| "And the hound?" Acharya stood in the Garden, listening as Lyahr listed the injured Trackers. The voral'calev sat obediently next to its master, behaving very much like a tamed wolf. If Acharya didn't know of Lyahr's pets, and hadn't seen the Beast's eyes - gaping holes full of smoky shadows - he might have mistaken it for a normal wild dog, with fur the color of coal. "Reported that the women have completely left the continent of Dorim'seral, presumably looking for the Sun-Chylde." Lyahr smirked as the Beast nuzzled his hand. It felt like being nuzzled by ice water. "This hound's mate crossed the Nevar'in, she should find them soon." "Why didn't that one follow?" Lyahr could have easily had a different hound return to the tower. "He's aquaphobic." The voral'calev yawned. Acharya raised an eyebrow. "Afraid of the water. A Rift Beast that can chew through rock, blacken the skies and walk on water is aquaphobic?" Lyahr nodded, shrugging. The Beast trotted off to the other end of the Garden, snapping its jaws at the glowbugs. They crunched between the animal's white teeth. "Maybe someone tried to drown him as a pup." "Of course, how silly of me." Acharya rolled his bright blue eyes. "How is Corridan?" "I wouldn't know." The laughter had stopped just after the hound stepped past the gate. "He isn't speaking. He sits, with his eyes closed, humming softly. It is a tune I do not recognize. Maybe Felanya would know it. She's 'awake' now, isn't she?" "It doesn't matter. Besides, I doubt she'll have much to say to any of us for a while." His lips quirked. "It will take her some time to... adjust." "Are you sure she'll stay in Trinlayra? She's... broken. She might try to run, to escape serving Torankhayel." Lyahr crossed over to the hound, running his fingers through its fur. He didn't notice Acharya scrutinizing him. "I'm not sure that it matters. She's done her job, and she will do it still, whether she is here in the tower or not. Felanya can always try to defect, but it will all be the same side, soon enough." The tone of his voice was even, but his eyes narrowed, watching as the hound rolled onto its back submissively. Lyahr was never that good with animals. "You've said so many times that you needed us awake, we were useless until we were awake. Now you discard two of the most powerful Magi in Sharan'akar, certain that they'll disregard everything in their natures and continue to serve darkness and chaos. Why are you so sure they'll not return to finding truth, and light?" Lyahr spoke with his back to the Acharya, almost as if he were only musing to himself. "The only truth to be found lies in chaos, Lyahr. Their natures are irrelevant. They are not in control. Cognizant they may be of all the... 'atrocities' they've committed, but the power to stop it does not lie within them anymore." It was the darkness speaking, pulling Acharya's strings and forcing him to speak words he did not entirely believe. "Then why are you waiting for us all to wake?" "I'm not waiting anymore," Acharya smirked. Lyahr stiffened, standing. "I've seen that dull hope shining in your eyes since before the Seer's death. You've always been terrible at pretending. You are what you are, and you've always fought that." Lyahr let out a long breath, turning to meet Acharya's scrutiny. "You knew." "I do now," Acharya grinned. It was the expression an assassin wears when his victim simply walks into the line of sight, without trouble or hesitation. "I'd always thought you'd leave once you remembered who you were, everything you'd stood for. Why haven't you? You never believed in evil. Not in supporting it, at least." Lyahr's eyes narrowed. "Who am I even speaking to?" The man in front of him knew, remembered, too much to simply be the Acharya. He acted too closely to human to be completely heartless. Yet he simply let people go, discarded them, something the former occupant of the body before him would never do. "Who are you?" A long silence stretched. Either the Acharya did not have the answer, or would not give it. "But I supposed we've all changed." The Beast was at his side again, and he sighed heavily as he buried his fingers in the soft fur between the voral'calev's ears. "I've stayed because I want to change things. I will fight you, if I have to, Acharya. But this world will change." Acharya let out a slow breath. "Nothing changes, Lyahr. This world cannot change. Pain is all it knows," Lyahr noticed that shifting in the Acharya's eyes again. "Pain does not just go away, no matter who you fight, or who you kill." Acharya began to his back on Lyahr and his hound, but paused. "The voral'calev, why do they still obey you?" "They aren't truly evil, just born of it. They're only animals, even if beyond the normal. And unlike humans, once their loyalty is earned, it will not fade." "Hm," Acharya muttered to himself, leaving the Garden. There were too many questions, and not enough answers in the world. He didn't want to think about the growling in his mind that was Torankhayel, or the raging scream that belonged to Artisan. For now, he was the Acharya, the god of this world, and he was in control. But his influence was fading, control wearing thin, and it was so difficult to see whether the darkness or the warrior was winning. He moved through the halls, back to the gathering chamber where he had left Tahdisha. Acharya pushed the door open slowly, holding a hand to his forehead. If something didn't quiet all the clamor within his mind, he would begin to lose sleep. "Took you long enough," an old voice laughed. Acharya blinked, startled. A... creature, was the best word, smiled at him. "Hail, brave leader. I've returned to deliver my report." The violet had faded from Varesh's hair, leaving it a dull brown, marking him as something much worse than Mage. Varesh had opened the door to Tahdisha's cage, and was trying to coax the bird out. The bird, wisely, shied away. "The others said you died." Acharya stepped forward to get Varesh away from the phoenix. "The others were right," he smiled. "Twice," Varesh stepped back. "I'm not sure I understand," Acharya reached a hand into the bird's cage, trying to comfort and calm it. "Why am I not surprised? Alas, after one thousand, seven hundred, thirty-two years, you think something as simple as a broken neck would end me? I thought Torankhayel was supposed to make you smarter. Come on, Artisan. Sheer will changes everything, and I will myself to survive, to see this world fall into blackness, where I will be as a god." His lips peeled back, and he let his fangs show. Vampires were a unique evil in this world. As a lesser evil, their race had yet to learn how to breach the walls the Six had rebuilt. "Don't call me that." Acharya's eyes narrowed. "This world won't accept you as a god." "Oh, that's right. They all trust you, the poor fools. This world doesn't have to accept me, I will exist all the same. And when this world falls, those pitiful humans that survive it will beg for me to shelter them." Listening to the vampire speak, Acharya was beginning to wish more and more that Jenya had never been born. |