Paths Divergent

• Posted by Exuro April 12, 2015 - Filed in TSC: CB Story - 1,279 views

   

  Pilpen once baker spoke, “I saw the remnants of what you did in the mountains, Amari, I helped bury them. You tried to grasp the sword, but couldn’t. Could you?” She could not deny that. The sword had burst into flames at her attempt.“You damned a man’s eternal soul! You didn’t just kill him, you made him betray his faith, forced him to destroy all he believed in and held true, and in his final moments cast him into the darkness!” He sighed, deflating as if those words had been weighing a heavy burden on him for ages. She started to object, to say it wasn’t her. But she couldn’t, not in complete truth. No, it wasn’t her that personally did the act, but who was it the summoned the daedra? Who was it that pleaded for her protection? She wanted to leave, it was a mistake coming here, but Pilpen wasn’t done, “and I was accomplice to your acts. I knew your road was dark, yet I stood idly by as you forsook the light one step at a time. I never wanted to believe, so I protected you and sheltered you in anyway a simple baker could for as long as I could,” She opened her mouth to interject, he held up a gloved hand, forestalling her and continued, “The other Vigilantes believe you to be beyond saving, that only the white fires can purify your soul, but they don’t know you. I remember the young girl that walked into my shop oh so many years ago and wondered how on Nirn such a sweet girl came into the company of that smooth tongued con. Later, as I learned more of your history, I realized the better question was, how were you still sweet? I believe that this girl is still inside you and wants out, but just doesn’t know how. You’ve been sent from one darkness to another so many times now, you can’t recognize a world without it.”
  
  Tears were streaming down her face by this point “Your delusional, it’s not like that all. You don’t know anything about me! The world isn’t so black and white! Yes, I’ve “consorted” with daedra, yes people have been hurt, died… or worse, but ask yourself, who but the deadra were there to help me in my time of need? Why were those people hurt?  Would you have preferred me to bare my neck or roll over for them?” Amari was sick of being in the interrogator’s chair, “What did they do to you? I swore to get you back the night you were taken away, the same night as the mountain. I didn’t know how, I didn’t even know why at the time. The Vigilantes of Stendarr were so fierce and zealous, I was terrified, but I followed your caravan anyway, hoping for an opportunity. None ever came, so I left to train and find allies, anywhere I could. I came back for you, I never forgot, was I too late?”
  
  The look of solemn compassion on his face was becoming very irritating, “I did not know this,” he spoke so softly she had to strain to hear, then he gathered himself and spoke with more force, “but you’re wrong Amari,” he stated flatly as he began to remove the glove on his right hand. “The world is black and white, we know in our hearts what is right and wrong. A good deed spirals into a series of foul only when corrupted by those of ill intent. One should never fear to do what is just for fear of the consequences, but use it to reveal those who wish to stain the act. It was Stendarr that saved me from you,” it seemed to physically pain him to say that, but his conviction wouldn’t let him stop speaking, “I know much of what you told me in the past were lies to gain my sympathy and manipulate me, maybe even now, though I sense the truth of heart in your words now. Every lie holds a grain of truth, put enough of them together and the full picture gains focus.” He rotated his hand to show her the palm. She flinched reflexively, the whole surface was crisscrossed with burn scars. “It was Godrel, the one who stayed behind to hold me captive that day of the mountain, that over saw my initiation. Every day he put me to trial, stressing my body, my mind, my heart… my soul to verge of breaking, so many I lost count. Then every night they would present me with the same choice. Godrel would say to me, “You walk on the knife’s edge of light and dark; Stendarr is justice, but also mercy. As his followers, we are obliged to leave no mortals in our power to darkness. If you believe you have the strength to stand against the horrors of the profane and defends its victims, grasp this sword; elsewise, take my hand and accept Stendarr’s mercy.” He would then hold this sword you see here at my side now, Caecitas, the Banisher of Darkness and Guide to the Blind of Moral, in one hand and a globe of holy fire in the other. I chose the sword every day, and was burned every day, and the mercy grew more tempting every day, until one day I grasped the sword and wasn’t burned.”
  
  Without thinking Amari found herself riffling through her pack and pulling out a dog’s skull, scorched and black, with nearly a third melted away by holy fire. “That’s Meeko isn’t it?” Pilpen softly voiced. She nodded meekly and passed her hand over the skull. The eyes lit up and cast purple shadows across the room. The first spell she every cast was to anchor the soul of a dying squirrel to its bones. The same spell animated Meeko now.  She could feel his unconditional joy at seeing her and practically heard the tail thumping. “Sorry boy, I still haven’t found a way to make you a new body yet.” She knew it was possible, she was just so new to everything still. Inwardly she knew she could have done more by now, but she had been obliged to do those favors for Jacial and she’d wanted to rescue Pilpen. She laughed out loud, man was she starting to regret that. The irony that he would turn the tables on her so; what if she had gotten here sooner, would things be different now?
  
  Pilpen smiled, “This is why I know you’re still in there. The real you, the one that loves animals and dances in the rain.” She smiled at that memory, it was her third thunderstorm. The first two ended so horribly she refused to let it happen a third time. She had dragged Pilpen out of bed and into the middle of the street, both still in there night clothes, and danced like no one was watching. “Isn’t it time to let him take his final rest? When you found him in his old master’s shack you brought him back from the brink of death and added years to his life. When he passed you preserved his soul, anchoring it to his bones. Now he lives on, possibly forever, but how many lives should one dog live? One? Two? Two thousand? I don’t have the answer to that, maybe the more important question is what does Meeko want? Are his acts in your services something he would want? Something you would want?”

