The First Betrayal
It wasn't blood.
It wasn't a blade.
It was silence that betrayed Pride first.
The first traitor did not scream.
He did not assassinate.
He did not flee.
He simply... stopped.
A Reflected-one of the earliest disciples, once granted a shard of Pride's gaze and named The Seer-simply did not bow during a summoning ritual.
He stood upright, calm as frozen water.
And in a voice steady like stone, he said:
"I no longer see you in me."
The hall, crowded and chanting only moments before, fell into suffocating silence.
Even breathing seemed forbidden.
Pride stepped forward, each footfall on the marble causing subtle tremors.
Not angry.
Not expressive.
He simply asked:
"Why do you no longer see me?"
The Seer replied:
"Because you have stared into too many mirrors...
...and forgotten that light can lie."
For the first time, a Reflected was killed in ritual.
Not by flame.
Not by sword.
Just a single gaze from Pride.
And the body... crumbled into ash-no scream, no resistance.
Only dust falling, like the name of the boy he had once encountered.
After that day, the rituals began to thin.
Worship remained... but fear crept in, not of Pride's might-
but of something unspoken:
"He has changed."
Gone was the guiding brilliance in his eyes.
What remained was a glare, seeking only to force others to reflect him.
In a northern city, a statue of Pride was removed during the night.
No one claimed it.
No one spoke of it.
But carved on the pedestal in charcoal was one simple message:
"You are no longer who you were."
And in the shadows of his palace, Pride stood before the last uncovered mirror.
The only one that still tried to reflect him.
But even it now showed only a blurred figure.
No brilliance.
No perfection.
Only a hollow silhouette.
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