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Maximos looked in Tomorrow's concerned face and saw that expression that only members of the fairer sex can make a man wear. He shook his head side to side slowly and then met Tomorrow's gaze squarely. It didnt take very much for the Shadow to put things together, and then to realize he could not help the situation.

"She is Nocturne's Priestess. His hand and love and vessel if he chooses. And she's accepted this willingly. She loves him more than loves even me, and she's told me this personally." Maximos half smiled. It was a fact that part of him was proud of, and part of him was sad over. But her decision was hers and he could not change it. Literally. "She would go even if I tried to stop her, even if she had to remove me from her path first."

That idea made Max chuckle a bit, and then as the laughter faded he added. "The rest, save perhaps for Lucind are people I dont believe you've met. But each knows exactly what they agreed too."

And then he waited the ball, or bomb as the case may be, back in Tomorrow's court.

A younger Maximos might have laughed. An even younger Maximos would have jumped at the opportunity and picked up a sword and some armor and ran off for adventure. Somewhere between both of these was the Maximos of today. A man who just smiled a simple smile and let his head loll to the side so that Tomorrow was a horizontal tower of a man, filling his vision. Maximos smiled, a soft little smile, just barely a curl on his lips and then meeting the other man's eyes he very simply spoke.

"You have a life here....friends, family." Max said, he did not impersonate the other man's pitch or voice, but he did mimic the way it was said. Not mockingly, just to drive home the point that these words should sound familiar. "Life is good here. It has its ups and downs, of course...why throw it away for a world that doesnt want you?"

And then came a small laugh, again lacking any sort of insult. Max was surprised, again, how many people were willing to pack up and leave a world behind just for him. And he always thought himself a humble shadow. With his head still askew Max spoke again. "You understand what I've said, dont you? I mean to cause absolutely no good, for their own good. I am bringing darkness to Aria, to end their utopia. Blood will be spilled. People will die. Tragedies and travesties. There may even be war."

He paused, as if to make absolutely sure that the words had time to carry their full weight. When he spoke again, his voice had no malice and no doubt to it. It was not as if Maximos asked the next question to raise a doubt, he asked it flatly and honestly so as to abolish any and see where his friend truly stood. "Are you that kind of man, John?"

"Huh."

While one might have expected that Maximos was about to regale Tomorrow with pearls of wisdom, phrases, speeches and other dramatic interactions, Maximos seemed to have chosen a simpler path. He said only the one word, which was more of a sound than a proper word, and then while looking at John sidelong he began to stand.

His right hand pressed into the grass and soil, with a small grunt he rose and his legs unfolded beneath him, and then his hands took to the work of smacking dirt from his legs and when it was all said and done Maximos was once again looking Tomorrow in the eyes. There was a look of deep contemplation on his face, and yet a sort of looseness to his posture and finally he spoke.

"I thought that would be harder." He said, a grin cracking across his face. "A few weeks ago you seemed ready to denounce Raven and myself. Now, your all but completely ready to commit atrocities at my command."

Max chuckled slightly and shook his head. There was no mockery in his tone, and yet still most people would not follow mention of atrocities with any sort of laughter. "What changed John? Not that I'm complaining, of course. I know you had to know before even asking that with our history, wherever my sword goes you are welcome but...what changed?"

At first, Maximos was understanding. This was a horrible experience for any human being to have to go through. And then by the time Tomorrow started apologizing it became agonizingly clear that the bigger man had most likely forgotten who he was talking to, or in the shock of Max's own story, he had forgotten what Maximos said he was. But, the Shadow was patient. His smile no longer seemed appropriate and faded as such, giving Tomorrow a concerned although someone blank face to stare into.

Maximos never flinched, though anyone who expected too was a fool. Maximos understood everything he was told, he could relate to every piece of it...except the theme of self loathing through it all. A lion enjoys the hunt. A wolf does not lament the rabbit. A creature wanders into anothers territory and it is slain by the superior predator. This is not good or evil, this is nature. Simply because humanity is gifted with a sentience and mental accuity, it believes itself outside of this cycle. And then it is presented with predators as intelligent as itself and...this happens. And the creature, like Tomorrow, like Maximos himself, beats itself up for being what it is. What Tomorrow did in those woods was not sad, sorry, or pathetic. The man he was, right this instant, groveling and sobbing over it...that was.

