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IC INBOX ( KENOS ).
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โ To Commune with Set is to stand barefoot in an endless, scorching desert. The sun illuminates all, scalding the shadows themselves out from underneath whomever enters his dominion; the arch of gentle, distant, waves of sand mask the precarious chasms, towering dunes akin to mountains. The sense of vastness, timelessness, is of particular notice, lending itself to the alien, eldritch quality of his mind. There is a dark storm in the distance, and you know intimately that this divine being is far from benign. You cannot bargain with a force of nature. You can only survive it. |
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None could understand, what it feels like to be someone that Silco shares his deepest secret with. He would feel foolish to call it trust, but what else could it be between them? A solemn understanding, a line they drew together that was unique to them, where it would never be applied to anyone else. Should anyone else prioritize like them, they would be ignored. Used and abused. Perhaps it was the similarity of the dark rot within them; sticky and poisonous, born of grand dreams and a desire for something better that had been ruined by a loved one's betrayal.
Imagine.
To be needed by him, in Silco's most vulnerable moment. It feels like the greatest power, the most valuable gift. To know, even if Silco will not give anything up for him, he is still critical to him. Those spindly fingers around his wrists are known to him, and he does not shake them off nor seek to take them against his palms the way he might with another. Silco is full of emotions Set knew he was capable of, for what else could feed his anger and loathing? and he twists his wrist over in the man's grasp to fit his fingers lock-and-step around a scrawny wrist in turn.
Firm, but not restricting. ] Silco, breathe. Steady now.
[ Simply put. Back towards the Cornerstone they go, with Set willingly following a dangerous, opportunistic man into the unknown. His free hand finds the angle of his shoulder and holds him firm for a moment, drawing Silco's spine back into the strong line of Set's chest. The hand slips to the center of his chest, to his sternum. Presses like a weight, strong and secure. He does not ask him to calm, nor discard the chaos of his emotions.
Just to remember: ] You know I am with you.
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Their hands lock wrists, and he does not feel comfort, but for the first time in a long while, he does not feel alone. Since Jinx left several months ago, Silco's own isolation has gotten worse, exacerbated by attacks here in his very office, the way other Zenites looked to him with disdain. All things he was used to, but the last few months have been... pronounced. The crimelord digging into the things he cannot stand, driving toward destruction, self or universal. Set is the only one to reach through that shroud, and his hand on Silco's wrist does not still him, but when he pulled him to stop, his spine aligned with Set's chest โ hand on him โ Set can feel the pounding in his chest. It has not stopped in hours.
It has not ceased. It feels loud and painful in his chest โ can Set feel it โ he thinks it would burst from his chest, if it goes on much longer.
It should not feel reassuring โ it never should โ that there was someone he would trust with this. Is it his own desperation, his despair, that drives him to take Set to the most secret location he owns? He does not wish to, he wants to keep it hidden, but there is something more important than him, and someone that he needs to preserve.
He does not fight Set, he only stills, his hand still trembling. There was none of the anger Set would be used to, none of the pushing away, or ripping himself free.
It is. Resignation. His shoulders slump slightly, despair. ]
I know. That's why we must go.
[ When the anger bleeds from him, as it eventually will, he will be left a husk of that resignation, that despair, that loss, knowing that the one thing that he holds dear, he will never see again. Set will โ he will watch her when he is gone โ he will protect her like his own, because Silco knows that she is perfect, that like him, Set found her... extraordinary.
He will only reach for the cornerstone when they are ready, but he thrums with that same panicked energy, the despair and distress leaking in. Set was his partner in this, and he has soothed the worst of that roiling anger, leaving only a pit of despair in its wake. Like the tide's surge has ebbed away, leaving what remains of the seabed beneath, a gaping maw, an empty, lifeless shore. ]
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I know you are your pain, [ he'd once asked to take the bite of Quetzalcoatl's blade from the stump of Silco's hand, only to be refused. ] And I know I am here for what comes after you, for her, but โ I still chose you, first.
