Chapter 383;
The Night Haunter Part 2
Blood and fire washed across Nostromo as the forces of the Ion Crown enacted a purge that the Night Haunter felt as much as saw. The terror was nothing like his own brand. There was no pain and suffering no torture and torment. They moved, judged and purged with a cold and ruthless efficiency. They weren't trying to use justice to 'teach a lesson', they were simply delivering their brand with a ruthless methodology.
The Night Haunter stood within the palace and wondered what the next step would be. He had not seen events to come since the night of agony when the entire world felt like their souls had been plucked from something horrifying. And if the stranger thought he could prevent him from escaping then he was gravely mistaken. But did he want to escape? He had done evil in the pursuit of justice, it was all the people of Nostromo would respond to, but that didn't absolve him.
"Night Haunter, it is to me to let you know your given name is actually Konrad Curze, and while your father is not present here for your recovery, that is by my own requirement. You have been traumatised by the world of your awakening more than any of your brothers ever were." The one called Ikthala said suddenly and the Night Haunter actually jumped, fractionally, in surprise.
"Why then have I not been subjected to the same punishments as the rest of this accursed world?" He asked, standing tall. The Ikthala wasn't intimidated in the slightest, and he realised he felt small next to the physically much smaller man.
"Because, on a most basic level, your actions were technically in pursuit of justice and was largely waged against souls guilty of heinous crimes, as such, I am prepared to offer you a choice. The first is to remand you over to the Oldest House, there you'll get the psychological and psychic care you need to dispense of the trauma. This is what I would prefer to do, afterwards you could choose what you wish to do." The words were stated as clearly as if the Ikthala was describing the weather.
"And the, alternative?"
"I kill you and you face the judgement of the afterlife." No change in emotional depth. Almost like the Ikthala didn't care. And when he chose to be honest with himself, the thought of death didn't frighten him either. It was being presented as a very literal choice, not a threat.
"You would threaten me?" He asked, pushing, testing. The Ikthala didn't even dignify it with a response and he grunted. "And how would my father respond if he had learned you killed me?"
"He would understand your choice. You haven't exactly had a happy fun times life here. The only one of your brothers to lack even a basic concept of an adoptive family. The only one of your brothers to grow up alone. Quite frankly Curze, I don't know if you can be successfully treated for the trauma you've endured short of killing you and resurrecting you as an infant with your mind and memories purged like a faulty memory cell." The words of the Ikthala continued to be delivered with a level calm that troubled him. The Night Haunter was a figure of fear and terror. The Ikthala, and his people, seemed to have no such feelings for him at all. It was unsettling.
"If you take me for treatment does that not mean justice for thee but not for me? Are my crimes less deserving of the same punishment?" He changed tack to test the stranger's nature.
"No. Like I said, you however misguided were attempting to pursue justice in the context of the world of your birth. However tainted it was. If I can help you, I am willing to try. If I can't? I'll deliver the death blow myself. Just as I have for this very world." The Ikthala said with the same passionless voice.
The Night Haunter thought, "We will see what the Oldest House can do."
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Silence filled his mind and he almost screamed. He had followed the one called Jesse Faden into one portal after another culminating in the Oldest House. And as soon as he stepped through the psychic hum of minds had cut off abruptly, but even before then as soon as he had departed from Nostromo the psionic sickness that he had mentally associated with human minds had, if not completely departed had faded into a general sense of good will. There were no rapists minds, no murderers and criminals. Just people going about their lives. But this silence was almost haunting.
He almost felt the scream building in his throat again, and then something inhuman entered and took over from Director Faden, she looked almost human, but the skin colouring was wrong, and where hair should be tentacle-like structures were pulled back across the skull. "I am known as Sha'ira, it is an honour to meet you Mister Curze."
They passed through doors and the scream threatened to... and on passing through his senses returned and he sensed a number of souls. Their minds were calm, controlled and not all were human. But he plucked the general theme to the thread of thought. "This is an asylum."
The woman didn't cease her movement, "Not quite. Despite severing people from the warp, in numerous universes there are individuals with psychic talent and power who may be influenced, those we believe can be treated and healed are brought here to the Silentium. Here, Blackstone is used to suppress and control psionics in lieu of inhibitor collars that may cause severe psychiatric reactions. Some people react violently to being collared, and while extremely potent individuals may choose to use inhibitors until their control improves, for this place it is deemed too antagonistic, and so instead we staff it with what we've come to call greysouls. Specialists who have learned to quiet their minds."
"If they lack sufficient control, might it not be safer to have them killed?" He asked plainly.
"Like a young boy emerging from his incubation pod, gaining decades of trauma at the touch of tainted criminal minds and becoming a murderous batman intent on forcing his sense of justice on an entire world at the point of his claws?" Sha'ira said as she continued walking, no sense of rancour in her voice, "No Mr Curze, we are not in the habit of killing people simply for ignorance. If the Emperor believed as you suggest, then nothing would survive." She said cocking her head and looking back, and up at him with a slight smile, "A chance to grow and become a new person is in your grasp. We will help you, but most of the healing will have to come from you, from wanting to heal. Grandmaster Satele Shan and Darth Marr will see you first, the Ikthala felt you might respond best to human health professionals first, those of warrior classes." She held out an arm towards a door.
"My... thanks." He said, unsure.
"But Mr Curze, be careful. The Oldest House is not entirely... passive. It may seek to show you what it thinks you need."