I could have had the world. But I took the path of sorrow instead.

It has worked out just as my mother always feared. And my brothers. Out of concern for my wellbeing, they tried to restrain me from setting foot upon the road that has led to this Day of Pain. But I resisted and bent to Another’s will instead

And now, he has offered me the cup that I always saw before me. The wraith that hovered in my vision at every festival these past three years. Always there. A chalice that this day, finally, I have elected to sup.

And its contents are gall to my bones and bitterness to my spirit. Back there, in the Garden, I did not want to place it to my lips. I sought escape. Refuge. Shelter beneath the shadow of the Almighty, just as my forefather claimed. Do not make me drink of this, I begged. Anything else, but not this. Never this!

But there is no other way. I see that now. Perhaps before I had imagined there might be. Buy a sword, I urged. Sell your cloak if you must, but arm yourself! I had caught the zeal of my cousin’s vision. But now I see that John was wrong. Redemption can not come by the sword, for man’s real enemy lies beyond its blade.

And my mother….? I can see her now and the sight of her makes my heart break! The child she bore screams within me still; for her to hold me, make everything better once again. But I am beyond her solace here. I am beyond all. Even the grace of God.

Forsaken.

I cry forlornly at the churlish sky. Why? Why? Why….?

The only answer I receive is from my gathered tormentors. They mock my plea for a dead prophet’s help. Why? I repeat, a mere whisper now. The same response. Ridicule from earth, and heaven’s stoney silence.

And so I hang. Condemned. My body wracked with pain and soiled by the guilt of a race. My abode is hell, but You are not here….

The sky boils, shrouding the sun in pitch. Light fails, and the creeping darkness might have poured from my own soul; the blackness there is such that its depth might swallow the world.

But it is now. When the darkness is at its deepest, its most impenetrable — it is now that I finally hear it. His voice. Come; all is ready……

I heave a breath and my body shrieks. One more breath. Enough to seal the covenant. It is done!

I could have had the world. But I took the path of sorrow — and chose to save it instead.

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