Seth

Part 10: Sortie

The twin dragons raced each other, spiraling gracefully as they rose into the impossibly blue sky, their manes and beards rippling in the wind. Seth blinked, and gazed upward again, and saw they were only wooden, finely carved out of a long, straight tree trunk, one of two pieces that flanked the main gate to the ruined monstery, that perched on its own hillock, high in the valley, at the foot of Kangchenjunga.
Leo was stamping the remaining dirt into the base. He paused to wipe his hands on his old, patched robe, and glanced up at Seth. "Get the axe, will you? I want you to chop these used ones into firewood."
Seth looked down at the weathered carvings at his feet. Though bleached and seamed from the elements, they had lost little of their exquisite detail. "Why not sell them? They'd bring-"
"SELL them?" Leo paused to stare at him.
"Why NOT? Plenty of artists sell their own work."
Leo's eyes narrowed at Seth's tone. "Yes, I suppose they do... and some people sell their own CHILDREN, perhaps out of desperation, or lack of food. I am neither desperate nor hungry, and I have no wish to sell these demons after their work is finished. Now, break them up."
Seth picked up the axe, and held it aloft. After a second he lowered it again. "I just can't, father. They're too beautiful to destroy."
Leo snatched the axe out of Seth's hands. "Very well, I'll do it myself. Now, why don't you go and make yourself useful somewhere ELSE?"
Seth turned away, and feeling suddenly dejected, headed toward the hall entrance, the dull sound of the axe against the wood following him, long after his ears were out of range.

Seth didn't look up from his cooking when Leo came into the hearth room, though he could feel his father's eyes on him. "I notice your demeanor has changed since we came back up here," Seth said to the fire.
Leo grunted a noncommital reply, and there was a short silence. A noise caused Seth to jump up, in time to see the boiling kettle tip over.
"Ah, no!" Seth reached to grab at the kettle's handle, but Leo had already stuck his scalded foot into the recently filled water tub nearby. Seth watched Leo sit against the hearth stone, and clutch at the sides of the tub. "How bad is it?"
After a moment, Leo raised his head. "How bad is what?"
"Well, the burn, it must be excruciating-"
"It's nothing," Leo shot back. "I'm angry at my own clumsiness."
Seth reared his head back in surprise. "Well, anybody can make a mistake. Even you. Even so, it was the hook that broke-"
"That isn't it, Seth." Leo exhaled in exasperation. "I just didn't move in time. That's never happened to me before."
Seth turned back to stir absently at the stew pot.
"Yes it has," Leo went on, quietly. He shifted back to hitch his robe higher up on his thighs. "It has... when I was in recovery from my injuries."
"What injuries?"
"The life-threatening ones."
"Oh. Those. Like in your self portrait."
"Something like that."
There was a silence, and then Seth looked at his father. "You've never really been quite the same since then, have you?"
Leo lifted his foot to inspect it, and Seth could see the blisters that had formed on his instep.
Seth made a sibilant sound in sympathy.
"I'll get over it," Leo said.
"Like anything else..."
"Physical things aren't much compared to psychic pain."
"No, but-"
"Physical pain, as Splinter has said, is only a wild animal that can be tamed."
Seth said nothing.
"But the other kind of pain... is the most insidious, the most difficult to conquer..." Leo flexed his toes, and lowered the foot into the tub again. "It's easier to kill a deer than a swarm of mosquitoes."
"Hah?"
"With an arrow."
"Hm. I think I know what you mean. You have to kill a deer with one method, and a mosquito with another."
"Yes," Leo said, and smiled a little. "Which brings us to the subject at hand."
"Subject?"
"The dream."
Seth inhaled and straightened his back a moment, to ease the tension between his shoulders. "Yes. That's why we're here, isn't it?"
"Why ARE we here, Seth?"
"It's pretty obvious," Seth said, shrugging.
Leo nodded. "Why do you think I ask the obvious?"
"I get it... it's a rhetorical question, isn't it?"
"Rhetorical?"
"Like I said, stating the obvious."
"It was a focusing question, Seth. Words are not only meant as communication, they can become vehicles to guide one's thoughts."
"Yeah," Seth said at length. "Like the Bible... it seems to have a redundant message at times, but I think the words are set up in a certain pattern, like a map... to lay its message out before us... to get us into a certain state of mind."
Leo turned to look directly at him. "Yes, and I can see where it has lead yours." His eyes became distant. "In the depths of my soul... there is a wordless song- a song that lives in the seed of my heart. It refuses to melt with ink on parchment, it engulfs my affection in a transparent cloak and flows, but not upon my lips."
Seth raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"
"Kahlil Gibran... Song of the Soul."
"Oh." Seth went back to checking the stew pot.
"So... why ARE we here?"
Seth looked at him again.
"Well?"
"To destroy the demons?"
