IV-29 Udraal (II)

"Father, why are other people so... pathetic?"

"Pathetic? What do you mean, Udraal? Expand your statement. Tell me what you're really thinking."

"We just met with the Priests of Noor. You said they were powerful Pathbearers, credible mages, men of wisdom, and women of wisdom. Yet, all of them seem so desperate to be slaves."

"Is that how you view their commitment to the Great One? Or their idea of what the Great One is?"

"I've gone through the scriptures. I've delved through the texts they've declared apocryphal and heresy. It's given me insight into what the faithful think, and what they think seems to be pathetic. No, Father, it's worse than pathetic. It's willing surrender. What is the point of being a path-bearer if you're so determined to remain ignorant? They worship a god, but they don't know how the god functions, or how its powers flow, or what killed it, or what it even was. We worship a shell of a thing, not the thing itself. It's like praying to a shadow on a cave wall rather than the flame dancing within."

"Ignorance is a relief, Udraal. Many seek it because to face truth will shatter hearts and break souls."

"Hearts and souls are meant to be broken, over and over again. That is the point. When you put them back together, you can see them refined further."

"But many do not survive the pain."

"It's because many are poorly trained and lack a good father."

"Ah, flattery, strategically used. What are you about to ask me, son? What terrible plot do you have in motion.”

"Why so suspicious?

“Udraal…”

“Fine. But I'm not asking you, father. I'm telling you that I intend to slip into their forbidden gate. I want to see what they have hidden inside."

"Hmm. And you think you can get in without being noticed? There are still flaws in your skill and in your habits."

"I refined those flaws many times. I intend to prove it to you through this venture."

"If they discover you, it will mean grave things for our arrangements. Remember to see your body destroyed if they discover you.”

"Ah, but I'm sure they won't. After all, these are people who cleave towards ignorance, are they not? I will ensure they remain blissful, comforted. Just as the grazing lambs are as their owners come down the hill to slit their throat."

-Udraal and Valor Thann

IV-29

Udraal (II)

Shiv felt his throat run dry as a pitiful figure collapsed before him. The man was too thin, too bloodied to be a threat, and the whimpers that escaped his throat made him seem a child. But he was most decidedly not a child. In fact, he looked aged and worn. A long, wispy beard hung from his face, and his skin had the look of aged oak. He wasn't so old as to be elderly, but it just seemed that he faced a hard life, and his body endured an aging that came more from stress and struggle than it did from senescence.

He had no hair, and his brown eyes were bloodshot. But rather than clutch at his injury, the first thing the man did was pray. Blood seeped out from the man's chest, dripping onto the ground from the edges of the patchwork of bandages that held the wound at bay. He clasped his hands together and invoked the name of the Great One. Whispers slipped out from his tongue, and it became a mantra, something that barely held him back from the precipice of madness.

Then, finally, he looked up. He saw Shiv, and that mantra came to an end. He choked. His spirit collapsed, and a fear chain solidified between them.

"You. You." Sullain's voice left the man, and Shiv stared on in growing disbelief. He didn't even notice at first when Udraal placed a hand on his shoulder. The midnight-skinned Legend leaned down and whispered to the Deathless.

"You've made quite a mess of my old companion. Of course, he disfigured himself first. What a pitiful thing. What a pitiful man. You shouldn't hate him, though, boy. You should look upon him and realize that this is someone you don't want to become. A Legend that got there because they were so talented, so intelligent in so few ways, and also so consumed by their own regrets."

Udraal spun on his heel and came to a stop beside the wretch Shiv now knew was Sullain. The Abyssal Lord held a hand down, offering it to Sullain, and the ruined remain of the vicar looked up. For a moment he hesitated, then his hand shot out. He seized Udraal's grasp like it was a lifeline, like it was his father's hand. He rose on shaking legs, and rivulets of blood ran down his thigh. The fear chain connecting him to Shiv softened. He held out a trembling finger.

"But..." That was as far as Sullain got before he broke down into tears once more. The fear chain hardened again. "I can't, Udraal. He's already taken everything. He's taken what's left. Oh, I was so close, I told you. I was there, I had him. I had Roland in my grasp. I had his town. I created a wonder from your great work. And... and..."

