Chapter 46: A New Day
The crimson sun breached the horizon as Arthur stirred from his restless slumber, his eyes heavy from a night spent wrestling with his thoughts. The morning air was crisp, carrying the faint scent of decay that permeated this forsaken realm.
He sat up slowly, muscles aching from sleeping on the cold stone floor of the temple that had sheltered them through the night. The pain was welcome—physical discomfort distracted him, however briefly, from the hollow ache in his chest where grief had made its home.
Luke was gone. His parents too. Their faces haunted his dreams, their absence a weight he carried with every breath.
Yet something had shifted within him during the long, dark hours. Aziel’s words from the previous evening had burrowed deep into his consciousness, taking root in fertile soil.
’Dying here won’t do anything for them.’
Arthur ran a hand through his disheveled hair, exhaling slowly as the realization crystallized. His grief wasn’t diminished—it remained an open, painful wound that throbbed with every heartbeat. His guilt still lingered like a shadow at midday, impossible to escape. But rather than allowing these emotions to consume him whole, perhaps he could transmute them into something else. Something useful.
’I’m going to live,’ he thought to himself, the words taking shape like a solemn vow. ’I’m going to live for Luke... for my parents.’
But mere survival felt hollow, insufficient. If he was going to continue breathing in a world where they no longer existed, he needed purpose—something beyond just drawing his next breath.
’If I’m going to live,’ Arthurs resolve was growing stronger with each word, ’I’m going to do it right.’