‘Why won't anyone help me?’66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv0mWiPXe4Q
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡueHKSJrH4E
The thought crashed through Cel's mind as consciousness dragged him back to a world of agony. His body convulsed against cold stone, a broken sob tore from his throat. Everything hurt - his ribs, his face, his back where fingernails had carved away divine flesh like his father was peeling bark from a tree.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNUaBpBG2ad
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‘Mom…’66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnCJhpMj2pU
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She'd just stood there. Watched him bleed. Let it happen.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYPMVJVKHlF
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1WR7h4uYPV
"No, no, no..." The words spilled out in a broken whisper as he curled tighter against the floor. His hands shook violently as they pressed against his mouth, trying to hold back the sounds that wanted to escape. Screams. More sobs. Anything to release the pressure building in his chest like a dam about to burst.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGrt4UqZzCR
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfbUZDN0LBe
Iron bars swam in and out of focus through his tears. A cell. They'd thrown him in a cell like some wild beast. The stench of rot and waste made his stomach heave, but there was nothing left to vomit.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTE316cqGJp
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuJGC62Ho3c
'This isn't real.' The thought came sudden and desperate. 'This is a nightmare. I'll wake up, Father will apologize, Mom will hold me and—'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxBxB79xuP4
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡenHzGTIGdh
But the pain was too sharp, too constant. The stone too cold against his burning skin.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ97axIP4Xcg
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMvJz5EMYWW
'They'll come for me,' he told himself, rocking back and forth on the filthy stone. 'Father was just angry. Mom will convince him. She has to. She's my mother, she loves me, she—'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2G1xLlhf22
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeWswKF3o4K
The memory crashed back unbidden: His mother - who'd held him when he had nightmares, who'd sung lullabies in her ocean-blessed voice - had watched her husband nearly kill their son and done nothing. Darian, who used to sneak him sweets from the kitchen when they were younger, didn’t intervene either. Even little Lyra…66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiRYFRAM2NO
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUnQ9igHyxn
‘She cried,’ some desperate part of his mind whispered. ‘At least she cried for me...’66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGlEHYH3QcD
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsRCYXVqGpk
But crying wasn't enough. Tears didn't stop fists. Didn't heal torn flesh. Didn't make him worth saving.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡndfPEz76kX
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMexeOYJj9l
‘Fifteen years...’66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpzGprifUwH
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Fifteen years he'd tried to be good enough. Tried to make them proud. Tried to earn even a scrap of his father's approval. And the very moment he thought he'd finally succeeded…66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡteRV7ci1sS
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFL3VVi856h
Cel's fingernails clawed at the stone beneath him, leaving bloody scratches as his body shook with grief. The Moon Goddess had chosen him. He was blessed by divinity itself, and yet his father had beaten him unconscious for it.
'Why?' The question burned in his chest, over and over. 'Why wasn't it enough? Why was I never enough?'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2N766wE1YU
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhLyOhvjdCs
But even as he asked it, a part of him already knew the answer. Nothing would have ever been enough. Not for his father. Not for any of them. 66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbarwwFTn16
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjEx7Fb0baS
The realization seared through his veins like molten metal. Fresh tears burned tracks down his swollen cheeks as reality crashed over him again and again like waves against a drowning man.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYn8lJmOAyk
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIG3A2EaDWI
A whimper echoed from across the narrow corridor, so quiet he almost missed it through his own ragged breathing. Cel lifted his head, vision blurry with tears and pain. He saw another cell. Inside, a small form huddled against the wall - a child even younger than himself, wrapped in filthy rags.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSaJmX44T5b
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The sight hit him like another blow. This boy was suffering too. Abandoned too. And Cel couldn't even help himself, let alone anyone else.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCXFaSap1n9
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"I'm sorry…," he whispered to the motionless child. For being weak. For being useless. For being exactly what his father said he was.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsQM6SU7I4g
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFRXL8hb3ji
Footsteps echoed from somewhere above - slow and deliberate, growing closer. Cel's entire body flinched against the stone, panic flooding his veins. His father. It had to be his father, coming to finish what he'd started. To carve away more of the mark, or maybe just end it entirely.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB7f1QRYpVi
