Rot and Reason

Elric’s strict training regimen began before he could walk.

He didn’t know a life where his purpose wasn’t abundantly clear.

While children his age played with blocks and jumped rope, he was throwing daggers and wrapping his wounds. While other kids went home to loving parents and a warm bed, he went to what could only be referred to as a cell and a cot.

There was one incident where he tried to sneak out and join the other kids. His punishment was so severe he learned to never attempt it again.

Making friends wasn’t part of the prophecy. Having a normal upbringing wasn’t in the plans for the boy who was destined to take down the Dark One and rid the country of the plague that was slowly taking over.

The Elders kept him isolated. Attachments were nothing but distractions he could not afford to have. Life was not meant to be lived; his life was only a means to the Dark One’s end.

When crops began to wither, birds ceased their chirping, and daylight became shorter every day that passed, the Elders decided it was time. The Dark One was approaching and Elric was ready.

The knock on his door came at the break of dawn, the red sunrise an omen of what would come.

He was not asked if he was ready. He was never asked anything. Only given directions that he was forced to obey.

The Elders escorted him to the edge of the village.

“The Dark One awaits. Your life’s purpose has come to fruition. Do not fail us.” There was no reassurance, only expectation.

Elric gave a curt nod before walking through the gate, one step at a time closer to the moment he had trained his entire life for.

Anxiety and fear were foreign to him. There was no room for feelings, only focus and determination.

The rotted earth was his guide, laid out plainly before him. The further he walked, the quieter the world became.

Even his footsteps eventually felt swallowed by the land itself. The Blight spread in twisting patterns beneath his boots, pulsing faintly, as though it were alive and waiting to swallow him whole.

It didn’t take long to find the Dark One. He was at the center of a pit where rot radiated and infected the earth in fractals around him.

On hands and knees, the Dark One chanted a foreign incantation, repeating the same phrase over and over again. He did not look up, or make any indication that he was aware of another presence.

He had no doubt in his mind that this was the Dark One. This was the moment his whole life had been lived for. His only purpose.

Elric didn’t hesitate any longer. Using the stealth gifted to him by the rotted earth, he came up to the Dark One from behind, with dagger in hand. The closer he came, the clearer he could hear the incantations. He expected it to sound deep and angry but instead it sounded like the Dark One was pleading, almost desperate.

“Finn!” Elric heard a voice call when he was within arm’s reach of the Dark One.

The voice broke through the Dark One’s incanting and he lifted his head to look towards the source of the voice. Elric used the moment to his advantage and in one precise, practiced motion, he drew the blade across the man’s throat.

It was over. The Blight pulsed and seemed almost to get stronger.

A moment that was twenty years in the making was over in the blink of an eye. He had been so focused for the entirety of his life, that he never gave much thought to what would come after.

It seemed as though there should have been some dramatic change. He would hear birds chirping, or see the earth start to heal itself. Flowers would bloom and crops would magically be restored. Although he hadn’t given it much thought, he had always known there would be a before and after. He just hadn’t expected them to be exactly the same, save for the dead body that lay at his feet.

The more Elric thought about it, the more he wondered if it had really been that simple. It had taken years of training. How was it over that quickly?

He flipped the carcass over, not expecting to see a man not much older than he was, and so… normal in appearance. Was this truly the Dark One? Had he killed the right being? The Dark One seemed like such a misnomer for someone so… underwhelming.

His thoughts were disrupted by a high-pitched scream tearing through the air.

“What have you done?!”

Elric was taken aback. Growing up the way he had didn’t account for a lot of social experiences, but the woman didn’t sound pleased that he had just saved both them and their country.

“What have you done?” She sobbed, letting gravity take her as she lay over the Dark One’s form.

“It’s okay,” he stated. “I’m the Chosen One. I’ve fulfilled the prophecy. The Dark One is dead. We are all saved.”

“The Dark One?” She blubbered. “You killed my brother. We’re healers, we’ve been trying to stop the blight!”

Healers? He had never been told of any healers. Was this hysterical woman telling the truth? Was it possible?

“Please, Finn. Wake up. Please don’t leave me,” she pleaded, holding her hands over the wound, as though she could stop the bleeding and restore him to life.

It couldn’t be true. This girl had to be mistaken. Elric had seen it with his own eyes, how the Dark One was using his powers to spread the blight. The questions and confusion were enough to make his head ache.

Before his eyes the woman’s grief morphed into rage.

“Healers swear an oath to never take a life. I’m finding it very difficult to find a reason I should continue to uphold that oath and not kill you where you stand,” she gritted through her teeth.

The chaos in his mind was accompanied by the woman’s shrieks.

Were the Elders wrong? Was he mistaken? Was the Dark One still out there? Was that why nothing had changed?

If she was telling the truth then his entire life, everything he was, meant nothing. If she was telling the truth, someone who was trying to heal the Blight was now gone.

It was too much to reconcile. Too much that couldn’t be undone.

Dagger still in hand, the woman joined her brother.

For perhaps the first time in his life, Elric smiled.

The world was once again quiet, just the way it should be.