Crimson Hawk | Maximos’ Suite
.A Dark Road Home.
Act I | Finale
Resolute
“You did a real good job of making an absolute mess. ”
Said the voice. Renil did not want to hear voices right now, his stomach was bloated and rumbling, his head was spinning and there was an absolutely foul taste in his mouth. He had, had the absolute worst dream last night and it left him exhausted and shaken and he had no desire what so ever to get up and head to class. But a dull light burned though his eyelids, turning his entire world pink and telling him that whatever practical joke last night was…it was over. He would take his licks like any other day and be on with his life.
And so it was that Renil rolled on to his side, muttered a “Noct be damned…” And opened his eyes, and saw that everything was not a dream. Not but five or six feet ahead of him was a body, or rather the remnants of a body. The woman’s face lacked all of its meaty parts. No nose, no lips, no ears or cheeks, but appeared that whatever ravaged her stopped when it struck too much bone. Her torso was broken ribs, and dried and red flaked outline of stretched and torn skin detailing where a rib cage used to be, and where organs it appeared had been wretched out manually. Random chunks were missing from her legs, and her arms, and…there was a boy, crouched down about level with her hips holding her masticated dead arm. “That’s rude.”
Said the boy, his back to Renil, only his pale arms and indigo sleeveless robe visible in the pale moonlight seeping through the room through a window that Renil was sure was not there before. “AH!”
Renil screamed and shuffled backwards, on his hands and feet until he struck a wall. It couldn’t be true, there was no way, he couldn’t have. It was a dream. And he had dreamed of waking up! Of class! He dreamed it was okay! And now he was gasping for air, all but choking on his breaths in and screaming at the top of his lungs with ever breath out. His hands moved to his face, and felt flakes of dry peel free, he looked at his hands and saw caked blood beneath his fingers as well as sorts and kinds of meaty things he did not want to identify. He gagged while trying to gasp, while yet still trying to scream and all on an over full stomach, and then instinct took over and the boy turned his head to the side and spilled the contents of his stomach out all over stone cold floor beside him.
“And that, is disgusting.” Said the boy, dropping the air and leaning curiously over the chest cavity, a description that fit all too well now. He make a clicking sound with his tongue and added. “Calm down, you ate too much, and you barely touched the good parts. Of course your going to hurl. I mean, you ate her digestive organs…didn’t you realize she digests food like you do? So her lower intestines were full of –“
“Lightwatcher protects! Lightwatcher redeems, Lightwatcher watch over me. Luminous be praised, Luminous be merciful…” Renil was huddled into a ball on his side over his own vomit rocking back and forth, the prayer spewed from his mouth in desperate and shaky words. His speech was like ones hands might be if words were the only rope that could pull you from eternal damnation. The boy shook his head and let out a sigh. “Luminous is not here. And he is not coming, he’s grown tired of your lip service.”
“Luminous be praised, Luminous watch over me, Luminous protects!” In response his words grew louder, more fervent, more desperate laced with tears sobs and tears that spilled freely down his face wetting the dried blood and making the tears roll off his cheek in a rosy shade. How was this boy? It did not matter. How could anything matter over what he had done, over the growing need to expel the contents of his stomach warring with the need to beg and cry for forgiveness. “I didn’t meant it, I didn’t meant it, I was tricked, Luminous forgives.”
“No.” Said the boy, and while he did not shout his voice seemed to resound like a shout might. The boy stood up and smacked dust off his legs. He was wearing flowing skirt that ran all the way down to the ground and pooled there, but it did not wrinkle, it simply pooled as might water. A thousand thousand specks of light glimmered in that pitch black skirt as might stars. “Luminous does not, forgive.”
“What would you know about it?!” Renil shouted in a blind snap of panicked rage. This boy was questioning his faith, his only redemption. If Luminous did not forgive then he was doomed. He could not as of yet let the world settled with him doomed. Even if he knew in his heart that it was true. The child, with his indigo hair turned against the moonlight to face Renil. Darkness shrouded the upper half of his face and yet two glowing violet eyes cut through the black. The boy wore no shirt, and a spill of black flowed down his chest. From a golden dagger. With a bored soft of voice the child said, “I think I know my brother better than you do.”
