Roads Less Traveled: Chapter Two
The sharp scent of moist air assaults her nose and warmth washes across her back. She looks up from her fetal position and sees not the destruction of her beloved home world, but instead a vision of emerald grass and distant blue-gray mountains. A valley meadow ringed by low trees and high mountains. The perfumes of heather and mountain thyme drift across her and actually seem to calm her to some degree. The sight of the fey assassin standing before her and lacing up his breeches is another cause for her relaxation.
"Was that really necessary?"
He looks down at her and offers an amused grin.
"We were under surveillance my dear lady Kitana."
"You are not answering my question... Meander."
He chuckles, finishing the lacing of his pants and sitting down in the soft grass beside her. Drawing another long breath from the pipe.
"No, it wasn't the only way out of that particular situation," he winks playfully. "But it sure was fun."
The princess of Outworld discards the robes as the heat of the single sun makes such a garment only a bother. Returning Meanders bemused smirk with a disgusted scoff.
"And these bracelets! What are they?"
Meander actually offers her a look of surprise. He would have thought that the answer was obvious.
"Exactly what I said. Drazd Obedience Cuffs. Any servant of the Emperor that is involved in slavery would have known an authentic cuff from a fake. They have a natural, what's the word, aura about them. Trust me, they are quite unique."
She eyes him with unmasked anger. Her lower lip almost quivering in her immediate irritation. Her gesture of defiance being to strip the jade devices from her wrists and dash them against the grass several yards away from her.
"You mean that you had me lock REAL slaver cuffs onto my own wrists?!"
Meander smiles again and takes another draw off his pipe. Releasing the smoke slowly as he relishes the effect of her frustration.
"Well, they were not locked. And as I said, it had to look authentic."
She turns away from him and cradles her knees in her arms. Silently cursing his name and wondering if she has gravely misjudged this situation.
"What exactly do they do?"
"Oh, nothing dramatic. They act as a spell of mental domination, if I issue the proper command word. If you had resisted," Meander turns the pipe around in his fingers, distracted. "They would have caused you to suffer unbelievable agony. And once activated they would not have been removed until I used the proper spell to set you free."
She looks back to him, her eyes alight with fury.
"Is that all?" Her question laced with enough venom to poison the largest lake of Edenia.
"Oh, did I forget to mention that they are the only things that kept you from being torn apart by the cross-dimensional eddies created by my Telemportal Cloak?"
Kitana's eyes narrow as she seeks for the truth in his pale features.
"Why slaver cuffs?"
Again he smiles.
"Have you forgotten that I am a bounty hunter as well as an assassin? Would it be wise of me to take bounties that I could not deliver? The Drazd cuffs work smashingly well for this purpose."
"You couldn't carry another form of protection from those... eddies?"
Meander chuckles and draws again off the pipe.
"Do you believe that a wanderer such as I can carry such frivolities? Nay, my dear. I must pack what is practical and light. Besides I never made you a slave to my will. And those that watched us had to believe that I was intent on just such things."
"So that I can be returned without having to create stories for my step-father."
"Exactly."
Kitana releases her legs with a defeated sigh. Stretching them out before her and reveling in the feeling of grass against her bared flesh. A sensation she has not been able to indulge safely in a few thousand years.
"All right, I cede this to you. But I warn you assassin," and she pauses to make sure he sees the conviction in her glare. "Try anything like that again and you will require a master surgeon."
"To sew it back in place?" he inquires with an amused nod of his head towards his pants.
Kitana nods slowly, intently focused on him with all the animal intensity of a lioness.
"We understand each other."
Meander laughs, laying back into the blanket of supple grass.
"Not even remotely! But it will do for the moment."
"What do you mean by that? I thought my message was clear?"
Meander closes his eyes against the glare of the sunlight and taps out the embers of his pipe with an almost absent motion. Breathing deeply of the natural fragrances and allowing a brief moment of absolute peace to flow through him.
"I understand you perfectly princess."
Kitana watches him carefully. Studying the form of his lanky limbs and the splay of his white/gold hair. The gentle rise of his chest as he breaths, noticing that he regularly takes only shallow breaths and these with as little noise as can be tolerated. But always there is an air of calm about him. The calm that reminds her of the stillness that falls just before the storm shatters the land.
"Yet you imply that I do not understand you."
"It is not implied m'lady. It is the cold truth."
"You are a living legend Meander. Everyone that has sway in the Realms has heard of you. All that care to can find out about you. And I have spent the last one hundred years studying you." She finishes with a smile at her own sense of accomplishment. "I think that gives me some qualification in the area of knowing you."
Lulling his head towards her he meets her downcast gaze. And for the first time she sees the icy hardness that lies just behind the casual façade.
"What is my name?"
She looks at him quizzically, as if the question is bordering on the ludicrous.
"What is my real name?" he qualifies. His tone never changing. His aura of calm detachment now even stronger than before.
