A Darkness Below: Chapter 8
Well, since I messed up and forgot to post a chapter last week, I am going to toss out another chapter for all of you fine folks this week. Enjoy! As always, upvotes are most welcome, as well as any comments or critiques!
If you're just coming to A Darkness Below, you can check out the previous chapters here:
Jasen took a long look at her, mulling over what he wanted to respond with.
She hadn’t asked for the story of how he ended up down here, but she brought up her father and the conversations they had down here. Frankly, he was tired of being treated like a beast; at least Sullivan treated him with some decency. Then again, he mused, he and Sullivan had known each other for quite a long time, and decency was a fairly recent development.“Because I surrendered. Your father and his band of seven came looking for me after I’d slaughtered a village indulging my worse half. I remained out in the open, in the middle of the street in fact. You see, I knew the Order would come for me eventually, but I’d grown tired of what I had become and what I was doing. It’s a burden, being unable to control one’s….impulses.”
“Oh yes, because I’m sure you were so fantastically good at that all the other times when you murdered innocent people,” she snapped, narrowing her eyes.
“There’s surviving, and then there’s what I had forced myself into. The two are not the same thing, I promise you. I was kneeling down, surrounded by corpses, and your father,” he said, chuckling a little as he remembered the incident, “walked right up behind me with a gun drawn. Before he could open his mouth, I told him, plainly, that I wanted to surrender. I don’t think he was expecting that. I don’t think any of them were, which is why three of his friends decided it would be better not to let him respond and attack me outright.”
“I had to cut them down, so that I wouldn’t be allowed to leave. You see, I wanted to live. I still do, but I couldn’t afford to do it the way I had been. I’d been a servant to a master I didn’t want for so long, that even the allure of power had lost its intrigue. I regret having to kill those men, but it was necessary. If I hadn’t, I would be dead, and likely one of them would have been won over by the monster within the blade.”
“The blade?” Maggie furrowed her brows, tilting her head to the side. Her father had never mentioned any of this before.
“Tamashi no Ita,” Jasen said, in a language that Maggie couldn’t have known was precisely accented Japanese. “The Eater of Souls. The sword I wielded before I surrendered was not merely a weapon. It is a living thing. It feeds on the souls of those it kills, transferring a part of that power to the one who wields it and enticing its wielder with the promise of more. At first, it’s an exhilarating hunger. But as the years dragged on, it became a desperate craving. I couldn’t fend off the addiction, and it became more and more insistent as time marched onward. Years ago, I had managed to tuck it away. I’d mounted it on a wall in a tavern, and I’d settled into an ordinary life, but the War…”
Maggie listened, half-believing the story he was telling. If this was some ploy to harbor sympathy from her, she was adamant it wouldn’t work. Yet, even as she was declaring to herself that she wouldn’t sympathize with the monster, she was beginning to feel a tiny inkling of pity for the creature in front of her. Jasen laughed a little and shook his head, closing his eyes.
“All those men across Europe. It vibrated with an insistence like never before. So I took it in hand again, and became a dread terror. I prowled the wastelands of war, murdering with impunity, trying my utmost to satiate a hunger that would never be satisfied. When the war finally drew to a close, and Tamashi began to fear for its continued use, I was compelled to retreat across the Channel, to new country. To your precious Emerald Isle. I left a trail of death in my wake; I couldn’t stop myself.”
“If you couldn’t stop yourself, then how’d you surrender, huh?”
“I managed to satiate it long enough to regain control. You see, it commands when it desires sustenance, but once it has satisfied its hunger, it’s content to leave me to my devices. Your father and his friends had been tracking me for a couple of days, and they found me without much difficulty. I tried to surrender. Your father, smart man that he was, was willing to listen. Same couldn’t be said for three of his compatriots. They disobeyed his order and tried to attack me, so naturally I killed them. After that, we made terms, and here I am.”
“Why, in the name of Christ, would my father have made a deal with you after you killed three of us?”
