Wherever I May Roam (Mulciber)

[Shouriko]

"Karma is... it's..." Qixia halted.

How could she describe it? She closed her eyes and hummed. "It's an aura of a living being." She said as she opened her eyes. "It carries color and weight." The Qilin gesticulated and motioned to the space around her.

"There is good and there is bad. It has influence." She explained. "I can feel it and, if it's really strong, I can see it. I balance karma; I do justice where there is bad and reward those with good." If Mulciber were to ask further, she might not be able to demonstrate it. So much of it was on instinct and there was no driving need for her to balance karma here. Qixia focused on him, "Your karma is clear."

Did she explain it well? Did she use the right words? "It's about balance and the preservation of good." She finished, her feet lifted off the ground and she floated where she stood.

[MadEmperor]

The entity resumed walking towards the forlorn keep. "I have a sense of intentions. Those with ill intent... carry a certain odor to me. It is not this karma of yours, but it serves a similar purpose. However, I have no innate desire to correct them. I merely frighten them away."

The nearer they came to the castle, the younger the vegetation, confirming her notion that the spell that birthed Mulciber had a lethal effect on the nearby flora as well. All that life energy couldn't be easy to hold together.

[Shouriko]

She gave a shake of her head, "Mmm, no. Karma builds up after actions have already happened." That was very different from intentions. One might lead to another, but it was certainly not the same.

Her feet lowered back down and Qixia matched pace with Qixia. "You act to prevent." She pointed out to Mulciber. "To defend?" She then asked him.

The scenery was changing as drew closer and closer to the castle. More colonizing species of plant, more brush and undergrowth as saplings were taking hold amongst them. To think that this had happened so very long ago and still the land was healing. It had so far to go yet, if nature was to reclaim it.

[MadEmperor]

"I defend the castle, though there is little remaining to protect that I don't carry with me. I guard it because no one else will and, to be honest, because I know nothing else."

They reached the outer gate, its portcullis held permanently open by strangling vines. The keep beyond was remarkably intact, as if reclaiming nature restrained itself from damaging it. Or, more likely, Mulciber himself maintained it to the best of his ability, which was doubtlessly considerable.

[Shouriko]

Qixia didn't have much to say to that, not at first. It seemed noble that he remained and kept the castle. Hadn't Mulciber said that there were no treasures? Whatever a treasure might be exactly. So then... "Why?" Qixia asked. "Why do you protect it?"

Was he tied to the castle? He couldn't bear to be far from it maybe or some force compelled him to stay near? Or maybe there was something here and either Mulciber didn't wish to share or wasn't aware of it? So many questions that were easily combined into one simple query of why.

[MadEmperor]

Mulciber had never given much thought to the whys of his existence. Obligation wasn't a factor, as that died with the lives lost... didn't it?

"Should one not protect the place one calls home?" he asked.

[Shouriko]

That was a very valid point. Qixia had heard the label of 'home' often amongst humans and there was sentimentality in it, importance. "Oh!" The thought struck like lightning, "The castle is your home and your home is a treasure!" Her grin was broad and a little silly, as if she were a child completely pleased with herself. "That's it, isn't it?"

Qixia confessed then, "I don't have a home, so I don't fully understand." It was said in a very matter of fact tone.

"You said it was lonely. No one comes to visit you, they only to take things or make you go away." See, she had been listening and squirrelling away what she'd heard and learned of Mulciber. "A home has never seemed to be a lonely place from what I've seen of humans." Qixia hadn't asked humans about homes, only observed them. Other human-like creatures were similar. Some even moved their home from place to place, "Couldn't you make a new home? One where you aren't lonely?"

[MadEmperor]

The twin flames that represented his eyes blinked out of existence for a moment. He had never even considered leaving. Could he? Or was he bound to this forsaken bit of land? Where would he even go that would be any better?

"I... do not know," he answered, marveling at the new line of thought that had been opened to him. "Where could I go and not be chased away?"

[Shouriko]

"I don't know." Qixia replied innocently enough. "Why would you be chased away, Mulciber?" The world was a very big place and there were so many different beings. Sure, looking at him as he was now, he might be a bit different what with the skull head and all. Yet he had morphed into a deer when their paths first crossed. "You can morph." Qixia pointed out, "What else can you morph into?"

She couldn't do that. It had taken her near 50 years just to learn how to morph into a human. If she could ever morph into something, she wasn't sure what she might choose. There were so many choices!

[MadEmperor]

"Mortal men fear what they do not understand and destroy what they fear. I may be able to assume the shape that any soul within me possessed when they were alive, but I cannot hide this skeletal face of mine that frightens them so," he explained as he led her across the threshold of his home.

He would give much to be flesh and blood, or even just to pass as such. Without that, he feared that his loneliness would follow him wherever he went. He could live comfortably with every aspect of his unique circumstances but the fear his appearance evoked.

[Shouriko]

They could be very sensitive, couldn't they? Mulciber did have a point that without knowing any better, others may not be so willing to have him in their company. The skull with its little eyes of fire might well be fearsome to behold. Not all cultures would accept what he was either, now that she thought back.

Qixia followed him slowly and replied at length, "I'm sorry, Mulciber." She might have been a little too hasty earlier with her words.

