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Road Taken
“And me? You’d just... leave me?”
Confusion. Confusion and disorientation. The abrupt change of location and change of perception gave me a migraine. Zlosta was floating in the air, her legs crossed and gesturing to herself. I staggered, noticing Zlosta staring at me, expectant.
“What – what just happened?”
“Would you really leave me Janus?”
The scene was familiar. Too familiar. Considering I’d seen it play out less than a few minutes ago, there was little surprise. I opened my mouth, almost ready to say something damning and condemning, but stopped myself.
Did I just... go back in time?
That – that wasn’t possible... was it?
Zlosta’s gaze was unyielding. She was still waiting for an answer. She did not seem to notice or realize that something happened. That we’d had this conversation. That I was on the ground, on the verge of death after she branded me with her curse –
“No.” The smoothest lie I’ve ever told. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. I don’t think I could leave you, not when I want you.”
The best lies are those interwoven with shreds of truth. It was, true, that Zlosta was attractive. Crazy and unhinged, but attractive. The truth and the lie melded as one, and I watched her green face gain a slight tint of red.
“Is that the only reason you’ll stay by me? Because you want me?”
“When I want something, there’s nothing in the world I won’t do to get it.” I said. “And to keep it.”
Zlosta’s lips twitch. The universal gesture for amusement. “You do know you’re a skeleton.”
“It’ll give a new definition to the term ‘boning.”
She laughed. The laugh is entirely opposite to the bitter laugh she gave me previously, to the laugh she gave when I chose to leave her.
“We’ll see about that, Janus.”
Her feet land on the floor like before. She approaches me, like before. This time, she does not ask if I know what she is or explain the power of Druids. She approaches me, and I feel my fight-or-flight instinct screaming at me.
She approaches me –
And she hugs me.
I go stiff in her arms. My bony hands are in the air, unsure of where to place them, unsure of what to do in the face of the sudden physical intimacy. Unsure of what to feel or what to think. The hug is warmer than it should feel. Soft and familiar, it lacks any carnal sentiment. The experience is foreign – conflicting.
“Thank you.”
My voice could not be trusted, and silence was my response. Zlosta pulled away from me, and smiling in a manner that reaches her haunting red eyes and belays only innocence.
Traitorously, my body misses her embrace. My mouth opens to say something, but no words emerge. We stand, staring at each other, a skeleton and a druid. A monster and a witch. The air between us is thick with something, neither of us know what.
“I’m going to go through some of the records in the village.” She broke the silence, and turned away. “Best to know how things have changed while I’ve been away.”
“Ah,” the word escapes my lips unintelligibly. “I’ll be... scouting around in the meanwhile. In case anyone got away.”
“That’s thoughtful of you. Make sure they suffer before you kill them.”
I nod. She left the center of the village, moving into one of the old houses carved out into a tree, and as soon as she vanished from my sight, I spun on the balls of my feet and dashed in the opposite direction.
My mind is a whirlwind of thought as I put distance between myself and the destroyed Druid village. Put distance between myself and Zlosta, battling stupid sentiments bubbling within my ribs.
[You unlocked an Epithet Skill]
The words obscure my vision and I trip on a root. Rolling across the dirt and grime, my stop is directly underneath a withered tree. A tree without leaves and with branches thinner than toothpicks. The sky is still black with acrid smoke, and despite lacking lungs, I gain the odd feeling of being out of breath.
Epithet Skills are skills that are unique to each and every named monster, as no two monsters share the same name, no two monsters may have the same Epithet Skills.
There was a notification that once said names had power and how the power of the name was dependent on the person giving it, and the meaning the names possessed.
Did I trigger this by knowing what my name meant?
Epithet Skill: [Duality] Lv. Max
Details: A skill unique to the barer of the name [Janus]. This skill enables the user to experience the road not taken. Whenever making a decision, the user may split their perception of reality into two – [Path A] and [Path B], enabling them to know the possibilities a decision taken or not taken may have.
The user experiences both realities and may choose which reality they prefer to follow by committing to it, and turning it into the [True Path]. The user retains any knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience points gotten from both realities, but none of the negative effects persist.
Note: The user may not activate Duality while it is already in effect. You cannot split [Path A] into A1 and A2 or [Path B] into B1 and B2. You must first commit to a path, the [True Path] before activating Duality again.
Note: Dying while Duality is active in one [Path] will automatically make the other [Path] the [True Path]. Dying while in the [True Path] means irreversible death.
Split my perception of reality?
Right now I was only experiencing one –
My head nearly torn apart from a sudden influx of sensations, sounds and noises. I was in two places at once. I was in the world where I told Zlosta that I wanted to leave her. The world where Zlosta branded me as her slave, where I cursed and choose death over slavery, and I could feel the pain of her slavery seal wreaking damage on me –
And I was in this world.
This world, where I reassured Zlosta that I would stay by her side. This world where Zlosta hugs me, and there is something – something that I can’t explain between us. This world where I was lying underneath a withered tree and staring at the smoke in the sky.
The world where I [Chose to Follow Zlosta] and the world where [Zlosta Enslaves Me] were so entirely different it was almost nauseating.
It was too much to take in at once. Far too much to comprehend. Sensations and noises and feelings, running through me simultaneously, yet, differing so vastly. There was no brain within my skull and nothing to overtask, yet, I felt a burning headache. With this, the power to make the right choice, to live two different existences at once –
Who was I to be deserving of such a power?
But is it enough? Was it? If what Zlosta said about the Tiers held true, then this power, stacked upon the rest, all of it, was like a mice wielding toothpicks against a gorilla with machineguns.
In the world where [Zlosta Enslaves Me] I’m dying, and I attempt one last angry charge at her. A second of futile struggle against her choice to enslave me.
