Requiem.
Finally, we see a response. This meeting between realms being held where the communication is as much a part of the arcane as the magic that makes it so. “{Last chance, Reginald. We do not call you to stay here, in this life you left behind. You will change. Your needs, your existence. We cannot fix what has already been broken, we can only offer an alternative.}”
There are more spasms in the corpse. Hands twitching and jerking about until they grip the side of the head. Another sickly sounding crackling wrench and the face is buried in the sands. It is only because of how entwined our domain is with this place that we hear his voice, “(Should have said for him to make his best choice. But now I’m dead. Beyond dead even… I didn’t feel either of the neck twists.)”
We give him a few moments more to collect himself, “{You’ve already made your first choice, Reginald. Now it’s time for the second. You can stay as our attendant or guard, so long as you recognize the authority of ourselves and the Queens. Or you must take this bridge to Axis and the |Tranquil Glades| and create some new purpose from there. But the choice must be made soon. This city’s domain is too heavy to keep this bridge open for much longer.}”
“(Will you right the scales of balance? Does Master win?)”
“{Balance is an illusion sold or worse a game played by those without stakes. All I can say of your master is that we are not allies. At this point, his greatest victory would be you succumbing to fear, as prey or as predator. Find your peace.}”
The former man, now zombie, lurches upright in fits and starts, “(Peace. Peace… They taught us that too.)” Taking his time and struggling with how his changed body moves, he plods several paces closer, “(They taught us honor and debt as well. My debt to them and the Master was paid with my death.)”
He shuffles closer before slowly kneeling down and bowing to us, “(I am not the youth I was then, willing to pledge my all to one who would save me from my old life. But I can pledge my faith and my insight into Master’s world, to you…?)”
“{We are Requiem. We accept and are honored by your faith and in the times ahead will find much value from your insights, we’re sure. As your first task, we suggest considering returning to being a sacred beast. We can make use of a monster attendant as well, so, to be clear, we wish you to truly} co-ns-id-er {that choice. That sacred path is not right for us to walk, but our path is not your path, even should we travel side-by-side.}”
He bows to us once more before rising carefully again. As he makes his wavering way to a patch of clear sand, the radiance outshines the sun. Not one of power, arcane, or of the soul’s fabric itself. The light of opportunity, of new branches grown, of the winds wisping through the leaves. An earnest desire to see more and learn more from those who could teach.
“{Thank you, Axis. We’ll be sure to make time to come visit after this adventure is over. Perhaps your snake friend will stick around long enough for us to meet them.}” The rush of endless possibilities passes in a single moment. At that, we pull back from the connection and the weight of the city rushes back in.
Our attendant had been busying himself practicing his kata and trying to adapt to his circumstances. As the field recedes, he was in the middle of a slash, and rather than the slow pace he was walking through, it finishes in an instant. “(Is this what the city feels like to you? Like a pit where you stomach should be and a pervasive violence?)” His head turns to us between a blink when he asks his questions, his eyes glowing from within with subtle light.
“{Sadly no. What you feel now is what you have become and what you will stay should you not succeed in bettering yourself. We can grant a form of peace to your kind, but for a thinking person, and especially a warrior, our peace is a chain. You must master yourself and your new flesh, though as we said before, you’ve changed.}” We drink back much of the fog, no longer needing quite the same density and also needing to check how that will impact our new pledge’s self-control. This is not the right place to unleash an actual monster if indeed that’s what we’ve created.
He shudders a bit as we speak and we’re unsure what to make of his reaction when a quiet laughter escapes him at our final declaration, “(I grew up in the alleyways. The ones you can’t see from the main streets or the markets.)” He presses a hand onto his chest and after a moment we hear the groan of the material pitted against his strength, “(This feels like home. Crazy to think that those memories could be a balm, but that’s what even the enriched life under the Master’s attention can do to someone. He was always so fast, and so brutal with his punishments. I’m far from the first person he’s killed as demonstration.
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“(This brand of hunger, this instinct of violent need. I’m experienced with it and have been tempered in its use.)”
