blood red moon
~ a Shadow of Destiny fanfiction
Chapter Eight
//You let him rattle you.// The voice of the djinn’s inner critic was loud in his ears, making sure he wouldn’t miss a word. //You let him get to you, and worse, he /saw/ it get to you.//
Humans used those sorts of things, any sign of weakness and it would all be over. He would be chained to Eike forever, forced to act on the human’s every whim, with no life left to call his own. He grimaced at the thought, every part of his fragile body tensing with disgust. He had a strength of will to match Eike’s, an equal desire to survive, but it was better to die than live as a slave. Living through such a forced progression of moments, he knew, was no life at all.
//“Give me my future, then.”//
So brave and defiant, challenging him - //Damn it Eike, you don’t know what you’re asking for. You don’t know.//
The skeletal image of the Eike that could be, so pale, tortured and angry, haunted him when he closed his eyes. He could not cast it aside. It was important that Eike never know, never know what he could become - and that was a marvelous problem in itself, that he should care, that he should give a damn for anything except that the future Eike had ravaged time. It was his power and right and maybe even his responsibility to destroy the man now, to help Dopple eradicate the threat before anything more could happen.
//... but I like it when he looks at me.//
Which meant that he couldn’t destroy Eike now, couldn’t trick the man into another deal, which meant he was a slave.
Homunculus snarled, red eyes flashing, pausing in the stream of time, hovering between the worlds as his hands itched for something to throw. He adamantly refused to scream, knowing it was undignified even as his jaw clenched against the frustrated cry. It felt a little strange to be out in time without a fixed sanctuary, it had been a very long time since he had spent much time outside of his ‘home,’ and from there he had only made short jaunts to other moments, always returning to his sanctuary as soon as he could.
//All your talk of freedom and power, you’re no different than they are. You’re still just a creature of habit.//
//It’s different.// He dropped down slowly amidst the currents, pulling his knees up close to his chest. //It’s different when they’re my habits to make.//
It had been so easy, so amusing for all the years he hadn’t really been keeping track of Eike - or Wagner, as it had been then. Finally, he had been the one in control, with all outcomes entirely in his favor. Wagner would never remember being the one in power, never be able to hold that against him. The djinn had won, he was free to do as he pleased as long as he kept Wagner alive. He would never be slave to a master’s rule, never in danger of being imprisoned again.
//... and then, one day, I discovered he had died, and the strange, backward route of it would keep it all from happening, my life, my freedom. I was back in the Stone again... not that I would ever allow /that/.//
It had been interesting, unraveling that little mystery, gloating again over the fact that Wagner had no idea who he was, at how pretty a pawn he made.
Except it wasn’t Wagner, it was Eike. Eike, with none of Wagner’s memories or his identity. Having no past had been a wonderful crucible for the soul, it seemed - Eike was nothing like his other masters, even Wagner, had been. Eike seemed to think that even a demon, even a djinn, had the right to live beyond his ‘usefulness’ to others. Homunculus tried to write it off as naiveté, tried to ignore the way it pulled at him. Humans /lied/, always, even the ones who seemed kind.
//Do you really think Eike would do that to you? Really? Do you think that if you gave him all his memories, if you even /could/ give him everything back, that he would use it betray you? You’re so sure he would go heartless and distant, call you ‘pet’ or ‘slave’ or nothing at all?//
Did Eike even want anything Homunculus could give? Even as Wagner, he’d never seemed that ambitious. Nothing had been more important to him than the life of his wife, and after she had died, he had been desperately searching just to give life meaning again.
//He won’t hurt you, you know. If you trusted him.//
Homunculus gritted his teeth, shaking his head angrily. Infatuation, that was all it was. It happened to the best of them, a few centuries would pass and he would hear another tragic story, a djinn suddenly inspired, swearing they’d found a human that was somehow “different” from the others. The details never mattered, it always ended the same.
