Author's Note: My God, Baten Kaitos Origins bothers me! So many of the characters are stupid! Like Sagi (sorry to all you Sagi fans…I can't stand him) and Verus (but I have yet to meet someone who likes Verus much at all…). On the other hand, I love Baelheit and it's always sad to kill him. So I came up with this weird idea for a story that includes BOTH games. Yay! So, don't worry, there won't be any character bashing (in case you were wondering…); it's just a weird idea I came up with about spiriters and malideiters thanks to the conversation between Baelheit and Sagi.
There aren't really any pairings, except for a bit of one-sided Lyude/Kalas and some implied Kalas/Xelha. You could say there's father/daughter love between Baelheit/Milly, as well as some Baelheit/Wife and Baelheit/Daimon. Aside from that…there's not much in the way of pairings.
Summary: Spiriters have the power to sway the world's future; malideiters have no choice but to consume and be consumed. –BK:EWLO & BKO-
Disclaimer: I own nothing. End of story.
"Hey, Kalas! Wait a moment!"
Kalas paused mid-step and turned swiftly to see Lyude hurrying down the golden hall in an attempt to catch up to him. He almost shook his head in disbelief—an emperor never ran in his palace; indeed, he wasn't supposed to run at all (the exception being, of course, when he was in battle). But of course, Lyude wasn't one's usual emperor; he grew up in a militaristic household—running was more natural to him than almost anything else. So Kalas supposed his conduct was excusable—he hadn't been an emperor for more than six months yet, so he was still learning. And, Kalas thought belatedly, if he was emperor, Lyude could surely do whatever he wanted and no one would dare say anything against it.
"Lyude," Kalas nodded formally. "I mean, Your Magnificence--"
He waved aside the formalities. "Stop that, Kalas. You're my close friend—there's no need to stand on ceremony to me."
Kalas shrugged. "Whatever you say. But it does seem sort of improper to refer to the emperor by his given name."
Lyude frowned. "You didn't have a problem calling Xelha by her own name," he pointed out, "And she's a queen. So what's the difference?"
"Well, we were fighting for our lives," Kalas grinned, "It was too much of a mouthful to say 'Your Highness' or 'Your Grace' at every moment to her then."
"But you still call her by her name," Lyude pressed, "So what's the difference? You're not fighting for your life anymore."
"That's all you know," Kalas muttered, a bit vexed by Lyude's words. He cleared his throat loudly before Lyude could continue. "So, what is it you want?"
Lyude blinked and then nodded, suddenly remembering the purpose of his chasing Kalas down the hall. "Ah, yes. Well, I know that she's gone and I don't want to bring up any painful feelings--" Lyude stumbled over his words awkwardly, not wanting to offend Kalas by bringing up his former spirit companion.
Kalas was not fazed. "Just say it, Lyude."
Lyude took a deep breath and nodded. "Right. Well, you see, I was looking through the Imperial Library the other day, and I came across the research journal of Geldoblame's predecessor." Lyude paused and waited to gauge Kalas' reaction. When he blue-haired man said nothing, he continued "Emperor Baelheit had an extremely short term as emperor. He was popular among the people and won the Imperial Election of the time by a wide margin. He wanted to…ah, 'promachinate' the world, and--"
"Just get to the point, Lyude," Kalas interrupted the redhead impatiently. "I don't need a history lesson on the man."
Lyude's face went bright red. "Sorry. Well, before he became emperor, his own predecessor initiated many projects under his supervision. One was trying to create an artificial spiriter by inserting the still-living pieces of Malpercio into a human's body. At the time, pieces of Malpercio could be found relatively easily around the world; now, because of those experiments, that is no longer the case."
Kalas was interested. Lyude tended to talk a lot, particularly when he was nervous or uncomfortable, but he did seem to have found something interesting. "It sounds similar to the project Geldoblame had my father work on," Kalas mused softly, "'The Divine Child' project: to create a human from a Magnus."
"Yes," Lyude agreed, "But that isn't what I thought you would find the most interesting. He had many journals, but this one in particular discusses the topic of spiriters and malideiters—that's what they called the people who housed pieces of Malpercio within themselves—and the results are rather interesting. Emperor Baelheit himself was a spiriter," Lyude continued with a tone that bespoke awe, "And he personally knew all the malideiters, seeing as he created them. He was a great man, Kalas, and I think his findings might be of some interest to you. Until now, much about spiriters has been unknown."
