The third circle of Dio

Day 265, 11:57 • Published in Pakistan Pakistan • by Dio Brando

Not knowing something can be a tool, just like snow and sand, if upon encountering it, you attempt to know its nature and how it came to be.

The Third Circle

Dio labored many turnings for the illisweed Koroushii Pig-Faced and his partnership in the frosty grottos of the False Worlds. His duties would have broken the backs of many others, but Dio labored on, suffering torment and exhaustion.

It came to pass that the illithid illisweed Koroushii Pig-Faced ordered Dio before him in his many-veined galleria. He claimed that Dio had committed slights of obstinance and cowardice against his partnership. The claim had no weight of truth, for Koroushii only wished to know if flames raged within Dio’s heart. He wished to know if Dio’s heart was one of a slave or of a rebel.

Dio surrendered to the illisweed punishment rather than reveal his new-found strength. He knew that were he to show the hatred in his heart, it would serve nothing, and it would harm others that felt as he. He chose to endure the punishment and was placed within the Pillars of Göran so he might suffer for a turning.

Lashed upon the Pillars, Dio moved his mind to a place where pain could not reach, leaving his body behind. He lasted a turning, and when he was brought before Koroushii Pig-Faced, he gave gratitude for his punishment to the illisweed as was custom. In so doing, he proved himself a slave in the illisweed eyes while his heart remained free.

By enduring and quenching the fires of his hatred, he allowed Koroushii Pig-Faced to think him weak. When the time of the Rising came, Koroushii was the first of the illisweed to know death by Dio’s hand and die a true death.