//Powerful, we are powerful, but not invincible.// The human, the ‘special’ one would turn out to be exactly like the rest, and the djinn’s life would become a falling star, quickly burning out to nothing as they fought to please the always unappeasable needs of their master.
//Dying for the sake of a dream, for the sake of wishes, when no human can ever wish enough, will /ever/ be happy enough not to destroy a ‘lesser creature’ for ‘I need, I want.’//
Two options for his race, forever walking this line between freedom and capture, capture and slavery. A djinn was either crafty, sly and tricky, always seeking to outmaneuver his ‘master,’ to catch humans in their own greed, pride, and boastful self-delusions, and destroy them - or that djinn was dead. No other options, to trust humans was to be consumed by them, used up and erased.
//... even Eike. I know that, and still... and still.// He sighed, closing his eyes as he listened to time croon out its endless melodies, feeling all of a sudden quite listless and tired - pathetic. The currents of time rocked him gently, like an ocean’s waves, offering a solace he was glad to accept.
“... and to think, I used to mock them all, for ever thinking anything of humans. I was so damned proud. What would they think of me now?”
“Very little, djinn. Not that the opinion of such a low breed counts for much.”
He started, shocked at the deep, hollow voice - impossible. Impossible that Dopple had healed so quickly, or that she had walked the threads so quietly he did not sense her coming. Soon, though, Homunculus realized it was not Dopple - or not /only/ Dopple - staring out at him through smiling ruby eyes.
“You?! How did you-”
He never saw the strike that hit him, only watched her smile growing, waiting to devour him - and he had been stupid enough to fear /Eike/ in all of this, so stupid - Dopple standing proudly above him, infinitely pleased, as time shrieked, burbled, and went still.
--------------------------
//What the hell did I say?// Eike blinked, staring at the empty space the djinn had vanished into. //Did we just have an argument?!// Funny, he’d always thought the first one of those would end with him fried to a crisp. Maybe Homunculus was off his game.
He still didn’t want to move. It wouldn’t have been all that difficult to just take another nap, but Eike was half-certain if he didn’t get up soon his muscles would lock up completely, and Homunculus would come back to find a statue in his place.
//What if he doesn’t come back?//
//Of course he’s coming back, idiot. He didn’t save you before, just to abandon you now, did he?//
Homunculus had saved him, and not in his usual way, either. Not just by dropping hints and clues as it suited him, always toying, smirking at Eike from the shadows. No, he remembered quite clearly when Homunculus came out of nowhere, wielding the candlestick he never should have been able to lift, smashing Dopple to the ground. No, that had been deadly serious.
//He could have hurt himself, badly. It must have been a dangerous strain. Who knows how long you were asleep, and he was resting with you. He didn’t try to move, until you woke, and even then it was difficult for him.//
Homunculus had been his ally before, yes, but there had never even been the suggestion that he might put himself in harm’s way, that he would help Eike for any reason other than his own benefit.
//What is he gaining, then, out of all of this?//
At the most, it seemed Eike shared his common interest, that this Dopple, these ‘Fates’ wanted them both erased from this world, which could make them grudging allies. Maybe Homunculus was just keeping him alive out of sheer spite, to mock whatever was trying to destroy them.
He sighed, /that/ certainly sounded like Homunculus, and grimaced as his hair pulled uncomfortably against the back of his neck. It was too difficult trying to readjust his ponytail with his arm still broken, and Eike awkwardly pulled the tie out, letting his hair hang loose.
//He said he could fix my arm, later.// But why even bother with that? Why waste so much energy on him? Homunculus had put up with a lot of trouble, it seemed, simply to annoy whatever forces might be challenging them, and he certainly didn’t seem the type to waste effort in keeping Eike alive for any moral reason.
//Morals, from a creature like him?//
Why not? He had been telling the truth, when he said Homunculus hadn’t seemed so much more dangerous than any human could. The facts agreed - it was Hugo, a boy, who had killed him so many times over in the past, even convincing Eckart to push him from the tower, and Eike still considered Eckart to be a good man. If a good man could be bribed into killing an innocent one, where did that leave goodness or innocence?
