Completed [STC] Fall From Grace (Eridanus)

[Kuvarakh]

"I am unsure what prompted it. I was doing my usual morning routine. Cleaning and disinfecting all...entry points...it's a necessity for Nuits, since we lack any sort of natural germ or bacterial resistance. I'm sure you don't require any details. Then, I perform a meditative technique I learned years ago...decades really, to reinforce my enjoyment of society and fellowship with mortal races."

He looked at the Vantha directly, "I don't know if I have truly clarified this to you, but I really do not care for nuits...most nuits, I should say. Their rejection of mortal existence disturbs me. I so often get the sense that they think of humans as nothing more than "bodies on the hoof" awaiting their need. As though their short span of existence makes them unworthy to be considered equal lifeforms.

"It may make me seem like a hypocrite, but I don't feel that I am, for, even though I DID make the transformation, it was not for selfish cause, and I still strive to keep it unselfish. Nor do I look down on living people. My membership is not for self-glorification, but for honest desire to expand ALL peoples' potential. Of course, I would appreciate recognition for whatever I might discover, but I would not hoard it."

He sighed heavily. "I am doing it again, going on and on. Getting back on track, I do this meditation to eliminate the negative emotions and moods that affect nuits. The boredom and sense of disconnection from society, the urge to give up, that nothing will change." his face became somber. "That it's a cycle that always repeats itself despite initial novelty. That the eventual deaths of friends makes it unwise to have feelings for anyone. I have been through it before and have found that this meditation helps tremendously." his face did not reflect it, though.

"But it was this very meditation that I was engaged in when this horror struck me. I visualize a second self and strive to imbue this self with my negativity and then dismiss him from my consciousness. But this time, I lost control of him. In fact, he took control of me.

"So obviously, I must refrain from this meditation until we can discover the nature of this affliction. I hope it is soon, for I was in need at the time and the event only deepened my emotional gloom."

[Eridanus]

Eridanus stopped and looked at the nuit sharply, his eyes gleaming as he calculated the various probabilities.

"Could it be then, related to your body? I know this from Malediction: often even when a soul has left the body, the husk contains remnant djed from the soul. This is how Malediction draws out the latent energies from body parts. Could it be that, somehow, your art of hypnotism combined with meditation somehow brought out this latent husk of djed? Of memories?"

Realizing that they were standing quite awkwardly in the middle of what seemed to be a stream, he continued walking, gesturing for the nuit to do so as well.

"Perhaps we could try to bring both of us into your... vision so to speak. I know for a fact that hypnotists are able to bring people into a trance - and I'm sure one of your ability is able to do so. With the use of glyphing I am semi-confident of being able to redirect and reroute this use of djed to bring us both to experience your memories. What say you?"

As they stopped in front of a building that currently looked like the entrance to the cliff of a waterfall, he pointed at the sign over the door which read "The Sunken Conundrum".

"Of course, we should probably try to find out more about this body that you occupy. I believe that public records should be in the 'Reference' section."

[Kuvarakh]

Kuvarakh was clearly distracted. Looking at the waterfall image before him made him very uneasy. He half-expected to see an infant fall to its death at his feet. Eridanus had been speaking about residual djed. Then he'd seen the waterfall and he'd lost track of the discussion.

He snapped out of it when he heard him mention bringing the both of them into his meditative trance. He didn't know if he could, or should. "Do you think that's a good idea? Even if I CAN, what if you get caught up in it like I did? I think the only reason my wife released me was she was done tormenting me."

But when he heard Eridanus mention glyphing, he gave it more serious consideration. Perhaps that would allow them a measure of control. "I don't know that much about glyphing, I'm afraid. It's one of those things I kept meaning to learn, but never did. I guess we could give it a try, if you think it will help. If it will give us some control... some...prevention."

As he spoke, his gaze kept returning to the top of the waterfall in front of the library 'Was there someone up there watching me?' The impression would not let go, no matter how many times he looked up to see nothing. He found he didn't want to enter the library. He hid his trembling as he followed Eridanus inside.

[Eridanus]

The vantha had his back to the nuit, so he would not notice the paranoia that was beginning to creep up on the undead. Instead, he excitedly headed straight into the section that held old records gathered from various sources such as the daily papers, announcements, and whatnot.

"Come, do you have any information regarding your current body?" He said, prompting for the requisite information from Kuvarakh. Upon receiving it, his eyes gleamed with enthusiasm as he dove straight into the large shelves that held this treasure trove of information.

"Let's see," He muttered as he arranged and rearranged the huge books that contained these archives of knowledge, placing them around him as he entered his own world of discovery.

Lost in his thought and his efforts, he began speed-reading and then rearranging the information like a madman, intent on figuring out a pattern and to find an end to this mystery.