"No one knows."
He rolls his head softly, never taking his eyes off hers.
"Incorrect. One very close to you knows my true name."
"Who?"
Meander pauses, allowing the unspoken implications to seep into her mind.
"Ask your Emperor. Shao Kahn knows me better than almost any other being in all the 10 million worlds," he chuckles masochistically. "He has known me longer in any case."
The chill that cascades down her spine tells her that she has indeed found the perfect individual for her plans. Yet she finds herself suddenly very empathetic for this legendary assassin. An emotion she never expected to harbor for one that is involved in a profession that she finds detestable.
"How is it that he has not killed you then?"
She notices him rise up slightly and she sees the instant clarity return to eyes that were, for a moment, lost in some far away thoughts. Kitana immediately senses that he has gone on the defensive, waiting for some hint of betrayal on which to respond.
"If he knows you so well. How have you managed to survive for so long with Kahn having that much power over you?"
Meanders eyes soften slightly and he inches himself back into his fully relaxed pose. Releasing her stare to again close his eyes and bask in the odors of the meadow.
"He enjoys the game."
She scoffs at the finality of his tone. Making him again look up at her with a single cracked eye.
"For over 700 years?"
"Kahn is an immortal. Seven hundred years is very much like 7000. Or even 7 million. Time is only the span between plots for a being such as he. Nothing more than an irritating lull between games. And I am a favorite opponent of his. This is why he has never sought me out. Even though his agents and his priests have never succeeded." His gaze returns inward and his eye closes as he finishes.
"But why are you so special? He could find other pawns for his amusement."
Kitana looks towards the azure heavens as she ponders her own position in the games of the Emperor. Feeling suddenly more than a little melancholy as well.
"Not like me," Meander says with a sardonic smile. "I am all but unique in the realms. To him I am irreplaceable. I do believe he will mourn my passing when my time finally comes."
She again feels a surge of irritation at the casual demeanor of this man. Frustrated by the fact that he seems so content with a situation that she can recognize. A situation she feels driven to escape.
"So what makes you so cherished that he would lose priest and assassin without a response?"
Meander sighs softly. As if the answer was so glaringly obvious that to ask the question is close to an insult.
"I am one part his creation and one part his failure. And I was a willing participant in both those events. That makes me unique. That I am as lucky and as skilled as I am makes me something to cherish. And that I also enjoy the game... makes me one of his favorite opponents."
"You do realize it is most irritating to hear you speak so gaily about a situation that others would speak of in sobs or whispers."
Meander chuckles and sits up. Shaking the loose blades of grass from his hair with a vigorous toss.
"Every beat of your heart is known to me Kitana. I realize more about you than you do."
"So it is true what they say about your sense of hearing?"
"Not exactly. I am quite sure 'they' have underestimated me yet again," Meander says as he looks calmly over at her. "I rely upon the mistakes of my enemies to prove an advantage later on. Only Kahn knows the full extent of my talents."
"That ends this!" she states angrily. Standing and fixing her feet for any potential hostilities that may result from her new course of action. "I am tired of hearing about this relationship with Shao Kahn. You know that I seek you for a bounty, that much is obvious. Yet how am I to trust a hunter that freely admits such a close affiliation with the very individual I desire hurt by the bounty? Now either you can tell me the details of this relationship or we can consider our business concluded!"
Meander looks at her carefully. His almost invisible eyebrows arched in honest surprise. His pale brow slightly furrowed in his expression of bemused amazement.
"You seem ready for a fight Kitana?"
"Don't change the subject!"
They spend a silent moment staring at each other. Testing the moment and gauging the tension.
"You expect me to respond to threats then?"
"No. I expect you to understand that I mean to get my answers. And if not that then I expect you to deliver me back to Outworld. Without resistance."
"But you would fight me?"
He listens closely to her body sounds. Eager to hear some sign that she is uncertain or even fearful. Yet his trained ears find nothing but the steady rhythm of a heart dedicated to the moment. And he knows that she will not hesitate to attack him if given the motivation.
"You know my reputation. Do you think you can beat me?" he asks softly.
He moves ever so slightly, as if to raise up, but stops when that slight movement forces her to reach for her Kessen fans tucked in the small of her back.
"You are a legendary warrior Meander, with your Primegun. Not so legendary with your hands or with a blade. We are in close proximity and I believe that we are just about equal in celerity. I have no doubt this gives me a marked advantage in our situation," and now it is her turn to offer a slight smile. "I have no intention of letting you stand until I get an answer."
Again he searches her for signs of weakness. Again he finds none. And for only the third time in his life he realizes that his focus on serenity of spirit had landed him in a delicate predicament.
"Do not believe for a moment that I will hesitate to kill you Meander." She speaks in a voice that is just as calm and as even as his. The voice of a warrior dedicated to the moment. The voice of death.
