Isle of the Dead

II: Sit tibi terra levis

"Why is Youngblood on the list of 'chieftains'?" Danny raised the scroll that listed all recipients of the Ghost King's invites. "How does the kid even qualify as a chieftain?"

"In order to qualify, you need to have a retinue of ghost followers. Captain Youngblood has them in the form of the crews in his fleet, ergo he is a chieftain." Pariah Dark replied airily. He was dressed in a light tunic, belt and felt shoes, but Danny never doubted that the old ghost was still way more armed than Danny himself. "You, on the other hand, were much harder to justify for an entrance into the talks."

"You know, I totally appreciate this help, but why are you helping me?" Danny pouted as he read through the list. "I don't even know half of what you're doing. And Technus is excluded from the list?!"

"Mr Nikolai Technus decided that his talents were best served outside of the government." Pariah answered. "Of course, since his amnesty from Walker was conditional upon his attendance to the thingstead, I took the liberty of informing our unrelenting sheriff of Mr Technus' impending criminal status."

"I don't think that's how you're supposed to invite people to parliament?" Danny considered. "And what about Poindexter? I think he qualifies."

Pariah Dark simply gave him the gimlet eye. "Mr Poindexter cannot lead a pencil to paper. How would you expect him to control the ghosts of residence in his demesne? For practical concerns, Princess Dorathea has offered to represent the SplitZone, which, while all good and proper, also presents different problems."

"Problems with Dora and Sidney teaming up?" Danny asked.

Pariah unfurled a familiar-looking scroll. "Map, Project."

A hologram of the Keep and its surrounding territories expanded around Pariah's study, millions of individual islands floating in the ectoplasm of the Ghost Zone represented on the Infi-map. Danny stared ion awe as certain zones were marked with different colours in three dimensions.

"This," Pariah tapped an outlined area in light blue, "is the combined territory recognised by the Witenagemot between the two of them. This-" a zone in red, "makes up the Acropolis, separated by the River of Repulsion. And, placing the Keep's territory and Walker's prison in perspective... would make this sector of the Ghost Zone dominated by the Princess. Walker would protest about the intersection of airspace between these two territories."

"Wow, and I thought gerrymandering in two dimensions was bad," Danny remarked as the Infi-map projections of the Ghost Zone's local sector began to resemble an election map. "And that's still on the local level only."

"The Infi-map, invented by King Pariah Morozko, forms an important citation of all border treaties in the Ghost Zone." Pariah explained, admiration apparent in his voice. "The Realm of the Far Frozen has been charged with its protection, since King Pariah Morozko came from their clan."

"King Pariah Morozko?" Danny repeated. "Of the Far Frozen?"

Pariah remained silent. "He was a good king, in his time. It is very rare that the Crown accepts a wearer with a cold core. Good kings, however, have a tendency to get assassinated, and in his case, it was his brother, Prince Ded Moroz, who did the deed and was killed by his brother's dying blow for his trouble. It paved the way for Kurultai Pariah Khan's rise."

"...Oh." Danny frowned once he managed to decipher Pariah's words. "That's... how long ago? You probably can't recall, being super old and all, but I only know that you were the Ghost King. I didn't know that you had... predecessors."

"Since my death, I have worked with them." Pariah remarked idly. "By the time I started working for a fifth master, all my previous lieges having died, the throne of the Ghost Zone was called the Pariah Throne. The only reason they call it the Dark Throne now is because I remained king for... a very long time. I cannot recall the exact length of time, being, as you say, super old."

"No kidding." Danny remarked. "So... how come we never heard of them? Those... predecessors."

"I outlived every one of them, long enough for the ages to forget," was Pariah's reply, quiet and dignified, if a touch respectful. "Clockwork would remember, but that is his job. He knew them, as royalty and gods of this quintessential world. I knew them as my enemies, and my allies. My friends, few that they may have been. My lords and ladies. My knights, my mounts. It is I, and the Ghost Zone, that remembers."

Danny's head turned, to see the Ghost King in deep contemplation that seemed directly at odds with the rough look that Pariah Dark seemed to carry about him. Pariah played with the Ring of Rage in his hand. Across the study, the Crown of Fire steadily burned from its perch under Pariah's eye.

"They are all gone now."

Danny flew across the Ghost Zone, towards Pandora's demesne. The Acropolis was lit with giant flaming metal basins holding combustible matter, which spewed thick green smoke about the steps. Pandora was present, her four arms crossed across her torso as she waited.

"Hello, child."

"Hi, Pandora!" Danny smiled at her. "I mean, ma'am. Well, erm, just came to... drop by! Yeah! To... take you up on your invitation, chat a bit..."

"Oh!" Pandora's hands clapped together, two sets of claps echoing about. "Well, follow me, I just finished some baklava."

"Thanks, Pandora. Erm, ma'am."

"Pandora is fine, Sir Daniel."