Lyude had a point. Even if he would not admit it, Kalas' heart was lonely without her warmth to fill it. He almost felt as though he was not quite whole. It was a void now that could not truly be filled, even when he was surrounded by those that he loved. And he really did want to know more about her. He hadn't ever known much at all. "Yes," Kalas nodded, "That does sound interesting."
"Would you like to come read the journal?" Lyude asked tentatively.
"Yes, please."
He looked immensely relieved that nothing he'd said had made Kalas angry with him. Lyude really didn't want to make Kalas feel bad by forcing him to remember her. "This way, then. I left the journal in my study."
The two young men walked silently side by side. The servants (and most of the world) were well aware that these two were good friends. It was a common thing for them to wandering the palace together, laughing and talking, and it rarely was spoken of. Yet this time, they were quiet: Lyude felt almost intrusive beside Kalas, who was clearly lost in a world of his own—a world that still included her. Lyude was selfishly glad that he didn't know the pain of losing a spirit, yet he wished that he and everyone else would be enough to fill the void that was left. It wasn't fair that Kalas had to suffer any more—he had already suffered enough.
The study was a very pristine room, with very little gold gilding, to Kalas' immense surprise. Most of the palace (indeed most of Alfard's rich cities) was made almost entirely of gold. But Lyude's study was very plain: deep, shiny redwood replaced the overused gold and only a small bit of that material was used for the window and the edges of the bookcases lining the walls. Kalas admitted to himself that he was surprised: he had come to think that there was no room in the palace without an abhorrent amount of gold.
Lyude stopped in front of the window with his back to Kalas. "The journal is on the desk, Kalas," Lyude said softly, "And I'm sure you'll want to read it alone. So, make yourself comfortable at my desk, but please refrain from poking around in here," Kalas could hear the nervousness in Lyude's voice and he was almost certain the man was blushing. He pushed that aside—it was irrelevant.
"Of course, Lyude," he assured the new emperor, "I won't touch a thing."
Lyude turned with a smile. "Thank you for your understanding," he sounded very relieved, "Now, if you need anything, push that button--" Lyude indicated a small gold button on his left side of his desk, "And my secretary will take your request and see to it immediately." He thought for a moment. "I have a few things to see to, but when you finish, if you contact my secretary, she can fetch me and we could…have dinner together…" he said this last part very softly.
Kalas blinked. "Sure. I haven't seen you in a while, what with being in Wazn all the time."
Lyude's face lit up like a candle. "That's good to hear. Well then, I'll see you later." He saluted formally, and left the study, closing the door softly behind him.
The man was acting quite oddly, Kalas thought absently, but he really hadn't seen Lyude in quite some time, and it would be nice to catch up with him. Not to mention that the palace housed some very talented chefs, and Kalas wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to eat their cooking. He shook his head slightly and sat himself down in the leather chair, focusing his gaze on Emperor Baelheit's journal. It was an inconspicuous looking thing. The pages, which were old but still both gritty and strong, were bound in dyed blue leather with the Imperial Crest of Alfard embossed in silver on the cover. A thin piece of scarlet ribbon marked the place where Kalas supposed was where he was supposed to start.
Malideiter Project
Day Two, Month One
Initiator: Emperor Olgan
Overseer and Director: Baelheit
This is the second day of the 'Malideiter Project' that Olgan has initiated. He has stopped my research on magna mixing in favour of this, and of course, I have no choice but to obey. One cannot defy an emperor so easily. Despite the immense power that a person would have by housing a god inside themselves, I cannot understand why anyone would want such a thing. It is extremely dangerous to tamper with living beings and working with living beings, there is much more that can go wrong than with inanimate objects.
Still, it is difficult to believe that living pieces of Malpercio—a god already dead a thousand years—still exist in this world. Well, that they exist is not quite as surprising as that they are still living. That goes against all natural laws, all magical laws, and all sense of logic. They should be dead, fossilized completely. That is not the case, however.