He notices the depth of her eyes darken for just a second as she speaks and he knows her words are true. Worse, he knows that her threat is not idle. Given their positions and proximity he could well loose his head before launching any counter offensive.
Looking away from her he sighs and settles into a more relaxed sitting position.
"My world was called Bright Water. Aanaajiirii to my people. It was a realm much like Edenia, before Kahn came along with his corruptive influence. It was a verdant world and teeming with life. And it was a joyous place to live and to grow," his eyes focus on the distant clouds but his vision turns inside. "My kind were warriors by training but poets by nature. Dreamers. They loved the peaceful pursuits of the artist and the philosopher. But they were the equal of only a few when times demanded that they rise up to defend the Realm."
Kitana watches him carefully. Knowing that she cannot fall complacent now that she has threatened Meander with violence. Yet she does find these words troubling.
"I have heard of Bright Water. It's been under the thumb of Shao Kahn for more than 2000 years."
Meander nods softly.
"Bright Water has always been rich in natural resources and potent in spiritual energies. My people lived with the land, not through it. Our cities were grown from tree and crystal. The capital of the realm, the central city of Morning Light, was a mountain of vibrant sapphire in an ocean of emerald trees. We loved or land. And we were fiercely protective of it. Which is why we had to become such great warriors. And to the last resident we were trained in combat and readied to give our lives to defend Aanaajiirii. From the earliest moments when we could conceive of battle."
Absently he plucks a few blades of grass from the hillside, twisting them slowly in his fingers. His eyes looking inward with total abandonment of the moment. Kitana knows then that he has surrendered to her and she also relaxes.
"We had defended our realm for untold centuries. Building upon our skills and expanding our war-machine to the limits of both science and sorcery. My people were, and are, the only race to successfully blend science and magic into a technology capable of mass-production. We created battle golems powered and controlled by the souls of warriors. We created suits of armor that gave each wearer the spirit and power of a living dragon. And we manufactured various models of weapons like my Primegun." He pauses to slowly draw the weapon and hand it up to Kitana. "Naadaariikaavaa. The Nights Kiss... or what you people call my 'Tear Maker'. She is only one of the weapons my people perfected to defend Bright Water. A seamless blend of magic and technology. A hand held library of destructive magical spells powered by my spirit and bonded to me as a mate."
Kitana holds the weapon with the care a mother holds a child. The smooth curves of the weapon warming slightly in her grasp. An aura of power seeping into her skin and making her arms tingle. And as she runs her fingers over the wooden-like form she sees a hint of bluish-white static sparkle behind her fingertips.
"I advise you not to attempt to fire her," he states flatly. "She is bonded to me and would respond to your action with lethal intent. She is not one to be trifled with."
"But as I was saying, we were quite sure we had little to fear from those outside the realm. We had repelled seven invasions in the past. Bright Water had enjoyed 1000 years of peace when Shao Kahn pierced our Realmsphere. Making his invasion en-mass. He believed we would be weak and soft, that it had been too long since we were engaged in war. He found out differently. His war raged for 175 years by the time I was born. I grew up in that age of pain and death. I saw many of my blood relatives' go off to the war, never to return. I saw our cities burn and crumble. And I saw the valor and determination of my people. For every inch of land Kahn took from us we made him pay in blood. And by the 340th year of the war Bright Water was littered with battlegrounds and the bodies of Kahn's fallen. We would not touch those corpses. Our seers had foreseen our failure if we polluted ourselves with his dead."
He chuckles and looks up into the deep blue sky. "They didn't tell us that. Not those of us that were considered too young to fight. I was trained as a scout you see, by my father. I could not engage the enemy but I could spy on him. I could track his movements and gauge his capabilities. But I was never supposed to approach the battles. Or the battlegrounds. And there was never a reason to loot Kahn's dead. They had nothing that my people wanted." He chuckles again and lies back, tilting his hat over his face and resting on his head on his crossed arms. "They didn't count on me I guess. Or maybe they did. I have never quite figured that out. Maybe they knew my people had lived too long. But I digress... I saw something in one of those wastelands that I found quite interesting. Uncontrollably interesting. I saw the body of one of Kahn's soldiers. A tall and elegant female warrior; that wore armor of a pearlescent white and wielded a lance of a most delicate design."
"She was an Edenian Guard. That was the old style of ceremonial armor."
"Indeed she was princess. And imagine my fascination with someone so beautiful fighting for a beast like Shao Kahn. I could not understand this conundrum. So I made it my quest to discover the reason for this contradiction." Again he chuckles and this time Kitana senses the deep self-loathing that tinges the gesture. "I took her lance as proof for my leaders and I disobeyed my mandate and went deep into enemy territory. Lucky for me that my father had been an excellent hunter and teacher. Otherwise I doubt that I would have survived that foolish endeavor. But I penetrated to the heart of Kahn's army and witnessed the Emperor himself. Surrounded by those Edenian Guards and in a rage about his inability to corrupt my people."
