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Isolation
“You must be joking.”
Zlosta sat with her legs crossed on nothing but empty air. I wondered if it was telekinesis, or simply some sort of magic levitation spell that enabled her to so blatantly insult the laws of physics.
“The goal of all masakh is to follow the will of the Mother. To end suffering by ending all who suffer, and you mean to tell me, you do not have any desire to obey this will?”
“None.”
“At all? Not even in the slightest?”
“I have literally everything to lose from mass genocide. What exactly do you gain?”
Zlosta furrowed her brow. Once the blood was gone from her face along with the insane cheer and glee, Zlosta was attractive.
That was an understatement. An understatement that slipped into the territory of a lie. Zlosta defied expectations. Reminded me that this was indeed another world.
Dark locks of hair flowing down the sides of her face like an advert for women’s conditioner that made growing girls insecurely twirl their finger through their own mediocre locks. Dark green skin a shy shade away from a fresh watermelon agreed upon by art students as an ideal muse. A face that one would gaze upon and immediately swallow a building lump in the throat as the subconscious mind identified and highlighted the gap between oneself and one who could raise blood pressures and elevate heartrates by the upward movement of their lips.
For now, I was grateful for the lack of an organ capable of sexual arousal. Dealing with Zlosta would be difficult otherwise.
“It has nothing to do with personal gain. It is merely about principle. The world is filled with too many who suffer, and too many who enable this suffering or ignore it. Injustice upon injustice is wrought daily, lives are treated without dignity, people strive for greatness – and fail. There is inequality, and I wish to end it.”
“By killing everyone?”
“Death is the ultimate equalizer.”
I chuckled. It felt good.
“What amuses you?”
“Death is only an equalizer if there’s no afterlife.”
“That is why the Anathema constantly raid the Kingdom to steal souls and spread terror.”
I digested that slowly. “Heaven has terrorists?”
Zlosta’s laughed. She placed her hands to her lips in that dignified, upper-class lady laugh I’d expect to find from a bourgeoisie woman in the early fifties. It was hard to believe this was the same person who’d been stabbing a face with barely restrained glee merely a few hours ago.
“If you want to put it that way, although no one calls the Kingdom... what did you put it...? Ah, heaven. That’s... another odd word. Godfather, heaven, and your ability to read and understand the Antediluvian Hieroglyphs...”
A benefit of being a skeleton was the lack of a face. The lack of a face was the definitive poker-face. Zlosta’s haunting red eyes locked on me. It was eerie.
“I like you, Janus. I really like you. But – you don’t make sense. You do and say things that no masakh should do or say. You’re... odd. A wildcard. Wildcards can be really, really great, or they can be really, really bad.”
The air felt heavier than it should be. Tentatively, I took an odd step away. She smiled. “Oh come now, I’m not going to kill you after going to the trouble of naming you. Not yet anyway.”
“Not yet?”
“No. Not yet. For all I know, you’re either a newborn spawn of an Anathema lacking memories, or you’re an agent of the Prince and his Nine. Either possibility sounds interesting.”
“I’m neither. I’m not acquainted with any princes, last I checked.” At least, in this world.
“Oh, but you know godfathers?”
“A ‘Godfather’ does not necessarily mean the ‘father of a god.’ Or the ‘god of fathers.’ It’s an honorary title –”
“And you know someone who is honored with this title?”
The answer to that question was condemnatory. I did, in my previous life, have a godfather, but I could not explain that it was a title given by parents to an individual who they would like to be honored as the child’s mentor or guardian. For starters, a monster should have no way of knowing that, and secondly, it was entirely possible that such a convention did not exist in this world.
“No. I don’t.”
“But the first words that you spoke indicated otherwise.”
I remembered those words. Why do I sound like the Godfather?
I cursed my slip-up. I had not needed to lie or deceive or play the intricate game of social power struggles via communicative competence to anyone in ages. It felt like a lifetime ago.
“I’m impressed Janus. You’ve had the ability to speak for less than three hours, and you’ve already begun to lie.”
