[ He doesn’t think much of the distance. Her hesitation is justified, after all. That, and her plainly stated question make the feeling of his Communion come across as just troubled. ]
I… I suppose that is what it was.
[ Just using the word “possessed” puts it into a different context for him. He feels a deep empathy for Lohse’s situation in that moment, because that must be what she goes through. With her in mind, Hayame gets a brief flash of a red-headed, human woman with a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes, but her eyes turn dark, and gray veins appear on her face. And with that memory, there's Fane's concern for her and a deep dislike that comes with a word—Demon.
Because her situation is worse, he thinks, since the clever demon possessing her must be worse than… Whatever it was that had caught him. It brings with it the worry that it might linger, but that’s something he’ll investigate on his own. ]
Yes. I… witnessed what was being done. But I had no control. I could only watch.
[ Selfishly, he’s also glad that he? It? Had only run into Hayame as well. Having to go through that multiple times sounds horrific, and luckily she was more than strong enough to take him down even if she’d been hurt in the process too. ]
—One of those things looked like my daughter. And it stole my Shard.
Edited (wait duh this is how to bring up demon racism) 2023-12-02 21:10 (UTC)
[… His daughter. The one he had briefly mentioned, when he said he felt confident teaching even the most frustrating of students. She had not pried further, because it was not her business, but… She thinks of another father. Of how desperately that man had fought her, and how once she had him cornered… he had bowed his head and abandoned all pride just to beg he be allowed to see his child to safety before offering up his freedom in exchange. How tightly he had held that child, weeping shamelessly, when they had reunited and Hayame had been the one defeated on the ground.
… She had always derided such bonds. She’d always had to. There wasn’t room for such weakness in the breeding stables. Even her own brother… she had refused him affection, refused him even the title, because she could not risk being seen to rely on a man if she wished to be sold as a warrior. And now-
She also thinks of demons. Hopes that the image of her own relations hadn’t bled into communion like Fane’s thought had in to hers, but the voice and the way it says that word… it sounds the same. The same as how she says it.]
… You must forgive the question. It had to be asked. We are hardly bosom companions.
[It was not in her to know if those actions were true to him or not. Yet.]
The shadows stole the shape of… someone I know, as well. So I believe that of you. It is a foul thing.
[To truck someone like that. She’d almost- So that is what would have happened?]
I do, but from your point of view, not personally. One of the other Godwoken I was travelling with in Rivellon was possessed by a demon, so we’ve had… incidents where we’ve been forced to come to blows. So, not only do I forgive the question, I understand the caution.
[ His tone slips to sarcastic, though only briefly. ]
Of course, we have a… luxury here that Lohse did not, I suppose. I don’t feel any lingering influence of whatever those shadows were, so death seems to have exorcised it. It seems odd to thank the person who killed me, but in this case…
[ Fane’s tone softens, and he sighs. It is an odd thing to say, but the sentiment is undoubtedly genuine. ]
Thank you. It’s a horrible thing to be puppeted by something else’s will. I don’t envy Lohse’s struggle with her demon, and it makes it all the more important that we free her of it when I return. But that’s a task far ahead. [ And not relevant for Hayame, strictly speaking ] …Though for the immediate. I was glad to hear that you at least felled Silco. I didn't see him amongst those at the tree, so was he truly killed?
[One of his... "friends", then, like the archer he had mentioned to her the first time they met. I... Ifin? She cannot remember, she had not placed much importance on it then, thinking him just a magic-wielding artist she had encountered and perhaps would not again after their strange agreement, a child's toy prize for a sketch. Perhaps that had been a mistake.]
It is good to hear that dissipation has cleansed you properly. Some others, under other influences during the Oracle trials, have not been so fortunate.
[She had forced Liem to die because she was sure... Sure that if she just took him away from the influence of the Zenites forcing or coaxing their wills or influences into him during the Iconoclast Oracle trial, that she could plant him in the soil beneath the Great Tree and he would come back how he was supposed to. A Meridian. But it had not worked that way. It was why she hesitated to plant Fane. ... But, good.]
... You do not need to thank me. I cannot claim I did what I did for your sake. It was for the Oracle.
[And though they won it, making it worthwhile in her mind in the aftermath... It would not be right of her to take his gratitude, when she had cursed him in her head for being a traitor at first, not knowing what drove him to attack her out of the blue in those tunnels in the midst of a conversation she thought was between allies.
At the mention of Silco, though... Her voice in Communion grows bitter. Killing him might have helped show the Oracle her drive... But it hadn't been for that, not really. That had been personal, and she felt she had been so godsdamned close to shattering his shard beneath her hoof except for-]
He was killed. But before I could see to it that he stayed dead, his shard fell into the possession of one of Meridian's most merciful.
[The way she says "merciful" makes it very clear she does not consider it a positive trait. Ever since the first time she had heard that woman whinging about the precious nature of a soul and how they should not ever shatter even their enemies...]
She would not surrender it to me, and I could not reach her. Though he may not have revived just yet... I have no doubt his stain is still somewhere in this world.
Well, even so. Thank you I shall, since you did me a service. I’ll accept it being practical, since I surely would have done the same.
[ He’s stubborn in not letting her shirk the thanks, since it is important to him. He doesn’t exactly revel in the experience of dissipation and “death”, but it indeed feels like a kindness compared to the alternative. He’d hate to have seen what might have happened if no one had felled him.
…And a bit curious, admittedly. But not enough to want to pursue it, at least for now. If that’s something to be looked into, he’ll leave it to others.
Though as the conversation turns to Kenos’s Favorite Rat™, the displeased frown that Fane would be wearing is clear from the feeling alone. This is something else that Hayame seems to have an ally in, but Fane was also more morally flexible on this matter than most. After all, he possessed the ability to utterly destroy a soul. He thinks it’s wrong in the sense that it’s something that should be avoided, but it’s little different than how he views a more typical murder. Sometimes, it’s necessary. ]
Hmph. A shame. Mercy is— [ He pauses, not out of hesitation for the sentiment, but more at sharing it. But considering Hayame is the one that brought it up and seems to view his “escape” as a bad thing, he feels more reassured to continue. ] …Well. There are times for mercy is what I would say. I’m not inclined towards it with such stakes, though. Perhaps for the truly ignorant, but that is all I can see.
