You emerge from the crevasse that marks the entryway to the Underworld. The chariot carries you through a purifying rain. You are cleansed of your blood-crime and once more permitted to appear in the presence of gods.
You descend closer to the tall figures standing at the crevasse's edge: Cephiel, the Goddess of Wisdom, in her crystal diadem, and her gown of gold and glass; Merena, Goddess of Death, in shadowy robes that flow like windswept leaves. The chariot deposits you at their feet, and you fairly leap out of it to confront them.
"You lied to me!" You wrest the band from your head and throw it at the gods' feet, where it dissolves into glittering ash. "You told me that the band would keep me safe, when it was merely an instrument of your power!"
Cephiel extends an open hand, as though she is offering something invisible. "Our power would have never manifested," she says, "had you not chosen to betray us."
Merena speaks next, in a voice that crackles like embers, "Daggoras is dead. That is the matter of it. Your reward shall be great…" She points a bony finger behind you, and you turn to see your father, suddenly freed from the Underworld. He seems lost, his purpose uncertain even to himself, for he does not yet live; he is but a soul.
Your eyes fill with tears, as you recall how he came to be this way. That terrible day in your home village, when a dream sent by Daggoras took hold of your father's mind. How he turned his rage upon you, and then your mother.
That day, you felt you had no choice but to strike him down with your sword…