I drop dead from her slavery seal.
[You are now in the True Path]
I flinch. The experience and sensation of another reality lingers like the afterglow of an orgasm.
[Skill {Lesser Pain Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Pain Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Pain Resistance} has evolved into {Pain Resistance}]
[Skill {Pain Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Pain Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Pain Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Pain Resistance} has gained a Level.]
“Janus?”
My body jerks straight as I hear Zlosta’s voice. She approaches, hovering with books and scrolls and pieces of paper in her hands. She blinks, tilting her head as she stares at me.
“I’ve gotten what I needed. Where you able to find anyone I may have missed?”
“No, you were rather thorough.”
“Good. I don’t want any of those traitors surviving.”
There are questions I want to ask, but don’t. Zlosta sits calmly beside me. “I found a map. It’s dated 943F.E.”
“I don’t know what dating system that is.”
“Nor do I,” said Zlosta. “I’ve been gone longer than I thought if Alamir measures time in a different system now.”
“Alamir?”
“The World of Alamir, realm of mortals and beasts and whatnots.”
So, it was a fantasy world. My mind wants to be amazed, I want to ask more questions, but my thoughts keep going back to my power. Going back to [Duality].
[You have split Paths]
[You are now in Path A]
Shit!
I hadn’t meant to activate it, I just thought about it and it came to life on its own. Reality was split in two, and the experience was odd. I could smell everything twice over, hear everything twice over and see myself sitting beside Zlosta twice over. As if playing a videogame on a split television screen, I made the decision to move a finger in [Path A] and in [Path B] I don’t.
Feeling myself doing something and not doing it at the same time was so far the closest thing that has come to making me question my sanity.
If this... if this works the way I think it does –
I needed to test this. I needed to know what I could and could not do with this.
In this world, [Path A] I make my arm loop around Zlosta’s shoulder like sly teen attempting to cuddle his date at the movies. In the other world, I don’t make any moves.
“Janus... what are you doing?”
It’s juvenile of me. Ridiculous of me. However, I needed to know. I lean forward and push my exposed bony teeth against Zlosta’s lips. It’s awkward, and clearly lacking the slightest hint of any sort of elegance. Zlosta pulls away, staring at me.
“...what was that?”
“I’m... testing something?”
“...Janus, I’m flattered, but I don’t want you to do that ever again.”
I don’t respond. I focus instead on [Path B], on the reality where I didn’t make a fool of myself. I focus on it, and I choose it.
[You are now in the True Path]
The double sounds and double sensations mute into one. Zlosta is sitting in beside me, rifling through papers. Unaware that in another world, she’d been kissed by a skeleton. Ignorant of the fact that in another world, a skeleton made a move on her. Unless I told her, she would never know, and the world would continue as if that one awkward moment had never happened.
No one would know but for me.
This is insane. This is brilliant. This is insane.
How far can I go with this?
I could not help it. I needed to know. I activated [Duality] again.
[You have split Paths]
[You are now in Path A]
In Path A, Zlosta and I sit quietly under a withered tree. In [Path B] I thrust my hand into her chest without any warning. My fingers pierce through, sharply, and I feel it tear her heart emerge through the other end. I know it won’t kill her. I know she can’t die. Yet, the look of surprise and shock she gives me is disconcerting. The way her visage turns into one of utter rage startles me. The way she whispers turns my bones to ice.
“Even you?”
[Path B] ends in fire and fury.
[You are now in the True Path]
[Skill {Lesser Fire Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Fire Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Fire Resistance} has gained a Level.]
Zlosta tilts her head. “Is something wrong Janus?”
“Nothing.”
“If there’s anything you ever want or if there’s anything bothering you – you can tell me.”
I let my head nod. I’m grateful that my expressions can’t be read. I think of the first truthful-lie that comes to mind to divert her. “I’m wishing I had genitals so we could have sex.”
Zlosta rolls her eyes. “You’re not a Slithercreep, Janus – you shouldn’t be thinking about sex all the time.”
She doesn’t suspect. She doesn’t notice. The world where I stabbed her in the chest and where she burns me into nothingness feels like a dream. It feels like a dream than a possible potential reality that could occur, that did occur. It isn’t a dream. It happened.
I remember the look of betrayal on her face. I remember her words.
Even you?
She told me she was betrayed by her people and locked away. Betrayed by people she apparently trusted. She did not want to feel betrayed anymore. I understood now that Janje and Zlosta were not two different people, they were the same person, just with different active parts. The Janje I knew in the cave was desperate for attention, desperate for friendship and Zlosta is no different. She wants companionship at all costs.
She did not want to be betrayed. She did not want to feel betrayal.
This was problematic for me, considering her goals. It wasn’t a question of if I betray Zlosta.
It was not a question of when I betrayed her.
With [Duality], it was a question of how many times.
But if she doesn’t remember it, if, to her, it never happened – could it be called a betrayal?
I told myself that this was for my own eventual good. For my benefit. This was a way to prepare for the eventual day I would need to leave Zlosta, the day I would stop her from carrying out her insane plan of killing all life. It was for the good of this world, what was it, Alamir? Yes, it was for the good of Alamir, and it was for my good as well.
[Duality]
[You have split Paths]
[You are now in Path A]
For the second time, I thrust my hand through Zlosta’s chest. For the second time, I watched her face contort into pain, rage and disbelief. For the second time, I was engulfed in flames.
[You are now in the True Path]
[Skill {Lesser Fire Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Fire Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Fire Resistance} has gained a Level.]
How many times could I keep attacking her in an alternate path and letting her kill me until I became completely immune to her methods of killing me?
As many as it took.
[You have split Paths]
