Kai-chan (
therealkaichan) wrote2012-11-30 07:35 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
... I'm sorry for this chapter. Really sorry.
Chapter Twelve
Voice
Part one.
Kana looked for the damn priest everywhere.
He was good at hiding it seemed, since everyone was pretty sure that he was still in the Academy, but nobody could point her out his way.
People had talked about having met him, right? They said he had been checking on Alyssa and all, and if Dominic’s information was right, he was also some sort of creepy war time scientist, so it was obvious to think he would be interested in the things Alyssa had to say.
In the end, Hans rolled his eyes and told her she should ambush the bastard when he came to visit Alyssa.
Kana thought it was simply brilliant.
She wasn’t one for ambush plans, because those things required patience, but that was what her partner was for, right? To suggest things she thought sucked. And so, she waited at Alyssa’s door. And waited. And waited even more. And eventually it happened.
There he was. The Priest. And he was giving her a slightly annoyed look.
“Shouldn’t you be in class?”
That voice.
That voice.
It was the voice. The one in her dream.
Kana frowned. Was this why Adir had talked about this man?
“I have a few questions to ask you.”
“I see. I’d like to hear them.”
“Really?”
“Adir sent you my way, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“That’s exactly why.”
“Well. I want answers right now.”
“I have plenty of answers. But they are not the answers you want to hear.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know about you. I know about when you were young. I know about your family, and about why you were there.”
“You... Why do you know those things?”
“Because I was there, girl.”
“Even then... Even then! That doesn’t answer why Aileen had to die! Why Alyssa had to go trough this!”
“Everything has one single explanation. But the explanation will hurt you.”
“I... I don’t care! I want the truth!”
“I’ll give you my part of the truth then. The piece that belongs to me.”
“Really...?”
“But there is one thing you have to do to obtain it.”
“Tell me!”
“The Director. You have to get rid of the Director.”
“You... You have to be kidding me.”
“You’ll find that the Director isn’t exactly the kind of man you believe he is.”
“I... I’ve heard about that. But I still can’t do that.”
“Why not? He is a bastard after all. A waste of our time, and of course, a traitor who is making an army.”
“But I can’t just choose to kill a man. That’s not how things work, and you know it well.”
“Then don’t. I said get rid. I never said anything about you killing him.”
“So...”
“Your dear friend, Kael, has some important papers. So did Aileen. Maybe if those leaked out, and somehow turned out during the investigation of your friend’s death, something could happen.”
“Well, you should’ve said that first!”
“But what fun would it be if I didn’t see you overreact? It’s no wonder Hans finds you so interesting.”
“That’s... Just mean.”
“I’m not a good person, girl. Go and get those papers for me, will you?”
“Okay. I’ll see you after that.”
“I’ll see you as well. I look forward to seeing how you react to that.”
Getting papers from Kael’s office was as difficult for Kana as it was for any other student of the Academy, even if she spent about ten times the time other students spent in there.
Kael was careful with his paperwork, after all...
But Kana knew Kael like nobody else did. She knew well that he wouldn’t ever leave the papers in the office anyway. No. If they were somewhere, it was in his apartment. Probably hidden behind like thirty sealing spells that would murder her on contact.
Maybe she needed an expert for this. Not an expert thief, (did she know any of those anyway?), but an expert in magic. And of course, the answer was surprisingly simple.
“Hey Hans.”
“Good afternoon.” He smiled. Kana knew he was waiting for this.
“Let’s get into deadly trouble.”
“It sounds good.”
She didn’t even have to explain. Then again, it was Hans and he was weird, and by now Kana was totally used to these things. Well, less explaining meant less chances to get discovered, right?
So there they were. Right in front of Kael’s room, after sneaking out and lovingly breaking every single camera in the corridor. They had about five minutes before the report went out, and Kana felt like in a spy movie, with all the things.
She already had her excuse ready, just in case of Kael actually finding them. Because Kana was like that. She knew that asking for forgiveness was always easier than asking for permission. Especially when it came to this.
“I don’t want to know how you learned to pick locks.” She said as Hans opened the door. He smiled, of course.
“Nana taught me.”
“Nana?”
“The woman that took care of me when my parents were away. She was... Something. A version of you with common sense, I guess.”
“Then nothing like me.” Kana grinned, and Hans chuckled in response.
“I suppose.”
“Okay, now you look for the big magic barrier. Then I slam it and we run for it.”
“So you called me all the way here to slam something and be completely obvious about it?”
“Well, I said we would get in trouble.”
“Then why not let me be subtle about it? So the Acting Director can have more fun searching for us and then murder us?”
“Oh... That sounds cool too. I didn’t think you’d be interested in something like that.”
“I’m full of surprises, partner.”
“Then go for it.”
Hans stepped in the room and closed his eyes. He was searching for a magic signature that would show where the barriers were. Kana admitted that she had never paid any attention at all to channelers, or to the people who could ‘search’ for energy, so she didn’t get what was happening at all other than the results, but for her it was fine.