The pieces we find are simply bone, white with age and smooth from corrosion by the elements. However, these are not normal bones: thin, wiry veins have grown around the bone after the skin had begun to deteriorate completely. It goes against all sense that this should happen: yet it does. The muscles, the skin: everything except for the bone and the veins decomposed hundreds of years previously. We suppose that the reason for this strange phenomenon has something to do with a burning desire for survival that the gods possessed that have survived from ancient times. That desire went so deeply, that it remained within the very bones and blood of those gods.
We have first begun experimenting with the bones themselves. We found that cutting with a knife through a vein does nothing to stop it from surviving: an abnormally fast healing occurs at the site of the injury and within minutes, the vein was as good as new, without having lost a great deal of blood. Even multiple wounds were healed quickly and efficiently by some strange force. We again say it must be the desire for survival that has remained with the bones.
After the vein we cut had healed completely, we took the bone and tried to harm that. No weapon could do any damage to it. Natural elements, such as fire, ice, electricity, did no damage either. The bones, it seems, are hard as rock and smooth as marble.
These bones, of course, can be nothing less than Malpercio's remains. No other remains, human or beast, are like this. These have a strange feeling about them, a strangely potent desire to survive, that has never been felt around other dead remains.
Our experiments on the bones will continue for the next two weeks, so that we are sure that nothing can harm the bone and that the veins can heal themselves infinitely.
Kalas paused. This was very strange indeed, and rather horrific. He shivered to even imagine a piece of Malpercio in his body. His memories of the evil god were all too vivid, too real for him to ever consider such a thing. As Lyude had said, although Baelheit had not yet stated it outright, it indeed seemed like this Emperor Olgan wanted an artificial spiriter. No doubt, Kalas thought sourly, the man had not realized spirits could only found and bonded to in Nekton. And that was only if you were lucky. Spirits didn't choose just anyone who wandered in. This project disgusted Kalas, but he felt compelled to read further, to find out how it ended, as it surely must have. If Kalas knew anything, dealing with Malpercio was never a good thing, and while it always ended, it never ended prettily.
Malideiter Project
Day 16, Month One
Initiator: Emperor Olgan
Overseer and Director: Baelheit
The experiments have gone smoothly. We have concluded that indeed, there is nothing that can harm the bones and veins irreparably. The longest time it took for a vein to repair itself was a mere two and a half hours. The shortest time was thirty seconds. It is amazing that such healing is possible. Is it possible that the test subjects will have these same healing capabilities if these experiments work? We can hypothesize that yes, such a thing is possible, but it greatly depends on the variables.
We have yet to decide how to fuse the god's remains into a living human's body. There are several possible ways, but we are reluctant to try them. There is great risk to the test subjects as well as us experimenters, however we cannot stall for very much longer; Emperor Olgan is impatient to see his work come to success.
One possible way is to drain all the blood out of the veins. By draining the god's blood all at once, we have discovered that the veins will wither and die. We have examined this blood in Lab 009-8 and found all the natural properties of blood, as well as inherent magic and something else we have been unable to explain. We think this may possibly be the spirit of the god resides now in the blood instead of the heart, which decomposed centuries ago. The blood is the closest thing the spirit of the god has to a home. If this is the case, infusing the god's blood into a human's bloodstream will allow it to travel throughout the host's body and the spirit would make its way to the heart, bond with it, and in theory, we would have then created an artificial spiriter: the god would have no control over the body but it would be able to influence the decisions of the host body and grant guidance and powerful magic to said body.
A second way would be to implant the veins into the body entirely. This would be an extremely difficult procedure, however, and would likely result in the death of the test subject, and probably others besides. Removing the natural veins of the host body in favour of the god's veins would have a much higher failure rate than by simply infusing the god's blood into the human's bloodstream.
We contemplated inserting the bone and veins into the host body, but this idea was tossed aside. The bone is not necessary because it does not hold any special properties aside from its durability. It is the veins that are the important part, and they only need the bone for safety. They are like ivy, which needs to grow on something, but unlike plants, the veins of a god would never grow around anything except a stable piece—like a bone—of the god. Aside from that, these are not natural veins—natural veins do not grow so strangely and by implanting bone and veins, we would likely injure the host beyond repair, and possibly kill the host.
We must run several more tests on the blood before we start the actual experimentation, but we will start the first experiment no later than the middle of next month.
