#indoctrination arc

i will not grovel for it. i refuse. but it grows unbearable.

make the pain stop. leave me my prize. i deserve it. i do not deserve this. i do not deserve to be punished like this.

do not make me beg.

—@scholar-in-red

you know of what you deserve.

this is precisely what you deserve.

Xey wake.

Everything hurts. it's the first sensation xey feel, even before the feel of cold ground beneath xeir body. xeir limbs ache, xeir skin itches and burns... xeir head hurts.

Xeir head hurts. So, so, so badly.

What is it? Why? The Scholar can barely focus, but just that slight thought brings billions--trillions--of potential answers into xeir head.

Oh... oh.

Xey've gotten what xey're here for.

Xey are equal with the king. Finally! The knowledge of the universe, it's xeirs, it's all xeirs, xey have to prove it, xey have to-- The scholar tries to stand, but sways on xeir feet. The room is spinning. Xeir vision is blurry in one eye, black in the other, and xeir head feels like it's being split open with a rock. Xey can hardly lower xemself back down before xeir legs give out from under xem.

-🦇

genuinely how i feel watching the crocell thread rn

~🐦‍🔥 (sending off anon for the link C: scholly's just gonna be asleep until i do the next art)

[the large hand cradling xem moves slowly closer to the rest of the king until xey are dropped into the folds of the king’s robes.]

that is…

…