Chapter Sixteen
The Unraveling of the Threads
It seems like I see, and have seen, everything. As if I have some ability to see into eternity. Yet, all that's truly been available to me is the observance of the ebb and flow of human nature throughout a quatrain of millennia, in an epoch of my former world. I see human nature. It's the cadence behind the rise and falls of empires, of cities, of individuals.
I can no longer count how many times I've seen this intricate symphony performed. I've seen it become discordant. And yet, each time I have to wonder whose hand will provide that final nudge into cacophony?
Every choice ever made, even in the ones with the most benign of intentions, has a consequence.
What if an Emperor takes a mistress, who bears him a daughter? Then, a year later, his consort bears him a daughter, as well. The daughters become friends, until one day, they are not.
In this brief span of my time, a single decision by an Emperor has created countless more decisions. These decisions now affect the lives of all those living in an Empire, across the entirety of a mortal generation.
Is it laughable or contemptible that so many lives are altered by an Emperor's decision to sate his libido?
All of this leads back to that one, singular name…
The mystery.
The gift.
The curse.
Delilah.
There are so many questions I have regarding Delilah. And yet, should I even seek the answers?
I view human nature through the eyes of an outsider…Perhaps this is the problem. Perhaps what I see in Delilah is not human nature, but merely a reflection of what I now perceive it to be.
Has it been so long? Did I become so altered from mortality, from the child I once was, by the rituals forced upon me, or by this place in which I exist?
How did I not know Delilah was more powerful than she seemed? How did she gain the power to escape? Was it through magic, involving her own life's blood?
Were her bindings to this Void so different from my own? More disturbing to consider, does she now wield powers which are similar to mine? Can she turn them against me?
Has she garnered the true power behind the Mark, of which I have given so sparingly?
The threads of the Tapestry are beginning to unravel. The anniversary of the death of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin I has arrived. The waters of chaos will soon flood the Empire.
Time and time again, I have issued my warnings to the ones who matter. The highborn are always brought to heel by those born beneath them, and by those who were forgotten by them. There is nothing I can do to stop what is about to occur. I can make no direct interference in the mortal realm.
All I can do is watch the reaping of the final seeds that were sown by the libido of the late Emperor, Euhorn Jacob Kaldwin.