***
Once I got back from the church, my room felt... tiny?
Yeah, the walls were closing in, pressing against me like they were trying to suffocate me.
It was quiet, way too quiet, and it made my skin crawl.
But that didn't matter. It couldn't matter.
Not with the Aether Core sitting right there, glowing bright and full of promise.
This was my one shot, my one way out of being nothing.
My fingers hovered above the Core, shaking a little, but I forced them still.
I couldn't mess this up, not after everything.
Especially not after what I did in that stupid church, begging and crying like some... pathetic wretch.
My knees had ached from pressing into the cold stone floor, my voice cracked as I screamed for someone—anyone—to hear me.
No one did. No one except the Creator, or God, or whatever 'It' was.
'He' listened to me when nobody else would.