[ He doesn’t even know if there’s any that would apply to. He’d met Zenites who were… fine, as people. But there were Magisters that were fine as people as well. They received no mercy when they took up arms to keep him from his path, and that’s ultimately how he sees this conflict in Kenos too. ]
It is not as if he is possessed by his demon, correct?
[ Since as is probably clear from his explanation, he does feel sympathy for that. It hadn't been Lohse's fault at all, he knows, and for the others on Bloodmoon Island... Well, he doesn't know. But he hadn't been so sympathetic that he hadn't been willing to kill them, so. ]
[It seems he will not be deterred from expressing his gratitude. ... She will not insult him by trying to refuse it again. If she were to feel in another's debt, she doubts there is anything they could say to dissuade her, either. So.
The Communion equivalent of bowing her head in acceptance. She has heard his thanks.
When it comes to souls, though... It is not as if Hayame herself relishes in the idea of it. It does seem more "wrong" to her than just killing a person. But here in this place, where killing a person did not actually kill them, when they would just revive again and again and fight to rob her and every other world of their future... What other choice was there than to put an actual end to them the only surefire method they were given? She would shatter them, and deal with the weight of it. Whatever it was... it could not be as heavy as the weight of every life on her planet.]
You speak sense. There are times for mercy. There are Zenites I would say are misguided, and who I would kill, but not shatter. Perhaps, some shards could simply be kept safe somewhere for a time, rather than replanted. Or they could be revived, but imprisoned. But Silco has made no secret on Communion of his lust for the destruction of all our worlds, and his hatred for Meridian's cause. He is decidedly not one of them.
[And yet despite, that stupid, emotional woman (goddess, supposedly)... What? She thought he was worth saving? That she could fix him? It makes her so angry just thinking about how close they'd been. If she had just shattered him, or even just returned that shard to Hayame's own hands if she did not have the guts to do it herself or could not bear the condemnation that might follow...
Hayame would not have minded becoming the "bad guy". (No, that's not true. She would have railed against it, she would have become bitter and enraged over the unfairness of being condemned for doing what she felt needed to be done. But she still would have done it, even if that was the cost required.)]
He is not possessed.
[That, she is pretty sure of.]
The information I have been given tells that he has a contract with the demon in Zenith that calls itself Sebastian Michaelis. When I first encountered it, it was "Gabriel Lactance". Another knew them as "Farense". In exchange for the demon's service towards some goal, I do not know exactly what, Silco has offered his soul. I cannot travel there easily, because the streets are narrow and the stairs unforgiving, but I hear that in Kowloon he has gathered a considerable amount of power and influence somehow. Perhaps that has something to do with it... ?
But either way... If he has already proved willing to offer it for a demon to devour, I certainly see no reason we should feel guilty for shattering it.
I’m hardly surprised. He attacked me without saying much of anything.
[ Granted. Fane had, but it’s not like he’d been given much of an indication that he’d said precisely the wrong thing. Silco doesn’t exactly have the most pleasant personality... ]
—Imprisonment would at least be a sensible middle ground. If nothing else, it would at least remove him for a time, since I can only assume it’s not that simple either. [ Otherwise he would have heard more talk of capture, he imagines ] …Regardless. I may not have heard it myself, but I certainly trust your word that he’s so despicable. Any Zenite that wholeheartedly condemns our worlds to the Void is my sworn enemy. They will not receive my mercy.
[ There’s conviction in his words that might be surprising. For all his scholarly affect and the fact that he’s so new to Meridian, there’s a hard viciousness there. It’s not bloodlust, though, just a similar, steadfast dedication to seeing his will done. For better or worse.
After all, it’s not too different from the conflict that he and the other Godwoken had faced. One of them had to ascend, lest the world fall to the Void. Fane at least feels now that for the sake of his people, he’d do anything—even cut down the Godwoken that had become his friends.
(But he didn’t yet know that perhaps his people couldn’t or shouldn’t be saved.)
For the matter of the demon, though. Fane’s impression softens, and that hardness turns into curiosity instead. It’s the classic Savant at work where what Hayame explains is different from what he knows, and so he’s intrigued. ]
Hmph. Well, if nothing else, at least it couldn’t happen to someone better.
[ The sarcasm comes first, naturally. He won’t cheer for a demon, but also, get fucked Silco!! ]
—I don’t know much about demons, admit. My people were blessedly free of them, and it was a failing that came for the lessers after. [ oh oops the equal opportunity racism is sneaking in, dw about it ] But I did meet a demon hunter in my travels. Who knows if this one is anything similar, but the habit of names is. Apparently, the stronger ones go through great lengths to hide their true names. Why, I don’t fully understand the particulars of, but he said it was a way to weaken them. The one that was possessing my friend was apparently immortal as it was.
[ A pause and then with a vague feeling of annoyance: ]
And you may already know, but Raphael is one of them as well.
[Imprisonment is an option she would accept, but... She understands the logistics to be somewhat difficult. The shards could likely be traced, in both magical ways and perhaps through harmonization... and if it was one thing she learned during the Manon debates, it was that factions would argue anything to get "their" member back into their custody somehow. It was troublesome-
She would rather just shatter enemies of that level of foulness and be done with it.]
It is not as if I know much about them either. Their nature anyway. Such things were just legends and children's scary stories, in my world. And I doubt the "rules" are the same. But I can confirm he at least seems to use false names- perhaps for the reason you mention. I am learning here.
[Just like magic... she did not believe spirits or demons existed, no matter how many people told stories of them. After all, they had once told stories of jinba, and they turned out to be real. Over the centuries, how could people have failed to produce more concrete proof of their existence?
- She actually misses the "lessers" things, because she doesn't realize he's... you know, talking about humans or elves or whatever races his world has.
Hold on, though. "Raphael". That one that had introduced himself to her and begun asking all sorts of strange questions?]