“He set outlandish terms and I agreed to them. You see, Maggie, I’ve been down here playing whipping boy to you lot. Finding out more effective ways of killing me and my kind. Pulling information out of me as was available. Taking out your collective anger and frustration on me. But not just that. I told him what Tamashi was. To his credit he didn’t pick it up, but the fool refused to destroy it. If you want to know why, you’ll have to ask him.”
“What the hell kind of name is tamashee noweeta anyway?” she asked, grasping at anything to put him down and ignore the understanding she was developing for him and how he wound up here. “Doesn’t sound like any kind of sword I’d ever hear of. Certainly not a proper name.”
“It’s a Japanese sword, what is called an odachi.”
Maggie scoffed and cast her gaze to her left, staring at the wall instead and crossing her left leg over her right. Some story this was, she thought. Even so, she didn’t care. She told herself, firmly, that none of that mattered, and that he was still a monster that should have been destroyed. She could do it right now, and she’d probably be applauded for it by everyone but her father. Councilor McKenna no doubt would give her a pat on the back, even if he couldn’t do it out in the open. Jasen turned to look up at the grate along the top of the wall she was staring at. Without turning to look at him, she spoke.
“I could destroy you right now. I’d probably get a medal for it from the Vatican.”
“You’re welcome to. I won’t stop you. I’ve done plenty to deserve what will no doubt be forthcoming sooner, rather than later. I’ll even write a recommendation to award you a medal for the task,” he said, laughing a little as he turned back to look at her, tilting his head.
“Don’t you fucking mock me, beast,” she said, voice a dangerous growl.
“I’m not,” he said, continuing to look at her even as she ignored him. “Why did you sit down?”
“Because, as much as I hate to admit it, you’re the only one who’s listened to my concern. Part of me hates you for it, thinks you’re trying to play a game to gain my trust so I’ll spring you from here. But the other part of me just wants…” she said, pausing for a second. “No, needs someone to take this seriously. To tell me I’m not crazy or paranoid and to stop brushing me off.”
“Well, you’re not.”
“Well, thank you for that insight, Jasen! Now all I have to do is tell everyone else you said so, and I’ll be on my way to mounting a proper defense,” she quipped, shooting him a glare. “Your approval doesn’t mean shit.”
“Then why did you look for it? Why bother telling me your problems?”
“Because I thought it’d be better than talking to a fucking wall!” Maggie exclaimed, throwing her arms up as she stood from the chair. She let out an aggravated sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose. This is pointless, she thought. Turning to her right, she stormed toward the door to his cell.
“Maggie, wait a moment.”
“What else do you want,” she spat out. For some reason, she stopped by the door and spun around, glaring daggers at him.
“I know you don’t have a reason to trust me. I don’t expect you to. But if it comes down to defending your father, you can call on my services.”
She blinked, the edge leaving her glare as she tried to process what he just said. She must have been mistaken, and even if she wasn’t, she wasn’t about to believe him. Jasen took advantage of the moment of incredulity to explain himself.
“Before I took hold of Tamashi, I was taken in by monks in a little monastery up in the mountains. I learned to control myself and not allow my hunger to dictate my actions. It took years, but I regained some semblance of self after an eternity of being a monster. I have no allegiance to my kind. I view them much the same way you do, with few exceptions. I only want to live, and your father has been kind enough to spare me my life, such as it is. I owe him for that. Make of it what you will.”
She said nothing in response, turning back around and walking quickly out the door, leaving him alone in the darkness once again. As she hurried down the corridor, she resolved that the last thing she’d do is ever ask him for help. Death would be preferable to debasing herself like that.
Yep...Maggie and Jasen will be making babies soon. Good stuff!
@anarcho-andrei
Great effort put up here!
Keep sharing.
Thank you for the words of encouragement! I'll be posting a new chapter every week, so if you want to keep up, feel free to follow me. :)
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