Revision [5955]
This is an old revision of ShesuEveLeavingJoesCabin made by JonahPetri on 2009-04-28 00:44:03.
August 21nd, 2007
Somewhere in the mountains of eastern Oregon.
Somewhere in the mountains of eastern Oregon.
Late at night, Shesu is woken by someone shaking him. He opens his eyes to see Jacob standing above him. He awakens slowly, having fallen asleep amongst the others who are lying about the cabin in various borrowed sleeping bags, his sleep having been deepened by the long day and magical healing. Lara and Zack lay passed out to his right, the pair having used their combined powers to heal the various injuries of the group. Behind them lay Sam and James, James still in bandages and taking up the cabin's only bed, Sam having fallen asleep at the foot of the bed still clutching James' hand. Alex has curled up at the foot of the bed, and the cat, Mu, has chosen Alex's sleeping bag as a good place to bed down. Nearby Mu lies Golem who, having been worn out by chasing the cat, appears to have fallen...dormant? asleep? at the foot of the bed.
Eve lies sleeping to Shesu's left, and Joe is snoring peacefully across the room against the far wall. Abdul and Jacob were to Eve's left, but their sleeping bags have been cleaned up, rolled neatly and placed on the table.
Jacob has his shirt off and his wings unfurled. Their gentle blue glow fills the dark cabin with an eerie light. The wing that was "popped" in the final battle glows a little dimmer than the other, but much of its vitality was returned by Lara and Zack's healing power. Jacob smiles his child-like grin when he sees Shesu awake, but his face darkens a bit, tinged with sadness.
"I've come to say goodbye."
"Jacob... so soon?" Shesu pleaded, but his eyes met Jacob's, and he knew that there would be no convincing him. Shesu sighed deeply, as his throat tightened into a lump. "Will I see you again?"
"Of course! I will find a way to contact you. I'll be safe. Abdul says there's much to do, and that he needs me."
Shesu paused, and silently slipped out of his sleeping bag. The cool night air touched his skin, and he shivered gently with the chill. He turned, and followed Jacob and Abdul outside. Abdul stood by the edge of the lake, and Jacob's wing light cast his long shadow across the sliver-blue surface. Shesu and Jacob embraced, each one wordlessly knowing that there was no telling when they would next meet. Suddenly, an idea occurred to Shesu, and his face lit up as he knelt to the ground. He focused his energy, and quickly grew a tightly knotted piece of dark wood. The wood pulled and stretched, growing in places and withering in others, and creaking and cracking against itself, until it had formed the shape he had imagined. He stood, and held his hands out to Jacob. In his palms lay a small, wooden sculpture of a lion. It was not a normal sculpture, which might have been shaved or polished, but rather it appeared as if the wood had actually grown into that shape of its own accord. Shesu, barely concealing a smile, pressed the statue into Jacob's hands. "Be the lion, little brother."
Jacob took the statue into his hands, staring at it. He turned it over in his hands for a moment, before placing it in the satchel slung over his shoulders. "I will have to have something for you next time, big brother," he smiled. He paused, and then leaned in to Shesu, and whispered, "Abdul wants this a secret, but you should know: He is taking much of the cold steel with him. He says he will need it for what comes next. I trust him, but he told me not to tell the others."
With that said, he turned to look at Abdul, who quietly said, "It's time." The two walked a few paces out into the clearing near the cabin, and Jacob unfurled his wings to their full breadth. He took a few moments to stretch them taking off into the air. Abdul paused a moment, then flexed his fist. Shesu could hear the faint hum of electricity as Abdul's body scattered into electrons, leaving a green, hovering glow. The shimmering ball moved up to Jacob's wings, and the air nearby seemed to dance with his energy. The two of them rose into the night, did one loop around the cabin, and disappeared over the treetops, leaving only the faint smell of ozone behind.
After they had left, Shesu stood alone in the cold night air. He thought back to all those who he had lost before. He remembered his parents, gone in a flash of violence. He struggled to remember his parents' faces, but they had faded too far from his memory. He thought back to his year of silence, the joy of acceptance into the Ashari, and the loss and pain of being banished during his spirit quests. And then his thoughts turned to Jacob, who was as much family as any of them, and who now also was gone. An overwhelming feeling of loneliness flooded over him, and he sunk to the ground, his head in his hands, and wept.