Indeed. Of course, he’ll very much insist that he’s a devil, not a demon, but as far as I’m concerned, there’s little difference. They’re still fiends. Whether they possess people or so very kindly offer their “help”, they’re untrustworthy louts at absolute best.
[ Granted, demons in Divinity are also a lot more monstrous and freaky, save for the one that possessing Lohse, but. In some things, Fane will seek nuance, but the finer points of demons aren’t one of them. Kill them, move on. Simple. ]
But Drizzt confirmed it for me, since they’re from the same world. [ …And Drizzt is pretty famous, apparently? ] He’d mentioned it offhand when I’d spoken to everyone before the Oracle, so I followed up on it.
[Hayame repeats it out loud, as if she is trying to suss out how those words are different. Translated into her own tongue... they're kind of really not that different. They're the same word, actually, so.]
But he operates the same as Zenith's, then, you think? Hiding his true name, making "contracts" with people?
using the same icon twice... but my options are so limited... GRITS TEETH
[ There's at least a feeling of hearty agreement as Hayame doubtfully repeats the word(s). He knows, Hayame. He thinks so too. ]
Hm... I don't know about his name. The only demon whose name I ever actually learned was "Mhordkan", so it doesn't sound like that at all, but... Who knows about their naming conventions. That's likely a better question for Drizzt.
[ There's an impression of Fane making a sort of mental note to ask, but he moves on without missing a beat. ]
As for contracts, that's the impression I got, yes. Before we went down below, I found him lazing about and refusing to get involved because no one had asked. [ An annoyed click of his tongue ] Bloody blighter. I prefer him on our side than the opposite, of course, but he's incredibly annoying.
i have been there... i feel ur pain... hold my hand...
[... Wow, "Mhordkan" is a dumb name. But then again, this information is coming from a man whose name sounds like a lisped sound effect, so. Maybe that is just what they do in that land.]
... Well, if he has Harmonized to Meridian and stays loyal to Meridian, I am willing to overlook what his species is, even if I may pity his world for why he wishes to return to it. I save my scorn for those who fight against us, betray us, or act as hobbles on our fetlocks with their weakness.
[Er, our "feet", whatever.]
But I suppose we will need to keep an eye on him, if being asked is what he needs. A Zenith could just as easily ask.
We already have enough Meridians who think it beneficial to treat with and play with our enemies. We do not need another one.
one day i'll get an expression sheet commission but not yet 😔
Those were my thoughts as well. I wouldn't trust a demon, devil, whatever he'd call himself, but my impression is that they're creatures that are wholly self-interested. So, as long as he wishes to return to his world, fine. I'll not slay him simply for existing. [ Then, muttered: ] I know that trouble all too well.
[ Since, for SOME REASON people just attacked a walking, talking skeleton as soon as they saw it! How rude! ]
—Ah. Yes. I did hear of Lord Dagoth's... copulation.
[ Which is a very weird way to put it, but that's just a Fane Thing (TM), don't worry about it. He sighs, but it's definitely not because Voryn is fucking around (literal) so much as being forced to hear it thanks to the Savant connection and the fact that this other demon was a Zenite. Despite the impression he gives off, Fane isn't a prude at all, actually. ]
But by how you say it, I assume that's not as isolated of a case as I was hoping.
[Self-interested. Her disdain for that word... is doubled, because she knows that once... She had been something like the same. She knows exactly what it leads to... and she- She had changed, had she not? So she has the right to hate it more bitterly than anyone, because she knows for a fact that it does not have to be that way, nor stay that way.]
That seems to be the case. And as long as it is, he and those like him cannot be trusted not to betray our cause to Zenith or simply go over to their side, should the tides of war or their fickle interests change.
[... She actually appreciates the word "copulation", whatever the motive. Fane is talking to a woman who normally refers to consensual sex as "sharing a pillow" or "embracing", so. Thanks, skeleton buddy. She saves her crude words for jinba treatment and insulting traitor whores.]
His copulation with one of the strongest Zenites that strands between us and our goal.
[Just! So it's clear! That man can fuck as many Meris and Springstar citizens as he wants and she wouldn't care!!!]
One who poisoned and ki-
[... No one heard that, right??? Moving on!!!]
- But no, it is not. There are several Meridian members who claim loyalty to the cause yet maintain... close relationships with Zenites that risk compromising us or allowing themselves to be manipulated or weakened.
And for some reason, [I] we are supposed to simply overlook or stomach this.
That, I don’t know. Raphael at least seemed like he thought Meridian’s goal necessary, but further than that? Who knows. He’s worth keeping an eye on is the best I can say to that.
[ He personally will be, but that’s at least partially because he also had taken Raphael’s (annoying) lack of help personally. If he can direct that creature into working for Meridian’s benefit, so be it, he figures. However, it also gets into the sort of topics that he doesn’t know well, so he focuses more on the latter half. He’ll have plenty of demon/devil research in his future, though. ]
Hm. I suppose I should have expected as much, yet still, how disappointing. I would hope my allies would have stronger resolve than that, but I suppose weakness of will is difficult to escape. Either that, or that pleasures of the flesh override good sense. Unfortunate, either way.
[ However, you thought you escaped that utterance, Hayame? No such luck. ]
Poisoned, though? I hadn’t heard of that. Are Zenites really poisoning our own?
[They seemed to try and impress their usefulness and strength upon her in that communion, so maybe she can use that to keep an eye on them. But there is no fooling herself that she isn't focused far more on... a different demon. The one that had actually-
...
... It feels too early. Like if she tells him, he will think- It will destroy the image she had been able to present in front of him so far, that of the strong and resolute warrior. But if she obfuscates it, she will seem weak in a different way, she will appear a liar if it comes out later-]
... Not en masse, no.
But I have experience with it. Zenites who are brazen enough to come into Springstar outside of the trials and use such cowardly tactics.
…I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, especially if it’s their demon.
[ Since the implication was only barely an implication. At the very least, Hayame can get some validation with how Fane also seems to refuse to use his name. So far as he’s concerned, using its false one is essentially being the butt of a joke, at least with the assumption that names worked similarly between the demons he knows and the ones here. So, he won’t participate, thank you. ]
Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry you went through that. I’m quite familiar with poisons, though it’s by necessity, I’ll note. It’s an unusual part of my condition.
