An anonymous note deposited in Turaga Whenua's memo box in the New Atero Great Temple, a service often sought out by those who have secrets or troubles weighing on their mind:
I am a Toa of Fire. I fought in the Battle of Worlds against the Makuta's hordes, just like many of us did. I know we all carry scars from that day. But I have something about it that I can't get off my mind.
My comrades and I spent most of the battle surrounded by rahkshi. They took the lives of many people that I loved. I was fighting one of them one on one right up until the very moment the golden lightning came and struck them all down. I was sure it was going to kill me! But when the lightning did come and save my life, I looked into my opponent's eyes as it died and saw pain and fear. While my friends were celebrating around me I couldn't stop looking at the smoking husks of our enemies littered around the battlefield.
I feel like nobody else experienced anything like that. Everyone talks about the rahkshi like they were just monsters. But I can't get the look in that poor monster's eyes out of my mind, even to this day.
Several excerpts from Onezu Nuva's journal:
Over the past several days a company of Skrall bandits has been skirting around the edges of my domain. It seems they wish to plunder these ruins for valuables. It wouldn't do for them to discover me here.
I've chosen to view this not as an inconvenience but as an opportunity to test the power of my creations. No need to dirty my own hands and risk them spotting me. Tomorrow I will send out Varresk and the Rahkshi to take care of them, and we will see what the power of a Makuta's shadow-wielding servants can truly do.
By all objective metrics, the test was a resounding success. Despite the fact that my servants were but two creatures against an entire warband the Skrall were slaughtered to a man, compared merely to the loss of a rahkshi on my side of the equation. Their bodies will soon be buried by the desert sands. I ought to be very pleased.
Yet I'm not. It seems that the test exposed an irritating flaw in what I thought was my finest creation to date.
Ever since he returned Varresk has been inconsolable over the rahkshi's destruction. It's the first time I've seen him express any emotion since his transformation, other than steadfast loyalty to me. I've tried explaining to him that the greatest strength of rahkshi is their disposability. They are servants born from my own body; I send them out to do my bidding and they do it or die trying. None of that seems to matter to him. Even as I write this he's sniveling in the corner.
Varresk has discarded his toa tool and insists on wielding the dead rahkshi's staff instead. He claims he is "honoring his fallen brother". What a ridiculous notion.
I won't argue with the effectiveness of his new equipment. Still, I would have thought he'd have learned his lesson about over-attachment, seeing as his fondness for me turned out so well for him.
