Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 411: Chapter 411: Cassius. Desdemona. Cassius Desdemona.

Chapter 411 – Cassius. Desdemona. Cassius Desdemona.

"I beg your pardon?" Cassius said, his eyes so wide it felt like they were going to pop out of their sockets, "Earth...is a Gate?"

Then he looked around, taking in the sight of the Gate of Fortune and Luck, becoming even more confused.

Because the Earth he had in his mind looked far too much like a real world to simply be a Gate. And though it was true that he knew that Gate of Death housed a Kingdom of Death, it was completely different.

Earth was...real. That was the best way Cassius could describe it, because saying any other word would strip away everything he had known and everything he had believed and still believed.

So how was it possible?

"Yes, a Gate." Tysche said, turning back to look at the golden river beneath them, observing the gentle streams of golden water, "It might sound ridiculous because you have lived there for years before being brought here, but that is the truth. Earth is a Gate. To some people knowledgeable enough, they call Earth the Nest of Gates, as it’s the Origin of all the other ones."

"But then if Earth is a Gate," Cassius said, trying to calm his heartbeat with all the strength he could, "Doesn’t that mean that we can enter inside?"

"You can." She replied, "If you ever find it, that is. Which I can tell you will be harder than anything. Earth belongs to Desdemona, after all."

Cassius didn’t even know what to think at that point. Everything was just so ridiculous, and even more confusing.

So the world he had been living in his first life, everything he had gone through, was all done inside a Gate?

All of that made him have even more questions.

"I always knew that my reincarnation into this world, and in this family, was not coincidental." He said, taking a deep breath, "I knew that the Desdemona had a part in it, and they already knew I was coming and prepared for it. This ring you see here is the proof," he lifted his hand to show Stella to Tysche, "But I want to know just how far all of this goes?"

He raised his hands, grasping gently the hair of Tysche, "My mother was created from a part of you, why? You said my father was a normal human...but how normal could someone born inside a Gate be? And then you said my sister is reincarnated, but not my father. Why not my father? If my sister is, then is Kaden reincarnated? Katherine? Is everyone from Earth also in Sunu Gaal, or just..."

He stopped his words, not even knowing what to say next. Everything was swirling inside his head in a dizzying circle, jumbling and mashed.

"First, I want to make something clear, Cassius." Tysche said, turning her head to look at him over her shoulder, her eyes dead serious, "Your mother came from me, but she wasn’t me. She had my face, and that was all she had from me. Look at her name. She was Angelina Cromwell, a white woman who fell in love with a black immigrant and was shunned for it. A woman who loved her children so much she spent hours on YouTube night upon night to learn things few people could teach her, or be willing to teach her. You do know that it’s not only the whites that don’t want to mix, don’t you? But here is who Angelina was: A woman who was abandoned by her family, and still never regretted her choice of being a wife and a mother. You see, Cassius?"

Cassius’s eyes were blurry, and he clenched his jaw tight, trying hard to not let any tears drop.

"I did not go through all of that. She did, and that was her story. And it was a beautiful one." Again, the goddess caressed his cheek, speaking more softly, "But I am her Origin, and when she died on Earth, she came back to me. So if you want your real mother, I am sorry Cassius, she is no more."

The Last Born only lowered his head, saying nothing.

"And because your mother couldn’t exist as a separate being outside of Earth after her death, your father had chosen, willingly, to not go through another life in Sunu Gaal. Don’t blame him. Your mother had done so much for him, and he simply couldn’t live without her. But he forced Stella, your little sister, to be reborn. And he disappeared with peace of mind, knowing that you would take care of her."

"Take care of her?" Cassius wheezed, voice aggrieved, "I don’t even know where she is? How can I take care of her? Just how??"

The pain was unbearable. And it was darkly funny, because Cassius had already lived through the death of his parents, and managed to get through it.

At least, that was what he thought. And maybe that was the case. But the fact that his parents had the chance to be back in the world. The fact he could have seen them again yet would never be able to, gave him a kind of pain he never thought he would feel again.

At that point, Cassius would have chosen to go through the horrific process of the creation of his Sun Concept over this.

Tysche looked at him, and smiled wryly. This was why they didn’t want to tell him anything.

Cassius thought he was strong, and he was, truthfully. But he always overestimated the things he believed he could handle.

Just like most mortals.

"You don’t know where she is," Tysche said, wiping the small tears on his face, "but you will. I promise you, you will. And I know it might look quite daring for me to say this to you but look at me, Cassius."

He did.

"See me as your mother, if that can help you." She smiled, "And I am, in a way, aren’t I? Don’t get me wrong. I am not trying to take the place of Angelina. It’s impossible, just like no one can take the place of Sefira. But maybe you will find comfort in me."

Cassius didn’t reply to these words. He didn’t know how to feel about Tysche, after all he knew by now.

He shook his head lightly, wiping his tears, and spoke, "Why?" He asked, "Why did you create my mother from a part of you? Why?"

"Because you needed every Luck and Fortune you could get." She said, "This is the last one. The last run. The last game. And we were worried that it might not work because of many factors. So we chose to do it. And this is where I answer your question: how far was your reincarnation planned?"

She smiled dryly, "Before you were even born as Noah, darling."

The Last Born looked blankly at Tysche, suddenly getting weary of all these revelations. It was true that he had asked for it, but now that he got it, he almost wished that he didn’t.

"My life is truly a story, huh." He said at last with a dry, hopeless tone, "Just that I am not the writer. I am just a character who is being written by someone or something who just wants me to fulfill whatever purpose I was created for. A life of performance. A life for anything but for me."

Tysche’s heart skipped a beat, chillingly realizing that Cassius was actually treading toward a dangerous area.

"I even wonder if all of this is me." He smiled emptily, raising his hand wide, as if he was in a bloody theater with an unseen audience looking at him beyond his senses, "was it me who played the game 333 times? Is it me who loves Isolde so much I can’t see myself without her? Is it me who loves the Desdemona in such a way I want to protect them at all cost? Is it me? Or is it you or whatever is behind you that wants me to be like this?"

Then he paused, looked at Tysche who began to understand the mistake she had made, and asked her:

"Who am I?"

Tysche opened her mouth, only to close it again. She tried to say something, just anything, in order to prove to Cassius he was all wrong, but nothing came to her mind in that dreadful moment.

Cassius’s empty, lost eyes, and his words had pierced something deep within her, so much that she was deeply regretting having shared so much.

He wasn’t ready. Cassius was not ready!

"I...I don’t—!"

"You are Cassius Desdemona." Tysche fell into silence as her Gate shook wildly, as if pinched by someone, only to find Ananke suddenly appearing inside the Gate of Fortune and Luck, making Cassius look at her listlessly.

Without a care about her sister, Ananke took Cassius away from Tysche, and made the young man, her Blessed, look at her.

Ananke had never looked this serious, and also never this hurt, "why are you asking who you are? You already know who you are. You are Cassius Desdemona."

"Am I really?" He said, "My life...my life feels so orchestrated. It feels—!"

"Your birth was orchestrated, yes." Ananke said bluntly, making Cassius flinch, "You coming into this World was orchestrated, yes. You being born into the Desdemona was not random, yes. But that’s all."

She grasped his cheeks together between her palms, her lips pressed tight, "You love the Desdemona because you love how much they care for each other, and you love them even more, when you came into this world. Have you forgotten what they have done for you, Cassius? Dorian and Morgan followed you to kill a prisoner without asking anything in return. They knew you destroyed the Church and killed hundreds of beings, yet they didn’t look at you as if you are a monster. Will you say their love is orchestrated?"

Cassius fell silent, lips shaking.

"What about Isolde?" She followed on, relentless, "Did you forget the three days you have spent with her? Or even, to start, did Isolde love Cassius in the Game? Of course not. Isolde loves the Cassius that spent 3 days with her, the Cassius that looked at her and chose her above everyone else. And that Cassius was you. No one told you to take Isolde as your wife. No one ordered you to love her. But you did it, by your own will, because you found something in her worth loving."

Ananke was not done yet, and Cassius’s eyes were clearing up.

"Let’s go further, Cassius." She clicked her fingers. Behind her, a wide board of flickering images made of threads of fate appeared, showing multiple scenes and interactions of Cassius with other people like Sarah, Meadow, Raven, the Faye Twins, Cassandra, Copycat, Klaus and his childhood friends.

There was even Mallory, Marvela, Coco Jones, when he buried her under the rain. There was even Helene, faithful and devout to him, inside the Church when she had once confessed to him.

Seeing so many people whom he had talked to, cursed, fought or helped or been helped by in one setting...Cassius’s tears streamed down without him even knowing.

"You see now? You are Cassius Desdemona," Ananke said again. "You are loved, hated, respected, feared... all because of what you have done, and none of it was orchestrated. No one forced you to love the people you loved. No one forced you to protect them, hurt them, forgive them, disappoint them, or make them love you in return. You did all of that because you wanted to. Because that was you."

She looked into his eyes.

"So if you deny Cassius Desdemona now, you are not merely denying a name. You are denying every relationship you built while carrying the name. Every person who loved you because of the man you became. And yes..."

She smiled sadly.

"You are denying me too. Because I may have chosen you because you came to me, Cassius, but I love you because of who you are. Only because of who you are."

"I...I am Cassius?" Cassius asked in a broken voice, his existence solidifying, his sense of Self becoming more prominent.

"You are," Ananke said, pulling him into her arms. "And don’t ever forget this, Cassius. How you came to be does not determine who you are. How you lived does. Whatever happened before your birth may explain why you exist, but it cannot decide who you became after."

Her arms tightened around him, giving him a warmth so gentle and pure Cassius melted into her arms.

"And no matter how cosmic, divine, or important your birth may have been, you still had to live every single day that came after it. You made choices. You loved people. You hated others. You made mistakes. You changed. You suffered. You were happy, and sometimes you were sad. Will you deny all of that? You can’t. And I won’t let you. You lived your life as Cassius Desdemona, and that life belongs to no god, no prophecy, no Desdemona, and no one who may have had a hand in creating you."

The world around them shuddered as the Last Born’s heart finally began to ease.

Ananke smiled. "It belongs to you."

She touched his face gently, lovingly.

"And so you are, without any doubt..."

She paused, took a breath, then...

"...Cassius Desdemona."

—End of Chapter 411—