“There.” He said finally pointing. “So, are we doing the long term one?”
“Go for it, weirdo.”
“Good. Then listen well, because I need you to shape something very specific.”
“Let’s do it.”
It took about seven tries. Kana would forever blame that in the fact that she was never any good at visualizing abstract things, and that it would have been much easier to just visualize a wall and then an explosion, but that was how Hans rolled.
And if he wanted a door, she would visualize a goddamn door, even if he had asked for the most specific door in the world, and with a security system that she couldn’t for the life of her figure how it worked.
“You are weird.”
“It’s much easier to work with things one is familiar with. You work with your body, so it figures you would visualize a physical threat. I work with my mind.”
“So you asked for a weird door with a familiar system, yeah...”
“You did well, to be working with an unfamiliar image for you.”
“I don’t need you to tell me I’m good, I know it.”
“But you do enjoy it, right partner?”
“I deserve it, after all.”
“Of course, of course.” Hans chuckled, making a quick gesture that looked like opening a door. “It’s done.”
“What?”
“It’s done. Go ahead.”
“It was too fast...”
“I’m not called a genius for nothing, you know. Though the system was really easy to work with...”
“Then...”
“I think it is because you are here. You are familiar with him and even his type of energy. Your concious mind doesn’t notice, but your energy centers recognize his energy. Because of that you built a perfect entrance so I could open it.”
“I... So it means I got a bonus for knowing him, right?
“That’s right.”
“Oh, okay.” Kana shrugged, and went back to the important thing, the papers.
They were out of the room in ten minutes and a half. It was too long, yes, but it was just fine. They had chosen, after all, lunch time. So most of the guards weren’t half as effective. Especially not when a very strange mysterious explosion had happened exactly in the other corner of the Academy and nobody seemed to be able to pinpoint the cause.
Well, one had to do what one had to do.
Kana was waiting with the papers the next time Attis went to visit Alyssa. He looked at her, and shrugged.
“I take it you want to get your bad news pretty desperately, huh?”
“I just want to know what is happening.”
“Good. Then let’s move. This is definitely not a good place for traumatic reveals.”
“Okay. This way.”
They walked for a moment. Kana knew pretty well where she was going after all. To the most quiet and depressing place she could come up without leaving the Academy campus.
“This should do.”
“Well, isn’t this a particular choice.” The Priest took a look around, seemingly unfazed by the option.
“It’s just because people rarely come here since the incident. Nothing else.”
“Then I suppose it is story time.”
“I’m listening.”
Part two.
“The story begins more than eighteen years ago. Back during the war, when I resigned my position as investigator for my birth country, and chose to come over here in order to continue my work.
Back then, only a few of us knew about Fate. It was mostly the kind of knowledge that a few had and the others who had it did not want to share it. It’s understandable, of course, people prefer to believe that their lives have a meaning other than being the conduit for the world’s change.
Yet, a few of us were born with that knowledge. If you ask me about it, I believe I earned the knowledge when I was a child. My mother stared at death face’s quite a few times, and probably it was at one of those times that it happened. The soul is special, even if it is recyclable.
But I digress... I was born with knowledge of Fate, and it would take me years to meet another who had lived the same. And before you ask, I’m fifty seven years old. And I look exactly the same as I used to when I was thirty. Why? Fate, of course.
Do you really want to know what Fate truly is?
Then let me explain the Goddess to you, as well.
You’ve probably heard about the Goddess a few times, here and there. The name we like giving to the Will of our planet. Of course accepting such Will means you also accept that there is a power above us. And a few of us also know that she was the one that made us and the one that can undo us whenever she wants to. That’s what Fate is for.
Each person is born with one duty. They will process the planet’s energy within their bodies and free it back to the world. This processed energy becomes purer, and eventually ready to be processed by another human and so on.
With this, the Goddess makes sure that the world always changes, as change is her purest nature... So she places us in this world as her tools. That is why we have feelings. To process more, to do a better job at it.
And of course, as anyone does with their tools, the Goddess knows exactly where to put and move each one of us to make us more effective.
That is Fate. When we do what the Goddess has decided for us, without even knowing that there is no point in choosing, because she has chosen for us.
It’s complicated, and for some it can be horrifying to think that their free will is nonexistant.
I suppose that is a big part of why many still don’t believe in her... I can’t say much. Even knowing about Fate, I did not believe there was such thing as a Goddess. And as a good scientist, I wanted to see her with my own eyes.
I was convinced enough, even if for that I had to give up many things. I think I may be going offtopic again... But you will have to deal with that particular quirk of mine.
It was after seeing the Goddess with my own eyes and after changing sides that I met the person I’m supposed to tell you about.
He was a young Academy student. An ideal soldier, no matter how you looked at him. His name I’m not saying, though I’m sure you will find it easily.
He was in his early teens, I think. I remember he asked to be in my team, which was surprising enough, I think that by now you must know the kind of work I did on my search for answers. I remember he asked me to please keep his work here a secret from his younger brother, who was more of an impressionable type.
