Chereads / Rafe of the Stranded / Chapter 9 - Eye of Truth, Eye of the Korgin

Chapter 9 - Eye of Truth, Eye of the Korgin

Under the dark sky, Rafe rested on a log, bored out of his mind. He took first watch.

Looking into his palm, he saw a creepy eye with a peculiar coloured iris. It was almost like a colour he couldn't understand. It was both easy to spot yet practically colourless.

But that didn't matter.

In his hand was [Korgin Eye]. It was this which he used to recognise the truth of Jed's innocence or rather reason to murder back at the fortress. It seemed to twitch everytime a lie was told.

Back when he acquired it, he decided against consuming it. It didn't seem like the right timing. Things were too dangerous along the journey up North. He couldn't risk it having severe side effects to his sight.

But now, he had grown impatient. He was willing to take a risk.

[...it defeated the Lord of Faces]

'Who was the Lord of Faces' he pondered, 'and who created the beast capable of killing them?'

He had so many questions, yet no answers.

[Consume Korgin Eye?]

Rafe hesitated.

'Yes'

[Consuming Korgin Eye...]

Pop.

"Arghhhhhh. Fuck...ahh"

His sight flashed back. As he reopened his eye, he saw blood splattering all over.

With his screaming, which continued, Twilight and Jed jumped up, wide awake now.

"What the hell are you doing, Ra-"

Twilight's eyes widened with shock.

Before her, Rafe was screaming in agony, the pain was excrutiating. His left eye...was gone. In it's place, blood splurted everywhere, dripping down his face like bloody tears.

It felt as though something incredibly hot had been brutally poured into his innocent eye. The spouting blood only worsened that feeling, as though the blood itself was boiling.

At the moment it popped, blood was sent flying in all directions, drops of blood splattering around like projectiles. Many of the drops were shot back inside, deeper into the eye socket, causing incredible pain.

She was at a loss for words. Jed was much the same, simply watching in shock.

Rafe's world was shattered, all he wanted to do was die, then and there. In his mind, that was fine. So long as the pain ended, anything went.

He felt as though a thousand tiny blade had pierced his vulnerable socket, as though every being he had ever killed had came for their revenge. Perhaps this was the Korgin's revenge.

The pain felt endless. Eternity seemed to pass as he did everything he could to fight the pain.

Rafe covered the bleeding eye socket with his hand, which was now covered in his blood. With a grimace, he had stopped screaming.

Still, pain-filled groans escaped his mouth. Blood was dripping slowly from his lip, where he had bitten down with tremendous force as soon as his eye had popped.

It took all Rafe's mental strength to not scrape the burning eye socket now. The itchy sensation was unbearable. His thoughts had become barbaric as primal instinct attempted to take over, doing anything to be rid of the pain.

In his mind, he was fighting another battle.

Nothing could be worse than this. He could be gutted, stabbed, skinned, even burned alive and it wouldn't dare challenge this pain.

"Rafe...what...?"

Twilight was still in shock.

Suddenly, Rafe felt a tingling feeling in his bleeding eye socket, something different to the agonising pain from before, almost like it's opposite. A small bit of light escaped between Rafe's fingers as he kept his hand covering the eye socket.

'This...isn't this a bit much?' Rafe was calming down from the pain.

Whilst the harrowing pain had numbed, the sheer thought of what he had felt moments ago caused him to wince. It was...indescribably painful.

All of a sudden, Rafe saw a hand covering him; his own hand. Slowly, he swept his hand away from the eye socket. To check, he closed his right eye.

He could still see Twilight and Jed.

[Consumption Complete]

'At least I can see'

Rafe sighed.

"Rafe, what the hell just happened"

Twilight asked, confused.

"The korgin eye happened"

Something clicked inside Twilight.

"Ah...I'd forgotten about that. Does your eyesight feel better"

Rafe nodded.

"A little"

Strangely, his eye didn't twitch. Instead, something inside of him seemed to be saying 'lie'. Almost like an instinct. Yet it didn't seem to be just scanning whether something was the truth or not, it seemed as though something greater was at work.

"Korgin eye?"

Jed was confused.

"It's just an item Rafe got. Increases his sight"

'Again? But she didn't know she was lying?'

"Oh, alright. Neat"

Jed approved.

"Can we got back to sleep now?"

Rafe nodded.

"Do what you want. Apologies for that. It was...rather painful, as you can tell"

Twilight and Jed laid back down. Rafe went back to pondering.

How did his new ability work? It could tell whether anything was a lie, whether the person knew it or not. How could that even happen? Surely that was impossible.

An item like that would have to be Deific.