A wide grin crosses his lips. Unseen under the wide brim of his hat.
"I do believe he hated us as much as he relished the challenge. For I have since learned that Kahn had never failed to infiltrate an enemy until he crossed swords with the people of Bright Water. We could not be bought you see. We could not be subverted and we could not be infiltrated. The mystics and seers of my kind were simply too potent. And my people were not predisposed towards acts of treason."
"So as I watched Kahn's army over several days I began to ponder the reality of the war. I saw him use portals to bring in vast armies of soldiers. And I witnessed the brutality of the Emperor and the terrible loyalty this generated. And I started to put the numbers together in my mind. That even though we had Kahn matched in magical power; and totally beat in technological superiority, he simply had better numbers. Even if we killed a thousand for every one of our warriors lost, if Kahn could continue to meet those numbers we would be lost. And as I looked at the noble Edenian Guards, in their pearl white armor with their ornate lances, looking for all the universe like fallen angels, I thought that Kahn was a truly unbeatable foe."
Meander pauses to gather his thoughts. Kitana, still softly stroking the Primegun as she listens, studies him for a long moment. She sees in him her own sorrow mirrored as if she was suddenly staring down upon her own past. She had heard in his voice the same controlled pragmatism that she possesses. The same grim determination to push on through all that comes to beat her down and make her a slave to the will of the Emperor.
"In retrospect I was probably wrong," he continues with a soft sigh. "Experience has taught me that even Kahn's forces are not infinite. He would have probably run out of troopers before the defenders of Bright Water. I am sure it would have been a close war of attrition. But in the end we might have prevailed. Yet at the time, in that situation, I saw Kahn as a force that had more time than my realm. So, as any self- respecting soldier would have done in the defense of his homeland, I tried to assassinate the Emperor." He laughs and the hat falls from his head. Sitting up and shielding his eyes from the sudden glare Kitana notices how his pupils narrow down to mere slits. "Needless to say I made a mess of that attempt. I was not assassin in those days. I was too young and brash. And in my foolhardy attempt I attacked him using that Edenian lance I had taken from the battleground. I thought it would be ironic."
"It would have been. Had it worked," she offers with a heartfelt smile.
He smiles back at her softly. Now with an honest look of camaraderie.
"Indeed. But such was not to be. And of course I was captured and tortured and slated for execution. Had the Emperor not interceded on my behalf. You see, my people have an innate resistance to torture... it kills us before we can let secrets fall. Kahn knew this. So he had me brought before him and began his game. In my pain and my youth I didn't realize I was being duped. And when your enemy offers to end a war for your cooperation, in such a situation... well... it was nothing I could refuse. I made him a deal and I paid the price for it. For certain powerful spells of domination require the victim to agree to its casting. Oh, the fallow innocence of youth."
He closes his eyes, rubbing them deftly as if troubled by a pain that lingers behind them.
"To make a very painful story short I was used as the senses of Kahn. I was enslaved to his will and returned to my leaders. Bright Water fell in only 70 years following my failed act of bravado. By the time my leaders had realized my involvement it was already too late to turn the tides. I was spared their wrath because we do not slay our own in anger or vendetta. I was spared Kahn's wrath because I was his means to victory. And he thought it would be fitting if he made me a symbol of the downfall of my race. He cancelled the spell that made me his prisoner and presented me with a 'Scroll of Recognition'. A document he had fashioned from the flesh of 1000 prisoners of the war. The flesh of those that I had unwillingly lead to death. A document that was made indestructible by his magic's and remained as a testimony to my acts of betrayal."
"Before my eyes I saw Bright Water despoiled. My people enslaved. The lucky ones were executed and crucified along the hills as a warning to rebels. The rest were pressed into service as laborers in the rape of the realm. Or into sexual bondage to the generals of the Emperor's army. A few managed to escape these fates, forming resistance groups in the hidden places in the realm. And I was left alone by the generals and the Emperor. Marked by decree of the Emperor and left to succumb to either insanity or the scattered soldiers that now occupied Bright Water. Kahn did not count on my ability to survive. And here is where he failed. For I found other teachers in the wilderness of my world. As Bright Water's soul was darkened and tainted so too was mine. And in time I learned how to play Kahn's game. How to become exactly what I needed to become to survive. And once my skills were sufficient I left Bright Water and became the wanderer that you have come to know."
"And that is why Kahn knows you so well," Kitana says softly. "He created the situations that made you what you are."
Meander reaches out and catches Kitana's gaze as she hands the Primegun back to the assassin. He holds that stare as he takes Tear Maker and stands to face her. His copper eyes focused with a clarity and intensity that is almost frightening.
"My name is Aamaanaashiiraataatiinaashaa. I am the last of the Aanaashaa, the Bright Wanderers of Aanaajiirii. I'll take your contract now, Kitana of Edenia."