August 22nd, 2007
Somewhere in the mountains of eastern Oregon.
Somewhere in the mountains of eastern Oregon.
ShesuAshari Shesu and Eve were walking in the woods outside JosephCooper's cabin. The morning had passed slowly, but neither one had any inclination to do much of anything. The nightmare images from the battle at ZaizensTemple temple were still fresh in their minds, and the events of the past weeks weighed heavily on them. They had left the others back at the cabin, and decided to take a walk to clear their heads. The lofty canopy filtered the sunlight as it fell to the forest floor, and as the gentle breeze rustled the treetops, the dappled shadows danced along the leafy duff. There was no path to follow, but the underbrush was light enough that they could walk where they wished. They wandered slowly up a gently sloping incline, towards the top of a short hill overlooking the cabin, each lost in their own thoughts.
"I need to do something," Eve exclaimed, breaking the silence of the mid-morning. "I've got too much rolling around in my head right now. All of the things we saw and did inside the volcano, I keep replaying them in my mind. I'm still working out which of those deeds were mine, and which belonged to something... else. I need some other distraction to keep me sane. Let's go somewhere, do something. Anything."
In his deliberate cadence, Shesu replied, "I have been thinking much the same thing. I was also troubled by what I saw in Zaizen's temple, and the corruption of that place leaves me... unsettled. That place needs someone to heal it, someone to guide it back from his evil to its natural state. I know that the temple must hold special meaning for you, and... it would mean very much to me if you were to come with me, back there, and help me set it right."
"Yes... that place, I don't know what I think about it yet. Part of me feels as if it is my home, and part of me reviles it. I want to make it into something new, something better. I was thinking of a refuge, for metahumans. A safe place, where we could go to be amongst our own kind. A place protected from all of the horrid evil in this world." Eve kicked a rock up the hill ahead of her, and every few steps it rolled back to her, and she kicked it again.
"So you will come?" Shesu turned to her, expectantly.
"Yes. And, we will clean it up, together. It may be difficult, but I believe that Golem knows how to unwind the runes and magic that's been laid into that cave." She paused for a moment, forming the phrase in her mind. She spoke deliberately, "I think if you asked nicely, he would come." Shesu looked at her, but she could not keep her face serious for long, and they both burst into laughter at her understatement. "That little one has such a devotion to you. I think he would follow you to hell and back were you to allow him to do so."
Shesu replied, with the laughter still dancing on his voice, "Yes. I fear, though, that this is a case of mistaken identity. He still thinks that I am Matu, whoever that may be."
At that, Eve abruptly was quiet, and looked away sadly. "Ah, yes." She paused, and looked as if she would speak again, but then shook her head.
"Shesu, we should leave, now. We have nothing else to wait for here. Let's head back and pack our bags."
They walked purposefully back to Joe's Cabin, where Mu was waiting for them, perched on the front porch railing. Shesu paused briefly to give the cat a scratch on the side of her neck, and she leaned into his hand appreciatively. Inside the cabin, they found Lara, and Zack, still asleep, the pure effort of the healing having sapped them to the bone. Alex stood by the cabin's single shelf of books, idly paging through a dusty atlas. The smell of fresh braked bread filled their noses as they entered the, and Joe pulled another loaf from the metal box that served for an oven, fueled entirely by the older man's gift. Sam sat by James' bed, sipping a steaming cup of tea. James's skin had a worrying bloodless hue, and Sam had not left his side since they had come to the cabin. Her concern for her husband was written in furrows across her forehead, even as he slept.
Eve walked over to Alex, followed by Shesu. Alex looked up, and asked, "Hey Shesu, where did you say your village was?" Eve and Shesu looked down to see that Alex had the atlas opened to an old atlas map of Nigeria. Shesu craned his neck around to see the map from the normal orientation, and pointed to a green area in the south east of the country. "There, in the forest, near here. It's several days travel north of Calabar."
