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 Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:32 pm
Things had changed very abruptly after the final construct had fallen.
Granted, the Fa'e child that had lived through the nightmare hadn't seemed much aware of those changes - his disastrous time in the ring had left him without his senses, after all. But there were no fanfares, no declarations of winners. There had been a cold smile on Miss Dawna's face toward the end there, and it seemed that she had already made her final impressions of the group, was just letting them play a little longer to see if they were about to change their mind. And when that didn't happen, well....
Something happened. There was no way for Sigeric to know exactly what it was, though. Being looked over with a medical eye by the staff, there'd been a minute signal that passed over them. The faculty's faces had lit up, one by one, like an electric jolt had just taken them. Then there'd been a needle, something to take the hurt away, which (upon finding his hide somewhat more tough than they'd been prepared for) they'd just slipped into his mouth and stung the inside of his cheek with. And then if there had been any consciousness to him then, it was made quickly gone as the poison caught up with his processes.
It was not an end, though. Perhaps the beginning of one, but not yet the end.
"Sigeric." The voice was a whisper, the voice was a laugh. There was a fluttering nearby, wingbeats from a bird, and then the voice again. "You've slept long enough, Sigeric. Shouldn't you want to wake up, to claim your victory?"
If the world outside him was dark and formless, well, that certainly didn't mean that he shouldn't be awake within it. There was an entity here, and a pulse of power - that pulse which now echoed through his own veins, powering his heart, lulling him from within with a soft radiance that kept the cold at bay. Was it the power he was promised? Or something else?
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Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 11:00 pm
Victory? He could hardly call being hit in the head a victory. He felt the edges of his consciousness stretch and swim. Had he lost it in a different way? Had he...
Sige opened his eyes with a groggy reluctance, not sure what to expect from the silence around him. Would it be the faces that he'd left--the cage with the metal beast, the rest of the group crowded around the edges of his and the other cages, cheering, yelling. Or would it be a bath of blood and metal, the way it always seemed to be when his vision crept in and grayed when he gave in to what was inside.
He stood? To his feet? The movement, though fluid and easy, seemed distorted by his surroundings. The world around him was dark. Where this should have been reassuring, his pleasure, he felt only a sense of unease. This wasn't the cool, earthy dark of the marsh, but an all consuming barrenness. No one would hunt here, he thought. It felt as if the darkness was inside him, reaching out and in at the same time, pulling at him into no direction whatsoever--like he was being torn up. Where had the voice come from that had jarred him out of that nothingness into this? There was nothing here. Nothing. And yet...it was not nothing.
"OI." Sige barked out into the darkness, as much to trace the voice as to reorient himself and reassure himself in the darkness.
The thought passed briefly through him that this was death. It was one of the areas which he'd thought about at length. Sige didn't make an effort to think about much of anything at length, but he dreamt of death--his own and someone else's, quite frequently, to the point that it haunted him sometimes and he was forced to think about it. Was death a measure that his failure in the fight had been so complete as that it was destroying him? His version of hell--it was making fun of him. His victory? This was no victory. This wasn't even defeat. How could a warrior king take his revenge here? He'd had that taken from him, too.
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:25 am
The voice wasn't being tricky - it came soundly from his right side, and did not hesitate to return his call. "You've recovered quickly," it chuckled. "Good. I have much use of you, and the time's already so near at hand. And you have some use of me as well, I do believe?" Another rush of wings, beating at Sige's face. There was a source of illumination now, though, something clasped in claws --
A gem. One of the gems. Power, right there, in front of him.
The wings took the gem higher now, teasing the child by bobbing it right out of reach. "Yes, I think you do," the voice concluded. "You're young though, aren't you? I wonder if you can understand what you possess now, and what is within your grasp. Well, Sigeric? Can you?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:42 am
Sige jolted at the source of the voice so close. It was still talking to him, so close, in that voice that Kafka used when Sige did something not quite right but in a funny way. He frowned a bit.