--
Malideiter Project
Day 7, Month Two
Initiator: Emperor Olgan
Overseer and Director: Baelheit
Plans must progress faster than we had anticipated. The Emperor insists that we start these experiments and will not hear of our further testing the blood. Working with such unstable substances and variables, we cannot afford to be rushed. Any number of things could go wrong, but he insists and we must obey. We have obtained several vials of blood now, and so we now only await the test subjects the Emperor said he would procure for us.
This experimentation is extremely tiring. I have been spending more and more time here in the labs than in my own home with my wife and daughter. I miss them terribly. They live so close to here and I hardly ever see them—Olgan be damned! If anything were to happen to them…I don't know what I would do.
Kalas sighed. These experiments seemed harmless now, but it appeared Baelheit was well aware of the possible consequences of dealing with a dead god like Malpercio. He had skipped pages—mostly short entries about the details of the blood they were testing. Kalas had no need to read those. He didn't care about what they found in the blood—he wanted to know how it ended.
Malideiter Project
Day 10, Month Two
Initiator: Emperor Olgan
Overseer and Director: Baelheit
The test subjects have arrived. We have twenty subjects currently, from newborn infants to full-grown adults. We have ten males and ten females. I was surprised to see Shanath, Olgan's own son and heir to the throne, here until I realized that Olgan wanted a son more powerful than any other person in the world to take his throne. He wants to create a legacy by way of his son and his experiments. A foolish ambition, I think, but who am I to question anything? I only do as I am told.
Tomorrow, we will begin with a man from Sadal Suud, age twenty-two and a former servant in the royal palace.
--
Malideiter Project
Day 11, Month Two
Initiator: Emperor Olgan
Overseer and Director: Baelheit
We have infused the blood of the god into the bloodstream of Host 001-O (name: Otto). It has been three hours since and the host has not yet woken up from his drug-induced slumber. We are not sure why this is the case; we used only the necessary amount of anaesthesia to lull him to sleep, and he should have woken at least an hour ago.
This is no doubt due to the after effects of the procedure. The god is the most unstable part of the experiment and we do not know what to expect. We must hope that nothing has yet gone horribly awry.
--
Malideiter Project
Day 27, Month Two
Initiator: Emperor Olgan
Overseer and Director: Baelheit
To date, we have lost five hosts (001-O, 003-A, OO7-L, 015-Y, 020-G). Two were female, three were male. This suggests that females have a greater chance of success of infusion, although that is still difficult to solidly prove. Of the lost hosts, four were adults, one was a child. This would suggest that the younger the infusion occurs, the more likely chance there is of success. We suspect that they died because the blood did not mix properly with the host's natural blood and thus the god did not properly bond with the heart. A second possibility is that the host body's rejected the god entirely and their internal systems malfunctioned when the god tried to bond with their hearts.
The other fifteen hosts have been placed in confined quarters. It would be most unwise at this stage to allow them to interact with each other. The hosts are still very unstable themselves, and reactions among themselves could be devastating. Of the hosts, only one has yet to awaken, and this has us worried. He was the final subject to be infused with the god's blood, and that was five days ago. If he does not wake within five more days, we will have to assume that that experiment has gone awry as well and we will dispose of him ourselves.
Kalas squinted at the words on the following page. Unlike what he had previously been reading, this calligraphy was sloppy and near illegible. Ink had run on the page and there were several ink blots. It made reading difficult, but he persevered: the end was here.
Malideiter Project
Day 4, Month Three
Initiator: Emperor Olgan
Overseer and Director: Baelheit
Host 009-P woke two days ago—he was the only host to have an obvious poor reaction to the blood transfusion. He did not die quietly in his sleep as the other five did—he went quite mad and transformed into an ugly beast we referred to as Malpercio's Afterling. It was absolutely horrible. The other hosts were in much more stable conditions, but they were close to the testing facility. We could not afford to allow them to see this beast for fear that they too would change forms.