[Kuvarakh]

An overpowering sense of dread enveloped Kuvarakh as he entered the library. With Eridanus' inquiries, it lessened enough to allow him to focus on what little he knew of his present body's origins. A suicide, the body found lying by a river near Alvadas, the wrists slit.

Eridanus' presence seemed to help him stave off the terror, for that's what it was. Terror. And his very realization that there was no logical reason for it only made it worse. 'Am I going mad? Was this body that of a madman? Is there something wrong with the brain?' his mind whirled with thoughts of being trapped in this body. A body imbued with pervasive insanity.

His mind continued to whirl. He actually felt the disorienting pulls of imagined currents. No, NOT imagined! Panic consumed him. He felt a burning in his chest as he felt currents rob him of control of his movements. He couldn't breathe! He was drowning! He tried to scream, but water gagged him as ice cold force filled his throat, his lungs. He shivered with the cold and tried to cough.

Far away, there was the knowledge that he couldn't drown. That, not only was he a nuit and didn't need to breathe, but that the library was enchanted to provide gills to those requiring them. Yet these thoughts did not assuage the gasping torment of asphyxiation, the frantic NEED to breathe. He WAS drowning. His lungs filled with water, his body was chilled throughout. He gagged and vomited only to choke in more. Terror drove reason from his mind. Animal frenzy overwhelmed him.

There was no longer the ambient light of the library. The light fought to penetrate the water, the rushing water, pulling him downstream. The undercurrent was far too strong to reach the surface, the salvation of air, of breath! His head was battered by rocks as he flew past them and he knew he was losing consciousness. He kicked in vain and grabbed at everything that might give him leverage, but everything just came lose in his hands, giving him no purchase to save himself.

He tried again to scream, but there were only pathetic gurgles. He thrashed wildly, his hands and feet striking unseen things as the gurgles took on the effect of...laughter. Evil, horrible...satisfied laughter.

"Do you understand now, my love...What it is to know despair? To know helplessness? To know beyond hope that Now, you WILL DIE? That the one who destroyed all you care about will now destroy YOU as well? Be glad of your death, you PIG, that your suffering will end, as mine has NOT!"

It seemed that hands clutched at him. Half of his mind fought them off as the hands of the enemy, while the other half begged them for rescue, for salvation.

[Eridanus]

A chillness filled the water around him, and Eridanus felt the icy coldness gnawing away at his skin. Strangely, the water in the Sunken Conundrum was always warm and comforting, and had never been a cause for concern. Such iciness was only felt at natural rivers, which was unlike the illusory ones formed by the city.

"Do you understand now, my love...What it is to know despair? To know helplessness?"

A voice gargled from behind, and Eridanus turned sharply, goosebumps continuing to form. There he was greeted by the sight of his nuit friend in a state of drowning, grasping desperately at his throat as he fought for air.

As he seemed to fight for air.

Nuits cannot drown.

"To know beyond hope that Now, you WILL DIE?"

The voice seemed to erupt from Kuvarakh's struggling body, but the voice sounded strange, even different. Another cold tugged at the vantha's body, and he noticed that no one heard him, only Eridanus. Could he be imagining things?

"That the one who destroyed all you care about will now destroy YOU as well? Be glad of your death, you PIG, that your suffering will end, as mine has NOT!"

Tuning djed into his eyes, he fought away at the impending sense of dread that invaded his body, seeking the core of the nuit in order to discover the source of this. As Kuvarakh's aura flared up, he instantly found a mess of black tendrils within the core of the alchemist's soul.

What is that?

As he sought to zoom in on the tendrils, Kuvarakh twitched again in pain, moving about and randomly clawing at the air. One of his hands swiped by and grabbed Eridanus' shoulder, and the vantha jerked off his supply of djed in shock, disabling his use of Auristics due to the sudden movement.

The current contemplation forgotten, he focused on the present, returning his physical gaze to Kuvarakh.

"What's happening? Get back here, to me, to now, to reality!" He yelled urgently, staring at the man deep in the eyes as he used his superior strength to subjugate the nuit's body into submissiveness. It was still a struggle, for it involved balancing the strange physics of the underwater library, but his dedication worn out in the end and he had the alchemist disabled under his own body and might.

When Eridanus got him still, he continued his urges of assurance, attempting to get Kuvarakh out of his trance.

[Kuvarakh]

A scream tore form his throat, briefly expelling the water from his lungs. He reveled in a massive inhale, clutching at the illusory water to bring more air to his mouth, the scream becoming a wail of submission to this sudden mercy.

But the scream persisted, outside his body, directed elsewhere.

"NOOOOooo...interfering BEAST!" it raged, "So you would SPARE this murderer? This killer of his OWN CHILD? You are much a monster as HE! Very well, then! Will YOU face his guilt, then? Or will you be his executioner FOR me!"

