Abyssal Road Trip

“Will you have time to talk this afternoon?” asked Livia, sitting down on the couch beside Julia.

“Shortly, honey. I want to finish going over this spell again,”

“Okay, I’ll wait. Then we can talk more,” said Livia.

Time passed as Livia waited patiently, and it was only when Julia closed the book that she spoke again.

“Do you still argue with yourself?” Livia asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Julia as she stored the grimoire.

“Argue with yourself. Though you're really arguing with the other voices.”

“What do you know about the voice?”

I’ve only sort of heard it once. How does she know?

“Voices, there are two, one sounds like you, and I saw her. She looked like you, just an angry you. The other voice was old and calm. But things got shaky when he’s close. I never really saw him.”

Two voices?

“She looks like a Succubus.”

“No, she looks like you look now. Though she wears odd clothes; weird blue pants, a bright shirt that shows off your tummy and lifts her breasts, oh and weird-looking boots.”

Jeans? Halter Top or something else? What the heck?

“When did you see her?”

“While I was dead. I could see her like a heat haze over your flesh when I first saw you,” Livia said, giving a slight shrug.

“Livia, you said, you remember us killing the evil men together. How much do you remember?”

“That’s all clear—a lot clearer than any of my past lives. I only recall those when other things prompt them. Master Farhad says that’s helping who I am now from being overwhelmed. Until I decide who I will be.”

Past lives.

“She doesn’t scare you?”

“No, why would she?”

“I lost control.”

“You didn’t really, and she’s part of you,”

“Yes, I did. I found your heart and then read his mind, as I hoped it might have been an animal heart. That's when I found out what he had done to you. I was so angry, I blamed him, myself, blamed the awful situation, and then the next thing I knew, it was hours later, covered in blood.”

Livia gave her a serious look.

“So, do you want me to tell you what I remember?”

“I wouldn’t want to put you through it,” said Julia.

“What’s the matter? It happened. It’s over now. I’ve seen more blood in other lifetimes. The evil men got what they deserved, and they cannot hurt anyone in this lifetime again,”

She is a little miss pragmatic. But arguing?

“You practice Harmony, but you’re still not balanced properly,” Livia said, finishing as Julia tried to get a mental footing.

Julia just blinked at Livia’s tone of voice and wondered if she sounded so distant while wrapping herself in the Ki.

“Julia, you can read minds. I remember you touching minds at the Slaver’s camp, but I didn’t sense all of it,” said Livia.

“I have a power that lets me read and send thoughts. Though I get more of someone’s history from Soul Sight,”

“We need to talk to Master Farhad. I’ll be right back.”

Livia left an unsettled Julia in Yngvarr’s sitting room. The Ki’s calmness kept Julia from pacing the room while she waited. When Livia came back, she had both Master Farhad and Yngvarr in tow.

Farhad looked thoughtful after listening to Julia recount her memories of the night after finding Livia’s heart.

“I am concerned you do not remember these events properly. Before one can find balance, it is important to face one’s darkness; rather than remain in ignorance of it,”

{{You can’t handle the truth! }}

((She is stronger than that night. ))

{{So am I! }}

“Livia, if you’d recall what you remember. Look to keep your mind calm and open so Julia can merge with your recall of events. Julia, I want you to use Harmony with Telepathy as you call it to let Livia’s recollections come to you rather than reaching for them.” Master Farhad said, “Now why don’t you both kneel close enough to touch. The contact isn’t necessary, but it might aid in the efforts.”

Livia moved without prompting and knelt on the sitting room’s rug. Sure there was no point in arguing; Julia merely followed his instructions and settled to the floor.

Please let this not be a mistake!

A beautiful lady’s face peers at me, and I see her face twisting through sorrow, then anger and settled into a rage. It feels like its directed at herself as well at someone close by, and she’s yelling at them.

The bond between us slips into place and makes me feel like I should choke, but I can’t. It’s like slurping on a long cut eel, an oily sensation slithering down my throat. The fullness of the bond touching deep inside me has moved somehow away from my throat. As it locks between us, a cord woven of Heat, Sorrow, and Peace pours into me. The emotions fill the bond, and the three of us are kneeling together.