The beast destroyed the entire lab where we had moved him for further examination the day before. He killed seven Imperial Elite guards and injured twelve others…My wife and my daughter…they had come to bring me lunch…and that beast…it…it…
That beast killed my wife. It tore my daughter apart, leaving her bleeding on the floor and on the brink of death. My wife gone…my daughter—soon to be three!—almost dead…I was devastated. How could this happen? It took twenty more guards to subdue and kill the beast. Its remains were burned and the ashes scattered to the winds. But it had wreaked havoc. I took my poor daughter and had her wounds healed as best as I could. The vast majority of her body was gone and her blood level was so low that I didn't think she would survive. The best healers in the Empire managed to stop her bleeding and I had her put in a life support unit. It was all I could do. I had my wife cremated shortly thereafter.
Olgan called a halt to the experiments as soon as he heard about the destruction. He blamed me for the failure of his project—how was it my fault? I was not the fool who wanted to create an artificial spiriter! If I had refused, he would have had me executed: one does not refuse the emperor. And yet, his failure ended up on my shoulders: I have lost everything, thanks to him.
I am on my way to Mira, now. A world that shifts dimensions: it is a perfect place for one such as I. I could not remain in Alfard where my wife died and my daughter soon will—what kind of a man am I? My wife gone, my daughter almost dead…how could I have prevented that? How could I have saved them, if I had been able to save anyone? By being executed, I suppose. But even so, Olgan would have found another to head the project, and my family would still have died. There was no other way; no other choice.
--
Promachination Project
Day One, Month One
Initiator: Baelheit
Overseer and Director: Baelheit
I was ready to die in Nekton. I wanted to die. There was nothing left in the world for me. Olgan had set those abominations free just before I had fled the Empire. The products of my stained hands: now they run free around the world. Stars only know what will happen with them free in the world. I cannot allow them to be free. They must be disposed of, one by one, before they destroy the world entirely.
But I am not alone now. Nekton, the place where I was ready to die, changed me. Legends have always said that Nekton was the most supernatural place in all of Mira—probably in all the world. I hadn't really believed those legends before.
Daimon is with me now. She understands me better than anyone else. Olgan wanted an artificial spiriter; what is better than a real one? That old fool…he would be ecstatic to learn of this. I won't ever tell him, however. I will never give him the satisfaction of learning the truth about me.
Spiriters, they say, have the power to change the world. Spiriters can change the future. This world is corrupt, full of people like Olgan. We rely on unstable things, like hearts and magic. Who is to say that these things won't fail us one day? Magic that keeps the Islands floating in the Sky…who's to say that magic won't fail sometime in the future? If that happens…it won't be just one or two people who die…who are hurt. It will be everyone. All because we rely on such unstable things.
If we relied on ourselves…if we relied on our own sheer will, our own scientific achievements, wouldn't we be safer? My wife would not be dead if we hadn't tampered with magic, with things we didn't understand. My daughter would not be little more than a sack of blood and bones if we hadn't tried to make a god out of a human. If we had continued to develop our technology, we would have been safe. If we had continued to develop things that are pre-programmed, things that can be controlled and replaced…then, perhaps we would be safe. Controllable things are safe. Dealing with living beings always comes with a price: dealing with a living yet dead god comes with an even higher price. Technology does not.
My destiny is to change the world, if the legends of spiriters can be believed. I think that they can be. I have never felt so powerful, so able to do things. Daimon and I…we will develop the technology called 'machina' further, so far that it can be used for anything and everything. It will be lifesaving—my daughter will have a new body—one that can be fixed if it is broken and she will live out her life as any other person. It will improve the safety of our lives: people will no longer have to do laborious or dangerous jobs. Life will attain a degree of safety never before dreamed of.
This life comes with a price, of course. The floating Islands will have to be destroyed—magic has no place in a world of machina. Heartwings will be removed—what use are they in a world of machina? A new floating Island—one made entirely of machina—will be created. Everyone will be able to live there in complete comfort and safety. What more could anyone want? Money will be unnecessary: people will have what they need to live and more. Nothing could be more desirable. There will be equality—no one will become like Olgan, who want more and more because they will have anything and everything they ever dreamed of, thanks to machina.
This is what I want to do. I want to save the world from itself, and I will stop at nothing to achieve this. Daimon is with me; with her, how could I possibly fail? Two hearts are joined as one—together, as one person, we will save this world from itself.
That is our destiny.
It took Kalas a moment to realize he had come to the end of the journal. There was nothing more to read, nothing more to say what happened to the released hosts. Surely something must have happened. He could not believe that nothing had gone wrong after they were released. There had to be more to this story than what was written in the journal.