[ He cannot save Silco. To do so would be to rob Sebastian of the man's soul, and he'd already come to find the edges of not one, but two of the demon's most sacred of lines: not meddling in his contract, and not speaking his name. Set cannot remember the name anymore, but he remembers how he came upon it. ( For he, too, knows not to give away every advantage. ) He cannot save Silco, but he can sow discord and disorder within him โ press at the ache of his malcontent and stir him to action. Help him think, help him with divine wisdom, lead him to a different path.
Silco without his anger feels โ wrong, but no less real. He is real, in this moment. It's why Set follows him without question, and holds fast to him as they're swept away into the Cornerstone and out into the last secret place that Silco holds within him. A secret offered to Set, which he will accept with grace and fury.
Slowly, the war god dips his head upon their arrival, and presses the point of his temple to the top of Silco's head. ]
Tell me what you need.
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That promise between them felt stronger than anything he had in this moment. A day ago, he would have said the contract with Sebastian another, his soul at the end of his life for... everything he could have wanted. How could he have known? How could he have known? So filled with rage, so angry, pulled this way and that, every plan, time his daughter had reappeared, only to vanish, leaving him broken and angrier. Caught between forces that he struggled to understand with his self-taught skills and humble origins. He had seized power, the thing Silco always did. The thing he had always strove to do, it was in his nature, how could he do anything less.
He doesn't even step away, at first. Not from Set. The only thing here that would protect what Silco could not.
Where they arrived was... plain.
A small room outside of a foyer. Dark walls, fine finishing, but none of it had... personality. It was all empty, and dark, and so cold. Highstorm's chill was biting, but for a small, modest home where there had been no heat on in probably over a week, it was like the home was just as cold as the outdoors. Silco's breath showed, when he breathed out, a cloud of condensation almost as thick as the cigar smoke, and his body did not so much tremble as shrink in on itself, slightly. Not pulling away from Set, but... dipping under his weight. ]
This is โ
[ He said, broaching the subject delicately. Carefully. ]
โ A safehouse. I need to show you where I keep her.
[ Like a dying man, giving away his most prized possessions. Putting his affairs in order. He says safehouse, but it's clearly in Highstorm, it's clearly Silco's. It may be plain, and spartan, but it is a home. It reeks of cigars and blood, and though there are no splatters of mess on any of the rugs placed over hard wooden floors, it permeates the space. A great deal of bloodletting has happened here, and none of it the small man dwarfed under Set's head. ]
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And suddenly, he truly, wholly knows what Silco is doing. It enrages him a little, to know that Silco is asking him to do this. That Silco is showing him where Jinx lays in rest, and is entrusting Set with the most important thing in his life โ yet, Silco would not do the same for Anubis. Would not choose another path, to allow Set to keep himself safe. Silco is going to try to end Quetzalcoatl, and he won't even step up to keep her promise to Set โ nothing Set needs most, is something that Silco can give. But, he is a man in a position of authority and promise.
That has to matter, because nobody has ever saved Set. Protected him. And he dreads the day Silco attempts his kill โ because, if he is successful it means nobody will ever do that for him. He is, in the end, meant to suffer and be alone. That is, truly, the role for him. He will walk out of this war with Jinx and Anubis in his hands, at the least. It embitters him a little, makes him angry and resentful. He thinks... no, he doesn't think at all. It bleeds from him within seconds, because the anger is useless.
He knew what he was walking into, with Silco. It is not about protection, it is about power and information. ] I would ask if someone came for her, but if they had, I do not think you would have slaughtered them like this... and left her in place.
