tushanshu_logs | Those Who are Dead are not Dead (Catch All)

Entry tags:

Those Who are Dead are not Dead (Catch All)

Characters: Valdis and OPEN
Date: Month of October 2015 (2016 in game)
Location: Various
Situation: Various
Warnings/Rating: Various

The departure of the Chihuelans could be called a relief, the tension seemed gone from the city and the Kedan seemed more accepting than ever of the Foreigners. Though her teaching hadn't been utilized, she was certain that they hadn't seen the last of the Chihuelans and that the Justicar and her forces would be back someday, but for now she was thankful for the rest. Now they could focus on the other problems plaguing Keeliai, such as the cultists and the sinking of Tu Vishan.

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"Those are some important people for you to lie to," Bakura observed neutrally. "Considering how highly you value their opinions."

There's a more deliberate non-reaction this time, still trying to vague her intentions here. "The Items can work like gateways to the Shadow Realm," he replied. "Because shadow alchemy was what created them; dark magic and sacrifice."

"That is true," she inclined her head, "But they didn't need to know."

Especially not Wan, it would only have hurt him more.

Bakura was unusually still, but she was relieved that he seemed willing to answer her question despite whatever thoughts were going through his head. The idea that the Ring was like a gateway to another plane was concerning, but not as concerning as the other part.

"Sacrifice?"

There's a slow but gradual progression of a stormy coldness gathering in Bakura's gaze, as Valdis presses deeper on topics that are, at best, never more than tenuously scabbed over.

"Sacrifice," he repeated, and now there's a brittle note in his voice. "Ninety-nine lives, that was the spell's cost. A village, slaughtered in secret at the pharaoh's command, for a power said to rival that of the gods. And they got almost every living person when they did it... save one."

Even if he had managed to keep the anger from his eyes and voice, there was no doubting its existence. She could feel it creeping around the edges of consciousness and knew that it ran too deep to ever fade. Ninety-nine lives snuffed out for the sake of power. A village. His village. Suddenly, his ghosts made more sense as did his attachment to what she had once seen simply as an energy source.

"How old were you?" she said quietly, meeting his gaze evenly. She felt no pity for him, he wouldn't want it anyway and it wouldn't help anyone now.

The question isn't one he expects; it takes him an extra few seconds to respond. "Why? It makes no difference what happened."

"No, it doesn't."

If he didn't want to tell her, she wasn't going to press the issue. The Ring was dark magic indeed if lives had to be sacrificed to create it. Perhaps she should focus on the Shadow Realm instead of his ghosts and history.

"What is the Shadow Realm then?"

He regarded her for a moment, as though silently deciding whether or not she was really dropping the line of questioning. And ironically, the fact that she had seemed to, is what prompted the crisp answer-- by not digging for it. "Five," he said shortly.

"What is any shadow? A reflection of dark cast by the light. It's... a layer, or an echo, of the world. Like how the Dreaming and the Death planes are to the Life plane here."

Five. She nodded in acknowledgement of his answer, but did not comment further on it. That his brokenness had begun so young was somewhat infuriating. This Pharaoh, the one who had destroyed a young boy's life, didn't deserve the power he had sought to attain. It was the kind of man that a hound would have hunted and destroyed, ironically, to steal that power. The world truly was a twisted place.

If the Shadow Realm was a plane similar to that of the Dreaming, then she could see the lure of harnessing its power, even if that power was unpredictable. But there had to be something more to it, especially since Bakura was in possession of the Ring that was created from the blood of his kin.

"If the Pharaoh created it, then how did you end up with the Ring?"

"By killing the priest who was in possession of it," Bakura replied without a trace of shame. "The Items went to the Pharaoh's inner court, distributed among his most trusted, except for the Puzzle, the king-piece, that tied all the others together, that went to the pharaoh himself. But no matter who wields them, they all belong to me. The Ring was merely the first one I took back."

Fate or design? Even Bakura didn't know that, but it was hard to believe that the Item which housed so much of Zorc's essence -- far moreso than all others combined -- was acquired first through mere coincidence.

"I had almost all of them, at one point. The Ring, the Puzzle, the Eye, the Scales..." He rested his thumbs against his temple, pressing points of pressure there, and there's torment in the next words, though they're less to Valdis and more to absent listeners.

"I came so close..."

She didn't blame him for killing the priest, wouldn't have blamed him for killing every single one of the Pharaoh's trusted. It was the blood of his people that had created those items, revenge was his right, but no wonder he was so empty when revenge was all that he had lived for. She didn't feel as if she needed to ask him to finish his thought. It could only mean that he had almost succeeded in his revenge, whatever the final plan had been.

"When you came back," she said, "After we defeated Malicant, your soul was broken, did the Shadow Realm do that to you?"

Bakura exhaled loudly, and shook his head without glancing up at Valdis. He didn't know where this curiosity had come from, but she was at least being tolerable while being so nosy.

