Marik woke to the strangest feeling of being watched. He tried to open his eyes, but all he saw was darkness, his eyelids refusing to part and leaving him blind to the world. He heard soft breathing above him, and there was a flash of something, a vision - long white hair and those bright red eyes again, looking at him with equal parts anger and curiosity. His heart lept into his throat with the feeling of claws taking gentle hold of his arm. He couldn't move, frozen in fear as he felt something crawling up his skin and down his back, tingling and filling him with the horrible feeling that his body was no longer entirely his.

A chirping alarm jolted him upright, eyes snapping open to pure daylight filtering through the windows. His breath caught in his throat as he stood and spun around, surprised to see his living room instead of his bedroom. He looked down at the sofa, decorative pillows piled up on one end with a blanket tossed over the back. The apartment was quiet, though - he was alone. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. A dream. Of course.

He glanced back down at his phone, which was still chirping, and grabbed it, eyes widening as he saw the time. He cursed and ran into his bedroom to get dressed - he'd forgotten to adjust the alarm to give him time to get ready, so he'd need to rush now if he wanted to look presentable in court. On his way to the front door a few minutes after Rishid texted him that he had arrived to drive him, he briefly caught a glimpse of a piece of paper on the coffee table. Whatever - he could read it when he got back.

"Sorry," Marik apologized as he got into Rishid's car. Idly scratching his back, he continued, "I overslept."

"Hopefully, we can all rest easily after this," Rishid said, handing him a to-go cup of coffee.

"Dammit, I was gonna buy you and Ishizu coffee!" Marik laughed as he took a sip. Of course, Rishid had added the perfect amount of cream and sugar. "I'll just buy breakfast after. Thank you, akh."

The trial, such as it was, went as smoothly as Nizar had promised them. The footage pretty clearly showed Marik being lured into the alley and the men swarming him, and the judge could only sigh. "An apology to the man's family should suffice. An officer will deliver it. Understand that this is only because of the circumstances - I will not be this lenient again."

Once Marik had written the apology (and he put his heart into it; robbery or no, it was a senseless loss of life), the officers escorted him out, and Marik felt… dissatisfied as he and his siblings headed to a local shop for a late breakfast. "This doesn't feel like justice," he said to himself as he picked at his food.

"It's a strange situation," Ishizu said, giving him a sympathetic look. "But at least we can put this behind us now. How is Saif doing?"

"I think… he's mostly just a little guilty over causing so much trouble again." Marik frowned, squirming slightly in his chair. Something on his back was kind of itchy and it was bugging him. "I might go for a ride tonight, clear my head."

Rishid dropped him off at his apartment, and he pressed against the door with a sigh, closing his eyes. A shower, he decided, and then he'd go unlock his bike. But as he headed to the bathroom, he saw the paper on the coffee table again and sighed. Right. Saif would usually leave notes for him if he had something particularly important to say - otherwise, he would just write it in the back of Marik's journal. Marik poured himself a glass of water and made himself comfortable on the sofa, picking up the paper. It read:

"Marik, there's something important I didn't tell anyone about the night of the robbery. It didn't have anything to do with the guy I killed, so I haven't said anything. I messed up, habibi. When I was running from the others, I found a basement. There was something in it, something bad, that I let out. I bound it to us, and now it's stuck here.

Its name is Zorc. It should be in the bedroom when you wake up. It can't hurt us, but it's definitely not happy. I'm going to find a way to fix this. I'm sorry."

"What is this?" Marik asked himself, utterly confused the more he read. "Zorc?"

As soon as he said the word, the itching on his back intensified to be almost unbearable, and Marik hissed in discomfort, leaning back to scratch it but stopping short. He stared in horror as something started to crawl down his arm, black as ink but shifting impossibly - it looked lke a snake. As it approached his hand, smoke began to drift from his skin, and he could only think to swat at it in a vain attempt to… extinguish it, maybe?

"Knock it off!" A sharp voice scolded, and he froze, looking up as the smoke pooled before him and solidified, becoming a massive creature. It looked like a human had fused with a dragon, its extremities clawed and covered in black scales, a tail and wings adorning its back. He gaped up at the creature, dumbfounded as it stretched and yawned. "Damn! Took you long enough. I'm all stiff now."

