Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 64 Still In One Piece

Lenna and Kahtesh followed Isaac as he wandered into the theater. Lenna had to unlock the door to follow him as Isaac had walked through the door without even blinking. Teleporting had become so natural to Isaac that crossing from one side of the door to the other was just like walking through any open doorway. After the short delay they found Isaac staring down at the piano. “Should I?” Isaac questioned himself and the two spectators. Kahtesh rocked his head to the side. He didn’t understand what his master wanted. Isaac’s feelings were as dull as a paving stone. Kahtesh couldn’t feel any intent from Isaac at all so he could only go off of what he heard and that was anything but helpful.

“Do what?” Lenna asked for them both.

“Bring him back, even a shadow of him.” Isaac replied. “I… that man was truly evil in a way I thought only storybook villains could be. It is so hard for me to comprehend the acts of evil and violence that some people commit.” He said without taking his eyes off of the piano. “I know that I am anything but a saint. I barely remember everyone that I have killed and even then it is only those I have killed in this life. I understand lashing out in anger or removing obstacles or fighting to the death for one’s ideals or faction. I can understand all of that but something inside of Shamsha was just, just broken. He felt like he had real and normal feelings and emotions, hopes and dreams, but at the same time he felt no guilt over what he had done. He was sad that his mother was gone but only as much as if you had lost your favorite sword or pen. It was so wrong that I feel disgusting from living through just the shadow of it.”

“Maybe we should study Kahtesh some more. Maybe Jala can tell us more about Kahtesh’s soulshadow.” Lenna offered. “If we can be sure that there is none of the original in there, then you can use Shamsha’s body and power for good, or at the very least, your own gain. It won’t be enough to pay back his sins but it’ll be better than just throwing away the resource we have taken.”

Isaac sighed and sat down. He slowly opened the lid over the keys and ran his fingers over them. Isaac didn’t answer Lenna with words but simply let his heart play the song of his feelings. It was a depressing song that brought with it the profound sadness that one has after witnessing a city crumble, or an orphanage burning to the ground. Lenna found herself instinctually clutching her chest as she listened to him. The song he played slowly changed from his heart to a dirge for those long dead. Isaac knew that no one had properly mourned Shamsha’s family and he felt like he owed it to them for some reason. Even though Isaac hadn’t been the one to do it, feeling and experiencing the aftermath through Shamsha threatened to make him feel guilty for something he hadn’t done.

Once Isaac was done he sighed and closed the lid. “I don’t need Jala.” Isaac told his mate and rose to his feet. “I will bring back the monster’s elvish skeleton and force it to work as I wish if I must. I hope Jala is having fun with his soul. She can be in charge of his soul’s punishment. I will handle his body.”

—

Isaac scowled down at the skull in his hands. His gaze softened as he looked towards Kahtesh. “Rather than making him from scratch. I want to merge you.” He explained to Kahtesh. “There is a lot of awfulness in there but I need you to be strong. Accept the information, the memories, the knowledge of spellcraft, but reject the personality. Do you understand?” Isaac questioned his physical shadow.

Kahtesh rocked his head to the side in reply. He very much did not understand.

“Just remember what I told you and try to will it to happen.” Isaac told Kahtesh.

“He doesn’t have a Willpower stat.” Lenna reminded him. “Are you sure it is going to work?”

“It will.” Isaac said with certainty. It was his power, his familiar, and his will that guided the process. Isaac would force it to work with nothing but overwhelming magical and mental power if he had to.

Isaac closed his eyes and held out his hand. Kahtesh pushed his head into Isaac’s open palm and Isaac began. Mana and intent flowed into Kahtesh and Shamsha. Shamsha’s body began to form and Isaac was thrown back into the memory of Shamsha’s original death. He could feel the tiny fragment in his hand watching everything with him. ‘Learn but remember: your family, Lenna and I, are the most important things, things to be treasured and protected, not used and discarded.’ He mentally sent to Kahtesh with as much conviction as he could muster.