"No. That was because my soul was so tied up in Zorc's at the time, and the Pharaoh summoned Horakhty in his final attack. The creator of light against the dark god... it went as well as you might imagine. Or perhaps, given your sword, it's less imagination and more observation."

Bakura traced an absent thumb over the edge of the Ring. "There shouldn't have been anything left of Zorc, following that, but the demon remains. It's not unlikely that's the same reason there was still enough of me to get pulled back here."

There was that name again, Zorc, and it only added to the number of questions she had, but only a few were immediately relevant and he was being immensely patient with her.

"Revelations was designed to destroy darkness," she replied, "I don't know how it works, but I am still here, so are you and so is Zorc, so it is a failed design."

The fact that he thought his soul was tied up with that of Zorc was concerning. But the idea that Zorc was the reason that Bakura was still alive had to be incorrect, that wasn't how demons worked, no, it was far more likely that Zorc only lived because of Bakura.

"Why is his soul intertwined with yours?"

The thief "hmm"d noncommittally, because he wasn't so sure he'd have gotten off with basically no lasting harm if Valdis had used Revelations directly on him, as opposed to transferring a wound caused by it after the fact. It wasn't something he was interested in trying, in any case.

"Because I gave it to him. Most parts of it, at least. You've heard Wreath and I talk about how a soul is divided up... I offered most of mine away, because I needed power to defeat the Egyptian God kaa, and Zorc needed a way to take physical form again. That was the deal."

Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised, but she was. Bakura had sacrificed part, no, most of his soul in order to allow a demon to take physical form again. No matter how justified his anger at the Pharaoh had been, tearing yourself apart to reach your goal was insane. Unless that was your only purpose in living, and then it made far too much sense.

"To what end?"

Despite her concerns over the Demon and his ties to Bakura, she said it calmly and without judgement.

"To force open the Memory Gate," he replied. "The last passage into the afterlife. The only path my ghosts were... would have been able to take."

He dropped his head against his hands, elbows propped on the desk's top. "I calculated for everything. I eliminated every factor that worked against me in the past. I should have won."

And yet he'd lost to the one factor which hadn't even existed in the past, a factor he hadn't planned on beating because it was outside the scope of the game. A fusion of the three God kaa? It shouldn't have even been possible. But what did that matter now, with the Gate closed, his ghosts lost, and his own presence destroyed?

The Memory Gate, a passage into the afterlife...his ghosts. It seemed that every evil thing he had done was for the ghosts of his kin, both selfless and selfish at the same time.

She wasn't entirely certain how to respond without somehow setting him off. He disliked her giving him advice, and she knew little about the Memory Gate, but there were many paths into the Death Plane, if you knew how to open them.

"I'm sorry," she said finally.

Bakura made a vaguely irritated noise, but it wasn't aimed in Valdis' direction or in response to her sympathy. It was an expression of frustration and disgust.

"And now I'm here doing... this," he said, gesturing carelessly at the dojo, or perhaps the whole of Keeliai; it could be interpreted either way. "For lack of anything else to do, it seems. Like it's so easy to just start over and be normal."

"Sometimes I wish it was."

She knew the feeling, and not just because of her empathy. Starting over as if nothing had happened and pretending that you could be normal was impossible. After everything he had been through, there wasn't any going back, and he was too far gone. Perhaps they all were.

If wishes had any chance of coming true, he could think of a fair number of things he'd rather be affecting than his perceived state, but that line of thought was a gravity well that too easily pulled people in.

"Regardless, you asked about the Shadow Realm and got an earful. Not what you were expecting?"

"No," she admitted, "But then again, I never know what to expect when it comes to you."

And to be perfectly honest, she still had more questions than answers, but she had probably pried enough for one day and she had plenty to think about for now.

"Some days m, that makes two of us," Bakura answered, tired in a way that had nothing to so with lack of sleep. He hadn't expected to tell Valdis anything like this; he was simply playing a hunch.

She didn't know what exactly had prompted him to give her so much ammunition. Perhaps he believed that she wouldn't use it and perhaps he was right, but she was still surprised and it sounded as if he was a bit surprised by it too.

"Thank you," she said, noting how tired he had become. Memories such as those he must have been reliving did that to you. "I'll be on my way."

She moved to stand, wondering just how quickly Raine would be able to speak with her.

An eyebrow raised; thanking him, for learning such things? Strange.

He reopened the folded letter and picked up the pencil again. What he'd been doing wasn't pressing, but he could do with the distraction.

"I'll tell you what I told Raine, khapshemet. Don't go poking around things with Zorc, or you might not like what you find. The whole of Keeliai might not like it. Understand?"

"I understand."

If Raine knew about Zorc, then that made speaking with the woman all the more essential. Valdis walked the short distance to the door, meaning to leave when another thought entered her mind.

She paused and almost turned back to tell Bakura, but decided against it, she would consult with Raine first and move forward from there. So she continued out the door, leaving him to his papers.

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Those Who are Dead are not Dead (Catch All)

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