Renil’s breath caught in his mouth. He knew that dagger, that image, that entire form was preached to every child on Aria by the Church of the Lightwatcher. That was Noct’ayrien. That was the Father of Shadow. The King of the Sealed. The Lord of All End. He Who Was Imprisoned In Nothing. That was horror given form and breadth and scale. And all at once Renil knew the terrifying truth.
He had gone crazy. He was seeing things now. He had fallen amongst those that gave in to Lilara’s Hunger. To frenzy. Those that were to be hunted and killed immediately in the worst of ways. This had been law since the earliest of days and it continued until now. Renil was an irredeemable monster, and he had to face this fact as surely as the impossible face in the center of the room that looked at him with its glowing violet eyes.
“EVIL!” Renil cried out, to which the boy responded. “How can obeying your nature be evil?”
“I killed a person! I ATE a woman! Oh Lum save me I still remember how it felt!” Noct’ayrien stepped forward calmly as Renil scrabbled up to his knees and held his hans out in front of them like they were claws and then collapsed over and prostrated himself, not under the dark god before him, but under the weight of his own sins. “Yes, well. That was most definitely an error in judgement. But how can you blame yourself for that, the hunger made you?”
“EVIL! LIES!” Snapped Renil, his sobs muffled in his bloodied hands. “Fine then, don't believe me, believe your own teachings. Perhaps I am the epitome of your evils, and my brother is all that is good and pure, but what of my sister? Is Lilara evil?”
Renil said nothing but his sobs grew momentarily quieter. He gagged as if the stomach reaction was rushing to fill the void the sobs left, but nothing came of it. Noct’ayrien continued. “That is Lilara’s hunger, isn’t it? How can it be evil? Don't you think that if you had faced it, at least once before you would have been able to control it? Perhaps…even harness it?”
“I…” Said the sobbing Arian boy. He paused crying loud enough to look down at himself and at the blood now smeared on his pants. Offshoot of what ran down his face by way of his own tears. “…I am a monster. Unforgivable.”
Noct’ayrien crouched before him. “To err is human, to forgive is divine.”
Said the child god, at which point he placed his small bone white hand, with its many ornate rings and bracelets of gold and silver and purple, on Renil’s bowed head. He looked up at the child-god confused. “W-what?”
“As your god is not here, and I am. I forgive you. You are not one of mine, but by my virtue, my love extends to you. You are forgiven.” Renil’s face contorted to a mask of disgust, he smacked the boy’s hand away and immediately rolled to his feet moving to a farther corner of the room. “I don't want your forgiveness or your sick notion of love! I don't worship you! Your a fiend! A killer! You’re a monster!”
The boy seemed absolutely unfazed, his hand just hovered in the exact position where it was smacked he smiled an almost angelically pure smile up at Renil and said. “And now, so are you. Right?”
Renil became frozen and still. His face shocked as if he had just been slapped. Noct’ayrien giggled an adorable little sound and said. “Forgiveness feels good doesn’t it?”
Renil was speechless. The logic was flawless. A monster god, and he had become a monster. Emotions were like television stations and if you were forced to switch to a station distant enough, drastically enough you may not be able to find your way back to the original station. Noct’ayrien had sent him into confusion, and fear, and doubt. And now he was struggling to find guilt again. And as he searched, a deeper instinctual part of his mind told him there was nothing to be guilty for. At the same time, his training as a scientist as a magic wielder told him that there was no point in questioning the past, only fixing the future. The resulting mental debate left him silent.
