The room was silent for a ti as the two Fiends embraced one another, exchanging emotions without using words.
It was so touching that even Daedric stared in yearning silence.
The change in Daedric's expression made one wonder. Why did he work so hard to prove himself? To prove that he mattered? What inside that young man was broken?
Kieran opened his eyes as Scar stepped back, still clasping the young man's shoulders. Before eting Scar's gaze, though, he noticed Daedric's contrite expression and distant gaze, as if his mind was lost sowhere else.
After sparing Daedric a mont's notice, Kieran looked away, focusing on his ntor.
"That's a damned Adept's physique if I've ever seen one. And those eyes… much stranger than mine, but we know of the second legacy you bear. It's only right that you manifest signs of its supremacy."
Scar clapped Kieran's shoulder, unable to restrain the delight bubbling up from his heart. His Inheritor had not just succeeded in what the line of True Berserkers had attempted for a long while following Scar's succession… but he had overco a Trial ant for a Step in Ascension far higher than he presently stood.
Kieran chuckled, feeling an onset of embarrassnt on the horizon.
What he felt was similar to when your parents were so proud of your accomplishnts that they broadcasted them to family and friends at gatherings and didn't shut up until they had repeated it ad nauseam.
Only Kieran didn't feel sickened by Scar's praise.
The Trial had been one of the greatest struggles he faced thus far. To have your plans foiled and defenses rendered useless at every turn was an incredibly bleak ordeal to prevail against. All while having your thoughts, actions, and emotions insidiously manipulated by a force that couldn't be contended against.
Not by mundane power.
Yet Kieran had prevailed, and that was deserving of praise.
Or was it…
That doubt hadn't left Kieran's mind since finishing the Trial.
What did it an for him to be just as defiant as Argexes had been? To complete the Trial almost perfectly up until the end without any objectives to guide your actions.
Every one of Kieran's willful acts resulted from his innermost desires and thoughts…
And that understanding plagued his mind, but he didn't let his concerns show. Not yet. They were only concerns. Nothing had co of them yet.
Setting those thoughts aside, Kieran's attention returned to the real world, primarily the words Scar asked him.
"Boy… are you okay?"
Kieran stared at Scar and nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I'm okay."
Scar didn't imdiately reply. He silently examined his Successor, looking into his eyes for any unntioned changes before grunting softly after finding nothing.
"Your peers said the Trial you were given was called the Testant of Dying Blood."
This didn't feel like a question so much as it did a statent, so Kieran nodded.
"And the final opponent was Argexes? Are you sure?"
Kieran nodded again.
Scar looked at the other Old Myths grimly, then looked back at Kieran.
"What was your na in the Trial? Do you rember that?"
Just as Kieran was about to answer, he blinked and squinted, realizing the na was no longer on the tip of his tongue but buried in his mind, requiring him to sift through mounds of knowledge before he could find it again.
Kieran didn't rember consciously burying the na in his thoughts, aning it was likely one of the return protocols. However, it did very little when he had an archaic book in his mind filled with endless knowledge.
He spoke it.
"Valdu. I was given the na Valdu in the Trial."
The Old Myths didn't have much a reaction to the aning, symbolizing their lack of understanding regarding the history of the Fiends, or Argexes in particular.
"If Valdu was the na you gained… he was no opponent but a curse. How much of the fateful battle did you see, boy?"
Kieran mulled over the answer.
The first reply that ca to mind was all of it… then he rembered.
To claim to have seen everything would be a fallacy when he truthfully witnessed very little and understood far less. When he tried to rember what happened between Argexes' birth and the ti he was sealed… it all felt very… hyperbolic, like it was sped up to critical monts and nothing else.
He realized he hadn't watched what beca of Argexes, where the Monarch of Ruin had been sealed, nor did he know what happened to Adeia's body. Also, what fate awaited the Thralls of the Maddened that Argexes spread throughout the Boundary?
All this made Kieran understand how little of the Testant of Dying Blood he truly understood.
"I saw until Hekaina imprisoned Argexes in a strange seal after Agrianos… didn't kill him. No, couldn't kill him? I don't know why I feel this way, but Argexes felt almost… immortal. Then, in the end, I saw soone or sothing descended from the sky."
Scar looked up as if trying to look past the room's ceiling but was more relaxed than his earlier agitated state, leading him to drop his head a second later.
"We call her Watcher in the Sky, Eye in the Sky, a litany of other identities, boy. But what she is… is the Trialmaster, which is why she likely hid her identity from you. If you had seen the whole Trial, you would have learned many things about her, but I guess it's not sothing an Adept should know."
Kieran frowned.
"How do you know I didn't see the entire Trial?"
Scar didn't answer, instead looking at his peers. They moved their heads in agreent, deeming it okay to divulge.
"The Testant of Dying Blood isn't an unknown Trial, but it exists as a Trial of Exemplification. In other words, it is used as a challenge to see if an Archmaster, particularly the Myths, can step into the realm of Exemplars. Which begs the question of how you passed."
Ragnar approached gingerly, tapping Scar's shoulder.
"It wasn't our power that was tested, only our character. The Zenith Frequency revealed we were of adequate character."
Kieran had prepared that answer but did not need to say it anymore. Still, Scar found the entire situation to be unduly suspicious.
"That doesn't deny that you were given a Trial from the Exemplary Order… as Novices. That kind of pressure is enough to shatter anyone's character. Yet, none of you broke."
Scar seed equally fascinated and terrified. Why was this Generation of Myths so strong in character? What did that portend of the Realm's fate?
"…Hekaina. I need to talk with her and see what she knows. This can't be a very good sign."
Ferreira noticed Scar's alarm and conversed ntally. The changes in her expression grew equally severe as she grasped how dire Scar's comprehension of the situation was.
The Watcher in the Sky only intervened when the Boundary's Fate veered toward desolation. And that had only happened a handful of tis before.
Though he was worried about his ominous premonition, that didn't detract from his interest in Kieran's abilities.
"Well, go on. Don't be shy. Your pal over them culminated a Path from his Advancing. Let see what you achieved."
Kieran bead at Altair, and then he focused.
'Can't have my right-hand man showing up, right?'
He exhaled deeply, and then an exclamation rocked the throne room as the entire room was blanketed by a bloody sensation thrumming with fiendish carnage.
"Holy shit!"
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