#zu'miru

[actualaster]

“Oh, um.  And, about everything...”

Turning, the young man looked ruefully at the other, his companion for as long as he could remember.

“Hey, so.  I’m sorry.  You’ll have to figure out the whole ‘rebalancing the world’ thing on your own, and that’s...  That’s not fair, I’m...  I’m really sorry for leaving again--and, um, I’m sorry that I won’t be coming back this time.”

“Don’t,” the word comes out choked, full of barely suppressed grief.

He shakes his head, taking an unsteady breath.

“No, I.  I need to say this, I won’t...  We won’t get another chance.  To talk, to.  To be.  I’m sorry.  I thought we’d have, well, forever.”  Giving a lopsided, knowing smile, he watched the realization cross his companion’s face.  “Yeah.  I.  Yeah.  So.  Heh, they say third time’s the charm but...  Third time’s the end, for me I guess.  Sorry, sorry, not.  Not the time for jokes.”

A pause, then a shrug.  “Not that.  Not that there’ll ever be time for them again, I guess.  So.  Um.  Anyway, I’m sorry.  I...  You’re everything to me, y’know?  If.  If I didn’t have a duty...  I love you, I just.  Wanted to say that one more time.”

He takes a step back when the other comes closer, tears slipping from both pairs of eyes.

“No, I.  Please.  This is.  This is hard enough, if.  I can’t...  I have to do this but.  It’s hard, it’s hard to...  I’m sorry, I don’t want to leave you again.”

“I...  I know.  I love you, too.  I’ll...  I’ll cherish your memory, until the stars themselves go out.”

“Goodbye, Zu.  I’m...  Glad I got to meet you.  Thank you.  For everything.”

[actualaster]

Two humans and one Spirit crowded close into the room near the bed where a third human sat propped by pillows, his face a study in restrained pain and exhaustion.

The older of the women spoke, eyes blazing with the fire of her inner nature as she snarled, “Why the hell are you doing this?!  It’ll kill you, you know that right?  It’ll destroy you!”

The other young woman gazed at him with a faint sadness, saying, “You’re not dying, you’re being unmade.  Even I, and Death itself defers to my will, won’t be able to call your self, your soul, back from that when you’ve gone too far.”

The young man on the bed looked to the side, though his voice was steady when he spoke.

“Somebody has to.  And nobody else seems either willing or able to.  If I don’t then the world will die, so what’s one life when weighed against all that?”

The older woman turned, slamming a fist into the wall and in a voice tight with grief and anger responded, “The fuck does that even matter to you!?  You don’t even remember your damn name, why do you care so much?”

He didn’t respond, but a light touch on her arm from the other woman--hardly old enough to be called such, honestly--gave her pause.

“Something else bothers you, doesn’t it, Tarosk?  You’ve known him for such a short while but you care very much for him all the same.”

Silence held for several long minutes before Tarosk turned her eyes back to the young man before her and said in a soft voice, “Isn’t one poor bastard called to die to save us all one too many?  Why you, too?  Why must you act like him?”

Looking aside, the young man said simply, “I don’t need to remember who I was to know what I’ve always been willing to sacrifice to give this world another chance.”

The younger woman and the Spirit pulled back, turning to glance subtly at each other, eyes filled with the same secret knowledge and the same question--Did he know?  Did he suspect?  Did he piece together the truth of his own self?  Or, perhaps, did he merely feel his nature would always lead to a willingness to lay down his life in the name of the greatest good?

[actualaster]

"I'd thought with him dead, everything else would go, too."

"Maybe it will, maybe its a slow, lingering death. Maybe we're all sliding towards oblivion now that the source of life is dead."

"Aren't you a ray of sun"

"Sweetie, I kill people for fun, I'm not meant to be sunny"

[actualaster]

"Wake up! Come to me!"

The silent cry echoed in four minds at once, though only one would understand the nature of that call. He would race arrow-straight and swift to the side of the one who summoned, but even as he went he knew he could not make it.

"Find me!"

The call burrowed deep into three souls, calling to something asleep within them, fear ringing out clear in the silent plea--the fear of battle, of fighting for one's life. Of losing that fight.

"Help me!"

Bringing three uncomprehending souls to their knees it sought something from them, a desperate plea drowning in blood and the terror of facing Death: of knowing oneself beaten in the face of a foe who holds all advantages.

"Save me!"

One last wrenching crying ringing in four minds, burning with despair and terror and then a violent silencing, leaving behind only the memory of it undercut with the faintest sensation of Wrongness, like the first hint of rot beneath the flavor of food.

The one who heard and understood, arrived only to witness the final blow--a blazing axe cloaked in hellfire buried into the bloodied chest of one who was both master and friend. He was too late to do more than seize that which held the other's soul before it could be destroyed--or, worse, poisoned with the taint of demons. (He was already too late, but he wouldn't know that. Not until hundreds of lives were lost to that unnatural rage and hatred.)

