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No no no, this wasnt right. It just could not be right. Maximos looked at Raven, and blinked. A muted gesture at best, and yet even a speck shows on an empty enough canvas.

"That makes no sense." He said, his brow furrowing. His right hand, it seemed automatically began to reach up, extending a soft finger out for her face before his left hand whipped out and slapped it down to the table like a bad child.

"Life goes on, the world turns, with or without me. What are you talking about?" The unemotional static tone of his voice fluctuated and rose with distinctly notable confusion. His voice seemed somewhere between flabbergasted and accusatory.

Maximos looked down at his hand, he would not have believed or noticed it otherwise, as one little tear rolled off his chin and splashed on the naked back of his right hand. And then another, and another. Plip, plop, falling on the table in little wet circles. And yet, there were no sobs, no squinting eyes, no sadness evident anywhere on his person. Maximos lunged back as if he was being attacked, as if his body had suddenly turned treacherous against him. His hands flew to his face, wiping wet streaks across his cheeks.

Sometimes, a person does not surround himself with ice to keep people out. Sometimes, it has nothing to do with not feeling. Sometimes, that rock hard and numb outer shell is all that remains to serve as castle walls, keeping everything in as surely as an abdomen holds in ones internal organs. And with a few words, Raven's selfless act was a wrecking ball to those frozen castle walls. And they fell.

And Maximos with it.

This was not a blockade falling to pieces, seemingly magically returning Maximos back to his former self or releasing a torrent of cleansing emotion. Maximos fell, literally right where he was standing. He fell, his back crashing into the table behind him shaking jars and rustling papers and then he slid falling down to his knees as huge wet sobs poured from him and into his hands.

The Shadow cried, as children cry, big shameful tears. Not tears of a hero, just the tears of a man in a horrible mess.

There were no words really. Coherent language was driftwood in a roaring river rapid. As she approached, Maximos did not resist. Her arms fell around him, and either through her own motion or his own volition Maximos leaned in against her. Maximos' heaving sobs fell to soft shakes and gentle tears. His hands rose up, grabbing onto hers holding them tight like some sort of defensive shield.

"It...hurts so much." He said, tears rolling down onto her sweater. "I try so hard..."

His arms squeezed, warmer, closer, deeper into the embrace, his sobbing face somewhere between her small shoulder and the side of her neck, sobs shaking his form. "Th-th-they think I cant get tired, that I dont want to just give up..."

Both hand slipped from her arm, cupping each other as he pulled them close to his chest, his fingers shaking as if they were burning. "I...I k-, I killed him. He - he asked t-too much."

Sniffling, he lift his head, his eyes blood shot and wet as he shook his head. "I...I cant do this anymore Raven...I cant."

Maximos' answer was as simple and direct as it was honest. He looked at her, directly into her eyes with black and white pools that seemed to stand out even more surrounded as they were by teary pink.

He just looked at her, and he said, "What do I do?"

Maximos shook his head, his lips pressed in a firm line. No, he could never really do that. You cant just turn and lean on people you yourself had to carry earlier. It was like tossing your weight on a set of crutches that you know good and well are broken but you've mended with scotch tape. Beyond that, Maximos just didnt trust that many people, that much.

"I cant." He said, and it would seem, for a moment, that his sadness had bled into serious. And then he looked at Raven, he really looked at her. Lost and tearing. She called him a role model, but Maximos would never or could never be anything of the sort. Friends are people who walk side by side, none leading the other, sharing sadness and pain. Thats what they could do.

He reached out, holding her hands in between his. "But I will, if you do."

His hands squeezed around hers. Here, he was asking one person to help with something he had to bear constantly. How many people to Maximos broken and needing a shoulder to lean on? In effect, he was asking Raven for hers, while offering his own. He looked down at her hands, then pulled them in close to his chest.

"Both, or maybe none. That's up to you." He said, meeting her eyes. "Do for yourself whatever it is you mean for me to do, and I will do the same."