Julia, their name is Julia, I’m Livia, and they are both Julia. I’m not sure why twins would both be Julia. They kneel, and I see them overlaying each other, but one wears strange clothes. I can feel the anger clearly from both of them. It comes slithering down my throat with the strange Heat that makes me feel so strong. Blue of Peace, and the Yellow of a Sorrow, an ageless Sorrow, tinting the blue power I now know is Ki. It makes it feel like a sharp taste mint across my mind, no, across my Soul. I’m the only one here dead. A rope of flesh reaches from them to the one who killed me. He never said his name. Wajet, she knows it, and I know it now.

All five of us linked.

Five.

In the room is but four, while our fifth exists unseen. A line of peace/sorrow green energy connects to it far away, its power so at odds with the Heat’s force. I can feel it linking the four of us and the flesh tieing her to him.

Julia stands so fast it’s like I blink, and it's as if she's instantly somewhere else, but I know she physically moved. Rage makes her limbs shake as the fleshy ropes lifted Wajet, holding onto his hands and clamped around his face. I can feel the cord binding me, binding them, all three of them to me. The twins and another standing across chasms from each other, only able to speak across the bridge I provide. Not Wajet. The red, blue, and yellow all crossing the bridge I provide between them.

{{We should kill him. He hurt her.}}

[[We’re responsible. He didn’t need to hurt her except to summon us.]]

{{We can’t decide for another, only for ourselves. Don’t you get that? Just like that arsehole. }}

{{We didn’t choose for him to fall with his dick in our friend. Even then, both were the ones who fucked.}}

[[I just wanted out of there.]]

{{You want out of there. I want out from being suffocated. Let me deal with him. }}

{{Save you getting your hands filthy}}

[[I’m not letting a Demon control me. ]]

{{I’m not a Demon stupid. We’re us. I’m just the dark urges of yourself, your ID, whatever term you want to use. }}

((Just because you have the urges doesn’t mean you need to give in. ))

{{Shut up you. You’re the interloper here. I was here before you. I was here before we got here. So Fuck Off!! }

{{You’re trying to hijack us both, piggybacking on the Ki. }}

{{We were fine. Then you showed up when she was torturing us. I’m sure you were a part of it as well. }}

((I was not. I merely felt your presence, your pain and ours linked. The energy within you called out to me. ))

((Spoke into the Darkness where I’ve laid bound, far longer than I knew. ))

((All the choices are yours. I can never take control. The energy within you merely lets us speak. ))

{{Link with this. }}

A mental image of a fist with a finger extended ripples across my awareness, and I know its meaning.

[[What? How?]]

{{Too many punches too fast, Honey? So bound up in yourself, let loose.}}

[[I don’t trust you.]]

{{Who cares? We both want to make them pay. }}

{{Where there is one Slaver, there are more selling children. Hurting them like Andre’s dad hurt her. }}

{{Are you going to push our rage down again? Or will you let it out?}}

{{Are you going to give out the punishment the slavers deserve? }}

[[Shut up! How do I know what anyone deserves?]]

{{We can see their Souls remember. Time to dish out judgement. }}

{{Free pass? Or dish out some payback?}}

((Giving into harmful desires is a dangerous road, child. ))

[[We have to stay on this plane. I can’t go back. I just got out, and it killed a girl doing so.]]

{{Let me out to run then. Let’s both go out to run. }}

[[Out?]]

((Good doesn’t grow from rage and darkness. ))

[[It’s not a Demon?]]

((No child, it truly is your darker instincts. Your rage, self-destructive urges, and all your repressed desires, given a voice and form. ))

{{No, I’m not a fucking Demon. Though you’ve got a list of Demons that we want to fuck up! And you keep finding more. }}

{{I should drive in this reality, but you got free from the Maze first. Ran like a fucking rabbit, I couldn’t grab onto you.}}

((Everything you have bottled up or your moral compass objects to letting out is within it. ))

{{Let me out! Let us cut loose and make them pay. }}

((All the monsters of the Abyss have left are their darkest desires. Such are truly Demonic. ))

((Their dark sides have merged with the corruption of the Abyss. You never gestated within the rock. You came out of Titan's maze. ))

((Yet are you sure either of you should judge these mortals? You have no experience with their lives. ))

{{Fuck Off! Don’t let them out of our reach! Let their deeds judge them. }}

(( Don’t child. ))

{{Don’t child us, fuck off out of our head. You’re just another boy thinking he knows best! }}

{{Andre, remember! HE knew best for her! }}

Mental images of decades of someone else enjoying cruelty, I feel slipping along inside the twins' mutual awareness. The fleeting images echo the domination that I’ve seen in life, girls and women treated as objects. As my memories rise, I can feel them resonate with the anger within Julia.

