"What are you doing? Little brother."

As Dastan ran, jumped, and clawed his way through the forest, a voice keeps lingering inside his head. A voice that has been forgotten for so many years.

"In the name of the gods, what was I doing?"

Dastan keeps asking himself the same question as he got deeper and deeper in the woods. The Porsian Rogue doesn't know how long he walks or how far he goes.

Eventually, when Dastan stopped, he realized that he was standing in front of a vast lake. The time is already late at night judging by the bright starry sky.

The surrounding forest was surprisingly quiet. There were no chirps of the insects and birds, but only the howling sound of the wind echoing around. It felt like fate had brought Dastan here deliberately to ponder on what he had done.

Looking at the moon's reflection on the lake, Dastan seriously began to reflect on his actions back in the cave.

There is no excuse for what Dustin has done and himself knows this. Threatening and trying to murder someone who no longer wishes to fight? It was against everything that Dustan had ever stood for and ever believes.

In the heart of the rogue, Dastan knows if that last fireball did not bring him down, his blade will be cover with the blood of another injustice victim or worse, his own, maybe The blood of teammates.

It has been two years since the destruction of Forty Desert Foxs, two years after Dastan buried his friends and comrades. During that time, as each day passed, Dastan's heart died a little each day, and bit by bit, the memories of past are like a thief have stolen Dastan's soul away.

Step by step, he becomes a different man, and piece by piece his mind sunk into deeper darkness. He hurt others and kills people, each time he did, at that moment, another part of him dies along with them. Dastan slashing and killing for every inch on his path to revenge. Leaves nothing but a trail of lifeless bodies who stand in his way.

"What have I done? I put everyone in danger again! just like that time at the circus."

Dastan walks to the lakeside and falls onto his knees. Looking at his reflection, his face is cover with blood and dirt, the messed hair and dirty beard make him look like a tramp. But the most shocking part is his eyes, there are not only dull but also full of bloodshot.

Dastan scoff and say. "This is not the man Vanessa fall in love with."

If destiny did not put Vanessa on his path, who knows what Dastan will become, as an orphan Dastan spent his life trying to build a family for himself, and every time when his home been taken from him, a small part of Dastan wish he can die with it.

"Tell me about your family."
"I don't have a family."
Lie...

When Dastan first time meets Vanessa, he was surrounded by death and suffering, back then Dastan just lost everyone he ever cares about. The man was in a very dark place, he felt dead inside. It's like he was in permanent sleepwalking, the only time Dastan ever feels alive is when he fights for his life.

Every time Dastan stared death straight in the eyes and threw rocks at it, he died a little more when he got away with it, yet he was still alive. Every time he watched his soul fall away from beneath him, and felt the growing darkness swallows him whole, he died a little more when the young halfling girl grabbed onto his hands and pulled him back up.

And when Vanessa looked at Dastan, with her piercing chocolate eyes that seemed to stare straight into the depths of his soul and see all the horrors that are hidden in the shadow of Dastan's soul, how many times just wanted to fall onto his knees and cry until there was nothing left of him.

Because, if Vanessa knows all the things he had done, sees all the things he had seen, learns all the horrors he'd commit, Dastan was sure she would spit on him in disgust, and leave him there to rot away.

"Dying is easy. Staying alive is hard, but I like the challenge."
Another lie...

The challenges that life provided him daily, had seized being pleasurable a long time ago.

Ever since the moment, Dastan had found his mother dead on the floor of the ruins that used to be their home, living had turned into surviving. And Dastan wasn't sure whether surviving all these horrors was worth it anymore.

But then, every time Dastan looked into Vanessa's eyes and prayed with all his might that she couldn't read from his eyes what he had done, he also saw the one thing that kept him going.

The faith she had in him from the first day when they meet, she awakened something inside Dastan's heart that he thought he lost when all his family and friends, had been brutally taken away from him, the same thing Sharaman sees in him on that day at the street: integrity, compassion, and courage.

To this day Dastan still does not know why his adoptive father, Sharaman will open his family door to a street rat like him. But Dastan was grateful, he feels like he was the luckiest kid in all Porsia region. After years of living in the slum, Dastan finally has a home.