To Be Concluded
The sharp scent of moist air assaults her nose and warmth washes across her back. She looks up from her fetal position and sees not the destruction of her beloved home world, but instead a vision of emerald grass and distant blue-gray mountains. A valley meadow ringed by low trees and high mountains. The perfumes of heather and mountain thyme drift across her and actually seem to calm her to some degree. The sight of the fey assassin standing before her and lacing up his breeches is another cause for her relaxation.
"Was that really necessary?"
He looks down at her and offers an amused grin.
"We were under surveillance my dear lady Kitana."
"You are not answering my question... Meander."
He chuckles, finishing the lacing of his pants and sitting down in the soft grass beside her. Drawing another long breath from the pipe.
"No, it wasn't the only way out of that particular situation," he winks playfully. "But it sure was fun."
The princess of Outworld discards the robes as the heat of the single sun makes such a garment only a bother. Returning Meanders bemused smirk with a disgusted scoff.
"And these bracelets! What are they?"
Meander actually offers her a look of surprise. He would have thought that the answer was obvious.
"Exactly what I said. Drazd Obedience Cuffs. Any servant of the Emperor that is involved in slavery would have known an authentic cuff from a fake. They have a natural, what's the word, aura about them. Trust me, they are quite unique."
She eyes him with unmasked anger. Her lower lip almost quivering in her immediate irritation. Her gesture of defiance being to strip the jade devices from her wrists and dash them against the grass several yards away from her.
"You mean that you had me lock REAL slaver cuffs onto my own wrists?!"
Meander smiles again and takes another draw off his pipe. Releasing the smoke slowly as he relishes the effect of her frustration.
"Well, they were not locked. And as I said, it had to look authentic."
She turns away from him and cradles her knees in her arms. Silently cursing his name and wondering if she has gravely misjudged this situation.
"What exactly do they do?"
"Oh, nothing dramatic. They act as a spell of mental domination, if I issue the proper command word. If you had resisted," Meander turns the pipe around in his fingers, distracted. "They would have caused you to suffer unbelievable agony. And once activated they would not have been removed until I used the proper spell to set you free."
She looks back to him, her eyes alight with fury.
"Is that all?" Her question laced with enough venom to poison the largest lake of Edenia.
"Oh, did I forget to mention that they are the only things that kept you from being torn apart by the cross-dimensional eddies created by my Telemportal Cloak?"
Kitana's eyes narrow as she seeks for the truth in his pale features.
"Why slaver cuffs?"
Again he smiles.
"Have you forgotten that I am a bounty hunter as well as an assassin? Would it be wise of me to take bounties that I could not deliver? The Drazd cuffs work smashingly well for this purpose."
"You couldn't carry another form of protection from those... eddies?"
Meander chuckles and draws again off the pipe.
"Do you believe that a wanderer such as I can carry such frivolities? Nay, my dear. I must pack what is practical and light. Besides I never made you a slave to my will. And those that watched us had to believe that I was intent on just such things."
"So that I can be returned without having to create stories for my step-father."
"Exactly."
Kitana releases her legs with a defeated sigh. Stretching them out before her and reveling in the feeling of grass against her bared flesh. A sensation she has not been able to indulge safely in a few thousand years.
"All right, I cede this to you. But I warn you assassin," and she pauses to make sure he sees the conviction in her glare. "Try anything like that again and you will require a master surgeon."
"To sew it back in place?" he inquires with an amused nod of his head towards his pants.
Kitana nods slowly, intently focused on him with all the animal intensity of a lioness.
"We understand each other."
Meander laughs, laying back into the blanket of supple grass.
"Not even remotely! But it will do for the moment."
"What do you mean by that? I thought my message was clear?"
Meander closes his eyes against the glare of the sunlight and taps out the embers of his pipe with an almost absent motion. Breathing deeply of the natural fragrances and allowing a brief moment of absolute peace to flow through him.
"I understand you perfectly princess."
Kitana watches him carefully. Studying the form of his lanky limbs and the splay of his white/gold hair. The gentle rise of his chest as he breaths, noticing that he regularly takes only shallow breaths and these with as little noise as can be tolerated. But always there is an air of calm about him. The calm that reminds her of the stillness that falls just before the storm shatters the land.
"Yet you imply that I do not understand you."
"It is not implied m'lady. It is the cold truth."
"You are a living legend Meander. Everyone that has sway in the Realms has heard of you. All that care to can find out about you. And I have spent the last one hundred years studying you." She finishes with a smile at her own sense of accomplishment. "I think that gives me some qualification in the area of knowing you."
Lulling his head towards her he meets her downcast gaze. And for the first time she sees the icy hardness that lies just behind the casual façade.
"What is my name?"
She looks at him quizzically, as if the question is bordering on the ludicrous.
"What is my real name?" he qualifies. His tone never changing. His aura of calm detachment now even stronger than before.
