In an effort to save all time and space, Mikansia had to prevent her corrupted mentor, Akseli, from interfering with the flow of time to save their deceased friend Yngar. As if that wasn't enough, Mikansia also discovered that Akseli's mind had been twisted by the vile Krakeru: Akseli now has all of Krakeru's memories, all 600 years worth! With Akseli rapidly deteriorating mentally, it's only a matter of time before things get worse...
Several weeks went by.
Mikansia's lessons on how to close Dream, after cutting it open with her new magic sword, with Marian were... going. Marian was a warm and sweet human, once the timeline was no longer in danger. But she got frustrated with her own efforts in teaching the Song of Mending to Mikansia. Human sorcery was nothing like elven song; most of the concepts Marian was trying to translate were almost impossible to do. Mikansia was not a slow learner, by any means, but this was no ordinary lesson. Ensio, an elven friend of Mikansia's insisted on being taught as well as a back up, should Mikansia be rendered unavailable after cutting open Dream. Akseli refused to learn the Song. As the weeks went by he became more and more withdrawn. He eventually stopped coming to sleep in Mikansia's doorway, choosing to sleep alone.
One morning Mikansia woke up to discover Akseli's sword was mssing.
He wasn't in his room.
Nobody had seen him.
Ensio offered to come along. And so off they went.
Argentum Prime had been a city that exceeded all expectations. Renowned for its architectural accomplishments, Argentum Prime had been renowned amongst even the elves for the integration of the rainforest with the city itself, especially the sparkling Quicksilver River, which had run through the city and out to the sea.
But not one tree remained. The river had been burned away at its source by Fish when he'd first become a dragon. Even the ground had the soil burned away from it, making it almost impossible to rebuild. But the humans had returned, months later, and renamed the city: Argentum Reskartur, the renewed. In the last few weeks Mikansia had seen a flurry of activity as the humans attempted to make the best of a situation that was best classified as hopeless.
There was plenty of dust, however. Always more and more of that. And Ensio was able to use it to ascertain a pair of slow, trudging, tracks, going East from their encampment, dragging what was probably a scabbard behind him. So they wended their way behind the tracks, which couldn't have been made after dawn, by Ensio's reckoning.
"Die, coalskins! Go back home!!!" Pattering of feet was heard, as humans came at them... and stopped suddenly. "You... neither of you match the description."
"Description of what?" Mikansia asked.
"An elf male with a sword with an embossed hilt cut several children! They had to be taken to the fort up north."
Mikansia's chest had an elephant on it. "I... what? An elf attacked... children??" No. No. No.
"Yeah, and we're going to find him and tear him open!" And off they went.
Ensio immediately began following the tracks again. Mikansia didn't notice a moment, but she quickly caught up. "What if -" Ensio began.
"No"
"But he's been-"
"NO. That's not Akseli. Period." Mikansia, jaw set forward, looked away from Ensio. "He'd never do that."
Ensio kept his eyes on the tracks and not much else.
Eventually they wound up at a cliff, overlooking the dusty valley that had been the riverbed. Upat the top, toes hanging off the cliff, stood Akseli. Mikansia couldn't see the sword.
There was a crowd on the horizon behind them. Ensio sighed and trudged in that direction, his white and red robes standing against the barren ground. Mikansia slowly made her way up the dusty incline, leaning behind the curve. She didn't want to surprise him and cause an accident. She needed him to be OK.
Akseli's engraved sword lay beside him. Mikansia stood up, slowly but steadily. "I remember it all now, Mikk- Mikansia. All of Krakeru's existence." Mikansia's heart flew to Akseli. Her body tried to follow. "Back up! Not one more step!" She stopped. "If I have to smell you one more time I'll kill myself! I told you, I remember everything." Mikansia wanted to speak, but there was something in her windpipe. He knew. And her skin crawled. But he needed her. And she had to be there. "That's alright, Akseli, I won't come closer. Whatever you need, you're not alone! You've never been! We can face this together, you and I! Whatever you call me, whatever you remember, you're more than this!"
The pounding of earth jarred Mikansia out of her lock. A wall of human flesh was advancing up the incline. Dragged by the wall was a bloodied Ensio, trail of gore accompanying him.
"CHILD MURDERER! CHILD MURDERER!" Akseli blanched.
"Wait, that was you???" Mikansia barely finished her whisper before Ensio flew through the air and landed with a sickening whud, in front of Mikansia.
Akseli jumped off the cliff, sword in hand.
Mikansia was conscious of one thing: her hand pulling Akseli up by his collar. Yanking Akseli up, she only got one good look in his eyes before he looked away. "It wasn't like that. I promise it wasn't like that" vowed Akseli.
And Mikansia, heaven help her, couldn't help herself. She believed him. "Then come with me, please! Help me with Ensio! He needs us! I need you! We can figure this out! Please!"
Mikansia had moved so quickly in her rescue attempt that the human wall had not advanced adequately to block off retreat down the hill, not if they moved quickly. They had one chance for it. Down the hill Mikansia and Akseli hurtled, the unconscious Ensio in tow, barely scraping by the outstretched and outraged hands of the mob. At the bottom they hurriedly shifted Ensio's weight between them again and raced down the earthen remains of the river bed. The mob fell behind, screams and curses and promises of revenge being their weapons. They all hit home, as far as Mikansia was concerned.
Rounding their fourth bend Akseli and Mikansia set Ensio down and collapsed against the river walls, breathing hard. "How... how COULD YOU???" Mikansia gasped loudly. "This isn't you!! Why would you murder children??"
"There are... creatures... in the Lone Keep that you cannot imagine." Akseli stared off into space for a moment, and a very different expression than what Mikansia expected flashed acrost his face. "Horrors, untold and unseen". Mikansia edged a bit closer. Akseli flinched, but allowed it. "There are creatures there who look like human children. Krakeru hated them. He was never told what they were called. I saw them and this.. panic... I didn't..." Akseli's breathing was in rags.
Mikansia shook her head and breathed a sigh of relief. "I know you didn't. That's not you. You never would have done that normally."
"What normal???" Akseli stood up in a rush, dust flying off of him. Mikansia to coughed and covered her eyes. "None of this is normal! I didn't ask for any of this! I didn't ask for the love of my life to be a dark elf double agent! I didn't ask for Yngvar to die a dog's death! For us to time travel! (Mikansia's eyes watered, but not from the dust) To have my brother in all but blood tell me not to save him! To be prevented from doing so by the daughter I wish was actually mine!"
Their sobs reverberated off the riverbed walls.
Ensio stirred in his painful stupor. It was time to go.
As they picked up Ensio, eyes wiped clean of the salt and water, Akseli spoke again. "You know, Krakeru once swore revenge against the Lone Keep. For all the pain they'd caused Makirta. He'd resisted at first."
That was not something Mikansia expected to hear. It was not welcomed. Her face showed both facts. Krakeru had been a monster. That was all there was to him. "He... he did?" she barely got the whisper out. "How could a serial killer, a rapist... that monster... how could have done that?"
Akseli was almost wistful. "Oh, Makirta was the light of his benighted life. Her smile. Her laugh. Krakeru's sister was everything to him. Mikk-" Akseli shook his head as Mikansia took in a sharp breath at being called that, again. "Do you know why he called you that? Mikki?"
Speaking required breathing past the boulders in her lungs. But the breath came. So did the word: "Why?"
"It was so hard, growing up in the Lone Keep. So they pretended to be humans of the surface world. They tried to imagine what those folks had done to deserve utter destruction. Makirta always went by 'Mikki' in those games. Mikki was her escape. Her chance to be good. To be different. Krakeru had forgotten consciously, but Mikki was the only real source of hope he ever had."
Mikansia had to stop and get more air, past those damn boulders. And the look on Akseli's face was the old Akseli she had known and worshipped, like all children do their fathers, like it or not. "What... what..." Air needed to MOVE. "What changed?"
Rivulets in a dry bed.
"The drugs. That's when..." Akseli's voice failed. Mikansia remembered being under their influence and found she couldn't say anything either. "Forced him to rape his dear sister. For decades. How... how am I supposed to make sense of all of this??"
