The days after Sophie’s departure seemed to slip by like sand through an hourglass, each one carrying me closer to a future I couldn’t fully grasp. My new role as Patriarch weighed on me not just as a title, but as a mantle I was reluctant to bear. Yet, even as doubt gnawed at my resolve, I found myself rising to the challenge. It was as though instinct guided me, the wisdom of lives I had never lived anchoring my every decision.

  They were not my memories, and yet they felt as much a part of me as my own hands and feet. Jin, the radiant hero who sought to bring hope to the world; the nobleman, driven to madness by the sheer weight of his rage and loss. Their choices, their triumphs, their flaws were etched into the tapestry of my soul. When I acted, I often wondered: was it me making the decision, or was it it? Were these memories a gift or something far more dangerous?

  The Scroll of Memories

  I often thought back to the moment that changed everything the day I first encountered the Scroll of Memories. The parchment had been alive, as if imbued with a will of its own. Its colors shimmered and swirled, seven distinct hues blending and colliding, each one representing a path:

  As the colors danced around me, I felt their pull not toward one, but toward all. Each hue resonated within me; their meanings woven into the essence of who I was. For the first time, I realized: I was not bound to a single path. The Scroll of Memories shimmered once more before revealing its final proclamation, a title that defied the structure of the world itself:

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Tenebris Lux.

  The words glowed with an otherworldly brilliance, pressing down on my very soul. Light and darkness, combined yet opposed a title that felt both foreign and inevitable. In that moment, I understood that my destiny was not to walk a single path, but all of them. The world was not ready for someone like me, and neither was I.

  A Patriarch Under Pressure

  The title of Patriarch felt strange upon me. It was a role I had never sought, yet one that seemed to fit like a cloak I had only now realized was mine. Each decision I made rippled beyond the borders of our small territory. For the first time, I saw our land not as an isolated piece of the Light Empire, but as a vital part of something larger.

  The scroll’s colors continued to guide me; their influence subtle yet ever-present. In moments of conflict, I felt the strength of red surging through me. When mediating disputes among our people, green tempered my judgment with compassion. Late at night, as I poured over trade agreements, yellow sharpened my mind to the intricacies of growth. Every action, every thought, felt as though it carried the echo of a thousand lives.

  But slowly, I began to change.

  At first, it was subtle a fading of the self I once knew. My decisions became less about what I wanted, and more about what the territory needed. The wisdom of the vaults guided me with precision, yet I sometimes wondered if I was losing the boy who had once begged Sophie not to leave. Was this transformation a loss, or an evolution?

  Strangely, I found comfort in the change. The farther I drifted from who I had been, the more I felt at peace. Each step I took toward becoming something new felt like shedding a skin that no longer fits. I was no longer simply Rio, the overlooked sibling. I was Tenebris Lux, a being forged by light, darkness, and everything in between.

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