"No one knows."
He rolls his head softly, never taking his eyes off hers.
"Incorrect. One very close to you knows my true name."
"Who?"
Meander pauses, allowing the unspoken implications to seep into her mind.
"Ask your Emperor. Shao Kahn knows me better than almost any other being in all the 10 million worlds," he chuckles masochistically. "He has known me longer in any case."
The chill that cascades down her spine tells her that she has indeed found the perfect individual for her plans. Yet she finds herself suddenly very empathetic for this legendary assassin. An emotion she never expected to harbor for one that is involved in a profession that she finds detestable.
"How is it that he has not killed you then?"
She notices him rise up slightly and she sees the instant clarity return to eyes that were, for a moment, lost in some far away thoughts. Kitana immediately senses that he has gone on the defensive, waiting for some hint of betrayal on which to respond.
"If he knows you so well. How have you managed to survive for so long with Kahn having that much power over you?"
Meanders eyes soften slightly and he inches himself back into his fully relaxed pose. Releasing her stare to again close his eyes and bask in the odors of the meadow.
"He enjoys the game."
She scoffs at the finality of his tone. Making him again look up at her with a single cracked eye.
"For over 700 years?"
"Kahn is an immortal. Seven hundred years is very much like 7000. Or even 7 million. Time is only the span between plots for a being such as he. Nothing more than an irritating lull between games. And I am a favorite opponent of his. This is why he has never sought me out. Even though his agents and his priests have never succeeded." His gaze returns inward and his eye closes as he finishes.
"But why are you so special? He could find other pawns for his amusement."
Kitana looks towards the azure heavens as she ponders her own position in the games of the Emperor. Feeling suddenly more than a little melancholy as well.
"Not like me," Meander says with a sardonic smile. "I am all but unique in the realms. To him I am irreplaceable. I do believe he will mourn my passing when my time finally comes."
She again feels a surge of irritation at the casual demeanor of this man. Frustrated by the fact that he seems so content with a situation that she can recognize. A situation she feels driven to escape.
"So what makes you so cherished that he would lose priest and assassin without a response?"
Meander sighs softly. As if the answer was so glaringly obvious that to ask the question is close to an insult.
"I am one part his creation and one part his failure. And I was a willing participant in both those events. That makes me unique. That I am as lucky and as skilled as I am makes me something to cherish. And that I also enjoy the game... makes me one of his favorite opponents."
"You do realize it is most irritating to hear you speak so gaily about a situation that others would speak of in sobs or whispers."
Meander chuckles and sits up. Shaking the loose blades of grass from his hair with a vigorous toss.
"Every beat of your heart is known to me Kitana. I realize more about you than you do."
"So it is true what they say about your sense of hearing?"
"Not exactly. I am quite sure 'they' have underestimated me yet again," Meander says as he looks calmly over at her. "I rely upon the mistakes of my enemies to prove an advantage later on. Only Kahn knows the full extent of my talents."
"That ends this!" she states angrily. Standing and fixing her feet for any potential hostilities that may result from her new course of action. "I am tired of hearing about this relationship with Shao Kahn. You know that I seek you for a bounty, that much is obvious. Yet how am I to trust a hunter that freely admits such a close affiliation with the very individual I desire hurt by the bounty? Now either you can tell me the details of this relationship or we can consider our business concluded!"
Meander looks at her carefully. His almost invisible eyebrows arched in honest surprise. His pale brow slightly furrowed in his expression of bemused amazement.
"You seem ready for a fight Kitana?"
"Don't change the subject!"
They spend a silent moment staring at each other. Testing the moment and gauging the tension.
"You expect me to respond to threats then?"
"No. I expect you to understand that I mean to get my answers. And if not that then I expect you to deliver me back to Outworld. Without resistance."
"But you would fight me?"
He listens closely to her body sounds. Eager to hear some sign that she is uncertain or even fearful. Yet his trained ears find nothing but the steady rhythm of a heart dedicated to the moment. And he knows that she will not hesitate to attack him if given the motivation.
"You know my reputation. Do you think you can beat me?" he asks softly.
He moves ever so slightly, as if to raise up, but stops when that slight movement forces her to reach for her Kessen fans tucked in the small of her back.
"You are a legendary warrior Meander, with your Primegun. Not so legendary with your hands or with a blade. We are in close proximity and I believe that we are just about equal in celerity. I have no doubt this gives me a marked advantage in our situation," and now it is her turn to offer a slight smile. "I have no intention of letting you stand until I get an answer."
Again he searches her for signs of weakness. Again he finds none. And for only the third time in his life he realizes that his focus on serenity of spirit had landed him in a delicate predicament.
"Do not believe for a moment that I will hesitate to kill you Meander." She speaks in a voice that is just as calm and as even as his. The voice of a warrior dedicated to the moment. The voice of death.