He was vulnerable. Akseli needed her. The boulders had vanished into the air they had been blocking. "Krakeru couldn't help it. he was born into a system that wanted him one way and wouldn't stop until he was. But it can change for you! You have something Krakeru never had! You don't have to lie. You have people who are here and can support the good in you. You are not Krakeru!" Where did those words come from? Did Mikansia really believe that about the monster who had raped her, his own daughter? He should have protected her, like a real father should have! Like Akseli would have.
For a moment Mikansia couldn't read Akseli's soul, peeking out through their windows. But then she saw it. Acceptance. "Yeah, it couldn't be helped" he said softly.
Silence was between them the rest of the way.
Decima, Ensio's human wife, was a conniption fit when she saw the trio enter the building. Her screams wrenched Mikansia's heart, but she... she... there was nothing...
A few hours later found Mikansia sitting outside. Alone. Without Akseli. He was standing a stone's journey away, by himself. Mikansia wanted to go near, but Akseli hadn't said a word since she'd returned.
With a rustle of red Marian sat beside her. "If you'd told me three hundred years ago that I'd still be talking to politicians... I don't know I would have stopped planning genocide at that point. That would have been too dark a future for me to handle."
Mikansia's jaw hit the ground. "Wait, what? Everything I've heard about you... genocide??"
Marian looked down at the dirt they sat upon. The corners of her mouth twitched.
"How did you change?"
"I had a lot of help. My friends- I doubt they saw it that way - helped me return to myself. But I had to leave. I needed people who could see me, instead of what I'd done. What I 'd lost. I needed someone who hadn't seen me as the mother who'd drowned her child, as the monster who'd killed and tortured, all to save my father. But all I managed to do was restore Kenodoxius. He has some type of form now, able to hurt the world, because of me."
"Wait, we heard about that on Kotae Mah. That was you???"
"At the time, yes... but I did change. I was given a chance and see for who I was, right then and there."
Mikansia didn't reply. She stood up and walked away, trying to mull it all over. What the hell was she going to do? Marian wasn't just talking about her own situation, Mikansia knew that. But that didn't yield any answers to Mikansia. And she knew she needed them. Now. She needed to be there for Akseli.
Mikansia looked over at the one who had meant to so much to her. Her stomach dropped. There was a tick Krakeru had when pondering something: he'd roll his fingers, staring at them. Out to in. Out to in. It was extremely quick, after centuries of practice.
Akseli was doing it now. Exactly as Krakeru used to.
Mikansia couldn't suppress the shudder.
Mikansia's lessons on how to close Dream, after cutting it open with her new magic sword, with Marian were... going. Marian was a warm and sweet human, once the timeline was no longer in danger. But she got frustrated with her own efforts in teaching the Song of Mending to Mikansia. Human sorcery was nothing like elven song; most of the concepts Marian was trying to translate were almost impossible to do. Mikansia was not a slow learner, by any means, but this was no ordinary lesson. Ensio, an elven friend of Mikansia's insisted on being taught as well as a back up, should Mikansia be rendered unavailable after cutting open Dream. Akseli refused to learn the Song. As the weeks went by he became more and more withdrawn. He eventually stopped coming to sleep in Mikansia's doorway, choosing to sleep alone.
One morning Mikansia woke up to discover Akseli's sword was mssing.
He wasn't in his room.
Nobody had seen him.
Ensio offered to come along. And so off they went.
Argentum Prime had been a city that exceeded all expectations. Renowned for its architectural accomplishments, Argentum Prime had been renowned amongst even the elves for the integration of the rainforest with the city itself, especially the sparkling Quicksilver River, which had run through the city and out to the sea.
But not one tree remained. The river had been burned away at its source by Fish when he'd first become a dragon. Even the ground had the soil burned away from it, making it almost impossible to rebuild. But the humans had returned, months later, and renamed the city: Argentum Reskartur, the renewed. In the last few weeks Mikansia had seen a flurry of activity as the humans attempted to make the best of a situation that was best classified as hopeless.
There was plenty of dust, however. Always more and more of that. And Ensio was able to use it to ascertain a pair of slow, trudging, tracks, going East from their encampment, dragging what was probably a scabbard behind him. So they wended their way behind the tracks, which couldn't have been made after dawn, by Ensio's reckoning.
"Die, coalskins! Go back home!!!" Pattering of feet was heard, as humans came at them... and stopped suddenly. "You... neither of you match the description."
