[Ahahaha should I not tell you how luxurious that all sounds to me at this point? Living in London means living in SMALL spaces. We're not even in central London--we're in the 'burbs to the south and our place is still a tiny one bedroom flat. Honestly, one of the draws of moving back to the states is that we'd get more space to live in.]
Had Aurus known what a movie was, he would have agreed that it was precisely the right sort of image. Just as many people could watch the same movie, other people could (Aurus had no doubt of the potential, at least in theory) learn the same sort of magic that he had in the Mists, and commune with these legendary heroes in the same way.
The fact that Charles so quickly grasped the spirit of the whole relation was simply reassurance of what Aurus was already suspecting: that the two of them would find easy enough concordance when Charles did touch his mind. This was important to him, and a large part of why he'd extended the offer to begin with. To him it was very clear that any touch went both ways--for Charles to touch his mind would be for him to touch Charles in some way as well. He wasn't entirely sure that this was something that Charles thought of so much though.
Aurus had the vague impression that the man tended to treat what he did as a one-way reach. Whether or not it usually was though, certainly the Dream would make for its own unique paradigm.
"Mallyx, you must understand, is the only one who is with me under duress. And..." he paused here, considering whether it felt safe to him to share this information and then deciding that, yes, the distance between worlds meant that he was breaking no confidences, "I did not collect him for my own benefit. I have him with me for my student--my former student. There's a history. It's not without its complications.
"As to Shiro--" again a momentary pause. The Canthan wasn't listening closely at the moment, but Aurus still felt that it was a matter of trust for him to choose his words with care. "In his life, he was an assassin of exceptional skill, a skill which the Emperor realized. Shiro was a loyal subject but...perhaps it's fair to say that he lacked wisdom. He was duped by a fortune teller--in retrospect, it seems, an agent of Abaddon, the deposed god who you will remember me speaking of last night.
"This fortune teller, over time, convinced Shiro of all manner of false counsel, including that the Emperor was plotting his death. Duped into believing he had been betrayed, he murdered the Emperor instead.
"For that, perhaps, history would have forgiven him. But of course the events did not end there. He slaughtered the soldiers who had once been his allies, and fought until a trio of champions cut him down in retribution. In vengeance and fury, he fed on the Emperor's soul and, with his dying breath, released the Jade Wind.
"It--" How to even describe this? "--devastated half the continent. It petrified the seas, the forests, every living thing in its path. He killed thousands.
"And he managed to return to life once after all of this was over too, some two hundred years later. ...I will just say that his acts did not redeem him then either."
Of course having told Charles all of this, which was all completely true (and fair disclosure), Aurus was left with the rather delicate task of trying to somehow convince him that Shiro was actually not a purely evil figure.
"For my part, I find it hard to fully blame a man for having been tricked by a god. Shiro's actions were horrific, but in a sense he was a victim too. I suppose we get along because I am more gentle in my judgement of him than the world at large has been. But he is suspicious and mistrustful--he has grown to trust me, but he expects trickery now. And he will expect that you are a trickster."
no subject
Had Aurus known what a movie was, he would have agreed that it was precisely the right sort of image. Just as many people could watch the same movie, other people could (Aurus had no doubt of the potential, at least in theory) learn the same sort of magic that he had in the Mists, and commune with these legendary heroes in the same way.
The fact that Charles so quickly grasped the spirit of the whole relation was simply reassurance of what Aurus was already suspecting: that the two of them would find easy enough concordance when Charles did touch his mind. This was important to him, and a large part of why he'd extended the offer to begin with. To him it was very clear that any touch went both ways--for Charles to touch his mind would be for him to touch Charles in some way as well. He wasn't entirely sure that this was something that Charles thought of so much though.
Aurus had the vague impression that the man tended to treat what he did as a one-way reach. Whether or not it usually was though, certainly the Dream would make for its own unique paradigm.
"Mallyx, you must understand, is the only one who is with me under duress. And..." he paused here, considering whether it felt safe to him to share this information and then deciding that, yes, the distance between worlds meant that he was breaking no confidences, "I did not collect him for my own benefit. I have him with me for my student--my former student. There's a history. It's not without its complications.
"As to Shiro--" again a momentary pause. The Canthan wasn't listening closely at the moment, but Aurus still felt that it was a matter of trust for him to choose his words with care. "In his life, he was an assassin of exceptional skill, a skill which the Emperor realized. Shiro was a loyal subject but...perhaps it's fair to say that he lacked wisdom. He was duped by a fortune teller--in retrospect, it seems, an agent of Abaddon, the deposed god who you will remember me speaking of last night.
"This fortune teller, over time, convinced Shiro of all manner of false counsel, including that the Emperor was plotting his death. Duped into believing he had been betrayed, he murdered the Emperor instead.
"For that, perhaps, history would have forgiven him. But of course the events did not end there. He slaughtered the soldiers who had once been his allies, and fought until a trio of champions cut him down in retribution. In vengeance and fury, he fed on the Emperor's soul and, with his dying breath, released the Jade Wind.
"It--" How to even describe this? "--devastated half the continent. It petrified the seas, the forests, every living thing in its path. He killed thousands.
"And he managed to return to life once after all of this was over too, some two hundred years later. ...I will just say that his acts did not redeem him then either."
Of course having told Charles all of this, which was all completely true (and fair disclosure), Aurus was left with the rather delicate task of trying to somehow convince him that Shiro was actually not a purely evil figure.
"For my part, I find it hard to fully blame a man for having been tricked by a god. Shiro's actions were horrific, but in a sense he was a victim too. I suppose we get along because I am more gentle in my judgement of him than the world at large has been. But he is suspicious and mistrustful--he has grown to trust me, but he expects trickery now. And he will expect that you are a trickster."