[ Presumably he means undead, but that also doesn’t make sense…?? This is video game logic at work and an especially funny one, I fear. ]
But it seems painful. I made more than a few potions to resist it for my friends, but I can’t offer the same here. Or, not immediately, I suppose? The flora here is different, so I would have to do research into how I might craft something similar.
[It is, she wants to scream. It is their demon, of course it was, and he- He-
... But she cannot. She had barely been able to show the anguish and humiliation that incident had left in her to those closest to her. She sometimes wished she hadn't even told those guarded few, that she had been able to hide all of it away and pretend it never happened and just rip the gods damned eye out of her head instead of caving in to her lover's plea to stay her hands. So the idea of telling anyone else in any way that implied she was anything but full of rage and soon-to-come revenge... Those were the only things-]
It happened. Now it is over.
[She wasn't still having nightmares. She wasn't still wrestling with doubts over whether she could trust those she had once thought closest to her.]
It was not. ... The poison was a means to an end, not an attempt to kill me. And I do not know what the ingredients were, to tell you what to combat, anyway.
[......................... Wait, skeletons use potions on themselves?]
Well, resistance potions are a bit of a catchall, at least. So far as I know, they resist all poisons equally, but that’s not the sort of thing to tempt fate about, I suppose… It makes far more sense with those that resist the elements, such as fire.
[ He’d honestly never thought about it before, but resisting poisons had never been something he was concerned with either. Ifan would at least know better about that, but ah, well. He at least has the idea to look into it now, so he’ll be adding potion crafting to his ever-lengthening to-do list. ]
Regardless… It is contemptible that they would stoop to such methods, but from all I’ve learned about them, that’s perfectly in line with the foul creatures. The smarter ones, at least.
[ Though that’s said with displeasure, since the smarter ones were also much harder to fight. Not that he’s put off by that prospect, though. ]
Has anything been done about it? Or… No, is anything done about it is the question I mean, I think. What happens when there’s conflicts outside of these trials?
[... Okay, those potions sound more useful than she had been imagining. But.
But.
The moment is right there, the perfect invitation to rage and bitterly spit about what has been done to her. She wants to. She wants to so badly. But every time she has attempted to decry another shardbearer... rarely has it been that she felt heard and not dismissed, or written off as too cruel, too hardline, too medieval in her thinking. And that had been others, not Sebastian Michaelis, not the demon who seemed to take sadistic pleasure in making sure half the people who supposedly cared about her... cared about him just as much, or more.
She's afraid, in some pathetic part of herself, that even though this man decries demons now... That the time will come when he too comes to think that the demonic beast that had forced an eye into her head was just too interesting to give up--]
Zenites have been arrested before, when they overstepped in Springstar. Some for attempting undoubtedly foul business with the Heliopolis Tree, another for beating a Meri in the street.
[She will never understand why Liem let him do that. Another disgusting Zenite that far too many so-called Meridians extended pity and coddling to.]
Yet for reasons unknown to me, they find themselves free soon enough.
[She certainly would never authorize their release. But she is not in charge.]
So what would you have me do? He assured I was made too weak to prevent my own taking, that no one saw it happen... and he had his accomplice heal every single injury I incurred in his presence before he was done.
There is no proof.
[Gee, Hayame, what about the fact that supposedly she could attempt to testify via Communion and show, visually, everything that happened to the Legionary or the Tribune? ... She doesn't seem to consider that an option somehow. Weirdly.]
[ Fane listens seriously, but his displeasure is sharp when he hears that these Zenites were released. He doesn’t know what to think about that except for this city’s idea of punishment being wholly too lenient and ineffective, but that sharpness does ebb away as Hayame continues. What she explains is clever of the demon, he’d have to admit, but cruel. There’s no sense of approval for that cleverness that comes through, only a mild anger on her behalf. ]
Is Communion not considered proof?
[ It’s an earnest question, since the legal system of Springstar isn’t something he was aware of at all yet. He’s too blunt and often overly rational to even consider that there might be an emotional reason why she might not want to share such a thing. It’s why he also expects the question to have a simple answer, so he continues. ]
…But to be honest, I wouldn’t give a demon the decency of law. It’s not as if it would respect it. We weren’t pursuing Lohse’s demon to ask it nicely to free her.
[ But he also assumes that Hayame had already thought of this, since he feels it’s obvious, and they’re of similar enough minds, it seems. So logically, there must be a reason why that’s not possible. He’s yet to encounter the opposition to crushing Shards personally, so that doesn’t occur to him, but just thinking about his personal experience… ]
If not execution, then neutralization. That- [ He pauses, and there’s a complicated, difficult emotion, though it’s brief because of how he clamps down on it purposefully. ] That is how my people dealt with those that betrayed the will of our King. My people do not die, so the most extreme of punishments could not be death.
[They are not the same Aspect, so perhaps she will be saved from the potential bleed of actual images or memories. But the spike of painful humiliation when he asks the very sensible and simple question... that likely comes through, even if just in impression. Maybe Communion would be proof. But she had barely managed to admit in words what had happened to her to her lover, to those who claimed to be her friends, so how-
How could she ever survive showing what had happened to her to strangers? Letting them see her so weak, so utterly without control, trussed up like a unbroken mare with a bit in her fucking mouth unable to stop the screams as her enemy smugly did with her what he liked? She can't- She can't let anyone see, she can't believe for a second anyone who told her it wasn't her fault, that she shouldn't be ashamed, that it would not ruin her in the eyes of ally and enemy alike.
It takes her a second too long. She doesn't even answer. Like she didn't... like she didn't even hear that part of what he had said.]
At least neutralization, yes. The demon is one of the strongest Zenites, and he is...
[She hates saying it. She hates knowing it.]
He is "beloved". If we simply held his shard, I have no doubt people would attempt to free him. Members of our own faction, even, might in their misguided desire for mercy and kindness enable him to escape somehow.
