Now is the time where everything is coming to a head. Now is the time that will make or break me. That will make or break all of us. I can’t mess up now. I can’t mess up now. I can’t mess up now, I can’t mess up now, I can’t mess up now. 

The Emperor had told me to go tell the guards in the tunnel to double their numbers. He had declared it with his high and proud voice, full of dignity and knowledge and grandeur. He had told his son that he was taking his concerns into consideration and at his request he was doubling the guards placed in the tunnel, from eight to sixteen, so that if all else failed, the guards would at least be able to take on any thieves and protect the World Stones. 

The Prince had seemed slightly upset still, and I know why. The Prince is war-hungry. He is bloodthirsty. And if he could take an opportunity to fight, especially an opportunity to fight the people who he thinks of as monsters, he would be fully sated. He is satisfied with the increase of guards, and he voiced that satisfaction very strongly, but he is not satisfied by the fact that after everything that happened, he will still not be sent off to war. Still, he knows to be glad for the fact that the Emperor listened to him. It showed him that the Emperor values his input and respects his leadership capabilities. 

I walk to the barracks where the extra guards are training. It’s a very long walk. During the walk I practice in my head everything that I am going to say, everything that I am going to do. I think of every single step I will take, I think of every single posture and movement I will make. I practice my expression and my voice and my fake tears. I am glad that there is no-one around me right now, for that means that I can let my guard down just the tiniest bit as I work to calm myself before the grand finale. 

I get to the barracks and tell the guards what the Emperor told me, that their presence is needed in the tunnel, that they need to send their best soldiers down to the tunnel to guard it. The soldiers in the barracks laugh at me. They taunt me. Calling me skinny, calling me scrawny, calling me weak. They calll me a monster. But it’s all things I have heard before. It’s all things that I do not really mind if they call me. Well, I do mind. I really do. But I tell myself that I don’t. I tell myself that I don’t and I take it and I help guide the chosen warriors down to the tunnel. 

When we get there, I tell the guards that they are going to have new comrades amongst themselves. And I tell them that the Emperor decreed that from now on there will be sixteen guards to look after the tunnel instead of eight. The warriors already there greet the warriors that I have brought in as comrades and brothers. And they listen to the Emperor’s words good and well, as they always do. 

I feel sorry for all the Imperials, actually. I feel sorry for them, because they are not free either. They have to listen to the Emperor and his family, the same as we all do. Sure, they’re not slaves. Sure, their magic is not harvested in order to make energy for all the technology that runs everything. Sure, they get more freedom than those of us who are slaves. But ultimately they are not free. Ultimately they still have to obey. And that’s not fair. It’s really not. Everyone deserves to be free. Free from the tyranny of the Emperor. 

I will set them all free. I swear to whatever gods do or don’t exist, I will set them all free. 

“One more thing,” I tell the guards, meekly, “the Emperor told me to transport the World Stones to him so that he may check that they are indeed whole.” This is a lie, but I have to lie. I’ve always had to lie. I have to save everyone. 

“Okay, slave,” the head guard agrees, letting me pass through the tunnel. 

The tunnel thrums under my feet and my breath comes choked and heaving in my chest. I can feel all the immense energy all around me, being used to keep the void away, being used to create a small little bubble in the manic darkness all around me. I feel so full being here. So full of energy and so completely empty at the same time. I wonder how the guards can handle it. 

Finally, I reach the chest where all seven Stones are kept. I breathe deeply. And I take the box into my hands.

In order for the Empire to think that the Stones are truly lost, in order for them to not go out looking for the Stones, they need to think that the act I am about to do is for the sake of the Empire and not the sake of the resistance. So I have to play this next part exactly right. 

I walk to the edge of the void and hold the chest out in front of the void.

“What are you doing, boy?!” a guard demands. 

“I’m helping the Empire,” I lie, smothering my voice with emotion. “I’m keeping the Empire safe.”

“Just …” he doesn’t know what to say, “just don’t move. I’m getting the Emperor!”

I wait until the Emperor arrives, trailed by the Empress and the Prince. 

“What are you doing, boy?!” the Emperor shouts. 

“I’m keeping the Empire safe! The only way to protect the Empire, the only way to stop the monsters from getting the World Stones is to destroy them in the void!” My heart is racing. I make it obvious that my heart is racing.

“Come back with those Stones right this second, you ungrateful brat!” They can’t just kill me. All energy takes time to go through the void bubble, and I would detect it and destroy the stones before any blast reached me.

“No, your Highness, I am grateful! I am so grateful to the Empire! I’m so grateful for all you have done!” I make tears steam down my face as I say this, and I turn to face him so that he can see my tears, my snot, my desperate crying. “I am grateful and I want to show that I am grateful! I want to show that I can help the Empire! Please let me help the Empire!”

“If you know what’s good for you you will back down right this very second!”

“I’m not like the other monsters! I’m not like them!” I make my voice break as I speak these words. “I would do anything to protect you! I would do anything to protect all of us! Please hear me out! I’m doing this for you! Please accept me!”

“Why are you doing this?” the Prince asks. 

“Because, you see how dangerous the monsters are. You’ve seen how they tried to steal the World Stones! The only way that the World Stones will be free from them is if we get rid of them! If we throw them into the void, that’s the only way to protect them from being captured!”

“Why are you doing this?!” the Emperor demands. 

“I’m doing this for you! I’m doing this for all of you! I’m doing this to prove my loyalty! I’m loyal! I swear I’m loyal! Please see that in me! Please!”

“You will never be more than a slave!” the Emperor shouts. “It does not matter what you do for the Empire or what you do for us, your position will not change!”

“I love the Empire anyways,” I tell him, fake sureness and fake defiance in my voice. “I love the Empire and I am willing to do anything to protect the Empire.”

“Please come back!” the Empress begs. “I will miss you! I won’t be able to live without you!”

“I’m sorry, mother,” I tell her, putting as much sorrow and regret into those words as I can. I let more tears stream down my eyes.

And I take the chest of World Stones. And I step with them, into the void, into the blackness. Into the nothingness that is everythingness and the everythingness that is nothingness. All seven stones and myself. 

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