As he began to hyperventilate, Udraal placed a calming hand upon his cheek. The act was so tender, Shiv was taken aback. He expected the being of absolute menace, of unbridled violence, that Valor spoke of. So far, Udraal seemed whimsical, loose, and ultimately gentle.

"I know, Vicar, I know. The system is so often unkind. Its path is a dagger primed to stab us in the back. I've experienced this many times, and I've warned you, didn't I warn you, that this would all end in tears?"

The palm he left on Sullain's cheek slid down and grasped the man by the shoulder. The Vicar's eyes widened, and once more, Shiv tasted fear in the air, but it wasn't offered to him.

"Didn't I tell you?" Udraal's voice suddenly dropped, and any semblance of gentleness was a forgotten myth. Now there was only coldness and a hint of forthcoming violence in his breath. Sullain went very still and pulled his hand away from his wound. He wrapped both of his hands around Udraal's arm.

"Yes," he said, sounding more mouse-like than ever before. "You told me, and I... I ignored you. I didn't want to believe you. I never wanted to believe you."

And Udraal's expression softened once more. His hand slid back up to Sullain's cheek, and he resumed the facade of comfort. "It's partially my fault. We all wish to betray ourselves in certain ways. There are things we believe, things we want to be true. And when proven untrue..." He looked at Sullain, expecting the Vicar to finish his words.

"We either try to make them manifest or delude ourselves of the reality before our eyes." Another sob escaped from Sullain, and Udraal shook his head. "You know what this is, Sullain?"

"Pathetic," Sullain said. "I know. You have no need to shame me further. I know the depths of my failure.”

"No, not pathetic. I've seen pathetic very recently. And you... you're a tragedy. To have so much, to come so far, yet to never see the wound of your heart mended. It's a tragedy. At some point, it becomes a tragedy. It's not wrong to cry."

"Shiv," groaned a hoarse voice. The Deathless turned and found Adam staggering toward him. Behind, the other prisoners were being treated by a group of grinning orcs. The Gate Lord’s eyes glistened as they blew wide with surprise and confusion as he took in Udraal and Sullain. "What the felling hell is going on?"

His answer didn't come from Shiv, but rather from the sound of a body slamming into a wall. Gone's eyes were locked on Udraal as well, and she spat his moniker with a terrified whisper. "He Who Walks Beyond... Udraal. Udraal Thann."

Slowly, Udraal cupped the back of Sullain's head and began pulling him closer toward Shiv. The Vicar and the Deathless made eye contact, and the former flinched but had nowhere to run. Udraal wouldn't allow it. Shiv saw his maker's cruelty then. Udraal wasn't kind or comforting. He simply used the softness of his touch and the pleasantness of his words as an incentive to make someone else surrender. A tension began to build within Shiv's chest. It was like a cord being drawn taut, lingering on the verge of snapping.

Udraal held Sullain in place directly across from Shiv, and for the first time, the Abyssal Lord looked surprised. "Is that Young Lord Arrow? You're still alive!" A laugh of genuine joy escaped Udraal. "I dare say the apple fell upward from the tree. So many sons fail to live up to the shadows of their father, and here you are, defying my expectations. By my calculations, you should have perished a long time ago." Slowly, that smile on his face faded. "Ah, I see. Harlen  and Vera did not live up to the full bargain. They spared you.”

At the mention of his parents' names, Shiv growled. "What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean they spared Adam?”

Udraal cocked his head and regarded Shiv with a look that bordered on disappointment. "Come now, boy, are you going to be like him?" He shook Sullain in his other hand, and the vicar looked away, ashamed. "Are you going to deny what you already suspect? What could I be talking about?"

Through the tension and anger, Shiv centered his thoughts and considered Udraal's words. He looked between the Abyssal Lord and his friend, and a horrifying realization settled upon him. "You... my parents were supposed to kill Adam, too?"

"It was recommended," Udraal said casually. "Several other experimental groups did just that."

"Experimental groups?" Adam whispered. The Gate Lord was still trying to process everything, and he winced as he struggled not to collapse under the weight of his wounds and suffering. Despite this, he remained standing. He glared at Udraal with as much hate as Shiv did just a few moments ago. "What do you mean, 'experimental groups'?"

