The Tarot Master
Chapter Eleven – Tarot Card 12 The Hanged Man
Characteristics: Destiny. Probation and sacrifice are the price of liberation.
"I know I hung on that windy tree,
Swung there for nine long nights,
Wounded by my own blade,
Bloodied for Odin,
Myself an offering to myself:
Bound to the tree
That no man knows
Whither the roots of it run."
The Speech of the High One from the Old Norse, The Poetic Edda (ca. AD 1200)
***
When Ichigo arrived at the gates of Seiretei, Rukia was being taken to Eve's Tower. He tried to follow her, but the Guardians crossed their scepters in front of the entrance.
"Only Watchers are allowed!"
Unable to pass through, he turned back and followed Ishida, who was heading for the center aisle, screaming to his back. "Why did you bring her?"
Ishida kept walking. "Keep your voice down, Kurosaki. The Fathers demanded her."
He kept the loudness in his words, echoing through the hall. "How could the Fathers have asked for her today, when I haven't crossed the central aisle since Friday?!"
The Carrier's tone was still calm. "The Fathers demanded her two days ago."
Ichigo hurriedly closed the distance between them and forced Ishida to face him, grabbing the collar on his small white cloak. "You told Renji yesterday Seiretei didn't demand for her! You're lying to me!"
By now, several other Nephilim approached them, seeking the source of the ruckus on the balcony above the main aisle. Ishida calmly replied "I'm not lying to you. I lied to Abarai." and he shook Ichigo's hand away, resuming his way towards his chambers.
Ichigo stood there staring blankly, mumbling to himself, finally putting the pieces of a painful puzzle together. "… you lied to… you made me…" and he dashed towards Ishida, screaming in anger "YOU MADE ME BIND HER, YOU SON OF A-" but two Nephilim restrained him, trying to calm him down.
Ishida kept walking. "Careful with your particular choice of words, Kurosaki. One might be lead to assume you would betray your Covenant and make us believe her impossible to be bound, if you had known the Fathers wanted her…"
Ichigo kept trying to release himself from the limbs holding him. "How could you?... WHAT KIND OF A DEVIL ARE YOU??"
The Carrier stopped and turned to face him, frowning with admiration. "Devil?!..." And he walked back to his accuser. "You still don't get it, do you?... You're too damn dense to figure out the formula! I'm the same as you… We're Nephilim, this is what we are, this is what we do. All we do. Maybe now you finally learned your place in this world." He turned back and walked away.
Ichigo shook his captors to try to follow him, but Tousen, the Covenant's head Nephilim, neared him. "This display of contempt for the holy place of our Fathers' aisle is unforgivable! I'm calling the Elders to a council meeting, so we can decide your proper punishment! Until then, I'm not allowing any more of your disordering behavior in this house! You are to remain in your chambers until called for, or I'll shackle you in the dungeons myself! Are we understood, Seeker?"
Ichigo only clenched his jaw. When the Nephilim released him, he headed for his chambers and threw the door closed. Once inside, he directed his anger towards the furniture, growling as he kicked the chairs and threw the table, breaking the candelabrum and spreading the candles on the floor. There was something wet running down his face and he nonchalantly touched the dampness with his palms, staring horrified at the transparent liquid that his hands brought from his face and gasping in confusion and disgust, as if the fluid was an alien burning imprecation. His eyes lit bright blue with anger and despair. He walked back and forth like a caged animal, his lips stretched to show the clenched teeth behind. It hurt. His chest was aching, there was something in his throat that didn't let him breathe, and each inhale was soundly taxing.
He punched the wall, then clawed at it, his sight was blurry and he started feeling weak and dizzy, sliding down the wall to the ground, his wings limply spread apart. He felt exhausted, beaten down like a horse trained to lose a race, his body ached like it was being crushed in between stone, his throat was dry and sore. He had never known pain before, he had never known what if felt like to have his insides cracking and ripping apart. He was a Nephilim, this is what he has done all his life, and he couldn't understand why now he was being pierced with sharp fanged jaws that seemed to extinguish the very life out of him.
DONG – Ichigo gasped as he suddenly raised his head. Despair burning deeper in his bright blue irises, now surrounded by a red tonality in his wide eyes. Down below, the torches were catching flame, illuminating the whole ground floor of the central isle, signaling the arrival of a guest to the Fathers' plunder.
DONG – Ichigo contorted his face, shutting his eyes and hissing his ragged breath through his clenched teeth. His stomach tightened with pain and his fingers helplessly clawed the marble underneath them.
Clad with the satin robes meant for the potentials, Rukia was crossing the central aisle to the angels' lusting feast. In one of the chambers above her, from where no sound could transpire through the fissures, Ichigo held his head back and screamed all the air in his lungs to the heavens. But Heaven's too far from a Covenant, and there was no one to listen.
DONG