The #Broken_Dagger Forum

The thing about wanting to be free.. is that you could only be free when you made choices for yourself. There were things Aleksei wanted, and weights he had to shed, but he had to do them in his own way. He knew what he needed to do, though. His fingers stroked over the pages of the book, written in the language of his home. Wards, bindings, magics that his kind were never meant to know. Vessels they were called. Though, that word didn't really translate it well enough. Natural mages, taken from their homes before they were ten years old, forced to hold the spirit of some extraplanar creature. The strength of the mind determined the strength of the creature to be held. He was very strong, and he was Chosen to be the Successor of the Third Knight. His mentor was the last of the Original Twelve, other than the King himself. He had learned from one of the best. His mentor had told him he must be the one to free her. Madora, the Sun Warrior. To drive the point home, his master had used bindings to seal Aleksei into a prison for a week, just so he could feel what it was like to see and commit crimes, but not be able to ever stop it. It was horrifying.

He sighs and lifts his eyes to the ceiling again. Memories haunted him today. Memories and guilt. Doing something he knew would be felt as a betrayal to someone he cared about later always brought this on. Glenn was going to be angry. Agnie.. oh gods, she might kill him. He stands and stretches his arms over his head, arching his back till shoulders and spine pop. Either way, it was time to get this started. It was time to rid himself and Myrken of this gods-be-damned axe. Part of him was still baffled by the 'kill it' suggestion. First thing was first. His shirt was shed so he could get to his arm. Words started to flow from his lips, old words of power from a language that predated anything. He was combining the binding rituals with the knowledge he had gained from the skinbook, and creating wards with the Words of Creation. Runes started to glow on his arms, shimmering like heat waves. Each rune was like a paragraph, and the runes took form slowly. His palm, the back of his hand. Around his wrist, and lines flowing up to the silvered circle around his bicep, joining with it. They merged and danced. Time became meaningless as he chanted. The last of the Words spoken, and suddenly a huge flare, massive light flashing out from his skin. Then the smell of burning flesh. Memories flooded him again, as he head fell backwards, mouth opened in a silent scream. The pain overwhelmed all senses, all reason. He had done this once before. Once when he was still only Aleksei. When it all fades, he is on the ground, on hands and knees, heavy, trying to to breath. His right arm is covered in another series of the same runic bindings that circle his thighs, biceps and the giant circle on his back. It looks as if the silver itself as melted into the skin. His flexes his hand as he slowly sits back so he is just kneeling. At least he had done it correctly. It had healed.

It was at least another hour before he had gained his mind back enough to start this. He moved himself to the basement, what had been Eleanor's lab. Here she had set up portals to the plane of fire, and it was far easier to twist a portal than make a new one. He never did understand what her purpose was, and it tugged at his heart that she had left.

Work to be done. He studied her portal, fingers running over the arch stones as he gazed at the rune patterns. "This one, here. The keystone." He pulled it out, and the portal died. The stone was turned to a blank face, and the runed hand laid over it, imparting some of the power he had given it, etching a new rune in the blank face of the stone. Replaced into the empty recess, the portal flared in protest for a few moments before it opened to a wind blasted landscape, barren of all life. Tunnels that seemed to vanish. A wind so powerful it carried rocks as large as a man.

Pandemonium.

Now, for the terrible part.

He moved back a few steps, to give himself room and laid his hands on the floor. A circle of light flared into the ground, new runes burned into place on the floor, then another. A warding circle to contain the influence of Kharnagar, and a new one. The reverse of the circle that had drawn Kharnagar into the plane with his Celestial, and it began, forcing and pushing the daemon out and back into the world.

"It's time to be free, daemon."

The odd thing about Aleksei, he desired none of these things. Power, riches servants.. all held no appeal to him. It was not even contact with the Celestial that had given him these feelings. Rather, it was these feelings that had given him the ability to be the Vessel that housed such a being as the Celestial. The temptations that Kharangar offered him just brought a little smile to his lips. "What? Fight fire with fire? Is that what you offer me now? Turn myself into that which I was made to fight, just so I can fight it? That's a fallacy, Daemon. I could hold myself longer than most men ever could against your corruption, but eventually I would be come one with you. No, turning yourself into a monster to kill monsters makes about as much sense as going to war to gain peace."