Udraal frowned at Adam. "Come now. Your father had a fantastic awareness skill. Don't tell me you're a little deaf. What could I mean? Think about what I'm saying. The subtext is clear."

But Adam didn't reply. Udraal rolled his eyes. "Okay, it's clear that neither of you are aware of the scientific method. It's a thing long-lost to most people across most worlds. To put it simply, you need to see if something does not work. You want to disprove certain things. And with the breadth of variables around every experiment, you want to have different outcomes. Hence, you have control groups, and you have treatment groups, also known as experimental groups." He paused then, waiting for either Shiv or Adam to get to the conclusion.

"There's... there's more than one Deathless?" Adam asked with a gasp of disbelief.

Udraal squinted. "A bit off. No, there was more than one Deathless experimental group. At present, there is only one Deathless, not counting the bastardized creature Sullain made from my work." He chuckled then. "A Tarasque, Sullain. Of all things, a Tarasque. How did you even come close to controlling it?"

"A natural infusion of brain tissue," Sullain said. "Cultivated over many years. It thinks... it thinks it is me sometimes. But also, it changed a bit. It..." Sullain shuddered as he broke down into a whimpering mess.

Shiv stared into the Vicar’s eyes and saw the madness, the pain, the hollowing he inflicted.

Udraal finished his train of thought. "Ah, I see. So the vitae made it think that it was my Deathless narrative, while your little brain transplant had it confused because it has your memories as well. How messy. How desperate. Still remarkable, though. You would have been quite a legend if you weren't such a wretch." Sullain said nothing in his own defense, cowed by Udraal's presence and ruined by Shiv's mutilation. "I suppose it is fortunate that you weren't slain, young Lord Adam. Otherwise, I fear I might not have gotten back my most successful test subject so far."

"Tell me," Udraal continued, "have you returned his sister yet?"

"Sister?" Shiv said.

"Yes, she was partially embedded in one of your skills. She should have been your constant companion across your entire life, a ghostly figure that developed alongside you." Udraal smiled wide as if he knew one of Shiv's deepest secrets. "Come now. I made you. You can't hide these things from me. Where is she?" He looked around. "Is she trying to get behind me right now? Did she have the path of the shadow?"

And it was then that Shiv realized Udraal didn't know everything either. He had assumptions with regards to how Shiv's path functioned, how his soul worked, and right now his assumptions were leading him off in a strange and unexpected direction. Shiv was about to say something, but then he went along, looked past Udraal's shoulder, and shook his head. "Back off. He knows you're there."

Deception > [Error]

Unexpectedly, Udraal laughed once more. "Oh good, he lies too."

"What?" Shiv said. His stomach dropped. He didn't understand what was happening anymore.

"The Abyssal Lord sees all," Sullain declared. “He plays with us. He prods and he discovers. Everything is for his amusement or knowledge.”

Udraal rolled his eyes. "You make me sound like a narcissist, sweet Vicar.”

“I… I beg—”

But Udraal had no more interest in Sullain. Instead, his eyes were on Shiv once more. “I know that you don't have an invisible ghost twin that fights by your side. I lied. I wanted to see if you would lie back to me, to get a better gauge of who you are. You did. That makes you interesting." Then the smile faded from his face immediately. "But truthfully now, have you regrown the daughter and mother inside you yet? You're a legend already. The amount of experiences you accumulated should be more than enough."

"You can't stand, you bastard! I'm still behind you!" The Gate Lord tried to draw an arrow, and he growled with pain as he tugged at his bow. But his body was broken. And where the heart was furious, and the spirit was willing, the flesh failed.

Udraal regarded Adam for a moment and then looked away. "Right. Understandable, but inconsequential. Not until you get your soul mended." He clapped both hands down on Sullain's shoulders. "So, are we ready to begin?"

"Begin what?" Shiv asked.

"I told you earlier, you're going to move your injuries over into Sullain here. It will also help you squeeze out that poisoned patch of Animancy old man Anthony plugged inside you.”

"Please, no, mercy, please…" the vicar moaned in dismay.

