<Kazumi> "You've been chosen by Gaia.... given a great task, a legend among the Garou. All as Gaia wills it, yes?"
<Malachi> "That is my understanding, yes."
* Kazumi nods, and leans back against a bulkhead. "And in all of Gaia's willing of events and your place in them, Malachi, do you think for a even a fraction of a second she thought that  hooking yourself up to a Nexus Crawler and siphoning energy from it to continue on was part of her plan? Do you?" She paces back and fourth, looking at him. "I've
* Kazumi  been thinking for days about how to stop you, Malachi, when that THING crawls into your head and turns you into our worst nightmare, and I can't come up with a single idea of how to do it."
* Malachi nods to her. "I have given much thought to that issue myself. As long as I am draining its power, it remains in slumber. It can do no harm. My concern is not what happens while I am alive, but rather when I am dead, and my magics fail."
<Kazumi> "All who have power are afraid to lose it, Malachi, even you. You lost the wolf. You know what that means, and you defied it because you think YOU are the only one who can get this done. I want to be important, so much, but I'm not. I'm just part of the pack. I'll never be more. But you, Malachi, are Legend. You have done your part for the Nation.
<Kazumi> You're not going to die." She snorts a laugh. "You're married to an Incarna, you will move on. You will be a totem for many packs. You'll aid the nation in a different way. You're lingering in the world of flesh, Malachi. I'm a sorcerer too, you know. What you've done reeks of desperation, a clawing attempt to keep agency in the world. You come dan
<Kazumi> gerously close to Abomination with what you're doing, and I will never believe it's as harmless as you say. Nobody in the right mind would."
<Kazumi> "When you die and your magics fail..." She sighed and looked at him. "You've stolen time, Malachi. The only good thing to do with it is prepare your replacement and then go cleanly into Nut's embrace. You need to be killed." She stated flatly. "At some point, you'll falter, your spells will slip, with age or infirmity, and in that moment, it will w
<Kazumi> ake up and take you, and you will die an abomination who killed half his sept before they brought him down."
* Malachi sighs and shakes his head. "I do not know what will happen when I die, when I am no longer mortal. But I do know this, Kazumi. The Mother has given me one last task that has yet to be fulfilled. When it does, in that moment, I will give up this lie and go happily to my end. I don't want to live like this. I never asked for it, but I have never turned away from it."
<Kazumi> "What do you have to do, Malachi, that is so special, that so requires you that you have to become what you are. There's a word for a garou that live off the life essence of another being.... Abomination." She sighed and slumped back against a wall. "I'm betraying.... everyone... keeping your damn secret, so convince me.... convince me it's worth i
<Kazumi> t."
<Malachi> To be honest, Kazumi, I do not know.  I can just feel it rushing at me like the world does when you skydive.  It will be a rite.  Something only an Legend theurge can do, and it will end me.  That is what I know, and what I believe.  If it is such a burder for you to keep my secret, I can take it from you.
* Kazumi smirked at Malachi. "I've already set half a dozen contingencies in place in case my mind was wiped. Letters mailed to myself at the castle, one in Daniel's vault, and so on. You think I didn't consider that you might erase it from me?" She chuckled. "Malachi, I would not normally say this, but I need to go above your head. As you are a St
* Kazumi rider.... I need to speak with Owl, at the very lest."
<Kazumi> "I don't think that's much to ask for my silence. I need someone whose voice I can trust to tell me this is what needs to be."
<Kazumi> "I'm sorry, this is very Shadow Lord of me, but you're too important, and dangerous, to trust to blind faith."
* Malachi looks at her for a moment and then frowns. "You do not trust me. I wonder what brought that change of heart, Kazumi. Very well. You would speak with Owl, I assume you would not trust Soljourn to speak for him?"
<Kazumi> "Malachi, you're connected to a fucking Nexus Crawler.... THAT is what brought that change of heart. You don't get to be disappointed in me, Malachi. I am scared out of my mind at what that thing could do with you if you make the slightest hint of a mistake. I don't know what or who Soljourn is to trust them or not."
<Malachi> "He is my pack totem, an old warrior  under Owl."  He reaches into a pouch and pulls out a small jewled scarab.  "To speak with my Father, take this and return to the Sudan.  They will let you into the Temple to Owl, and ask him to speak with you."
* Kazumi nods and takes the Scarab. "There's a Shadow Lord saying, Malachi. Trust.... but verify. I'm sorry if whatever bond between us has been broken by my lack of trust. But I just can't be the only one in the world who knows this and not have some spiritual guidance of my own."
* Kazumi nods to him. "I will leave in the morning."
* Malachi nods to her. "I am sorry to have put you in this position, Kazumi. I wish you safe journies."
<Kazumi> "It it's worth it, it's worth it... Malachi... if the Owl decides I need to be silenced.... I understand that as well." She nods her head to him.
<Kazumi> "I'm sorry to have kept you for this long. I am, as ever, a fool. Burning time to prove what you already know. But that is also what must be. Now, forget about this, and go be with your sept."
* Malachi reaches down to his belt and pulls on his leather mask, turning to go. "They are your sept too."
* Kazumi would argue this, since Mountain of Storms formally claimed her, but that's another long discussion, for another time. "See you soon, Malachi."
* Kazumi has not let it pass her musings that she may well be person to have to kill Malachi, somehow. Or, perhaps more precisely, kill the thing that slips inside of him once his final task is done. Thoughts like this have been haunting her.