Chapter 6: Crossroads

Chapter 6: Crossroads

"Most importantly to you, I would imagine, is I would ensure your daughter is cared for. The best education, the best healthcare, food, and more. She would be as safe, and taught to make herself safe."

Vash's words cut through the ambient hum of the ship, striking directly at my core. Her violet eyes never left mine as she spoke, watching for my reaction with the intensity of a predator assessing weakness in prey.

Safety. For my daughter. My hands tightened just slightly around her. Elisa's breathing remained steady, her small chest rising and falling against mine. So vulnerable. So completely dependent on me now. Her entire world had been violently torn apart, her mother and brother taken from her in minutes. What kind of future could I provide for her alone, stranded in a reality I no longer recognized or understood?

Vash knew where to push, and she wasn't done. She took another step closer, her movement so fluid she seemed to glide across the deck. The starlight from the viewport caught in her pale hair, creating a halo effect that belied the calculating nature beneath.

"You'll have a chance to earn answers, to earn the power to take them. It will not be easy, the path to power never is, but you will be given opportunities. Power to alter the very stars. Power to change the shape of fate itself. Power to ensure she never comes to harm," Vash nodded to Elisa.

Her voice dropped lower with each promise, weaving a spell of possibility around me. I found myself leaning forward slightly, drawn in by the vision she painted. A future where I wasn't helpless. Where I could protect what remained of my family. Where the crushing weight of failure that pressed on my chest might someday be lifted.

I admit, I was enraptured by her words. I couldn't see the manipulation then.

Now, I don't even care. When you have power, you don't need to.

One of the crew members approached, murmuring something to Vash in that strange language they shared. She replied without looking away from me, dismissing him with a slight gesture of her fingers. The unspoken message was clear: I was her priority now. My decision mattered. I mattered.

Her sensuous voice, a whisper that kissed the skin like a forgotten ghost, heralding sweet temptation. Each syllable carefully crafted to pierce my defenses, to slip beneath rational thought and lodge directly in the wounded, frightened part of me that desperately wanted someone to make the horror stop.

"Think of it, Varus. Your daughter growing up protected by the might of the Nyxen. Learning to harness the Flux herself. Never again experiencing the fear you both felt tonight."

I looked down at Elisa's face, peaceful in sleep despite everything. How could I protect her in this new reality? I knew nothing about the Flux, about these creatures, about the powers that had torn through our home like it was made of paper. I was just a man, a builder of houses that could be destroyed in minutes.

This moment. This was the crossroads I talked about earlier. A small choice. One that seemed reasonable. How could the desire to protect one's child be bad? It wasn't, not really. Even now, I don't think of it as being the case.

The ship banked slightly, the stars beyond the viewport shifting. Somewhere in the void beyond, Earth continued its slow spin, unaware that one of its inhabitants was making a decision that would shape not just his fate, but potentially that of many worlds. How grandiose that sounds now, how impossible it would have seemed then.

A crew member placed a tray nearby, containing what appeared to be food and water. The gesture seemed kind, but I recognized it for what it was: another hook, another reminder of my complete dependence on these strangers. I hadn't realized how thirsty I was until that moment, my throat suddenly parched, my stomach hollow with hunger that grief had temporarily banished.

Especially when she presented the stick.

"Or?" I said, the single word carrying all my suspicion, all my wariness. There was always an alternative. Always a price for refusing.

Vash's expression didn't change, but something in her posture shifted, hardened. The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.

"Or. I put you and your daughter on the nearest planet, and say goodbye."

The words hung in the air between us, simple and devastating. No elaboration needed. Just abandonment on a world I didn't know, with creatures I couldn't fight, and a system of power I didn't understand.

My eyes narrowed then. Anger flickered to life, a spark of defiance against her casual cruelty.

"That's the same as killing us!"

Vash's eyes were cold, dark things. Like staring into twin abysses that had witnessed the birth and death of stars without blinking. No compassion dwelled there, no hesitation.

"I am not a charity. You have something I want access to. It will cost me resources to train you, to say nothing if you even make it through the Initiate Games. You have already cost me quite a bit of time, credits and energy to come and get you before Flux beasts could tear you apart. If you choose not to be my apprentice, I will take it as you scorning my good deed, and I will wash my hands of you. Now. Choose Varus Thorne."

An ugly viper twisted in my stomach as anger bubbled up. Heat flooded my face, and for a moment I imagined striking her, wiping that cold composure from her perfect features. But Elisa stirred against me, reminding me of everything at stake. Of how completely outmatched I was.

