Thud, thud, thud. The sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the large, dark throne room of the Under Realm. The fast beats were accompanied by the sound of heavy breathing and a living heart beating.
The footsteps squeaked to a stop. Nine. The footfalls resumed, continued for a few seconds, and then stopped again. Ten. The pattern continued.
Breathing was difficult, breaths coming fast and heavy, as Seth ran back and forth, back and forth across the room. He'd been running long enough that it was starting to become physically stressful. He could feel his heartbeat pumping overtime. But he didn't really want to stop. In this place, there were not many ways to get regular exercise—or, more importantly to him—relieve his boredom.
Sitting down here left him too much time to be idle—too much time to think. Alone in the dark was always the ideal climate for the bad thoughts to come back. He allowed himself to wonder for one brief moment—why had he thought this would be a good idea? What good did he think being the Underking would do for him? It seemed like he'd just been getting all the downsides and none of the benefits.
But just as quickly as the thought had come, Seth dismissed it. Dwelling on his past decisions would not help him. This was his life, and it would only hurt him to imagine that it could or even should be any other way.
He knew these things, but that didn't mean it ever really stopped him from wondering anyway.
Seth had had an unusual past and was still living an unusual life. His first memory was when he was already a kid, or maybe a teenager, which was not normal. Every memory he had since his first involved some sort of people chasing him, trying to track him down, trying to get him to listen to them, to be on their side. He figured that it would make sense for him to have a side, and maybe he would want to if people wouldn't keep harassing him about it, but he couldn't find out the whole truth unbiased from anyone, and now he didn't even really want anything to do with either of them anyway because they were bugging him so much about it.
So when he'd finally gotten away from the outside influences and gone to Titan Valley, he'd made sure to cover his tracks well. He'd come up with a game plan—to finish what he was there for and then vanish off the face of the earth. He wanted to disappear, to go somewhere no one would find him.
So that was what he did. He'd found Selona at that same sanctuary and completed his promise to Ezabar the prison guard. He'd found Serena the nipsie and left Calvin with her. And then he'd returned to the Under Realm.
Once he'd gotten there, Seth had learned that he was no longer prisoner to the Underking or obligated to do anything for Ronodin or the Sphinx and that Kendra was the one who got him out of those arrangements. He remembered how immensely relived he'd been at that. He didn't want to be around Ronodin anymore. Maybe Ronodin was the good guy; Seth didn't know. But he sure had been obnoxious to deal with.
Over the last few years, Seth had made sort of a shaky alliance with the Underking, who helped teach him more about his powers in return for some favors, though Seth made sure to be very careful about what kind of deals he was making. Eventually, after years of this, the Underking had revealed his true identity and extended an invitation for Seth to join in the line of Underkings.
It was a big decision, and one that Seth had spent much thought on.
His initial reaction had been no way! But, obviously from his current condition, his stance on that had changed.
At first, Seth had been horrified at the very idea of being the Underking. As time went on, however, he'd grown more and more open to the idea. Why shouldn't he? His powers had been growing exponentially, and he was probably even more powerful than the Underking at this point, if he even dared to think that. If they combined their powers together…
So he'd accepted. When he'd picked up that pitch-black crown that seemed to absorb every bit of surrounding light off of the crumbling skull on the floor of the throne room, he'd had a slight sense of dread in the back of his mind like he was doing something wrong. But he wasn't.
So he'd put on the crown.
And with it, he'd accepted the full weight of what it meant to be the Underking.
Immediately upon placing the crown on his head, he could feel the power in it. He had already been able to sense it by touching it to pick it up and even just being near it, but that had been nothing like this. This thing was seriously powerful. At that moment, any regrets or doubts he might have had about his decision vanished.
Now, he wasn't so certain.
Yeah, the crown was still powerful. So was he. He was even more powerful than before. But…he was bored.
He was bored, and he was lonely, and he wasn't sure anymore if this was worth it. Maybe he should try to figure out what was going on in the outside world. Now he would probably be able to find out whatever he wanted about both sides of the disagreement and get the truth.