[ The scent of blood is strong on his tongue and in his nose. ]
What happened here, Silco? [ And he does nudge him, to indicate he is still intent on reaching Jinx. ]
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[ He admits, oblivious to Set's thoughts. Silco, as a whole, was a selfish man. He had always been selfish, in action, in thought, and in drive. Zaun had been decimated by his own actions, the people suffered just as much under his rule as under solely Piltover's, just in different ways. It would have been no different, had they achieved the power and prominence that they wanted. He was a creature who was never going to reach out, extend himself, or even realize that he could. Anubis, of course, he wanted to live, and should Set reach out to join Zenith, he would fight alongside him for both their kids. He was selfish, and thoughtless, and perhaps someday, he would think to ask Yima for his child as well, but it frankly hadn't occurred to him, so selfish he was, focused only on what mattered to him. Especially now.
Especially when he might not live to bring her to a new world. ]
This is โ [ He gestured, with a hand that shook slightly. ] โ Was just leftovers from yesterday.
[ He realizes only belatedly that, he perhaps had not shared with Set the truth of what he had done. ] Dinner.
[ He clarified, as he moved forward, stepping from the dark side-room, into the hallway, where a door is locked. He pulled a small key that he kept in a zipped pocket in his pants. Layer after layer of security. He started to unlock it. ]
This may never come up. [ He said, with the certainty that it would. ] But recently... [ So recently. His fingers tighten on the key, and the lock, as he starts to unlock it. ] I realized it may come sooner, rather than later.
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[ Dinner.
Blood and fear, that is what he smells; having courted vampires and dhampir enough to be familiar with their dietary needs, Set can comprehend the meaning of Silco's few words. He didn't know what he had done, nor when or why or what he was thinking โ but, he knew at least. Part of him thought, in that moment, to offer of himself. And then he thinks better of it, tactical and smart and a more than a little... disagreeably. What vampires have fed on him have been courted for reasons. What dhampir he allows is โ well, it's Liem, and the war god's silent affection for that man is his own affair.
A vulnerability he knows anyone would exploit, because if they did not, it would be their doom. ]
Did you finally ask him? What it meant for him to devour your soul?
[ Set had mentioned it to him. He wishes he had driven that wedge between Silco and Sebastian sooner, but also had vowed not to meddle in Sebastian's affairs of the palate. Momentarily, in this blood soaked place, Set rests his hand on Silco's cold one. Before he unlocks the door fully, before he reveals everything to him. ]
I could have warned you, sooner. I told him I would not meddle in his affairs, but โ I did not know you were not fully informed. Knowing you... your hunger and anger, I failed to ensure you had all the cards in the hand you chose to play.
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[ He said, his tone biting and acerbic. ] We have no such things where I am from. [ It is not anger at Set, for he knows, truly, that Sebastian had a great deal of power to wield. He'd felt it, the surge of strength and power in his body the time Sebastian had showed him, let him taste and scent that power, and how hungry it had made him for more. How much he desperately wanted โ needed/hungered/thirsted โ for more. More power, more capability, to lay waste to anyone who dared to threaten him, or Jinx. ]
We have nothing. [ He said, his fingers still on the door, as if in explanation. ] We are nothing. Zaun is a dumping ground for wasted, worn out bodies who die in their youth as they toil in factories and the fissures. We have no room for worth, or perhaps it was leaked out of us, like our humanity and worth, while we wasted our few years making profit for people who watch us starve.
[ It's difficult to explain, truly, what it is to be a Zaunite. To be so desperate, to fight so hard for mere survival day, after day, after day. How souls were so worthless to him, and how he hadn't understood. Had it mattered? ] I learned to read, learned how to keep books on my own. I taught myself only what I needed, because every moment wasted on that was a moment I was not working to find food, to survive.
Foolish of me, perhaps, to continue such bad habits. [ He says, bitterly. ] Then again, I am used to dealing with half a hand.
[ He opened the door, but did not enter. He held his hand to the space in the door, as if he was dismissing, or altering something. A spell. ]
Here.