He pushed the gold button Lyude had indicated to him earlier—how long had he been reading?—and after a moment, a woman's cool voice sounded from the little speaker installed in the desk, just above the button. "Yes sir?"
"Er…His Magnificence told me to contact you when I finished in here…" Kalas mumbled, "And we're supposed to have dinner together…could you…get him for me?"
"Of course, sir," the woman's voice said neutrally. "He will be there soon."
Kalas nodded before realizing that she couldn't see that. He didn't bother saying anything though. He wondered if Lyude knew how the story ended. He hoped so—it was so intriguing, so similar to Kalas' own story that he simply had to know how it ended.
Lyude appeared within ten minutes with a smile. "Did you enjoy the journal?" he inquired politely as he led Kalas to his private dining room.
"Very much," Kalas affirmed. The scent of roasted meat and cooked vegetables caught in his nose and he inhaled swiftly. His stomach rumbled loudly and Lyude chuckled. "Although I am quite hungry."
"So I hear," Lyude said.
Kalas wasted no time in loading his plate with delicacies. After so long in Wazn—where the food was indeed very good although nothing like the wonderful food here in Alfard—it was good to have the chance to eat hot meal again. That wasn't very common in Wazn—cold weather meant cold foods since the hot foods cooled very quickly in the low temperatures.
"Lyude," Kalas said, "There must be more to the story than what was written in the journal. It wasn't so much as an ending as a beginning…what happened to those malideiters who were set free? How did Baelheit's promachination dream end? There must be more."
Lyude looked thoughtful and twirled his silver fork in his fingers. "There is," he said, "But it was not recorded by Baelheit. Everything he described, he did. He created a floating island of machina and he did intend to destroy each of the islands. He hunted down most of the malideiters and had them killed—oddly enough, almost hypocritically, he used the beasts he hated so much to give extra power to his island. But there were many who stood in his way."
"Like who?" Kalas asked through a mouthful of potato.
"King Ladekhan," Lyude replied, "Queen Corellia, and Lord Rodolfo all did. Mira, by luck, was never under a threat of promachination for some unknown reasons—I suspect because Baelheit probably felt tied to it because that was where he met Daimon—so Lord Calbren never stood with the other leaders against him. Emperor Baelheit's own daughter actually went against him and so did a malideiter Baelheit had been unable to track down. Together with a talking puppet—that I learned from the Great Kamroh originated in Duhr—they stood against him and defeated him."
"I see…so what happened to that malideiter?"
"He lived out the rest of his days in Mira with Baelheit's daughter." Lyude paused to sip his wine. "Do you remember when we stayed in Lord Calbren's mansion before Melodia took us to Mintaka?"
Kalas nodded. How could he forget that night when so many things had been set into motion?
"Well, I explored their library while we were there, and found a diary. It was the diary of that malideiter. You may find it interesting. He talks about the differences between a spiriter and a malideiter, you see. He unknowingly finishes the tale Baelheit leaves unfinished."
Kalas stared at Lyude. "Is that so…"
"Yes."
"I think I will pay a visit to Mira, then. I would like to know what happened, in the very end," Kalas mused softly.
"I don't know if that diary will give you the answers you are seeking," Lyude said quietly, "I hope that it can answer what Baelheit was unable to."
Kalas smiled gently. "Baelheit was a great help to me, Lyude. Thank you for showing that to me. I understand a bit more now about what it means to be a spiriter. I realized that I could change the world's future—and indeed my own future—only if I chose to. And I learned that there will always be those who will stand in my way. But Baelheit persevered and so did I. We both wanted to die, Lyude, and we both almost accomplished that in Nekton. We are like mirror images of each other. Although it seems my story has a happy ending, where his did not."
"Perhaps. I think that time will tell the answer to that." Lyude grinned and held his goblet aloft. "To spiriters."
Kalas grinned back. "To spiriters."
Author's Note: I took a ton of artistic license with all that experiment stuff. They never explained it in the game if my memory serves. And don't any of you scientific people tell me any of that was wrong—I'm not at all scientific, and this is a fictional game so anything goes XD I think it made sense though. They never explained how the god got inside the host so…I made it up as logically as I could. I hope you liked it though, logical or not.