A/N: I was reading through the other entries for the Spirituality Challenge and saw that no one had tackled Stark. I couldn't let our Stykera not have a moment in the sun in a spirituality challenge. :)
&&&&&&&&&&
Scorpius doesn't understand. He's been trying for more than a cycle, but he just can't comprehend. What it means to be Stykera is foreign to him. While the Chair would break the others, it will never break me, but I can't let him know that.
I sit in the cell, rocking and chanting, giving my captors the impression I have lost my mind. All the while, I continue to plan my escape. I know they will tire of the act soon enough and ignore me. When that happens, I will begin my work. My baby. It will set me free, though… I find I will miss the Chair.
What do I see in the Chair? Scorpy has asked me that question many times. I show him random images of people and places from those who I have crossed over. I make sure they are always from people of no importance. Over the last fifty years I have crossed over beggars and rulers, sinners and saints. I never discriminated. It was my duty to make the crossing more peaceful, to absolve the dying of their sins. My skills were sought by many, those wishing to ensure their loved one's souls would be at peace in the hereafter.
Before I was enslaved, most of those whom I crossed belonged to my people. After enslavement, I tried to help as many of my own as I could, but word of my skill spread, and master after master would sell my services to the rich and the powerful. In that time, I learned many secrets. My masters would ask me about those secrets, but the tenets of my kind prevent us from telling others what we see. No amount of torture would force me to speak. When I became uncooperative, I would be sold.
Unfortunately, Scorpius learned of my skills. When my master refused to sell me… Scorpius can be very persuasive and ruthless if need be.
At first, he interrogated me, but I would tell him nothing. Frustrated, he then started having people killed for me to cross over, so that he could try to learn how my powers worked. Those were the worst. It is easy to cross over someone who is old and realizes his life is over. Those are the ones who welcome me, use my skills to relive their happiest memories and die in peace. They are who Stykera were founded to aid.
Those who are still hanging on to life are more difficult. I have to fight them off. They try to use my powers to cling to life. I always find myself sharing their pain and suffering; their desperation to live clings to me. When they die, they seem to take a little piece of me with them. In time, I can recover, but they were coming so quickly, tearing apart my soul. I feared I would go mad.
Then, came the Chair. Through the Chair, I found a way to purge those memories, that pain. Even while it strengthens me, I pretend to descend deeper into madness. Scorpius has made a serious mistake; my mind does not exist on a single plane. A Stykera is a complex person. Since I have a degree of control over my mind that others do not, I have placed the memories that might interest him where he cannot reach them. He will not learn the secrets of those I have crossed over. Instead, he will again and again see the deaths of those he murdered, and with each turn in the Chair, I will gain strength.
When I escape, I will be a better Stykera, having learned more about the mind than any of my brethren. I hope to one day find other surviving Stykera and share with them what I have learned.
Sure that they have tired of me, I pull out my baby and go to work. It is nearly finished. Very soon, I will be free.