So he should be shattered. Or "bound". Apparently... that can be done with demons.
[Akua said it was possible, but she wants-
She does not know how she will ever rest until she has found out what Sebastian Michaelis' shard shattering under her hoof sounds like.]
[ The humiliation is met with surprise, but it’s quickly followed by his own embarrassed recognition. He quickly realizes the mistake of the question, even if not the extent. Of course she’d already thought about that, surely, and though her silence is a bit too long, he’s fairly quick to fill it. ]
—Excuse me if that was an obvious question. I did not mean…
[ It’s his turn to trail off, and as she gets to business, he returns to it too with a awkward clear of his throat. He won’t intrude upon her feelings, since he’s also not the best at dealing with them. ]
Beloved?
[ At least his incredulity and distaste will likely offer as good of an apology as anything. ]
Idiots, then, all of them. Demons will say anything to get what they want, and they won’t mean a word of it. That’s the whole point of them, at least so far as what Jahan explained. He didn’t even want us talking to the one he caged.
[ Which, on that note. He clicks his tongue, but turns thoughtful. ]
It’s too bad that there’s not something like the Souce Collars but for demons. I guess that would be the same thing as Binding a demon, I assume, where you’re declawing it… But killing it outright is better.
[ Another thing to consider… He’s no expert like Jahan, but surely there’s literature on demons, common and insidious as they are. And if he’s able to create something from Source…
It’s something to consider, he decides. But, for now, he doesn’t have a serious option to offer. So in lieu of that, he defaults to joking sarcasm. ]
[What if we just didn't do any emotions!!!! ... It. Definitely doesn't make things worse. ... And its easier to just let it be replaced by rage and bitterness.]
I know they are idiots. Half of them just believe any handsome smile, like they are a gaggle of besotted maidens, and the other half just delight in his depravity, because-
[She chokes on it a minute, because she doesn't want to admit it even to herself for what it means about her own bonds, but-]
Because they themselves are.
[She doesn't have to swallow in Communion.]
- Slicing the vocal cords will not work. I stabbed out its eye to revenge myself and it grew back in an instant.
[At least, that is what Sebastian had said. And Liem Talbott had confirmed he could regenerate.]
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I… I suppose that is what it was.
[ Just using the word “possessed” puts it into a different context for him. He feels a deep empathy for Lohse’s situation in that moment, because that must be what she goes through. With her in mind, Hayame gets a brief flash of a red-headed, human woman with a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes, but her eyes turn dark, and gray veins appear on her face. And with that memory, there's Fane's concern for her and a deep dislike that comes with a word—Demon.
Because her situation is worse, he thinks, since the clever demon possessing her must be worse than… Whatever it was that had caught him. It brings with it the worry that it might linger, but that’s something he’ll investigate on his own. ]
Yes. I… witnessed what was being done. But I had no control. I could only watch.
[ Selfishly, he’s also glad that he? It? Had only run into Hayame as well. Having to go through that multiple times sounds horrific, and luckily she was more than strong enough to take him down even if she’d been hurt in the process too. ]
—One of those things looked like my daughter. And it stole my Shard.
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… She had always derided such bonds. She’d always had to. There wasn’t room for such weakness in the breeding stables. Even her own brother… she had refused him affection, refused him even the title, because she could not risk being seen to rely on a man if she wished to be sold as a warrior. And now-
She also thinks of demons. Hopes that the image of her own relations hadn’t bled into communion like Fane’s thought had in to hers, but the voice and the way it says that word… it sounds the same. The same as how she says it.]
… You must forgive the question. It had to be asked. We are hardly bosom companions.
[It was not in her to know if those actions were true to him or not. Yet.]
The shadows stole the shape of… someone I know, as well. So I believe that of you. It is a foul thing.
[To truck someone like that. She’d almost- So that is what would have happened?]
… You have experience with it? Possession?
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[ His tone slips to sarcastic, though only briefly. ]
Of course, we have a… luxury here that Lohse did not, I suppose. I don’t feel any lingering influence of whatever those shadows were, so death seems to have exorcised it. It seems odd to thank the person who killed me, but in this case…
[ Fane’s tone softens, and he sighs. It is an odd thing to say, but the sentiment is undoubtedly genuine. ]
Thank you. It’s a horrible thing to be puppeted by something else’s will. I don’t envy Lohse’s struggle with her demon, and it makes it all the more important that we free her of it when I return. But that’s a task far ahead. [ And not relevant for Hayame, strictly speaking ] …Though for the immediate. I was glad to hear that you at least felled Silco. I didn't see him amongst those at the tree, so was he truly killed?
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It is good to hear that dissipation has cleansed you properly. Some others, under other influences during the Oracle trials, have not been so fortunate.
[She had forced Liem to die because she was sure... Sure that if she just took him away from the influence of the Zenites forcing or coaxing their wills or influences into him during the Iconoclast Oracle trial, that she could plant him in the soil beneath the Great Tree and he would come back how he was supposed to. A Meridian. But it had not worked that way. It was why she hesitated to plant Fane. ... But, good.]
... You do not need to thank me. I cannot claim I did what I did for your sake. It was for the Oracle.
[And though they won it, making it worthwhile in her mind in the aftermath... It would not be right of her to take his gratitude, when she had cursed him in her head for being a traitor at first, not knowing what drove him to attack her out of the blue in those tunnels in the midst of a conversation she thought was between allies.
At the mention of Silco, though... Her voice in Communion grows bitter. Killing him might have helped show the Oracle her drive... But it hadn't been for that, not really. That had been personal, and she felt she had been so godsdamned close to shattering his shard beneath her hoof except for-]
He was killed. But before I could see to it that he stayed dead, his shard fell into the possession of one of Meridian's most merciful.
[The way she says "merciful" makes it very clear she does not consider it a positive trait. Ever since the first time she had heard that woman whinging about the precious nature of a soul and how they should not ever shatter even their enemies...]
She would not surrender it to me, and I could not reach her. Though he may not have revived just yet... I have no doubt his stain is still somewhere in this world.