He hated that voice. It was the you're-stupid-Sige voice. He wrinkled his nose, and tried to part his hair from his face, in an effort to see what was in front of him. He could see an outline of a form and then, that oh-so-familiar flash of red caught his attention so close in front of him.
"Hey!" Sige patted himself down quickly, not that he had any intact pockets. Hadn't he had that gem when he'd been all covered in glass and...where was it now? The last thing he remembered, he'd had all sorts of metal and glass tied to him and now it was gone, left with just the remainder of his pants-turned-cutoffs. And the gem he'd had as he battled the construct was gone. Was that his gem? Did whoever that was, whatever it was, have his gem? He reached out for it just as it was yanked from his reach.
"HEY!" He felt the anger bubble up in his throat, as the voice spouted more you're-stupid-Sige and taunted him with the gem. His gem. The other one from the contest had given it to him; it was his and he was going to use it to get that one that kicked him in his parts back. He adjusted himself in painful recollection, and frowned. Maybe that's why he couldn't have the gem. It was meant to go to the winners and they'd found he'd had it and they'd said he'd lost. But he could fix that, if he could just...
"Gimme, go!" He reached for the gem once more, with the intent to take it and run. He didn't give a thought to the logistics of where. Certainly, the darkness always ended somewhere.
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:11 am
There was a poignant silence, the barest rustle, like fabric moving during a shrug. The child was certainly focused, he could give him that. But he would need more, much more, in order to bring out the true potential in this one....
But he had to begin at the basics. "As you would like, then. Give it to him." Without delay, the talons obediently released the gem. It fell freely, plinked down toward Sige's face, and its keeper flapped off into the darkness. But where its sounds faded, nearly a dozen more arrived, and there was a sharp smile somewhere in the dim light, an innocent-sounding inquiry:
"But wouldn't you like more?"
The talons overhead - they held more. Eleven more. Perfect gems, like Eden's apples, promising eleven more glowing pieces of power for the one that held them. And there was only one person here that they could belong to, should be given to -- the one that was just a bit too short to reach them.
The voice in the darkness was warm, encouraging. "Shouldn't you have them? They should be yours, shouldn't they? You deserve them. You can make better use of them than any of those others that tried to put you down, treat you like you were too little or too stupid to know their worth. But you do know, don't you? Better than any of them...."
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:29 am
He snatched the gem from the air in front of him and held it close, cupping his hands around it tightly. He stared hard at it. It was the only dim-pointed light source outside of the one that seemed to vaguely emanate from whatever was talking to him. The light was heady, tempting. Different from the light he had grown to hate. Fire, he'd called it, before he'd held the gem in his hands when he'd been given it the first time. He thought now it wasn't really fire, but there was something the same about it anyway. Like fire.
Then a flutter overhead and Sige shuddered, involuntarily, at the sight of the gems and the dark voice. More? Of course he wanted more! The other gems sparkled and flashed above him like a flickering chandelier. He reached for one with his other hand. It seemed close enough to reach, but it was just out of hand. He tried again, this time stretching onto his tip-toes and hopping a bit, but remained, oddly, just barely out of reach.
"Want." He turned to where he'd heard the voice last. "Wannem." The voice responded, cradling his already bruised ego from the fights. He only caught snippets of what it told him, but the words seemed to wrap him like a blanket anyway. He deserved them, and he knew. The king of the marsh should have them. They were rightfully his.
"Yes, mine."
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:44 am
His conversation partner (if Sige's monosyllabic exchanges could qualify for a conversation) made a pleased noise, somewhere between a hum and an exclamation. There was no condescension here, but merely delight - yes, that sound seemed to agree, you are right, it should be yours! There is none other so worthy!
But the words that followed had a more cautionary nature. "And when you have them, what will you do with them? They will make you bigger, Sige, but there will be bigger things yet. They will see your power and be made jealous of it. They will want to take it from you, or if they are weaker, they will trick it from you."
It was the way of the world, after all, for nothing to remain untouched. Where there was an opportunity for force or treachery, forces of change would move in. It would be a waste if Sigeric were unprepared for the people who would tell him the power he held didn't belong to him - or the power he held was dangerous - or the power he held was bad.
