TBATE: Let The Truth Be Known {Completed}

Chapter 2: Helping You Understand

CECILIA

My eyes groggily open as a few flickering flames create shadows across my face. My head is pounding, and I can't seem to feel my mana core or see the ambient mana. I know I'm not completely adjusted to this new world and mana manipulation, but this has never happened before.

With my vision cleared, I seem to be in an underground chamber of sorts. There are dozens of elves and a few humans all talking amongst each other. This doesn't seem like Alacrya.

"No this isn't Taegrin Caelum, nor the Central Dominion, hell, not even Alacrya," a voice says to my left. I turn my head and sitting on the ground, knees close to his chest is the wheat-blonde, golden-eyed man that Nico had warned me about.

"Arthur?"

A voice leaks out of my throat, very clearly not the one he expected as he the man's head quickly whips to my eyes and glares into them trying to see any semblance of where that voice came from.

"Yes, I'm Arthur but you, Cecilia, know me as Grey Willbeck," the man says loud enough for only me to hear.

My eyes widen immediately and I throw the chains of my restraints at Grey's throat trying to choke away the air from him. "YOU KILLED ME YOU BASTARD HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME SO CASUALLY!" I scream as rage builds from the surface but an even deeper feeling of longing creeps up from the deepest pits of my psyche.

From underneath my hands and cuffs as I try and squeeze the life from him, Grey replies, "Yes, I killed you but it was more akin to assisted suicide, Cecilia. It seems Agrona had his way with your mind while you were with him. Probably under the guise of making you feel better."

"You know nothing you coward! You demon! All you care about is revenge, and it ruled your heart so much that you killed one of your only friends just to level a country and kill millions!" I shout as the anger swelling inside me begins to crest. All of the eyes in the room are on us, burning holes through me as their curious glances turn to a collective rage equaling my own. How can they defend him? How can they acknowledge this monster?

Grabbing my wrists, pushing me off of him, and covering my mouth Grey mutters, "If only you knew how often I've told myself that. Yes, I was hell bent on revenge and was responsible for millions of lost lives, but that was King Grey, not Arthur Leywin. Am I still King Grey? I'd say partially so, but people like the body you're inhabiting changed me so drastically that the Grey you know has started to become a distant memory. Tess' soul in you can attest."

My eyes begin to tear up as foreign emotions riddle my head. My own rage directly conflicting with the immense despair and adoration that are present at the back of my mind. These tears aren't of anger. They're of sadness. But whose sadness?

"I told you. That body isn't yours, Cecilia. It belongs to Tessia Eralith. Only daughter of Alduin and Merial Eralith, granddaughter of Virion Eralith, and the princess of the Kingdom of Elenoir," Grey says.

Even more foreign emotions take me over completely as my face softens and the tears become more abundant. Grey lifts his hand from my mouth and gets to his feet while a few tears begin to build up in his eyes. The room is eerily still and quiet. Not one soul dares speak or even breathe during this tense moment.

"Arthur, it's going to be ok," slips out of my mouth. Again, a completely foreign voice that isn't my own eeks out but seems to know Grey. Who was Tessia Eralith? Agrona said this body was effectively brain dead before I was reincarnated into it.

"But Agrona said this body was basically dead. He said she was unsavable," I say through the tears and complete confusion.

"He lied. The damn snake lied. And if he lied about that, then what else could he have lied about? If she was dead, would she keep speaking out to me through your body? Would you be sobbing for an unexplainable reason? Come on, Cecilia you're no idiot. Think about it. How many inconsistencies have you been noticing? How many times has Agrona tampered with your mind? Can you really trust him to not maliciously change your memories to suit his own selfish desires. Do you not remember the real course of events during the King's Crown Tournament? Do you not see that you're just being used as a tool again?" he says, wiping the tears from his eyes and walking to the dais behind us.