The empire did not survive, but its Mahjarrat did. It was a greater burden on Wahisietel than anyone could ever know. His friends, excluding Jhallan and Sliske, were gone, including his closest one. He would have died for him, given the chance. But when he got the chance to protect that friend's legacy, he only left one of his own: a legacy of ruin, death, eradication, and above all, total failure. Wahisietel retreated further and further, away from the survivors, away from his fellow Mahjarrat. He took his grief to the desert, and there he stayed for thousands of years. He snubbed his friends at rituals, pretending not to be Zarosian.
At these rituals, Jhallan learned what a fickle friend Sliske, his very last one, could be. He found himself pushed further and further from the ritual site, growing weaker and weaker. The dearth of energy became painful and unbearable. Jhallan knew he couldn't go on like that. He began to see a target over his own head. If he attended the upcoming ritual, he would die. Avoid the ritual, and his death would be just as certain, but slower. He was not ready to die. Not yet. He had to try something...
But that something posed a good chance of killing Wahisietel. Was Wahisietel worth it? Was he even Zarosian any more? Jhallan wasn't that selfless or certain. He'd never been. And what if Azzanadra was freed, only to die at the ritual due to his absence? Could he risk losing everything like that, an unlikelihood though his return at that very time was? Jhallan, with a heavy heart, concluded it was. He put himself into am uneasy sleep, plagued by nightmares about being the Muspah, devouring his friends and being punished for cowardice. His countenance even began to mirror it, as it did when he was discovered.
29-Dec-2013 20:23:46