Here's a nice short Canto to give you all a break...seriously, this is all I needed to get done in this one. I like it, despite its shorter length and lack of, um, apparent content. It's fun to show everybody putting pieces together bit by bit.
Anyone who figures out what the chapel pictures mean before I say in a canto (and that won't be for a loong time) wins a prize. Prize depends on the winner(s). And reading reviews I later say are right doesn't count!
I don't know how in character Yamaki is...he's tricky to pin down at times...I would have liked to have done more with the less logical, more willing to believe wild stories side of him. The side that names stuff "Grani" and delivers awesome speeches like the one he gives Mr. Matsuki...but alas, twas not to be. That being said, I own neither Yamaki nor anyone he interacts with this Canto.
Judecca, Canto XI: Yamaki
Unlike certain individuals I could mention, I believe in keeping an account of events as free from human emotion as possible. Thus I will relate nothing of what churned in my head as I walked the dark streets of Judecca on a fool's errand for the man who called himself Raistlin Majere. The tinted lenses of my eyewear made the going a bit rough, as the sun was setting, but I had a map and presence of mind, and so arrived at my destination without much difficulty. It was situated on a corner, with only a small iron sign proclaiming its name. "Chapel Cocytus." Of what religion was anyone's guess, as the stone exterior was elegant yet unmarked by religious iconry, and I didn't really care either. I was just supposed to meet someone inside, pick something up for Raistlin, and leave. Why I had to be the messenger boy and not one of the two young fools he had wrapped around his prying fingers...I didn't really want to think about it.
My cigarette crumbled beneath my fingers, and I snuffed what was left of it on the chapel's railing. I shouldn't have started smoking again; I should have just left well enough alone and stuck to merely flicking the lighter. I didn't care about that either. Nothing in this world interested me, except getting out. Raistlin obviously didn't understand that, unlike His Supreme Highness, others had lives to attend to, jobs that would fall apart without them. Hypnos would no doubt be a mess...a mess that the Chief Cabinet Secretary would be forced to blame on me. For my inattention. And I had no valid excuse, nothing I could say that they wouldn't lock me in a mental institution for. So I'd shoulder the blame and carry on like I always did...but first I had to get back.
"You'll pay someday, Raistlin Majere," I muttered, and tossing the spent cigarette away pushed the door open and entered.
My first impression was that they needed to get the walls repainted: a cacophony of color blazed at me from the six walls I could see as I walked in. Then, as the individual frescoes came into focus, it became clear that on each wall was painted a different scenario. From my left to my right, I observed first a map of some alien country with a stern-looking man's face above it; a black monster crowned with three shining jewels, burning in torment; three robed figures—one in white, one in black, and one in red; a collage of different faces with the most prominent being a boy with glasses and what I could have sworn was a Digimon; Lucemon, holding the world in his hands; and a duo of heads (a man with brown hair and the boy who'd hurt Ken) with a third being sketched in faintly. I squinted: the face was Raistlin's.
Any religious order who put Raistlin Majere on their walls was no friend of mine. I turned to go—and stopped dead in my tracks. Painted above the door, plain as the lapel pin on my blazer, was the Hypnos logo, circled by the four Sovereigns of the digital world.
"Why--" I started, staring up at the wall; my hands were clenched into fists, and as I squeezed my lighter I heard something crack and the top clattered to the floor. Shoot. Of course I had to break a hinge in a huge place like this—with a grey floor, no less. Sighing, I looked down, and had almost resigned myself to surrendering dignity and crawling around on my hands and knees when a clear, young female voice behind me asked, "What are you doing?"
Somehow a girl had snuck into the chapel and climbed up onto the blank white altar in the center without my noticing her. She wasn't really young, either—about Ken's age, maybe a little older, dressed only in a white slip. Her almond brown eyes bored into my lenses as she waited for a reply.
"Hold on, kid," I snapped, not thinking in my frustration. "I've got a screw loose...I mean, it fell out of my lighter." Just about as far from professional as it's possible to get. Riley was going to laugh. No, wait. She didn't need to know.
"Is this it?" She climbed down, walked up to me, and held up the screw in one small pale hand. Snatching it from her, I frowned. "Isn't it a little late for children to be running around barefoot? Where are your parents, girl?"
"Oh, they don't mind. And I have something for you."
"You're Raistlin's contact?" Did the man have an unnatural preoccupation with waifs or something? I contemplated calling the authorities, but decided the last thing I needed was for Raistlin to set a police car on fire or whatever it was his so-called "magic" did.
"I am Lain. And you are Mitsuo."
"Mr. Yamaki to you, kid," I snapped, angry not only at her gall but also that Raistlin had distributed my name to his freakish cult of coworkers. "Now what have you got?"
She held out her hand again; this time it contained a computer chip and a small rectangular package. "What's in the box?" I asked, taking both objects carefully and slipping them in my pocket.
"Modify cards."
"For who?"
"You. To help you connect better."
