Once more, Isaac stood before the Council.
"Did you decide?" Lance asked.
"Yes. I will join."
The members all smiled. Lance spared no time and took out a book, flinging it towards Isaac who caught it easily.
Isaac read the book's title aloud, "Sin of Envy - The Sin that Leads to Emptiness." He looked up at the council members with a confused look.
Lance was already prepared for this reaction, "Oh don't mind the descriptor, we all have it. For Greed, the book says "The Sin That Leads to Self Destruction." For Pride, it says loneliness, etc etc."
"No, like, why is it a book?" Isaac flipped through it, "It's a novel..."
"Oh..." Lance paused. "About that, the books hold the enlightenment within to walk the path. There are three stages for each sin. I would say more but I have no words to give, only the council members know the secrets within their book, and the last Sin of Envy is dead as you know."
"Great." Isaac wasn't pleased.
Lance tried to recover the situation. "B-But! Now you are a part of the council, congrats!"
When Isaac finally left, Lance was crying as he peered into his wallet made of duct tape, he had to give Isaac some of his resources to help soothe his anger.
"I won't be able to progress for the next month....man...."
The other council members laughed as they left one by one to return to their cells.
Isabelle found Isaac reading in their cell the next day instead of training.
"Whatcha doing?" She leaned over him.
"Reading," he responded plainly.
"I can see that...I mean what is it?" Isabelle began to read the words in the book. "Oh, it's a novel? When did you get into novels?"
Isaac again spoke dryly, "I didn't."
Seeing her roommate acting unfriendly, Isabelle huffed in displeasure and left, letting Isaac get back to his reading in peace.
So far, he was having difficulty understanding anything about the Path of Envy.
'The book follows the story of some loser...he does envy everyone around him due to his circumstances but I'm almost halfway through the book and nothing. Did those council bastards lie?' With no choice, he could only suck it up and finish the book first before doing anything else
The next chapter read:
Damian walked to his local corner store, he was buying what he always bought and greeted the people he always saw. It was another normal day, Damian would soon be working for his bastard of a boss on a construction site lacking any safety equipment.
As he went over to pay for his things, a man in a ski mask waltzed into the cornerstone and held a gun up.
"Everyone on the ground!" He pointed the gun at the owner, Charles. "Give me everything in the register, now!"
Throughout the whole exchange, Damian couldn't help but smile. He thought, 'That's what you deserve, having this store while I have nothing! That's what you get, you don't deserve what you have!'
His thoughts were disgusting and self-centered, he wanted what Charles had but he didn't. He could only cheer watching the man lose his hard-earned money.
Once the robber got what he wanted, he sprinted out of the store and everyone resumed their daily actions like nothing happened.
The short-lived joy Damian had faded and he went on with his life. He couldn't help but remember that feeling in the store, where for a second, he felt Charles was below him, where he had more than the poor store owner.
That night, after he got off work, Damian walked by the cornerstone and saw Charles locking up for the night. Something rose in him at that moment and his knuckles clenched.
If he didn't have the things others had, he would just take them by any means possible.
The chapter came to a close and Isaac felt a hint at something. Instead of stopping he continued to read.
He read how Damian broke into Charles's home and beat him for an inch of his life before burning the whole building to the ground.
He read how Damian Stole money from his boss, going into his computer on the worksite and changing a few numbers around, the boss was already stealing funds so it was easy for him to switch it.
He read how Damian lost himself in his inferiority complex, as the novel progressed, he began to envy everyone around him, taking and taking, scamming friends, and ruining strangers' lives. He became a wanted criminal as his activities were found and he was hunted.
In the last chapter, Damian had his back to the city skyline as police flooded onto a roof and surrounded him.
Because he kept wanting more, Damian didn't stop his scams and using illegal ways to ruin others. As he grew wealthier he learned that there were even more powerful people who were better than him and he began to envy them too, trying to take what they had.
Unfortunately, those people were far too high above and had the means by which Damian couldn't touch them. Instead, he alerted the police of his activities and was now at the end of a rope.
He craved for the world, but the world was not his to have. He knew now how his greed for others' status and belongings led him to his demise.
Isaac read Damian's final thoughts and the ending of the novel.
'I...I...failed? Was it because I set the bar too high? Was it because I was not meant to have it all?' He sighed, 'I lost control at some point, I wasn't rational. I have sinned and forgot my place, thinking I was the center of the world. Yet... It was good....for a time.'
He took a step back, his feet had nothing to stand on and Damian fell backward. The police yelled as he fell over six stories and splattered on the pavement.
Sirens blared as Damian's vision blackened. It cost him his life, but he understood his greed was out of control, he let it lead him to death. If only he stayed rational. If only he didn't drown in his desire for others' lives.
Envy is like a thorny vine, the goal is to climb but the thorns get worse as time goes on, without proper planning, it's useless to make it to the top.
The End.
Isaac closed the book as he felt a part of him understand something.
'We all sin, we all end up harming ourselves because of it. The first step to anything is moderation, to get a feel for the waters. To understand envy is to understand your situation, it is a useful tool only when it does not engulf you. I understand.'
At that moment, he became a Disciple of Envy and understood his place within the world.
'It's strange, I am a tool for people, but I'm in a position where I can flip my role whenever. How did I not know this before?'
He was used by Cain, the Bureau, the Warden, and even the Council. However, his relationship with these people and groups was not one-sided.
Isaac knew his position now. Cain needed him for the Origin, he didn't need to be passive in falling into his schemes, the Bureau wanted him for research, but something must've happened for them to get the warden to spare him.
The Warden and Council were the most obvious, even without this enlightenment he knew his position. They both needed Isaac for control of the prison and he was the deciding factor in all of this.
No longer would Isaac think of himself as a pawn on the board, for he knew his importance and place. He was going to take advantage of it, to take everything from those who try to use him.
His mind had been changed forever. He was no longer ignorant of the forces that moved around him. He was already laying down traps.
Isaac looked down at the book, "Now that I think about it, the book had both Envy and Greed in it. Damian started out envying people around him. He also wanted more after getting to where they were. Is this the complexity of humans or is it something the author is trying to tell the reader?"
It was impossible to tell, Isaac's understanding was still too shallow.