Joe walked over, and said, "That was right around where that genocide has been happening, right? Are you worried about your village at all?" Shesu frowned, "I don't think they would have let it affect them. They're well-hidden in the forest, and only the most determined could find them... I knew the genocide was happening, but I have tried to not let it concern me, as I am banished from there, until..." he trailed off, as a moment of realization came over him, and he laughed. "My quest is complete! I am no longer banished. I can return whenever I want!" He smiled broadly, and bear-hugged Alex and Eve in either arm, picking them up off their feet. He yelped joyfully, "I'm finished! It has been so long... I can go back!" He let them down, took a deep breath, and a look of peace came over him. "I would like to go back, to make sure that they're fine. I would like to see Oso."
He turned, "Eve, I know that you very much want to go to the volcano, and so do I. Do you mind, though, if we go to my village on the way? I know you would be welcome there, and I can show you the forest. It is the most beautiful place in the world."
Eve's thoughts were as fast as lightning. She knew that the Left Hand was a sworn enemy of the Ashari, as she had stolen N'Dore from them millennia ago. Were they to remember her transgressions, and recognize her, she would be in serious danger there, and Shesu might be as well. She knew that she should tell Shesu all of those things, but this was not the time. She decided to let him believe that all was well, for now. She smiled, letting her eyes meet Shesu's, knowing that he couldn't see through her lie. "That sounds great. We'll figure out how to get there on the way. Let's pack."
Alex and Joe looked confused. Alex spoke up first, "Wait, you're leaving? Now?" Eve replied quietly, "Sorry to be sudden about this, but yes, Shesu and I are going to take off. We're going to head back to the volcano, to try to rehabilitate it. This isn't goodbye forever, though, we're—"
Suddenly, a cry rose from the back of the cabin, "Matu no go! Matu no leave Golem. Matu stay, Golem no want Matu to leave!" The stone creature ran across the wooden floor to where Shesu stood, and firmly attached himself to Shesu's leg. Golem buried his head in Shesu's pants leg, and chanted "Matu, Matu, Matu stay, no leave Golem... Matu...." Shesu and Eve looked down, and laughed, and Shesu gently pried Golem's arms from his leg. He knelt down, and looked at the little creature. "Golem, Eve and I are leaving, yes, but we would like you to come with us. We are going back to the volcano, and we need your help to clean it, to remove the evil magic from that place. Will you come with us?" Golem's face lit up, and he jumped into Shesu's arms, nearly knocking him over with his weight. "Yes! Golem come, Golem want to be with Matu... Shesu... Golem come with, help, clean, can unwind the magic. Golem help to clean, and Shesu keep Golem safe." Shesu smiled, and put the creature down, who immediately began rolling up a piece of newspaper as if it were a sleeping bag. He placed it next to Shesu's rolled sleeping bag, and looked up, "Golem ready now."
Eve turned to Shesu, and said, "Good. Now, what about the Deathblade?" Shesu looked at the cabin's bookshelves, where Deathblade lay, still wrapped in Jacob's cloak. "Yes... I don't know. Can it be destroyed?" Eve replied, "It is too dangerous to leave here. I don't know how to unmake it. Golem, do you have any ideas?" Golem looked suspiciously at Eve for a moment, then waddled over to the blade, and gazed at it. "Golem do not know for sure, but Golem think that best chance for unmaking is in forge where it made. Very, very strong magic, made by Corrupter himself. Need to take back to volcano. Dangerous, but best chance there."
Eve tossed Shesu's backpack to him. He carried it over to the bookshelves and plopped it on the floor. He considered the sword, still bundled in Jacob's worn and tattered cloak. "We will take it with us, then." He slipped the sword into the pack, but it bulged awkwardly, the sword being too long to properly fit. Shesu tried a few different positions, and settled on one where it was not sticking into his back, but the hilt of the sword was just peaking out of the top flap. "This will have to do for now."
"Wait a second." Joe stood nearby, arms crossed. "That sword… it is far more dangerous than you can know. I don't know if I can let you take it. Your intentions are good, but I've had friends lost to that sword, both cut down by it and wielding it. That… thing is more than just a sword—it's alive in its own way, and it will keep trying to find someone to wield it. There is no safe way to keep that weapon. You can only delay disaster."