That was right, Maximos was alive. Or more accurately, one could say that Maximos remembered. He remembered one of his oldest, first, and strongest lessons. It was a powerful memory, a life changing memory that shaped the man in his every personality detail down to this very day. One could say it was a pillar, a point of structure. A memory of another time that Raven sorted free from the ruins, and left as a single tower. A life line.

Maximos, although it may have seemed impossible moments ago, smiled. It was a bright smile stretching from ear to ear, and using a hand slipped free from Raven's he wiped his eyes and then leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead.

The Shadow's hand, no longer shaking held one of hers and he reached up to the table to grab the pearl and slipped it into her hand curling her fingers around it. "You need a body, this is the soul. Think of it like the key to a door, you need the lock we have the key."

Maximos nodded, and smiled again. He was crying moments ago, now he seemed so vibrant. So full of life, filled with the power of a single unspoken memory. "Find a body, use this to identify if it matches, if it can hold and work with the soul. Then return to me and we'll finish the rest."

But then, a mote of serious came over his features. He squeezed her hands and looked her dead in the eyes and said. "Be quick. This rock wasnt meant to hold a soul for long, and it wont be long before someone notices what your carrying. A trapped soul goes for alot on the open market."

He smiled at her again. "You understand?"

For a moment, Maximos' looked at the pearl analytically, he tilt his head slightly to the side and he looked at the pearl in the woman's hand much like a jeweler inspecting a gem. His right eye took on a slight glow there was a short series of 'Hmm's' from pursed pale lips.

"Well, the important thing is purity." Maximos said. "Also innocence, heroic souls go for a high value, but this one is besmirched with guilt and has been someone used as a divine vessel which is sort of like selling a pair of size three women's shoes to a size three woman after its been work by a size 42 giant."

"I would say roughly a quarter of a million gold." Quote the shadow as he nodded, and for a moment he seemed to actually be considering this idea. And then he laughed slid his hands from Raven's grabbing onto the counter and the table beside him to help get to his feet.

"But you would never do that, silly!" The Shadow said, while offering his left hand in a most gentlemanly fashion to help Raven up off the ground. As he did, a look of concern flashed across his face.

"I know this is very hard, and stressful for you. But dont worry, you have a good amount of time. If need be we can even supplement the soul with outside life force, but the more we dilute it the more rehabilitation John will have to undergo." A hand moved to his chin, stroking it thoughtfully. "I would say in about six months, if un-housed, John will have to be retaught how to eat, drink, talk, and possibly even breath."

As Maximos spoke, he moved toward the counter door, a slab of wood that slid up much like the door behind a bar. He opened it, stepped through and held it open for Raven to follow. "There is really no pressure, you see? Just care and concern."

He looked at her, almost like a big brother looking down at a small child trying to explain away the fear of a big test or a dark closet. Is that what Maximos was? The monster that made the monsters no longer scary? He was so nice, so kind, so gentle even despite being so ferocious. He was, as Raven figured, a survivor, and he survived today it seemed via the force of a single overriding memory that made him delicately say to the woman, "Okay? Everything is going to be okay Lady Raven."

And then he smiled.

A few reassuring nods and a warm smile were Maximos' only responses. And when she hugged him, he embraced her in return. It was the warmest gesture a man could give. His strong arms wrapped around her small frame, and to complete the picture he gave her a good tight squeeze. Maximos would hold the woman, though not the squeeze, for as long as she would be held until the hug was complete at which point he released her.

His smile stretched across his lips and all the way up into his eyes, as he looked down at her and said. "You can find a body, or you can make one. What ever you choose, I'll be here when your ready."

And then he looked at her, bristling with renewed life, and waited. Either she had more to say, or more business, or she would embark on his quest at which point it was time to share parting greetings. But there was no amount of rush in any of his features, just smiles. Lots of smiles.