Leo made a sound in his throat, and closed his eyes.
"Do you really think Saki is the cause of all your trouble? I mean, how could a man, who's been dead-"
"He was not just a man. He was... a sorcerer. His power lies beyond the boundaries of this life. He died, and yet, did NOT die. In the process of dying, he has stolen part of my soul, and trapped it along with him in a realm of perpetual nightmare... which invariably comes to me when I sleep for too long."
Seth rubbed his face with his free hand. Leo could be so heavy at times... "How long has this been going on, then?"
Leo lifted his foot out of the tub, and rested it on the edge. "You know," he said thoughtfully, as though he hadn't heard Seth's question. "I really can't remember what it was like to not have the nightmares... only when Splinter was there, he was the balm that kept them at bay. " Leo was silent a moment, and grimaced as he slowly lowered his foot into the water again. "It's worse than I thought," he whispered.
"What, the burn?"
"The loss."
"Of Splinter..."
"Yes."

As he watched the blood-red sun sink behind the hill, Seth knew he was in for a long journey. Where it would end, he didn't know.
"I'm in over my head," he said aloud. A feeling of dread crept over him, and tightened his chest, and he shook his head slowly. No I'm not, no... I can handle this. I have the strength, I can do anything I want..."
The darkness closed in on him like a veil. Or a vise. He breathed in, and out, the way Leo had taught him, and his mind seemed to center, like a gyroscope, and he no longer felt the sickening vertigo, as though he were in a spinning, free fall.
His spiritual gyroscope were the whispered words of Psalm 23. "The Lord..." The path was strewn with sharp stones, that bruised the soles of his feet. "Is my Shepherd..." Tiny bones crackled underfoot. "I shall not... want..." The darkness vibrated with each step. "He leads me... me..." His monologue faltered as his feet landed in something that gave way, and he fell, squeaking in fright, into endless space. After an eternity he hit bottom, bounced, and lay still, unable to move.
He tried to breathe, but his lungs seemed to have no use for air. He tried to think, but his mind seemed disembodied. He tried to count... and couldn't. His eyes saw nothing.
God help me, I'm dead.
No, a reassuring voice said in his head. Go on, get up.
Seth shuddered.
Get UP.
His feet felt the pressure of cold stone, and he realized he was upright. Now what, he asked himself, as his mind cleared. Forward. Yes. To go on... one foot in front of the other, then other foot forward, now the rear foot, pushing off and sweeping forward...
Seth.
He halted.
Watch your back.
Something slammed into him, catapulting him forward, so that his cheek skidded against rough stone. Twisting, he looked up to see a gaping, red mouth, rimmed with canine teeth, slavering and snapping at his belly. Seth yelled aloud and kicked in reflex, connecting hard with a solid body. Connecting?
Solid?
Is this real?
The creature yelped and withdrew, and that is when Seth saw the eyes. Yellow... the depthless pupils contracted and dilated, as it panted. Like a dog. A very... BIG... dog.
"Go home," Seth said aloud, his voice cracking with uncertainty.
Go home?
Idiot, Seth berated himself as the thing launched itself at him again.
Form, Seth.
"What?"
FORM!
The hard edge of a sword hilt rapped against his ribs, and he remembered the katana. He could feel the hot breath of the monster on his neck, and he ducked and rolled, the sword coming out of its sheath as he gathered himself into a half crouch.
As though sensing the blade, the monster vanished.
Seth held the katana in front of him with both hands, and his feet went into a catlike stance, as he swiveled in one direction, then the other.
Nothing.
He backed up a step, and waited, breathing slowly and deeply. As an indeterminable amount of time passed, Seth gradually relaxed, and lowered the blade. He did not sheath it, but continued his walk, holding the sword in his right hand.
This time it was his own sixth sense that warned him. Now it was not only one, but several beasts, their heavy breathing echoing, as though they were down a long tunnel.
Great. It's brought reinforcements.
Steady, Seth. Don't let them throw you. Breathe, and focus.
There were too many pairs of eyes approaching, seeming to mix together, and Seth's head spun.
Don't look at them, they will only confuse you. Focus inward.
Now you tell me, Seth thought as he fell hard, and rolled quickly as gleaming teeth snapped shut nearly in his face. He squirmed, his back muscles contracting painfully in fear, and he nearly lost his grip on the sword hilt.
This won't stinking DO-
Seth's feet found the ground, and then he was airborne, his right wrist flexing as he changed his grip on the leather hilt. It was no longer conscious thought, the katana was leading him, finding its way through the blind darkness, and judging from the shrieks of pain... was well on making its mark. The sounds faded as the creatures keened and whimpered their way back to wherever they had come.
Not bad.
Seth stood a moment, trembling, as the residual energy of the fight crackled in the silence, and sheathing the sword, continued his steady walk. He felt calm again, centered, and confident...