She couldn't even help him to overcome such a hardship, not that she had to. As a Qilin, one who worked the balance of karma, she felt this drive to be of help to him. He had been kind enough to answer all of her questions and he was offering to share his shelter with her. Was there anything else she might be able to do for Mulciber.

"I never have a destination in mind when I travel. I just follow this feeling I have that I should go this way or that. There's almost always someone or something that I encounter and have some karma to give or take away." Qixia frowned deeply. If she crossed paths with Mulciber, certainly there had to be a reason. "It is so odd that I discover you and yet there is nothing I can do."

[MadEmperor]

Mulciber was quiet for a long moment as he considered her words. Why would such a creature find itself drawn to him when there was little they could do for him. Although, perhaps...

"What if you are not here for me but for one of the spirits in my keeping? I do not think I could exist without them, but perhaps some still have unfinished business that torments whatever independent thought may remain within them."

[Shouriko]

Qixia perked up a little. Was that possible? She had only ever manipulated the karma of the living before. The spirits that made up Mulciber were dead, yes, but not gone so conceivably their karma remained.

"That could be so." She nodded. "They are still here and karma is connected to the heart, the soul, not the body."

Unfinished business... Attachments... Those all seemed quite physical to Qixia, but it was the actions of a living being that determined their karma. And it was their karma that would determine how they may move on from the stage of one life to the next. Was that it, then?

"Mulciber, do you feel as responsible for the souls that make you up as you do for the castle?" Qixia asked him. She felt like she might have an idea now for why she just happened to be in this right place at this right time.

[MadEmperor]

The entity nodded. "Even more so. Though they did not choose to be involved in my creation, I owe them my entire existence. The least I can do is care for what remains of them."

He was curious where she was going with her question. For a being as old as him, he had little experience to show for it. He was very much still a child when it came to understanding the world.

[Shouriko]

Qixia clapped her hands together and grinned, "Then that must be your purpose!" Once more she felt pleased with herself.

"I think you exist in order to fulfill the unfinished business of the souls that altogether comprise your own." Why else did he exist? No one thing existed without reason. "Maybe when that big something happened, some force brought it all together, oh! Like some very strong good karma to counteract the bad. Then it needed a vessel, which is you, and... and... and..."

Qixia had grown so excited that her mind was running so very far ahead of her mouth. Her whole body shivered with the excitement. It took her a moment to snap out of it.

There was so much left unsaid, but she finished her thought very simply, "...and my instincts brought me here, to you, to get you started!"

[MadEmperor]

Could that be true? Could he actually have a purpose? What unfinished business could remain after so many years? Mulciber had no answers, only questions. What did he have to lose by exploring the notion.

"It is... worth pursuing, though I know not what can be done for those centuries dead. That is, unless the one who caused the disaster still lives. It is certainly a possibility, one that has long troubled me."

[Shouriko]

Yes, they had been long deceased, but the souls lingered. There had to be a reason for that. Even if Mulciber didn't know, centuries later, it might be time to start looking for that reason.

"So many lives lost by actions of a singular individual... the karma would be quite imbalanced." Qixia remarked. Could she find such a person? She might be able to identify someone with such a heavy load of karma, but not detect them across a long distance. "Do you suppose it was done by someone known by one of your souls?"

It didn't set her to unease that the perpetrator might still live. She was a couple centuries herself. Mulciber older than she. Surely there were others older still.

[MadEmperor]

"Almost certainly. Such a spell takes careful preparation; no mere intruder would be able to do that without detection. I know, because my namesake discovered the spell in progress. He was too late to prevent it. Sadly, the memory of who cast it is hazy," he answered.

He paused walking to open the decaying wooden door into the keep itself. "After you," he said, motioning her inside like a fine butler.

[Shouriko]

The place felt cold, devoid of all life but the two of them. If not for Mulciber, she'd likely ask to remain outside where the air moved freely. The closer Qixia had gotten to the castle, the more foreboding it felt. She could be brave if only because she was not alone. To Mulciber this was home and she'd not hurt him by refusing his hospitality.

She dipped her way into the room and several steps within turned back to face her companion. "The memory is hazy, but not lost?" Qixia asked of him. "Memory is tied to many different things. Sights, sounds, and smells and feelings." To her that meant that the memory could be stirred somehow.

"Maybe there is a place in here that could..." Mulciber had interrupted the spell, he said. Qixia peered back up at him, "How well do you remember the day it happened?"

Could it be so simple as a retracing of the day? She could walk along with him, listen to him as he put voice to the actions that had been taken, and probe away as she had been doing. Maybe that might be of help and give Mulciber a direction to head in. Or it be a waste of time.

[MadEmperor]

"It is... difficult to piece together specific moments from the jumble of perspectives. I remember the bread and cheese the maid ate for breakfast. I remember the captain of the castle guard teaching the youngest Bloodwood son the sword in the courtyard. I remember the cat chasing down an unfortunate mouse. Most of all, I remember the shock my namesake felt upon realizing the danger the castle was in," he recounted.

"Perhaps..." he began, hesitating. It was the last place he wanted to go. "Perhaps if we go to the room where it happened, I will be able to recall some clue as to what exactly transpired. But, starting at the beginning may be better."

He thought for another moment. "Yes. We shall go to the butler's room and follow his memory."