But it was taken away from him, again. Whenever Dastan thinks he finally has a home, the cruel fate will take it away. His mother, the family adoptive him, the Forty Desert Foxs, and Vanessa.

Six months ago, when Dastan part his way with Vanessa, he thought all of his violent and darkness are in the past, but when he saw the fireball devouring all his new teammates, all the pain and suffering are coming back to him.

When he fell unconscious, Dastan's mind once again brings him back to that valley, to the day of all his friends and loved one died, the imagen of blood-soaked sand and the stench of burning corpses once again, push Dastan's soul back into the dark abyss.

Therefore, when Dastan woke up, he lost it, and the only thoughts left in his mind were blood for blood, the Rogue let the pain and anger swallowed him, thank the gods one of his teammates-Ephraim was thinking calmly otherwise, Dastan might be done something can never be undone.

Back in the cave when the second fireball strikes Dastan and puts him back to the unconscious, this time Dastan didn't fall into darkness again, the image of him lost everything that didn't appear. It was replaced by a warm white light. And a voice, a voice that Dastan has forgotten for years.

"What are you doing? Little brother."

Dastan recognizes that voice, and even though it's been years, he still recognizes it. Malik, his brother.

Malik." Back at the lake, Dastan looked up at the stars in the sky and said, "What am I doing? What have I become? Brother."

When Dastan woke up in the cave again, he feels shame for what he was planning, shame for who he becomes. So after Dastan leaves the cave, he left the others and walked into the forest alone. Dastan needed some time to think.

So now, by the lakeside, Dastan kneeling in front of his scimitar, close his eyes and began meditating, just like before the team enters the cave.

Hours passed, when Dastan finally opened his eyes, there was something different in his expression, his eyes shined the light he has lost a long time ago once again.

"I understand now, thank you, Malik."

Suddenly Dastan started taking off his leather armor and his weapons, then he takes off his white sleeveless tunic, leather bracer, and sand boots. Now he is topless the only thing Dastan wears is his trousers.

Dastan started walking towards the lake until the water flooded his waist. Porsia is a land dwells in the warm sands, where water is an extremely scarce resource, every drop is precious. Therefore water carries much weight in all religious ceremonies, including the sinner's Redemption, as it is now.

"As the water purifying one's body, it also cleanses the soul of a sinner."

Dastan cups his palms and dipped his hands into the water, raised his water-filled palm to his lips, Dastan drinks the water from his hands. For some reason, the water has a sweeter taste to it than Dastan remembers.

"Hakiyah, Goddess of honesty and truth, bless this man who into the water as a sinner and blesses him resurface as the new man."

Taking a deep breath, Dastan dives his whole body into the water, a few moments later he rises back up. After a few breaths, Dastan brushes his hair back to his head tie it into a ponytail. Then afterward, Dastan pulls out his dagger and starts to shave his beard. When Dastan finished shaving his face, In Dastan’s mind, he heard a divine voice.

"Bless you, young soul, may you redeem yourself on the adventure ahead."

As the voice faded, four bottles of healing potions appeared along the shore with a burst of white light, just beside his equipment.

Then after a deep breath, Dastan uses the dagger to cuts open his left-hand palm.

"Vataqatal, God of war and duty, let this pain and scar as a reminder for my commitment today."

Dastan raised his left hand and turn it into a fist, as he squeezed his hand the blood dripped into the lake.

When the blood dripped into the lake, a light shot from the lake towards the wound on Dastan's left hand. When the light receded, the wound had become a scar.

Then at where the blood falls, a pair of beautiful new boots surfaced, Dastan can feel the magic power radiate from these boots.

"Bless you, brave warrior, may these boots give you the wisdom to walk out from the shadow of pain and anger.”

"I, Dastan • Sazyar • Ibn-Muhammad, the son of Sharaman and Scheherazade, brother of Tuellman, Garsiv, and Malik. Tonight in the eyes of gods and destiny, tonight I am reborn."

As Dastan walked back to shore, he realized that he was not alone, the strange creature looks like a black cat with bat wings was following him through the forest to the lake.

"Layl? have you watch me the whole time?"

"Meow!"

Strange black cat meowing in response.

"Thank you, been the witness of my redemption."

Dastan pats the head of Layl and said. "Give me some time to clean my cloth and armor, then we can go back to the others."

The End

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什麼什麼汪