He goes back to his forms, and begins experimenting with them some, changing their tempo, learning his limits. Seemingly, unless he moves at a near crawl, he can only spasm at full force, “{Is there anything you need from us once the world finds us once more?}”
Not stopping his training, “(I think I’ll need a new uniform. Looser robes and perhaps a wide-brimmed hat like the farmers and some old folks wear. The [System] is being quite generous at adapting me to this species change. But I can already tell that armor will mostly just get in my way. We were trained as simple [Soldiers] before, with only the special or perhaps unlucky ones being selected for more attention.
“(But I guess dying gave me a shortcut. I earned the title: A Lifetime of Discipline. Something that only the old instructors had. There teachings were the fairest, looking back at it.)” He pauses for a moment and looks back over at us, “(I’m now also Born to War. But I’m not stupid and I won’t compromise what you seek to accomplish here.
“(Eventually though, we will part ways. I can’t say when, but someday, I’m sure. I’m sorry, Requiem.)” The man bows to me in deference yet again.
“{You are still very young. War is not the opposite of Peace, they are both merely tools, words. As you have experienced in your own life, the peace of the destitute, the peace of all-encompassing terror under a tyrant. War is much the same, both are full of horrors if you look in the right places.
“{So long as your new birthright of change doesn’t make you lose sight of the goal for a better life, we’ll work together fine. Just wait and see. Now, stop all that bowing and scraping. We hired a guard, not a peon.}”
He pauses mid bow before straightening and giving us a salute, where the heavy impact of his fist dents his breastplate once more. The blush of a dead man is a fascinating thing, “{Once Darling gets back, we’ll see about a new set of clothes. We have just the style in mind… Do you know an old man named Yojimbo?}”
The minutes turn to hours as he moves through his exercises, teaches himself how to walk, how to run, and how best to leverage his new explosive strength and speed with some sparring against Graveskull. The rest of our hide not quite up to the task of deflecting a quality sword like what he carries, much less with the power he can now pack into a swipe. “{Your eyes. Stop moving them so much. You’re still telegraphing your attacks even if your body doesn’t as much anymore.
“{Even a feint still uses energy. Be prepared to follow through with any attack you make. Deception is for those without enough strength or skill to win.
“{Winning is more important than lies, than truth. Anything and everything should be used to win if necessary.
“{Victory is more than your opponent’s defeat. It’s about keeping to your path. Winning with only ashes remaining isn’t a true victory.}”
Darling returns sometime during our sparing, a happy swirling to her streamers and a mother’s exasperation at our antics. She sends her children out into the sands to collect all the frogs that decided to bury themselves. Only our intense concentration on Reginald held back the embarrassment as that task had slipped our minds. {Not all our minds.}
We call for an end to the spar and this time we bow with him, “{That is a truly remarkable weapon, Reginald. Especially considering how well it has held up compared to the armor.}”
No longer in use, it remains in its sheath as he decouples both pieces from the armor, “(Some of that is the materials. Everyone can be trained effectively on the same length blade with relative ease, so good blades are easier to forge and maintain. Whereas armor requires a lot more nuance to be done and fit an individual well, so the armor tends to be cheaper.
“(Some of it is that I’m not a [Soldier] anymore. I had a great many more options with my experience and titles to leverage, and one in particular called out to me: [Un’Ronin]. An honorable and obedient warrior struck down by the failings of their own master, having returned from the grave unbound by the oaths of their previous life. A soldier variant focused on bringing a swift and brutal end to any combat they partake in.
“(Basically, means a bunch of my class instincts aren’t about parrying strikes anymore, but just slashing through with absolute force. Milord’s hide is astoundingly resilient.)”
A frog chooses that moment to start shrilling at the indignity of being unburied by a bunch of bees, the noise and reveal of it enough to stun the nearby ones momentarily. Darling takes that moment to fly over and sting the little screaming pest into silence before the workers shake off their befuddlement and carry the body back to the hive.
We find ourselves at somewhat of a loss for words, just observing her for a moment, “{So, yeah. Reginald, this is Darling. Queen of the… Hissing Honey Host.}”
“^Pleased to meet you young man, and what’s that look for Requiem?^” We find ourselves unable to meet her eyes, just turning our heads around to look askew, “^If the little blighter died, it would be because it wasn’t properly attuned to the hive or undeath. Serves it right for trying to hide away and making such a racket when it was caught. Honestly, if not for their [Bestiary] entry I’d have culled them down to a much smaller population.^”