He fled, feeling the bite of poisoned, burning steel cut into his side as he surged past the figure of a mortal who had struck down what might as well have been a god. No good could come from dying here as well--if he escaped perhaps all would be well. But if the flickering soul he cradled in his claws faded, the world was lost.

[actualaster]

I need sleep but I had vague half-formed ideas about souls and how one of my OC's ended up existing and I wanna toss them up so I don't forget to come back and like address them proper someday lmao

Might not be coherent bc v tired and half formed and all

• Souls created at birth

• Power beings to be formed early but is tied in w/ parent

• Magic transmitted via family blood

• Can be dormant but need at least one magic ancestor to have

• Most population has by now bc Reasons

• In case of miscarriage or stillbirth no soul generated

• How it works is the soul of pregnant parent sustaind body/power

• The severing of connection--either thru unaided birth or surgical--causes the "spark" with the severity of tie to parent's soul

• Usually is enough to generate new soul

• Sometimes fails for reasons unknown, these result in death (usually it's an invisible, underlying condition that caused the body to be unable to sustain life, they got medical learning but it's nowhere near what modern world has and all)

• If they have magic and no soul power dissipates bc soul holds it together w/ life essence in body

• World Spirit entered into empty vessel at moment of spark causing it to become soul of human body--thats how MC born

•Power overflow touched spark in other birth at same time causing Zu

[actualaster]

OKAY BUT LEGIT THAT LAST REBLOG I FEEL THAT IN MY SOUL OKAY

Like as a person with a lot of long-lived and immortal characters sometimes you go "oh, wait, this doesn't work with the timescale normal humans operate on due to their lifespans. Well fuck."

Then you either rework it or go "eh, fuck it, this one is immortal now too" because its easier.

[actualaster]

"No offense, but like, how are you still here--I mean yeah how are any of us but like you especially? With him gone, I woulda thought you'd go, too. Out of everybody else, you had a unique tie to him..."

"...I don't know. I... I didn't even know what it would do to him... I know, I know he's de--gone. He's gone. I know."

"Whoa, easy there. Its... well, not okay but we've got you, the rest of us are still here."

"...But so is he. That's stupid. He's dea--gone. He di--left, he left us. Left me. But it... Feels like a part of me can still feel him, you know? Like maybe some fragment of him is still out there, holding together... And maybe if I don't forget him, if I keep him close, someday he can find his way back..."

"...You know even if he somehow did the impossible it wouldn't really be him, right? Whoever made it back might not even remember you."

"No. It would be him. A different him, but him. His name, his face, his memories, even some of his personality might be different. But deep inside there isn't a true way to replicate the raw nature of a person. That would stay the same. We... We could start again, fresh start, from... From the ground up. I would be--that would--no, it wouldn't be okay... But I could live with that. Because... without him... Part of me is missing."

"I know, we all feel it, he meant a lot to so many..."

"No, no--literally. We... Its complicated. Our fates are tied. That's... It's what gives me hope there's still some small spark of him left, and that we aren't all careening towards oblivion."

"...So that's what the connection is. You really are tied by the soul to each other. There was some joking, but... I guess the legends are true. Well, then I'll help."

"Huh?"

"Well, with more people keeping his memory alive and fresh, maybe it'll be a brighter beacon for whatever fragments of him are left. I know the dork wasn't big on the praise and worship crap, but he pulled the impossible off twice now. The people always need heroes and you don't get a better one that that. He won't be forgotten. And I'll make sure the right stuff is spread around, not the ridiculous tall tales."

"...Thank you, Tamra. It... Means a lot to me."

"We didn't have what you two did, Z, but he was a good friend to me, too. I couldnt forget his dumb ass if I tried, if I'm honest."

"Hey!"

"Well, you can't deny he wasn't always bright."

"He didn't have to be to save the world."

"...No, I think in those instances... I think he was the brightest light of them all."

[actualaster]

“Reeeeeeeal quick, I wanna ask Z something over there, ‘kay?”

“...Okay?  Sure?”

Grabbing the blue-green-clad young man, Tamra dragged him out of hearing range for a moment.

“So.  Mind explaining’ how in the ever-loving fuck a mortal human has the Soul Armament of the fucking heart of the world?”

“...It’s a long story involving an asshole, a murder, and an intentionally incomplete restoration?”

“...What the fuck.”

“I told you it’s a long story...”

Looking over her shoulder at the young man discussing something with a shard merchant (about the flameshards, apparently, from the looks of where he’s pointing, she noted) she narrowed her eyes.  Silence grew for a few moments before she turned to face her cowering companion.

“...You owe me the whole story but until then I’ll trust your judgement.  But you’re damn lucky so few people even know what those look like.”

“...Honestly, I didn’t think anybody had ever gotten a good enough look to tell...”

“You’d be surprised what people pick up on, bubble-boy”

“HEY!  I told you not to call me that!”

But she was already laughing as she skipped away, calling over her shoulder, “Well, I’ll see you two later--knowing you it’ll probably be when you’re getting yourselves killed and you need somebody to save you.”