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[ He’s stubborn in not letting her shirk the thanks, since it is important to him. He doesn’t exactly revel in the experience of dissipation and “death”, but it indeed feels like a kindness compared to the alternative. He’d hate to have seen what might have happened if no one had felled him.
…And a bit curious, admittedly. But not enough to want to pursue it, at least for now. If that’s something to be looked into, he’ll leave it to others.
Though as the conversation turns to Kenos’s Favorite Rat™, the displeased frown that Fane would be wearing is clear from the feeling alone. This is something else that Hayame seems to have an ally in, but Fane was also more morally flexible on this matter than most. After all, he possessed the ability to utterly destroy a soul. He thinks it’s wrong in the sense that it’s something that should be avoided, but it’s little different than how he views a more typical murder. Sometimes, it’s necessary. ]
Hmph. A shame. Mercy is— [ He pauses, not out of hesitation for the sentiment, but more at sharing it. But considering Hayame is the one that brought it up and seems to view his “escape” as a bad thing, he feels more reassured to continue. ] …Well. There are times for mercy is what I would say. I’m not inclined towards it with such stakes, though. Perhaps for the truly ignorant, but that is all I can see.
[ He doesn’t even know if there’s any that would apply to. He’d met Zenites who were… fine, as people. But there were Magisters that were fine as people as well. They received no mercy when they took up arms to keep him from his path, and that’s ultimately how he sees this conflict in Kenos too. ]
It is not as if he is possessed by his demon, correct?
[ Since as is probably clear from his explanation, he does feel sympathy for that. It hadn't been Lohse's fault at all, he knows, and for the others on Bloodmoon Island... Well, he doesn't know. But he hadn't been so sympathetic that he hadn't been willing to kill them, so. ]
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The Communion equivalent of bowing her head in acceptance. She has heard his thanks.
When it comes to souls, though... It is not as if Hayame herself relishes in the idea of it. It does seem more "wrong" to her than just killing a person. But here in this place, where killing a person did not actually kill them, when they would just revive again and again and fight to rob her and every other world of their future... What other choice was there than to put an actual end to them the only surefire method they were given? She would shatter them, and deal with the weight of it. Whatever it was... it could not be as heavy as the weight of every life on her planet.]
You speak sense. There are times for mercy. There are Zenites I would say are misguided, and who I would kill, but not shatter. Perhaps, some shards could simply be kept safe somewhere for a time, rather than replanted. Or they could be revived, but imprisoned. But Silco has made no secret on Communion of his lust for the destruction of all our worlds, and his hatred for Meridian's cause. He is decidedly not one of them.
[And yet despite, that stupid, emotional woman (goddess, supposedly)... What? She thought he was worth saving? That she could fix him? It makes her so angry just thinking about how close they'd been. If she had just shattered him, or even just returned that shard to Hayame's own hands if she did not have the guts to do it herself or could not bear the condemnation that might follow...
Hayame would not have minded becoming the "bad guy". (No, that's not true. She would have railed against it, she would have become bitter and enraged over the unfairness of being condemned for doing what she felt needed to be done. But she still would have done it, even if that was the cost required.)]
He is not possessed.
[That, she is pretty sure of.]
The information I have been given tells that he has a contract with the demon in Zenith that calls itself Sebastian Michaelis. When I first encountered it, it was "Gabriel Lactance". Another knew them as "Farense". In exchange for the demon's service towards some goal, I do not know exactly what, Silco has offered his soul. I cannot travel there easily, because the streets are narrow and the stairs unforgiving, but I hear that in Kowloon he has gathered a considerable amount of power and influence somehow. Perhaps that has something to do with it... ?
But either way... If he has already proved willing to offer it for a demon to devour, I certainly see no reason we should feel guilty for shattering it.
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[ Granted. Fane had, but it’s not like he’d been given much of an indication that he’d said precisely the wrong thing. Silco doesn’t exactly have the most pleasant personality... ]
—Imprisonment would at least be a sensible middle ground. If nothing else, it would at least remove him for a time, since I can only assume it’s not that simple either. [ Otherwise he would have heard more talk of capture, he imagines ] …Regardless. I may not have heard it myself, but I certainly trust your word that he’s so despicable. Any Zenite that wholeheartedly condemns our worlds to the Void is my sworn enemy. They will not receive my mercy.
[ There’s conviction in his words that might be surprising. For all his scholarly affect and the fact that he’s so new to Meridian, there’s a hard viciousness there. It’s not bloodlust, though, just a similar, steadfast dedication to seeing his will done. For better or worse.
After all, it’s not too different from the conflict that he and the other Godwoken had faced. One of them had to ascend, lest the world fall to the Void. Fane at least feels now that for the sake of his people, he’d do anything—even cut down the Godwoken that had become his friends.
(But he didn’t yet know that perhaps his people couldn’t or shouldn’t be saved.)
For the matter of the demon, though. Fane’s impression softens, and that hardness turns into curiosity instead. It’s the classic Savant at work where what Hayame explains is different from what he knows, and so he’s intrigued. ]
Hmph. Well, if nothing else, at least it couldn’t happen to someone better.
[ The sarcasm comes first, naturally. He won’t cheer for a demon, but also, get fucked Silco!! ]
—I don’t know much about demons, admit. My people were blessedly free of them, and it was a failing that came for the lessers after. [ oh oops the equal opportunity racism is sneaking in, dw about it ] But I did meet a demon hunter in my travels. Who knows if this one is anything similar, but the habit of names is. Apparently, the stronger ones go through great lengths to hide their true names. Why, I don’t fully understand the particulars of, but he said it was a way to weaken them. The one that was possessing my friend was apparently immortal as it was.
[ A pause and then with a vague feeling of annoyance: ]
And you may already know, but Raphael is one of them as well.
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She would rather just shatter enemies of that level of foulness and be done with it.]
It is not as if I know much about them either. Their nature anyway. Such things were just legends and children's scary stories, in my world. And I doubt the "rules" are the same. But I can confirm he at least seems to use false names- perhaps for the reason you mention. I am learning here.
