Chapter 19

  Cast aside doubt. Cast aside fear. For where you will soon tread, your steps will carry the weight of legions.

  -Book of the Father, first page

  Charon paced about deep in the jungle. Death surrounded him on all sides. The vibrant colors of the jungle had all been muted to the brown corpses of trees and grass. He had reanimated some of them into vaguely humanoid shapes, an army of trees standing amidst the people he took with him and the stolen, Shaped Beast. It wasn’t Shaped anymore, but it would serve a similar purpose all the same. Its soul still orbited him, he had to keep some concentration on it at all times lest it floated back to wherever this soul would go when it died.

  Embedded in a nearby tree was his knife. As he looked into its reflection he could see Exaltation there. “They’re going to come for me, I know it. I don’t know why they haven’t done so already but they are planning something.” He spoke quickly, tone edging on panicked as he paced about.

  You have read the section on soulbinding, yes?

  the sacrament asked.

  “Yes, however, I don’t see how I can stop an army by myself with one shaped soul,” Charon said.

  You do not need to stop an army yourself. With but one shaped soul, you have given yourself an opportunity that most people do not. You can bind it to yourself to become one with the beast, to gain all of its memories, experiences, and power. You and it will no longer be separate, but as one.

  Charon hesitated, looking to the soul and willing it to float in front of him. An imprint of eyes stared back at him. “If they come at me in a swarm then I don’t see how it will help.”

  They will be trying to take you alive at first. Their mercy will be their weakness and two souls will become more and more until you are unstoppable.

  The direction of the conversation had just hit Charon and he paused. “Kill them… Phaidros will come after me, I know he will, that means…”

  You will have to slay your brother. If you don’t, then you will be dragged back before the Ideal again. Your power will be stripped from you. You will become Cindered again, a cripple in a world of strength.

  Charon frowned deeply, suddenly feeling heavy and numb all at once. All of the paths before him seemed to be closing in around him, threatening to drown him in the abyss of uncertainty. He could not go back, no matter how much he wished he could turn back the hands of time, there would be no doing so. The only options left ahead of him were to keep walking or fall back into the cindering pit of despair. “There is no turning back, is there?” he asked, already sure of the answer, but wishing to give the final whisper of hope one last chance.

  Not anymore, child. You no longer walk the path of life but death. Do not be afraid though. It is as the father says in his book. Death is not the end, it is a new beginning. Should you be cunning enough in the coming hours, you will have your freedom and more.

  Charon lowered his head, contemplative, the last seed of hope withering away like the jungle around him. He took a deep breath. “So it is, then.” He lifted both hands, cradling it in both hands, then with a flex of his will, pushed it into his chest. He did… something, he wasn’t sure what, but both his cindered soul and the soul of the shape molded together like wet clay. He wasn’t sure what he was about to expect, but there was a moment of nothing, then within his mind there was another presence, one familiar to him, fearsome, brutal. The beast looked at the world through Charon’s eyes and for a moment, the two shared disbelief.

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  Then the fight began.

  Charon’s body lurched forward, then back writhing against invisible binds as Charon tried to rein in the beast’s control. It was agonizing, a dual-voiced cry echoing through the jungle. A flood of memories washed over Charon’s mind, as where once there were two, there was now one.

  He was not Charon anymore, he was one of the many reptiles that called the jungle home. A runt of its litter. Memories flashed as he competed for the resources of the jungle, every day a fight for survival. Years passed and it had been cornered by poachers seeking its hide. It was scared; if it were stronger then these things would not have singled it out. If it were fearsome then it would no longer need to hide in the shadows of hateful trees, if it were terrifying then these poachers would not be hunting it. With nowhere left to run it lashed out and ignited the moment it bit off the poacher’s hand. Newfound strength surged through its limbs, a feeling Charon was all too familiar with, and it tore the poachers to pieces and feasted on an earned kill.

  More time passed and it had grown stronger, bigger, faster, more cunning. It desired to no longer live in fear, to be the most dangerous predator in the jungle, to be feared, to no longer have to hide and scavenge; it wanted the entire jungle to kneel before it in terror. It had begun to carve itself a territory and harass the denizens of the city of sentients nearby.