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5dVn1QqbuF
‘Please…,’ he thought desperately, pressing himself against the back wall as light flickered down the corridor. ‘Please, I'll be better. I'll try harder. I'll—’66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHB9VjIKuwY
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVrbtby5Jxi
Even now, even after everything, a part of him still wanted to beg for forgiveness. Still believed he could somehow earn their love back if he just tried hard enough.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOTxMfugCs0
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSCQAWK1JtZ
But the figure that emerged from the shadows wasn't Lord Aldric of House Solmar.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRu8L7x6URS
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4DaxBk8k3
A stranger in deep purple robes stood before his cell, face hidden behind a smooth black mask that reflected the lantern light like a void. The man said nothing at first, simply watched through empty eye holes as Cel shook, bled and tried not to fall apart completely.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVlImVTrNLy
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Then he spoke with a sickening cheerful voice.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqm5uvNdvqh
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjmnjxxKw67
"Ah, you're finally awake, little failure."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhvlKU0Yvo2
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The word hit like a physical blow. Cel's body jerked against the wall, every muscle tensing. 'Failure failure failure' - the word crashed through his skull, tangling with his father's voice, with every whispered insult he'd ever endured..66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡub90evwHBj
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"Not so talkative, are we?" The masked figure's head tilted. "Well, that's understandable. Betrayal does tend to leave one speechless."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡum4nND7ZxQ
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI5cmxlHUOp
"My father—" Cel started, voice cracking. Some desperate part of him still clinging to the hope that this was all a misunderstanding. That his family would come. That they'd realize their mistake and—66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj9vuNuVTWw
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs2hmpRXdqt
"Oh, your dear father?" The masked figure paused, savoring the moment. "He's the one who delivered you to us personally. Quite eager to be rid of his shame, from what I understand."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAM9kAHZAJx
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJw2VC60n9P
"You're lying!" His voice cracked on the shout, nearly breaking. But even as the echo died in the cell, he could feel the truth settling like lead in his chest.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXCLWNsoi8O
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡewC6nuCRMY
"Ah, you poor thing. But fear not. I'm a kind person. I'll explain your situation. Or... perhaps you'd rather not know? Ignorance is bliss, after all."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtb9ByEAgRl
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUGcCXXwCdM
Cel flinched with each sound, pressing himself deeper into the corner. But the need to understand, to make sense of this nightmare, overwhelmed even his terror.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUU56cuhBJS
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMwEjdlp0aM
"Tell me." The words ripped from somewhere desperate inside him.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYtxRd3fuJ2
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"Really? Well, I hope you're ready for a shock." The masked figure paused, clearly relishing the moment. "You're now in the possession of the Children of the Voidmother, the greatest cult in the world!"66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4xeXlQW2S3
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0nFKzKyr4
'Children of the... what? Voidmother?'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxD3nVLnALP
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPGi8l5XKTQ
The word ‘cult’ cut through his confusion with terrible clarity. His father had sold him to a cult. Not just abandoned him - deliberately handed him over to these robed fanatics.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4fFGtZBC7h
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYUm6Goutv1
"And you have the honor of assisting us in our most important experiments."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWaG2XGLhzZ
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCup6zexchK
The words slammed into his consciousness. He wasn't a prisoner, he was a specimen - something to be dissected and studied like the child across the hall, another broken test subject in this nightmare. His stomach lurched violently, and he doubled over as bile scorched his throat.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQHBbOAFkC
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiq4HzJn1FF
'No no no, they're going to—'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfP7Gwct6US
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq8NQz3qFU1
"No need to be frightened." The voice kept going, cheerful and horrible. "I know you were seen as a disgrace by others, but to us, you're invaluable. Your divine blood is quite rare, you see. Even from such a... disappointment."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBAIS0djuD3
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXG8QlclrNn
'Divine blood? They want my blood because of the mark. Even though father tried to tear it away, the blessing runs deeper than skin.'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRfHfWZBXD3
