Chapter Text
The trembling always comes once he’s been found out. To outsiders, it must look like he’s afraid of the rage in the warrior king's eyes. It must look like he’s afraid to die.
He’s not, he’s died before. In fact he's only just died again. It happened when they caught him out. Right before the king’s shield bashes into his face, the broad piece of wood caving his skull in on itself with repeated swings.
He wasn’t shaking in terror, but with horror. Mask ripped away, who he was a moment ago had been shattered. It wasn’t fear of the end. It was disgust, it was emptiness, it was the impotent rage of failure. It was the fact that his six ears had already told him this wouldn’t work. Had whispered the truth of it into his empty ringing mind, the conclusion pulled from all the knowledge he’d overheard through his life. If he wanted all the glory, wanted to see himself as everyone saw the king, then he would have to become someone else and try again.
And he would. He would always slip under someone else’s skin. Because it was the only way forward, the only route towards survival that would assure him of the life he wanted.
The life he wanted, of course, was whatever life the one he stole it from had. He had only to watch, and listen, and consume, and their wants would be his.
The next time he awoke, he only had one thought. It echoed on repeat in the cavity of his body. It was the only thought he ever had in the fleeting time he spent not being anyone else: Find something worth becoming.
Then he’d ghost through crowds unnoticed, always unnoticed, until a bright light burned him in passing. Sink your teeth in. Latch on. Take their place, their skills, their talents, their purpose.
And just like that, he was real again. He was real, he had goals, and he had an impostor to deal with.