[Just like magic... she did not believe spirits or demons existed, no matter how many people told stories of them. After all, they had once told stories of jinba, and they turned out to be real. Over the centuries, how could people have failed to produce more concrete proof of their existence?
- She actually misses the "lessers" things, because she doesn't realize he's... you know, talking about humans or elves or whatever races his world has.
Hold on, though. "Raphael". That one that had introduced himself to her and begun asking all sorts of strange questions?]
Raphael... the new Meridian?
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[ Granted, demons in Divinity are also a lot more monstrous and freaky, save for the one that possessing Lohse, but. In some things, Fane will seek nuance, but the finer points of demons aren’t one of them. Kill them, move on. Simple. ]
But Drizzt confirmed it for me, since they’re from the same world. [ …And Drizzt is pretty famous, apparently? ] He’d mentioned it offhand when I’d spoken to everyone before the Oracle, so I followed up on it.
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[Hayame repeats it out loud, as if she is trying to suss out how those words are different. Translated into her own tongue... they're kind of really not that different. They're the same word, actually, so.]
But he operates the same as Zenith's, then, you think? Hiding his true name, making "contracts" with people?
using the same icon twice... but my options are so limited... GRITS TEETH
Hm... I don't know about his name. The only demon whose name I ever actually learned was "Mhordkan", so it doesn't sound like that at all, but... Who knows about their naming conventions. That's likely a better question for Drizzt.
[ There's an impression of Fane making a sort of mental note to ask, but he moves on without missing a beat. ]
As for contracts, that's the impression I got, yes. Before we went down below, I found him lazing about and refusing to get involved because no one had asked. [ An annoyed click of his tongue ] Bloody blighter. I prefer him on our side than the opposite, of course, but he's incredibly annoying.
i have been there... i feel ur pain... hold my hand...
... Well, if he has Harmonized to Meridian and stays loyal to Meridian, I am willing to overlook what his species is, even if I may pity his world for why he wishes to return to it. I save my scorn for those who fight against us, betray us, or act as hobbles on our fetlocks with their weakness.
[Er, our "feet", whatever.]
But I suppose we will need to keep an eye on him, if being asked is what he needs. A Zenith could just as easily ask.
We already have enough Meridians who think it beneficial to treat with and play with our enemies. We do not need another one.
one day i'll get an expression sheet commission but not yet 😔
[ Since, for SOME REASON people just attacked a walking, talking skeleton as soon as they saw it! How rude! ]
—Ah. Yes. I did hear of Lord Dagoth's... copulation.
[ Which is a very weird way to put it, but that's just a Fane Thing (TM), don't worry about it. He sighs, but it's definitely not because Voryn is fucking around (literal) so much as being forced to hear it thanks to the Savant connection and the fact that this other demon was a Zenite. Despite the impression he gives off, Fane isn't a prude at all, actually. ]
But by how you say it, I assume that's not as isolated of a case as I was hoping.
one day!!!
That seems to be the case. And as long as it is, he and those like him cannot be trusted not to betray our cause to Zenith or simply go over to their side, should the tides of war or their fickle interests change.
[... She actually appreciates the word "copulation", whatever the motive. Fane is talking to a woman who normally refers to consensual sex as "sharing a pillow" or "embracing", so. Thanks, skeleton buddy. She saves her crude words for jinba treatment and insulting traitor whores.]
His copulation with one of the strongest Zenites that strands between us and our goal.
[Just! So it's clear! That man can fuck as many Meris and Springstar citizens as he wants and she wouldn't care!!!]
One who poisoned and ki-
[... No one heard that, right??? Moving on!!!]
- But no, it is not. There are several Meridian members who claim loyalty to the cause yet maintain... close relationships with Zenites that risk compromising us or allowing themselves to be manipulated or weakened.
And for some reason, [I] we are supposed to simply overlook or stomach this.
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[ He personally will be, but that’s at least partially because he also had taken Raphael’s (annoying) lack of help personally. If he can direct that creature into working for Meridian’s benefit, so be it, he figures. However, it also gets into the sort of topics that he doesn’t know well, so he focuses more on the latter half. He’ll have plenty of demon/devil research in his future, though. ]
Hm. I suppose I should have expected as much, yet still, how disappointing. I would hope my allies would have stronger resolve than that, but I suppose weakness of will is difficult to escape. Either that, or that pleasures of the flesh override good sense. Unfortunate, either way.
[ However, you thought you escaped that utterance, Hayame? No such luck. ]
Poisoned, though? I hadn’t heard of that. Are Zenites really poisoning our own?
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[They seemed to try and impress their usefulness and strength upon her in that communion, so maybe she can use that to keep an eye on them. But there is no fooling herself that she isn't focused far more on... a different demon. The one that had actually-
...
... It feels too early. Like if she tells him, he will think- It will destroy the image she had been able to present in front of him so far, that of the strong and resolute warrior. But if she obfuscates it, she will seem weak in a different way, she will appear a liar if it comes out later-]
... Not en masse, no.
But I have experience with it. Zenites who are brazen enough to come into Springstar outside of the trials and use such cowardly tactics.
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[ Since the implication was only barely an implication. At the very least, Hayame can get some validation with how Fane also seems to refuse to use his name. So far as he’s concerned, using its false one is essentially being the butt of a joke, at least with the assumption that names worked similarly between the demons he knows and the ones here. So, he won’t participate, thank you. ]
Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry you went through that. I’m quite familiar with poisons, though it’s by necessity, I’ll note. It’s an unusual part of my condition.
[ Presumably he means undead, but that also doesn’t make sense…?? This is video game logic at work and an especially funny one, I fear. ]
But it seems painful. I made more than a few potions to resist it for my friends, but I can’t offer the same here. Or, not immediately, I suppose? The flora here is different, so I would have to do research into how I might craft something similar.
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... But she cannot. She had barely been able to show the anguish and humiliation that incident had left in her to those closest to her. She sometimes wished she hadn't even told those guarded few, that she had been able to hide all of it away and pretend it never happened and just rip the gods damned eye out of her head instead of caving in to her lover's plea to stay her hands. So the idea of telling anyone else in any way that implied she was anything but full of rage and soon-to-come revenge... Those were the only things-]
It happened. Now it is over.
