Chapter 74 Utterly Ridiculous.
A few days, countless songs, and Shamesh’s training later something expected finally arrived. They were to be paid the next day, their house was to be finished in two, they were to have tea with Sera in three, but it seemed like even though good things were to come in threes they would first be preceded by a bad one. The pair had just settled in to play with Shamesh standing off to the side patiently observing along with Branden. The later middle aged man was still trying to get comfortable with a bone golem butler hanging around when they heard the doors open.
All four of them turned their heads to see a figure clad in white and gold with blazing golden eyes and glowing golden hair. His feet never touched the ground as he floated out of the hallway and into the hall itself. His eyes locked onto Isaac. “No.” Isaac said simply. “You do not get to come in here and cause a problem.” Isaac told the demigod without a single hint of trepidation in his voice. “You can wait until we are done like everyone else.”
Judgment stopped in place and stared intently at Isaac as he heard the dark mage’s words. Once Isaac was finished Judgment took in the other three present. He wrinkled his nose at the bone golem but then nodded at Isaac. “Very well.” The demigod agreed. “I will wait.”
Isaac’s eyes widened in surprise slightly before he nodded at the demigod. Isaac turned his attention back to the piano. “We can start whenever you’re ready.” He told Lenna.
Lenna relaxed her grip on the violin, thankful that it hadn’t shattered in her grasp, and readied her bow. “Ready.” She told Isaac.
Isaac started playing a simple song that Lenna had learned over the course of the last week or so. It was easy enough that she was able to branch out from Lua’s Tragedy. This was helping her put into practice what Lua had taught her so they could continue on to more complex songs. Isaac knew the piano part of the song the same way he knew every other piece he performed. That was to say, he had no idea why he knew it but wasn’t about to start reading too far into it for fear that it would change. The song was a dance that moved the tune back and forth between the violin and piano. The tune was the same for both instruments repeated over and over as they passed it back and forth. First Isaac would go, then they would go together, then Lenna would go, then they would go together again, and then it would repeat from the beginning. They did this twice almost as a warm up before Isaac nodded to Lenna and she took a deep breath.
Lenna stopped and closed her eyes. She remembered the meeting with her goddess more vividly then she remembered any other part of her life. Many of her deeper memories were either eroded with time or were far more complex so she had a harder time remembering every detail. As she placed the bow on the strings she felt the blessing of Lua take over and together her and her goddess’s blessing played the song of Lua’s Tragedy. Isaac soon began playing along with both an echo and harmony. This was more of an effort on Isaac’s part as he learned a song that hadn’t just forced its way into his fingertips. Once they were done Lenna opened her eyes and relaxed.
“Why don’t you play another while I study the new sheet music.” Lenna offered Isaac. Branden had given her the sheet music for a beginner piece and it was next on her list of songs to learn. Lenna had a hard time reading the music while playing it but her memory was good so she settled on memorizing the piece and then playing it while Isaac and Branden corrected her. That was not why Lenna offered for Isaac to continue playing however. Lenna was hoping that if Judgment could see that Isaac wasn’t just some mad dark sorcerer claiming to be a demigod, then maybe the divine hammer of justice would think twice about trying to turn him into dust.
“Alright.” Isaac said with a nod and started playing a deep and dark piece full of shadows and rage. The exact opposite of what Lenna wanted from him. Once he was done he looked over at Judgment and decided on another song. This time the long drawn out deep notes and the harmonic rhythmic beating of a middle key and a lower one invited feelings of a march backed with pure conviction. As Isaac moved through the piece it was soon incredibly clear that it was meant to invoke the feelings of a crusader’s march during a holy war.
Lenna sighed and set down the sheet music. “Do you want to just get this over with?” She asked Isaac. “I doubt you are helping his opinion of you. Play something with heart or let’s go outside and see what Judgment wants.”
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“Alright.” Isaac said and looked up towards the sky. He closed his eyes and took a deep centering breath. Instead of rising from his bench to meet the demigod he started playing the first song that Lenna had heard him play on the piano. The song moved through its three segments like the three stages of Isaac’s life that he couldn’t remember. After that, he moved to a sonata full of panic, adventure, and wonder. From there he moved to one of warmth and love but as he played it he would abruptly stop and interject with a melody that hit like clashing swords. It was the story of his life in the Innerworld. Eventually he stopped and closed the lid over the keys. Isaac was slightly winded so as he closed the lid he flashed a pulse of death flames through his body so he was at least in perfect condition in the event that Judgment wanted to fight, again.
