Chapter 49: Seeing the Light (5)
That same innocence. That same fragile light.
Now his eyes burn red.
So do Gene’s. So do the others’. But my red is gone. It faded with the last blood I gave. My glow is dimmed, cooled. Blue now. Like the sun after dusk. Blood overused.
And I, the one they call a deity—the one they believe in—I’m hollow.
A burden wrapped in myth.
“What shall we do, Eos?” Gene breathes into my ear, low and quiet, as if speaking any louder might break what’s left of me.
I’ve always had a plan. Always. But now?
I look at Cham again, and his silhouette flickers. For a moment, it’s not him I see—but Ren. Just Ren, standing in that same posture, staring up at me like I’m something more than I am. The image blurs, and I blink it away, squinting as if I can force reality to stay still.
Think, Elliot. Think. They don’t call you Eos for nothing.
The sewer stretches ahead, a long, narrow corridor of filth and stone. A straight path for a few hundred meters, then it curves, then splits again. I try to trace the route in my mind, see it clearly—each bend, each alcove—but even as I think, my legs have already started moving. The others follow, wet boots slapping into sewage.
The green is behind us.