“You wont ever do this again. You know that. There was great darkness in what you did last night but you have defeated it.” Noct’ayrien stood up properly, letting his hands hang down by his side accompanied with a jingle of jewelry. “Overcoming this sin makes you feel stronger, doesn’t it? It makes you want to advance. It burns something in your heart that makes you want to overcome more, grow more, advance more. Imagine if the raw power of that hunger was under your absolute control…”
Renil could not help but feel what the boy said, and a spike of pride from it. It was not like emotions were being put in his heart, but rather that what was already there was being given voice. He felt as the shadow diety said he did. “Yes…”
The word fell from his lips, his eyes still unfocused, still arguing and debating with himself. “It would be…but…”
“Luminous denies you that.” He was a boy, but his words were spoken as a man might. Strong, powerful, truthful. Faced with the option of never being able to become what he was, Renil felt a guilty inclination toward what the child-god presented. He could not as easily just dismiss it as lies. The world, after the night previous was not the same. “He denies you strength. He denies you the joy of growth. The confidence from advancement over ones troubles.”
“But…” Renil started, Noct’ayrien continued. “He leaves you as weak and pathetic as I found you moments ago. And now look at you. Standing, believing again.”
Renil’s hand moved to his stomach. His eyes, for the first time rolled over the boy and to the body. He felt warm tears build in his eyes. And with the gore before him came the memory of his life previous, of class, and school and growth…and it was all gone. Like she was gone. He fell back against the wall and sunk down until his knees were pressed to his chest and his hands covered his eyes. A single word broke through the sobs. “…hurts…”
Noct’ayrien quickly stepped forward. Slumped as he was Renil was short enough that the boy could scoot up beside him and hug the Arian’s head to his small chest. This made Renil sob harder and louder. He was, comparatively after all, just a child And at their core all children just want to be loved. Renil’s hands tugged at Noct’ayrien’s indigo robe, pulling it closer, his ragged breath fogged the golden hilt of the dagger as it glimmered in the moonlight. The child-god affectionately pet his head. “Shhh, shhh child. It hurts now, but the stronger you become the less it aches…until the pain is really only the precursor to the pleasure of evolution.”
Renil’s sobs lessened. Wake up. Go to class. Meet with friends. Eat meals. Repeat. It was so simple. It was the easiest life imaginable, but now because of his own failure it was gone. The guards would kill him on sight. If they did not, they would exile him for the rest of his natural life. Sure, there were bullies and bad days, but everything had been so easy. Now there was only pain. Now nothing was going to be easy. Some or part of his thoughts must have come out as unintentional sobs, because the boy beside him very softly said. “Nothing worth having, comes easy.”
The tearful uneven breaths and wet cries faded steadily. Renil, wiping his tears with his own sleeves looked at the boy as if seeing him for the first time. No shadow shrouded the child-god’s deep sleepless panda eyes, or the unkempt and tussled manner of his indigo hair. He had spoken words of wisdom, so true. Could he really be a fantasy? A delusion of the crazy mind? Or had an actual god came to see him, specifically. It seemed fantastical, and yet undeniable. “Your…your really him. Your Noct’ayrien.”
The boy bowed his head. “Nocturne now, and yes.”
Renil attempted a chuckle that came out rather broken and pathetic. He made the next logical step. “And he…he’s Maximos. The real Maximos Lucillien Dark.”
The boy nodded again. “Yes, I named him myself.”
“Oh my god…” The Arian gasped with growing realization. As if the words were enough to make them true. Undeniable facts as real as the sun rising, but unbelievable as the concept that the sun might not. Nocturne grinned a twisted thing and said. “Exactly.”
“The only real question left is, who are you? ” Renil looked down and around. He was a monster. He was lost. He knew all of that and it made him want to cry again and yet he took a deep breath and said. “I, am Renil.”
“Is that all?” The boy responded.
“Yes, L-Lord Nocturne…” It chocked on the way out over years of teaching but, belief or not, the formality seemed necessary. “…I have not as of yet reached Quarters. I have no additional names.”
“Hmmm…” Hummed Nocturne, folding his arms across his chest and tapping his chin with a small stubby finger. “I’ve never really went for all that, waste a quarter of your life mostly nameless business.”
Renil looked utterly confused. “What?” Nocturne smiled at him in response, the boys teeth were all sharp fangs of pearly white. The sight made Renil momentarily recoil.