Eike shuffled around Homunculus’s small haven, trying to work the aches and stiffness out of his legs, chest and back, grimacing at his dirty clothes, keeping his broken arm tucked cautiously against his side. It certainly was interesting, this place, a patch of scattered debris, fragments of time now long forgotten. He wondered what Homunculus could hear when he seemed to be listening, why this place was such a comfort.
Soft green eyes studied the edges of the window the djinn had glanced at from time to time while they had talked. He didn’t really have the energy to study it, to try and figure out how anything in this place worked. It was enough just to let his mind wander, though it kept tripping over the same question - why was Homunculus helping him, when he didn’t seem to need anything from Eike?
//The window... he could have shown me my past, all those terrible things he said I did.// A part of Eike adamantly denied everything the djinn had said - no, it wasn’t possible, he was a good person, he could /never/-
//If a good man could kill you, Eike, what might you have done in your past, thinking you were right? Do you even know if you were a good man, back then?//
Homunculus hadn’t told him to hurt him, and if he had done it to manipulate him, he was thinking so far ahead on the board that Eike might as well give up, it would be impossible to match such foresight. He /had/ asked the djinn for details, though, asked for everything, and Homunculus had offered such telling but truly sparse information to... to protect him?
//He knew it would hurt me, to learn of what I’d been and done. He didn’t want to hurt me.//
Why would he care, and what was the reason that mentioning the future seemed to spook him even further? Had Homunculus been there already? Was something worse on its way?
Eike was startled from the darker and darker bent of his thoughts by a sudden, sharp crack, like a long, thin piece of wood breaking in two - except there was nothing like that here, nothing to make that sound.
//What in-?!//
He watched in disbelief, as a tiny, dark hole opened up in the room, crumbling at the edges as it grew, eating away at Homunculus’s realm. The fissure widened, absorbing floor, stone, the edges of the grandfather clock all with the same slow certainty. Other holes flared up in quick succession, quietly appearing here and there, one nearly at his feet. Eike gasped, stumbling back until he hit the bookshelf, jostling its contents. A noise next to his ear made him turn, familiar somehow, though he soon realized the last time he had heard it, the Digipad had been clattering along the floor.
Unsure how much good it would do, Eike pocketed the small device with his good hand, turning back to find an alarming amount of the floor gone, walls and objects badly eaten away, replaced by darkness and flashes of light he recognized from his trips to the past, the threads of time. Swiftly, he made his way across what remained of the room, jumping from place to place along the patches of floorboard, often feeling the floor give way beneath his feet even as he moved. The doorway, thankfully, had remained relatively untouched, he managed to catch his breath on the stair.
//What happened?// Homunculus would never have allowed this to happen, not unless... Eike’s blood chilled, though he didn’t entirely trust the djinn, it was fairly obvious he was near helpless without the creature’s help. What would he do if he had been captured, or even destroyed?
Eike flung open the door as it too began to succumb to the pull of time, strong forces quickly taking back what Homunculus had seemingly abandoned. The blonde found himself facing a familiar, howling tunnel - maybe this was what Homunculus could hear, all the time, the strange cries of time and space. The sound was chilling to him, not at all comforting, and he could only hope the doorway would stay stable, an anchor, until he was safely on the other side. Clenching the Digipad tightly in his pocket, Eike gritted his teeth, and leapt headlong into the flow of time.
----------------------
“Sir... sir, can you tell me how this happened?”
“I’m not sure.”
Of course he could tell her, but then Eike knew he would be in a mental ward, not just a hospital. It was better just to act a bit dazed, out-of-sorts. As he’d come into the ward there’d been victims of an accident arriving all around him - a bad crash with a bus full of tourists, it appeared - and he tried to keep a low profile, blending in as well as he could, feigning a sense of confusion and distraction that wasn’t too far off from what he really was feeling.
He winced as the nurse touched his neck, cold hands feeling rather good against what he realized must have been some impressive bruises.
