Entry 10: True Face

-Rai-

Rai could have chosen to kill the creature he presumed was Felkala right away, but that wouldn't have offered any satisfaction. He wanted her to know why she was about to die, and how much she deserved it.

So, he took Felkala and hastily walked away from the Sanctuary, as he had no more business with the place.

One thing Rai noticed as he carried Felkala to the tunnel's exit is that she weighed practically nothing – even compared to other children her size. At least they have some heft to them. In fact, she was so light, that if felt like he was carrying a bag full of air.

Suddenly, the girl's piercing screams rang in Rai's ears. He looked down at her and saw her turning her head away from the sunlight that just came in view. She was clawing at her eyes and curling painfully into a ball.

It was clear that she didn't like the sunlight. This fact alone helped Rai believe that she had stayed underground this entire time. If she had stayed this way since young, her eyes may have never grown properly? It would make sense why she covered her eyes and reacted strongly whenever torches were held in front of her, as she can't bear bright lights.

Rai shook his head. He didn't want to be thinking about the girl. He wanted to go ahead and take his revenge…

… But he didn't do so immediately. Something felt off.

To confirm his suspicions, Rai wanted to ask the girl a few questions, but he couldn't even be heard with the way she was nonsensically wailing. He couldn't take it anymore, so he carried her back underground.

Not wanting to be interrupted by the Dista clansmen, he made his way down the opposite end of the tunnel, where the wellspring was.

Once they were brought away from the sunlight, the little girl stopped crying, though she was still covering her eyes. Annoyed at how pitiful she was making herself, Rai took her deeper and deeper into the tunnel – so deep that they couldn't see the sunlight anymore.

He couldn't see her anymore, in this dark tunnel, so he muttered a spell he had learned for snooping around in the dark. "ManMaeLa-SylVarDin". It means, "Small and unnatural light."

Upon uttering the simple spell, a soothing and dim ball of white light lit up the tunnel, bobbing in the air mysteriously. It was enough to tell shapes apart, but it would hurt your eyes if you tried to read under this poor ambiance.

As soon as he did that, the little girl in his arms immediately calmed down, though she would occasionally still be sniffing to herself and wiping her tears. Rai then set her down firmly, which elicited a short cry from her.

"Will you stop that!?" Rai almost shouted at her. He hated hearing her acting like she was a child all the time, especially after the harm she had caused.

She's at least a 1000 years old already, and she shouldn't be acting like a child!

Before he killed her, Rai wanted to make sure of a few things. "Is your name Felkala?"

She ingored him.

Feeling frustrated, Rai repeated himself, "Your name? Felkala?"

The little girl paused and stopped her crying, as if finally listening to him. Rai sighed to himself. Does this girl not even know how to speak? He then started asking if her name was Felkala in every language he knew, but the only thing she said at the end was, "FELKALA!" She just giggled to herself after that, as if the rest of his question had nothing to do with her.

It was obvious to Rai now that she really couldn't speak. Well, she COULD be acting, but Rai didn't know why she would do such a thing in this situation. It's not like she knows what he wants to do to her.

Despite Rai's attempts to control her, she didn't seem to pay attention to whatever he was saying. She just kept sniffing to herself and fidgeting around.

Afraid she would run off, Rai refused to let her go. This proved futile, since she had recovered her strength after so much time. Hence, she started screaming and stretching her limbs while grabbing whatever she could in the process.

Rai's physical might was no match for hers – especially since he had gotten weaker after being turned into a 10 year old upon classing up his abilities as a shaman.

So, she immediately broke free from his grip.

One thing that struck Rai as odd was that instead of walking on her own two feet, she was crawling on the ground like a toddler – anxiously feeling about for her surroundings.

Almost completely randomly, she started crying out in distress for some reason. To Rai, she looked like she was lost.

After a making a round exploring the edges of the tunnel, she approached the white light Rai had made and tried to grab it, giggling to herself at the new toy she had found.

Interested in what she would do, Rai lifted the light up a little higher – out of her reach. He could clearly see the pouting frustration on her face as she shakily held onto the wall and stood up. He noticed that she was firmly holding onto the wall, as if she was afraid to let it go. Rai pulled the light away from the wall, and the girl reached out with one hand and cried out for it.