Kuvarakh spun clumsily in the water and found himself facing Eridanus. His Vantha friend seemed in a trance, a milky shape engulfing him, sinking in, disappearing within. He twitched in spastic throes. His eyes sporadically flashing anger and fear.

The voice returned to prominence, uttering disturbingly from Eridanus' mouth. "Yes! Such strength of arms. Yet they avail you not, do they. For all your strength, you can not stifle my will! HA! Even shall you serve me as you make your pathetic efforts to resist."

The possessed body of Eridanus turned to face Kuvarakh, and he was sickened by the look of hate souring his friend's features. He realized he had never seen the man show such killing hatred before. The voice now turned its focus on him, and he quailed before it. "Yes, and YOUR pathetic efforts are likewise futile! How deliciously ironic. As my end came at the hands of one who I believed loved me, so shall it be for you, my treacherous husband! Die now at the hands of your friend and let him grieve for his betrayal!"

"Eridanus! Fight it! Do not-..." Kuvarakh's desperate attempt to reach his friend was cut brutally short as a fist launched seemingly in defiance of the resistance of water to batter him in the left cheek. He gurgled a moan and knuckles assailed his throat, driving his voice into collapse. Hands gripped his throat, driving him back. Squeezing with terrible strength as the two sailed through the water backwards.

With the fear of drowning no longer a concern, he was still well aware of the possibility of his neck being snapped. He did not know who or what was being unleashed against him, all this talk of 'husband' and 'killing his own child'. It as madness and his spirit grew cold at the knowledge of the futility of trying to reason with a furious madman.

His head screamed in pain as it collided with a stone pillar. Surely his skull must be cracking. The fists again slammed his face, his throat, his ribs. His efforts to ward them off pathetically slow and off-target. The force flipping him over to take punishment while viewing the Library's entrance upside down.

Desperate hope surged suddenly at the thought that if he could leave the library, perhaps....He turned and swam for his life, the clawing hands of his foe losing purchase for valuable seconds. He felt them regain hold of his legs even as he grabbed the door jam. "No....NO you don't my sweet love! Stay with me a while longer yet. Let me pull you back to the water's grim embrace as you pushed me into it!" The syrupy sweet hate of the voice sinking to undisguised vengeance as it spoke.

But desperation gave to Kuvarakh strength beyond normal and he ripped his legs free, leaving chunks of tissue scraped off against the fingertips. A surge of water heralded a last deadly stroke, as the monster in Eridanus' body seized his wrists and tore them free, ripping the wrappings loose that Kuvarakh kept in place to hide the suicide slits there.

"Now a mercy I never received! A swift final stroke and sweet darkness for us both. Aaaah...to forget...to finally be able to forget!" The hand at his throat was beyond crushing strength and twisted his neck in such a way as to make it plain the ensuing strike would break his neck. The fist pulled back and a look of deadly purpose and strange serenity crossed his friend's face as he held his hands up, crossing his unwrapped wrists in futile denial of impending destruction.

It did not come. It taunted him. He held his eyes shut, knowing it was a mockery of forgiveness, for whatever he had done. Almost, he would have welcomed death just to KNOW what grievance he had committed to warrant such hatred. Still there was no blow. hesitantly he opened his eyes. The hand still gripped his throat, the fist still poised to destroy. But the face was a portrait of confusion and anguish.

It shimmered and for a brief instant Eridanus' true self shimmered in the milky aura surrounding it.

[Eridanus]

The nuit gaped in despair as he opened his mouth in an effort to speak. However, what came out was not words but instead a rush of energy, moving so quickly that Eridanus could not fathom. What seemed to be electricity struck his body, and a foreign consciousness invaded his mind ruthlessly.

His body immediately recognized it as a hostile possession, from his knowledge from working with the Spiritist of Avanthal, but he was helpless before this entity. Desperately remembering what Jared taught him, he sought to focus his mind clearly on a single thing in an attempt to lock-down his body at the very least, if not expel the ghost.

He failed.

Memories and images flooded the scholar's mind, and he could not help but look at Kuvarakh with disgust and hatred. The murderer! Such a vile creature could not be allowed to live. And so he assaulted the nuit, spewing accusations as he engaged in lethal unarmed combat.

The alchemist sought to escape, but justice must be met! And like the instrument of justice, he shall prevent the guilty from escaping. Legs were torn off from the alchemist, but he continued swimming away in fear.

Laughing savagely, the vantha grinned at the rush of power that he felt in his body, leaping forward in the water to catch the nuit, grasping and batting his wrists away as he gripped him in a stranglehold.

There must be no more delay. The murderer must be destroyed.

