Rowan's rapidly beating heart went still, it was almost as if it had stopped beating, reality around him seemed to fuzz before it settled and Seed frowned, his eyes piercing through space, looking for any outside interference and he could not find anything, and he stroked his jaw with a curious glint in his eyes, did he nearly break the final barrier in the heart of this stubborn grandson of his?
Inside Rowan's head was nothing but the voice of Maeve, he had repeated her words a million times over as if he was torturing his mind with the sound of her voice, he knew that he had almost unleashed his Origin bloodline upon Seed and Elura, nearly damning the consequences, but at the last second he held himself back,
"They all think they know me.... They all think that I'm a Breaker, and of my kind, they have seen a thousand times before...'
His gaze held the figure of his dying maid, seeing her in her final moments and as she was when she was a Nymph with butterfly wings running by his side, her duty had been one that was difficult, but she had never shirked from it, never broke her promise to his mother, and in the end Maeve had gone beyond the gates of death to stand by his side, protecting him with her body until she was not able to do so anymore. It did not matter that he was flawed, all that mattered was her duty to her Lord, a duty that had transcended love.
Countless memories of her life streamed into his mind, more potent than any immortal's mind could ever bear, and Rowan knew that at this instant, he had already known the path he was going to follow.
He allowed the green corruption of Seed's taint on his Supreme Circle to engulf him, and it broke against his skin, in the end, Rowan did not allow the power to enter his body.
Seed's voice entered his cars, he still sounded lazy as if he was even a bit bored, Rowan knew that it was because this old man had most likely begun focusing on what was next, and whatever the mental anguish he had inflicted on him, it did not matter until he had achieved what he set out to do,
"So, you have condemned her to death, Romion? Hmm, if your heart is this cold, why then do you still anguish? Do you not see that it is useless? Or do you believe because of your talent you can walk on two paths and you will not pay a price? I will show you what a disordered mind does to immortals of our bloodline power, but first, watch her die. It is the least that you can do, you set out not picking a path, and you shall suffer for your indecisiveness."
And so he did. He watched Maeve slowly crumble into ash, engraving her figure in the depths of his heart, and in the end, she closed her eyes, and her remnants drifted out of Elura's hand.
There was one single green feather that was left of her and it drifted into the distance, flying into the unknown. That feather seemed to be the final act of her defiance, as it flew towards the highest heavens despite the crushing might of an Old One.
Maeve was dead, and Rowan had watched her die. Despite the pain he felt, he hated himself because, for him, it was just one more scar on a heart that had bee hardened by countless scars. Reality had always found new ways to break him, and when the pain of the flesh was not enough when the pain of his soul had bee mundane, now they came for his heart, and unlike the previous two, it still hurt.
'Soul... yes, her soul might still remain; Maeve was strong, and she could have held back a part of herself. Find it, claim it, even if this secret is revealed to them, for her it is worth it!
His body was sealed off from the world and if it wasn't, he knew that it would be difficult to wrestle for the soul of Maeve from the hands of Elura, and soon even that did not matter because Rowan suddenly felt an empty spot open up in his soul, and he knew that even Maeve's soul had not survived, Elura had been very thorough.
The final shoe dropped and the full weight of her loss filled his heart and he shuddered, no matter how much he thought he had bee used to the pain of loss, every person he had met and loved still managed to leave a unique branding in his heart, and their loss always hit different, this was a pain he knew that he would never get used to.
Not knowing if there was anything left of her that could hear him, in his heart, he swore to her memories,
"You lived your life as a warrior, and you should have died like one, with a bloody blade in your hand and a smile on your lips. You deserved a better master than me Maeve, for I have sacrificed you to the altar of my glory, for my fucking power. In the end, I don't know if my dreams are worth the countless slaughters that I have imposed upon reality, but what I do know is that you believe in me, and who am I to fail that faith? This realm shall burn, this damned tree shall burn, and the woman that killed you shall beg for your forgiveness before I use her head as your tombstone!
The green runes bounding Rowan loosened and he could now talk, even move his head a little, he turned toward Seed and he grinned, his eyes were red but his voice was
steady,
"You did not need to do that, she did not need to die. The lesson you want to teach me is useless because this is who I am; my head rules my decisions, but I will not let go of my heart... you did not need to do this old man,
Seed looked at him; his eyes were entirely white with no pupils and were eerie, "No, I needed to do more. You are stunning Romion; I can feel your pain rippling like an endless wave; there is so much pain in your heart that I wonder how you are still able to make rational decisions. This is such a great waste of your potential and I wonder how you were able to reach the fifth dimension with this mindset of yours while holding a bloodline as potent as mine."
Rowan growled, "You really don't want to know what I do to keep me sane."
Seed shook his head, "Sanity is overrated, it is a tool for the weak. Did you think Elura was the only child that I had? She is not, but she was the only one that survived." The hand at the back of Rowan's neck tightened, "Let me show you the few that reached the fifth dimension, how they died upon the threshold of memory and perhaps you would begin to understand what the weight of my bloodline signifies."
Rowan felt his stomach lurch as if he had been pushed through a tunnel at speeds that were ridiculous even for him and reality changed as he saw himself before the shore of a green ocean.
His pupils shrank to a dot when he detected that every sand on this beach was a higher dimensional reality, ranging from the fourth dimension to the eighth, and no matter which side he looked, this beach seemed to extend for an eternity. "This is the sleeping Memory of Primordial Life," the voice of Seed rumbled in his consciousness, "It is here that you must e before you can find your Memory dimension. For others, they may easily reach the sixth dimension, but not for us, as far as your connection to the Tree of Life is strong and I can feel it from you... so potent, you must return here, or did you not wonder of all the places you needed to go for answers? Your steps took you to the branches of the Tree of Life; this is the instincts of your bloodline."
Reality rumbled and lightning flashed, and someone appeared in front of Rowan; it
was a man with long green hair and perfect features; confidence and power exuded from his body in waves, and Rowan could instantly discern the connection between this man, Elura, and himself, they were all descendants of Seed.
"I am not like any other Old One you may have e across, Rowan. I am a piece of a Primordial, and although that brings power, it also es with its burden. You were born a mortal, and if you had remained that way, you could have died in peace, yet the higher you climb in the dimensional ladder, the closer your connection with your roots would bee, and this would not affect you more than when you are at the verge of Memory,"
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