Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

thoughts.
    And then the Ashrai came.
    They filled the cabin like a boiling cloud, dead but not gone, with gargoyle faces and huge clawed hands.
    The cabin seemed to expand in all directions, becoming vast and cavernous to accommodate the massive forms of the Ashrai. Silence cried out at the sight of them. They were awful and magnificent, terrible in their anger, and they burned so very brightly. Jenny Psycho, blazing like a star, smiled at them and addressed them in perfectly reasonable tones. “Hi, guys. Good to see you again. It’s been a while. Sorry for disturbing your rest, but I really could use your help. There’s something out there called the Mater Mundi, and it might just be more powerful than you are. And I don’t think it’s willing to accept any competition. So, if I need your help against it, will you come when I call?”
    There was a burst of song in reply, music complex and emotional almost beyond bearing, sung by angels with barbed wings and haloes of flies. And then the Ashrai were gone, and the cabin was just a cabin again. Carrion slid down the wall and settled comfortably on the bed again. His lance sped across the air and back into his hands. Silence found he could move again. Jenny Psycho flickered out like a snuffed candle, and was just Diana Vertue again. She stretched slowly and sat down on her chair. There was a sense of calm in the cabin, of pressure released, of a storm passed.
    “What the hell was the point of all that?” said Silence. “Jenny’s a bit of a bitch, but she gets things done,”
    said Diana, entirely unruffled by his tone. “And I had a feeling the Ashrai would respond only to the dramatic. I needed to know their answer.”
    “And now you do,” said Carrion. “I hope you think that raising their anger was worth it.”
    “Someone translate,” snapped Silence. “All I heard was music that damn near blew out my eardrums.
    What did they say?”
    “They know about the Mater Mundi,” said Diana. “And they’re scared. Her existence… disturbs them.
    They’ve agreed to come when I call, but I’m not sure anymore how much use they’ll be. They’re much diminished without their forest, and their world.”
    “Don’t underestimate them,” said Carrion. “Dying was just another journey for them, a transition to another state. They are still very powerful.” “But they’ve been dead a long time,” said Diana. “You’re all that holds them to the worlds of the living now, Carrion.”
    “Yes, well,” said Silence. “I’m still not entirely comfortable with the idea of ghosts anyway. The dead should stay dead.”
    “I’m not comfortable with the thought that the Mater Mundi could be so powerful that she frightens even the dead,” said Diana. “It would appear I’m going to need even more allies. Which brings me back you, Daddy.” “What do you mean?” said Silence. “As you so kindly pointed out, what few powers I have aren’t even in the same league as the Mater Mundi. I’ll be there for you when I can, but I’m just another Captain in the Imperial Fleet, and I have to go where my orders send me. Right now I’m heading into the Darkvoid. No idea when I’ll be back. Or even if I’ll be coming back.”
    “You’ll be back,” said Diana. “You’re a survivor. And you do have powers, though you’ve chosen not
    to use or develop them. There’s no reason why you couldn’t become as powerful as all the other Maze survivors in time. I didn’t want to involve you in my troubles, but I may not have any choice. How much do you love me, Daddy? Enough to become something other than human for my sake, to protect me?”
    “I failed you before,” Silence said steadily. “I won’t fail you again. But I don’t—“ “The Maze changed you,” said Diana. “It rebuilt you. Don’t be afraid of your potential. Tell me about the Maze. What it did to you.” “I don’t know!” said Silence, almost angrily. “I don’t know what I am anymore. I don’t know what I’m becoming. All I know is that whatever change the Maze started in me, it isn’t over yet.
    Sometimes I see things in my dreams. I hear voices telling me things. And once Frost came to me. She was trying to warn me about the Maze, what it was doing to me, but I couldn’t understand her.” “Tell me about the Maze,” said Diana. “What was it like inside? What did it feel like?”
    “It was… alien,” said Silence slowly. “Like nothing I’d ever encountered before.