  She looked into Meeko’s eyes, what did he want? He was just grinning the deaths grin, Amari had always been in tune with emotions and the flow of energy, and none so closely as her familiars. All she felt from Meeko was devotion, love, and a bottomless patience, but one thing she always wondered, but was too afraid to ask, even herself, was did she create those emotions? She bound their souls, they were dependent on her for their energy, were they bound to love her? She wanted to believe it wasn’t that way, but she knew emotions could be created. She had done it to others, and others had it done to her. She passed her hand over Meeko’s eyes, “It’s time to sleep Meeko, one last time,” she sobbed. She began closing her hand and with it Meeko’s life. When the purple energy shrunk to the size of a pea she paused, this was where she normally stopped, suspending them in a state similar to hibernation. All she had to do was finish closing her hand and Meeko would never wake again.

   

  “Amari… let him rest, free yourself.”

   

  “No…”

   

  “Amari?”

   

  “No. I will not abandon Meeko or my squirrel or you. All daedra are NOT evil. The world is NOT black and white! The Vigilantes of Strendarr ARE homicidal fanatics that will murder teenage girls and torture boys!! I can’t stand by while they brainwash you into another follower, holy sword or no I’m leaving and you with me!” She finished slamming her hands on the table.

   

  “I can’t let you do that.” His voice dropping to a menacing tone.

   

  “Can’t? Is that your moral compass talking? It’s easy to speak of such when you’re not put to the test. Would you lay down your own life or that of a loved one to preserve your “moral code?”

   

  Without hesitation the Vigilante responded, “I have been, and yes, yes I would lay down my life!”

   

  “So what does your moral compass say about killing me?”

   

  He swallowed, “It says not to.”

   

  “So, you would let me walk out of here and lay down your life to stop anyone from killing me?”

   

  “No, I would detain you, but would sacrifice myself if necessary to save your soul.”

   

  Amari put Meeko back in her pack and rose with smooth grace. Pilpen shot upright and drew Caecitas, an inferno of white flames licking across the blunt and dented blade. The blade was an old, battered iron long sword recently imbued as a relic by Stadarr himself to burn in the presence of the profane. It was said that when an elder of lost faith single handedly faced an insurmountable horde of daedra to save his village, Stendarr took pity on him and granted the blade the holy flames. The more the daedra threw at him the hotter the blade burned. In the end, the legend went that the elder single handedly slew two score deadra, saved the small village, and his doubts were burned away and he was free to see the full glory of the divines once more.

   

  “Please remain.”

   

  “No.”

   

  “I can’t let you leave,” she walked stepped towards him and the exit, adding a little extra sway to her hip and gazing at him through her eyelashes. She closed the distance until the tip of the sword touched her neck. The flames licked her neck and she let out a small gasp, “Then detain me.”

   

  Pilpen was sweating, he suddenly felt like he was transported back to the baker’s boy of a more innocent time when girls still made him stutter. He lowered his sword, “I won’t give up on you Amari.”

   

  “Nor I you.”

   

  ---

   

  Free of their conclave, Amari started to uncontrollable shake. She couldn’t believe she’d escaped, she couldn’t believe Pilpen chose to stay there! She couldn’t believe how thoroughly he had cut into her heart, how well he understood her, how skillfully he manipulated her. She almost killed Meeko! Pilpen wasn’t the same boy and she didn’t know what to think of the man. She didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or yell. It had had taken her almost the whole journey to come to terms that she actually loved him, then this!

   

  She needed release. She slammed the door to her sanctuary and pulled out a lock of hair as dark as midnight and drew a circle before her. Amari closed her eyes and followed the energy link to the host, she found her almost immediately and called her forth.

   

  Skin the color of dusk, hair like midnight, green eyes slit like a cat, revealing armor of an odd metal that absorbed light, and a body perfectly toned. Jacial looked just the same as when they first met, she was even leaning against the invisible barrier of the summoning circle and gazing into Amari’s eyes through her eyelashes the same way.

   

  “Amari,” she rolled the name off her tongue.

   

  “Jacial,” Amari purred back, “I’m going to take you.”

   

  “Oh really?” A devilish look flashed across her cat eyes.

   

  Amari gathered energy in her palm and used it to launch the deadra backwards into her bed. Jacial shot upright with a snarl, but Amari used the same energy to push her back down on the bed, then concentrated it around Jacials armor. With a burst of will Amari sent all deadra’s armor flying in every direction across the room leaving her completely exposed on the bed. Jacial gasped, part in surprise, more in arousal.

   

  “Yes Jacial, Autkendo of the Mazken, Captain of the Watch of Dark Seducers of Dementia, Southern Province of the Shivering Isles, Realm of the Mad God Sheogorath, I’m going to take you.” Amari stated while letting her dress fall to her feet. Jacial writhed up onto her elbows and grinned, showing rows of pointed teeth.

   

   “Then come claim me.”

   

  As Amari slid between Jacial’s legs she had no idea that the Autkendo meant that literally, or how a Mad God would react to having his captain stolen away.

   

   

   

   

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