That thought pervaded every sense of the vantha as he was lost in the throes of the entity's thoughts. Words spewed relentlessly though he could not care what he said. No, what was prevalent was to destroy the abomination in front of him, and destroy he will.

[Kuvarakh]

"Your wrists...they...you...did you cut them?" the voice turned peculiar, a blend of the hateful taunting, now gone strangely soft, and the voice of his friend, Eridanus. Kuvarakh begged fate for more of Eridanus' voice to dominate.

"Eridanus? Is that you? Can you contro-..."

"NEVER MIND HIM! I ASKED YOU! DID YOU CUT YOUR WRISTS?" the shriek was painfully loud, the tone all malice again. Kuvarakh was unsure what to do. There was already so much inexplicable anger he didn't know what might make it worse. He was suddenly tugged forward, his wrists being scrutinized. The face moving from his maimed legs to his wrists and back. "Why is there no blood?" Eridanus' voice again gentling the tone.

"I don't Have blood. I am a Nu-..." he tried to explain.

"DEMON! Bloodless, life-sucking monster! How could you even father a child, you filthy maggot! I saw you bleed! Many times! Did you not cut yourself shaving? All those injuries at the mill. I saw the blood, I cleaned the wounds! How did you deceive me?"

Finally, it was too much. Anguish and rage held in check out of fear, gave in to fatalistic belief that it no longer mattered. "I DECEIVED NO ONE! I KILLED NO ONE! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO THE PETCH YOU ARE! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"

The possessed body actually reeled back, letting go of Kuvarakh. He did not make a new attempt to run. In truth, it did not even occur to him, so great was his desperate curiosity. "These wrists were like this when I found the body. It was already dead, so I took it. I am a Nuit. I swear to all the gods that are, that were, or ever shall be, I have no idea what I have done to wrong you. If you must kill me, so be it, my life has been longer than a man is entitled to anyway. But I BEG you, explain to me first, WHAT HAVE I DONE? I loved my wife, and I loved my daughter! I would never hurt them! But they were taken from me over a hundred years ago!"

The image of Eridanus became more prominent, but it was still the medium to display the horrified confusion of the possessing entity. Around the mouth, the image became all Eridanus for a moment as it gasped "Mistaken identity!"

Eridanus' image was once again subsumed within the entity as it lashed out. "There is NO mistake! Do you think I would not know my own husband?"

Inspiration struck, "What is your name?" Kuvarakh asked.

"What insult is this? LINIKA! What would you expect it to be?" Eridanus' face shimmered with the being's uncertainty.

"I would expect it to be MY wife's name, 'Raellen."

The face was a portrait of shock and apprehension. "I don't understand...are you not my husband? Did you not kill my...our...infant child in a drunken stupor, dropping her from the falls to her death. NO! Say nothing. You would not admit it then, why should you now!"

The image seemed to war within itself for a moment, not physically, but a look of intense introspection gave way to surrender. "Fine then, Eri...da..nus, I will be unable to speak, but perhaps I have said enough. I give you freedom to speak, but be true in what you say. I can still take you back!"

The hazy shimmering moved from the solid shade that cleared to become Eridanus. The Vantha dropped to his knees, exhausted. Both Kuvarakh and the ghostly shade watched him expectantly.

[Eridanus]

Like a puppet, the scholar's body was forced to do things against his will. Like a mockery of sentience, the entity forcefully controlled his consciousness while emotionally affecting his subconscious. He was utterly under the spirit's control despite his minimal spiritist training. He was completely out of his league.

Finally though, after a short exchange between the two the spirit left his body and it was euphoria. Like the feeling of emerging from a pool of murky water after drowning for several moments, he gasped when the soulmist was expelled voluntarily, his chest heaving as he collapsed to his knees, palm ahead to support himself.

His very first thought was to wield magic. To burn, to destroy. He was aware that such entities may be affected by magical substances, but the thought that he was still in the watery depths of the Sunken Conundrum did not occur to him.

The violation. The mockery of it all.

He glared at the floor, thoughts of revenge forming as he calculated the odds of destroying the spirit that had humiliated him so.

Then he thought of Kuvarakh, and what Jared Skyglow told him before.

"Spirits seek closure, Eridanus. They should not be met with by force, but instead by resolution.

Wysar did not choose him for his violence, he was chosen for his integrity and discipline. Calming his mind down, he forced himself to see reason, to rely back on the cold hard logic he was used to.

The scholar was never a rational person at heart. He was one of chaotic fury, of amoral hedonism, a whirlpool of self-centered apathy. The result that stood here was a result of centuries of experience and self-reflection, of guidance from divinities and with conscious effort.

Do not regress.

Taking another deep breath, the vantha pushed himself back up, announcing hoarsely, "I vouch for Kuvarakh. This whole thing is a misunderstanding."