"Father, why are other people so... pathetic?"

"Pathetic? What do you mean, Udraal? Expand your statement. Tell me what you're really thinking."

"We just met with the Priests of Noor. You said they were powerful Pathbearers, credible mages, men and women of wisdom. Yet, all of them seem so desperate to be slaves."

"Is that how you view their commitment to the Great One? Or their idea of what the Great One is?"

"I've gone through the scriptures. I've delved through the texts they've declared apocryphal and heretical. It's given me insight into what the faithful think, and what they think seems to be pathetic. No, Father, it's worse than pathetic. It's willing surrender. What is the point of being a Pathbearer if you're so determined to remain ignorant? They worship a god, but they don't know how the god functions, or how its powers flow, or what killed it, or what it even was. We worship a shell of a thing, not the thing itself. It's like praying to a shadow on a cave wall rather than the flame dancing within."

"Ignorance is a relief, Udraal. Many seek it because to face truth sometimes means to shatter hearts and break souls."

"Hearts and souls are meant to be broken, over and over again. That is the point. When you put them back together, you can see them refined further."

"But many do not survive the pain."

"It's because many are poorly trained and lack a good father."

"Ah, flattery, strategically used. What are you about to ask me, son? What terrible plot do you have in motion."

"Why so suspicious?

"Udraal…"

"Fine. But I'm not asking you, Father. I'm telling you that I intend to slip into their forbidden gate. I want to see what they have hidden inside."

"Hmm. And you think you can get in without being noticed? There are still flaws in your skill and in your habits."

"I refined those flaws many times. I intend to prove it to you through this venture."

"If they discover you, it will mean grave things for our arrangements. Remember to see your body destroyed if they discover you."

"Ah, but I'm sure they won't. After all, these are people who cleave towards ignorance, are they not? I will ensure they remain blissful and comforted. Just as the grazing lambs are when their owners come down the hill to slit their throats."

-Udraal and Valor Thann

187 (I)

Udraal [II]

Shiv felt his throat run dry as a pitiful figure collapsed before him. The man was too thin, too bloodied to be a threat, and the whimpers that escaped his throat made him seem a child. But he was most decidedly not a child. In fact, he looked aged and worn. A long, wispy beard hung from his face, and his skin had the look of aged oak. He wasn't so old as to be elderly, but it just seemed that he'd faced a hard life, and his body endured an aging that came more from stress and struggle than it did from senescence.

He had no hair, and his brown eyes were bloodshot. Blood seeped out from the man's chest, dripping onto the ground from the edges of the patchwork of bandages that held the wound at bay. But rather than clutch at his injury, the first thing the man did was pray. He clasped his hands together and invoked the name of the Great One. Whispers slipped off from his tongue, and it became a mantra, something that barely held him back from the precipice of madness.

Then, finally, he looked up. He saw Shiv, and that mantra came to an end. He choked. His spirit collapsed, and a fear chain solidified between them.

"You. You." Sullain's voice left the man, and Shiv stared on in growing disbelief. He didn't even notice at first when Udraal placed a hand on his shoulder. The midnight-skinned Legend leaned down and whispered to the Deathless.

"You've made quite a mess of my old companion. Of course, he disfigured himself first. What a pitiful thing. What a pitiful man. You shouldn't hate him, though, boy. You should look upon him and realize that this is someone you don't want to become. A Legend that got there because they were so talented, so intelligent in so few ways, and also so consumed by their own regrets."

Udraal spun on his heel and came to a stop beside the wretch Shiv now knew was Sullain. The Abyssal Lord held a hand down, offering it to Sullain, and the ruined remains of the Vicar looked up. For a moment, he hesitated, then his hand shot out. He seized Udraal's grasp like it was a lifeline, like it was his father's hand. He rose on shaking legs, and rivulets of blood ran down his thigh. The fear chain connecting him to Shiv softened. He held out a trembling finger.

"But..." That was as far as Sullain got before he broke down into tears once more. The fear chain hardened again. "I can't, Udraal. He's already taken everything. He's taken what's left. Oh, I was so close. I told you. I was there, I had him. I had Roland in my grasp. I had his town. I created a wonder from your great work. And... and..."

As he began to hyperventilate, Udraal placed a calming hand upon his cheek. The act was so tender, Shiv was taken aback. He expected the being of absolute menace, of unbridled violence, that Valor spoke of. Not… this.

"I know, Vicar, I know. The System is so often unkind. Its path is a dagger primed to stab us in the back. I've experienced this many times, and I warned you that this would all end in tears."

The palm he left on Sullain's cheek slid down and grasped the man by the shoulder. The Vicar's eyes widened, and once more, Shiv tasted fear in the air, but it wasn't offered to him.

"Didn't I tell you?" Udraal's voice suddenly dropped, and any semblance of gentleness was a forgotten myth. Now there was only coldness and a hint of forthcoming violence in his breath. Sullain went very still and pulled his hand away from his wound. He wrapped both of his hands around Udraal's arm.

"Yes," he said, sounding more mouse-like than ever before. "You told me, and I... I ignored you. I didn't want to believe you. I never wanted to believe you."

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And Udraal's expression softened once more. His hand slid back up to Sullain's cheek. "It's partially my fault," he said softly. "We all wish to betray ourselves in certain ways. There are things we believe, things we want to be true. And when proven untrue…" He looked at Sullain, expecting the Vicar to finish his words. When none came, he did so himself. "We either try to make them manifest or delude ourselves of the reality before our eyes."

Another sob escaped from Sullain, and Udraal shook his head. "You know what this is, Sullain?"

"Pathetic," Sullain said. "I know. You have no need to shame me further. I know the depths of my failure."

"No, not pathetic. I've seen pathetic very recently. And you? You're a tragedy. To have so much, to come so far, yet to never see the wound of your heart mended. At some point, it becomes a tragedy. It's not wrong to cry."

"Shiv," groaned a hoarse voice. The Deathless turned and found Adam staggering toward him. Behind, the other prisoners were being treated by a group of orcs. The Gate Lord's eyes glistened as they grew wide with surprise and confusion as he took in Udraal and Sullain. "What the felling hells is going on?"

His answer didn't come from Shiv, but rather from the sound of a body slamming into a wall. Gone's eyes were locked on Udraal as well. She had her back to a wall, and she spat his moniker with a terrified whisper. "He Who Walks Beyond."

Slowly, Udraal cupped the back of Sullain's head and began pulling him closer toward Shiv. The Vicar and the Deathless made eye contact, and the former flinched but had nowhere to run. Udraal wouldn't allow it. Shiv saw his maker's cruelty then. Udraal wasn't kind or comforting. He simply used the softness of his touch and the pleasantness of his words as an incentive to make someone else surrender. A tension began to build within Shiv's chest. It was like a cord being drawn taut, lingering on the verge of snapping.

Udraal held Sullain in place directly across from Shiv, and for the first time, the Abyssal Lord looked surprised. "Is that Young Lord Arrow? You're still alive!" A laugh of genuine joy escaped Udraal. "I dare say the apple fell upward from the tree! So many sons fail to live up to the shadows of their father, and here you are, defying my expectations. By my calculations, you should have perished a long time ago." Slowly, that smile on his face faded. "Ah, I see. Harlon and Vera did not live up to the full bargain. They spared you."

At the mention of his parents' names, Shiv growled. "What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean they spared Adam?"

Udraal cocked his head and regarded Shiv with a look that bordered on disappointment. "Come now, boy, are you going to be like him?" He shook Sullain in his other hand, and the Vicar looked away, ashamed. "Are you going to deny what you already suspect? What could I be talking about?"

Through the tension and anger, Shiv centered his thoughts and considered Udraal's words. He looked between the Abyssal Lord and his friend, and a horrifying realization settled upon him. "You... My parents were supposed to kill Adam too?"

"It was recommended," Udraal said casually. "Several of the other experimental groups did just that."

"Experimental groups?" Adam whispered. The Gate Lord was still trying to process everything, and he winced as he struggled not to collapse under the weight of his wounds and suffering. Despite this, he remained standing. He glared at Udraal with as much hate as Shiv did just a few moments ago. "What do you mean, 'experimental groups'?"

Udraal frowned at Adam. "Come now. Your father had a fantastic Awareness skill. Don't tell me you're a little deaf. What could I mean? Think about what I'm saying. The subtext is clear."

But Adam didn't reply. Udraal rolled his eyes. "Okay, it's clear that neither of you is aware of the scientific method. It's a thing long-lost to most people across most worlds. To put it simply, you need to see if something does not work. You want to disprove certain things. And with the breadth of variables around every experiment, you want to have different outcomes. Hence, you have control groups, and you have treatment groups, also known as experimental groups." He paused then, waiting for either Shiv or Adam to come to the right conclusion.

"There's... there's more than one Deathless?" Adam asked with a gasp of disbelief.