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEcBjJOA0IU
His father hadn't just abandoned him in rage - this had been planned. Calculated. His divine blessing wasn't a shame to be hidden, it was a commodity to be sold.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU7tlUbSRg5
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXYIyLsLPVD
"That's enough for now." The masked figure straightened, reaching into his robes. "Here's your meal, little failure."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LpuPPglvZ
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpsGcaaeTY8
Something wet and putrid struck the cell floor with a sickening splat. The stench hit immediately - rot and decay so thick Cel could taste it. His stomach heaved, but there was nothing left to bring up except acid that burned his throat.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcP2r848cL5
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhqdkFeCz7N
As the lantern light retreated up the corridor, Cel forced himself to look at what had been thrown to him. In the dying glow, he could make out a chunk of meat so far gone it was more mold than flesh, crawling with things that moved in the darkness.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7CdJU59qj4
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVUTZbfq0f2
The footsteps faded to nothing, leaving him alone with the stench and the soft whimpering from across the corridor.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSz4dBprd2t
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJhOOCAyRMW
From this day on, the cell became everything. Stone walls, iron bars, the constant drip of water somewhere in the darkness. Cel's wounds festered without treatment, angry red lines spreading from where his father's fingernails had carved away divine flesh. 66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYg9GykqosI
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡodPvDo7JOj
What remained was worse than the wound - a grotesque crater of scar tissue where the Moon Goddess's blessing had once shone.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeUdsgrQM4D
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhZ2o0kcmYV
Hunger clawed at his belly like a living thing. For three days, he stared at the rotting meat, his mind fracturing between desperate hope and dawning horror. 'They'll come,' he told himself even as the stench made him gag. 'Mom will realize what happened and she'll come for me and—'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡifWjXx3Wvk
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOnMYUYXEhJ
On the fourth day, his hands shook so badly he could barely lift his head. The hunger was eating him from the inside, his body beginning to consume itself. Still, a part of him waited. Listened for familiar footsteps. For his mother's voice calling his name.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoavbRnCwsn
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On the fifth day, he crawled to the putrid scrap and took his first bite.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmJEZUVY4vQ
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwQQOrKVTi
His body convulsed, rejecting the poison. Bile and blood splattered the cell floor as he retched until nothing remained in his stomach but agony. But even as he vomited, tears streaming down his face, he understood what this meant.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznVnx92ZAy
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'No one is coming.'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN2ofOsIitl
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The next meal, he managed two bites before the sickness took him. Then three. Then four.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCzq8l9zePT
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQhJmkvvrj
Slowly, horribly, his body learned to accept what wasn't food. His sense of taste died first - a mercy perhaps. Then his stomach stopped fighting so hard. Within weeks, he could choke down entire portions without vomiting, though every meal felt like swallowing death itself.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8xWJNRU43m
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgX9dhdBPjm
They came for him on the seventh day - multiple figures in deep purple robes moving with practiced efficiency. One held his arms while another pressed a curved blade against the veins in his wrist, drawing blood in steady, measured cuts.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKMhr6T3QE0
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ67M2hZAumz
"Please," Cel whispered as the blade bit deep. "I won't tell anyone. I'll do whatever you want. Just... please don't hurt me."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3pANTn9pFu
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU4fUFn0qib
No one answered. They finished their work in silence and left him collapsed on the stone floor, watching his own blood disappear into the darkness.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSYWjyOSDHf
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHmK9GsFeGa
Days bled into weeks. The routine ground him down like a millstone - rotten food, blood letting, endless hours staring at damp walls while his mind slowly fractured. His only companion was the boy across the corridor, a child even smaller than himself with hollow eyes and arms covered in fresh cuts that never quite healed.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBskOJnCUJA
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1dxVnTFKBq
"Ren," the boy whispered one night when the purple robes were gone. His voice was barely audible, but in the perfect silence of their prison, it carried like a shout.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG6gfECGpR2
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhUeTEnsrfk
"Celvian," he whispered back, the first time he'd spoken his own name in weeks.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnwQfZWTmZx
