Trial 2: The Curse of Devotion
The temple shifts again.
The walls ripple like water. The air thickens, warm and suffocating. I feel it before I see it: I'm not alone anymore.
Soft voices rise around me. Laughing. Whispering. Familiar.
When I turn, I see them.
People. Dozens of them. Faces I don't recognise; but somehow, I do.
They step out of the shadows, glowing in the temple light. Their eyes brim with something I used to crave.
Love.
They look at me like I'm everything they've ever wanted. Like I'm a miracle.
And all I feel is dread.
They reach for me; touching my hands, brushing my hair from my face.
"We love you."
"We missed you."
"Please… stay with us."
Their warmth is too much. Too sharp. Too bright.
I step back. They follow. Smiling. Reassuring.
Smothering.
I've felt this before.
Not in this life.
But in one of the others.
In my first life, they loved me like this—fiercely, blindly, completely.
I was powerful. Maybe even divine. A forgotten god, lost to time.
And I was cursed.
Not by a spell or a rival, but by the weight of my own strength. A divine rule woven into my soul:
Love would be the price of my power.
When others love me, they suffer—pulled into the storm of my magic. And I suffer with them. Their affection feeds the fire inside me until it burns me from the inside out.
The more they care, the more it hurts. The more I hurt them.
Until I ruin everything.
The temple darkens. The faces around me twist. Their eyes grow hollow.
"Why won't you love us back?"
"We gave you everything."
"You owe us."
I fall to my knees.
Their love becomes a prison I can't escape. Not without breaking their hearts—or my own.
And I understand now.
This is the second trial.
Not just to face the curse… but to accept it.
I look up; and see him.
Ren. The one who looked at me like I was someone worth knowing.
And I feel it like a blade between my ribs.
He's already beginning to care.
And that means he'll suffer too.
Because this curse—
it didn't vanish when I was reborn.
No.
It evolved.
It lay dormant, buried beneath skin and memory, waiting.
Waiting for me to live.
To forget.
To hope.
It watched me wear a dozen faces.
Watched me fall in love.
Watched me bleed.
And now it's back.
Stronger. Smarter. Hungrier.
Still tied to my power.
Still collecting its price.
I will never be free of it.
If I let someone in, if I let them love me, it will destroy them. Because that's the cost of what I am.
What I was.
What I still am.
The temple door flares open behind me—blinding white, like mercy. Or a warning.
I look at Ren one last time.
He doesn't know what I am. What I carry.
But he will.
Unless I walk away.