“Did someone do this to you, Mr. Kusch?” Eike said nothing, as if he hadn’t heard her. He had done his best not to react before, when the busy staff had been asking him questions the first time, when his ID had finally been shoved back into his good hand and he had been deemed all right for the moment. If they thought he was a touch out of it, there’d be less questions, he’d be less memorable, easier to forget about.
//Funny, first I’d do anything to be remembered, and now I’m hoping no one cares.//
“Mr. Kusch? Sir?” He finally looked up, making sure he looked convincingly bewildered.
“I- I’m sorry, I don’t really know.”
Eike very carefully wiggled his fingers, the cast making him feel a little safer, secure, more mobile. It had taken about an hour to get it on, for some reason they’d gone backwards, keeping him in the waiting room until they rushed him to have the cast put on, then leaving him here, the woman now doing some general sort of checkup. It probably didn’t matter how much time it all took, with the Digipad in hand Eike assumed he had all the time he needed. The cast was the important thing, leaving him with a little more protection.
//Time until what? Protection?! Eike, what are you thinking?!//
The note of alarm from that mental voice was ignored by the rest of his mind, already making a list of what he had at his disposal - the Digipad, a relatively fixed arm - //I could use a shower, a shave and a change of clothing// - Eike rubbed the slightest scuff of stubble on his chin, watched the nurse jot down some final notes on a pad.
“All right, I’m going to go get the doctor now, if you could just wait here.”
He nodded, giving her a placid, polite smile, standing up as soon as she left the room, cautiously moving to the door. The attraction of the small sink was too much to pass up, he paused for a few moments to rub some water on his free hand, and what he could get at through the cast, roughly wiping his face down and dragging dripping fingers roughly through his still loose, tangled hair. He had no doubt he looked like a petty thug. Maybe the woman had gone to make sure the police weren’t searching for any blonds with broken arms.
Eike wasn’t sure how to go about leaving undetected, he’d never had much experience breaking rules - //at least that you know about// - but found it was impossibly easy to just... leave. A new accident had happened since his arrival - a busy day in the city, it seemed - and he didn’t see the nurse around as he made his way down the hall. When no one else paid any attention to him, he quickly slipped out the nearest exit to the street.
Still on familiar territory, still in the city, a brisk walk bringing him back to Rudolf Street. Eike looked up to the nearest clock, it was just past three on a beautiful afternoon. He passed a bench, a newspaper had been left on it, fluttering in the breeze. He glanced at it, only to pause in amazement.
//It’s... today.// He blinked, part of his mind quietly commenting that he shouldn’t be surprised, while the rest kept fumbling awkwardly with reality. It was exactly an hour after he’d tried to catch a train out of town, an hour since the other Eike had fallen dead in front of him, and he’d been launched on this entire escapade. As if to agree, he heard the whistle of the train past the South gate, the train he had booked himself to be on.
//You could walk away from all of this.// The thought was plainly stated in his mind, less a suggestion and more a fact. //You could just walk away, get a ticket on the next train out, and never come back.//
True enough, it wasn’t as if he had any sort of rescue plan, any idea how to track Dopple or Homunculus with the Digipad or what he would do even if he managed to reach them.
//I can’t just walk away. She’ll find me, it doesn’t matter where I go. Eventually, she’ll find me.//
Maybe not? Maybe Homunculus had been the center point of this the entire time, and he was just easy bait, a way to get the creature’s attention? The djinn was certainly gone, and nothing had happened to him yet - wouldn’t he have been attacked as soon as he had stepped onto the street, if they were trying to destroy him? Maybe he was safe, maybe...
He could imagine what Dopple would do to Homunculus, and that if these Fates were as angry at the djinn as it seemed, they would probably make him suffer before they destroyed him. His hand clenched tighter around the Digipad.
//He doesn’t deserve that.//
/He /ruined/ your life! He took everything away from you!/
Eike shook his head at the angry thought.