"Wh-what -"

The creature gestured to the paper. "Zorc. Y'know, like it says in the letter?" It looked down on him with blinding red eyes, and Marik's heart practically stopped. He knew those eyes. His dream… it hadn't been a dream.

Marik screamed and vaulted over the sofa, racing to the bedroom to lock himself inside. He backed away from the door, his breathing panicked as he tried to consider how he was going to get out of this, away from the monster that now occupied his living room. He lived on the third floor, so climbing out the window wasn't an option.

There was a gentle tapping on the door. "Relax, kid. I couldn't hurt you even if I wanted to," the creature said through the wood, its voice sounding bored. "Your sword took all that time to write that letter for you. Aren't you gonna at least hear me out?"

Marik sat on his bed, holding his head in his hands. "This can't be happening," he said to himself, forcing himself to take deep breaths. He'd never had hallucinations before, but maybe his brain was playing tricks on him. Maybe all of the stress from the past week had accumulated and erupted into a… delusion, surely. He pulled his phone from his pocket to text Rishid.

"Alright, fine," the creature said through the door with a sigh. "I'm gonna make some tea."

Marik froze as he heard footsteps heading away from his door, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. Tea? Marik swallowed hard and exited out of the messaging app. The creature sounded calm, far too calm to be planning to kill him, so maybe… it was safe to at least go out. Worst case scenario, he could make a break from the front door. As he unlocked and opened his bedroom door, cautiously peeking out into the living room, he could hear the faucet running and the clinking of dishes. The tip of a tail poked out from the kitchen, swaying casually, and he rounded the corner to watch the creature filling a teapot. Once it got to the stovetop, however, it leaned down to stare at the dials with a frown, poking at them. "Um," Marik said quietly, and it looked over at him, tilting its head slightly. "It's a gas stove."

"My knowledge of household appliances begins and ends with hearths," the creature said, standing upright and gesturing to the stove. "A demonstration, if you will?"

Marik nodded and moved closer, shooting the creature nervous glances. It simply watched as he ignited one of the burners and set it to a medium flame. "There," he said, stepping back.

"Hm." The creature set the teapot on the stove and nodded to itself. "That is much more convenient, isn't it?" It turned to look at Marik, gesturing to the living room. "Ready to talk, host?" Marik followed it to the living room, sitting down on the chair as it made itself comfortable on the sofa. "So, as the sword said, you may call me Zorc. He bound me to him in a stupid attempt to seal me away."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Probably because he, unfortunately, overestimated my capabilties." Zorc sighed, crossing its legs. "He stumbled upon my shrine running from those men that tried to kill you. I took care of them, and in exchange, I tasked him with freeing me, and he decided to do the exact opposite. Since you share a body with him, I'm bound to you, as well. I think he was hoping you'd wake up in time to read that note and let me properly introduce myself, but you're quite the sleeping beauty."

Marik couldn't help but flush. "So you… did that thing? With the smoke?"

"Yes. It's best if we're not apart for too long, and I'm not strong enough for a glamour spell yet. Speaking of which, I'll need to eat soon. Your sword bought some meat for me the other day."

"Oh." Marik squirmed a little. "I don't -"

"You don't eat meat, I know. Frankly, ground animal meat isn't all too appealing to me, either, but your sword was rather insistent that no one else dies while I'm around." Zorc rolled its eyes. "Although he certainly didn't complain about me getting rid of those bodies for him."

"Bodies?"

"From the other men that tried to rob you? Keep up, host."

Marik furrowed his eyebrows. "Okay - so what do you mean? How'd you get rid of the bodies?"

Zorc stretched its legs out and rested back on the sofa as best as it could without its wings getting in the way. "I ate them, obviously. Do I look like an herbivore to you? They've held me over the past few days, but I'm starting to feel peckish."

Marik slowly shook his head. "This is… insanity. You and Saif really want me to believe you're - what are you, anyway?"