He notices the depth of her eyes darken for just a second as she speaks and he knows her words are true. Worse, he knows that her threat is not idle. Given their positions and proximity he could well loose his head before launching any counter offensive.
Looking away from her he sighs and settles into a more relaxed sitting position.
"My world was called Bright Water. Aanaajiirii to my people. It was a realm much like Edenia, before Kahn came along with his corruptive influence. It was a verdant world and teeming with life. And it was a joyous place to live and to grow," his eyes focus on the distant clouds but his vision turns inside. "My kind were warriors by training but poets by nature. Dreamers. They loved the peaceful pursuits of the artist and the philosopher. But they were the equal of only a few when times demanded that they rise up to defend the Realm."
Kitana watches him carefully. Knowing that she cannot fall complacent now that she has threatened Meander with violence. Yet she does find these words troubling.
"I have heard of Bright Water. It's been under the thumb of Shao Kahn for more than 2000 years."
Meander nods softly.
"Bright Water has always been rich in natural resources and potent in spiritual energies. My people lived with the land, not through it. Our cities were grown from tree and crystal. The capital of the realm, the central city of Morning Light, was a mountain of vibrant sapphire in an ocean of emerald trees. We loved or land. And we were fiercely protective of it. Which is why we had to become such great warriors. And to the last resident we were trained in combat and readied to give our lives to defend Aanaajiirii. From the earliest moments when we could conceive of battle."
Absently he plucks a few blades of grass from the hillside, twisting them slowly in his fingers. His eyes looking inward with total abandonment of the moment. Kitana knows then that he has surrendered to her and she also relaxes.
"We had defended our realm for untold centuries. Building upon our skills and expanding our war-machine to the limits of both science and sorcery. My people were, and are, the only race to successfully blend science and magic into a technology capable of mass-production. We created battle golems powered and controlled by the souls of warriors. We created suits of armor that gave each wearer the spirit and power of a living dragon. And we manufactured various models of weapons like my Primegun." He pauses to slowly draw the weapon and hand it up to Kitana. "Naadaariikaavaa. The Nights Kiss... or what you people call my 'Tear Maker'. She is only one of the weapons my people perfected to defend Bright Water. A seamless blend of magic and technology. A hand held library of destructive magical spells powered by my spirit and bonded to me as a mate."
Kitana holds the weapon with the care a mother holds a child. The smooth curves of the weapon warming slightly in her grasp. An aura of power seeping into her skin and making her arms tingle. And as she runs her fingers over the wooden-like form she sees a hint of bluish-white static sparkle behind her fingertips.
"I advise you not to attempt to fire her," he states flatly. "She is bonded to me and would respond to your action with lethal intent. She is not one to be trifled with."
"But as I was saying, we were quite sure we had little to fear from those outside the realm. We had repelled seven invasions in the past. Bright Water had enjoyed 1000 years of peace when Shao Kahn pierced our Realmsphere. Making his invasion en-mass. He believed we would be weak and soft, that it had been too long since we were engaged in war. He found out differently. His war raged for 175 years by the time I was born. I grew up in that age of pain and death. I saw many of my blood relatives' go off to the war, never to return. I saw our cities burn and crumble. And I saw the valor and determination of my people. For every inch of land Kahn took from us we made him pay in blood. And by the 340th year of the war Bright Water was littered with battlegrounds and the bodies of Kahn's fallen. We would not touch those corpses. Our seers had foreseen our failure if we polluted ourselves with his dead."
He chuckles and looks up into the deep blue sky. "They didn't tell us that. Not those of us that were considered too young to fight. I was trained as a scout you see, by my father. I could not engage the enemy but I could spy on him. I could track his movements and gauge his capabilities. But I was never supposed to approach the battles. Or the battlegrounds. And there was never a reason to loot Kahn's dead. They had nothing that my people wanted." He chuckles again and lies back, tilting his hat over his face and resting on his head on his crossed arms. "They didn't count on me I guess. Or maybe they did. I have never quite figured that out. Maybe they knew my people had lived too long. But I digress... I saw something in one of those wastelands that I found quite interesting. Uncontrollably interesting. I saw the body of one of Kahn's soldiers. A tall and elegant female warrior; that wore armor of a pearlescent white and wielded a lance of a most delicate design."
"She was an Edenian Guard. That was the old style of ceremonial armor."
"Indeed she was princess. And imagine my fascination with someone so beautiful fighting for a beast like Shao Kahn. I could not understand this conundrum. So I made it my quest to discover the reason for this contradiction." Again he chuckles and this time Kitana senses the deep self-loathing that tinges the gesture. "I took her lance as proof for my leaders and I disobeyed my mandate and went deep into enemy territory. Lucky for me that my father had been an excellent hunter and teacher. Otherwise I doubt that I would have survived that foolish endeavor. But I penetrated to the heart of Kahn's army and witnessed the Emperor himself. Surrounded by those Edenian Guards and in a rage about his inability to corrupt my people."