"Oh, Sullain. I thought you understood. I didn't bring you here because I was going to help you complete your revenge. That was your business, not mine. There's another thing you can't seem to get through your head: I'm not going to help you make up for your own failures. What kind of path-bearer would you be if I did that? No, your past has ruined your future, and now my past has crippled your soul. So I'm going to use your present and your lack of a future to ensure that my experiment," he gestured toward Shiv, "is capable of maintaining himself and bringing about a proper Incursion." He looked back to the Deathless. "Now, do you have Animancy? Or just your Vitae?"

Shiv said nothing. Udraal guessed. “Just your Vitae, then. Fine. It will work as well. Have you shifted any damage across souls yet?"

Shiv was about to say no, if out of spite. But then he remembered Can Hu, how he was mostly repaired, and how Udraal likely had a hand in his overall restoration. There's no point in lying to Udraal Thann right now, not when he knew more than he let on. Not when he's deliberately trying to screw with me either, Shiv grimaced at Udraal's deliberate deception a few moments ago.

"Also yes; Alright then, Deathless," Udraal said, offering Sullain to Shiv as if he was giving a lion a piece of meat. "Have at him. Let's see what you can do."

Sullain shuddered as he held his hands up. "Udraal, Udraal, please. He has taken all from me. Do not let him have my life as well.”

"Sullain," Udraal said, sounding absolutely exasperated. "We're already here. Please what? Please what? What life? What hope? You can't make it right anymore. In fact, you should have held your city. You should have stopped Roland. You should have defended your city years ago." He paused and then shrugged. "You should have. But Roland exceeds a great many of our expectations. And so I give you my lament, for I truly do not wish you dead. But you must die. You must. For you have interfered with my experiment.”

His fingers began to sink into Sullain's shoulders, and Shiv could have sworn he heard the Vicar's collarbones crack. A loud howl of pain sounded from Sullain, and Udraal's expression never changed. He just looked tired, annoyed that someone else couldn't understand what he was saying. "And more importantly, what made you think you could take my work and pervert it? What made you think that I was done with this world?"

Sullain gasped as he struggled against Udraal. He kicked and hammered Udraal's limbs. To Shiv's astonishment, Sullain proved to be the stronger of the two. Udraal's arms shattered, bones jutting free. But before he could do anything, another version of Udraal emerged from his planted flag. And he held Sullain in place by gripping the scruff of his neck.

"No, don't. Don't! I'm not ready! I'm not ready!" the Vicar cried aloud. The Udraal with his arms broken looked at the other and simply shrugged. He marched away, even as Sullain wailed on, splashing into the Animancy-infused standard. A few moments later, another Udraal emerged.

Ritual of the Dichotomous Soul, Shiv realized. There were a lot more than one Udraal because his bodies were scattered—all bound together by the same soul.

"You have no idea how much I envy you right now," both Udraals said at the same time. They also had their eyes locked on Shiv, and the Deathless did all he could not to shiver. The scene was uncanny. The orcs around them were watching, observing how Shiv faced his maker, meanwhile Udraal was actively goading him into shifting his soul burns over to Sullain.

"Deathless, please, please don't," Sullain cried aloud. "I will forswear my vengeance. I will let you go. I forgive you for all that you've done."

"Did you hear that, Deathless?" Udraal said dryly. "He forgives you. Too bad, I do not forgive you. I pity you. I understand your state of mind, but I do not forgive you for affecting my work. This is more than just us; this is for the enduring immortality and preservation of everyone. And you could have stopped that.”

“I was wrong. I was a fool. Udraal.” Sullain sobbed. 

Udraal frowned sadly. “That Tarrasque, it belongs to me now. What I made flows through its body and curdles inside its very bones. And said Tarasque is now threatening my homeworld, the place where most of my experiments still reside. Have you no foresight, Sullain? Have you no sense that this would come back around to wound you?"

"I can make it right," Sullain called aloud. "Udraal, please, if you but..." He drew in a long breath as he spoke his next words. "If you but restore me, if you return my legendary skill, I will see the Tarrasque contained. I will offer it to you as a gift."

"There's no need for that," Udraal replied, "and there's no need for you. I'll just go get it myself. Why would I need you? Now, Deathless, please, show me what you've learned, if you've learned anything at all."

