"Ahhhh, yessss. The third and last question... is *this*..." As Ravel opened her mouth to speak her final question, I was suddenly gripped with the terrible realization that this final question had murdered many others to whom it had been asked. I knew what it was, and I felt it welling up within me, and I felt compelled to ask it.
Echo: "What can change the nature of a man?"
"I see you have not forgotten..." Ravel smiled, her yellowed fangs gleaming. "What is your answer?" I wasn't sure if it could change the nature of a man, but there was something I had felt almost from the time I first learned of the actions of my previous lives.
"Regret."
"And that is your answer...?" The veins in Ravel's eyes began to shift slightly, and she gave an evil smile. "Be certain before you say."
"It may not be *your* answer, but it is *my* answer."
"And that is all I wished for, my precious man." Ravel's smile relaxed. "A simple answer, and in the end, many are the men have I laid low while they sought MY answer."
"That's it...? I thought..."
Ravel cackled. "Countless times has the question been asked, and not ONCE did the pathetic shells who came a-fore me answered with THEIR answer, but always sought to creep inside my mind and find what *I* thought... tchhh! There is no truth in that." I knew she was lying.
"I... don't believe you. In fact, I don't think they ever could have answered you true, even if it was true to them." Ravel fell suddenly, strangely, silent. She was watching me warily.
"You *never* cared about any answer other than mine. Ever. Did you? Yet still you asked the question, knowing that no matter what the answer they gave, they would die by your hand."
"Of COURSE your answer was the only one I sought, for you were the ONLY reason I asked the question! Did you think I cared for them...? Tchhh! Did you think I even cared a *fraction* of the amount for them that I cared for *you,* my precious man? Answer me that!" It was obvious she already knew her answer. I instead asked another question.
"Why did you make me immortal, Ravel?"
"It's what you *wanted,* seedling, and you asked so sweetly... now how could Ravel say 'no' to one such as you? Immortality was *your* solution and your challenge to me."
*"My* solution? But why?"
"I don't know, seedling. Time has chipped away at my memories as well, it would seem... seam? If you remember, tell me... I'm a-curious myself. It must have been something important... isn't it in the nature of a man to want to live forever?" Dak'kon quietly spoke, replying to her question.
"Only if what lies on the other path carries greater pain." I glanced at him, surprised he had said anything, that turned back to Ravel.
"Ravel... this is VERY important: do you have any idea why I asked you to do it?"
"Death was a thing you needed to dodge. An easy thing to say, mayhap, but to DO, it is not! Immortality, even with its flaws, was the best solution this withered mind could untangle... Lead is not easily a-changed to gold, but it is possible, thought the unwise... un-whys? ...Ravel. If water can be drawn from blood, mortality can be taken from a mortal, peeled back like a sticky film...."
"The gulf between man and unman is great. You traveled the distance. I provided the means, but you crossed on your own." Ravel slapped her head and raked her hand through her hair. "Bad Ravel! Mortals are too flawed to be made to last. Still they break! They must be dragged kicking and screaming into an unhealthy new mold."
"Unhealthy...? So the ritual was flawed?"
"Shortcuts must be made, and they can *break* the molded... for it is not always the mold that breaks, but the substance poured within it. Force something into a shape it was not meant to be, and it breaks! I thought the material was of stronger stuff, but you have been broken."
"But I *am* immortal - surely that was a success?"
"You have survived long, immortaled one, but you have become the prey of the creature that is life." She cupped her hands, then reversed it, forming a canopy with her hands. "The body is but a hut for the soul. But now no one dwells in your hut."
"What went wrong with the ritual?"
"Puzzle-fleshed broken, beautiful, beautiful mortal man, the ritual was not... knot? Knot... not a finished thing." Ravel's brows wrinkled, and her talons picked at her hair, tugging on a lone strand. "The ritual gave you what you wanted, but *great* were the costs... the casting of shadows, the quiet, violent deaths of the mind, and the pain-taking emptiness... these things, a-dangerous were are in such a fragile vessel, no matter how strong a mortal man. Regret them and the ritual do I."
"Ungrateful shades... but ungrateful without cause? The shades... they hate you, Nameless One, for they are fathered by you, your children, once forsaken, they will never forgive. They will do everything they can to destroy the parent... such is the way of children."
"How do I father shades... these shadows?"
"You cast shadows on existence, Nameless One. With every death, a shadow arises fresh from the fields of your flesh. They a-wander for a time, but always they a-return, looking to murder their parent. Such is the way of many offspring..." Ravel pursed her lips in disapproval, then suddenly poked me in the chest with a talon. "...and thankless young men such as yourself." I felt a numbing despair at her words. I had been treating death almost as a game, a brief interlude that was little different from sleep for a mortal man. Instead, each death had consequences. Ravel must not be telling me the whole truth, or had forgotten it. These shadows couldn't spring solely from my substance, something else was involved. I brought my attention back to her words.
"A thousand deaths, and you recover from each. Not so the mind, the mind is much more fragile. Its scars run deep and do not heal. The brain is encased in a hard bone shell, difficult to breach, but with no defense against that which eats at it from within. You have a whole where... wear? Wear your mortality once lay within your shell." She made her hand into a fist and shook it. "*Rattle-rattle* goes the hollow man, a baby's plaything, with naught but a tiny stone that a-clatters and clacks in your frame."
"Despite these problems, it seems like the ritual worked..."
"Do you doubt Ravel? Of course I delivered on what was promised! Not long after the spell a-drew to a close, I killed you to see if it had worked. You struggled so, but I kept my grip *tight* and watched you die your first of many deaths." Ravel *clacked* her teeth. "Then was I a-learned in its flaws... Ego enwraps us like a prison. Forgot I did that it ofttimes serves as a shield." Ravel clicked her tongue. "My pretty, pretty thing, there is much wisdom and understanding in the truth that life is a preparation for the ultimate goal: death. Our life is a means by which we learn *how* to die. If we FORGET such things..."