192 (II)

Whores

Shiv set his jaw, and she scoffed. "Regardless, the Starhawk experienced something that changed him within the Great One. I'm not sure what it was, but it seemed to make him realize the depths of his personal degeneration. In what I guess to have been desperation, he tried to destroy the skill that crystallized his mortal form into godhood within the Great One, and went for the skills cocooning the other Ascendants by extension."

"But he failed," Shiv said.

"He failed, and worse, the Five Faiths discovered what he was doing, and from there, it was war." Veronica steepled her fingers. "But perhaps that was what the Starhawk wanted in the aftermath. When his initial plans failed, he likely realized he needed more time—and more allies on his side, to achieve his desired outcome. The Forgotten Ones… Some of them tried to turn away. But that's not why most of them are Forgotten."

Slowly, Shiv got the feeling that he had crawled out of a well, only to find himself in a crater. "They were struck from everyone's memories because they… what, degenerated?"

"A tragedy," Veronica said. "They were going to tear the fabric of the Republic apart. And themselves too. What the Starhawk intends to do will only cause more misery. Goodness or otherwise." She looked aside, and the tendons in her neck tightened. "I should have seen it, to be honest. But I was dealing with about twelve other nation-ending problems at the time."

"You didn't know at first," Shiv concluded.

"No, we did not," Veronica replied. "We thought the Abyss was simply being foolish, that they had used up all their trust. The Five Faiths were primitive and contentious anyway. They were due for an eventual conflict, and this was simply that. But then our beloved Roland Arrow did several things that deviated from the grand strategy."

"Like burning Submission," Shiv said.

"Like burning Submission. It was not a strategic city; it was more or less a diplomatic fulcrum, a place where people from all the Faiths could gather. Yet, Roland brought his forces and sacked it. So many people died for no reason, and Roland Arrow, noble, good hero of the Republic, became a mass murderer for reasons we couldn't quite understand."

"Until now," Shiv finally said.

"Until now," Veronica echoed. "There were relics the Starhawk needed there. And through Submission was a path to the Deep Abyss. Only a shame that Sullain's forces tried to mount a counteroffensive even after the city fell, and that Roland was gone when the worst moment came, too busy trying to fulfill the commands of his Ascendant."

Psycho-Cartography: Don't let her keep echoing you. You feel it. You are slowly being persuaded to like her. The anger you feel towards her, the mistrust, it's practically flattened. After this, there will come affection and finally, subservience. She isn't your friend. She isn't your friend. Remember that. Use your Psychomancy to enforce that feeling. She isn't your friend.

And just like that, it felt like a waterfall of coldness crashed down upon Shiv. He sobered, and with that soberness came an overdue hatred. Veronica's left eyebrow rose, and then a smirk followed right after.

Farsight 71 > 72

"You godsdamn piece of shit," he hissed at her.

"Oh, good, you managed to feel it. Not just a brute, are you, boy?"

Shiv flexed his hands, and the manacles crackled with mana. The Orichalcum began to creak and groan. "Oh, I am a brute. I'm also plenty of other things. Don't do that again."

"No, no, I think I will. I think I'll keep doing that until you get a little bit better, or until you fold and break. Raw iron needs to be shaped."

"I am not iron. I'm a fucking person." Shiv's nostrils flared.

Veronica simply rolled her eyes in response. "Come on, Shiv. We're Pathbearers. Struggling, prevailing, or falling to another is who we are. It's what we do."

Shiv stopped himself from diving at Veronica and trying to cave her skull in using his manacles, albeit barely. But she was right about one thing. This was the way of the world. People were going to keep trying to bend his mind and his character to their will. It wasn't just Toughness and Magical Resistance he had to worry about anymore. His heart needed to be a fortress as well.

And so Shiv used his Psychomancy to scar a few things into himself. He wasn't that versed yet, and his training sessions with Uva numbered only a scant few times due to all the constant conflict they found themselves embroiled in. But among those scant few times, he'd learned the very basics of Psychomancy: if you wanted to control someone else's mind, you needed to master your own first. So, he reached back just a few minutes ago, before he arrived in the room, before Veronica began twisting his emotions.