"I'd like to think of myself as a god. A rather de-powered one, but a god nonetheless." The kettle started to whistle and Zorc stood, heading to the kitchen to pour the tea. Marik watched it go, and he couldn't help but be mildly awed by the way the blackened scales, a trail of which jutted from its spine, contrasted with its skin and the pure white of its hair. "I will say, you seem much less mouthy that the sword."

"You keep saying that. 'The sword'. Do you mean Saif?"

Zorc waved a hand, not bothering to look back at him. "Same thing. It's fitting - what's a king without a sword, after all?"

"Everyone seems to think that. Saif picked his name. Now if only he wouldn't take it literally…"

Zorc laughed. "He does seem the type to swing first and ask questions later. His moxie would be almost cute if he wasn't so insufferably short-sighted." Zorc returned to the sofa with two cups of tea, setting them both on the coffee table as it took a seat and made itself comfortable again. "Whether or not he can actually fix this remains to be seen."

"What would he have to do?" Marik asked curiously, reaching for his tea.

"There are unbinding rituals, of course, but I don't know of any strong enough to release a person from a bind with a god."

"Well, how did he find the ritual he used before?"

Zorc sighed, pointedly ignoring its teacup. "There was a book of rituals I tasked him to find, but the rituals in that book are regarding spirits and objects. The ritual he perfomed binds a spirit to oneself, but I'm a god. The fact it worked at all is…" Zorc paused, then sighed. "Don't tell him I said this, but it's frankly remarkable. Your sword would be a very powerful magician-priest if he put his mind to it."

"Wow." Marik drank his tea - it was a little too strong for his tastes, but he didn't dare critique Zorc's drink-making skills.

"Regardless, that means that it will be incredibly difficult to find something to reverse this. And, frankly, I'm still of half a mind to destroy him for even thinking to attempt this."

"You know that would kill me, too, right?"

Zorc shrugged. "It may have been his mind, but he used your hands. His sin is yours. Unless you can think of a way for me to kill him while sparing you."

"I'd rather you didn't. Saif… yes, what he did here was a mistake, but he's…" Marik sighed slightly, setting his teacup down. "He's my protector. Chances are, he thought binding you would keep me from getting into any more trouble than I already was."

"He said as much," Zorc mused, finally reaching for its tea and taking a careful sip, jolting slightly. "Ah! Hot. Anyway, as I told him, the more you try to protect someone, the more you risk putting them in even greater danger. Unfortunately for you, he's bitten off more than he can chew."

"Yeah," Marik said softly, gnawing his lip. "…This book you wanted him to find. Did he say where he found it?"

"He had it up on… that… thing." Zorc gestured to the computer behind him. Marik had bought a tiny desk to shove into the corner by his bedroom, a place to have a proper computer station so that he wasn't carrying it between his bedroom and the sofa. Marik stood and headed over, booting it up and heading to the search history. "Why?"

"…This book's at a local museum. My sister works for the Ministry of Tourism - she deals with a lot of museums, she might know where to find other books. Ones that can help." Marik pulled out his phone and started drafting a message to Ishizu, ignoring Zorc's eyes on his back. "It's a good start, right?"

"Right," Zorc said after a moment. "Hm. Perhaps there's hope for you two yet."

Marik decided to play it casual, sending Ishizu a gentle inquiry into any mystical books she may have come across. "Okay. Hopefully, she can give us somewhere to start. In the meantime… I assume you'd want a cooked meal."

"If it's animal meat, certainly. I'm not a dog."

"Alright." Marik started searching up some recipes, trying to find something simple and eventually settling on kofta; it seemed easy enough to serve and versatile enough for him to make something for himself as well. "Well. In the meantime… make yourself at home." He moved to the kitchen to get started on dinner.

He knew it was strange. His alter had bound a strange creature to them and now they were tasked with removing the binding. But as he cooked up ground beef, listening to Zorc aimlessly flip through television channels and make little comments and exclamations over the news, he was surprised to find that it was almost comforting. Living alone had been nice, as it felt like definitive proof that he was capable of living a normal life, but the presence of someone else, as strange and inhuman as it was, set him at ease.

Now, he just needed to make sure that having it around wouldn't kill him - or Saif.