"The Dominion of Hollow Mercy."
The name stayed in my mind longer than it should have, repeating itself in a way that made it hard to ignore, and in that moment I understood clearly that the days ahead were not going to be easy. Veguila had placed its hopes on me, and those hopes had grown into something heavy that I could not escape.
For a brief moment, a thought crossed my mind, sharp and uncomfortable.
Maybe I shouldn't have helped that merchant.
The thought felt wrong as soon as it appeared, and I pushed it away immediately because I knew helping him had been the right thing to do. Even now, I could not bring myself to regret it, because if I had walked away that day, I would not have been able to live with myself.
Still, the question remained.
If I had done the right thing, then why did this feel like punishment?
The Dominion itself was not weak, and that much was clear from how people reacted when they heard its name. No one dismissed it or treated it like a useless ability, but there was something else in their voices that made everything worse. It was not fear alone, and it was not respect either, but something in between that felt unfamiliar.
It was strong.
But it was wrong.
And that difference was enough to change everything.
By the time I left the ritual grounds, the sky had already changed, and the golden light that once filled the air had faded into a deep red that stretched across the horizon. The streets of Veguila were still crowded, but the energy had shifted, and the excitement from earlier had turned into something quieter and more uncertain.
No one celebrated near me, No one congratulated me... They simply watched.
I could feel their eyes following me as I walked, some filled with curiosity and others with judgment that they did not try to hide.
"Look at him," an old woman said, loud enough for me to hear clearly. "Acting all kind, and now his true nature shows."
I kept walking without responding.
"See that?" another man added. "Complete hypocrite."
I glanced at him for a moment, and for some reason the first thing I noticed was that he was bald, which annoyed me more than it should have.
I never understood why, but bald people always seemed overly confident, as if they were trying too hard to prove something to the world.
For a brief second, I almost said something pointless, something like Baldylocks, but I stopped myself before it could leave my mouth.
I didn't have the energy for it, and arguing with people like that would not change anything.
So I kept walking, and with every step the weight I carried felt heavier, not because of the distance but because of everything that followed me.
By the time I reached home, the sky had darkened even more, and the red had deepened into something almost unnatural. The silence inside the house felt worse than anything outside, because at least outside people spoke openly, while here everything remained unspoken.
We sat in the living room, and for a while no one said anything.
The tension was not loud, but it filled the space completely.
My dad finally broke the silence, letting out a long breath as he ran his hands through his hair.
"We thought too much about this," he said, his voice carrying exhaustion more than anger.
My dad never looked like other fathers, because he appeared younger than he should have and smaller in height, with skin that looked untouched by time in a way that never made sense to me.
My mom stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, her voice calm but firm.
"Don't say that in front of him," she said. "It isn't his fault."
She was the complete opposite of him in both appearance and presence, taller than both of us with dark skin that carried a quiet strength, and her long hair reached down to her knees in a way that made her stand out anywhere.
There was one thing about her that always remained unexplained.
She was missing one finger, and she had never told us why.
My dad pulled away slightly, his voice rising.
"Then what do I do?" he said. "Pretend everything is fine? I don't want my son to be killed by rangers or worse, by the gods themselves!"
"Dad," I said, finally speaking, trying to keep my voice steady. "I'm not a bad person, and this has to be a mistake. I don't accept this fate."
For a moment, I believed what I said.
Then his expression changed.
"Don't accept?" he repeated. "Look at you. I always told you to be disciplined and do things properly, and you never listened. Now we all have to pay for it."
That struck me harder than anything else, not because it was true but because it wasn't, and my temper rose immediately in response.
"You never listened?" I said, standing up. "You're the one who changed. Before today, you said you were proud of me, and you believed I would receive a great Domain."
I took a step forward, unable to stop myself.
"And now that I didn't, suddenly you have reasons to blame me?"
The words came out sharper than I intended.
"I knew it. People treat parents like they are perfect, but the moment something goes wrong, everything becomes the child's fault."
Silence followed, stretching across the room as no one responded, and I did not wait for anything more before turning away. I turned and walked into my room, closing the door behind me harder than I meant to.
The moment I was alone, everything I had been holding back began to break, and I sat down as the pressure I had ignored all day finally caught up to me.
I cried... Quietly. Not because I didn't want anyone to hear, but because I could not stop it anymore.
Everything had changed in a single moment, and I did not know how to deal with it.
"I don't want to die," I muttered under my breath, the thought slipping out before I could stop it.
Domains like mine were not simply misunderstood, they were feared, and fear always found a way to turn into action sooner or later.
I wiped my face slowly and forced myself to breathe, trying to steady the storm that had taken hold of my thoughts. Panic would not help me now, and fear would not change anything that had already happened.
I remained there for a long time, letting the silence settle around me until the noise in my mind finally began to fade. As it did, something else started to take its place, something quieter but far more unsettling.
If Domains truly reflected who a person was, then this should not have happened.
This could not be happening like this, and it certainly could not be happening to me. Something was wrong somewhere, and I refused to believe that the fault lay within me. As I straightened slightly, my thoughts began to settle, becoming clearer with each passing moment. A quiet realization formed, one that I could not ignore anymore.
I did not accept this, and I never would. This was not my fate, and it was not something I was willing to carry. No god had the right to decide my life for me, no matter how powerful they claimed to be.
For the first time since the Descent, the fear that had been weighing on me began to fade. In its place, something steadier took hold, something stronger and far more dangerous. It was not anger, and it was not denial.
It was resolve.
I would not be controlled by this, and I would not become what they expected me to become.
The Dominion of Hollow Mercy still lingered in my mind, but now it did not feel like a sentence.
It felt like a question.
And I was going to find the answer.