The air felt thick again. A part of me, however small, contemplated telling Zlosta the whole truth; I was reincarnated as a worm and brought into this world from another. I dismissed it once I saw the gleam in her red eyes. The contemplating gleam that was eerily reminiscent to that of a professional lawyer who just discovered a loophole in a client’s contract that could be used to make herself millions.
She was driven by a pseudo-religious belief that a mass genocide of all living creatures in the world was perfectly justifiable. There could be no positive outcome from telling her of other worlds, i.e. other targets.
“Is there anything you need me for?”
“You make it sound like you’re leaving.”
“There’s no reason to stay here anymore.”
Zlosta gestured to herself. “And me? You’d just... leave me?”
A warm breeze blew ash and sand across the small clearing. The smell of blood and decomposing flesh filled the air as did the buzzing of flies perching against recently deceased. I knew, however damnable it was, that my answer to that question would have changed if there was a functioning cock between my legs.
At the same time, I was being practical. Zlosta was not the best guide to have, as everything she knew was most likely several thousand years out of date. Several thousand years was a considerable amount of time, and misinformation could be more fatal than a complete lack of information. There was no real reason for me to stay with her, not now when I could speak, and travel and learn about the world for myself.
Then, there was Meg. I did not want to be anywhere near it.
“I don’t believe I owe you any outstanding debts.”
There was something considerably less warm about her.
“I named you.”
“And I freed you.”
Zlosta stopped floating in the air. Her feet, complete with toes and fingers, dropped to the ground. “Do you know what I am, Janus?”
“I’ll assume you’re about to tell me.”
“I assumed you’d know. Seeing how you knew my name before I told you.”
Another slip-up.
“You’re a Druid.”
Zlosta nodded. She approached me, one step at a time. “Druids, or Dryads as we were called in the old days, naturally have the ability to sense and commune with spirits. These spirits are often metaphysical representations of emotions, feelings, and the most powerful of them... concepts.”
Zlosta reached out, she trailed a single long finger down my exposed ribcage. “Even the masakh have spirits. Dark spirits we call them – the foundations of negative energy and emotions. The desire to terminate and plunder – it exists in all masakh, and often appears in Dryads or Krvavi.”
“Krvavi?” I asked.
“Any race of bipedal creatures with red blood, most often, humans.” Zlosta said, smiling. “Fascinatingly, only a select few Druids can see spirits, and only an even smaller few can manipulate them – turn them off or on, and therefore turn creatures happy or depressed enough to throw themselves off cliffs. We can make beings inexplicably enraged to kill their own children or unusually aroused that they would attempt to copulate with a smooth rock. Or, we can use the spirits around us to cast – turned into energy, we manipulate the fundamental forces of nature.”
Fascinating and game-breaking as it was, “Where are you going with this?”
“Oh Janus you special little thing,” She took a step back, still smiling at me. “I just told you I can manipulate the fundamental forces of nature. Where do you think this is going?”
Zlosta’s question came with a sudden desire to kneel. Both my knees dropped on to the earth before I had any say in the matter. My head slammed into the ground following it in an undignified grovel, and I found my hands, moving against their own will, moving until they were in position beside my head, bowing.
“Ah! There we go.” I heard her clapping. “That’s the proper response you’re supposed to have. What took you so long?”
“What are you do–”
“Shhh.”
My jaw snapped shut. I found, with growing rage, that I could not open them on my own will.
“Your spirits when you laughed – they intoxicated me. Such pure, unbridled joy from something as banal as laughter. I was stunned, I was in love. It would be a shame, really, if you never laughed again.”
Different feelings tore through me in an instant. I tried, tried to force myself to stand, to rise, to lift my head, to lift my finger or a single tail –
“I don’t want that, Janus. I don’t. As I said, I like you. The problem is, however, you don’t seem to understand that you can’t just walk away from me. We promised we’d be best friends forever, didn’t we? We’d be best friends, and best friends don’t abandon each other.”