He shuts out the Daemon then and stands, pulling the protective cloak around his shoulders. "Unbind, first Seal." The power flooded him for the first time in months, since that night. Since that night he had not access the power of his Angel once, fearing to weaken her to Kharangar's influence while it shared space with her. Now, they would be as One again, and resist together. Perhaps.. for the last time. Her power filled him, flushing his skin with new life, washing away the weariness that had come from the sleepless nights. Eyes of blue became eyes of silver as he blinked down at the axe before him. The new runes that covered his lower right arm seemed to glow, almost.. hungry. This was the gamble, the part he was unsure of. The part he wanted Renea around for, in case it didn't work. But now she was dead, leaving him with a lack of options. He gained focus again, feeding the power of the Celestial into his body down into the wards on his arm.

They were purpose made. Targetted at the creature that had shared his brain for so long. He knew eventually a Daemon of that monstrous would certainly not be completely contained, and would eventually defeat them entirely, but.. he didn't need forever.

The purpose of these wards was not binding, or banishing, or even defeating Kharangar, but.. to suppress. He just wanted the buy enough time to get to where he was going on the Plane.

His hands flexed, and he stepped into the circle with the axe, steeling himself against the Voices and Corruption, reaching down to close his warded grip around the Daemon. "Enjoy the feel of warmth, it will be the last for a very long time, Daemon."

He shudders with it. He had not expected raw emotion from the thing. Promises, whispers. Temptation, even. Not this, not the white hot rage, the feeling of power that came with violence. He mentally staggers. Within him, the Second Aleksei can feel it, and wants it. The lesser personality, the one that had lost, and was now suppressed by the magic of the Binding of Soul. It fights at its magical chains within him RELEASE ME., it screams into his head, just on the other side of the wards that keep Kharnagar from him. The Second reaches and near whimpers in his head as they war.

Fighting it all is useless, so he does the next best thing. He ignores it. The flailing chain. The blood, the screaming in his head. He is Discipline. That is why he became the Dominate personality over this twisted seething wretch in his head. With slow deliberate strides through the Gate. He knew She would protect him from the madness. But after? What happened then? No, better to not think over much on it. Even has he step through, the Gate shut behind him, the reverberation feeling like doom behind him.

So now.. the only thing to do was walk. He needed to be in a place that was not weak in the Planar Mesh, one away from where Gates would open.

And so he walks. Kharnagar raging at him, his own Mind raging at him. The Winds of Pandemonium raging at him. And only one Celestial to protect him. Even now, the Winds ripped sand across his face, drawing blood.

If only the Daemon knew. Aleksei was already lost. If he knew not where he placed the axe, then could not be persued or coaxed into telling any beast of chaos where it was. No, it was better this way. He just stops. Staring at the walls of the vast cavern before him. One of the few dead ends inside this Realm. This would do. This would be Kharnagar's new home, hopefully for a very long time.

But he's tired. He Will and Body are bolstered by the power of the Heavens, but even now he weakens. He tires. Aleksei is only mortal. He has carried this burden for a long time, longer than he had thought possible. The ones he thought would support him did fully trust that he could do this. That he was still Aleksei. But was he? Was he ever really Aleksei? He did not even remember his birth name. Aleksei River was the name granted to him on the Day of Merging.

His feet find their way to the center of the room. As much as he has a grip on the axe, now he grips him, chain coiled about his arm. Kneeling, he presses the creature to the ground and takes a deep breath. Part of him.. said no. This plan was wrong. He was vulnerable. He could not trust. Why was he doing this?

The trust was.. there was no grand plan. Aleksei was making it up as he went. How does one plan for a the rage of a Daemon in your head? There is nothing in Heaven, Hell, or on Earth that can prepare a mortal for what Aleksei has carried, and the scars in his mind will never fully heal. No, this was born of desperation and pain. He needed to be rid of this.

And he needed to keep his word to Glenn. He would be free of both of them today.

So he made his final preparations. He didn't know if he would survive this. He had left a letter for Agnie. Left it where she would look for it if he wasn't home by tomorrow. Not next to her open whiskey, but the bottle behind it. Clever.

He takes a deep breath in. He had to be sure. This was hard, he was letting go of something that had been a part of him of as long as he could remember. But it was time to let go of it all.

