SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 350: Inherited Hatred

They walked in silence for a while after that, the northern districts of Velkaris unfolding around them in orderly stone and quiet wealth. The streets here were wider, cleaner, lined with buildings that spoke of stability and power rather than urgency. It was the kind of place where conflicts were discussed behind closed doors instead of fought in the open.

Trafalgar kept his gaze forward, matching Rhosyn’s pace without effort. The question had been sitting with him since the night before, pressing gently but persistently, like something waiting for permission to exist.

"Rhosyn," he said at last, voice calm, measured. "Can I ask you something about my mother?"

She stopped.

Not abruptly, but enough to break the rhythm between them. For a moment, she did not turn. Her shoulders rose and fell with a quiet breath, and Trafalgar could see the hesitation settle into her posture, subtle but unmistakable.

Rhosyn exhaled, then faced him.

"I avoided telling you before," she said. There was no defensiveness in her tone, only honesty. "Not because you didn’t deserve to know." A brief pause followed. "I just... didn’t have the strength to speak about it then. Revealing everything to you on the same day was hard even for me, I think now that you’ve cleared your mind I think we can talk about it."

The admission carried more weight than any excuse could have. Trafalgar did not rush her. He waited.

Her eyes lowered briefly, then lifted again, steady despite what flickered behind them. "I don’t want to talk about it," Rhosyn continued quietly. "But this is not something you can be shielded from forever." Another pause, longer this time. "So yes. I will tell you."

Rhosyn walked a few steps ahead before speaking again, as if the words needed distance to exist.

"We did not live among the world," she began. "Not truly." Her voice was steady, but restrained. "The Primordials had a community of our own. Small. Hidden." She glanced sideways, eyes unfocused for a moment. "A place no one could find. Not by accident. Not by effort."

Trafalgar listened without interrupting, the weight of the statement settling slowly.

"We chose isolation because we were few," Rhosyn continued. "And because we were hunted." A brief pause. "The Void Creatures have always been drawn to us. Power recognizes power. That has never changed."

She stopped walking then.

"Your father found us," she said.

The words landed cleanly, without embellishment.

"How he did it no longer matters," Rhosyn went on. "What matters is that he did. And that your mother..." She hesitated, just for a fraction of a second. "She broke the law."

Rhosyn looked at Trafalgar directly now.

"She left," she said. "She stepped outside the boundary that kept us hidden. Whether out of love, defiance, or hope—it does not change the result." Her voice tightened slightly. "That act was enough."

The exposure called them.

Void Creatures. Not one. Not a scouting force. An assault.

"They came in numbers," Rhosyn said. "Through Rifts that tore open faster than they could be sealed." Her gaze darkened. "Many of us died that day. Enough to shatter what we had built."

The silence that followed felt heavier than the city around them.

"Our community did not survive," she added. "Those who lived scattered. What remained... fractured."

Rhosyn exhaled slowly.

"Many Primordials blame your mother for it," she said, not unkindly. "They say her choice doomed us. That her love invited extinction."

Her eyes did not waver.

"I do not."

The words were simple. Firm.

"She did not destroy us," Rhosyn continued quietly. "Fear did. And the Void. And laws that valued preservation over compassion." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The words lingered between them longer than the space they occupied.

Trafalgar did not respond immediately. His gaze drifted ahead, unfocused, the city blurring at the edges as the implication took shape in his mind. If his mother was blamed—if her name carried resentment—then what remained of that blame had nowhere else to settle.

"So that means..." he began, then stopped, breath tightening slightly. He looked back at Rhosyn. "The Primordials who survived." A pause. "They might want me dead."

Rhosyn did not deny it.

"I don’t know," she said carefully. "Some might." Her tone remained controlled, but there was no comfort in it. "To them, you are not just her son. You are what remains. A reminder." She held his gaze. "And for those who want retribution, you are the only place left to direct it."

Trafalgar absorbed that in silence. The idea did not ignite fear so much as it settled into place, cold and precise.

"You should have told me this," he said at last. There was no accusation in his voice, only weight. "When we spoke before. This isn’t a small detail."

Rhosyn did not flinch. "I know."

They walked a few steps more before Trafalgar spoke again, his thoughts already connecting threads.

"I’m about to turn seventeen," Trafalgar said after a moment, the thought settling as he spoke it aloud. "Which means all of this happened before I was born."

He looked ahead, expression tightening slightly.

"That tells me something important," he continued. "The Primordials were still living together back then. Not in some distant age. Not as a myth."

A brief pause.

"That’s not how the books describe it."

Rhosyn met his look evenly.

"You and I are proof enough of that," she said. "We are not echoes. We are not remnants of a dead age." Her voice lowered slightly. "We exist. And because we do, so do the consequences."

The city continued around them, unaware.

They walked in silence again, the weight of what had been said settling into something heavier, more final. Trafalgar broke it himself.

"What happened after the invasion?" he asked. "After the Void came."

Rhosyn’s pace slowed.

"When that many Rifts appear at once," she said, "and of that rank..." Her voice steadied.

"Any great family in this world would have been erased. Even ones like the Morgain." A brief pause followed. "The Primordials survived only because some of us were not there when it began."

Trafalgar listened, jaw set.

"When it ended," Rhosyn continued, "someone had to be blamed." Her gaze lowered slightly. "Your mother was named a traitor. Not because she intended harm, but because law demanded consequence." She looked at him again. "Fear needed a target."

"And my father?" Trafalgar asked.

"He chose," Rhosyn replied. "He surrendered himself." Her voice did not waver. "So that nothing would be done to you. To ensure you would live."

The words struck deeper than anything else she had said.

"And my mother," Trafalgar said quietly.

Rhosyn’s breath caught for just a moment. "She was sacrificed," she said. "For breaking Primordial law."

The city noise felt distant now, muffled by the space between them.

"The survivors scattered after that," Rhosyn went on. "Communities dissolved. Trust vanished. Some hid. Some fled. Some disappeared entirely." She shook her head faintly. "What remained was no longer a people. Just individuals."

They turned a corner, and the street ahead opened into a quieter residential stretch. A familiar building came into view.

"You asked why I left," Rhosyn said. "Why I didn’t stay."

She stopped walking.

"I was her apprentice," she said simply. "She was more than my guide." Her eyes held his. "And when everything fell apart, there was only one thing left worth protecting."

Trafalgar understood before she said it.

"You," Rhosyn finished. "You are all that remains of her."

They stood before Mayla’s apartment now, the past finally spoken, its shape clear even if its weight remained.