Role

Chapter 6

They are all three still.

My knees sink into the hot sand before I know I've fallen to them. Unwanted
tears sting my eyes. My grief is like a dark sea, and I a drowning man. How
is this possible? Why couldn't I save them?

I am a maelstrom of emotions.

Love, for my lost kin.
Guilt, for not saving them.
Sorrow, for my loss.
Fear, that the Crows will find and kill me.
Shame, for my failure and the sobs that shake my body.

For the second time in two days, I find myself wishing for death with my face
in the sand. And, like the last time, I begin to feel the smoldering rage
stoke into flame. This time, tormented as I am, I surrender to it completely.
As it burns away my tears, so too does it burn away love, guilt, sorrow,
fear, shame, and every other emotion there is.

My very soul hot with hate, I rise from the sand. My body roars with such
fury that there is nothing else within me. I am reborn. Lesser emotions,
lesser virtues have all been chased away by the one true virtue: Holy Rage.
Unwilling to ever again try to contain this power, I pound the sands back to
Hamsah Mu'tazz.

For I have houseguests.