"Description of what?" Mikansia asked.
"An elf male with a sword with an embossed hilt cut several children! They had to be taken to the fort up north."
Mikansia's chest had an elephant on it. "I... what? An elf attacked... children??" No. No. No.
"Yeah, and we're going to find him and tear him open!" And off they went.
Ensio immediately began following the tracks again. Mikansia didn't notice a moment, but she quickly caught up. "What if -" Ensio began.
"No"
"But he's been-"
"NO. That's not Akseli. Period." Mikansia, jaw set forward, looked away from Ensio. "He'd never do that."
Ensio kept his eyes on the tracks and not much else.
Eventually they wound up at a cliff, overlooking the dusty valley that had been the riverbed. Upat the top, toes hanging off the cliff, stood Akseli. Mikansia couldn't see the sword.
There was a crowd on the horizon behind them. Ensio sighed and trudged in that direction, his white and red robes standing against the barren ground. Mikansia slowly made her way up the dusty incline, leaning behind the curve. She didn't want to surprise him and cause an accident. She needed him to be OK.
Akseli's engraved sword lay beside him. Mikansia stood up, slowly but steadily. "I remember it all now, Mikk- Mikansia. All of Krakeru's existence." Mikansia's heart flew to Akseli. Her body tried to follow. "Back up! Not one more step!" She stopped. "If I have to smell you one more time I'll kill myself! I told you, I remember everything." Mikansia wanted to speak, but there was something in her windpipe. He knew. And her skin crawled. But he needed her. And she had to be there. "That's alright, Akseli, I won't come closer. Whatever you need, you're not alone! You've never been! We can face this together, you and I! Whatever you call me, whatever you remember, you're more than this!"
The pounding of earth jarred Mikansia out of her lock. A wall of human flesh was advancing up the incline. Dragged by the wall was a bloodied Ensio, trail of gore accompanying him.
"CHILD MURDERER! CHILD MURDERER!" Akseli blanched.
"Wait, that was you???" Mikansia barely finished her whisper before Ensio flew through the air and landed with a sickening whud, in front of Mikansia.
Akseli jumped off the cliff, sword in hand.
Mikansia was conscious of one thing: her hand pulling Akseli up by his collar. Yanking Akseli up, she only got one good look in his eyes before he looked away. "It wasn't like that. I promise it wasn't like that" vowed Akseli.
And Mikansia, heaven help her, couldn't help herself. She believed him. "Then come with me, please! Help me with Ensio! He needs us! I need you! We can figure this out! Please!"
Mikansia had moved so quickly in her rescue attempt that the human wall had not advanced adequately to block off retreat down the hill, not if they moved quickly. They had one chance for it. Down the hill Mikansia and Akseli hurtled, the unconscious Ensio in tow, barely scraping by the outstretched and outraged hands of the mob. At the bottom they hurriedly shifted Ensio's weight between them again and raced down the earthen remains of the river bed. The mob fell behind, screams and curses and promises of revenge being their weapons. They all hit home, as far as Mikansia was concerned.
Rounding their fourth bend Akseli and Mikansia set Ensio down and collapsed against the river walls, breathing hard. "How... how COULD YOU???" Mikansia gasped loudly. "This isn't you!! Why would you murder children??"
"There are... creatures... in the Lone Keep that you cannot imagine." Akseli stared off into space for a moment, and a very different expression than what Mikansia expected flashed acrost his face. "Horrors, untold and unseen". Mikansia edged a bit closer. Akseli flinched, but allowed it. "There are creatures there who look like human children. Krakeru hated them. He was never told what they were called. I saw them and this.. panic... I didn't..." Akseli's breathing was in rags.
Mikansia shook her head and breathed a sigh of relief. "I know you didn't. That's not you. You never would have done that normally."
"What normal???" Akseli stood up in a rush, dust flying off of him. Mikansia to coughed and covered her eyes. "None of this is normal! I didn't ask for any of this! I didn't ask for the love of my life to be a dark elf double agent! I didn't ask for Yngvar to die a dog's death! For us to time travel! (Mikansia's eyes watered, but not from the dust) To have my brother in all but blood tell me not to save him! To be prevented from doing so by the daughter I wish was actually mine!"
