Chapter 476: The Paths We Refuse to Walk

"How is it that you think she and I remind you of the goddess and Dolion?"

Orion’s question lingered in the room long after his voice faded.

Eldric watched him quietly.

For a moment, it almost seemed as though he was choosing his words with care.

"Sometimes," Eldric said at last, "resemblance does not lie in what a person does."

Orion’s brow furrowed.

"It lies in how a person moves through the world," Eldric continued calmly. "In the choices they lean toward. In the way they protect what they believe in. In what they are willing to break themselves for."

"Dolion trying to take the goddess’s power," Eldric went on, "was not the beginning of who he was. And it was not the only thing that defined him."

His gaze drifted, unfocused.

"He was not only a man who wanted what was not his."

Eldric looked back at them.

"He was a man who belonged to someone long before ambition consumed him."

"The goddess and Dolion were destined to walk the same path," Eldric said quietly.

"From the beginning, they were bound to each other. Though I hate to admit it, it was obvious to everyone with eyes... eyes that functioned well."

He paused, then he continued.

"Dolion would have done anything for her," Eldric said softly. "Anything. He would have cleared every obstacle from her path. He would have stained his hands so that hers would remain clean. He would have shaped the world into something gentle for her to step upon."

His voice lowered.

"He made sure her path was smooth, and he even supported her in everything she did."

"Until he didn’t," Orion muttered.

Eldric nodded once.

"Yes," he said. "There came a point when the path he was building no longer led to her," Eldric continued. "And jealousy clouded his judgment."

The silence that followed was thick.

Sophia shifted uncomfortably.

"You think we’re like them," she said quietly.

Eldric turned his gaze to her.

"I think," he said carefully, "that you and Orion resemble what they once were. But I suspect your story will be different."

"Dolion never questioned the choices the goddess made, but it’s different for the both of you. You challenge each other, and perhaps that is what will make the both of you different from them." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"You are alike to them," Eldric said to both of them. "But I believe you may be able to do something they never could."

"Do tell," Sophia said with a frown. "What would that be?"

"Rewriting what they couldn’t rewrite. Changing history," he told them.

"You can change the path the goddess walked," Eldric said softly. "You can avoid the mistakes they made."

"We’re not them," Sophia told Eldric. "I am no goddess, and Orion is not Dolion."

Eldric looked at her for a while, then he smiled. "Perhaps."

"Perhaps what?" Sophia asked him, but he didn’t reply.

Instead, his attention slowly shifted.

Back to Orion.

"Honestly," Eldric said, his voice lowering, "I do not know why the goddess chose you."

Orion let out a short, humorless breath.

"That makes two of us."

Eldric’s lips twitched faintly.

"You dislike her," Eldric continued calmly. "You question her. You doubt her intentions. You do not trust her laws. You do not believe in her mercy."

Orion did not deny it. "I also don’t believe she’s all-knowing. She’s not flawless," Orion added.

Eldric’s lips thinned. "This is the issue. How are you so against her, yet she chose you?"

Orion shrugged. "Ask her yourself when you see her. I never asked her to choose me for anything."

"Orion, behave," Sophia told him sternly.

Orion sighed at that but kept quiet.

"I’m of the opinion that the goddess sees that the both of you will work well together, and that’s why she picked you... especially you," Eldric said to Orion. "An unbeliever."

Orion waved as if telling Eldric, hi, I’m the unbeliever.

Eldric continued through gritted teeth.

"You balance one another. Where one of you moves too quickly, the other anchors. Where one of you hesitates, the other pushes. Where one of you breaks, the other stands."

His eyes lingered on them both.

"You simply work well together. And that is why you will not reenact what happened with the goddess and Dolion, but you will rewrite it," Eldric told them.

He drew in a slow breath.

"I have to go now."

Eldric lifted a hand, rubbing faintly at his temple.

"My time here is ending," he said calmly. "Soon, the real Eldric will return."

Before Sophia or Orion could ask anything else, Eldric’s gaze locked onto her.

"You must return to the shrine," he told her. "I wanted to give more answers and clear the misunderstandings you have, but alas, there’s only so much I can do, and you will have to find the answers yourself. Most lie in the shrine."

"You always tell me to go to the shrine... will I be able to get my wolf back if I go there? Especially since it’s a place the goddess rested?" Sophia asked him.

Eldric stilled. "Get your wolf back?" he asked her, confused.

Sophia nodded. "Ever since I came to the Nightshade pack, I’ve not been able to shift or even have an interaction with her."

"I do not understand what you mean. Your wolf never left. Why do you speak of her as if she left you?" Eldric asked Sophia.

Sophia turned to Orion, then back to Eldric in shock.

"My... you mean she’s there?" Sophia asked Eldric.

"She is always with you and has always been, even right now." He paused, then added, "Maybe you just can’t relate with her due to that... the condition you have?"

"The amnesia?" Orion asked.

Eldric nodded. "Yes. Perhaps if you can recall," he told Sophia, "you will be able to converse with her."

Sophia sat rooted in shock. She had no idea what she was expecting, but that was not the answer. If her wolf was present, then she was likely the problem.

"Sophia..." Eldric called out. "Though you are powerful, you must work with your wolf. Do everything you can to get her back before it’s too late."