  More memories flashed before him and it stood triumphant over a great tiger, head cast triumphantly into the air as it roared. It saw a pair of eyes above it, then its whole being became subsumed by fire. Charon heard the Exalted Sovereign’s voice for the first time since he had ignited, “You seek that which you are. You have been terrified of the world around you since the day you hatched, and now wish to be the object of that fear to all that would harm you. Become Shaped, and become fear itself.” When it walked from the flames, it stood on two powerful legs and its form grew twice in size. Three Ignited came to face it, two of them died.

  Charon relived the memories of facing against his own father as the Shaped Beast, then how the beast feasted upon him after. He should have felt revulsion, but with the beast now a part of him, it felt good to triumph over a worthy opponent. They had to spend several weeks licking their wounds after their victory but when they were ready they returned to the Merchant’s District, not to harass, but to murder. Charon saw the beast face down against the Ignited who lived to tell the tale of their glory and against the two others, his brother and the zhuk then Charon himself.

  He was not alone in this sharing of memories, as Charon became the beast, the beast became Charon. It saw a human child in a family. His father was not around much and he was often left alone with his mother, Rhea. Rhea… her name was almost lost to Charon, it had been so long since…

  Fire. Fire and brimstone surrounded them, a world that was once peaceful caught in a savage conflict. The skies above warped under the fury of great metal beasts in the sky launching fire at one another. Rubble and ruin filled young Charon’s vision, drowned out through the sounds of battle and gunfire. Iron collossi strode through the devastation with reality itself warping to the tune of unseen warriors. He was saved by his father and stolen away from the battle, both him and his newborn baby brother.

  The beast felt young Charon’s fear of a new, strange world unlike the one he had been brought from. His father was now always present, their mother dead and gone in the ashes of their once home. Love that was once distant was now here in how the father taught him how to fight, tucked him into bed, and shared stories of times long past to him in the night till the boy fell asleep.

  The boy was now a man; he did not struggle to ignite like the beast had, he had done so amidst a crowd of others, a sword held overhead and the eyes of Life upon him in a great ritual. It relived his rise in the Arena, dueling against other powerful Ignited. It relived him cindering and the horrible pain that came with it and the shame of being the weakest among the pack of a strong. A runt, like the beast was. A runt that sought power, basked in the glory of it, like the beast had.

  They were the same, the two realized in the same moment. They wanted the same thing, to be the apex among the strong, no matter what it cost, to make up for how the world treated them while they were weak.

  Now he stood—no, they stood, staring down at a pair of hands that were half familiar to them. They felt compelled to speak a language they had never known before. “What are we?” two voices called out in chorus from their shared throat, one edged in a growl and one Charon’s own.

  You have bound your souls together. Where once there were two lives and experiences, they are now one to be shared. You give the beast all of your vitaemantic powers and the beast gives you all of its shaped power and natural might. You will find it is much easier to control more reanimated bodies with two minds working in concert with one another as well.

  Charon and the beast looked up towards the knife that held Exaltation. “Then when they come for us, will we be able to stop them?” This question was more the beast’s than Charon’s.

  Yes and should you find any of their souls worthy, you may take them as well once you defeat them. Do keep in mind that a willing sentient soul will be much easier to bond with than an unwilling one. Self-loathing is often an effect of doing so. You will also notice, by binding yourselves together, that your once cracked and cindered soul is now filled. This will, cost you only some of the shaped soul’s natural power to do so but you will no longer need to keep drinking from the jungle to keep yourself sustained. Drink deeply, children, and see yourselves victorious in the coming battle.

  The beast and Charon grinned with delight. Once more they would be the most fearsome thing in the jungle. They didn’t need to be afraid of their brother coming for him, they would stop him—and maybe even bind him to themselves. Then they would never be without him again, it would take some convincing sure, but they were sure they could do it. They took a deep breath, and all around them withered and died, then they pushed all of the stolen potential out into the wilds around them. Swathes of the jungle groaned in a simultaneous movement as the jungle itself was forced back to life.

  When the Ignited came, they would be ready for them.