But Shiv didn't show Udraal what he'd learned. He retracted the vitae back into his body and simply glared at his maker. A moment of silence passed, and Udraal sighed.

"Ah, petulance, is it?"

"No," Shiv said, his anger turning from hot to cold. It was like a chunk of ice inside him now, and he was beginning to get the measure of his maker. "I'm just not a dog. I don't do what everyone else tells me, not when I don't want to."

At that, an arrow sailed through the air. It tore a gap across the flesh of existence, and it struck Sullain, and the Udraal holding him. But it skipped off their bodies, as if repelled by an unseen field. Udraal ignored the dimensional arrow altogether, as he and Shiv began a stare-down. While the Deathless was glaring, Udraal studied him with an inquisitive glint in his eyes.

"So how are you going to fix your spiritual burns, then? Would you have done it if I hadn't ordered you?"

Shiv considered Sullain, saw the absolute terror in the man's eyes, and realized he didn't care. Sullain, for all his begging, for all his present weakness, had no issue condemning an entire town to death for the actions of one man. On top of that, he had no issue unleashing an undying Tarasque on the world.

"Probably," was Shiv's answer. "I don't much care about him. He has it coming."

“Has it coming,” Udraal said with a slight hum of amusement. “Your notions of justice are brutishly adorable. And simple. I quite like it. But you're not going to hurt him now because I told you to.’

"You don't own me," Shiv almost snarled.

Udraal considered his statement and then nodded. "I do not own you. I do not wish to own you. Slaves are such feeble, worthless things. I did, however, have a hand in making you." And before he could say anything else, another dimensional arrow came, bursting free from a rift. He caught this one and flicked it aside. "Do you mind, Young Lord Arrow? I’m having a conversation right now.”

"I'm going to kill you," Adam rasped. There was hate in his pain, and that hate gave him the strength to continue standing, to prop himself up against the wall and try to fire another shot.

"Well then, Deathless, since you're not a slave of mine, would you mind restraining your friend? The attempts on my life are getting annoying, and though I do appreciate his unyielding determination to kill someone he simply can't, I will cripple and incapacitate him so we can finish our conversation without further interruptions. And I will do it in ways you cannot fix. And that way he will stay until I bother to restore him.”

"Adam," Shiv said. He looked at his friend, and the Gate Lord's expression was heartbreaking.

"You heard him. It was his doing. All of it was his doing. My mother, my sister, my life. It was supposed to come from you as well."

"Technically," Udraal interjected, "your mother was supposed to go for Adam. She was meant to draw some of his genetic material from his corpse. After that, she was meant to inject it into her egg to make a complete set.”

Adam was speechless with horror, but the rage inside Shiv combusted.

"What the hells is wrong with you?" Shiv spat. “Why—Fucking why do all that? I saw what they did to… to…”

“The ritual demands death and violence. Yes. Very disturbing. But necessary due to Roland and Rose’s exposure to the Great One’s Dreaming. One needs to die to break their connection to the Great One.” The way Udraal casually recounted the details of his atrocious experiments left the Deathless horrified. It took a lot to faze him. The First Blood managed to do it. The Recollector was an aberration that should have never been, but Udraal just didn't care. Udraal only wanted to see what the outcome of his experiments were. People, they were sacrificial. Atrocities, they meant nothing to him.

"Again, your anger is understandable," Udraal carried on. "But right now, focus on getting yourselves fixed. Focus on doing the pragmatic thing. Don't think I'm not sympathetic to your loathing, but it also doesn't really matter." Udraal seemed actively disappointed now. He threw Sullain aside and placed his hands on his hips. The other version of himself started shaking his head and walked back to the banner. With a flash of Animancy, he disappeared. “Another of me is needed elsewhere. A great many things are in motion, I need to catch up on all I missed since I was gone.”

"Listen to me. I am impressed that you managed to endure this long. I am impressed that you avoided the ascendants and somehow broke out of this prison on your own. What confounds me is your refusal, however, to deal with the problem right in front of you."

"Which is you," Shiv gestured to him.

"No. It is the fact that you are still untrained and let yourself be trapped in this prison. I understand the main reason you are here is because you exposed yourself to the Ascendants while fighting the Tarrasque.” Udraal sighed. “A fight that you lost control of. Very poor planning, dear boy. When you don’t control the variables, you often become one.”