Truth be told, Maximos was getting impatient with it. Maybe not the description of the actions themselves, so much as the way John kept apologizing. Like Max was some sort of upholder of the laws of man when he was so very much the opposite that the comparison was near insulting. But Max did all in his power to allow absolutely no change to the look on his face or his demeanor. And then it was done, and his friend was somewhat broken. And Maximos need something to do or say that was heartfelt, honest, and yet at the same time completely captured his real feelings about the story.

Maximos approached, slowly so as not to startle his brother with his visage. He put a hand on the other man's shoulder which might as well have been a child's by comparison. And then, from the bottom of his heart Maximos just barely whispered. "I'm sorry.[/color["

But no, that was not enough. He shook his head, his hand squeezed the large ball of muscle in one of those tangible moments of understanding and Maximos repeated, at a slightly higher pitch. "I am so very very sorry."

He closed his eyes and shook his head side to side as if chasing away some bad memory, and then he looked at John squarely again, with mismatched eyes and he said. "...Human meat is disgusting raw and unseasoned. I swear no other creature on this planet pollutes its flavor so thoroughly. The first time I had it raw, I was sick for days."

Max's hand moved to his stomach is gross recognition, a distinct frown covered his face. But he shook it away, squeezing Tomm's shoulder again as he continued. "I will say this though, I'm glad after all our time together your subconcious was able to portray me so aptly. I would think I had been forgotten. Yet, I dont agree with the bits where I was portraying your more savage existence as punishment. I rather think it was freedom."

A quick pat on the shoulder and Max took a step back and to the nearest tree, placing his hand under a huge green leaf. "An animal wanders into anothers territory, it gets slain. And eaten. Thats the way of the wild. And you've always been somewhat wild havent you? You let your beast free for a bit. It may have acted extreme, but only because it had been repressed for so long. Like a spring held tight too long, which flies away when released."

Max pet the leaf, almost affectionately. "You cant contain nature John, or it will just die. You have to accept and live with it. Two arms, two legs, and a head do not a human make. You are who you are John. Would you, or anyone be so distraught if you had killed dozens of deer and forest creatures instead? Even if they could talk and claim they were superior? Because I believe if you had, they would not call it a massacre."

He laughed just a bit to himself. "I believe they would simply call it...a 'camping trip'. The fact is, humanity is simply not at the top of the food chain. And if I may be frank..."

Max took a small step away from the leaf and put another hand on his stomach. "...your story has made me absolutely famished. Can we continue this inside? Maybe proper cooked food will do us both some good."

Was Maximos blind to what Tomorrow felt? No. Was he ignorant, did he not understand? Of course he did. He was not blind to a single detail or its social rammifications. Maximos did not speak from ignorance, he spoke from completely understanding and acceptance. He did not believe that running amok and massacring humans en masse was the proper was to go about things, but hunting and gathering is infact simply surviving. Maximos like Tomorrow once lived his life in similar torment for so very long but, Maximos for one was never going back to that. He had learned the truth, and as far as he could see his friend here was no different. John just needed to see and accept the truth of himself. And Maximos for one was not going to judge him. For a mortal, for anything humane, what John did was terrible monstrous even...but for a monster?

Maximos was quiet and smiling, listening to Tomorrow's realizations dawn on, and spread across his awakening mind. Perhaps he would introduce him to the Shadowfather, perhaps he would take a liking to him perhaps, despite how impossible it seemed Tomorrow understood. Max walked the few steps away from Tomorrow backwards so as to show his attention while still making his way to the windmill door. Finally at the door, he turned, grabbed the handle...and stopped.

""You're absolutely right Max....human beings are just cattle to us."

Maximos' back was to Tomorrow now, but his face turned to a grimmace. His lips tight and was completely silent until Tomorrow finished speaking and then he immediately replied.