The darkness faded, and yet Seth's vision did not improve. A fog, thick as mucous, swirled slowly around him as he went on. He felt at times as though he were walking in mud, and things squirmed in protest between his toes, making him lurch and stumble in disgust.
The clink of something metallic echoed through the mist, like heavy links of chain. Someone sighed.
"Who's there?"
"Seth?" Leo's voice.
"Father, what-" Seth slipped and skidded his way toward the source, and the mists blew clear enough for him to see a tall, forklike object on top of a low hill, with the twisted hulks of blasted trees surrounding it. "Where are you?"
"Here."
Seth looked up to see Leo, securely fastened to the trunk of a three-pronged, thorny tree, his body bent and twisted in a horribly familiar position and held tightly in place by a network of vines. His manacled wrists were swollen and black with coagulated blood.
"Please excuse my bad manners," Leo said calmly. "I'm not in the best position to greet you properly."
Seth swallowed down the tightness in his throat. "What happened? Why-"
"It's not as terrible as it looks," Leo went on, as though engaged in a casual conversation in his own garden. "One gets used to these things after a while."
"Wh-what?" Seth shook himself, and lurched forward, as he unsheathed the katana. "Hold on, father, I'll free you-"
"NO!" Leo's voice suddenly became sharp. "Don't touch the vine. You don't know what it does. Just leave it... and me. You need to go on."
"I can't just leave you here!"
"You must. But you cannot cut me loose. It won't work." Leo flexed his fingers a moment. "Besides, I'm only here until I wake up."
Seth stared at him, and then moved toward the tree.
"Don't, Seth."
"I CAN'T just leave you here!"
"Remember Bang Ung-ut."
"What?"
"What the Cambodians refer to as... the nightmare of no return. If you allow it to overwhelm you, the dream becomes... your death." He drew out the last word in a hoarse whisper, and Seth could see one of his eyes, lit with an unholy glow, peering at him from behind his upstretched arms.
"But-" Seth's protest died when Leo's lips slid back from his teeth and he hissed and snarled like an enraged mountain lion. His eyes bulged and rolled in their sockets, as he fought furiously against the vine, causing the wounds in his wrists to split open, again. Blood ran in dark rivulets down his arms and dripped, hissing, onto the black earth.
"Save yourself," Leo groaned from between his teeth, as he strained against his bonds. The vines stretched and popped in several places, and then suddenly one of his hands yanked free, and clawed wildly at Seth, who fell backward down the embankment.
Finding his footing in the loose dirt, Seth stood up, farther down the hill, and gaped as Leo giggled hysterically and turned slowly by one arm.
"Don't make me HURT you, little Sun Child!"
Backing slowly away, Seth cried out in anguish as the fog enveloped the macabre scene.
"I'll TEAR you APART!"
Tears streaming down his face, he turned and ran down the hill, sliding and stumbling over clinging roots and smooth bones, until Leo's screaming threats faded into a dull silence.
Gasping for breath in the thin air, Seth slowed, and then sank to a kneeling position in the middle of the path. Holding the sheathed katana across his lap, he bent his head and prayed, and felt a warm reassurance, and a settling peace wash over him. When he opened his eyes again, he could see clearly, now, and the path stretched on and on, in a straight line, across a flat, colorless landscape. As he stood up, a thought struck him.
Leo's right foot. No blisters from the kettle accident. That wasn't... wasn't Leo at all...
Clever boy. You figured that one out, all by yourself, didn't you?
Strange, the voice that spoke softly in his head seemed to have a sardonic edge to it, now.
"Who ARE you?"
A tiny figure approached on the horizon, a kind of shimmering, flapping thing that materialized into a horse and rider as it came on at a dizzying pace. The horse snorted ominously as it skidded to a halt at the last moment before collision, and Seth went instinctively for the katana.
The rider laughed in scorn, as the horse lurched and circled Seth, but Seth kept the extended blade between himself and the... the what?
Ghost? Demon?
On a horse of silver and grey...
"Behold, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death... and all the minions of Hell followed at his heels," Seth said the Revelation passage aloud, as though to gather his thoughts, which threatened to dissipate like a brace of pheasants flushed from the bushes before this frightening apparition.
The rider drew the horse up to a dancing stand, and lifted the visor of the blackened, gleaming helmet. It seemed there was nothing but shadow under the helm at first... then Seth saw the eyes. Pale, luminous, almost white, and yet, a delicate shade of purple-pink. Like Seth's own eyes.
"Who ARE you," Seth tried to say in a commanding tone, but his adolescent voice cracked with uncertainty in mid-phrase.
"I am the culmination of your very existance, little Sun Child," The knight said, in a voice that sounded like an iceberg breaking apart. His unearthly laugh resonated in Seth's chest, as he slowly dismounted and stood over him. He seemed immense. "Surely you know, I am the Beginning... and the END?"