[ Silco reached out with his single hand now, and moved to guide Set's hand to the space in the threshold. To allow the spell to know he was welcome. ]
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Instead, Set is quiet. Attentive, without removing his hand from the other man's person. That vicious, brutal person that no one could speak with, let alone touch, without being cut asunder. Yet, there he stood, so very close to a man who worshiped annihilation above all else, and he could understand him. Without question. Rather than speak, he listens to Silco speak of the wasteland of his home. The way Zaun was the ends of the earth, a cesspool where the gilded city above discarded people as waste and waste without thought. A place where people lived hard and died fast, and survivors โ had to be like Silco.
Men like Vander were illusions, in Zaun. He'd never liked Vander much, however others had enjoyed his presence. Osiris had been an easy-to-love god, and yet, he hadn't hesitated to ruin Set for his own ends; Silco, too, had been ruined by someone he'd been close with. Scarred and drowned and left to bloom with rot. ]
Doing what you have to do to survive the brutality of others is not foolish. You are marvelous to me, Silco. I would never ask you to change who you are, only encourage you to walk different paths โ accepted and prized as-is. A man like you never has to accept a dead end. Not while I am here.
[ Set understood, and allowed himself to be guided forth and across the threshold. A cold place, welcoming him as though... as though he was meant to be there, like he belonged. Purity of acceptance, by Silco himself. So, Set stepped forward, and allowed himself to attune ( to be attuned? ), hot and scalding against Zenite-rich power, he feels it twine and balk and croon as though it has missed him. As if it wants to be in sync with the Meridian within him, but also wielded against it.
Like chaos, and order. The Kemet and Deshret. War, and peace. ]
May I hold her?
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Set understood that it had made him strong. Yes he wanted Zaun to change, but not so much that it was not Zaun. He wanted it to belong to the people, but he had never wanted it to be a soft, coddling bosom to nurture the youths in. No, he wanted it hard, wild, and free. This Set understood, just like Silco understood him.
His child was not lost. Not yet. Silco understood why he was Meridian in the same way that Set understood that he was Zenith. Set had a chance to bring Anubis back to him. There was still hope. Were Jinx not dying in his arms, would he be willing to entertain Meridian? Yes, there was a chance. His daughter, however, was lost to him, dying before him. Her life draining out after she was cut down by the Pilties, trying to just eradicate another Sump Rat.
Set says that he wants to encourage different paths, but he does not know if there is another path for him. Not now. ]
I don't know if there's another path open. I will take it, if I can. However...
[ However. He had learned otherwise. Learned that his soul would be forfeit, and he would not survive it, even though he had thought that he would. ]
Should you see a way...
[ He stepped into the room, behind Set, nudged him along once the spell was attuned to him. Silco had carefully crafted this to keep any and all out. This was his most private sanctum, and the place he spent the least. He could not bear to be here, to look at all that was left of his daughter, and not fall into deeper despair.
Set's question almost hit deaf ears, as he stared at her.
The room was small, but littered with treasures. The large gun that he'd gotten this past month was carefully set amongst the small bombs, chompers, paints, and scribbles that he'd carefully transported from his room. The half-formed scraps of metal that were the works of a genius mind that had been crafting from thin air. In the middle was her gem, blue, dull, only the faintest hint of life inside. It looked like a hex gem, one that had lost its spark.
Silco's fingers trembled when he reached down to pick it up off the ground.
It was very nearly a shrine, in here. There was little light, nothing to chance burning it down, and Silco held the only thing he had ever venerated, this precious, perfect child. He had promised her that he would never leave her, and he was going to break that promise. ]
I promised her that I would never leave her.
[ He said, in a voice that was perhaps smaller than even he realized. Hopeless.
He held her out to him, and gave Set his entire world. ]
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[ It's a similar vow he made to Gen, actually.
To stand as a shadow among the light, for people who might want an "out" or another way. Who might crave destruction, and desire companionship; creatures of needs and wants that seemed antithetical to one another, discordant and unable to be reconciled. A bit like the war between the factions, which was born of dreams that could not co-exist. Set is a creature that represents acceptance of things that don't co-exist, chaotic hearts that want to live and die in the same breath. People who have killed every path they could walk except the one that leads to their demmise will find shelter in him.
