Epilogue

Part 1

                I feel nothing. I am lost in darkness. The box that holds me is cramped and cold and I feel no release from this prison. The beast, if it ever did exist within my flesh, has been silent for months now. I have no visitors to my cell. Geoffrey and my mother have not send a word or a letter to me since my night of fever dreams. I speak to no one now save a man through a hole in the wall every few days and he reassures me that things will get better. I have recounted what I remember of the last weeks and months to him as I can. He gives me pills on which to calm my nerves and food with which to keep me alive. I oblige as I have not resorted as of yet to self-murder.

My mind flares in flames often and I see pin pricks of light emerge in the darkness. I am among the stars as I had hoped. Dreams and reality have no distinction in the black box. I go to and fro from this plane to the next but I am alone. There are no whispers. There are no silvery figures. There are no shadowy beasts willing me to complete a trial. I am without purpose once again. Or at least I was.

                I hear talk through the hole in the wall, arrant words most likely not meant for my ears. I hear of royalty and the woes that he must endure. I feel a longing in my chest to meet this king that lies beyond my door. A man I wish to put to my bosom in friendship and loyalty. I have lost my shadow beast but I will claim a new master. I will escape this black box one day. I will ascend from the darkness once again. I will walk in his presence. I will worship the Pale King.





The Pale King →