Stand! STAND! STAND!
“I’m not sure if I’ve been gone for a thousand years or ten, or fifty. Alamir will be different. It means it could be more dangerous, there could be strong empires and adversaries who oppose the Mother’s plan. Attempting to do things without caution could get me sealed again, if not killed. And I need you, to be my best friend – to watch my back and make sure that doesn’t happen.”
STAND DAMN IT! FUCK! STAND!
My legs refused to obey. Zlosta sat on my back and made herself comfortable, as though I were a decorative chair.
“Of course you’re a bit too weak right now to really help me, but I’m not exactly at full strength either, so this helps. You have a nice growth rate. I know there are many hidden talents and secrets you have. There are going to be numerous benefits from having you Janus. Numerous benefits.”
She preened my tail and ran her finger down my hipbones.
“I’m sure you might be thinking that there’s no way you’d join or help me, but, there is always a solution for things like this, a solution for moments like these.”
A burning sensation ripped through me. Zlosta wrote down my spine with her finger, and every motion she made felt as if she was carving out of me with a blowtorch. With horror, I knew what she was doing.
“With this, Janus – we’ll stay together. Forever.”
STAND!
[You have attained the skill: [Lesser Paralysis Resistance] from fighting paralysis.]
[You have attained the skill: [Mental Resistance] from exposure to mind-controlling mystics.]
Our positions were reversed in seconds. My tail hooked around her neck and slammed her into the ground. Stakes of granite pierced her hands and feet. I was surprised to hear her scream in pain. Somehow, I expected that she wouldn’t.
“Janus –”
I placed one skeletal hand over her mouth, and the other over her throat.
“You were going to turn me into your slave.”
I placed pressure on her throat.
“I will not be a slave.”
I swung both my hands in opposite directions. The crack was disconcerting. I had never snapped someone’s neck before. Never seen someone’s neck twist around three-hundred and sixty degrees and witness their wrinkled neck as the flesh stretched beyond what it was meant to.
“Did you think it was that easy, Janus?”
Despite her clearly broken, snapped neck, Zlosta spoke. It was unnerving, watching her smile and listening to the sound of her bones snapping back in place.
“If I could be killed so easily, no one would bother sealing me away.” She cracked her neck, literally, and forcibly pulled her hands out of the stakes that bound them. I leaped backwards, putting as much space between us as possible.
Zlosta rose from the ground, dusting herself. The bloodied holes in her hands and legs from where I’d staked her to the ground sizzled and vanished, as if they were never there to begin with.
“How?”
“Meg, or as he’s known to the world, Anathema Omega. When he chose me as his champion, I gained a lot of benefits, one of which included that I can’t be killed unless you kill him first.”
Kill Meg? Was that even possible?
“I can still feel pain though. Having my neck snapped – it didn’t feel nice Janus. It. Didn’t. Feel. Nice.”
[Sixth Sense – DANGER DETECTED!]
I ran. The broken trees and foliage became a blur in the background as I did my best to escape from Zlosta. There was no point in fighting her if killing her was impossible. Trapping her could be another solution, but even then it was a stopgap measure at best.
“You can’t run from me Janus.”
Something slammed me into the ground with all the force of a charging bull. Again, I found myself unable to move, again, I found her on top of me, carving something burning down my spine.
“I didn’t want to do this, Janus. You left me with no choice.”
You have attained the Negative Effect: [Curse of Loyal Soul]
You are incapable of physically betraying Night-Witch Zlosta Janje. Attempting to do so will generate a shockwave of immense physical pain that deals [1000] HP Damage per second.
You have attained the Negative Effect: [Curse of Servant Soul]
You are incapable of physically disobeying Night-Witch Zlosta Janje. Attempting to do so will generate a shockwave of immense physical pain that deals [1000] HP Damage per second.
My blood would be boiling if I had any blood to boil. Slave, was the term for what I was now. A slave.
