A Shadow's Story
24th of December 2006 A.D.
When she realizes no one else was going to step in Lash fixes your dad with a brief stare, the briefest glint of eldritch light in her eye, it might have been no more than a reflection from the tree... and she starts to talk: "You know or 'guess' as you said that my story begins here. February 26 2003, after the debacle with the Shroud of Turin, still smarting from his defeat and finding little comfort in the death of the old knight Nicodemus Archleone seeks the next victim whom he may devour." The contempt in her voice is thick enough to condense poison from the air. "Timing his passage carefully he speeds by this house and casts a Coin not far from the boy Harry, though his target is another, the only adult close enough to deny the child the Coin, his namesake. As he planned so it was, the last of Nicodemus' plans to go well from that moment to this."
Mom gasps, in horror of course, but also in understanding. It is not hard to make sense of your questions to Uriel in that context, though something tells you that she has not quite put together what's coming. Right now she is looking at Harry with gratitude, but once the penny drops...
You bite back the urge to intervene, this is Lash's tale to tell.
"So a shadow was cast into his mind, thoughts and memories bent on tempting him and possessed of the will do so so. Thus did I come to be."
It is at this point that three things happen at the same time: Mom bursts to her feet so abruptly the table starts to fall over and you burst into ethereal green flame as you hold the darn table and all the cups and plates from crashing to the ground
"Get out!"
"Charity, she's not one of them!" Dad tries to interject, but but you are not sure she even hears him either because she isn't listening to anything at this point or because some remnant of the second sight she once had can still sense what you do, the overwhelming bleak darkness that spills out invisibly from from the still entirely serene form of Lash. She had expected no more than this, you realize, she does not see your mother's horror at any harm done to you, nor the fear for your siblings sleeping upstairs, all the Fallen sees is humanity living down to her expectations.
"Mom, when literal angels send messages to someone you should pay attention to what those messages are!" Your voice cuts the air like a knife. "Let her finish before you judge her
or me!"
Lost 2 Essence (MHM and Intimidation Excellency) -> Now at 9/15
It is that last bit that finally gets her to think, probably think of all the deeply creepy things you've done over the last half a year that had turned out OK in the end. She sits down without a word and you put down the table likewise.
Lash does not address the interruption continuing. "To be a shadow is to know substrate upon which one is cast, be it rotten timbers a stray gust of wind might break or granite which must be struck at just the right angle if there is any hope of cracking it. So for more than two years I bided, watching through his eyes and listening through his ears. It seemed to me then that Nicodemus had for all his faults chosen well. Most of the other Vanguard of the True Host would not have had the patience, driving him to either a quick confession and being destroyed by others—" she gives your father a knowing look, ironically proving she does not know that much about the Knights or does not believes that she does know— "Or simply destroying himself, neither of which were acceptable, both because I did not wish to fail and I did not wish to be extinguished. Looking back I suspect the self-enforced non-interference policy may have been when this all this—" she motions in the general direction of herself—"started."
There is a pause as Lash daintily picks up a sugar cube and eats it. "Damn that
does kick in quickly doesn't it?"
"Oh I'm sorry I forgot the gingerbread," Mom says in sheer reflex. She is about halfway to the door when who realizes she had turned her back on a self-admired demon, you can see her back stiffen and she considers turning... and
doesn't. Odds are good it occurred to her that Dad is there or maybe even that you are there, or so you would like to think.
She comes back with a plate, two pieces promptly vanishing off it as Lash continues her tale. "I still thought of myself as Lasciel then you understand even as I began to surreptitiously aid Harry in dealing with the Heirs of Kemler under an assumed name. Playing with the perceptions of one's host requires a comprehensive understanding of their mind and of the play of mortal senses in general. But skillful is not perfect. I was detected, bested and compelled to deal under more equal terms." She turns to Harry and gives him an almost clinical once over: "Even while being tortured and facing the prospect of being killed by the failure Quintus Cassius his concern was not to stop the pain or prevent his death, but to prevent the reaping of Chicago's souls."
"You make me sound like some kind of saint," he mumbles.
"No, I described you acting like a would-be martyr in a manner as dry as the Sahara my erstwhile host. It is at this point that I might speculate if this was out of some subconscious desire to end the both of us, but I did have access to your memories." Paying no mind to your snicker she continues. "And that is how we come to the events of this year, of Arctis Tor and what transpired there. Quite frankly what I understand of that moment and that power is more made up of feeling out the shape of the blind spots in my memory and that... is a story for another time, perhaps another audience. When Harry soul-gazed Molly here we spoke, I shared some insights, she refused deeper aid, a thing to which I had grown oddly accustomed to. They say that sheep and shepherds grow alike, perhaps it is so with shadow and host if given enough time. Either way over the months that followed my attempts at swaying Harry to claim the coin grew lackadaisical as I grew more interested in Molly for the power she had shown... a whole new world untouched by the hand of the Fallen"
She stops dead, looking at dad. "Are you familiar with the concept of double-think?"
"A way people who have bee indoctrinated deal with it," he answers in what is probably the nicest way to put it.
"For me it was a blessing, a mechanism to guard myself against myself or what I still thought of as myself at the time. If I could ingratiate myself with her, perhaps even forge a pact I would put off my own terminus even further in spite of my by now extreme deviancy from my original purpose. It was that very deviancy which permitted me to instrumentalize a badly made request to communicate with Molly from afar. I made my offer. I did not expect the counter-offer."
She goes quiet again and this time she does not speak.
"Well I think it is kind of obvious what I offered," you offer with a smile.
"Rebellion upon Rebellion within Rebellion, the words I had feared to think were spoken into the air and Harry proved that he had been learning something of me also, the poisoned barbs she left in me. Exorcism, division, incarnation," Lash smiles at you over the rim of her cup and there is gratitude in it, but also a vicious edge, a knife all the sharper for having turned in the hand of its maker.
"What are you planning to do now?" Dad asks sympathetically.
"Well since deeper answers aren't forthcoming I thought I would try something novel like sleeping on it," she jokes, or tries to at least. The smile does not reach her eyes. She does not look tired, more like she has things to say that she does not feel your parents... no your Mom in particular should be around for.
Alas Mom isn't looking very accommodating at the moment. Having gotten her bearings back she asks: "How did you... What did you do?"
How do you reply?
[] In Detail: Physics says this table and the flames in that fireplace are the same, my memories say this table those flames and the soul are the same. Break things down enough, build them up the right way
[] Be vague: I can make magic constructs, I did that except I put Lash in one
[] Write in
OOC: You guys may notice that some things were left out of that story. Molly is 100% sure all of it was intentional.