"To what lengths will you go to keep the power that should be yours? And to what lengths will you go--" Another of the gems dropped, this one burning red-hot, "-- to earn more?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:54 am
Bigger? Sige imagined himself, as large as Kafka's house, stomping around the forest, reaching in between the trees to grab at deer and eat them whole. Although it may not have been entirely what the other envisioned, Sige was delighted with the image. Like a dragon from one of Kafka's books. Or like that time when the south of the marsh caught on fire, except as a person. It was so big and everywhere. Would he be like that then? Was that what power would do?
The other kept talking as Sige got caught up in his own imagination, but he processed bits and pieces of the information. Somebody wanted to take the gems from him? Who? Was it those that he had fought before? He frowned, thinking of the other boy, and how he'd had a gem at the end of the round. Had they taken it back from him to give to Sige? Surely he would come for it.
"No! It's mine!" Sige yelled, not so much to the voice, but to the threat of having what he wanted, what he suddenly had, taken away again. When the gem dropped in front of him, he snatched it from the air, only to have it sizzle in his palm. Even with his thick skin, he yelped. The heat seemed to sear through, but he held fast. He was good at that. Holding fast.
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:02 am
It took a short while, but the gem cooled - or perhaps it was Sige who heated - until it felt a normal temperature, same to him as touching his own skin. The pulse inside him was stronger now, bolstered by the two gems in his clutches. "What I give you here is a beginning, Sige. Things are to change. They already are," the voice murmured, traces of an odd giddiness slipping through the giddiness. "Do you want more? And even more?" Two more of the gems dropped, each escalating the intensity of the voice.
There was a certain pleasure that he got out of this. Watching the boy hoarding these gems, knowing how measly they really were, how little use they had. But they were symbols, ones that had a power of their own over the one so greedy for them - and he was ready to play that for all he could get.
"There will be more. There will be much more. But only if you will help me to get it." One more gem dropped, the bait for the hook.
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:14 am
Sige was hardly paying attention to the voice anymore, fixated on the gems. Now, with two, he could feel the power in them. It seemed to be more than just the idle promise that one had given, but a more literal reality: a drumbeat inside him that seemed to signal something bigger. He felt that he could easily let it take over him and be thankful for it, and the part of him that may have protested--not out of intelligence, but stubborn independence--was silenced by the clever, soothing reassurance of his companion. He didn't have to understand what the other was saying to be manipulated into a sense of purpose and power. Something that, for all his strength in the marsh, Sigeric had never had. He'd existed in a wild chaos and then a curious vastness as Kafka had opened up another world to him.
Here was yet another world. And a much more appealing one.
As gems fell around him again, Sige caught them like raindrops in his palms, letting the gems clatter against one another between his fingers. Again, the voice promised more, and delivered, and promised again. Even when he didn't grow bigger with each gem, or start shooting fire out his palms, he was thrilled with every new piece of something that even he understood was bigger than him. Was there no limit to this new world? Was the power everlasting?
He would take whatever he could get. And when it stopped giving, he would take more himself. He was king, after all.
"More." He commanded, petulantly.
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:25 am
Thus far, the power had been so easy. It was like shoplifting from an empty shop, trick-or-treating extra candy from a bowl set outside the door. Other than listening to the sweet little words of his formless company, Sigeric had needed to do nothing to persuade more gems from the man.
Until now. Because now came the lull, and the voice said, "Not yet."
"I want you to think. What you have in your hands now, it is just a little bit. Like that bucket, Sige. And when those gems are gone, you will have taken everything I will give you. It will be gone, you see?" The remaining gems danced above, a mocking little jig to remind Sige of what he didn't have, what he couldn't receive.
"But there can be more," the voice said. "There can be more than any bucket could hold. You could be standing under a waterfall that never ends. Think of all those others, everyone who thought they were bigger or knew better than you. Imagine them like ants beneath you. That is what I want to make of you, Sigeric. But it is not something that I can do alone. Something was stolen from me, and it weakens me - but if you are able to return it, the things that I can give you...."