That is his vow, as a wicked god. As someone who once protected people, then turned and slaughtered them. Hateful and desperate to save himself from further pain. He cannot and will not rob Sebastian of his due, but. If Silco puts his mind to surviving once more, he can find aid in Set. Careful aid, but aid nonetheless. And if they cannot succeed, well.
He will mourn this man. Without a doubt.
In the depths of that room, full of items and destructive toys and mechanical genius, he stands carefully among the remains of Jinx's life and presence. Her guns, her bombs, her Shard, which he watches Silco pick up from the ground. Ah, so that was what must have happened; she was there, alive and creating, and then she was gone. And Silco had never moved anything, from the moment she had vanished and become the shell of herself once again. His reach is slow, as he moves toward Silco and cradles the back of the man's remaining hand. To gentle the tumble of Jinx's shard into the palm of his own, whereupon he cradled the other side of her.
And admitted: ] I was going to tell her about your contract. You gave her everything, and I remember seeing her โ I knew she'd give it back to you. She and I were the same Aspect, you know? I would have burned everything with her, for you.
[ She was going to be how I saved you, he meant. Because he figured she'd stop at nothing, the same way Silco would for her. With Silco's daughter, his only love and his entire world, held carefully in his hands, he says: ] I am still going to.
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He would never allow her to interfere, for as long as she lived, if he did enough to propel them for the future, he would have been happy, to cement their victory.
He still would, if it meant she would be guaranteed her life in Yima's new world. If she was allowed her wild freedom and grand inventions, her mind able to flourish and invent, and create chaos. He would have been happy with just that. He didn't have that luxury, though, and he knew it. If he was dead, would she even still be here?
Could he beseech Yima, to save her, when he gave everything for Zenith?
No, this was a thought he could not even entertain. Refused to entertain. If he gave that up, was it worth it? ]
She would have burned me, if she knew. [ He answered, to explain the half-smile that ghosted across his lips. ] She would have never forgiven me.
[ He would have been leaving her, and he hadn't even known. ]
I don't --
[ He reached out, this time his hand on Set's wrist, as he held his daughter in his hand, careful though he was, Silco still felt fear. How could he not? This was his most prized, and perfect posession. This was his whole world, his heart, because he'd given everything for Jinx. She was the very epitome of Zaun. Strong, smart, hewn by years and trauma and abandonment. She was Zaun, and Zaun was her, in his mind they were everything, and Jinx was the spirit of it. As long as he had her, he didn't even have to consider the remnants of the city, or that they were left in the ditch.
After all, he knew that few Zaunites would have ever wanted to bring back Piltover, if it meant their own revival. They were a worthy sacrifice. ]
I don't want to die. [ He hissed, his tone fervent, despairing. ]
I can't leave her -- but I don't know how to release myself from it, or get around it.
[ If there was a way, his tone said, he would take it. He would not just lie down and die, despite the dramatics. ]
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Come now, Silco. You are a man of business. What, exactly, was the wording of your contract?
[ If the man was sloppy about what he was agreeing to, there was no hope for him.
And Set could not directly intervene. Such a move would place him firmly in opposition to Sebastian, whom he also respected for what he was. Simple as that. He was a predator, a hungry one, and refuting his right to Silco's soul would be a dire, foolish move. Naturally, Set has a mind that befits a trickster. One who twists the letter and the spirit of the law as readily as he twists heads from necks; his mind is fae-like, functioning in a far, far different way than a mortal's, yet oddly beholden to their sentimentality and sensitivity at times. ]
Honestly, considering Zenith's culture of revering souls, I am surprised the all-knowing Lady Yima is allowing this to happen to one of her most trusted Zenites. I thought you had worth to her. I worry for the future of your daughter, if you do not โ even at your heights of Harmonization. She is not as loyal and proven as you, after all.
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And even then. He'd messed up. He was losing her, and the contract would cement it, just as surely as it had been before. Just as certainly. In his pursuit of revenge, in his pursuit of making it so, or perhaps even in his pursuit of keeping her close...
