Prisons are locked from the outside

Down he went into the abyss, swirling with doubt.

Was I worse than the Tyrant? Was it all in vain? The pain and misery I caused, the lives I took in the name of an ideal, my ideal. How can I have been so blind that my own brother drove me here—Then came remorse and self-hatred—I should have never murdered the mayor. I should have never started this, all I accomplished is to destroy everything I touched. I wish, I wish I was never born.

After plumetting for a long time, he started to slow down until he landed gently on the ground. He fell to his knees. Mist was all around, mist and a tenuous white light. A figure appeared out of the mist and laid a hand on his shoulder.

Stop worrying now, child.

He lift up his head to look. It was an old woman.

I’ve been watching you, expecting you. Like other great men before you, you are filled with regret in the face of death. Regret is pointless and beneath you.

But—

No, you’ve whined enough, let me speak. You fought for a noble cause and you had to make hard choices. Necessary choices. Only you had the strength and vision to carry them out. You gave people meaning and purpose. And even though in the end you fell, your life was not in vain.

But my revolution is ruined…

Yes, your first revolution is dead and gone. Your human life is over too.

Human life?

Don’t worry, life is overrated anyway. What matters is your legacy. For thousands of years I have been imprisoned here, left to rot. But you, you have brought me back, made men whisper my name again.

Who-what are you?

The old woman smiled. Her eyes turned pitch black.

You know.

He shuddered, terrified at the woman in front of him.

No!

Say my name.

No…

Her eyes spoke of misery beyond bounds. In them he saw reflected millennia of pain, bodies mutilated and left to rot, millions dead for no good reason, their lives wasted. He saw who she was, he saw what she had done,

Cruelty? Oh god, where am I?