“Are you finished?” Judgment asked as Isaac rose from his seat.
“Yes.” Isaac replied. “If you are only here to talk then there is a restaurant nearby.”
Judgment looked contemplative for a moment. “I am going to hit you with the gavel of justice. It will not take into account any of the sins it has already hit you with.” The demigod explained. “If the results are satisfactory, I will leave and seek counsel on what must be done about your claims. If they are not, I will fight you to the death, again.”
Isaac sighed. “Fine. We can do it in the street if that is it. Not the fighting part, the hammer part.” Isaac clarified. “I haven’t killed anyone recently, that wasn’t already dead, and I’ve kept my fingers to myself.”
Judgment’s blazing but somehow still cold eyes never left Isaac. “Lead the way.” Judgment instructed and Isaac, slowly, left the building along with Lenna and Shamesh. Once they were outside, Judgment looked at Shamesh but spoke to Isaac: “What is that creature?” He demanded.
“It is a bone construct that is an imitation of a mad wizard. It is being piloted by the shadow of my soul that has been imprinted with fragments of a young lightning dragon and is now my retainer.” Isaac answered truthfully and directly. “Ignore him.”
Judgment didn’t sense a single lie in Isaac’s words so he returned his full attention to the mage himself. “Are you ready?” He asked Isaac.
Isaac raised an eyebrow in question and surprise. He was surprised that Judgment even asked, considering how gung ho he was about trying to turn Isaac into a smear on the road the first time they met.
Isaac nodded. “Sure, I can block it right?”
“Yes.” Judgment replied. “Psychostasia.” The demigod’s expression was entirely neutral as the gavel of justice appeared over Isaac’s head. Four spears of shadows so dark that they devoured the light around them appeared around Isaac. Their tips impacted the hammer as it swung down at his head. The tips of the spears were momentarily blunted but the impact was minor. “You witnessed something horrible but did nothing.” Judgment told Isaac. “Explain.”
Isaac sighed and sat down on a chair made from the shadows that used to be a set of four spears. “When I made Shamesh I had to witness what the mad wizard had done to become a lich in the first place. It was horrible, yes, but it was also something that I could not change because it happened in the past. That shouldn’t count as aiding and abetting.” He argued. “Are we done here?”
Judgment stared down at Isaac for a long moment as if he was searching for a reason to fight him anyway. Eventually the demigod simply nodded at the dark mage. “Very well. I will seek counsel on how to handle you further.” Judgment explained and turned away from Isaac. The demigod leaned forwards and then shot off like an arrow towards the exit.
“Ugh he’s so annoying.” Isaac grumbled once Judgment was a few hundred feet away. “He better not show up demanding to hit me with the stupid light hammer every month. If he does, I’m gonna kill him.”
Lenna chuckled at the absurdity of it all. “This is utterly ridiculous.” She told him.
“What is?” Isaac asked her.
“What isn’t?” Lenna countered.
Isaac thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. “Fair point. It is rather preposterous. I don’t think a demigod should be this petty. He already lost once, just bugger off and leave me the hells alone.” He grumbled.
“You did the thing again.” Lenna told him.
“Where I used a word that didn’t translate at all so it came out in a language that you didn’t understand?” Isaac requested clarification even though he already figured out what she meant.
Lenna nodded. “Yes, though I think I can understand it anyway.”
Isaac nodded. “Do you remember the word?” Isaac wondered.
“B-buh-buhg.” Lenna shook her head. “I know I’m not saying it right.” She said while giving up.
Isaac shrugged. “That’s fine. It is weird how that happens sometimes.”
“There are probably words like that for you as well.” Lenna replied. “Like Pecurke. That probably should’ve translated but it didn’t.”
“I think the only consistent thing about my translation ability and my memory is that it is odd.” Isaac stated. “There is definitely some kind of pattern or set of rules that it is following but I’ll be damned if I know what they are.”
Lenna let silence hang in the air for a moment as a way to let the topic and conversation die before she changed it: “Want to go back inside and practice some more?”
Isaac looked around at all of the people that had been watching them. It wasn’t many but it was more that he could count on one hand which was too many in his book. The entire confrontation with Judgment had at least a dozen witnesses. Isaac stood up and turned towards Lenna and the way they had come. “Yes.” He said and headed off.