“You’re wrong,” you say, clutching the Serpent tightly. Its cold seeps into your bones, feeling like strength. “Destroying knowledge is never the answer. This power can be controlled. It can be used. For good.”
Weeks turn into months in a hidden sanctuary. You and your companion study the relic, learning its secrets. The whispers are seductive, a symphony of secrets and power. You learn to command the shadows, to make them twist and dance. The cult is hunted down and scattered by your new, unseen army. You become the feared, legendary guardians of Malaya, a whispered solution to problems the authorities cannot understand.
But power is a corrosive bargain. The reflections that stare back at you from still water now hold a faint, cold green light in their depths. Your dreams are no longer your own. You have brought order, but it is an order born of the very darkness you sought to contain. The line between guardian and tyrant has not just been crossed; it has been erased. You are the new masters, and the shadows obey. For now.