He'd lost her. He'd lost his daughter, he'd lost all the objects he'd sought out originally, and it was only through his own dogged inability to let things go, that Sebastian remained in his employ -- and perhaps his soul spoken for. He could see that now. He could understand that perhaps even that had been an attempt to keep his... dinner (?) warm and ready for him.
Set presents an avenue, that he might look toward the wording. Perhaps there was a way. Silco wondered, but did not dare hope for emancipation from this danger. No, he knew. He knew what the value of his soul was worth, after all. To anyone other than Sebastian? Maybe Set? Nothing. ]
Nobody has ever chosen me, Set. Yima is just another in a long, long line of them. It was never about her world, but in destroying everything. [ A twitch of his lips, tightening. ] There's little in what is left that has value, after all. [ There is no Jinx. ]
It was always about making sure she was alive. In that new world? That's all it ever was.
[ His hands twitch, as if to reach out, to take her. His hand under Set's, not moving away, even though Set could see the impulse, to pull her back into his hands, to protect her. The fact that he doesn't keep her on his person is only a testament to the dangers in Kenos itself, and how he desperately tries to protect her, even now. ]
Yima is not who I am loyal to. I never have been. [ He placed his hand over Jinx's shard, in Set's hand. ] This is everything that matters to me. I will do anything to make sure she's alive, Set. I will find a way out of my contract if I can, but --
[ But he's human. He's, just like his daughter, made one too many mistakes. The spoiler, and always has been. Like father, like daughter, really. He'd cared so much about getting there, that he'd not seen the forest from the trees. ]
I needed you to know. To save her, before... [ A swallow. ] Before she's lost again. She's already dead, Set. There is no saving her, if she is not here. Even if it is all saved, she is still gone, unless she is taken away from there.
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Perhaps it is a mercy, then, that Anubis has never come to Kenos. Not like Jinx, whom had flitted into and out of Silco's life in a way that had cornered him, driven him deeper into the claws of his contract. Until there was no way out, until all he had left was to ensure something survived beyond him to care for her. ]
My sister is a goddess of miracles, Silco. A woman who loves women and children and would drown the world for her own. I come from an era when gods still walk among men, and do deeds on their behalf. I would lower myself before a woman who I loved and betrayed me, and ask her for one more intercession. For Jinx. When Meridian wins, I readily see a way for her to live โ safe and free.
[ And it goes without saying, that he would never allow Piltover to continue, even if Meridian were to win. ]
If Lady Yima could not save Jinx now, she will not be able to save her in the future. Only I can, and I am not walking in a direction that does not contain countless possibilities for her survival. I will not take that risk, because โ I care for you. And your wishes. I really do.
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[ He says it with disbelief. What were miracles, to people like he, and Jinx? They had been denied so much, for so long. They lived in squalor and poverty โ though they were perfectly comfortable in the Last Drop, and Jinx had never known a day of hunger after Silco had hugged her that first night in the rain โ underneath the noses of those that looked down on them. ]
Set, I cannot bank on a miracle. Twice I have.
[ His fingers curl around her shard, and it's so gentle, despite the way he trembled. Twice, she had been here, violent and grand. He knew. ] Whatever your quarrel with Yima, I do not look to her to bring Jinx here. She has tried, twice and both times the tree called her back.
[ Well, that answers why Silco hates the tree so much, doesn't it? ] I...don't even know if your world will allow her, or accept her.
[ The skin around his blinking eye tightened, and he closed it. ]
Think about it. Were I to leave Zenith, what would happen to her shard?
[ He knew. People left Zenith all the time. Yima would yank it back. She had a persona of softness about her, but Silco knew. He'd seen it, beneath the comforting smiles, the things that Silco found lurking in her deception. She'd asked him to make monsters, she had told him that Aetรณs's attention was not unwelcome. He knew that she would take Jinx back.
She had once told him, all those months ago, that to her, there was nothing more important than reuniting family.