“Renil I need help.” The boy’s eyes snapped open wide. “My people are suffering and I need your aid to save them, as I have saved you.” Nocturne raised his small hand, clenching his fingers inward like claws. Renil suddenly felt the hand was larger than it was moments ago, despite it being the same. “Renil, I require you to become my hand across Aria. We will black out the skies so that the whole world will rise above them. Above the skies and into eternity! Can you? Will you help me make our home great? Will you help me save Aria?”
The concept was too huge. He could not imagine himself being of any use. He was a piece in the machine. A speck in the pile. A number. A single name. A child. And yet logic spoke that moments ago he could not have imagined himself crying to Noct’ayrien. He could not have seen himself eating a person, or believed there was such a beast inside of him. He understood that suddenly, Renil the concept he knew the night before was lost. Renil was an indefinable quantity at the moment. He did not know who Renil was, but he could learn. Renil could do horrible deeds. Why couldn’t he do great ones? He felt his determination steel deep inside his gut. He understood now, why him. He had stood against the rules, he had showed ambition, desire to grow. Even if the rules were tiny and his ambition miniscule in a world without any it was a flood. His hands ball into tight fists. And then, in one furious motion, shoving against doubts, fears, and everything he had been taught Renil stepped forward, dropped to his knees, bowed his head and said.
[align-center]“I will.” There was a stillness, and a silence. A moment of reverence. And then the sound of soft bare feet on concrete as Nocturne approached. Renil stared down at his pooled robes at his small feet adorned with toe rings and anklets, visible in the small seconds while the feet exited the starry sky robe. Nocturne held his hands out over Renil’s head, but not touching. And then in a voice that boomed and echoed in the shadows as only the divine could he spoke. His words exploded in Renil filling him with something. Something he did not understand but now could not imagine being without.
“From this day forward you shall be Renil Exlumien Dark. Arise, my child.”
-|-
And Renil did rise.
His eyes opened and he saw a large empty room with black painted markings on the walls. No blood. No mess. No visceral gore. The black box from the night before was placed unevenly in the center of the room. It was open but there was nothing in it. And then a soft smooth voice said.
“Hello there.” Renil scrambled to his feet as his eyes snapped to the door of the room. And in the doorway stood Maximos. Sunlight poured in from the window and reflected off of his glasses making them two golden disks, but blotting out his eyes. His smile however, warm, friendly and welcoming was clearly visible. When Renil’s eyes finally focused on the other man, Maximos waved. He waved using his right arm, which as Renil remembered he had bitten. The arm had scarring, burns in the shape of lunaic magical arrays, but no bite marks. No missing chunks. Even Life Leaf did not heal that fast. Reni’s eyes snapped open incredulously.
“You….a dream?” He stuttered, checking his face, his hands, his clothes. He nervously patted the floor where the body was. He still saw her in his mind, he still felt her in his stomach. He still tasted her on his lips, and yet all of that was quickly fading into the lucid as reality solidified. Maximos stepped forwardly calmly.
“Surprisingly you knocked out after only one punch. I suppose I should expect that from someone who has never been hit before.” Renil was stuttering, stammering and panicked. He had had dreams before, real dreams. But nothing like this. Every sense, every detail, even as they faded were logged in his mind as memory not fantasy. The assurance of a dream being a dream was not there. This had to be a trick. “You…I…”
“I cannot advocate the consumption of a generally innocent person. But, it was necessary for you to know how far you can fall, in order for you to realize how high Aria can climb.” Renil’s eyes were suddenly intensely focused on the smiling Maximos. The Shadow’s head was turned just right so that his mismatched eyes met Renil’s dark green. Maximos’ smile faded right before his eyes. His tone became immediately serious. “Do you still believe our home has no need of me? Do you deny me still?”