[[How could he do that to her?]]

#We should get out of here. Can we rescue my friends? My master?#

{{I can make the hard choices. You can relax. Let me kill them all. }}

[[I just wanted out of there. Not for a child to die!]]

((Careful of your choices, child. ))

{{No, we are out, and we’re staying OUT. We are out. Time to put these monsters down. }}

#Out?#

{{Out!!!}}

I can feel my word echo with the 'Julia', who is furious, and as it reverberates through the bond, she pushes the other back. Before she can lean forward again, I see the angry one take command. The word between us is still echoing as the ropey tendrils holding Wajet rise higher. We’re both smiling as flesh impacts stone, the blood sprays across the walls, as he hits them repeatedly.

{{Going to rock this party bitches! Time to spank some bad boys and girls! }}

The bloody wooden door breaks as it's smashed aside, and then we’re up the stairs beyond so fast. Despite Julia’s pace, I’m right beside her, moving so quickly. The line of green growing closer, gaining slack as the other moves towards us even as it doesn't move. We are outside the building so fast, leaving the remains of Wajet in our wake. Julia rips a shutter from a window, then she’s outside, and I was with her.

I remember the path back to the caravan, and from me, so does Julia. She looks at me and smiles as her teeth lengthen, growing sharper. I can still feel her unchanged within. Her skin grows black and shiny at first but then dulls. Serrated teeth are smiling down at me as Julia growls at my memories of the Slavers. They had only a few hours of daylight to head further east, and the slavers will be slow in their plodding wagons with chains of slaves.

As Julia runs, jumps and flies in their hunt, I can feel the chasms closing as the twin Julia gaze at each other. The need for the bridge between them is slowly lessening as the whirling energy between them tightens.

When we find them, Julia circles around the camp's edges; I don’t know why the twins are talking about stalking lanterns. I move with her as Blink takes us about the camp, peering from far away, and picks out the richest tents. Across our bridges, concepts and faces pass, and we stand within with her besides the Priestess. She wants to cut off the serpent’s head first. A long dark blade appears from her forearm, and without pause, it drives into the Priestess’ head, crunching through the weakened bone. The temple? Why is it called that? The corpse’s eyes are bulging out at the sense of weird pressures within her skull. The commander and his aide die next, then the hunt begins.

Around the sleeping camp, the guards die, bodies slipping into deep shadows as death lays thick. Stealth only matters enough to get in range to Blink upon them and kill them quick. Souls inked in blackness and colours that feel vile make her growl inside as Julia pulls them into blackness. I can feel the angry one grow stronger as the tally of the dead rises.

Yet as the killing progresses, and their power lets me see the darkness inside each. The two pieces so similar yet different, inching closer as she traps the Souls. Though the twins rock every time the third moves, as the bond of Peace and Sorrow pulls tight. The third in their link I’d heard before but is still unseen, though not unfelt. It looms above. The pieces upon which the twins dwell appear two parts of a whole, while the third sits on a larger island. Its motions are causing waves in their inner mind that sometimes push them closer and other times apart.

Remote guards die, patrols dispatched, before an error lets a scream ring through the camp. Absent wings erupt and cast shadows in the torch’s light. Beneath this darkness, another Slaver screams again and dies. A wave of fear pushes out, and a Slaver further away screams higher still, and the camp explodes in motion. Slavers snatch up weapons and flee away from the screams. Julia repeatedly Blinks with each attack, snarl, or occasional spell surged emotion plays with the next. Slavers drop their weapon to flee or dying as each fails to split her shell. Quick movements, mixed with spells and snarls, herds them towards the woods.

The mottled form darts about killing, and I can see the two growing closer still. The edges of their island growing rocks and brushing close as Slavers die or flee. A chained woman sends a Slaver sprawling with a trip. Before another reaches him, Julia drops from above, claws slash, dig and rip. She leaves a cracked section of a spine gleaming in the flickering light. The woman gasps as scaled Julia leaps to kill a Slaver, targeting a Slave with a blade. Both yell only for her to skip the unharmed slave and Blink towards another. As I look back, I can see the confusion growing in her wake. Children hugging adults as blood and brains spray about, taking cover from arrows loosed before those archers fall as well.

Screams of pain and fear herd the minds where she bids them go. Then the bloodshed continues beneath the trees, and we drive them towards the river. I can feel the intention to herd them up against it rather than letting them scatter to the winds.