Udraal squinted. "A bit off. No, there was more than one Deathless experimental group. At present, there is only one Deathless, not counting the bastardized creature Sullain made from my work." He chuckled then. "A Tarasque, Sullain. Of all things, a Tarasque. How did you even come close to controlling it?"

"A natural infusion of brain tissue," Sullain answered. "Cultivated over many years. It... it thinks it is me, sometimes. But also, it changed a bit. It..." Sullain shuddered as he broke down into a whimpering mess.

Shiv stared into the Vicar's eyes and saw the madness, the pain, the hollowing he inflicted.

Udraal finished his train of thought. "Ah, I see. So the Vitae made it think that it was my Deathless narrative, while your little brain transplant had it confused because it has your memories as well. How messy. How desperate. Still remarkable, though. You would have been quite the Legend if you weren't such a wretch." Sullain said nothing in his own defense, cowed by Udraal's presence and ruined by Shiv's mutilation. "I suppose it is fortunate that you weren't slain, young Lord Adam. Otherwise, I fear I might not have gotten back my most successful test subject so far."

Adam's jaw trembled. "Tell me," Udraal continued, "have you returned his sister yet?"

Shiv was taken aback. "Sister?"

"Yes, she was partially embedded in one of your skills. She should have been your constant companion across your entire life, a ghostly figure that developed alongside you." Udraal smiled widely, as if he knew one of Shiv's deepest secrets. "Come now. I made you. You can't hide these things from me. Where is she?" He looked around. "Is she trying to get behind me right now? Did she have the Path of the Shadow?"

And it was then that Shiv realized Udraal didn't know everything either. He had assumptions with regards to how Shiv's Path functioned, how his soul worked, and right now, his assumptions were leading him off in a strange and unexpected direction. Shiv was about to say something, but then he went along, looked past Udraal's shoulder, and shook his head. "Back off. He knows you're there."

Deception > [Error]

Unexpectedly, Udraal laughed once more. "Oh, good, he lies too."

"What?" Shiv said. His stomach dropped. He didn't understand what was happening anymore.

"The Abyssal Lord sees all," Sullain declared. "He plays with us. He prods and he discovers. Everything for his amusement or knowledge."

Udraal rolled his eyes. "You make me sound like a narcissist, sweet Vicar."

"I… I beg—"

But Udraal had no more interest in Sullain. Instead, his eyes were on Shiv once more. "I know that you don't have an invisible ghost twin that fights by your side. I lied. I wanted to see if you would lie back to me, to get a better gauge of who you are. You did. That makes you interesting." Then the smile faded from his face immediately. "But truthfully now, have you regrown the daughter and mother inside you yet? You're a Legend already. The amount of experiences you accumulated should be more than enough."

At Udraal's words, Adam tried to draw an arrow behind Shiv, and he growled with pain as he tugged at his bow. His body was broken. And where the heart was furious, and the spirit was willing, the flesh failed.

Udraal regarded Adam for a moment and then looked away. "Right. Understandable, but inconsequential. Not until you get your soul mended." He clapped both hands down on Sullain's shoulders, making him flinch. "So, are we ready to begin?"

"Begin what?" Shiv asked.

"I told you earlier, you're going to move your injuries over into Sullain here. It will also help you squeeze out that poisoned patch of Animancy old man Anthony plugged inside you."

"Please, no, mercy, please…" the Vicar moaned in dismay.

"Oh, Sullain. I thought you understood. I didn't bring you here because I was going to help you complete your revenge. That was your business, not mine. There's another thing you can't seem to get through your head: I'm not going to help you make up for your own failures. What kind of Pathbearer would you be if I did that? No, your past has ruined your future, and now my past has crippled your soul. So I'm going to use your present and your lack of a future to ensure that my experiment," he gestured toward Shiv, "is capable of maintaining himself and bringing about a proper Incursion." He looked back to the Deathless. "Now, do you have Animancy? Or just your Vitae?"

Shiv said nothing. Udraal guessed. "Just your Vitae, then. Fine. It will work as well. Have you shifted any damage across souls yet?"

Shiv was about to say no, if only out of spite. But then he remembered Can Hu, how it was mostly repaired, and how Udraal had a hand in its overall restoration. There was no point in lying to Udraal Thann right now, not when he knew more than he let on. Not when he's deliberately trying to screw with me either, Shiv thought, grimacing at Udraal's deliberate deception a few moments ago.

"Also yes; Alright then, Deathless," Udraal said, offering Sullain to Shiv as if he was giving a lion a piece of meat. "Have at him. Let's see what you can do."

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