[She wasn't still having nightmares. She wasn't still wrestling with doubts over whether she could trust those she had once thought closest to her.]
It was not. ... The poison was a means to an end, not an attempt to kill me. And I do not know what the ingredients were, to tell you what to combat, anyway.
[......................... Wait, skeletons use potions on themselves?]
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[ He’d honestly never thought about it before, but resisting poisons had never been something he was concerned with either. Ifan would at least know better about that, but ah, well. He at least has the idea to look into it now, so he’ll be adding potion crafting to his ever-lengthening to-do list. ]
Regardless… It is contemptible that they would stoop to such methods, but from all I’ve learned about them, that’s perfectly in line with the foul creatures. The smarter ones, at least.
[ Though that’s said with displeasure, since the smarter ones were also much harder to fight. Not that he’s put off by that prospect, though. ]
Has anything been done about it? Or… No, is anything done about it is the question I mean, I think. What happens when there’s conflicts outside of these trials?
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But.
The moment is right there, the perfect invitation to rage and bitterly spit about what has been done to her. She wants to. She wants to so badly. But every time she has attempted to decry another shardbearer... rarely has it been that she felt heard and not dismissed, or written off as too cruel, too hardline, too medieval in her thinking. And that had been others, not Sebastian Michaelis, not the demon who seemed to take sadistic pleasure in making sure half the people who supposedly cared about her... cared about him just as much, or more.
She's afraid, in some pathetic part of herself, that even though this man decries demons now... That the time will come when he too comes to think that the demonic beast that had forced an eye into her head was just too interesting to give up--]
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Zenites have been arrested before, when they overstepped in Springstar. Some for attempting undoubtedly foul business with the Heliopolis Tree, another for beating a Meri in the street.
[She will never understand why Liem let him do that. Another disgusting Zenite that far too many so-called Meridians extended pity and coddling to.]
Yet for reasons unknown to me, they find themselves free soon enough.
[She certainly would never authorize their release. But she is not in charge.]
So what would you have me do? He assured I was made too weak to prevent my own taking, that no one saw it happen... and he had his accomplice heal every single injury I incurred in his presence before he was done.
There is no proof.
[Gee, Hayame, what about the fact that supposedly she could attempt to testify via Communion and show, visually, everything that happened to the Legionary or the Tribune? ... She doesn't seem to consider that an option somehow. Weirdly.]
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Is Communion not considered proof?
[ It’s an earnest question, since the legal system of Springstar isn’t something he was aware of at all yet. He’s too blunt and often overly rational to even consider that there might be an emotional reason why she might not want to share such a thing. It’s why he also expects the question to have a simple answer, so he continues. ]
…But to be honest, I wouldn’t give a demon the decency of law. It’s not as if it would respect it. We weren’t pursuing Lohse’s demon to ask it nicely to free her.
[ But he also assumes that Hayame had already thought of this, since he feels it’s obvious, and they’re of similar enough minds, it seems. So logically, there must be a reason why that’s not possible. He’s yet to encounter the opposition to crushing Shards personally, so that doesn’t occur to him, but just thinking about his personal experience… ]
If not execution, then neutralization. That- [ He pauses, and there’s a complicated, difficult emotion, though it’s brief because of how he clamps down on it purposefully. ] That is how my people dealt with those that betrayed the will of our King. My people do not die, so the most extreme of punishments could not be death.
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How could she ever survive showing what had happened to her to strangers? Letting them see her so weak, so utterly without control, trussed up like a unbroken mare with a bit in her fucking mouth unable to stop the screams as her enemy smugly did with her what he liked? She can't- She can't let anyone see, she can't believe for a second anyone who told her it wasn't her fault, that she shouldn't be ashamed, that it would not ruin her in the eyes of ally and enemy alike.
It takes her a second too long. She doesn't even answer. Like she didn't... like she didn't even hear that part of what he had said.]
At least neutralization, yes. The demon is one of the strongest Zenites, and he is...
[She hates saying it. She hates knowing it.]
He is "beloved". If we simply held his shard, I have no doubt people would attempt to free him. Members of our own faction, even, might in their misguided desire for mercy and kindness enable him to escape somehow.
So he should be shattered. Or "bound". Apparently... that can be done with demons.
[Akua said it was possible, but she wants-
She does not know how she will ever rest until she has found out what Sebastian Michaelis' shard shattering under her hoof sounds like.]
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—Excuse me if that was an obvious question. I did not mean…
[ It’s his turn to trail off, and as she gets to business, he returns to it too with a awkward clear of his throat. He won’t intrude upon her feelings, since he’s also not the best at dealing with them. ]
Beloved?
[ At least his incredulity and distaste will likely offer as good of an apology as anything. ]
Idiots, then, all of them. Demons will say anything to get what they want, and they won’t mean a word of it. That’s the whole point of them, at least so far as what Jahan explained. He didn’t even want us talking to the one he caged.
[ Which, on that note. He clicks his tongue, but turns thoughtful. ]
It’s too bad that there’s not something like the Souce Collars but for demons. I guess that would be the same thing as Binding a demon, I assume, where you’re declawing it… But killing it outright is better.
[ Another thing to consider… He’s no expert like Jahan, but surely there’s literature on demons, common and insidious as they are. And if he’s able to create something from Source…
It’s something to consider, he decides. But, for now, he doesn’t have a serious option to offer. So in lieu of that, he defaults to joking sarcasm. ]
Well, there’s always slicing the vocal cords.
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I know they are idiots. Half of them just believe any handsome smile, like they are a gaggle of besotted maidens, and the other half just delight in his depravity, because-
[She chokes on it a minute, because she doesn't want to admit it even to herself for what it means about her own bonds, but-]
Because they themselves are.
[She doesn't have to swallow in Communion.]
- Slicing the vocal cords will not work. I stabbed out its eye to revenge myself and it grew back in an instant.
[At least, that is what Sebastian had said. And Liem Talbott had confirmed he could regenerate.]
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omg so sorry this one got lost in the inbox sauce
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