Requiem for an Aberrant Chapter 18: Chapter 18- Moving On

Read chapter 18 of Requiem for an Aberrant by TheJestersGambit on NovelPedia.

What did it mean to be extraordinary? For Aegis, the question had never been philosophical. It had always carried weight, rattling his mind ever since he was old enough to understand what it meant to be born into the royal bloodline of Armond. Prince of Armond, they called him. Those three words had never sounded like praise to him. They sounded like expectations, which he had been forced to deliver upon time and time again, even at the cost of himself. To be extraordinary meant surpassing everyone else. It meant becoming someone who stood above ordinary concerns, someone who could shoulder the world without hesitation or doubt. The kingdom demanded it. His bloodline demanded it. Eventually, he had demanded it of himself. Somewhere close by, a voice was calling his name. Hands shook his shoulders, forcing his body back and forth as heat and smoke filled the air around him. The noise barely reached him. His thoughts were still somewhere distant. Somewhere along the way, Aegis had stopped chasing the crown waiting for him. Instead, he had begun fantasising about a beach. It had started as nothing more than a passing story his father once told during an evening when the burdens of the throne had loosened, allowing him to speak like an ordinary man. A distant land beyond the borders of Armond, where the world opened into an endless stretch of water and the horizon reached so far that the sky seemed to rest upon the sea. Aegis had never seen such a place. He had never touched sand or heard the quiet rhythm of waves lapping against the shore. But the image had stayed with him. Over the years it had grown into something of his own. In his mind the beach was beneath a gentle sun. Warm beneath bare feet, the wind carried the scent of salt and something clean and unfamiliar. It was a place where the sky felt larger than the walls of any kingdom, like a dream wrapped over the edge of the world, waiting for anyone brave enough to stand at its heart and lift their eyes, unafraid of what the world truly had to offer. A place where no one needed to be extraordinary. But even that dream had died in this garden. The crackle of flames surrounded him, his eyes finally opening. Ariana stood over him. “Aegis!” she shouted, shaking him again. “Wake up!” He groaned softly as she pulled him upright from the dining table, trying to lift his arm across her shoulders and haul him onto her back. “Ariana…” he muttered, tapping weakly against her back. “I’m fine.” She paused long enough for him to slide back down onto the table. Only then did he notice the garden. Or what remained of it. The moss that had once covered the ground had blackened beneath spreading flames. The cottages surrounding the clearing were collapsing inward, their wooden frames devoured by fire as whatever illusion had sustained them began to cease. Although the table of temptations still stood at the centre, everything else was burning. Villagers staggered through the smoke nearby, blinking as if waking from a long and disorienting dream. Some wandered aimlessly across the clearing, while others held onto each other in silence. Not all of them had survived. The flames had already claimed a few charred bodies. Still, Aegis stared at the destruction, and despite the chaos and death surrounding him, only one thought surfaced clearly in his mind. ‘I’m free.’ “What are you doing?” Ariana asked as she helped him down from the table. “We need to find Cole and get out of here.” Aegis nodded slowly. “You’re right,” he said, slightly tilting his head. “But why are you wearing that mask?” Ariana reached up and removed it, turning the object over in her hands as if trying to understand it. “To be honest… I don’t know,” she admitted quietly. “But it didn’t feel wrong.” They had barely taken a step before a cry called out to them. “Help… please!” A girl stumbled toward them through the smoke, her coat half burned and her hair tangled with ash. “My mother… somebody—please…” She collapsed to her knee