Off the Leash (Florian)

[Paragon]

"Interesting." He fell into step with Florian. The tiger remained on the opposite side. She gently braced her bulk against Florian giving him a pillar of support as he walked. The darkness in the forest did not recede. If anything it became thicker ahead of them yet the man and the massive cat seemed unperturbed.

"I am many things." The red of his eyes grew brighter for a moment before fading. "I have been many things. But today, I am Killian."

He gave an artful bow before reaching up to snatch a pair of of apples out of the dark. He rolled one along his arm and then bounced it off of his shoulder catching it with the other hand. He offered it to Florian while taking a bite out of the other. After chewing he answered thoughtfully.

"As for how I found you?" He shrugged a shoulder. "You found me. Here at a crossroads in-between Fear and Vengeance. And now? Now we walk. To where?"

He took another bite of his apple and nodded forward.

"That, I think, is up to you. Which brings me to my question. Are you running away or are you running toward something?"

[Florian]

"Killian." Florian softly repeated, but he made no more comment on it. "I've not always been Florian, but I'm Florian now." Once upon a time he had given himself that name, his old name shed like a carapace. No one he knew now would remember that name, and it was not recorded in any part of Zaichaer. Perhaps nothing more than his mother's journals and notes in her books to him. But that past was dead, just like her.

"I didn't realize I had been walking in circles until just before I found you, then. I've never seen a forest so dark." He pushed past a branch that had been close enough to even see in the first place, and then he took the apple and rubbed it on his shirt. "Fear and Vengeance? That's awfully pertinent." He wasn't sure if Killian was speaking in metaphors, but Florian could hardly hazard a guess as to how he might have ended up in something as metaphysical as those, and that was where his assumption lay. He took a bite of the apple and chewed while he considered his answer to the man's question.

"Both." Was his reply, and he was again quiet for a moment as he took another bite of the apple. "I am running towards a future where I no longer have to run from my past. I am running towards a future where the past must run from me." He had not considered these words until they were spoken, but the mere memory of Zaichaer was enough to make his blood boil.

"How did I find you?"

[Paragon]

“Most people spend their entire lives walking in circles.” Killian offered nothing more. It was not a commentary on Florian so much as a comment on his own perspectives. “Even me.”

The last was said softly just as he brought the apple back to his lips before taking another bite. He listened to Florian’s reply with the same air of casual interest that he had show the entirety of their interaction thus far. When Florian posed his next question, Killian came to a stop. Rather than answer, he gestured behind them back along the road they came from. Upon turning to see what the man was gesturing at, Florian would be confronted with various shafts of light shining down upon the road behind them. In the most immediate one was the silhouette of Florian with arms raised as a monstrous creature loomed over him followed by the horrid amputation of his arm. Just beyond that were several shafts of light depicting the silhouette of Florian suffering at the hands of Dr. Constantine in the Zaichaeri facility.

His trauma from the Warrens.

The death of his mother.

The hardships of his life in Zaichaer.

The road formed a zig-zagging map until finally the path led to where they stood in the present day. Killian made no comment on what he showed but after just a few moments to take in all of those milestones in Florian’s life, the scenes blinked out and the forest was once again plunged into that impenetrable darkness.

“You know the road you have walked. A life lived in Fear. Cast into the Shadows of the society that you have known. Suffering. Always suffering.” Killian gestured ahead of them. The darkness suddenly parted and showed two paths. Though it was impossible to see much beyond the trees, one path was illuminated by silvery white light. The other path was limned with the blood light that made the shadows of the trees that much harsher. In the distance, suspended in the air against a canvas of stars were the two moons of Ransera. One emit that silver-white light while the other gave off the blood red.

“Today, that road led you to me. You can run toward whatever future you desire, Florian. Here is where you meet a fork in the road.” Killian stepped forward until he was standing on the path that led to the blood red moon. He tossed his apple up into the air but it did not return. He folded his arms over his chest.