But…was that worth it either?
Did he even care about that?
Seth wasn't sure.
So he kept on doing what he was doing, spending all his time alone in the dark.
It wasn't all bad, though. Being the Underking came with some cool new privileges and levels of power. Now Seth was in charge of all the wraiths and revenants and zombies, and he could tell them what to do. This also happened to be where he got his information about the outside world—not that he necessarily wanted that anyway.
Being the Underking involved a bit more of having to stay in the Under Realm than just working for the Underking, but Seth wasn't completely confined. He still occasionally left to go on little adventures, but those always came with a slight sense of paranoia that someone from his past would find him and recognize him. Then the nagging and harassment would start up again, and he would never get away from it this time. Or maybe he would. He was the Underking, after all. He could make them leave him alone. But if that involved violence, he didn't want to do it. He would rather just have no connection at all to anyone he'd ever known or who had ever known him.
Other things that had come with being the Underking were secrets. Seth now held all the knowledge of every previous Underking, along with the knowledge of the truths of many unsolved mysteries and secrets that had been buried with those who held them.
He also now had much better knowledge of the Under Realm. It was vast, and part of it was designed into something like an underground palace for its ruler, which had gone untouched for uncountable years before Seth had joined. He had spent much of his time down here in the Under Realm just exploring that building, let alone the rest of the whole realm. He was sure there were still places he hadn't been yet. Sometimes exploring the Under Realm was just as fun as any adventure he could have in the upper world.
Now, as Seth slowed down his running to take a break, he felt a slight twinge in the back of his mind. Something was off. He frowned and tilted his head upward. What could that be? He considered it for a moment. He'd never had this happen before, and it didn't feel like it was something awful or urgent, so he decided to let it go. If it turned out to be something important that would manifest itself physically, he'd find out soon enough.
Seth sat down cross-legged on the ground and took a long drink from a water bottle that had been on the floor next to his throne. He liked running. It was good exercise, and he was pretty good at it. If he needed to, he could keep running for quite a while over some long distances. Practicing running when he was bored really paid off. Especially when he went on adventures in the upper world. Sometimes he found himself in situations he'd rather not be in, having enraged some sort of magical creature that he probably hadn't even known existed beforehand. Yes, running was definitely a useful skill to have.
Seth thought for a moment on the adventures he'd been on on his own. He could go anywhere he wanted. He always met a few interesting characters on those adventures, usually magical creatures who recognized him instantly as the Underking. There was no mistaking the aura of dark power that came with it. Most of the creatures he met were instantly afraid of him, but he always tried his hardest to be nice to them. He didn't want to hurt anyone, and he wouldn't mind making a friend. It had been a while since he'd heard a kind word or seen a smile. Sometimes the creatures would realize that he meant them no harm and slowly warm up to him. Sometimes they wouldn't. Either way, he usually enjoyed the company anyway.
Sometimes he met humans on his adventures. Once, he'd accidentally ventured into a human city. It was large and overwhelming, with many people and sounds and sights. He hadn't liked it very much. However, the experience had raised a question in his mind, one about his past. He'd probably been to places like this before—if he was human. Before he'd had his memories stolen six years ago. Since then, though, he tended to keep more towards magical areas like preserves or just the Under Realm. Sometimes he wondered—was he human? He knew he looked like a human, but so did many magical creatures. He'd also already had dark powers at the time of his first memory. He supposed that question was impossible to answer without his memories.
Seth wiped his mouth on his sleeve, noting with disdain the fact that he had spilled water down his shirt again. It be like that, he supposed. He set his water bottle down and got up to run some more. He'd been following a pattern with his exercise recently, running some laps with a break in the middle for water and then running some more laps for the running exercise.
Just then, a wraith entered the throne room nervously, stuttering a formal greeting and something that was probably supposed to be important news.
Seth squinted. "What's up? Could you repeat that but like clearer this time, please?"
The wraith shuddered and repeated itself. "There is a living intruder in the Under Realm."
when i was young, i thought i would become
someone different than who i find myself to be