Their sobs reverberated off the riverbed walls.
Ensio stirred in his painful stupor. It was time to go.
As they picked up Ensio, eyes wiped clean of the salt and water, Akseli spoke again. "You know, Krakeru once swore revenge against the Lone Keep. For all the pain they'd caused Makirta. He'd resisted at first."
That was not something Mikansia expected to hear. It was not welcomed. Her face showed both facts. Krakeru had been a monster. That was all there was to him. "He... he did?" she barely got the whisper out. "How could a serial killer, a rapist... that monster... how could have done that?"
Akseli was almost wistful. "Oh, Makirta was the light of his benighted life. Her smile. Her laugh. Krakeru's sister was everything to him. Mikk-" Akseli shook his head as Mikansia took in a sharp breath at being called that, again. "Do you know why he called you that? Mikki?"
Speaking required breathing past the boulders in her lungs. But the breath came. So did the word: "Why?"
"It was so hard, growing up in the Lone Keep. So they pretended to be humans of the surface world. They tried to imagine what those folks had done to deserve utter destruction. Makirta always went by 'Mikki' in those games. Mikki was her escape. Her chance to be good. To be different. Krakeru had forgotten consciously, but Mikki was the only real source of hope he ever had."
Mikansia had to stop and get more air, past those damn boulders. And the look on Akseli's face was the old Akseli she had known and worshipped, like all children do their fathers, like it or not. "What... what..." Air needed to MOVE. "What changed?"
Rivulets in a dry bed.
"The drugs. That's when..." Akseli's voice failed. Mikansia remembered being under their influence and found she couldn't say anything either. "Forced him to rape his dear sister. For decades. How... how am I supposed to make sense of all of this??"
He was vulnerable. Akseli needed her. The boulders had vanished into the air they had been blocking. "Krakeru couldn't help it. he was born into a system that wanted him one way and wouldn't stop until he was. But it can change for you! You have something Krakeru never had! You don't have to lie. You have people who are here and can support the good in you. You are not Krakeru!" Where did those words come from? Did Mikansia really believe that about the monster who had raped her, his own daughter? He should have protected her, like a real father should have! Like Akseli would have.
For a moment Mikansia couldn't read Akseli's soul, peeking out through their windows. But then she saw it. Acceptance. "Yeah, it couldn't be helped" he said softly.
Silence was between them the rest of the way.
Decima, Ensio's human wife, was a conniption fit when she saw the trio enter the building. Her screams wrenched Mikansia's heart, but she... she... there was nothing...
A few hours later found Mikansia sitting outside. Alone. Without Akseli. He was standing a stone's journey away, by himself. Mikansia wanted to go near, but Akseli hadn't said a word since she'd returned.
With a rustle of red Marian sat beside her. "If you'd told me three hundred years ago that I'd still be talking to politicians... I don't know I would have stopped planning genocide at that point. That would have been too dark a future for me to handle."
Mikansia's jaw hit the ground. "Wait, what? Everything I've heard about you... genocide??"
Marian looked down at the dirt they sat upon. The corners of her mouth twitched.
"How did you change?"
"I had a lot of help. My friends- I doubt they saw it that way - helped me return to myself. But I had to leave. I needed people who could see me, instead of what I'd done. What I 'd lost. I needed someone who hadn't seen me as the mother who'd drowned her child, as the monster who'd killed and tortured, all to save my father. But all I managed to do was restore Kenodoxius. He has some type of form now, able to hurt the world, because of me."
"Wait, we heard about that on Kotae Mah. That was you???"
"At the time, yes... but I did change. I was given a chance and see for who I was, right then and there."
Mikansia didn't reply. She stood up and walked away, trying to mull it all over. What the hell was she going to do? Marian wasn't just talking about her own situation, Mikansia knew that. But that didn't yield any answers to Mikansia. And she knew she needed them. Now. She needed to be there for Akseli.
Mikansia looked over at the one who had meant to so much to her. Her stomach dropped. There was a tick Krakeru had when pondering something: he'd roll his fingers, staring at them. Out to in. Out to in. It was extremely quick, after centuries of practice.
Akseli was doing it now. Exactly as Krakeru used to.
Mikansia couldn't suppress the shudder.
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