He did not believe that she would reunite him with his daughter, unless he paid for it.
But it was transactional, and that he understood, more than anything. Transactional was how they had lived their lives. That was how he could function. ]
I have to proceed this way. It's our only hope.
[ He picked her up, held her in his hand, cupped like she was the most precious thing in the world. ]
If it is not enough. If I can't โ
[ Silco was one man, is what he didn't say. He could fight and fight, and fight, but he could not be anywhere. Could not do as much as was needed. He believed in fighting for it, but he understood. He was not a fool, after all. He knew that Meridian promised hope, and hope was infectious. ]
It's why I ask you to watch over her. Yima can't take her, if I don't betray her. She can't wipe her from reality, if I die enacting her will. It's not my life I'm fighting for.
It's hers.
[ He'd promised her that he would never leave her. He knows he will. He doesn't have a choice, now. ]
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[ In that, miracles are entirely possible. They are not wishes or hopes, but real things that happen; the same as apocalypses, mass slaughter, magic and cosmos. For Silco to say he cannot bank on a miracle, to Set, is the same as saying he cannot bank on his own power changing something. It is foreign to a god, whom makes such things happen. And then he tips his head, as if judging Silco for โ ]
You fear Yima more than anything, and that is what she's counting on. To rule you with fear and control you, the way Piltover looked down upon you and Jinx โ pitiable, and easy to manipulate. Cassian and Jyn left Zenith with the Shards of their loved ones. And do not dare voice your doubt that my world would accept her, when I exist there, despite all my slaughter and misdeed.
[ THough his words are harsh, he parries each of Silco's beliefs with an assertion of his own. Because he believes in more than Zenith's silly little promises, empty and whispered into desperate, foolish ears. A leash to control them, which he manifests in the palm of one hand: a long string of sand, morphed into the shape of a collar and leash that loosely entwines itself around Silco's throat before being jerked into the sand-facsimile hand of Yima herself. ]
Silco, I will not let Yima touch her. If Zenith is to win, I will never allow a woman like Yima to have any hand in the world to come. I hope you would find it in yourself to stop being so afraid of her, and take of her what is yours.
[ With that, he tucks Jinx's shard gently back into the man's palm. ]
Do not accept anything less than everything.
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Silco's fingers instinctively curl over his daughter's shard, as if he had done it countless times, the small, faint comfort that it was. Some doubted the shards, but Silco knew. Perhaps it was foolish, perhaps he believed too much, but he knew she was there, because the shard was not cold or chill, but vaguely inert, mild to the touch. That was perhaps not a guarantee, but he could imagine a sense of Jinx's wild and carefree attitude, the spark of chaos still residing within.
His eyebrow drew down (the other still and unwavering as always, drawn in as it was) because Set spoke of fear, as if Silco feared Yima.
He opened his mouth, but closed it, and his only moving eye narrowed slightly. ]
For all that they were present after they shifted, yes? [ He asked, with a slight scoff. ] I do not doubt that they would have been taken away. It's what I would do.
[ The shards were a gift for loyalty to Zenith, after all. ]
Regardless, I am not with Zenith out of fear, Set. I exist beyond it. [ Foolish words, perhaps, given what will transpire soon. ] I am with Zenith because I do not want our worlds returned.
Jinx's body is gone. [ His fingers tighten. ] Do you think we will be shard-bearers when our worlds are returned? We were not before. Why would they not return to how we were before?
[ But more than that, Silco felt it was right to destroy them. To rend and tear and destroy them because he wanted nothing more than to exact his final revenge on these worlds. For the crime of existing, because he'd lasted now for two years (or nearly) without his daughter. Had her taken more than once, and for all of Set's (supposedly) irrational hate for Yima, he did not think this was her. Not when his loyalty was so easily bought by her mere existence. No. No he did not think it was Yima. ]
I intend to have what is mine, you do not have to fear that, Set. Never fear that. I am taking what is my right. Nobody will stand in my way. Not even Yima.