Path of the Pioneers

One year passed. A quarter of the recorded population of commoners in Hyperion had been tainted with the Slumbering. Many were vocally resistant, but relented when faced with pointed insistence. They were making good progress, and Morgan estimated that they would be on track to stage their plans outside of Hyperion within the decade - Selene agreed.

Another year passed. Two-thirds of the recorded population of commoners in Hyperion had been tainted with the Slumbering. A rebellion led by an unawakened militia rose up from within Warren and Tish's territories, but they were swiftly quashed. Morgan and Selene didn't participate in any of the combat directly, but their commanding from behind the scenes left a bloodstained site that served as an example to any enterprising revolutionaries.

Selene was horrified by what their grand plan had already led to, but her partner reassured her. Morgan, for her part, was glad indeed that she wasn't required on the front lines. Both for keeping her identity a secret, and for avoiding the wretched ordeal of butchering the weak. House Cirix, she thought, was good for something after all.

It wasn't even another year before the rest of the Kingdom - or, at least as much as they could find the records of - had been successfully sealed away. Nobody but the noble-class were allowed to awaken, which was a policy that quite a few other nations took for themselves (although this often involved execution after the fact as opposed to stopping the awakening outright.)

Still, this blanket permission for the nobility would soon fall to the wayside. It was a temporary measure and nothing more.

Three years passed, and the pair had realized that they had made a mistake. It was one thing to afflict the commonfolk with such a terrible curse, it was another entirely to convince the nobility of Hyperion to allow for it to happen to them. Morgan and Selene had accounted for this, of course, they had figured out exactly how they would forcefully convince them to accept the curse.

The problem was the rate of awakening among nobles. Houses Pyre and Cirix had a rapid influx of awakened due to their combative leans. Not to be beaten, the other houses soon took it upon themselves to encourage awakening within their midst. As a result, it meant that there was somewhere around a thousand awakened within Hyperion.

Not all of them were powerful, but as a combined force they would give the pair pause. Their old plans just weren't sufficient - and it was getting worse as time went on.

"Josephine of Cirix reached her fiftieth level this week." Selene stared solemnly at her wine glass. "Fiftieth."

"Level fifty at seventeen..." Morgan sat her glass down with a huff, "I wonder if she's just an exceptional talent - or some harbinger for the future of awakened. She may be a match for us soon at this pace."

Selene gave a small laugh, "If we stop where we're at, you mean?"

"Mmh." Morgan took a big swig of wine, pointing a finger at Selene, "You know what I mean. The rate of improvement for these fresh awakened is unbelievable. Some of them are useless on the whole, but the people are beginning to learn. How to improve more quickly, how to acquire skills, how everything ticks."

"And if it continues like this, we may never reach our goal." Selene laid an arm on the table, resting her head gently on it as she continued mumbling, "How many have there been that have realized how effective killing their fellow awakened is in their progression? How many more will there be?" She clenched her teeth, "I shudder to think of a world where awakened begin to bring those experiments to bear on the unawakened. Or worse yet, a world where the unawakened become a sort of second-class."

A shaky breath came from the woman, and she stared up at Morgan. "And we've already lit that particular torch, you know? Nobility have been given literal power over the ones below them, as opposed to just social power. Until we equalize their standing through the curse, this problem will only grow more in severity. If that misconception about their superiority is allowed to continue, Hyperion will only exist as a shining example for those who would perpetuate that ideology."

Morgan's gaze went skyward - or rather, towards the ceiling. Whenever she was lost in thought, she would look up as if she were trying to find a solution within the stars. They very rarely came to her as a result of this act. On this particular night, the 'stars' only showed her the trail of corpses left in their wake. They were in far too deep, and backtracking would make those deaths meaningless. Each and every one. "We have no choice other than to continue," she stated plainly, "We'll push ahead. If the nobles take issue with us distributing the curse, then we'll rally what we can against them."

Selene's expression grew firmer, a glint of frustration dancing in her eyes, "And cause another Indigo Rebellion?" She stood up from her chair, leaning down on the table as she maintained her lock on Morgan's eyes, "The death toll of that day was staggering, and you don't think that it would be even worse if our enemy happened to be the entire noble class? I know that you aren't that-"

With a small laugh, Morgan put a stop to the beginning of Selene's verbal rampage. She was beginning to slip, and it was getting more and more difficult by the day to convince herself that the two of them were on the right course. But there was one thing that kept her moving forward, always. She bit the inside of her lip, a dark gloominess already eagerly taking hold of her countenance. "The future that you're talking about was already in the cards - even without our interference."

Her eyes closed. She wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, but she knew for certain that she no longer wanted to see Selene's face so full of anger. "Domination, Ecstasy, Truth, Beauty, Honor - those five are the ones that, just from the briefest recollection, could have easily achieved what you were saying. Half of them sought just that, after all." Her voice was small and tired. It was a bad sign when even she could notice it. "There remains no method to strip them of their powers, no reliable way of imprisoning them other than something that would be tantamount to execution - even if we could capture them without putting ourselves in substantial danger. Thus, we killed them. We continue to kill them."

"But-"

Morgan raised a finger, hushing Selene's interruption, "No other person alive, to my knowledge, has found a way around it. The path forward is painted scarlet and crimson, but there is no choice but to trudge through it. You've seen it, you've lived it. I swear that I will do all that I can to minimize the harm done, but..."

A small piece of her mind - a fragment - wanted nothing more than to give up the pretense of it all. To lay down the new rules of the world swiftly and without any room for misunderstanding. These powers were blessings for individuals, but the worst sort of curse for mankind as a whole. If the nobles got in the way of excising that stain, she would put them down without a second thought.

"Some harm is unavoidable."

Ten years passed by in a flash. Selene and Morgan were unable to reach a resolution regarding what actions they would take against the nobility of Hyperion. It became even harder for Morgan to convince her as more and more dungeons began to appear within the kingdom.

They needed more awakened, not less.

Another ten years gone - Morgan was just slightly over fifty now. She dreamt of repairing a broken world and allowing it to flourish. Instead, she had spent the majority of her life in a relatively small kingdom.

Nine more years were tossed aside to the wind. After a time, it felt as if her previous mission was finally abandoned. The curse would not make its way to the rest of the world, and their grand plan would be lost and left to wilt. She didn't resent Selene - the fire was still present within her. In fact, Morgan suspected that Selene was more motivated than even herself.

She had thrown herself into dungeon after dungeon, keeping any of the more dangerous ones in and around Hyperion from reaching their breaking point. Selene practically controlled the kingdom from the background - governing the awakened and policing them through the Crown Hunters.

But it wasn't just the grand plan that was beginning to wilt. Morgan was, as well.

She exited her fourth dungeon for the week. Every joint in her body ached and screamed for relief, relief that she promptly gave by plopping herself down onto the grass below. Something was tickling her face, it felt wet. Years ago, she would've checked to see what it was after wiping her hand against the sensation.

But now, she knew better. Blood - it was always blood.

Morgan took a swig from a healing potion, the taste very nearly making her sick to her stomach. Each passing day stomped out another cinder that still glowed within her heart.

It was gone, she knew that much. The plan was never meant to succeed.

But she couldn't bear to tell Selene that.

She couldn't bear to see it on her face.

She couldn't bear the thought of breaking her heart.