100 % Review Forum Wrote something and now am loo..

*Day 361, Year of the Offering* In the suffocating, ashen heart of Ceryndor, light was a ghost that had long forsaken the streets, leaving behind a relic of crumbling iron and damp stone, a skeleton city exhaling death. Towers of rusted metal scraped the sky, stabbing upward like broken ribs, forgotten and flaking beneath a sky so dark it seemed to press down on the world. Fog slithered through alleyways and open squares, hanging thick and oily, clinging to skin like an invisible rot, soaking every stone, every breath, every heartbeat in a relentless damp. A city swallowing itself, rotting from within, a place where kindness would have shriveled and died a hundred years ago, had it dared to exist at all. *I can almost taste the rot. It’s in the air. It’s in my skin.* People shuffled through its guts like wraiths, eyes down, faces smudged and hollow, the air too thick for words, voices swallowed whole by the decay. The scent of iron and rotting flesh lingered, sharp and suffocating, trailing into the depths where *The Divine Barracks* lay�"an underground pit where the offerings were molded, raised, and hollowed, bodies that breathed only to be emptied. Sunlight was a forgotten myth. Hope, a thing without shape or name. *We were born in these depths, but they never told us what it meant to live.* Ash and Seshin were born in these depths, in stone cells that clung as close as coffins, the walls forever wet, dripping with a filth that refused to wash clean. They were raised without sound, with voices that could only dream of being heard, hands that were only ever allowed to clench in silence. Words, when dared, left their throats raw and bleeding, torn open by the sharp edges of restraining muzzles, and silence became a second skin, a deeper wound than the cuts they bore. *Is this all there is? This dark, wet hole? The hunger, the pain, the silence... The gods must’ve forgotten we exist. Forgotten we were ever supposed to be anything but this.* *Day 362, Year of the Offering* Ash’s memories of Seshin�"small, stolen moments�"were the only thing that hadn't yet withered. Glances, flickers of touch, a brush of fingers that felt like a secret rebellion. She remembered *The Scalding*, how the boiling water had felt like knives across her skin, cutting, cutting until she was a raw wound. Seshin’s hand had been her only anchor, his whispered words latching onto her slipping mind, “You’re stronger than them, Ash. Stronger than all of this.” His voice, a flicker of defiance in a place where rebellion was only a different shape of pain. *How can a touch feel like warmth in a place so cold?* *I’m not strong. I’m empty. But with him, I could almost believe I’m something.* *Day 364, The Day of the Sun* The dawn, when it came, was a sickly red. For the first time, Ash felt warmth on her skin, creeping across her like some cursed touch. In the arena’s center, she stood alone, the masked crowd gathering in silence, each pair of eyes a weight pressing down, a silent demand. Above, Ren watched from the stands, her face carved into a mask of indifference, a queen of shadows surveying her broken empire. *They think they own me. They think they’ve shaped me into a weapon. But they don't know. They don't know what I’ve become.* Ash could feel herself falling, slipping into something older and darker, a quiet rage seeping into her blood. She looked around at the faces, the hollowed-out shells she’d grown up beside, faces that had mirrored her own suffering, and felt something raw, twisted. Her fingers itched, a need she couldn’t name curling into her veins. Her first victim�"a girl who had once smiled at her�"Ash caught her arm, felt the flesh give way beneath her grip, and pulled, tearing with a slowness that felt like devotion. Her hands worked in silence, peeling back skin, inch by inch, savoring each cut, each shuddering breath. *You smiled at me. You gave me something once, but it was a lie. There’s nothing left here but pain.* Then, a boy�"a face she recognized, pale with fear as she closed in. She forced him to his knees, leaning close, her words a dark caress, “It’s time to see what’s inside you.” Her blade traced along his spine, parting skin, digging deep as she pulled nerves free, twisted them like ribbons, until he was a quivering, broken thing, a grotesque offering left on the blood-soaked ground. *You think you can fear me? You’re nothing. Nothing compared to what they made me.* And then, there was Seshin. The world contracted until there was only him. Her hands trembled around the blade, her heart thundering in a rhythm she couldn’t recognize, but something darker pulsed beneath it, a thrill that licked at her veins like fire. She moved close, her voice low, almost tender, "It’s alright, Seshin. We’re meant to be together… forever." *I loved you once. I did. But I can’t save you now. You’re already gone. We’re all gone.* The blade pierced his chest, slipping into him with a practiced precision. His blood, warm and thick, flooded over her hands, the heat sinking into her bones, filling the empty spaces inside her. She leaned in, pressing her mouth to the wound, drinking him in, tasting his life as it drained, feeling him merge into her, a dark ecstasy that spread like wildfire. *It’s not enough. It will never be enough. But this�"this is everything I’ve wanted.Seshin and I are finally one, aren’t u happy sesh?* When she looked up, the arena was a ruin of twisted, broken bodies, blood pooling thick around her feet, seeping into the stones,but it was her masterpiece,her art,she had created it from dust. She stood alone, her skin painted in crimson, the silence hanging heavy and unbroken. Above her, the crowd stared, horror and awe tangled in their gazes, and Ren’s unblinking eyes met hers, glinting with something like satisfaction. *They wanted this. They wanted me to break. But I’ve broken something else* Ash let her gaze sweep over them, a slow smile twisting her lips, dark and knowing. She could feel the weight of their eyes, feel them drink in the ruin she'd left behind, their silence an invitation she’d been waiting for her whole life. *Will they understand me now? Will they see me for what I am? Or will they only want more?, Will my district cheer more?* “Will you be my friend.” Not a question�"a promise. *I don’t need them. I’ve never needed anyone. Not anymore.*