“You have four options.” Killian nodded to the road illuminated in silver and white. “Down that road you could find Justice for the things you have suffered.”

He nodded to the path behind Florian.

“Turn back and return to walking in circles. Always at someone else’s mercy.” He gestured to the walls of darkness off to the sides.

“You could say fuck it all and throw yourself into the completely unknown and to hell with this nonsense.” There was the hint of an amused smirk that tugged at the edges of Killian’s lips.

“Or…” Killian dropped one arm and extended a hand to Florian. The shadows gathered in his palm and formed a circle. It then lit aflame at the edges, flickering in the dark, reminiscent of the blood moon that was suspended in the skies above. “I can’t give you Justice, Florian.”

He let that sentence hang in the air.

“But I can help you get revenge.”

[Florian]

Florian looked back at the shafts of light, the quiet depictions of his life. Things he did not want to remember, things he was forced to relive night after night. His mother, Dr. Constantine, Zaichaer itself. His fights and his lost horn and the terror of being who he was, where he was, where he had been, because of what was done and what he had done.

Even as the lights faded away, he stared into the darkness where they had been, unspeaking and unmoving. It took a moment for him to really hear what Killian was saying to him, and he looked back at the man, at the paths offered to him. The blood red revenge. The silver-white Justice. The clinging shadows and the past he lived, suffering at the hands of those around him even as he sought to take his life in his own hands. There was no justice then. There was no justice waiting for him. Nothing would happen to Dr. Constantine at the hands of justice because it was the very thing that allowed the doctor to do what he did, what drove him to tear him apart and put him back together time and time again.

Justice could not save his mother. Justice could not even find who killed her.

Florian stared down the two illuminated paths and dropped the apple. "There is no justice waiting for me. There is no justice except what I can take for myself." He stepped towards Killian and took his hand. There was no hesitation or consideration of consequences. He thought of his past. The formless shape of his mother's killer, every detail of them unknown to him. Dr. Constantine and his smile as he drugged him and tore him apart. The Zaichaeri sprawl itself and everyone inside it. His eyes turned black with the anger and hatred and pain he felt.

"I want them to fear me, Killian." He whispered. "I want them to regret what they have done to me. I want them to hurt. There is no justice for me, but there will be revenge."

[Paragon]

“And so there shall be.” Killian’s hand closed around Florian’s. The shadows swelled before surging forth and standing before Florian was not a man but something else entirely. Those infernal eyes bored into Florian’s soul, staring deeply into the very core of his being. They burned with a rage so pure that it was almost innocent. Fear coiled and snapped in the very air around them as the icy chill of dread wrapped around Florian’s spine. It did not abate but rather, it became a thing that Florian would feel he could almost grasp.

“Speak your fears and know them. Speak the fears of others and own them.” With a breath, the shadows poured into Florian’s mouth and nose. “Breathe in the shadows for in the darkness, you will find not enemies but allies.”

All around Florian the rush of whispering voices filled the air but clearer than a crystal bell, Killian’s voice remained steady. Warmth enclosed Florian as Killian physically drew him into an embrace. He spoke softly into the young Lysanrin’s ear.

“And when your strength fails you...” Power coursed through Florian’s veins and settled within his body. "...use mine."

And then Killian was gone. The great cat was gone. The shadow of the night still clung heavily to the forest all around Florian but the young Lysanrin would find that though darkness had fallen, he could see as clear as day. But there, in the distance, was a spot of impenetrable darkness that was blacker than all the others. Though it had no shape there was a feeling that emanated from it, a feeling of being quietly watched and for the briefest of moments, Florian would see a pair of eyes that burned like a raging inferno before they vanished and that spot of darkness was gone.

Off Topic

Congratulations! Florian has been awarded the following:

+1 Emblem of Obtenebration at the Acolyte level.

XP: +10 XP
Lore: +15 of your choosing.
Loot: -1 Arm