THE LAST DAWN
Chapter 5: The Choice
The hall was silent.
The seven figures sat in their seven chairs, their silver eyes fixed on Rowan, their bone masks impassive. The torches burned low and blue, their flames struggling against the darkness. The shadows pressed close, watching, waiting, hungry.
Rowan stood at the center of the hall, his knife in his hand, his heart pounding, his breath shallow.
Lyra stood beside him.
Her silver eyes were fixed on the seventh figure.
“To become the hunger,” Rowan said. “Or to become the end.”
The seventh figure nodded.
“Those are your choices.”
“There must be another way.”
The figure was silent for a long moment.
“There is always another way. But it requires a sacrifice you are not ready to make.”
“What sacrifice?”
The figure looked at Lyra.
“Her.”
Rowan’s blood went cold.
“Lyra?”
“Lyra is the key. The key to the hunger. The key to the end. The key to the Citadel.”
“What happens if I sacrifice her?”
The figure’s silver eyes gleamed.
“The hunger sleeps. The world heals. The end is delayed.”
“And if I don’t?”
The figure was silent for a long moment.
“Then the hunger wakes. The world dies. The end comes.”
Rowan looked at Lyra.
Her silver eyes were wet.
“He’s lying,” she said.
“Is he?”
She was silent.
“Lyra.”
“The hunger cannot be delayed. The world cannot be healed. The end cannot be stopped.”
“Then why am I here?”
She took his hands.
Her fingers were cold.
“To choose.”
The first figure stood.
“Enough.”
The second figure stood.
“The Council has decided.”
The third figure stood.
“Rowan of Blackreach.”
The fourth figure stood.
“You will face the trials.”
The fifth figure stood.
“Three trials.”
The sixth figure stood.
“Three sacrifices.”
The seventh figure stood.
“Three chances to prove that you are worthy.”
“What are the trials?”
The seventh figure stepped closer.
“The Trial of Blood. The Trial of Bone. The Trial of Soul.”
“What do I have to do?”
The figure looked at the darkness.
At the hunger.
At the end.
“Survive.”
The torches went out.
The darkness swallowed them.
Rowan stood alone in the dark.
No knife.
No Lyra.
No Council.
Just the silence.
And the hunger.