Renil’s eyes fell to the floor. He had based every bit of his determination on the hopelessness of his place in life. But now, there was hope. None of it had really happened. He could go back to class, back to friends, back everything! Everything. The bullies. The bland tasteless food. Slop. A god that did not show. Fear of the world. Fear of himself. Everything that no longer mattered the moment he had nothing left to lose. He could back to being, Renil. Just Renil.
Renil looked at Maximos apologetically. Sorrow tugged the edges of his smile down harshly. He looked at the ground, and looked at the door way out of the room. And then he looked at the curls and cues and markings across the walls. Maximos stood silent and serious, waiting.
Renil dropped immediately to one knee, genuflecting himself before the Shadow. He spoke with a solid tone, a voice that was firm, a voice that stood for something as he had never stood for anything ever before. Resolute. “I am, Renil Exlumien Dark. How may I aid you, my Lord?”
Maximos chuckled, and bent over placing a hand on Renil’s shoulder. “Excellent, but I am no lord, you can start aiding me by dropping all of that formality. We are equals and brothers for Aria.” Renil smiled as he never thought he would smile again.
“The rest, we can discuss over breakfast.” At which point the young Arian’s stomach growled like a beast. His hand moved to cover it, as Maximos turned to exit the room. Renil stopped. A cold realization slipping over his face. “Wait…”
He said in a deathly still voice. Maximos paused and turned around calmly. “Yes?”
“How…” Said the younger Arian, at length. As if he had to squeeze the words out from a very tight place in his mind, and yet by his tone they meant more than he could directly express. “…You…harassed and threatened me. You kidnapped me. You made me believe I ate a person. You hit me.”
Renil’s fist balled and he waved it in front of himself and sternly added. “ Very hard.”
“And now its all smiles? Now its all calmness? Now we just go eat breakfast together? Just like that? Despite everything? Despite the state of the world, our world?!” Maximos simply nodded. “Indeed. Come now, its getting cold. I’ve made you eggs.”
“ How?!” Renil snapped back, his fists raised and clenched. “ How?! How the fleeb do you do that?!” Maximos smirked, calmly slid his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and said.
“That’s just the kind of man I am.”
"I just checked in... are you quite alright?"
Raven got a kick out of playing the girly girl at times.. perhaps it helper her counter the times she was dripping in someone else's blood and desperately trying to save their life while being mindful that there was still a risk that she could accidentally kill herself in the attempt.
Zandra Ryke, Vice captain of Team Awesome, had arrived. Okay so maybe the team name was Izzy's idea but whatever, it was kinda funny and she really didn't wanna kill her friend's spirit.
Raven really did want to be of use, hell it had been her wish after all.. to be needed.
She couldn't help but to feel sad that he covered up again, tall dark and handsome was always her favorite type of eye candy.
DING.
She quietly slid out of her sandals, and tossed her terry cloth robe on a lounge chair before ignoring the big sign beside the pool that stated;
"AAAAAHHHHhhhh!!!!" She couldn't help the little shriek she let out as she found herself launched into the air for an instant, all that flailing she had been doing managing to twist her around so that her shriek was cut off by a large splash as she hit the water in a flat out belly flop, spraying water all over the bloody place! 
.
Suti... I had a huge post for that! 
))
"But I liv'n here! I got meh rent and my cards! Its the end ofn deh wurld!"
Town of Latent
'd.
He could only cant his head to the side a bit, unsure of what he was supposed to respond to that with.
you know who you are, bad man. ))
floaters. In her dream everything looked menacing, most of the floaters appeared to have spikes that stuck into the child's arm to hold them in place, but her dream self didn't care. Her right hand let go of Lance's to pick up one particular set of floaters that looked like an octopus with phallic looking arms and Damnatus' head. This Damnatus' eyes weren't sown shut, but had gaping sockets with tiny sharp teeth running around the inside. The sockets began to move on the floaters, mimicking the motion of his mouth.
The demonologist paid no mind to that at all as she stretched her sore legs then tossed them over the side of her cot. No one had come to see her, it was no shock to Lacey. The only people she knew were a lunatics and Raien. As she realized there was really no one in this world for her, she felt lonely.