"Thanks." Danny waited until they were walking behind Doric columns before he figured out how to phrase his question. "Erm, I... just wanted to talk about Pariah."

"The Ghost King?" Pandora enquired. "Ah, Clockwork was a bust, then?"

"I don't... want to interrupt Clockwork yet, really." Danny fidgeted. "And I was looking for a ghost ancient enough to recall any kings before Pariah."

"I'm afraid not, dear Phantom," Pandora sighed. "Pariah Dark was already king when I... arrived at the Ghost Zone, and even then his rule was quite entrenched. Of course, I saw the group they called the Ancients battle His Majesty about a thousand years after I arrived... if you could call it a battle."

"What happened?" Danny already guessed what happened; without the benefit of an army to deal with Pariah, it probably required a sucker-punch and stealing the Crown and ring away before pushing the man into the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, a box of such tight dimensions and spell-work that would stand against millennia. Said box was also smashed into millions of pieces, hence Pariah dark walking around the Ghost Zone and terrifying more than a few ghosts in the process.

"When your entire plan hinges on catching the King off guard, assassinating him directly after staging a minor revolt for him to quell, stealing the Ring and Crown, and pretending to be his manservant for years before attacking him, it's not a battle, but an assassination." Pandora led Danny to a small patio table which held a plate of glowing baklava next to an amphora and two earthenware cups. "Wine?"

"Erm... I need all my wits later..."

"Water?"

"Thanks." Danny sighed over the trickle of water. "How do you talk to a guy whose moral code and, well, basically everything, is a thousand years out of date? And who can recall like, super old details of the Ghost Zone nobody except Clockwork remembers? I keep having to read Jazz's books on feeling out of place, and brushing up on all customs, and- and then he gets to angst now. About people I never met and never will meet, because they're all dead! Though they're ghosts!"

Pandora silently settled herself, waiting. "That does not seem to be the full extent of your elaborations."

"I'm good for now." Danny glumly glanced to the glowing baklava in front of him, picking up a corner to nibble. "Thank you for the food. It's delicious."

"You are learning about hospitality, I see," Pandora said. "Good for you, Sir Daniel. So many young ghosts forget nowadays. Between Clockwork, Nocturne and now Pariah, it's a wonder that any ghost minds their manners at all."

"Values dissonance and all, I get it." Danny pouted, his expression woebegone.

"But why the curiosity? I presume Clockwork would be more familiar with the sequence of events than myself." Pandora absently sipped from her own cup. "Your acquaintance with the Ghost of Time is certainly on more intimate terms, if you would forgive the presumption."

"How do I explain it..." Danny's hands gesticulated as he tried to word his reply. "I'm more likely to get a straight answer if I start with you?"

"Fair enough." Pandora's cup thunked against the table. "To begin with, you said 'he gets to angst now'. Like you were expecting him to say it from the start."

"Yeah, I know." Danny nodded. "My bad. It's dealing with students all over again. Except for that time when the students started lobbying for regular excursions to the Ghost Zone on the basis of, and I quote, 'their TA's familiarity with such an exotic and otherworldly place'. I'm just glad Principal Ishiyama shot that down."

"As for... the others." Pandora considered. "I do not quite know of that feeling. Even when I arrived, I had people I could relate to, all in this part of the Ghost Zone. All I had to do was safeguard my Box. Centuries would pass before I noticed the human world, but my people neither died nor changed. Could you imagine, Sir Daniel, waking up to find that everything you held dear was now gone?"

Danny kept looking at his hands, large and yet gentle. His alternate self in a future that never happened had faced that, and became evil as a result. He was twenty-five now, and that alternate future never happened. Yet it had also happened, somewhere, sometime. The bone-deep, soul-crushing loneliness that followed into a chasm between worlds, neither human nor ghost.

"However, the Ghost King must be a resilient person, strong enough to weather the ages for the few centuries he had ruled beforehand." Pandora mused. "Why so curious, Sir Daniel? If you will not murder him, then you serve him, and then why so many questions about the Ghost Zone's pariah king?"

Danny squinted at Pandora's innocent visage.

"I feel," said the halfa, "as though you just made some sort of Elizabethan pun along the lines of Shakespeare that should fly over my head, but empathetically does not, because Mr Lancer was very thorough, and my ears will never un-hear that. Pandora, I have a girlfriend."

"Very well, but how would that preclude your acquaintance with the King of all Ghosts, which I dare say grows more intimate?" Pandora archly replied. "Heroes who want the same or opposite goals shall meet regardless. It is inevitable. Yours and Pariah Dark's fates are... intertwined."

Danny snorted. "Heroes? Let's not forget the ghost invasion of Amity Park over a single, lousy ring!"

"Metis and Kratos are both celebrated aspects of heroism." Pandora took another sip, this one larger. "I never did say that a hero worked exclusively for the common good. I only said that your meeting him was inevitable. Sir Daniel, you seem to have misinterpreted my words yourself without any... help."

Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !