[ WP ] Let 's make a deal

Rosette blinked in the bright, white lights of the room she found herself in and she stood, feet strangely bare against a floor covered in cool marble stones. `` H-Hello?'' She held a hand over her eyes, squinting. `` Please, is someone there?'' 
 
 `` Yes, child.'' The lights came down just enough to silhouette a robed man before her. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him, and he rested a hand on her shoulder. `` My daughter tells me you wish to deal in life and death, to save those who saved you.'' 
 
 `` Yes, but- but I do n't know what that means, the Mother just told me I'd pass quietly into the Void-'' 
 
 `` She is n't incorrect.'' His hand moved around her and he walked her forward, past the light. Around them, wooden flooring replaced the stones and granite blocks stacked themselves with a dull rumble as full-to-bursting bookshelves leaped from nothingness to lean on the old, old walls. 
 
 The fireplace before the desk crackled and spat sparks across the hearth. A child with wildly curly hair lay curled under a fur blanket just inside the halo of warmth, and Rosette felt a smile turn her tired lips upward. It disappeared quickly, however, and she turned back to the old man. He sat now at his desk, opening a large book. The spine, she noticed, did n't exist as a whole: Ripped jagged down the middle, it encompassed half a story. Letters worn by time were visible in the gloom: n, a, r, a; and a few inches down, t, r, o, n. 
 
 `` Have you ever wondered whether the life you lead is the one you were meant to fit into?'' he asked as she sat in the opposite chair. The child rolled over under her blanket, one eye cracking open just a little before falling back shut. Rosette frowned at him and stared down at the book. She could n't read the words from this side, and the longer she looked, the more dread filled her heart. 
 
 `` I'm content. Even if the man I care for can not return my affections, I will love him until the hour of my death.'' She met his eyes. `` Even if that hour is nigh.'' 
 
 `` That is an unnecessary statement to make, here. I'm no reaper.'' He smiled gently at her. While the gesture calmed her, her skull began to hurt, and she rubbed her temples. In her mind's eye, she saw another man in robes picking her up and swinging her in his arms as she giggled as a child. `` I simply give you an offer, a choice your parents refused to give you.'' 
 
 `` Whatever it is, they probably kept me from it for a reason.'' She clasped her fingers together in her lap, wringing her hands hard. 
 
 `` Linara.'' Rosette froze and looked up at him. `` A name from the Effervescent Psalms, meaning *Rose of Dusk*.'' He turned to the last remaining page, and a portrait had been scrawled in ink... of Rosette. From her long, long hair to the curl in her lips, Rosette's image smiled up at her from the paper. `` She was named, in another world, to be the next Void Matron and replace the cold displacement of death with that of peace and warmth.'' He turned the page and, effectively, closed the tome. The back of the final page lay blank and dusty. 
 
 `` So that's supposed to be me?'' She swallowed. 
 
 `` It is you.'' His smile became sad. `` However, your parents chose to hide you, to keep you from what is essentially your birthright. You always had a choice, and they stole that from you.'' 
 
 `` What's the catch?'' She felt her heart speeding up, leaping into her throat. `` If I become her, do they live?'' 
 
 `` Yes.'' He spread his hands. `` Diane's final strike destroyed the old realm, the void of Lumis, when she killed the monster. They drift in a state between life and death; and because of where they expired, you have the power to send them back, for they are not truly dead.'' 
 
 `` But if I say no. What then?'' 
 
 `` Nothing.'' He leaned back in the large, winged chair. `` I will simply have to direct my apprentice to take over until another is chosen to take Lumis' place.'' 
 
 `` What will become of them?'' She pointed into the distance, not truly knowing where they now lay. `` Will they simply dissolve into nothingness?'' 
 
 `` That... is a rather blunt way of putting it but, yes, they will eventually be consumed by the abyss.'' 
 
 `` Then I'll do it.'' She stood up, slamming her hands on the wood. The child jolted, sitting up and staring wide-eyed at her. `` Turn me into the Void Matron. If I'm going to save them, I need to do it now.'' 
 
 The man watched her, observed the set of her jaw, the teeth digging into her lip as she worried it, and the tears welling in her eyes. `` They're the only family you've ever known, are n't they.'' 
 
 `` Yes. And I would sacrifice my humanity to keep them alive.'' 
 
 `` Then there's no more discussion.'' He waved a hand and the room disappeared, replaced by the collapsed cavern. Around a campfire that she did n't recognize, her friends slumbered in their blankets, still bloodied but not hurt. `` You've never not been yourself, Rosette.'' His hand left her shoulder, and his words faded into the dark shadows, `` And in time, you'll know yourself.'' 
 
 She took a step toward the fire, then another, and found herself kneeling next to the priest. His hair half-burnt away by the unholy magic cast by Lumis, burns welted some of his face, but she felt no disgust. She leaned down and pressed her lips to his forehead, tears running down her cheek at last, and she sat down, arms wrapped around her knees as she watched the fire. 
 
 Her heart quietly broke in the dark, and she wept.