"The last thing I want on this earth is a connection to that despotic winged freak. No modification, no communication, and definitely no digivolution. My line of work is supposed to prevent monsters like him from threatening humanity. Now, goodbye." I turned to leave but was thwarted when the doors slammed and locked in my face. Whirling, I caught a glimpse of a fey smile fading from Lain's face.
"I don't think we're friends yet," she said. "Raistlin promised friends."
"Oh, he did, did he? You seem chummy enough with him. Isn't that sufficient without dragging me in too?" I asked sarcastically. What, was she another of his apprentices? Did the man have a contact behind every corner? Maybe that was his "magic": just a very highly developed support network. It wasn't Kaizer who had this town in his pocket. It was Raistlin Majere.
"You're right." Lain sat on the altar, dangled her bare legs off the edge and wiggled her toes. "And you're wrong. But that's all I can say. I'm sorry. How did it feel?"
"What, having my mind read? Violated. Now let me out before I--"
"Don't reach for your cell phone. It won't work here. Nothing works in Chapel Cocytus. Nothing but the power of God. Do you see any lights?"
She was right. There were no chandeliers or wall-mounted units or even torches, yet the room was lit. Fighting a shiver, I turned to her. "What are you trying to say?"
"How did it feel? The digivolution. Think back. What did it feel like?"
"Why would you know about--" But I was cut off as the world blurred around me and suddenly maniacal laughter was ringing in my ears. I was inside the Judecca Public Library again, a madman in an overgrown child's toy was ripping the neighborhood apart, and the tiny white creature I was stuck with for a partner was tearing into my ideas with equal ferocity. "Take me back!" I screamed to whatever had dropped me here. "I'm not feeling it again!" Except my throat was locked shut, my mind a prisoner in a scene that had already happened. Furious, I could only fume in silence as Cupimon finished his speech, sniffling in a way I desperately wanted to believe was fake, and listened to myself speak.
"No. We're staying right here." I didn't want to reach in my pocket, bring out that object, but I did anyway. Throwing myself against the walls of the prison, I heard my bravado thrown at the world again, activating a cycle I now wanted to prevent...
And then, the draining. It was like all the energy in my body was streaming from my chest and my feet and my head, down my arms and out through the device in my hand. The rush should have been painful, but instead exhilarated me, left me empty but totally content for some reason. And then, for one brief second...
The mind of the being I was surrendering all my power to touched me, melded at the point of contact. And deep within the tyrant's heart, I felt...nothing new. Everything within Lucemon's soul was familiar and comfortable. Our minds were the same.
The world whirled again, and I was back in the haphazard chapel with the dark-haired girl staring solemnly at me. Something pricked my palm, and I realized I had reached in my pocket for the broken lighter but drawn out the digivice instead. Dropping it on the floor, I tried to ground it beneath my heel. It slipped out and skittered to where Lain sat; descending from the altar, she picked the thing up and handed it back to me. "You liked the connection."
Pulling out my lighter, thinking to try and put the screw back in, I discovered it to be whole and untarnished. "Who are you?" I demanded, grabbing her by the white shift she wore. "What do you want?"
"Technology," said Lain. "Technology connects everything. You use technology to monitor the globe. You keep it safe with technology. Use Psyche to keep Judecca safe. It's why you're here. And don't fear the connection."
"I don't want any connection to that beast," I growled. "I've made my mistakes and others have paid. That should be enough, if you want me to torment myself. Besides, Hypnos has proven its use. I'm nothing like...like him."
"That's not what you felt. Lying is such an ugly human act. Technology cannot lie."
"And neither can you?" I asked scornfully, shaking her; she smiled.
"I am Lain. Can I lie?" Then, as suddenly as she had appeared, she vanished, leaving me clutching nothing but air. Shaking, I sat down on the altar, took off my sunglasses and ran my fingers through my hair. What had all that...hallucination? Raistlin's magic?
But the cards and the chip were real, I reminded myself. Connection. Technology...
I emptied my pockets, stared at the collection of objects before me. Lighter, once broken and miraculously repaired. Modify cards. Digivice. Computer chip.
"Psyche," I mused, picking up the chip. Use Psyche to keep Judecca safe. Was this Psyche? Could I really use this thing for something useful? Technology doesn't lie. At least, it would show me something other than what Raistlin Majere had already. But she had been his messenger.
"I'll use it for my own purposes, not his, though," I decided, redepositing the motley collection whence it came. I'd figure him out using his own technology. Because technology didn't lie.
And neither, I realized as I stared at the Hypnos logo above the now-open chapel doors, could Lain.
O0o0o0o0o0
a/n: And so ends the first of hopefully-weekly installments of "Judecca"; I picked Tuesday because a) my "Problem of Evil" class (assuming I don't get lotteried out) meets on Tuesdays and b) my Fantasy/Creative Writing Guild used to meet on Tuesdays, so...this is for you, guys.
Coming up next: Another long chapter, another Ken chapter (gah—bad planning on my part). We find out what Raistlin wanted from Naesala and even more characters join the party. But not from any new sources...and some are reappearances...apprentices and twins galore in the next canto of "Judecca"! What more could you desire?