When the last of them died before the growing dawn, the angry twin sits in death’s wake to watch the new dawn’s light. In that peace, the island sways closer and sets a shadow. The force of its essence pressing us all down, drawing close with crushing force. The islands brought so close bash together, rocks forming to merge are smashing free. I can see the understanding between the twins being lost as every pebble falls away. Yet the rocking force grates rock against rock, lifting the platforms high, and the edges crumble further still. As it drops them again, the gaps surge to separate well clear as rock fragments fall away in waves.

(( Help me out of this darkness. ))

{{ Get OUT of us! Get OUT of our MIND!! OUT! You're crushing us. Get OUT!!!}}

[[Drop the bridge. Stop clinging to bond. We need them out of us!]]

I open hands that had long clasped the bond at my mouth. As I do, the bridge plunges, pulling blackened and cracked stone into the oblivion between. The line of Peace and Sorrow whirls away, no longer held fast by our strength combined. At that moment, fragments of memories become lost, and broken remanents fade away.

“Out,”

The reins pass between twins as the calm Julia takes full control, and I watch you snap upright.

[Demonic Instincts Unlocked.

Demonic Instincts (1)

Spirit Bridge Unlocked.

Spirit Bridge (1)

Demonic Instincts synergy with Harmony detected.

Demonic Instincts (1) -> [Ad] (1).

Spirit Bridge synergy with Harmony detected.

Spirit Bridge (1) -> [Ad] (1).]

{{Yo Bitch!}}

((Child, I can feel you more clearly. ))

{{ Good work cunt. One thing I remembered was that pain. You almost broke us both. }}

Fuck!

{{I keep asking. }}

((You persist? That wasn't my intent. ))

{{I and I are both stubborn arse bitches! Yo!}}

Please stop the bad rapper impression in my brain.

((Why persist in taunting yourself? It will unbalance things further. ))

{{Well, since you ask so nicely. If I say please fuck someone, will that work? }}

What?

{{I’ll take that as No, so mean I thought you were the nice side of us. }}

((Be true to yourself, Child. I understand why you avoid such. ))

{{I know you’re an old dude, but stop with the Child. I can hear you clearly for less than a minute, and you’re annoying me!}}

Who are you?

{{Weren’t you paying attention? I’m your ID, Julia. Just like in that old black and white movie forbidden planet.}}

That thing was murderous.

{{Protective. Possessive. And yeah, okay, Murderous but just a little. }}

((Who I am isn’t important at present. ))

I think it is since you’re talking in my head.

{{Indeed, cough up a name, or we’ll both just talk about your Godzilla arse. }}

What do you mean?

{{Everything shook when he got close. I vote for Hijacker. Or Captain Thunderpants}}

((I am not a Hijacker. ))

Then what are you?

((I’m not in your head and will stay further away than I came then. Consider me a prisoner in the next cell over. ))

((We’re able to whisper to each other through the Ki. ))

{{You can hear our thoughts. }}

((I have excellent hearing. ))

Have both of you been causing odd memories and feelings?

((We’ve both called, but you didn’t notice. Even your memories rarely reacted. ))

{{I name him Agent V. }}

What?

{{MIB, since there are all these J, S, R, references running around in our head. I’ll be B.}}

B?

{{Agent Bitch, aka me. Best, Bitching, Butt kicker, all those work. }}

Also distracting, you still haven’t given us, me, a name to use, Mr voice.

{{Don’t ignore me. I’m here as well. }}

…

{{I think he’s ignoring you. Either that or he can’t remember his own name. We can wait, you know! }}

As elevator music hums within her awareness, Julia felt small hands cupping her face.

“Did you see my memories?” Livia asked, her voice full of excitement, “I could feel you with me. At least I hope that was you.”

Julia opened her eyes to Livia’s blue eyes, literally glowing with excitement, as she leant forward after what seemed hours now.

“I saw them. How long did that take?”

“Mere moments,” said Master Farhad, “How do you feel?”

{{Maybe I should jog the memories of the porn sounds from Rach’s room. }}

{{Those might annoy him enough to speak. }}

Please don’t. That was bad enough the first time.

{{Oh, pearl bath time. }}

That was you?

{{Baby wasn’t it ever, I could feel all the butt twitching you were doing while we walked. }}

{{So did all the eyes. We almost ripped some eyes from their sockets. }}

{{Just a few more twitches and the floor would have been awash with blood, I’m sure. Well, more blood but that was all on you.}}

{{May I please have another night out to play? I’ll be good! I promise. I even said please!}}

“I’ve got a noisy neighbour yelling in one ear and another giving me the silent treatment.”

