A/N: Okay... Never written a chapter like this before. Are you ready? Am I ready? Well, here goes...
I do not own or profit from any of what Kazue Kato has created.
Samael
Centuries had passed since anyone spake that name to him - ah, depending on how one would define 'speak', of course. The spoken word was ever his ally: it was shield and sword and dagger, key and lock and chain; truly, there were words for every need. The unspoken word, however…
One word spoken may have the power to lay nations in ruin, but the unspoken word can rend the fabric of a world: there is no lock to keep it out, no shield to guard against those silent syllables that could send memories unbidden rippling through flesh and mind.
Samael
Names are powerful things. There had been a time when Matter was pulled out of the Void by Name alone, and given the shape and purpose inherent in that one true Name. Those had been glorious days, stupendous days; days of marvel at the power that reverberated throughout Creation; from the timid dewdrops on a blade of grass to the slow breath of newborn mountains, that power, that splendour… faded.
Ages had passed since then, and Names once radiant had faded: light dimmed, darkness greyed, edges unsharpened; a driftwood world abandoned to the river of time, shorn by disasters and smoothed slowly back to the nothingness from which it once rose. Ages, ages past count and contemplation. Now was the Age of Man, and new creation shaped the world: too weak to know true power, too young to remember Names, humans shrank from the Void in awe and turned to things their minds could understand – and how they used their minds! Ever curious, ever yearning for more than they possessed, they rode high on achievements' intoxication in search of new things to desire and obtain; claimed the thrones of gods and shaped the world to the whims of a thousand minds, shaped it twisted and horrid and beautiful! So many new things, so many new names, and amidst it all…
Samael
…amidst it all, an echo transported across millennia through the mouth of a mere human boy. A Name from an age when names held true power; an age when there had been Beings in the world that knew how to speak those Names and command that power.
An echo…
In that boy's face today, there had been an echo… an echo of kings and warlords long dead; great men of great name in the world of Assiah. The faint, dying echoes of the Ones that could speak Names.
"A pawn, Shiro…?" The corners of his lips curled as he picked up the stray piece. "Don't humble yourself, little lion", he murmured softly, watching with lidded eyes how the dimming light reflected off matte black as he turned the pawn between his fingers. "Humility is ill suited for the paths you will be walking." The game piece returned to its proper place with the smooth, barely audible click of well-greased cogs turning. "Men like you take life not in single steps but strides." Gloved fingertips walked slowly across the line of marble: castle, knight, bishop… "And reach road's end sooner."
His finger lingered on the queen: an unstoppable force, able to move in any direction, ready go to any lengths at one swift command from the game master.
Samael
One day, perhaps, if Lady Chance would have it so; if that blazing fire didn't burn itself out before then, before that little lion grew proper fangs…
"Slave under the yoke of Curiosity, yet each weight Knowledge adds to your burden spurs your desire for more; is it not a twisted, vicious circle, Shiro~? Is it not a beautifully mesmerizing maelstrom into the dark depths, where jagged teeth of rock lie in wait for prey?" he purred, tongue curling around the words like a serpent's tail. "So many broken bodies litter the abyss of Temptation; so many souls eaten empty that consume themselves in rapture… but you won't be one of them, little lion." The queen tilted under his finger, tilted to stare up at him without face or eyes. "Men like you don't break from Temptation's fall, nor perish in the fires of Perdition: men like you rise out of the pit like shadows of shadows born; emerge from flame tempered strong like fine steel." The grin widened as his eyes traced the paths of the future – oh, what a future! – and the possibilities they promised. "What a man you could become, Shiro~"
It was in the nature of every human to shape the world around her; but it was men like him, men with iron will and hearts strong enough not to break from it, that shaped humans. Great men that shaped the great milestones of human history. Fujimoto Shiro - ah, surely, one day that name would leave an echo of its own in the consciousness of men. A most peculiar aspect of names, that was: while Names shaped their bearers, plain human names… were shaped by the bearer.
Samael
How very different it sounded, coming from a human mouth. Not a Name, but a name: a mundane word without meaning, unshackled with the potential to be whatever its speaker wished it to be. Indeed, names… were powerful things.
"I long to see what kind of name you will shape for yourself, my lion." Laughter wound its way up his throat; a trickling snicker at first, and a spring flood by the time it spilled from his lips. It ricocheted off the walls, washed down the windows like heavy rain, and made the leaves of the plants in the office curl in on themselves protectively. "Won't be moved by me, you say~?" Gloved fingers swept the black pawn up from the board and dangled it above his head, like one would hold a praline before letting it fall into one's mouth. "That's the beauty of this game, Shiro." The toothy grin widened: a jagged ravine at the bottom of the maelstrom. "The pieces move themselves: all it takes is a little… motivation~"
A/N: The manga will probably hang me later for playing with names like this: but I will keep playing, die smiling, and regret nothing. ^w^
Beings that can speak Names? Have you thought of how strange Tamers are? Humans that can call demons to appear and make them do their bidding, I mean… holy crap. 8/ How do they do that? And why can only some humans do that?
Two conditions are set for becoming a Tamer: you need strong spirit, and something Neuhaus vaguely calls "natural talent". Those who lack spiritual strength will find that summoned demons disobey them, as we've seen with Kamiki: those who lack "natural talent" can't make demons come to them at all.
So what is this mysterious "natural talent" that somehow gives certain people a connection with demons? I substituted "natural talent" with the somewhat more tangible "strong blood" in this fic (you don't remember that, but I wrote it in ch 11 in arc 1). Going back to Kamiki, she thinks it's obvious that she can summon familiars, since she's related to a miko. Based on that, I'm chancing a guess that "natural talent" would be something you're born with, and something that can run in families: thus, "strong blood".
Well, I play and twist and splice fragments together like a mad scientist… and my thought here is that that strong blood used to be much stronger, long ago, when Creation was young and the Beings that could speak Names (= call upon things) and command the power Names gave (= make the things they called upon do their bidding) still walked the earth. The abilities you see in Tamers are diluted echoes of their power.
Who those Beings were…? Well, a little bit of reading and a little bit of guesswork, and I'm sure you will figure it out. ;)
This chapter is the last you get for quite a while, as I will be going on vacation to Japan. =) Now, I really hope I will return from it, too: but in the event that I get hit by a car, or boil to death in an onsen, I'll take the opportunity to thank all you lovely people who read The End of the Beginning. Some of you I've gotten to know pretty well; others I know only by (staggering!) numbers in the diagrams, but thank you everyone for reading.
/ Dimwit