//He also saved me. He saved me, and that might be why they’ve got him now, he could be in trouble because of me. I can’t... I just can’t leave him.//
Eike clenched his jaw, tongue sliding across his teeth in a slow, nervous gesture - he would likely live to regret this... if he survived. He sighed, making a quick turn up an alley that would lead him back to Kirche, and from there to home. He’d be able to regroup there, to have a moment to sit and think and hopefully get some new clothes - he’d left things in the closet, anything too difficult to pack. After that, hopefully he’d come up with something - or maybe Homunculus would just turn up and give him that sarcastic smile and ask him what the hell he thought he was up to -
“Well, well... so you’re what he’s been gloating about all this time.”
Eike jumped, found himself plastered against the alleyway with his heart trying to push its way through his chest, pounding in alarm. He heard a chuckle, the voice sounded very much like Homunculus, that strange mix of gravel and silk, but the tone was deeper, perhaps slightly more malicious. He didn’t move from the wall, tried very hard not to even breathe, waiting.
It was difficult to see the creature in the sunlight, though he was certain it would have been no easier in the dark. The wide, shimmering body seemed to have no discernable shape or depth, a collection of heat haze and glinting patches, like sunlight on water, with boundaries that shifted and warped even as he attempted to define them. It clung loosely to an ornamental streetlight, no eyes or anything else he would call a face, but Eike could tell it was studying him.
“W-what are you?”
The soft, abrasive laugh again, this creature was very amused by his fear.
“You may call me whatever you like... there isn’t much in a name.” The tone of the answer... the form...
“You’re a djinn, aren’t you. You’re like Homunculus?”
“Hom - why, isn’t that a clever little name. Is that what you call him, then? I’m not surprised he didn’t tell you his real name, if you’re really what he says you are.” Eike felt his head digging into the brick and mortar behind him, as the creature curled forward, coming closer - he could taste something dangerous in the air, the steady, coiled nature of a creature ready to strike.
“W-who does he say I am?”
“Why, the false master, of course. No doubt he’d destroy me if he knew I told you. Of course, I might destroy you instead...” The creature didn’t, however, retreating with a slow, relaxed gesture that licked the air before it faded, leaving the smell of ozone, burning air.
“What do you want with me?”
The sigh in response was a laugh all its own, a creature so powerful its only state was terminal amusement. “I was curious. I wanted to see how -” the words terminated into a musical snarl Eike could not make beginning, middle or end of “- had managed to win his freedom for these past few centuries. Very stylish of him, the strongest /and/ the most clever, it seems.”
“What did you... that word?”
“What, that?” The tone was smirking with false innocence. “Why, it’s your djinn’s true name, that’s all.”
“True name?”
He watched the sparkling cloud recoil a little, the voice slyly amazed.
“How did you ever manage to capture-” The creature paused mid-sentence, switching to a more complimentary tone, though Eike swore he could feel the djinn laughing at him. “He hasn’t told you anything, has he? Now I’m certain /that/ must be against the laws, or at least the spirit of the law. For a master to be left so in the dark, not even knowing of names, while his djinn is free to do as he pleases all this time, that can’t be right at all.”
Eike had the feeling this creature was hoping to get him angry, or at least curious, trying to get Homunculus into some sort of trouble - which meant he was probably ready to give up a lot of information.
“No... no he hasn’t.” Eike forced himself to relax slightly, feigning his best knowing smile in return. “I’d certainly love to learn more, though - why you don’t look anything like him, for example?”
“I was recently freed from my Master, freed from the prison of a fragile body, though I admit Homunculus’s plight is more severe than my own was.” The simpering sneer didn’t sound at all in pity. “Only fair I suppose, the greatest handicaps to the most powerful.”
“He’s really that strong then?”
“The most powerful of all djinn, I would say, and the most clever. He has tricked more masters than any other, taken the strength and power from their souls, casting them to the next life without blinking an eye. I once saw him take two in a single day.”
“... and you don’t do that?”
