(no subject)

[darkoshi]

Is this story at all interesting to anyone else? It was something inside my head which I had written down a few years ago. But in reading it, it does seem to have an interesting quality, an interesting cadence, to it. Which perhaps might also appeal to others, or perhaps not.



So.

A later time.
     After times which I haven't even visited. Yet.
     Later. Towards the end, the completion of my apprenticeship.

I have been dutiful, studious, obedient,
    though it has been difficult,
and occasionally has been causing me mental anguish... the old refrain.

But things have been going... well... along. And now, we have been involved in the Game, using it as part of my practising. I am not a player on my own, just along with T.

So. There is someone on the Other Side who T has been assigned to. We have tracked him... to this other planet. He, and his soulmate, who is not in the Game (or are they together? I do not know the Rules regarding this. I obey T. That is all.)

They are there. He is a user of magic as well. [He needs a name. It shall be X.]
I am not sure... it is not our particular Art that he knows, but perhaps something related. Different styles of Magic Use. Different schools. Different colors...

Anyway, I don't think T would have... oh, but he didn't. So. Perhaps he was of our Art too. I'm not sure...
Anyway, his friend/mate, perhaps he used magic as well. But if so, only slightly. Not a master.
And T went after him first. He had me capture him, when he was alone. X was currently elsewhere. X-mate was... in a forest. A large forest. We went after him.

So. I pinned him down, magically as we caught up with him. Put my own shields around him and took control of him. An easy target. Fairly. T wanted me to scan him first, a complete scan, to learn Everything... (and anything, about X, included) which I did, and T observing, of course.

Intent. And scanning, of course, I became too well... knowledgeable about this person. Things that one should not know of a stranger (no longer a stranger to me) and definitely not things that should be stolen from another's soul and mind.

But I knew where this was leading...

I was not surprised when T told me to kill him. This had happened often enough for it to not be a surprise. Unwelcome, certainly. Unpleasant. But not a surprise. And I knew well enough by now to obey and not argue about it.

So, unpleased and unhappy and the old refrain coursing in my own soul, though kept at bay... kept in the background, where it wouldn't interfere in what I must do.
So I killed him quickly, with as little pain as I could manage. And T accepted it without comment - I had done well enough. Lived up to expectations. Other things to consider actually, than how I had performed, when it was not even a matter of consideration that I might not do as expected, as ordered.

I knew well enough by now, after all, not to argue. I did my job well enough. Still managing to, at least. Managing to keep my anguish unspoken and out of the way. So, perhaps I wore a frown, but we were both intent... not just a 'Game' for us, this was. This was serious business.

T told me to destroy the Forest. Blast it, burn it. I blinked, taking this in. Damn, this I hadn't expected. But, oh well, I would do it.

I sent out an alert wave, pushing out some of the forest's inhabitants, the animals, at least. T hadn't told me not to. And then I sent out a blast wave, pure destruction. Leveled everything around us. All turned to dust and ashes. And us, two figures standing unharmed amongst this. Why did T want the forest destroyed? It destroyed X-mate's body as well. Perhaps as a cover-up? Disguising, hiding one crime within another? Or just as a signal? A signal to X, to pull him out and force a confrontation. Perhaps. Though X-mate's death had ensured that anyway.



eh. Well. I'm sure it's a lot better within my head, than in anyone else's.