He continued to feed the creation of Shamsha’s body until he felt like everything was about to click into place. The connection was about to override his link with Kahtesh. At that moment Isaac grabbed Kahtesh’s mind and soul and forced them into Shamsha with every ounce of willpower and focus he could muster, after having lived through Shamsha’s transformation a total of seven times before his body was finally finished, it wasn’t as much as he would have liked. Isaac didn’t know it at the time but he hadn’t been breathing during the entire twenty minute ordeal. His body had started burning mana to fuel itself as he moved ever farther away from mortality.

Kahtesh’s tiny soul and young mind slammed against the impression of the ancient wizard. Isaac forced Kahtesh into the semi-filled space where Shamsha’s soulshadow was about to be formed. The impression of everything that Shamsha was, pressed in on the little one who tried his best to do what his master had told him. Kahtesh was scared, very, very scared, but there was nothing that he could do but try to succeed in his task. Hundreds of years of spells being cast forced themselves onto him without his consent. Kahtesh knew he needed the information but it only served to scare him even more. If he could have had a panic attack then he would have but he lacked the biological processes that let/caused that to happen. Right when Kahtesh was about to be crushed under Shamsha’s shadow he heard something: ‘Come on buddy, you can do it, we are almost there. Just a little further.’

No sooner had Kahtesh heard his master’s voice had the pressure spiked. Kahtesh fought back with every scrap of his miniscule strength in one final defiant push against the impression of the man that his master despised. Even as he did so, he felt bits of the man bleed into him as they merged into one being that was both bygone and new, young and old, weak and powerful. He both reveled in, and cursed, the power that came with it. He felt it then, the lack of wings, the lack of a tail. The long fingers and toes. Power focused in his eyes that were more forward facing than he was used to and he looked down his small nose. He rotated his wrists in a motion that was both natural and alien to him. He could only really see the outlines of his hands but it was good enough for him to understand that his body was now as close to that of his master’s as he would ever become.

Isaac opened his eyes and gazed at his creation. It felt both familiar and alien in a way that he didn’t like. Kahtesh, now in Shamsha’s body, felt just different enough for him to be concerned. Despite his concern, he took a moment to inspect the new body and it was odd in a way that he had expected.

The divot along the side of the head just behind the eyes had filled in. Bone had grown out, back, and away from the skull to maintain the silhouette of elvish ears. Bone grew down to cover the nose opening and more bone grew up and down over the outside of his teeth. The orbs of death flames that filled his eye sockets were partly shielded as a bit of the sockets had expanded and closed inwards half an inch or so in a way that seemed to focus his gaze even more. Just like every other time, bone had grown out from each of the neck vertebrae to maintain the old silhouette of the throat though a little smaller. Each of his ribs expanded into thin plates. More ribs formed on the lower vertebrae though those were much closer to the spine and tucked in at least an inch inside the radius of the original rib plates. These new ribs had grown into plates as well and went the entire way down to his pelvis. His pelvic bones grew bone over each divot and across the forward opening almost, but not quite, the entire way.

Isaac looked at his creation’s arms and hands as the skeleton did. The bones had all thickened in the places where they used to be thinner to fill out the silhouette. Like everywhere else this only served to increase his durability and his weight. His forearms were the weirdest of them all however. The bones couldn’t grow inwards towards each other because the bones would touch when he rotated his hand even if they were the same size as before. This meant that there was a warped but flat surface where the bones would lock together once they had rotated to their farthest point. When the hand was twisted in the other direction there would be an opening between them that could be seen through. At his palms the bones that were the first half of his fingers, that would usually be covered in fleshy bits and muscle, had grown together to maintain structural integrity. The legs and feet were much like the arms and hands though without the oddity of the forearms.

Both of them looked down at the skeleton’s feet and watched as the toes wiggled. Isaac chuckled. “How are you feeling? Are you still in one piece in there buddy?” Isaac asked and looked back up at the face of his creation. The skeleton didn’t move for a long moment before it slowly shook its head side to side in a very distinctive negative.