He found lingering traces of paranoia in his mind, and he dragged them across his memories. He used them to scar himself. His anxiety spiked unnaturally, and Shiv hated the sensation. It was like he was going into battle constantly, yet the battle never began. But he needed it. He needed to always remain alert when he was talking to Veronica. More than that, he carved a piece out of his current anger, and he created a cage around his consciousness. Every second, there was always a residual fury building inside of him.

As long as he focused, the anger would be there. It was like inflammation, like an allergy. And he connected that feeling of anger to Veronica's presence. As he stared at her, a fire in his gut churned, and every fiber of his being screamed for bloodshed.

Psychomancy 28 > 30

Psycho-Cartography 82 > 85

"Yeah," Shiv said. "I suppose it is. But you best mind how much you try to influence me. Might not end so well for you." He infused his Silver Tongue with Dread-Taint, and watched as Veronica's pupils dilated.

"Huh. So that's why Daughter's so terrified of you…" She shook her head and let out a quiet laugh. "Remarkable. A boy cowing a god. Well. Are you ready to continue, then?" Veronica asked, shaking off the dread.

"Yeah. Where were we?"

"Roland Arrow. Submission. And this is where we lead into Udraal. See, Udraal is motivated by one thing. Do you know what it is?"

"Death," Shiv replied. "He wants to pull people back from being dead." Shiv hesitated before he revealed the next bit of information to Veronica. "He wants me to bring back the Great One."

Suddenly, the Legendary Councilwoman's demeanor shifted. Shiv caught a slight tightness in her jaw.

"You didn't know about that," Shiv said. Now it was his turn to grin. He taunted her with it, but Veronica composed herself.

"No, I didn't. It's mad. It's audacious. I think it's impossible, which means that it is the most Udraal plot I can think of." She breathed and wrinkled her nose as she looked off to the side. "How disturbing. He intends to do the same thing with his mother, doesn't he?"

"Yeah," Shiv said. "Not only her, though. Supposedly, I was supposed to bring Adam's sister back into the world."

"And his mother," Veronica said. She fell silent, then nodded. "I see. Rose Van Erren… Hawgrave and Stormhalt mentioned her. Gods, boy. You have any idea how valuable you are?"

"Ten legendary skills. Worth a bit in market terms," Shiv said dryly.

Veronica snorted. Her body flared with Dimensionality, and she was suddenly beside him once more. Her transition was instant, and a wave of pressure slammed into the Deathless. He shifted half a step back before he used his tides to blunt her arrival. The chandelier above shook. The fairies clinging to its tips giggled and swirled amidst the minor tempest erupting between the Councilwoman and the Deathless. And when that cleared, Shiv found Veronica staring at him, eye to eye.

"That is not your value," she said, utterly serious. "That is the System not knowing what to do with you. I'm certain of that now. It's trying to get rid of you because you're breaking its architecture. You are a threat to strife itself. After all, if people can just come back from being dead, then the weight and value of their deaths is diminished. The poignancy is diminished."

"Which means that strife is diminished," Shiv concluded.

"Exactly. The fact is that you did bring back Rose Van Erren, which means you can do that for any number of people." And suddenly, Veronica's stare softened and became calculating, plotting. "Far more than ten Legendary Skills. That's just a thing of power. We have plenty of power in the Republic. What we need is something else. Something not even the gods can provide. But then that also means the Great One can be resurrected as well. At least theoretically." The Councilwoman huffed. "Ah, this is troubling. But it also might present an opportunity."

Scorn flowed through Shiv with every heartbeat. As long as he continued looking at Veronica, the feeling of animosity didn't fade. But he also studied her, observed her demeanor, and how she reacted. The disquieting thing was that she remained controlled, composed. She was right. Some of the Ascendants were unstable. Shiv remembered facing Kathereine, Daughter, even Cripple. Veronica was different. No, she wasn't nearly as powerful as a god, but there it was, that cruel wisdom that governed all her actions and reactions.

"How does it work?" Veronica asked.

"How does what work? Me resurrecting someone else? No idea."

"How did you manage to embed Rose inside one of your skills? And which one?"

Shiv considered telling her, but kept his mouth shut as he found a new angle to exploit. "You want to know? I want to know something else. Why'd you call my mom a whore earlier?"