Shiv stared at Udraal with disbelief. "You're seriously fucking criticizing us for being inefficient right now?"

"Why else would I criticize you?" Udraal said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Of course, I'm going to criticize you for being inefficient. You're a path-bearer. You need to face the problems and solve them. Languishing in your emotions... you can be emotional if you want, but languishing is not very useful. Let this be a lesson for the both of you. Hate, if you will, but hate effectively. Hate, and do something with it. That goes for you as well, Young Lord?" He smiled at Adam, and the tension in the air climbed even higher.

"I will see you slain, Udraal Thann," Adam seethed. "I don't care if it takes this life or the next. I don't care if it takes one year or ten thousand. I will see you slain for all that you've done. To me, my family, to this world, to Shiv."

A pang of emotion passed through the Deathless. He barely noticed it, underneath his thundering heartbeat.

Udraal nodded nonchalantly. "I'll have to try and remember that, but I suspect it will blur with the illimitable amount of threats I've received in the past." He smirked slightly. "You are unique, Adam Arrow. Don't think you're not. What you aren't, however, is special." His smile died on his face, and a shadow crawled over him once more. The shadow was always there inside Udraal, a darkness he held at bay. "For you live under the system, and so no one is special. All is fuel. All is feed."

A beat of silence followed, and for the first time it seemed Udraal realized there were others in the room with him. Tanu, the prisoners, the orcs. He frowned slightly to himself, but said nothing. Instead, he regarded Sullain and pressed his lips together. "So tell me, experiment of mine, if I hadn't arrived, how would you have escaped?"

"Probably wouldn't have," Shiv admitted. The words tasted bitter on his lips, but he wasn't going to deny them. "We were in a real bad spot."

"I know," Udraal nodded. "I know, because you, little more than a boy, tried to face Veronica Chandler and the rest of her godly circus. Much like the Tarrasque, that's not a fight you should be involved in. You need to be more self-interested. More self-protective.” Udraal hummed. Then smirked. “Use your Vitae on me.”

“What?” Shiv said.

“Is there something confusing about my words.”

Shiv stared at the man who shaped his Path, his life.

“Use it. Do it. Try to break me. You don’t like me much. I see your anger. I accept it. Go. Reach into me with the Vitae. Show me what you have learned.”

Faced with the gleeful smile on Udraal’s face, the groaning Sullain, and so many eyes on him, Shiv swallowed.

And made his choice.

Instead of striking at Sullain directly with Vitaemancy, Shiv channeled all his Unique Skills at once. He went Non-Sequitur, bursting free from his body while he wrapped Sullain with threads of Vitaemancy. As soon as he did, however, he felt his magic get driven back. His threads were swatted aside as red-white mana exploded out from Udraal, rupturing free of his being like vines. They shredded through the world and struck Shiv was if razors digging through his flesh even while he was apart from reality.

The Deathless cried out in pain as he clutched himself. New wounds wept blood from his shredded torso, but his attention remained on Udraal. The Abyssal Lord seemed unaffected, but another version of him, faint and ghostly, fell through the floor in a cocoon of Vitae. It was like a husk being shed from a soul. As it vanished, another ghost emerged over Udraal.

A ghost that resembled Shiv.

A ghost woven from Vitae itself.

“Ah. Managed to sever yourself from the system’s awareness with one of your Unique Skills, have we.” Udraal nodded with appreciation. Superimposed over him, Shiv’s clone glared down at his original self with a brutal snarl. “Well. I think I will take a copy of that skill as well. But first—since you won’t cooperate, let me decide instead. Let me help you instead. Practical education is always my preference anyway.”

And before Shiv or Adam could do anything, the ghost-clone of Shiv Udraal possessed unleashed a stream of Vitae. White and red swallowed Shiv, pierced through Adam, and connected them to the screaming Sullain.

Life seared through the Deathless’s flesh. Life, power, and the careful touch of someone who knew his soul better than he did.

Udraal breathed. “So. Let us start with the burns. Are you ready Sullain?”

“No! NO! UDRAAL! MERCY! UDRAAL!”

“Hm. No. It’s not up to you. But I might fix you after if the feeling strikes me.”