A man clad in black stood within an empty, dome-like room, the pale moonlight barely filtering through the exterior that was entirely made of crystal clear glass...And illuminated by that soft, gentle moonlight, was an altar. An altar that, while now empty, appeared to once have greater meaning.
Somehow, it seemed to resemble an unlit torch.
The man said nothing as he looked on with great intent, his silver eyes glinting in the darkened room.
He only reacted, just barely, at the sound of footsteps clacking against the marbled floor.
"Again? You're going to vanish in here one of these days. It's hard enough to see you as it is." A feminine voice echoed throughout the room. "Ever think to choose a different wardrobe color every so often??" She frowned, receiving no answer in response, and she let out a heavy sigh, her fiery red hair swishing to the side slightly as she tilted her head.
If she had to be honest, she felt rather bored with the lack of reaction from him, but that only made her want to receive some kind of reaction. These types were always fun to mess with.
"...You're awfully quiet, as usual...Which is odd, considering you seemed so amused and interested with the little kitty from the other day?" She added in with a wry grin, glancing at him out of the corner of her icy blue eyes as he passed her a single look over his shoulder.
His eyes were void of any particular emotion, only glinting with light as cold as the pale moonlight. Almost chilling, but she paid it no mind.
"...Sydel." He finally spoke up with a small sigh, his gaze eventually moving back ahead of him. "What is it?? Are you bored again??"
"I was just curious, is all." Sydel answered honestly, throwing her hands up with a smallish shrug, her eyes fixated on him with a certain intensity. "...Rather...Why did you let those brats go?? It wasn't as though you couldn't have kept your hold on them. Punished them, or whatever you felt like doing." She added in, crossing her arms and leaning off to the side just a bit as she waited for a response.
"Hmmm..." Finally, the faintest of smiles reached his lips. One might even say he looked intrigued as he thought on the subject. "...Call it a whim, I suppose." He answered honestly, his gaze fixated on the empty altar ahead of him. "...That boy..." He began pensively. "I recalled seeing him somewhere before. I wanted time to remember from where before I decided what to do with him." His silver eyes narrowed, lifting one hand up as he pressed a knuckle against his chin in thought. "His mother tried to flee with him out of the city during the raid. I had personally attended the chase, and he witnessed her death. Ahh, the events were such a blur that it took me some time to recall it...However, that boy didn't seem to recognize me at all. Perhaps he was traumatized??" He continued on with an amused chuckle.
"...I don't see how any of this sounds even remotely interesting." Sydel chimed in, rolling her eyes with an unamused sigh, growing bored with his rambling. She just didn't understand where he might have been going with this, or rather...How it held any relevance towards her question in the slightest.
As for the man, he didn't say another word on the subject, seemingly getting lost within his thoughts once more.
He just didn't understand it. Even after raiding the entire city, after searching high and low...
"...That blasted king...Just where did he hide it?" He finally spoke up again after that long, drawn out silence, lifting his gaze to the darkened sky. "The entire clan searched endlessly after learning of it's disappearance, yet there still hasn't been a single trace of it." He narrowed his eyes, reaching his hand out as though to grab something that simply wasn't there.
Where was it? He'd searched in every nook and cranny. Every individual tied to the royal family, every hidden chamber within the castle...And yet, there was simply no trace of it. Even to his dying breath, the king wouldn't speak a word.
He felt as though he had overlooked something...Something incredibly important, but he just couldn't quite grasp it.
What piece of the puzzle was still missing?
"What's the point in even obtaining it?" Sydel interjected. "The king and the family were eradicated as punishment for hiding it away, but there's no telling where it ended up...Isn't this enough?? The city is under our complete control, and you have no intention of leaving it, so what good will it do you when your power is already absolute as it is?" She questioned, icy blue eyes quizzically meeting a piercing silver.
"...Have you ever heard the story of the goddess this world once hailed?" He answered her question with a question of his own. "According to the ancient texts, in the beginning, there was only the moon. The world was wrapped in darkness, only illuminated by the moon's pale light, inconstant, the shadows it cast running deep. Terrible creatures lurked within those shadows, terrorizing the denizens of the world...But one day, a goddess who held the power of the sun within her very hands appeared. With that light, she cast the world out of shadows, creating the delicate balance of what we know now as 'day' and 'night.'" He explained, that faint smile returning to his lips. "The world enjoyed a new age of peace and prosperity...But it was naught to last. Eventually, mankind grew greedy. They desired the power of the 'sun' for themselves, and cast the world into a new age of 'shadows.' The goddess wept as they turned their backs upon her, and overcome by sadness, chose to cast away her own life, burying the power alongside her...To do this, she split 'herself' into two parts. One, the 'flesh' that became lost over the ages, it's meaning unknown...And the second, the 'power', that eventually became the Eternal Flame. The very flame that once burned within this room years ago, forever meant to remain in eternal slumber." He reached his hand out towards the moon, closing his hand 'around' it, as though to grab it within his hands. "The power of the sun...I wonder what it would be like to hold the sun within your palm...Would it welcome me warmly? Or would I be burned to my very core in the process...? It sounds terribly interesting, doesn't it?" He questioned, casting Sydel a small glance.
"...Beats me." Sydel replied blandly, neither having heard of such a story, nor could she really bring herself to care. "I had intended to see if I could get a rise out of you, but I hadn't expected you to ramble on like this."
The man simply chuckled in response to Sydel's boredom on the subject, returning his gaze to the altar once more.
Motives and stories aside, he simply had to be patient. He'd already waited over a decade now, what was a little longer in comparison??
Surely, soon enough...His search would come to an end. Somehow, he was certain of that.
That missing puzzle piece would eventually fall right into place.
So, he turned his back, leaving the empty altar behind as he walked out of the room.
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