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:36 am
"I'M THE BEST." Frustrated, Sige got vocal. Hadn't the voice said that they were his? That he deserved them? Then what was he talking about anyone being better than him. Clearly, the boy's short attention span was working against him as his companion continued to talk. It was all swimming in his head, the power, all those chattering words. He tried to focus enough to listen to what the other had to say, but it was always so hard, and he'd already been listening for so long. He rubbed the back of his head tiredly and frowned, first down at the gems, then to the general direction of his companion, just in time to miss the other's analogy, but catch the offer of an exchange.
"Give me? For...?" Something was stolen from this dark thing? How did one steal from the darkness? Sige remembered once when he'd broken into Kafka's food machine and stolen meat. The food box hadn't been a person, and yet, he'd stolen from it. Kafka had been mad. He wondered if it was like that. Then a thought broke through and he beamed. "Fight?" Would he have to fight whoever was to blame?
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:57 pm
"Perhaps likely," the voice chuckled back, though it was unclear exactly what he was answered - nothing, everything, that Sige had said? The collected bounty in Sige's hands were tingling with energy - and yet, they didn't even represent half of what was waiting for him now. And according to Chaos, they were as to nothing to what he would receive later.
"I should give you a name now that you have never been called before, Sigeric - Fa'e. You were brought into this life by the one named Airi, who caged you in this half-fledged body with your powers weak, then abandoned you. Airi is the one who stole from me that which I could use to make you strongest, and Airi, along with the other Fa'e, will be the ones that will try to trick or take your power from you. And if they try, then yes. Fight. Because I need for you to go to Airi, and recover what was taken from me. Then I can give you more - much, much more."
The gems seemed to lower now, just enough that Sige might be able to jump up and touch them with his fingertips. "Do we have an understanding?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 5:49 pm
"Not weak! Sige is most strong!" Sige didn't realize how much he sounded exactly like the petulant child he was, instead of the king that he envisioned. He was a bit put off by where this conversation was headed. "Strong more than you!" Part of Sige had already realized that wasn't true. That his companion was stronger than him, another realm of strong, enough to keep him here, in this...world that wasn't Sige's world or the other world. Sige was away from home, on his companion's turf. But that wouldn't stop a little bravado and hurt.
He wanted the gems and the power they promised, certainly, but only to solidify his position, already on top. And they seemed to be a part of this world he didn't know yet. Even a warrior had to make some adjustments. But to say he was weak, and some other words he didn't understand, haffige or something...words he didn't understand except to know they weren't good, well, that wasn't something, was it? "No! Stop it!" Sige frowned. "No unnerstand!" This voice was just talking and talking and he wanted to get on with it. He'd been completely on board until a moment ago. Now, he just wanted to prove himself. He crouched down into a fighting stance with a growl.
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Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:30 pm
Strong? Did this child just say... strong?
There was a sound. It was not the voice, but an ambient noise. It was a hiss, like the air being sucked out of the room, or the disturbance made by a fearful gasp. Chasing it were the wingbeats of the collected crows, suddenly making a beeline as far, far away from Sige as possible. They scattered the gems as they fled, suddenly uncaring for the trinkets they'd been dangling over him. The gems of power twinkled like stars on the ground, and in their light was illuminated a thick, dark tendril of oozing flesh, at least three feet thick and snaking out like a living wall to separate Sige from his would-be prize.
"Poor child," muttered the darkness. "The strength that you claim is something you only wish to remember."
It was clear enough that Sigeric was getting impatient with the words being bandied about. This was no Dawna that had crawled beneath his wing, begging to be mended. This was a child that was unruly, insolent, and egotistical in all the best ways. A delicate touch would be needed to educate him before he could be fixed.
Delicate. Like the lashing out of that heavy limb, whipping out with the relentless power of an advancing ocean wave. Sigeric was asked with a raised, barking voice, "Let's test your memory, and then perhaps you might remember what it really means to be strong. What are you, Sigeric?"
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