She stood there for nearly half an hour before she walked forward to grab the light. She realized that the light was lifting up too high for her, and she reached out on her tippy toes. Rai could see that she wasn't used to standing without a support, and she fell onto her bottom.

"Give up already, little monster."

Of course, she didn't give up. She spent another half hour or so on her challenge with a pensive look on her face. She then crawled over to Rai and started climbing on him. "What the…!?" Rai exclaimed. Does this girl not know any boundaries?

Unbeknownst to him, he was just a part of the scenery to her – a rock with a fleshy texture that sometimes moves. She didn't understand the concept of there being individual lives other than herself.

She awkwardly clung onto his back and climbed up – reaching for anything she could grab – including his hair. When she started pulling on his hair to lift herself up, Rai started screaming out, "Ow Ow! Stop that!" Instinctively, he lifted her upon onto his shoulders and she grabbed the white light in her hands at last.

A little put out that he was letting the little monster lead him about, he tore her off his shoulders and put her down. He took a good look at her face and noticed that her eyes were so wide that it looked like her golden eyes were popping out of her head. He could see that his white magelight was reflected in her eyes as she stared at it – memorized.

Rai could tell what kind of expression she had on her face; it was pure wonder and joy. Unable to look away from her, Rai just sat there and observed – feeling more and more sullen the more he interacted with her.

He was amazed at how long she could be fixated on something once she set her mind to it.

As Rai looked into her eyes for the first time, he was unable to look away for a reason he didn't understand at first… It didn't take him long to learn why.

While Rai's gaze was transfixed on her eyes, he began to notice something strange. The more he looked into those eyes, the more they felt like an abyss – as if one could look into it and never find the bottom of it.

It was a strange feeling.

What was even more strange was how her eyes began to glow a soft yellow, then a radiant gold. As he was consumed by curiosity, he stared deeper. Pretty soon, the light in her eyes was so bright that they were like 2 blazing suns that filled his entire vision.

In that moment, Rai looked away feeling terrified. He remembered quite clearly the traumatic events that happened 1000 years ago –the black abyss that opened up in the dream realm and the great golden eyes that peered out of them from the Void Rift

Looking away, thoughts of what she could be ran through his mind. Perhaps she was far more powerful than he had anticipated? Was she related to the black scaled beast battling it out in the Void? If so, she might be valuable enough to spark greed in even the gods themselves…

… and she was sitting here, aimlessly playing with a ball of light that was casually made with the lowest tier spell.

Finally, Rai understood why somebody had gone to such great lengths to hide the child so thoroughly. After all, the golden eyed black beast had one shot a god out of the sky without even paying attention. If Felkala was even remotely similar to such a beast…

"No…" Rai shook his head, refusing to think about it.

In complete denial of such thoughts, he continued to observe the girl as she stared at the light for hours and hours without moving. She seemed so happy that he couldn't disturb her for some reason.

While she did this, Rai was free to finally spend some time thinking to himself.

____________

Rai didn't know when, but he had stopped hating this little monster.

It was odd, really. He had been so twisted by anger that he had painted Felkala as some sort of immortal monster that's in a body younger than her age – much like himself; he hadn't been seeing her as a real child. Because he thought she was an adult the whole time, he felt justified pining for vengeance all these years.

However, after meeting her, he could really only see her as an ignorant child. The harm Felkala did to his wife seemed more like a freak accident than malice.

This very thought is what frustrated Rai to no end. He had invested so much of his feelings into this hatred, only to feel like the bad guy when he thought of killing her. The laugh he gave out sounded more like a cry. "My life is such a joke."

Feeling depressed, Rai tore off a portion of his sleeve and started wrapping it around Felkala's eyes – softly, as to not startle her.

As Rai did this he softly spoke to himself, "Long ago, when my clan was still alive, they had a law between our different settlements. If a man was responsible for the death of another family's child, then that man would have to give his next born child to the victim's family as repayment."

Pausing for a moment, Rai continued – this time more solemnly, "You are responsible for my child's death. As repayment, you now will now become my family's child."

With the little girl's sensitive eyes protected from the sun by the cloth he had wrapped around her head, Rai picked Felkala up and carried her out of the tunnel and into the wilderness of Gruul.

As they left the Sanctuary, Rai sighed to himself, "I hope this makes you satisfied Pam. I've felt your spirit lingering all these years. Perhaps you can rest in peace once I've raised a child for us."