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Your sister’s words hang over you like the heavy blade of a broadsword. You feel torn, both attracted and repelled by what they promise. Unable to hold her gaze, you turn away and cast your eye, instead, across your scattered companions. As you do, you realise that there is no choice at all. When once you looked upon your clanmates as kin, now you see only wild beasts. What they have lost, they can never regain.
It is as she says. The bloodline must continue, and it must remain pure.
“You think as I do,” she whispers, leaning forwards and resting her forehead against yours, “We are the same, you and I. We share the same soul. Come, come with me.”
Taking your hand, she leads you away from the camp. The firelight fades into darkness as the forest closes in around you, the world turning silver as clouds part and the moon shows its face. With a heavy pulse beating in your chest, you allow your sister, your bride, to guide you into familiar territory, the lands that you once called home.
Your sister says nothing as she leads you on, glancing back with enticing eyes as you enter a clearing. The ground here is dark and swampy, the white stone of the horned goddess gleaming by comparison. Bleddyn and his remaining followers are nowhere to be seen, the burning light of the moon having driven them into a shameful retreat. As you stand triumphant before the horned goddess, your sister speaks once more.
“Our children will be guided by the moon, and their children too,” she whispers, her hand in yours, “And one day, a child of our lineage will return here, to stand where we stand and see the things we see. This, my brother, will be our legacy.”
-
The last remnants of your vision fade away, slipping away from you like water draining through your fingers. Even after the last fragments are gone, you stay kneeling at the food of the horned statue for a long time as you try to figure our how you should feel. You should, by any standard of common decency, feel repulsed by the vision, revolted by it.
And yet.
Swallowing hard against the heavy lump in your throat, you finally rise to your feet and clamber out of the pit. With numb, leaden legs, you walk off towards the far edge of the forest and stare into the trees. You can’t shake the feeling that your bloodline is cursed twice over – first your distant ancestors, and then your father’s absent partner. This curse is inside you too, like a stain that can’t ever be wiped clean.
[Calamity Attunement increased by 1]
You’re stay standing at the trees for a long time. Someone calls your name after a while, but you don’t pay any attention. The whole world seems to move on without you.
[1]