Eve cocked her head sideways, thinking, and then mused out loud, "I don't hear a better plan. We've got Golem, and if anyone can undo that sword, he can. Shesu will carry it, and we already know that can resist its call, should he happen to touch it. I don't see a better way to have this thing destroyed than to let us take it. And, I don't hear a better plan from you, either. No disrespect to the Agency, but if they get a hold of it, they'll fall to it just the same as anyone else. You know what happened when the Hand of God got it..."
Joe slumped, the weight of the memories falling on him. "I see your point, yes, but—" However, Eve interrupted him, "And, a small group like us is much less likely to get noticed. You know that there are several of The Lost unaccounted for, and they'll be looking for this sword. A large Agency operation will be an easy target. A small group like the two of us…"
Golem chimed in, "Three of us!"
"Yes, the three of us," continued Eve, "would be very hard to notice. We can do it." Shesu nodded in affirmation. "Yes, we can, and I know that we will. Joe, please, entrust me with this sword. I will not disappoint you." He met Joe's eyes, and his firm stare held complete dedication to his task. Joe saw that he wasn't going to dissuade them. "Fine. I admit, you probably have a better chance than the Agency at destroying that thing, and that is the thing I'd like to see done. Shesu, you can't ever, ever turn your back on that thing, or it will be gone. Guard it as you would your book. Guard it like your life. And see it destroyed." Shesu solemnly nodded.
Shesu and Eve gathered the rest of their belongings, along with a small tent and sleeping bags, which Joe kindly gave to them. "You're about a day's walk from the nearest highway. From there, you can hitchhike your way to Portland, and try to organize a flight." He handed Eve an envelope. "That should cover the cost of the flight. Officially, the Agency hasn't taken a position yet on what happened at the volcano, but I know what you two did, and I'm thankful to you both. I can swing the cost of a few tickets on my expense account without too many questions being asked."
"Now wait a minute." The three of them turned to see Sam eyeing them from James's bedside. She had apparently been listening to their conversation, and was evidently displeased with what she'd heard. "You two know that you can't just go white rabbit on me. If you leave the Agency out in the cold, now you've got both The Lost and the Agency looking for you." She turned, "Joe, you know better than this—they can't just take off with an artifact like that. The director will kill both of us if we let that happen."
Eve glared furiously at Sam, "First of all, I don't care what the director will do to you. Don't be so myopic. This sword is eons older than the Agency, and opportunities to destroy this kind of evil don't come often. If we don't take this chance, then this sword might be around for another millennium, wreaking its destruction across the globe. Now, let me tell you the way it's going to be: Shesu and I are going to walk out of here, and we're taking the Deathblade with us, and there's nothing you can do about that. Sooner or later, you are going to have to report to the Agency on what happened, and you'll have a choice. You can either tell them our plans, letting them come after us, and possibly taking, or even worse, losing the sword. That way lies untold death and destruction. Your other option is to get creative, and make up some story. Maybe you say that we slipped out in the nighttime, without mentioning our plans; I don't care. You tell that one lie, and by doing so you help us destroy this thing, saving countless deaths and suffering. If instead you choose mindless duty over common sense and report us, and the Agency doesn't manage to destroy the sword, then you've got the blood of innocents on your hands. What's it going to be?"
Sam stood, "Eve… don't do this!" She looked to Joe, who turned his palms upwards as if weighing the merits in his very hands, and looked back at her and shrugged, resigned. "Sam, I think they're right. I don't trust the Agency on this one, and tactically the two, er, three of them have an advantage over any larger operation. You've got to trust them on this."
Sam sat back down into her chair, "Fine. Just go. I don't want to overhear any more of your plans. This whole idea seems terrible to me, but I can't do anything about it now. But remember, what you said goes both ways. We're trusting you, and you've got a duty to both of us, and to the rest of the world to succeed. Do not fail, or you'll be the one with blood on your hands." She put one hand to her face, massaging her temples, and sighed deeply through gritted teeth.