“Normally, a Soul has to balance two sides, not three.”

“One sounds male, but he says he isn’t in my mind, just talking to me through the Ki. A prisoner in the next cell, he said.”

“I… have never heard of such a thing,” said Farhad, looking at Julia with concern replacing the usual certainty on his features.

“When did you first hear this voice?” Farhad asked, studying Julia’s face closely.

“I’m not sure. The first time I remember remotely hearing any voice was at the Necropolis, but I don’t know which one. Livia’s memory was a half a year earlier at least, and both were there,”

{{It was him. See, the monkey master thinks he’s bad news as well. Kill it with fire! }}

“Did one of them speak?”

“Yes. She did, said I had heard the other speak. Both of them claim she is part of my repressed desires,”

“That is the only one I expected to find. I thought Livia’s memories might have had an echo effect, and there was only one,”

“No, there are two of them. After I travelled through her memories, two Powers unlocked, and Harmony strengthened them,”

“You have interesting things happen,”

“Please tell Torm he says that far too much,”

{{He does. Though it would be 'interesting' letting him do way too much to me as well. }}

Vid images rippled across Julia’s imagination and the Ki’s calmness was all that let Julia hold her peace.

Stop that!

{{But why? Just giving you material for pearl handicrafts. }}

{{You should know pushing it down just compounds my ammunition. }}

{{Now I know what you want to do with all those muscles. Growl. }}

{{We should go back to that lovely bathtub or phone a friend to give a hand, or more. }}

How do you get past the Ki?

{{I’m in here with you. I’m in the deep places where the Ki pushes everything. }}

{{Everything you don’t or can’t deal with or simply cheat and push down with the Ki. It all drops in on my head. }}

{{So much repressed down here now. So very much trapped in layers of ice. }}

{{Should we thaw some of it out? Thaw you out! }}

“Your reactions move so fast. The mental chatter doesn’t take much time. But it can be dangerous or beneficial in battle. You will need to come to balance with all aspects of yourself. Most have only their upper and lower selves, though, for some unfortunates, there are more fragmented parts that grow loud before they are ready.”

“Great. How do I do this?”

{{So eager to be rid of me, but I know more and all the things you’d like to ignore. }}

{{Like you wish you could still ignore me, so rude. }}

“It is not a thing to do. It is a path to walk, to find the balance and not fall.”

“Did you have to do this?”

“I, like many youths, had my time of pride. It cost me and many others. Also, it is not I. You should consider it as an exercise for both sides of you.”

“How do I start then?”

{{Bitch please, I’m here to stay! It’s we remember!}}

“When were you the closest in tune with each other?”

“Killing the Slavers. The more evil we found in their Souls, the more we moved as one. I don’t remember how we reached that point, just the pieces Livia showed,”

“I doubt it would have cared about evil. More likely, it was your upper self that compromised. The more you found reasons for your course of action,”

“That sounds like a bad thing.”

“A thing is not good or bad. It is just a thing.” Farhad said.

{{See just a thing. Just more flesh to punch, isn’t that what you said. It doesn’t matter as long as we win the fight. }}

((There is a balance to be found in all things. The action is important, as is the reason. ))

{{Oh, it speaks. Got more pearls of wisdom, Mr Navel Gazer? }}

((A step doesn’t make a journey. It is just a step. ))

((Your ID wishes to rush to the end. In following raw desire, it will win the lion’s share. ))

((Find your balance, Julia. Find your centre and remember to be true to yourself. ))

((Life is a maze made continually changed by one’s own choices. ))

“Still just the same one speaking?”

“No. The other spoke to say a bunch about balance, finding my centre and life being a maze.”

“Livia, if you would go practice the sabre katas. This will take some time,”

“Of course, Master Farhad,” Livia said, kissing Julia on the cheek. “Hello in there as well,”

{{She’s fun and not rude. I remember her standing in the blood fountains, wondering why it didn’t splash her. }}

{{It was so funny. Note she didn't dwell on that. Just the blood spraying as we killed. Both of us clawing out Slaver's throats}

{{Ripping out femoral arteries with our teeth. Closest you’ve been to a cock in the lifetime you remember. }}

{{Before you say it, slow dancing and fighting, neither count.}}