His voice can barely be heard over the howl of the winds, "Five seals, unbind." Light poured from his silvered tattoos, ripping through the cavern, flaring to life. He straightens and cries out in pain for a moment as the tattoo on his back burns its pattern into a far wall. Slowly, a being from the High Heavens seeped from the wall. Almost female, with skin like burnished gold. She was hairless, with a golden halo floating over her head. Brilliant white wings bursting forth from her shoulder blades.

But most of all she laid on the floor. Unmoving. This was not the plan.

The holy energy faded from his body, and his wards protecting him from the Daemon began to fail.

This.. was not the plan.

She was Fallen. That was the worst of it. The axe had poured its hideous energy into her for all those months, pushing and tugging at her with teasing thoughts. It had found her weakness at some point. Rodel. The priests. In a brief moment of weakness she had wanted to kill them all, to rage and lash about, ravaging their lands. Killing all. Men, women, and children. All until she saw the face of Aleksei. The one person that was willing to free her in that thrice cursed land. The person who had given up everything to do so. That had pulled her back from the brink, but the damage had been done. For one of her kind, there can be no wavering in commitment.

And such their plan was hatched. She knew the corruption would spread through her eventually. A being like Kharnagar? She was a Solar, but she was not a Prime. She had no True Name. No mark in the Host that set her apart as a Power. She could already feel it in her heart. That's why this had to happen. Why she had to be freed. She would Fall, Aleksei would Fall, and they would belong to Kharnagar. She would not let that happen.

The trick of it had been keeping the plan from the Daemon. That meant keeping it from Aleksei. Sealing it in the deepest parts of his mind, so he would act without thought. Something the critically thinking, self examining man was unused too.

Slowly, she rises from the ground and steps forward. One soft foot fall, then the other. A voice like a silver bell calls out, "Aleksei, tordash-chan'do" Aleksei stands like a puppet, drawing the sword he had forged. While the Axe uses its energy to put on a show for them, Aleksei lifts a blade with a single rune carved into its edge and drives it into the heart of the Solar standing before him.

Power. That's all there is. She had prepared for this moment. A final act of Redemption. Her life to make a prison. Her life to redeem Aleksei. Her life to save more. Her blood flowed out, over Aleksei's hands like a river. His eyes widen. "What? No! This--"

Her voice, a calm bell in the winds, "Is exactly what was supposed to happen."

Then it pours into his mind. Why had he come here? Why had he forged a weapon to kill her? He knew

Blood magic. The thing he hated, is what was powering the spell already happening all around him. Turning this cavern into a prison for the Daemon Axe. A second seal all around it. He released the hilt of the blade, even as golden wardens started to appear everywhere. Walls, floor and ceiling. The solar sank to her knees, letting her power flow freely into the ground of the place. Already the doorway was starting to seal up. He looked at the being he had shared his life with. At the axe laying on the floor. The blood on his hands seemed to soak into his body. But surely that was a perception of his mind, twisted by this place. And he would turn and run. Run for the door.

And unless the axe could stop him, it would be sealed inside a room whose wards prevented it from calling out across the cosmos. For eons.

He could not know the anger of the axe. He just knew he had to get out. He dives for the door, even as the last chain hits the ground. He avoided it..! No, a small shard flies, embedding itself into his flesh. But who could tell? With all this wind and chaos and screaming? Maybe he just pulled something.. rolled over a rock. No, he certainly avoided that. He kneels there, panting on hands and knees as the doorway seals shut behind him.

He can feel it. The power seeping into him from the blood staining his hands. Her last gift. A bit of her power, what she did not need to stop this. But she had ended it, finally. He had her puppet to do it, but the last gasp was to seal that monster away for a very long time. And this... this meant he could leave here alive. If he were merely human, his body would have been shredded by the winds, and his mind corrupted. But no, he was whole and a live if slightly battered and worse for wear over it.

So he stands and focuses. Yes, he can see it. The power she gave him in his mind, and his own power. The focus he needs to find his way.. there. He reaches for it, in a clumsy fashion, grasping it and forcing it out...

Then he is falling, back in Myrken, crashing into a window and landing into the bed next to Agnie. He smells of sweat and blood, and he's bleeding from his face, hands and side. But he's alive, and laughing.