Tall, brown haired, green eyed... That is about how much I can easily remember. But that’s pointless to think on.
He helped me with the laboratory. Kept the subjects in line, cleaned laboratory materials, and he was discreet. So discreet that it was a pleasure to tear people in half with him around, or even to make comments on future plans. Probably the best assistant I ever had, if you ask.
Of course, he had his own reasons to be there. He said he had understood Fate at six, and that understanding that had made him change completely his point of view on the world. I remember there was one thing he said... He said he wanted to see the Goddess face to face, so he could ask her why she had chosen to do such a thing.
It was new. Most people where trying to see if she even existed, and he was already planning on telling her a thing or two. An amusing one, that’s for certain. He didn’t even change his mind when I explained that in order to see the Goddess it was necessary to make sacrifices. That he would have to give up pieces of his own being.
He said he knew exactly what he would sacrifice to her.
We started planning since then.
He was a monster, you know. The kind of monster that was willing to kill his own family. Willing to give his own half a year old sister to a monster. The kind of monster that would eventually sacrifice the only thing he actually valued.
I can tell, because I’m a monster myself, we can tell who is one of our kind.
He told me to make her stronger. To make sure that the little girl would eventually be ready to attempt living free of her Fate. To make her the best mage that I could create.
The girl’s natural shaping capabilities were raised in a seven hundred percent. She was strong, fast, resistant... I gave her heightened senses. Perfect instinct... She would be ready to punch the Goddess herself if needed.
Don’t look at me with that face.
You can’t say I didn’t do a most perfect job with you.
Probably the only thing I would’ve done differently was letting you grow outside of the laboratory. That couldn’t be done, of course. Without a proper environment you would’ve been a danger to yourself and to everyone around you. It wasn’t until I was certain that it wasn’t dangerous that I marked the time for your dear brother to pick you up.
And did he make some drama. He came rushing, pretty much blowing everything up with his elite team... It was the first time I saw the little brother he so much wanted to protect. Twins. If I had known I’d probably had asked to open up one of them.
I’m joking, girl, stop looking at me with that face.
Whatever happened next, only he knows. I left him and his things to their own. The younger brother disappeared, probably sacrificed in order to meet the goddess.
Whatever he saw, or whatever he said to the Goddess is something only he knows.
Part three
“Maybe you could try asking.” The Priest chuckled, leaning against the building behind him. “I’m certain he must have quite a few things to say about his experience.”
“It makes no sense.”
“I’d recommend you to take some time to let it sink. Then again, it may not sink until you see it with your own eyes.”
“That’s absurd.”
“So magic is fine, but this is not?”
“I’m talking about him! He wouldn’t ever... He wouldn’t do something like that! I’ve known him for years, he has been nothing other than nice and...” She trailed off, and Attis was quick to retort.
“What do I win by telling you this? You can’t hurt me, girl, and I can take very good care of myself if you wished to do so. What’s the point in me lying?”
“Why would he even sacrifice his brother?! He loved him, I know he did!”
“Seeing the Goddess always requires a sacrifice.”
“Why?”
“You must get her attention of course. For that the best way is to have both a strong emotional response, and a change in Fate. She will always turn to you if you murder someone... But only someone you care about can create the emotional response.”
“So he did it just like that? Is that what you are saying? That he went and murdered his brother to check if there was a goddess??”
“I wouldn’t be able to tell. He had many plans, it seems. And the deeper we get into this, the more I discover he has been doing, at least in that sense he hasn’t changed much since he was young. I would love to open his brain up and see how it works.”
“Just go away. I don't want to hear any more crap.”
Kana stormed off even before Attis had a chance to start walking off. The Priest of course didn’t do a thing to follow her. He cuckled, before making his way to the Acting Director’s office.
He expected that denial, of course. Why would she even accept something that tore into pieces every single thing she knew and loved? The truth was painful, and she had set in a dangerous route. When he defied Fate, he had learned that any attempt was always doomed to fail in one way or another.
“Tanit.” He said, looking at the secretary. She nodded in acknowledgement. “Tell Kael that it is done. I know it’s earlier than we expected, but that can be blamed on dearest Adir.”
“Yes, sir.” She smiled and didn’t say another word.
“I’m leaving the Academy. I’ll make my way to the temple on my own, hopefully I will make it safely.”
“You will have a good trip, sir.”
“Take good care.”
“You as well.”
Attis chuckled. Of course he would make it safely. He was still needed wasn’t he? He would be the Priest for the last ceremony if anything went wrong, so at least until that moment he was fine. Even then, it was very likely that he would be fine after that... But thinking too much in such a thing was pointless.
The time for the last step was close. So close that it was almost as if by reaching out he could touch it.
Maybe then... Maybe then the Goddess would remove the taint on the one he had stained with his own hands. The one that didn’t deserve it.
He? He was perfectly fine with his life as it was.
He couldn’t wait until the day came.
---
Note:
Uh. Say... Hi to the plot? I guess?
And yes, this was planned all along.