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 Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:15 pm
 It had, indeed, taken longer than he would have liked - some of the more angered souls had indeed tried to escape, using the sheer numbers as their divertion, but in the end it had been fruitless.
Ankou did not bother with distance at this point - the day had turned into night before he had taken the last fews down to the Underworld, so he simply wandered the soul path back into the courtyard proper, since he was unlikely to spook any poor, unsuspecting mortal in the process.
He looked much like a ghost himself as he emerged through the earth as if it hadn't even been there at all, and saw that Cosine was already waiting for him. "How did it go ?" The Spirit Guide asked, resting Gungnir against his shoulder. He clearly looked a little more drained now than he had previously.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:51 pm
 Cosine lay on a stone bench in the courtyard her eyes on the sky, marvelling at its reconstruction. The moon was full and the stars were bright. She had been waiting for a long time but she did not mind. Earlier she had had a crow for companion, though he had flown off in search of food for his family.
So she continued to wait, knowing that she would always wait for Ankou. No matter where he was or how long he took. Hearing footsteps, light, almost silent she shifted and sat up, watching him as he came towards her. He was as pale as the moon she had been admiring and worn. An idiot could have seen that.
"It went well. A couple were angry but, they soon came round." She stood and placed her hand against his cheek. "You do not look well at all."
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 6:12 pm
"The stronger ones thought they could outrun me." An useless struggle, of course, but he had ended up expending more mana that he would have had, otherwise.
Still, he found himself leaning into her touch, her warmth, without truly noticing at all. "That is good." Then this whole thing hadn't been for nothing on her end, either. "I figure they will keep running the temple here ?"
He moved to sit beside her, resting Gungnir against the ground while still holding it upright. There was still more to do. He had to find the one girl in here that had been his, the valkyrie, and awaken her... But she could stand to wait a little longer, while she was still unknowing of her own nature and still asleep.
There was one thing, however, that was more pressing, and it involved the spear itself.
"We dodged quite the bullet here." The Spirit Guide admitted, his eyes not leaving the tip of the blade. He was uncertain how to breach the matter otherwise, and so he started with that.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 3:09 am
"That is my plan." Cosine replied, stroking his coool cheek with her thumb as he leaned against her. "There is a priest and his daughter. He remembers much of the past. I plan to bring him back to the Pantheon with me. I wish for him to help me to establish a new temple. Something central." She smiled and sat with him on the stone bench. The spear next to them.
Her hand slipped into his. Strength could be gained from such a simple gesture she believed. Whether it was a transfer of strength or a renewed belief in ones self.
"Hmm?" Cosine looked up at him, then to the spear. It was a beautiful weapon, yes it needed some repairs, but still, the moonlight glinted off the spearhead and highlighted the shapes of the bone that made up the shaft. "What do you mean?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:18 am
"That is a good plan." He nodded. He... did not really have any plans, himself, for temples. But... perhaps he should think about it.
There were things that were too important to wing up, he was slowly learning.
His hand laced into her's without Ankou even noticing it, so used he was to the familiar weight by now. Slender, precise fingers that seemed to match his own to perfection.
"There is..." He started, then stopped, and shook his head. No, do like you did with Hrist. Talk, let it out, and do not worry about making sense, for now, otherwise he would never say anything. "There's a piece of me in Gungnir. A part of my essence." His expression made it clear - he did not remember putting such a thing here. Had not known until he had held it again.
But his subconcious had seemed to know, resulting in... well. He figured anything he had done that had seemed strange might make sense now. "It sat here, untouched... If Pythagoras had known it was there..."
Then, what ? He wasn't sure. Surely such a piece could not have been used too drastically, would not have made him match a god completely, but...
Well, the thought was enough to make his skin crawl, and it was a good thing he was already so pale, so most of the discomfort did not show.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:35 am
"A piece of you?" Her words were rhetorical, more repeated to herself than to him. It was a good job they had managed to get the spear back then. If someone discovered what it was ...
She looked to the spear and then to Ankou, she could sense the tension in him. Others would not recognise it, but they were so close it was easy to feel what he was feeling.
"But he is gone now and does not matter. Do you know how to retrieve it? How to make it part of you again."
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:54 am
"I think I do." Well, he hoped. It would be madness to have something calling to him like this for all eternity, sending flickers of self and memories...