"Because that's what she was, for a long time," Veronica said flatly. "A literal whore. It's the reason you exist at all."

"Listen, Veronica: Listen to me very carefully—Fuck her for what she did, but also, fuck you."

"Oh, don't be that way. Most of us are born to literal whores. Most Pathbearers are literal whores. What do you think happens in a society not governed by rule of law, but by self-interest and desperate scarcity? Man, woman, elf, automaton, goblin, human, everyone is exploited to some extent." A snarl of anger left Veronica, and Shiv could tell she was genuinely outraged. She didn't seem to hate his mother for being a whore, though she definitely hated his mother.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

She seemed to hate the concept of there being whores at all.

"The Republic is many things, Shiv. You've seen the ugliest sides. You've seen what our Inquisition does to maintain the peace. But I'm telling you, before the Republic, everything was misery. For the destiny of anarchy is not absolute freedom, but a fated monopoly when someone or some group finally gains a threshold of power. Following that, it is entropy as they gradually lose that power after a long period, after mistakes build and the system they made breaks down."

"But my mother didn't grow up in an anarchy," Shiv said, frowning. "She grew up in the Republic."

"She grew up poor in the Republic," Veronica snapped. "She grew up barely a citizen. She was barely a person. The fact that people like her still exist is a fucking humiliation. The fact that we're still clinging to this ridiculous nobility system makes me want to end the nation myself. All that we have struggled for, and we're still but savages compared to our ancestors of Pre-Integration." Veronica grew quiet, and her fury settled. "I hold many things against Roland Arrow, but he is a good man in his bones. Despite all the terrible actions he's been forced to commit by his patron god and others, that is not his nature. Which is why you have not suffered extreme indignity in your childhood. You are no whore, Shiv."

She's right, he realized. Shiv twitched. "What do you even know about my childhood?"

"By now, enough," Veronica said, looking him up and down. "Enough to know that no one has used you as a thing. They might have alienated you. They might have hurt you. They might have mocked you. But they did not use you as a thing."

A beat of awkward silence followed, and Shiv risked the question. "Did someone use you as a thing?"

Instead of responding with fury or sorrow, Veronica just laughed. She tutted and shook her head. "No. No, boy, I'm on the other side of the equation in your mind. I'm the user. I've always been the user. My grandmother made sure I was so. It is… something I am forever grateful to her for."

"And is that because she was used?" Shiv asked.

"Probably," Veronica admitted casually. "But that's the thing. I'm an outlier, and so are you. People say trauma makes us stronger, scars make us harder. But I disagree. Conditioning, training, and the right lessons make us powerful. But the wrong kinds of wounds, those leave you in pain for a long, long time. And they misshape your soul. It misshaped your mother's soul. Perhaps she was already misshapen by birth, but whatever she experienced didn't help."

Veronica waved her hand, and she teleported a glass cup into being. It was filled with red wine, and she gulped it down.

"Sanguine Noir," Shiv noted.

"Oh, you know your wines."

"Somewhat," Shiv said. "They're part of the set list Georges used to have. I was mostly focused on the menu items, but I picked up the wines after a time. Comes naturally eventually."

"Ah, yes. Georges. There's another person who's been used and cast aside."

Shiv's fist tightened inside his manacles. "Explain."

"No, I won't." Veronica stared at him. "Just like you didn't explain which skill Rose Van Erren was nested inside prior to her resurrection. So, let's move on to your parents and Udraal instead. But to do that, we need to start with someone else. Though his parents weren't anything spectacular other than winning some honors and being promoted to minor nobility, Roland had always been a great talent. And after drawing the Starhawk's attention, their boy was a monster." She pressed her lips together and aimed her next words directly at Shiv's heart. "Frankly, he's a bit like you."

Shiv grunted with displeasure. "Really? You're going to say that to my face?"

"I'm going to say anything I think is the truth. Because it is. Of course, he was a lot more precise than you are. Probably wiser in terms of strategy and tactics. Far more aware. Much nicer." With every passing compliment she offered Roland, Shiv's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "But he's also not nearly as hearty. Doesn't like fighting the same way you do. And he isn't calculating and controlled where it counts."