A wide grin crosses his lips. Unseen under the wide brim of his hat.
"I do believe he hated us as much as he relished the challenge. For I have since learned that Kahn had never failed to infiltrate an enemy until he crossed swords with the people of Bright Water. We could not be bought you see. We could not be subverted and we could not be infiltrated. The mystics and seers of my kind were simply too potent. And my people were not predisposed towards acts of treason."
"So as I watched Kahn's army over several days I began to ponder the reality of the war. I saw him use portals to bring in vast armies of soldiers. And I witnessed the brutality of the Emperor and the terrible loyalty this generated. And I started to put the numbers together in my mind. That even though we had Kahn matched in magical power; and totally beat in technological superiority, he simply had better numbers. Even if we killed a thousand for every one of our warriors lost, if Kahn could continue to meet those numbers we would be lost. And as I looked at the noble Edenian Guards, in their pearl white armor with their ornate lances, looking for all the universe like fallen angels, I thought that Kahn was a truly unbeatable foe."
Meander pauses to gather his thoughts. Kitana, still softly stroking the Primegun as she listens, studies him for a long moment. She sees in him her own sorrow mirrored as if she was suddenly staring down upon her own past. She had heard in his voice the same controlled pragmatism that she possesses. The same grim determination to push on through all that comes to beat her down and make her a slave to the will of the Emperor.
"In retrospect I was probably wrong," he continues with a soft sigh. "Experience has taught me that even Kahn's forces are not infinite. He would have probably run out of troopers before the defenders of Bright Water. I am sure it would have been a close war of attrition. But in the end we might have prevailed. Yet at the time, in that situation, I saw Kahn as a force that had more time than my realm. So, as any self- respecting soldier would have done in the defense of his homeland, I tried to assassinate the Emperor." He laughs and the hat falls from his head. Sitting up and shielding his eyes from the sudden glare Kitana notices how his pupils narrow down to mere slits. "Needless to say I made a mess of that attempt. I was not assassin in those days. I was too young and brash. And in my foolhardy attempt I attacked him using that Edenian lance I had taken from the battleground. I thought it would be ironic."
"It would have been. Had it worked," she offers with a heartfelt smile.
He smiles back at her softly. Now with an honest look of camaraderie.
"Indeed. But such was not to be. And of course I was captured and tortured and slated for execution. Had the Emperor not interceded on my behalf. You see, my people have an innate resistance to torture... it kills us before we can let secrets fall. Kahn knew this. So he had me brought before him and began his game. In my pain and my youth I didn't realize I was being duped. And when your enemy offers to end a war for your cooperation, in such a situation... well... it was nothing I could refuse. I made him a deal and I paid the price for it. For certain powerful spells of domination require the victim to agree to its casting. Oh, the fallow innocence of youth."
He closes his eyes, rubbing them deftly as if troubled by a pain that lingers behind them.
"To make a very painful story short I was used as the senses of Kahn. I was enslaved to his will and returned to my leaders. Bright Water fell in only 70 years following my failed act of bravado. By the time my leaders had realized my involvement it was already too late to turn the tides. I was spared their wrath because we do not slay our own in anger or vendetta. I was spared Kahn's wrath because I was his means to victory. And he thought it would be fitting if he made me a symbol of the downfall of my race. He cancelled the spell that made me his prisoner and presented me with a 'Scroll of Recognition'. A document he had fashioned from the flesh of 1000 prisoners of the war. The flesh of those that I had unwillingly lead to death. A document that was made indestructible by his magic's and remained as a testimony to my acts of betrayal."
"Before my eyes I saw Bright Water despoiled. My people enslaved. The lucky ones were executed and crucified along the hills as a warning to rebels. The rest were pressed into service as laborers in the rape of the realm. Or into sexual bondage to the generals of the Emperor's army. A few managed to escape these fates, forming resistance groups in the hidden places in the realm. And I was left alone by the generals and the Emperor. Marked by decree of the Emperor and left to succumb to either insanity or the scattered soldiers that now occupied Bright Water. Kahn did not count on my ability to survive. And here is where he failed. For I found other teachers in the wilderness of my world. As Bright Water's soul was darkened and tainted so too was mine. And in time I learned how to play Kahn's game. How to become exactly what I needed to become to survive. And once my skills were sufficient I left Bright Water and became the wanderer that you have come to know."
"And that is why Kahn knows you so well," Kitana says softly. "He created the situations that made you what you are."
Meander reaches out and catches Kitana's gaze as she hands the Primegun back to the assassin. He holds that stare as he takes Tear Maker and stands to face her. His copper eyes focused with a clarity and intensity that is almost frightening.
"My name is Aamaanaashiiraataatiinaashaa. I am the last of the Aanaashaa, the Bright Wanderers of Aanaajiirii. I'll take your contract now, Kitana of Edenia."
To Be Concluded