And yet now he found himself hesitating, in spite of all the temptation. The past was gone, faded, failed. He had no idea what this might do to him.
He always had said he did not need the past to go forward, and now... Well, now it started to look obvious that he and Nergal had merely been two extreme. One so rooted in the past that it could be hard to go forward...
And the other, so locked out of the past that he had never even realized how a part of him was missing.
"Should I, through ?" He voiced out without truly noticing he was, still looking at the spear as if it might answer him.
He had to take it, and yet... he found himself unsure that he should. It felt like admitting that he had been wrong, on some level.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:11 am
Cosine waited patiently for him to speak. She could see there was some thought there, a tough decision perhaps. If this piece of him was from the past, then would it fit with him in the present.
"Do you think it could have a negative effect?" It was an important point. She did not know the old him any more than he did.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:38 am
"I do not know..." He admitted. He had never heard of another in this situation.
But, really, what choice did he have ?
Better to do this now, while he was prepared, than to give in to temptation at the wrong moment. Or have it happen while he was completely unaware of it.
It was the same mana, the same essence. Surely everything would be fine.
One finger of his free hand ran across the tip of the spear, only realizing too late that it could cut. He realized it when it did, as he winced with the pain that had become unfamiliar. The last time something like this had happened to him, he had still been half mortal, in the world tree, with Tian Yue...
Ankou did not get to ponder this much further. It was not blood that came out of the wound, but mist - and Gungnir reacted, a similar mist rising from it in reaction.
The mana, the part of himself that rested within the spear, rushed in, and he was powerless to try to stop it.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:46 am
Cosine swallowed and kept her eyes on him. She knew, as he did that it had to be done. For him to ever be what he was destined to become. Her hand squeezed his lightly, she knew she didn't need to say any words. It was his decision to make and she would not argue with it.
She saw him cut his hand and had been about to speak, when she noted no blood came from the wound. It made sense enough, they were not so mortal any more. Then Gungnir reacted, the mist spewing forth as it was from the cut on his finger. There was nothing the goddess could do but watch and hope it would all end well.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 11:05 am
Words would have been useless at that point, really. On the surface, everything every seemed calm, and the god was silent...
Well, until the sudden deathgrip on her hand might make Cosine think otherwise.
There were once again visitors to the Underworld, and he wanted nothing to do with them. So he had withdrawn to his personal quarters, an elusive shadow as he always was.
He was not sure what they came seeking from them. The souls of the gods were not manipulated easily, and their death something that certainly was beyond Nergal's powers to deal with. Perhaps it was the real proof of how desperate things had gotten, up above.
A female voice greeted him – he dismissed her with a simple word, and the valkyrie bowed and went on her way.
The gods were falling, one by one, up above. They called their sickness the fading – for the disbelief of the mortals caused their mana to scatter and fade away into nothing. A fate worse than the death mortals feared so much.
At first he had thought it was nothing but a rumour, an exaggeration. He had not come when the Twin Crown called – when had he ever ? But then the sickness spread, further and further... Taking with it deities once so beloved by the mortal races.
He had thought himself above such a thing. The living had never been one of his priorities, and the dead... What choice did they have, but to believe ?
And yet.
He had never wanted anything to do with many of the deities that dwelt about, found their politics and courts a waste of time. And yet, now, he found himself failing from the same sickness. Stubbornness only allowed him to deny it for so long, and he had passed that point a long time ago.
It was getting harder and harder to travel to soul paths, to bring the dead home. It was getting harder and harder to keep his form somewhat solid, to keep his hands from shaking as he wielded Gungnir, to keep the feathers of his wings from falling away.
The mana he used was not renewing itself.
He wasn't sure who he was even trying to fool at this point. The worried glances his valkyries gave him were telling enough. Hell, even Nergal had noticed, but they stubbornly did not talk about it, as if it could have staved off the inevitable. As if not talking about it would not have made him notice that the older brother showed the same symptoms.
They were both falling apart, bit by bit.
Now he had to find Kore, and he was not even sure how he would bring her back, if he even found the wayward queen at all.
Would Underworld feel a part of himself die, when the last feather would fall off the wings that had once been his ?