Seth resisted the urge to move back a step, much less to break into a frantic run, but lifted the sword so that the tip pointed toward the knight's head.
The eyes widened a little. "Is this the very sword that caused my demise?" The voice lilted in sardonic amusement. "Ahaaa, so it is. It IS!"
"Saki..." the name slipped past Seth's lips as his hands tightened convulsively on the hilt. "Must I kill you AGAIN?"
Again?
"YOU? I have been taken from your world long before you were even so much as a gleam in your father's eye. Ah, the exuberance of youth... so sure of yourself, and yet..." The knight paced to the side, and Seth followed with the sword tip pointed at the helm, as cool and slow as a stalking mantis. "So typically... overconfident."
Seth's skin flinched and prickled, and the katana jerked to his left, and blocked the blow of Saki's blade, and then countered and blocked again. The clash of steel jarred the bones in his forearms, but his grip stayed firm. He ducked, leaped and parried, until Saki finally backed off to regroup.
Seth, stop squeezing so tightly. Loosen up.
"Still underestimating your opponents, Saki? Seems to me you are the one who is so typically overconfident. After all, how old was I when I permanently SENT you here, with your head under one arm? Fifteen? Sixteen?"
Seth watched his fingers flex and reposition themselves on the hilt, its leather wraps wicking the sweat from his palms.
Saki was gone. So was the horse.
Seth spun, but there was nothing.
What, where did...
The sword arced, point first, over his opposite shoulder and back, and Seth flinched as another blow shivered down its blade, numbing his forearms, the sharp sound making his ears ring.
Seth, go high.
He leaped, and tucked, and as he saw the ground spin over his head, he caught the flutter of something dark at the tail of his eye, like the edge of a bird's wing.
Don't try to look for him, Seth. Focus inward. That's where he lives. Inward.
Seth growled aloud in frustration, and landed low, in a crouch. The right hand took over, and changed grips on the hilt, as the katana's blade sang in the crackling air, and struck something solid.
Something black flowed across his face, and seemed to cling like cobwebs, and then brush off of him, and Seth felt very odd. The ground rushed up to smash him, and his breath came out in a long groan.
I've had it.
No...
Seth was on his feet again, reeling and spinning, trying to focus on a black blur that stood out against the blistering landscape.
"Give it up, little one. You are no match for me. All I have done is play with you, and yet you have already taken a blow. I could have finished you at the start, but I find this quite the amusing diversion..."
Don't listen to him, Seth. He'll load you up with crap. You've made your mark.
"YOU, SHUT up," Saki hissed at Seth, his pink-white eyes boring into his. "Or are you not enjoying your crucifixion ENOUGH?"
Crucifixion?
My God, why have you forsaken me?
God?
"A fool and his head are soon parted," Saki said, as he held his own katana aloft. "Then you can meet your own God, in person, and leave your father's poor, pitiable carcass to me."
NO!
Again Seth's katana came up and blocked the swing, allowing Seth to roll away. He stood, and holding the sword at his side, swayed a little. To his horror, he saw the sand under his feet turning black with blood.
I'm dying!
You are not dying, Seth. It's an illusion.
Too tired...
No.
Can't...
It's an illusion! Where do you get your strength, Seth?
Seth stared dispassionately at the figure standing a few paces across the sand from him. Blood sport and horses... where's the bull and the man with the red cape?
Where do you get your STRENGTH, Seth?
"The WORD," Seth belted out, but his chin lowered. He wanted to drop the sword, let Saki finish him, and be done with it, but his knuckles whitened on the hilt.
Surprisingly, Saki made no move to take advantage of Seth's hesitation, but stood, head to one side a little, in a familiar pose.
"Se-eth, you rely too much on yourself," Mike's voice drawled. "This all takes teamwork."
"Is that why YOU live by yourself," Seth said softly.
"I am never alone. We are united in spirit. and I'm here, with you."
"You said- you said, you weren't part of the group any more."
"Just idle talk, Seth. Idle talk."
"You won't let me do what I want, only what you- the CLAN wants! I don't want to fight any more."
"You won't FIGHT me?" Saki squared his shoulders, and took a step toward Seth.
"No. I will forfeit the match to you."
"Your honor is at stake, you little, low-color BASTARD."
At the sound of Raphael's voice, Seth bristled. "Haven't you said and done enough? Why add to that burden of regret you already carry?"
"My only regret is having let you live this long, YOU have DESTROYED my happiness!"
"YOU brought it on yourself, STOP blaming ME for your problems, Raph!"
Saki howled in sudden rage, and slung his katana at Seth, who ducked.
"I won't fight you," he said faintly. He willed his hand to loosen it's grip on Leo's sword, and when the sword finally clattered to the ground, Seth realized that Leo had released him. "I'm sorry," he whispered as his eyes closed.

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