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsAR0M1AYJW
They never said much - words felt dangerous here, as if speaking too loudly might draw attention they couldn't afford. But knowing someone else breathed in this place, someone else suffered, made the darkness a fraction less absolute.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB2AtX9G5Yd
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Until the morning Ren didn't return from his experiment.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQttAPnvhjR
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdmZ5QRzJW4
Cel pressed his face against the bars, straining to see into the empty cell across the way. "Ren?" His voice echoed off stone walls. "Ren!"66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡisnpBxQgGq
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUfeBm52uo1
Silence.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOXddVyOTl5
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The boy's thin blanket still lay crumpled where he'd left it. A crust of bread sat untouched near the cell door. But Ren was gone, as if he'd never existed at all.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGzisptkCHc
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoO4v63fQxt
That night, alone in the complete darkness, something fundamental cracked inside Cel's chest. Not broke - that had happened long ago. This was the sound of the last piece of his old self finally giving way. The last ember of hope that someone, somewhere, still cared whether he lived or died.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV7A4qN5s6Y
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The rage that followed wasn't clean or pure. It was jagged and desperate, born from weeks of betrayal, abandonment, and helpless fury. It started as a whisper in the back of his mind during the endless hours between experiments.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ52us4jH73z
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIW9WCZzFxK
'I hate them.'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjIdlxgZQsm
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Their faces burned behind his eyelids: his father's disgust, his mother's frozen stillness, Darian’s regretful look, little Lyra’s sobbing. Each memory carved itself deeper into his mind, playing over and over until they became scars on his thoughts.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7pQJcmnTY1
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIvCWbbH4bB
Sleep brought no escape either - only nightmares that played on endless repeat. Sometimes he relived that morning in the dining hall, his father's fists connecting with his flesh while his mother stood frozen, his brother watching and his sister sobbing. Other nights, he was back on the stone table as masked figures opened his veins, their blades cutting deeper and deeper until he woke screaming.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlg6Mf4uJj4
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4Wx2KBDkl
But the worst dreams were the ones where his family came to rescue him, where his mother held him and whispered apologies, where his father said he was proud - only for Cel to wake in the stinking darkness and remember that no one was coming. Each false hope burned away another piece of the love he'd once felt, leaving only raw hatred in its place.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpYDadlO9B0
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXk5cLPdMwG
With each blade that opened his skin, with every drop of blood they stole, with every piece of rotting meat he forced down his throat, the hatred grew. It filled the hollow spaces where love and hope had once lived, burning steady and sure. Without it, he would have simply ceased to exist, becoming nothing at all.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhPqJkyfNuS
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIg6AGOkCQJ
The hatred became his anchor. His reason to endure another day, another experiment, another nightmare. It whispered promises in the darkness: that he would survive this, that he would become strong, that someday they would all pay for what they'd done to him.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1YOV880U4Y
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It was the only thing keeping him sane.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡukxAGAWVnd
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One day - he'd lost count of how many - the masked figures came as always. But as Cel crawled toward the putrid scrap of meat, something felt different. Underneath the familiar stench of rot was something else - a faint, sweet smell that didn't belong.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqbbuYwHf0
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRd2z93qJFa
His stomach cramped with hunger, overriding any caution. He took his first bite, the familiar nothingness filling his mouth.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcAk0jBADUM
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJw2H9ZATVm
By the time he finished, his vision began to blur. A spreading warmth flowed through his veins like liquid fire. The stone walls rippled and flowed, reality becoming fluid around him.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkAxdo4EpmQ
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡePRGLw8rzX
'What did they—'66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNGMuH7ITGf
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2kdKNXJnF7
The thought dissolved as darkness swallowed everything - the bars, the stone, the empty cell where Ren used to be.66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmHSXkV8LzX
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3OK0e6ge4o
When consciousness returned, he was no longer in his cell. He found himself in an unfamiliar landscape - a place filled with ash.
and then Add to home screen.