"Where does it count?" Shiv said.

"The part where you're more like me than your mother. The part where you like to hold your own leash, rather than letting someone else pull you around." The Councilwoman smirked. But this time it was a deliberate action. It faded immediately, and she pointed at his face. "Psycho-Cartography. Just like I guessed earlier. You're mirroring my actions slightly. The skill's got its hooks in you deep. Tell me, does it talk to you as well?"

Psycho-Cartography: Be very careful what you say from here on out. I might be compromised as well.

"Yeah," Shiv admitted. "Yeah, it does. It's probably half the reason why I haven't done anything too stupid lately."

"Right. Your mother lacked that skill, but she made up for it after a lifetime of pragmatism. Your father was a talented Pathbearer, but there are plenty of talented warriors who water the ground and feed the worms." Veronica paused, and her gaze went distant once more. "Pity. I really wish he could have picked up the guitar rather than the hammer and the shield. He was a far better musician than a vanguard. But ultimately, it doesn't matter what I want. The heart bends along its own path."

"You know something, Veronica?" Shiv said again. "I think you're full of shit."

Veronica gestured for him to continue on.

"You talk a lot about futility, but you're a Legend. You're a Legendary-Tier Pathbearer. You're a Councilwoman. You push responsibilities away, personal responsibilities, things that make you feel uncomfortable. And then you take on the burdens of the Ascendants and an entire nation. I think you're just afraid of being weak."

Silver Tongue 39 > 47

Psycho-Cartography 85 > 90

And for the first time, Veronica Chandler bled in front of Shiv. A trickle of blood ran down her nose, and another current followed from the corner of her eye. Shiv took a step back, surprised by the development. He wasn't sure what was happening. But then Veronica gave a chirping laugh.

"That was a good shot, boy. You probably have a good chance of developing a cutting Rhetoric Skill as well. What do you have right now? Silver Tongue?"

"Yeah," Shiv said, "something like that."

"Well, keep working at it. And feed your Psychomancy as much as you can. I told you before, it is your shield. It's going to continue to be your shield. No matter if you're your own man or if one of us finally manages to get our leash around your neck. Regardless, you're right. That is my flaw. I don't like being so human. But it doesn't change the facts. Your father's flaw was that he felt weak. I placed him in a good orphanage. I ensured that many a good term came his way. He had choices. Opportunities to pursue other talents. Opportunities that would have ensured a kinder life, a safer life."

"But he didn't want that," Shiv said.

"No. He probably wanted the same things every martial Pathbearer wants. The delusion of self-control. The feeling that he was the master of his own fate. It's probably what drew him to Roland Arrow, to your mother, to Rose; like-minded people who accepted him. Who fed that empty hole inside his chest. And he became their burden as well. They all outpaced him towards the end, even your mother. He was talented, but ultimately, talent is a spectrum. And we all hit a bottleneck at some point."

"All of us? I don't know what you're talking about. What's that like?" Shiv asked.

Veronica let out a wry breath. "Your father would have hated you. Your mother, well, you're probably the kind of idealized Pathbearer she wished to be. That's the entire reason you came to be at all, you see. Jealousy. As the Starhawk used Roland Arrow and Rose Van Erren for part of his plans, Udraal caught sight of them. And he discovered what Matthew intended."

"I'm missing a few pieces here," Shiv said.

"Wait a moment," Veronica replied. "I'm going to illustrate who your parents were as people, so that you know what kind of foolishness drove them to conceive you." She paused and appeared to consider her thoughts, though he couldn't tell if it was performative. "The Starhawk wanted to create a subversive vessel. Now. I ask you, how do you avoid becoming a caricature as a skill? How do you maintain stolen godhood with regard to the Great One without losing yourself? Hm?"

"I don't know," Shiv said.

"Think. Don't just speak. Think."

And he did. Shiv thought hard about what Veronica was saying, and slowly, a startling guess came to him. "You said the skill… It reduces someone down to their most essential traits."

Veronica nodded and spun a finger.