"No." Maximos said, his voice an definite edge to it. As he spoke he turned back around to face the larger man. "Humanity is not simply cattle. Every human born is unique to kill or lose even a one of them is a travesty in and of itself. Though they may be of simple flesh and of blood, and consumable upon necessity. It is only upon necessity. Humanity may be beneath us on the food chain, or even at times when properly trained or armed, equal to us, but that does not make them cattle."

Max shook his head side to side, his tone pedagogial, as if teaching a lesson rather than being angry. "Our superior nature gives us responsibility, in the same way man has responsibility over the lesser creatures. Tend the herd. Safeguard the flock. Sometimes, even, terrify or antagonize them into action and growth. Or if ones heart is inclined and capable, ignore them completely. But the moment we consider them beneath us is the moment we lose ourselves."

By now, Maximos had reached Tomorrow. He stood in front of the man, a small figure before a giant. He placed a hand on his chest and held one up tentatively. "Monsters we may be John, but we are not animals. Remember this..."

Max reached to lay his hand on the other man's chest, in the same way he had laid his hand on his own. Heart. Warm cold or otherwise they had them, a differentiating trait from beasts of the field. "...or we are lost to the beast in us all. Do you understand?"

The rush of freedom was always new, and powerful, and easily intoxicating. To Maximos' experience it was very much like coming down from a high, and he showed not even the slightest sign of impatience as Tomorrow called himself. The Aesir was, to say the least, repressed. In mind, in soul, in anger, and in power. And Maximos could testify over most to Tomorrow's power, and bloodlust in the heat of battle. If all that was contained was released at once...well it was an unpleasant thought.

At Tomorrow's affirmation, Max nodded, smiled, and then removed his hand from the other man and turned back to the door. "Not always."

Max said, opening the wooden windmill door. Tomorrow might notice that while previously the innards of Shadow Island had always been a lightless black, now dim blue light fixtures were visible casting a faded sort of light. And as they progressed inside the stone spiral staircase, torches came into view. Each burned with sapphirish indigo flame that gave off absolutely no heat what so ever.

"For example, I was wrong about you. From our experience in that tavern, I was convinced you would be trying to 'purge' me from the planet by now." Max said, descending down deeper into the darkness, the Shadow skipped the grand tour and simply walked with the other man. Tomorrow was lead through the ornate and classically decorated main entry hall, which was, on closer inspection again, a four way junction. A path lead in each of the four cardinal directions, except that directly ahead of them instead of a long hall was a stairwell leading up and then dividing into two and directions off onto an upper floor, Max lead them down the east wing. Like all things, these halls and floors were decorated. And yet, at no time did it seem Maximos was attempting to make his home into a palace. There was nothing to extravagant or excessive, instead there was just enough to portray a sense of age, class, and with the placement of a few proper statutes or paintings, a sense of history.

Another difference the Aesir might notice here in the manor, was the presence of others. Where as for year Maximos had been alone save for Walter, now a few figures walked the halls. They looked, at a distance like the outline of a person against the darkness, and then the closer they got it was revealed that...they were infact the outline of a person. Like a silhouette or a Shadow made to stand and walk. Upon their faces were simple grey masks which resembled the face of a skull, and two glowing violent eyes like burning beacons in their sockets. These creatures walked to and fro, they dusted walls, they adjusted paintings, and cleaned tables and chairs. Maximos didnt seem to address any of them with names or formality, leading one to believe they were perhaps not truly people at all.

After minutes, Maximos lead the two of them through set of double doors and to what was nearly a mountain of food. There was a twenty foot long and six food wide table in the center of a rather simple room with blacked out windows, and this table had nearly zero free space except for the room around both plates and placings. There was food of dozens of styles, types, and tastes. Nothing as macabre as human flesh or monstrous meals with organs or eyeballs floating within, but, if you could infact it was eaten for lunch somewhere, it was represented here.

Maximos smiled and waved to the aged man sitting beside his seat, still wearing the same monocle, black vest, black slacks, and dress shirt as always. Walter bowed to Maximos and then turned and properly bowed to Tomorrow.

