Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 9: Willpower

Eory realized he recognized the waif who introduced himself as Themistoklis, but he also realized he didn't really care to know the waif or try to figure out where he had seen him. What little noise was around him—from the conversation Them and Pollyanna were having—melted away and he withdrew within himself. He turned his back to Pollyanna and Them and faced the dwarf sitting next to him who was still sleeping. He hugged his knees and seemed to fall out of consciousness for a moment as he became lost in thought.

His surroundings began spiraling into blackness all around him until he was alone with himself—the last person in the world he wanted to be alone with.

He sat there in silence for what felt like an eternity.

He was absolutely still until he heard a faint sound that sounded like screaming echo throughout the dark room.

At the sound, he lifted his chin slightly from his knees and looked around. His large ears perked up and his pupils shrank in surprise.

The sound was gone in a moment, but then his nostrils were filled with a stench that he had only become familiar with just a day before; the stench of sweat mixed with blood. A smell like rusting iron coated in bacteria.

Suddenly, the smell became more distinct in his nose and the screaming returned and became louder in his ears.

Spreading out from under him, the blackness of the room shifted into the likeness of the ballroom where he saw the shadow dog mow down the shrieking archers.

Eory yelled and threw himself on the ballroom floor. He wept hideously until the sounds and smells had melted away.

He found it so very strange, but he pined to be back in his prison where he was safe and sound; where he lived happily with Kori.

He felt little hands on his shoulders, and they lifted him up. He came face-to-face with Kori. His mother figure was smiling at him compassionately.

She thumbed away his tears and said to him, "look at you, my brave boy... You sacrificed your own happiness—your own life—to prove you are good-hearted. You did nothing wrong, you know that, right? You acted in self defense... You did everything right, and now you're punishing yourself for no reason."

Eory sniffled and cried, "Kori!"

He tried to throw his arms around her, but she disappeared and he was left alone to dry his own tears.

He stared forward blankly after a moment and realized just how lonely he was.

No dog, no mother, no siblings. He had only Pollyanna, who was truly an evil woman.

Soon enough, a pair of thin, white legs appeared in front of him. "You did everything right, and still ended up the villain. You're sentencing yourself to a pretty slow death. Aren't you tired, Eory? Tired of trying to be good? No, more than that. You're tired of being alive, aren't you? It's far too stressful, isn't it? Let me take over, Eory. I'll make us survive. It was my body to begin with, after all."

Eory looked up and met with Taylor's determined eyes.

Suddenly, he remembered. He remembered his biological mother looking down her nose at him as a child—originally, she had wanted a boy and a girl, and so, she raised Gershom as a boy, and raised him as a girl at first who she called Taylor.

Taylor was a quiet little girl who cried a lot and was shy and cowardly like Eory was.

His mother didn't like that.

So, one day, she told him that his name was no longer going to be Taylor and that it was going to be Eory instead. She made him dress like a boy, always called him by male pronouns, and rubbed something in his hair that she said would help 'make him into a suitable man'.

"Do you remember now, Eory? Well, I sure proved mother wrong, didn't I? Look at me! I'm just as boisterous and confident as she wanted me to be—far more confident than you. And you, well... You're essentially how I used to be. Just a simpering, weeping coward. I guess I should thank mother for making me want to become strong enough to prove her wrong." Taylor said with a smile.

Eory said quietly, "you'll do evil things, won't you? You don't care who you hurt, do you?"

There was silence, until her strong voice cut through it.

"If someone stands in the way of what I want, they will get hurt. Otherwise, I will not hurt or kill anyone unnecessarily." Taylor assured him.

Eory weakly said, "then... Then... I can't let you take over..."

She snorted. "Goddesses! Just listen to you! You're pitiful. You want me to take over just so you won't have to face what you did, don't you? You didn't even do anything wrong but defend yourself and the woman you foolishly gave your heart to."

Eory rubbed his arms uncomfortably, and then he shrugged.

He heard the screams echoing in his mind again and he crumbled. He took her hand and let her drag him into the darkness with her.

Before he knew it, he was watching the world with eyes that were not his own and listening to himself insult Pollyanna with a mouth he could not control.