[Darin stands rigid, his heavy breathing flaring his nostrils. Fists balled at his sides so tight his nails have dug into the callouses; his knuckles bone white.]
[But he doesn't back down. If Zelda really desired to know, then fine. Fine. She can pity him and understand why he won't change his mind on this.]
You want to know who I am, Zelda? Really know?
My name is Darin Altway. The mere act of being born cost my mother her life. As a child, I survived an attack that I shouldn't have. An attack that took my brother Dromas, and my father Dracer. I ran and my brother tried to save me. He got cut down and all I bore was the scar across my back.
People with hair like mine are rumored to be descended from demons. The first thing I remember when I woke up in a strange bed, bandaged and clinging to life were adults arguing over who would take "The Cursed Child." And for a year, that's what I was. A burden to be passed around. No one wanted me. Everyone was afraid that keeping me around would lead them to the same fate as my family. No one had the courage to put me in an orphanage because "they owed it to my father" but apparently they didn't owe him enough to actually want me around.
[As he talks, his voice grows more somber. He laughs at that last sentence; a cold and bitter, mocking laugh.]
It's only by a miracle that Acteon took me in. And the only reason he didn't do it sooner is because he thought others were more well-suited to take care of a child. If it hadn't been for him, I would have been sent to an orphanage and no doubt conscripted into the army when I was old enough.
I hide my strength because people are scared of me. When I healed from something that should have killed me, people thought I was a monster. That sooner or later I'd become something terrifying. That I'd hurt them.
[He keeps the prophecy to himself. Dromas had only told Darin about it at their meeting in Eruyeka and talking about it felt like it might manifest somehow.]
So you tell me: is my life really worth the same as anyone else's? Because if it was, why didn't anyone want me? If the cost of saving a city is one life, why not the one that nobody wanted? No one would miss it.
[The lump is back in his throat. Darin wears his heart on his sleeve, earnest and true. And admitting now, with his own voice, that he was never wanted cuts deeper than the blade that tried to cleave him as a child. He doesn't want to be a bad man. But the world decided he was and fate seemed to conspire with them. All he wants is to do one good thing with his life. Even if he's never wanted, even if no one remembers him, it would validate his existence.]
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[But he doesn't back down. If Zelda really desired to know, then fine. Fine. She can pity him and understand why he won't change his mind on this.]
You want to know who I am, Zelda? Really know?
My name is Darin Altway. The mere act of being born cost my mother her life. As a child, I survived an attack that I shouldn't have. An attack that took my brother Dromas, and my father Dracer. I ran and my brother tried to save me. He got cut down and all I bore was the scar across my back.
People with hair like mine are rumored to be descended from demons. The first thing I remember when I woke up in a strange bed, bandaged and clinging to life were adults arguing over who would take "The Cursed Child." And for a year, that's what I was. A burden to be passed around. No one wanted me. Everyone was afraid that keeping me around would lead them to the same fate as my family. No one had the courage to put me in an orphanage because "they owed it to my father" but apparently they didn't owe him enough to actually want me around.
[As he talks, his voice grows more somber. He laughs at that last sentence; a cold and bitter, mocking laugh.]
It's only by a miracle that Acteon took me in. And the only reason he didn't do it sooner is because he thought others were more well-suited to take care of a child. If it hadn't been for him, I would have been sent to an orphanage and no doubt conscripted into the army when I was old enough.
I hide my strength because people are scared of me. When I healed from something that should have killed me, people thought I was a monster. That sooner or later I'd become something terrifying. That I'd hurt them.
[He keeps the prophecy to himself. Dromas had only told Darin about it at their meeting in Eruyeka and talking about it felt like it might manifest somehow.]
So you tell me: is my life really worth the same as anyone else's? Because if it was, why didn't anyone want me? If the cost of saving a city is one life, why not the one that nobody wanted? No one would miss it.
[The lump is back in his throat. Darin wears his heart on his sleeve, earnest and true. And admitting now, with his own voice, that he was never wanted cuts deeper than the blade that tried to cleave him as a child. He doesn't want to be a bad man. But the world decided he was and fate seemed to conspire with them. All he wants is to do one good thing with his life. Even if he's never wanted, even if no one remembers him, it would validate his existence.]