“...Damnit.” The single word cut through the silence harshly. There had to be something he could do.
No, no. No. He did not need to know that.
He did not want to remember this !
But it was too late. There was no stopping this once it had began, and golden eyes could only stare into the blankness, unseeing, as the past all but drilled itself in his mind.
Ankou did not realize he was crying.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 11:20 am
Cosine kept her eyes on him as he seemed to slip into a trance like state. He did look cool and calm on the surface, like a marble statue. She breathed deeply as his grip on her hand tightened the only clue that he was still there with her. Of course she could not see his thoughts.
Feelings though, feelings she could sense, the desperation and then pain. The tears came as a surprise. Like all the gods he remained strong most times. Only once she could remember seeing him completely worn to the bones. It made her feel sad, she did not like seeing people she loved suffer. She knew perhaps she shouldn't but instinct won out. With her free hand she reached out and brushed the tears away gently from his cold cheeks.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:51 pm
He could not feel it - the hand on his cheeks, the fingers that brushed away his tears, or even still intertwined with his own.
Both those hands, the one holding Gungnir and the one still twined in hers, were shaking.
But there was no stopping the flood once it began. It was all, or nothing.
The Spirit Guide had not built a kingdom. He had his valkyries, he had Gungnir, and he had an handful of human cults, once.
That had been enough.
And now... Now, it seemed to hard to let it all go.
The bleeding did not stop. It would never stop, until there was no more mana left to come undone. He was too far gone.
If one of them could even remain, it would have to be Underworld. If the Spirit Guide was already doomed, then what was hastening the process ?
Gungnir felt heavy in his lap, as he infused it with as much of himself as he possibly could. The energy was similar, the mana was the same, Underworld would know how to use it...
He had to keep telling himself that.
The valkyries would know, and obey. This was the failsafe of Gungnir. Whoever wielded the spear, they would obey.
He had never had to use it before, and he had found pride in that. Now... there was no other choice. The battle maidens would be the last line of defence, if need be.
Perhaps they would be the only ones to mourn him, truly mourn him. Underworld was battling for his own survival. Silence... He had not seen Silence in so long.
The realization hit hard, and he was not sure how he felt about it. The gods would not know another of their own wilted away, because most of them had barely known he had existed at all. He'd been full of dreams and ambition when he first came to be, when he had named the spear that never left his side, and what had he done with those dreams, that ambition ?
Nothing. Worse, he had crushed them himself, under the pretense of duty and obligations.
It was too late now. He finally stood, and walked away, giving his own living spaces one last look.
There was no going back now. The second Gungnir left his hands, he was doomed.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:07 pm
Cosine felt his hands tremble and glanced up to Gungnir as it too shook in his hand. She wished she could do more, something to help him, though it was out of her hands. Something he had to go through himself.
She knew very well he could not hear her, though the silence of the night felt heavy with nothing but his tears and the sense of sorrow.
"I'm here." She said softly, just incase. "always here."
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:31 pm
Then there was only fragments, flashes, like a worn film that refused to give a clear image. Little of it made sense. Gungnir was given over, a promise was made – to come back.
He'd become so used to wall his own emotions that he lied and said yes without even thinking about it.
The only thing that was clear was Underworld's realisation as he lifted his hood and turned. Underworld screamed his name, not Ankou but his Name, but the Spirit Guide was gone before Underworld could catch him.
The only thing he left in his wake was a single, glowing blue feather.
And then there was nothing, nothing but darkness, until the first stirring of awareness from a small, cold gray gem in Destruction's hands...
Suddenly, he remembered to breathe. Heavy, choked sounds and sobs that only slowly started to calm. Ankou stared in the darkness, but for a different reason, as if afraid that everything he had done, everything he had built, might vanish if he only dared to blink.
The past and present mixed seamlessly, and he struggled to separate them, unable to tell memory from reality. the past from the present and the future.
Until he felt her, her presence, and clung to it like a lifeline. Gungnir had fallen on the soft grass and he did not remember dropping it.
He would never be alone again, not unless he wanted to be.
He would never be this miserable again, because Cosine simply would not allow him to be.
"Am I here now ?" He whispered.
Then, everything was silent again. his breathing quieted as he found his bearings again, put the clean division in between who he had once been, and who he once was.
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