The crew continued their duties around us, pretending not to listen, but I noticed how they had positioned themselves. Always within reach of their weapons. Always with clear lines of sight to me. I was a guest, but one they were prepared to neutralize at a moment's notice.

Choices like the one before me often appeared like no choice at all.

I would learn differently. You always had a choice. Some were truly awful, sometimes another will overpowered your own, but you had one.

I could have been dropped off on a planet. There was no telling what I would find there, or even be able to breathe, but I could have. I had no idea then that Crucible was the nearest planet, the home world of the Nyxen. A place where I would stand no chance as an untrained outsider with a child to protect.

Perhaps, I could have fought. Grabbed one of those handheld teleporters and see where it led us. The crew was vigilant, but not omniscient. There might have been a moment, a chance, however slim.

But I didn't want to, nor do I regret that choice now. I am merely admiring the manipulation for what it was. The lie that I couldn't have made another choice.

I looked around the ship, at the technology beyond my comprehension, at the stars beyond the viewport. This wasn't my world anymore. The rules I had lived by, the certainties I had built my life around, they were gone, shattered like the windows of my home.

In their place was only this offer. This bargain with a woman whose very nature I couldn't begin to comprehend.

"What exactly would being your apprentice entail?" I asked, trying to buy time, to find some leverage in a situation where I had none.

Vash's lips curved slightly, recognizing the question for the delay tactic it was. "You would train under my guidance. Learn to harness the Flux. Compete in the Initiate Games to prove your worth to the Nyxen. If successful, you would join our ranks officially, with all the privileges and responsibilities that entails."

"And Elisa? Where would she be during all this?"

"In our educational facilities. Safe. Learning. Growing." She tilted her head slightly. "You would see her regularly, of course. I am not a monster, Varus. I simply understand the value of investment and return."

I stroked Elisa's hair gently, feeling its softness against my calloused fingers. She was all I had left. The only piece of the life I had built that hadn't been ripped away.

"The Initiate Games. They're dangerous?"

Vash didn't hesitate. "Yes. Some die. Those who lack the will, the strength, the cunning to survive. But you have something most initiates lack." Her gaze intensified. "Motivation beyond yourself. And perhaps... something more."

That cryptic reference to my blood again. I wanted to press her, to demand answers, but something told me now wasn't the time. She was offering just enough information to hook me, not enough to satisfy. The full truth would come at a price, paid in sweat and blood and loyalty.

I would tell myself in the time to come that this was the only option I had. That I was pushed to become what I would eventually become. A convenient lie, a comfort in the dark hours when doubt crept in. But deep down, I would always know the truth: I chose. With eyes open and mind clear, I chose.

Darkness is inside all of us.

It's just not always obvious.

Sometimes it wears the face of protection, of righteousness, of necessary evil. Sometimes it disguises itself as the only path forward. But it's there, waiting for the right moment, the right justification, to emerge.

For me, it came in the form of a simple question: What wouldn't I do to protect my daughter? To ensure she never again experienced the terror of watching her family die? To give her a future in this new, dangerous reality?

The answer, as it turned out, was nothing. There was nothing I wouldn't do.

Darkness whispered to me, given shape by the temptation Vash was offering me. It spoke of vengeance against the creatures that had taken my family. Of power beyond mortal understanding. Of a world where I would never again feel the helplessness I had felt watching Jackson and Lynn die.

I listened to it.

"I accept," I said, the words dropping from my lips like stones into still water, creating ripples that would eventually become tidal waves. "I'll be your apprentice."

Vash's smile widened, revealing perfect teeth too white, too sharp to be fully human. Satisfaction gleamed in her violet eyes, the look of a hunter whose prey had finally walked into the trap.

"A wise decision," she said, extending her hand toward me. "Welcome to the Nyxen, Varus Thorne. Your training begins tomorrow."

I shifted Elisa carefully, keeping her cradled in one arm as I reached out to clasp Vash's offered hand. Her skin was cool to the touch, almost cold, and I felt a jolt of something pass between us, a current of energy that made the hairs on my arm stand on end.

In that moment, with the stars bearing silent witness, I sealed my fate. Turned my back on the man I had been and took my first step toward the man I would become.

I didn't know then how high the cost would be. How much of myself I would sacrifice on the altar of power and vengeance. How the path ahead would transform me until even I wouldn't recognize what remained.

All I knew was that Elisa would be safe.

And that one day, I would make them all pay.