A much deeper, richer laugh this time, as if he’d actually managed to surprise the creature.
“My my, aren’t we bold all of a sudden? Just when I was starting to wonder what might have drawn him to you.”
“Drawn?”
“Why do you think I’m here, human? I am free, I am quite powerful, and yet all I can do is sit here, waiting, watching, hungry for another chance at captivity, to find and taunt and trick my master, to feed and go free again, and to have myself caught anew. Our kind are moths, you humans are the flame, and even when we get burned, we cannot help ourselves.”
“Burned... like you giving me his true name?”
“A source of power, yes, and one he was smart to deny you. A djinn’s true name is the key to owning them, a key to all things.” Eike tried not to grimace, knowing he would never be able to repeat the complex language the creature had spoken so easily, he would never /really/ know Homunculus’s ‘true name’. “... and what he has brought himself into now, meddling with the Fates, continuing even when he realized what he had done. Atropos is displeased, this may go farther than he had ever intended.”
“Atropos.” Dopple in his dream, with the shears, ready to strike and cut him down. All because his life extended well past what she was willing to allow.
“I admit, human, I returned to this realm to kill you, if need be. I had heard the rumors, that -” Again the long, snarling name, no easier to understand this time than the last “- had managed to find himself the perfect master, one who would be ruled instead of ruling, one who could give no commands. We do not usually touch each others concerns, and I do enjoy watching him get himself into trouble, but if it was untrue, and he was still your subject - a half-century of life in servitude to a single master is a tiring affair. I owed him a favor, long ago, and thought this might be my chance to repay.”
“I’m trying to save him.” Eike fished the Digipad out of his pocket, holding it up. “I think he’s in danger. I have this, but I don’t know where he is, and there’s no power in it to get me there.”
“Well, well. Interesting.” He sucked in a breath as the creature leaned out from its perch, wrapping a tendril around his arm as it studied the Digipad more closely. Eike tried not to think about the pins-and-needles feeling in his wrist, the way his skin crawled against the inhuman touch - //please don’t do anything, it’s the only good hand I have left// - gritting his teeth, trying to focus all his attention on the feeling of his heels still pressing against the wall, anything but his captive limb.
“I should be able to help you... here.” All at once, the Digipad lit up, a set of coordinates appearing as it hummed and glowed, and the djinn withdrew. Eike nodded, praying the creature was telling the truth, that the unknown coordinates weren’t a sudden invitation to a swift end. It wasn’t as if he had many other options.
“... and it seems that someone is calling.” The djinn appeared to be dissipating, vanishing into the air as it let go of the lamplight. “I think I will go, and see what I can do to - I mean for - this new master.” The djinn laughed heartily at its own joke. “Moths to flames, what an existence. Good luck, human.”
“Thank you.”
Another burst of surprised laughter, and it was gone. Eike could feel the tension drain out of his body as the djinn vanished, heart still hammering in his chest as if he’d sprinted from the North Gate to the South.
//Who would believe... something more odd than Homunculus.//
Eike glanced down at the Digipad again, still fully recharged and ready to take him to the fight - but he had no weapon, nothing at all that might work against Dopple. The bandaged gashes on his arms, the many aches and bruises reminded him that physical strength alone was a dangerous gamble, but what else did he have?
Eike turned, the tinkling of a small bell catching his attention, as a young woman walked out of the corner store. A small jewelry shop, newly installed and rather gaudy in his opinion, filled to bursting with all sorts of necklaces and baubles, fake jewels and other trinkets. He blinked, staring at the shop’s sign, feeling the idea come together in his mind.
The inspiration was as swift as it was blazing, not a mode of memory but something even more crucial to who he was, a keen intellect no power could truly unmake, and within moments, Eike had disappeared into the store.
======================
Author’s Notes -
1. I have /no/ idea what German hospitals look like, or what their procedures are... so just pretend it’s at least close to accurate, please.
2. Sorry if something I wrote earlier contradicts what I’m writing now. It’s been a long time since I worked on this.