Convergence: Eclipse Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Wrongs and Rights

Read chapter 8 of Convergence: Eclipse by J.L.Hollingwell on NovelPedia.

There is no wrong or right, only choices and consequences. You either learn to live with this fact or cloister yourself from the universes, missing out on all its wonders, as well as its ills. The Sage Of Orion Laurie stared into the water, his own cold face looking back at him. He had killed people, actual people . He tried to hug both his knees to his chest, his mind unfocused and twisting, but a burning pain in his shoulder stopped him short, cutting through the fog in his mind. The pain was surprising; he had all but forgotten that the archer had shot him. Laurie tried to twist and reach the arrow, which was lodged deeply in the meat of his shoulder, but it was too awkward for him to get a proper grip, and every fumbled attempt made his shoulder flare with renewed pain. For a moment, he just sat, defeated, staring at himself in the rippling mirror of the river, but apparently his mind wouldn’t let him properly dissociate while he was so badly wounded, and he found himself strategizing instead, thinking of ways he could remove the arrow without doing himself any more harm. Magic. Remember you can do magic, idiot. He shifted, restless, and grimaced as he felt the tip of the arrow scraping against the actual bones of his shoulder. Laurie focused on the mana pathways inside his body and slowly moved light mana as close to the arrow as possible. He took a deep breath, readying himself, and pushed as much mana as he could out of his shoulder. There was a painful tearing sensation, and his vision went momentarily dark. When his senses returned to something almost like normal, he was curled up at the lake side, legs tight to his chest. He forced himself to uncurl, flopping over, grunting at the pain of the open wound as he did so. The arrow was lying innocently on the grass a few feet behind him, smoking gently as though burned. A bright spray of blood arced over the ground toward it. Laurie gulped and slowly pulled his backpack over to him from where it lay by his feet, fishing out one of the health potions with a shaking hand. He struggled with the cork before fumbling it open and downing the contents. A warm feeling spread down his throat and into his stomach, before seeping into the rest of him, seeking out bruises and scrapes he hadn't even noticed. The heat gathered around the wound in his shoulder and Laurie felt his body relax as the torn tissue knitted itself back together and the pain dulled. Laurie sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face. He had been treating this like a video game; even when he was hurt or close to dying it had never felt truly real. He had watched the participant number drop day by day, but it had never quite hit home, until now. It was real. He had just killed real human beings. That number had dropped by three, and it was because of him. The worst part was that he had moved with such deadly efficiency, killed without hesitation. His body had known exactly what to do, every instinct cold and precise and utterly ruthless. Was that because of my stats? Or was I always like that? Was it something that had been inside him even before, lying dormant somewhere deep in his psyche, just waiting for something to push him over the edge, and let it out? His whole body trembled with the thought. Laurie tried to focus on the pain in his shoulder, but it was too faint now to be of much use. The faces of the three strangers seemed determined to appear to him, one after the other, and he was as powerless to stop it as he had been when he was killing them. Laurie sat there for some time, the images of what he had done tormenting him. He was unsure if he would ever be able to move again. Maybe I’ll just lie down right here and never get up… But even in the depths of the numbness and misery, a small, quiet voice persisted. It was asking him a question, vague at first, and then insistent. How did that boat get here? The boat was a small rowboat, big enough for two people at most, wedged on the shore of the undergrou