"Have a seat Tomorrow, feast, please dont hold back on my account theres plenty more." Max said and gestured to the place setting across from him, funny enough equipped with utensils large enough to look like garden tools and clearly size for Tomm. "And afterwards we have alot of work ahead of us, if you plan to come with me and help me fight you'll effectively be making enemies of a planets worth of well...myselfs."

Max grinned a sort of twisted grin that made his teeth sheen in the dim blue light. "...And you and I both know how things have gone in your attempts to defeat a single me."

Maximos laughed, and yet there was something wholly fake about it. It was a tragic sort of thing, a few chuckles and then a sigh when the desire to keep up the charade wore off.

"I'm not hard to kill." Said Maximos, stirring the contents of his plate while looking over it at Tomorrow. No one in attendance said a word or seemed to take notice of the Aesir's eating habits. "Lop off my head, bleed me out, crush my organs, you've people before yes? Shadows complicate things but I'm flesh and blood, just like you."

And it was then that the realization dawned on Maximos. Somewhere between the steak and what appears to be potato, and beside the watery red substance that may or may not have been ketchup, Maximos understood. Tomorrow was never going to let this go. It was like their friendship was a thin rope bridge spread over the abyssal cavern that was their differences. And while Maximos was content to let these things go, but Tomorrow had spent too much time building himself and his fears, and his doubts, and his hatred and troubles on this too let it go. It was no longer about power, strength, sport or growth. It was something deeper and more personal now that...Maximos sighed.

A spar?

The Shadow put his fork down and looked across the table at John with a tired sort of look on his face and very simply, very flatly said. "No."

He shook his head side to side and said. "No, I dont think so Johnathan."

"I've seen where our spars lead, to blood loss and carnage. Just a few moments ago I saw you in tears. I could see and practically smell the fear on you, the abject terror. Your subconscious has painted me as a monstrous antagonistic creature. Why, I bet if I stirred the shadows in this room properly and took on something other than this smile you would be on the verge of a panic attack."

Maximos words grew more poignant but his tone shrunk. Lesser. Quieter. Simpler. Where as an angry man might gain more energy in his speech, Maximos' speech was becoming less and less alive, until it was barely above a whisper and yet fully audible in the morbidly silent room. As if the emotion was just draining out of his voice leaving him cold. "I've hurt you. I've maimed you. I've scarred your mind into something irreparable by my mere existence. I never wanted this for you."

Maximos' voice was cold but his hand shaking with a steak knife in his grip. "Your supposed to be my friend. Did you ever think that maybe, I'm sick and fleebing tired of hurting you over your Noct damned insecurity!"

And with a bang, Maximos flipped the knife and embedded it up to the hilt into the wooden table. All at once the anger seemed to wash away leaving nothing. Silent, he leaned back in his chair, and was enveloped by natural shadow cast by the dim lights, all but his hands, interlaced was hidden. And then came a softly spoken. "...I'm sorry."

Max's face went blank. He stared at Tomorrow as he spoke and then for a good minute after, before looking down at the large pearl. And then his face split in a smile, and he jerked the knife from the dark wood table.

"Some things never change do they?" He laughed a bit. "When your angry, I'm just calm enough to make you look foolish. When I choose to express, your impassive enough to make my momentary break in character appear like a massive flaw."

He shook his head and handed the knife off to the empty air, the darkness pooled and coalesced into a hand, and then quickly into a shadowy silhouette which carried the tool away just as another delivered one into Maximos' waiting hand.

"We're at war, even in conversation. I bet if we continued to eat this meal together we would start quietly battling over who could eat more, or fastest." He shook his head, chuckled. "I suppose we're destined to do this forever. We do this because we do tihs. But dont be stupid. I've taken your arm several times, dont pretend this time is special just because you chose not to get it regrown like the rest of the population. Alright John, I'll bite, whats this?"

Max reached, flicked his fingers and let a pool of black roll the large pearl into his waiting palm. "Was this from the gigantic lagoon monster we fought?"