“If you’re thinking that you’ll be able to get rid of my curse, I’m sorry to disappoint you Janus.” She said. “I used the Spirit Arts to craft an unbreakable bond. There is only one person in Alamir who might, with years of study and an unyielding will, have the knowledge needed to undo it.”
Zlosta let out a sigh. “And you’ve already killed her.”
The Kadulja. She’s talking about the Kadulja.
“Is this your idea of friendship?” I snarled. “Slavery? Is that what friendship is to you?”
“Often times it’s hard to tell the difference.”
“No, it isn’t! This is insane! Why would you do this?”
“If you weren’t so selfish, things would have gone differently.”
I was astonished by the bullshit. “I’m being selfish?”
“I was betrayed and have been sealed for mother-knows how many thousands of years. I lost my sanity. I found a friend and he freed me. I slaughter my people down to every man, woman and child for their betrayal. I have no people. I have no home. I have no knowledge of the world beyond. Everyone I know and love have been dead for millennia. And then – then, my new friend, the one who freed me, the only being left in Alamir that I know – he wants nothing to do with me.”
Zlosta let out a soft laugh. I’d never heard so much bitterness in a laugh before.
“You have to understand. This is the way things have to be Janus. I can’t – I can’t afford to lose you. I wish – I wish you hadn’t told me you wanted to leave. I wish... you chose to stay with me instead. All I want is someone – anyone – to stay by my side. Is that so bad?”
Jesus Christ. “You can’t force people to be with you!”
“I just did.”
I lunged. She slammed into the ground and the pointed tip of my bony tail hovered over her face.
“Janus! Stop!”
You have triggered [Curse of Servant Soul]
Sparks emitted from my body and I bit through it as I felt pain assault every single bone I possessed. It was on the level of nothing I’d ever felt before. Pain that wanted to make me crawl into a ball and whimper as I begged it to stop. A second of this pain was enough to cripple me, staggering me backwards and arching my spine to roar to the heavens.
HP: 2600/3600
I pushed past the pain. Animalistic growls escaped from my mouth and I almost did not believe I was responsible for them.
“Remove. The. Bloody. Curse.”
“I can’t Janus.”
I attacked her. I tried to.
You have triggered [Curse of Loyal Soul]
The pain returned. My body was on fire. The world around me was losing color and definition, the ground was losing solidity, and I was falling. Falling –
HP: 1600/3600
“Stop! Stop it! You’ll die!”
“Then let me fucking die!” I spat. “I’d sooner die than be a slave! Even as a bloody worm and I wasn’t a slave! Even as a fucking worm I wasn’t a slave!”
You have triggered [Curse of Servant Soul]
The world was hazy. Zlosta’s form appeared like clouds in my vision. Hallucination. It occurred to me that the pain was making me hallucinate. A sudden difficulty arose in differentiating what was real and what wasn’t – what was solid and what wasn’t.
HP: 600/1600
I could hear Zlosta’s voice calling out my name. Thick with worry, laced with concern, dipped in the tones of desperation and faintness. Laughter would have escaped my bony jaw had I the strength to do so. The world was nothing more to me but bright lights. Zlosta’s helpless voice was the only thing audible to me amidst the drifting whiteness.
Helpless? The thought almost made me laugh. She was anything but helpless. She was just irrational. She would rather I die than leave her side. Why? Was it because I let her believe I was her friend? Was it because I freed her?
Was it because we laughed together?
Was it because she gave me my name?
Janus –
The two-faced Roman god. The one who could look to the past and present simultaneously. I wondered if she even knew the meaning of the name, or if she just chose it at whim. Maybe if I had two heads I’d have seen this coming. One would have noticed the signs that Zlosta was clingy. The other would debated and made a different choice.
Not that it was any good to me now.
[You have discovered a meaning of your name]
Compiling...
Compiling...
Compiling...
Confusion replaced my bitterness as words began to appear in my vision.
Compilation Complete.
Associations Found.
Trigger Found
Activating Epithet Skill – Duality.
I felt something... split.
