white - tried to shoot into me.

Understanding what Atros had been doing, I grabbed it and held it in place and the tattoos flared into existence on my body while the black chains retreated from the reflection in panic.

Gazing at it, I was about to burn it with the tattoos, control over it granted by the primal need to destroy that raged through me, When I smiled and I let go.

Stunned, the reflection - still mostly white with parts of black, darted inside me with joy.

Disbelief coated Atros's features.

"Do you understand what you have done?" she asked, her voice barely audible.

Grinning, I nodded.

"Do you know what will happen?" She asked dangerously.

"It will try to seize control from me," I said dismissively.

"And you do not fear it?" She asked, softly now.

"I do. I fear it. I hate it. I wish it was destroyed." I said earnestly as I spread my hands.

"However, I will fight it. I will live with it. I will go through death with it. Because it is me, just like I am you, and you are nobody."

Smiling at me broadly now, Atros shook her head before she threw her head back and peals of sweet laughter sounded out.

"Indeed. You are truly a Drayke."

Cheerfully, I walked up to her and gazed at her from below; she being significantly taller than me.

Then I hugged her and said, "Thank you. For letting me have another chance."

She hugged me back and held me close as she whispered, "It is not me you have to thank, child."

Shaking my head, I stepped back and earnestly looked at her face before saying, "If you had not pointed the way ahead, I would have chosen the wrong path and ended up destroying myself, slowly but surely."

Mutely, she stared at me as she asked, "Do you know how much you have lost?"

Shaking my head bitterly to indicate that I didn't know, I waited as she bit her lips and then said in a voice softer than a mosquito, "A quarter."

A quarter.

Worse than what I expected.

Bal.

Wincing, I asked, "How much more can it go?", My meaning clear to her.

"No more…" she said with a sad smile.

I nodded in understanding and reached out and squeezed her hand, eliciting a wry smile from her.

Holding her hand, I walked into the distance with her, and we passed all the caves, rooms, and caverns that I had previously gone through. All were empty. Devoid of anything and anyone.

Finally, at the start of the cavern that Atros had originally occupied, I turned around to face her and said with a cheerful smile, "It is time."

"It is time, child."

"I won't remember any of this, will I?" I asked.

Shaking her head, she confirmed my guess.

"What about when I was 5? That should also have been erased, yes?"

"You cannot remember that?" She asked, puzzled.

Shocked now, I said, "I cannot!"

Frowning, she chanted arcane words before her expression eased.

Then she smiled a glorious smile.

"Fate is indeed capricious," she said with a sigh.

This time it was my turn to be puzzled, but she remained mute and so we stood, staring at each other.

Then I heaved in a deep breath and I held out my hand while staring upwards at the abyss entrance.

And it appeared after a long, long time.

The horn of Valor... and the Fragment of Light.