"And that caused them to lose themselves over time, to stop being people, and become…" Shiv paused. "So, if someone was skill-bound to the Great One to begin with, if they had no history or personality before…"

Veronica's grin was wide and pearly white. "Oh, yes. That's right, boy. Follow the logic. The Starhawk had a Phylactery prepared during the Eclipse War. But that wasn't to free the others. No. That came far later. At first, he deigned to make his own hidden, subversive god. But one that would grow and develop perfectly. Because she would be born as a skill. Born as a False God. Born to the Starhawk's rightful servants."

"Holy shit," Shiv breathed.

Veronica nodded slightly. "Oh, yes. Adam is very, very special, as was his sister. But ultimately, that didn't come to be. For you see, the skills ingrained within Rose during the conception of her children were compromised. They were compromised because of Udraal's own plan, tainting the Phylactery they'd brought. Also, there was another child conceived during the process."

Shiv felt his throat go dry. Veronica pressed on. "Divinity burns inside of you, Deathless. But it is not the kind of divinity that makes one a god. No, it is a corrupted kind. A fragmentation of the System's purest mana." A dark expression settled over her. "You were conceived around the same time Adam's sister was. The arrangement, then, was made by Udraal because your mother was tired. Tired of being second fiddle. Tired of being weaker than Roland and his beloved. And when Udraal came to make his offer, she took it without hesitation. Not knowing it would cause the death of her consciousness to see her replaced."

"Replaced." Shiv's voice was little more than a whisper by this point.

A pitying expression settled upon Veronica. "Who do you know that wears bodies like clothes? Hm? Who struck the deal with her?"

"Oh… oh, fuck," Shiv breathed.

"Udraal hollowed your mother out. He wore her as a vessel. You were not conceived by your mother when the time came to ruin the Starhawk's great plot. You were conceived by Udraal. And your father didn't know. Not until the very end. And when the revelation came, it struck him harder than any hammer blow. His mind shattered. Vera was dead—a whore to power, whoring her body and soul literally, to the one person she shouldn't have."

Nausea began to overtake Shiv. He wanted to throw up. He wanted to find Udraal to kill him. He tried to speak but clamped his jaw shut as bile nearly erupted out. "Fuck," Shiv gasped.

Veronica stood beside him and rubbed his back. "I know. I'm sorry. I know. Of all the things I wish to inflict upon you, of all the things that I will, I don't have it in me to do this. That's why I'm going to tell you to surrender to us. The Ascendants are not perfect, but at least there's a future. There's a future I'm fighting for. And if you're with us, then maybe we can crawl away from entropy. Maybe we can get back to the golden days. With Udraal, you will always just be a thing. He will always use you like he used your—well, he is technically your mother, isn't he?"

Shiv clenched his own throat tight and stopped himself from throwing up. Barely.

The Legendary Councilwoman waited, and when he didn't break, she kept going. "And once you are spent—and he will spend you—he's not going to let you hold on to that power. He's going to make more Deathless. He's going to make himself Deathless. He's going to ruin your entire existence just to see his experiment come to its desired fruition."

With every word came a blow, and Shiv felt his mind reeling, felt his body writhing and bending as if he was back in time, back when someone was driving crystalline, hardened fists into his breaking bones. Blood flooded the Deathless's mouth, and he realized there was no difference between taking psychological damage and physical damage when speaking to Veronica. And judging from that dangerous glint in her eye, she was planning to use this on him for quite some time.

"Oh, you didn't know at all, boy. Yes, this is why your mother was a whore. She was a whore of the highest order, because Vera sold away her soul just for that faint hope, that crippling little desire to outdo Roland Arrow and the others just once, for her blood to mean something, anything. Your father, he didn't even understand, but he went along with it. He loved her that much. And when you were made, you were made from atrocity. In the end, your father didn't have a chance. The Starhawk couldn't see it coming. And Roland… His heartbreak wasn't even something worth mentioning. Their fates were sealed when He Who Walks Beyond realized what they were planning."

Psycho-Cartography: Gods, just gods. Why… why is the System like this? She... she could be lying. She... No. No, she's not. She's not. You can read it in her voice, she's not—she's…

The acceptance of the vile truth hit Shiv like a bomb to the gut. He collapsed to his knees, and bile clawed its way up his throat.

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