A Reason to Hate

[05:28] Loholt Barden exclaims, "Hello, sir!"
[05:29] Kirai Kurokaiyo asks, "Hmmm...? Hello there, and who might you be young man?"
[05:29] Loholt Barden exclaims, "Just a young Cadet of the Order, sir, who is on a pilgrimage!"
[05:30] Kirai Kurokaiyo asks, "Ahhh... Which order, praytell? Blazing Lion Knights? First Light? The Church?"
[05:31] Loholt Barden says, "First Light, though technically I guess my business right now is somewhat associated with the Church-- and pardon the correction, but..."
[05:31] Loholt Barden says, "Blazing Lion is a squadron part of the First Light."
[05:31] Kirai Kurokaiyo asks, "Ah, well that certainly shows how much I care, doesn't it?"
[05:31] Loholt Barden says, "... I suppose."
[05:32] Kirai simply inclines his head slightly, cracking his neck with a slight twitch of his head as he looks over the young cadet. The boy looked only a little older than his own children, or at least near the same age.

"Indeed. Praytell, do you know who I am, cadet?" He'd ask, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
(Kirai Kurokaiyo)
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[05:36] The adolescent tilted his head upwards to properly face the man, though not until after eyeing him up and down a few times. He certainly reminded of the description of a man of whom he had heard some less savoury reports about, but to assume such a thing-

No, that couldn't possibly be him.

"I do not, sir." ... "Though you certainly do remind me of someone!"
(Loholt Barden)
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[05:41] Kirai's smile remained, ever the mask of the kindly middle-aged father and Dojo master. His eyes assessing the young cadet without ever wandering. It almost seemed like Kirai was looking through the boy, or perhaps, into his very soul.

"Hmmm... Well, perhaps you've heard rumors of a man living in a Dojo in the mountains? A man said to have made a young man burn himself alive with his own magic, a man said to practice witchcraft, a man said to have kidnapped young girls, a man said to be an Assassin?" He'd ask, openly acknowledging many of the rumors about them. Honestly, they only fed his ego, his pride.

"Only some of that is true, and the rest I suppose are at least half truths..." He'd finish, letting his voice trail off. Staring pointedly at Loholt Barden, wondering if the boy would know his name by all of this.

"My name is Kirai. Kirai Kurokaiyo. Infamous enemy of the church, terror of the slums, witchand Assassin... if rumors are to believed."

Another pause.

"A pleasure to meet you, Cadet."
(Kirai Kurokaiyo)
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[05:47] The very first of the rumors was enough to confirm the cadet's suspicions. He took a step backwards against the cliffside wall and remained pressed against it whilst listening to the rest of the rumors-- or facts; he wasn't sure at this point. At the very least he hadn't mentioned the one of him supposedly severing a man's legs from his torso.

Hopefully that one was at least fiction.

"Loholt... Barden, sir. A newly inducted Cadet into the Order of the First Light." A short pause as the visibly tense teen eyed the man up and down a few times before deciding to ask a question; his curiosity trumping over his fear of the man.

"I can... understand the motives behind many of those titles, even if I do not agree with them. But the church, Sir Kurokaiyo? I cannot as much as imagine a single reason why one would wish to be its enemy."

Well, unless it wasn't by choice.


(Loholt Barden)
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[06:01] Kirai's smile remained in place, not seeming phased by the cadet's tension. If anything, it was flattering... To inspire such fear in a knight, cadet or no. Kirai was certain even the Exarchs knew this fear, judging by how some of them allowed him to walk free after committing capitol offenses.

Kirai steps forward, a little closer to the Cadet.

"Loholt... Barden." He'd say slowly, as if tasting the name on his tongue, and infact going so far as to flick that moist pink appendage along his upper lip afterward. "Tell me, Loholt Barden. Are you familiar with what happened, eight years ago? Hmmm... No, I doubt it. You are just a boy, you might have been five or six at the time. Seven at most..."

He'd let his voice trail off, taking another step closer to the boy.

"Well you see, Loholt Barden. I've lived in Esshar for almost half my life now, and my children are about your age. I have six of them... At least only counting those I did not take in off the streets of the Sudbury slums. Three from my first wife, Saori. Three from my current wife, Nori." He'd continue, keeping about five feet between himself and the cadet, for the moment.

"I admit, I was not the most faithful man to Saori. Nori was my mistress when Saori and I were still very young... But I was very much in love with her. We worked together, for a noble. That noble, asked us to assist him with a problem, and we did our duty. However, certain elements did not appreciate our dutiful nature..." He'd continue, looking off to the side at a firefly hiding at the edge of his torchlight, its own luminescent form barely visible in the darkness. Yet Kirai saw it clearly.

"The church will deny it. I doubt any living priest even knows of it, now... But they sent men after me an my wife. They held her down, and tormented her, claiming she was a Witch. I tried to fight them, but there were far too many, and they beat me until my body bled freely and my bones glistened in the stars. I'm lucky to be alive..."

"...My wife wasn't so lucky." He'd state flatly, his nostalgic tone having grown gradually colder and colder as he told this story. His eyes shifted to Loholt again, and he'd step in closer, now looming over the boy. Slamming his hand agaisnt the cliff face beside the cadet's head.

"They held me down, and made me watch as they drowned her. Not quickly. No. They kept pulling her up for air. They made sure she suffered. Made sure I saw her face, crying tears lost in the water running down it. Made me listen to her begging for help, when I could do nothing." As Kirai speaks, he begins to remove the limiters he puts on himself, allowing his oppressive aura to begin expanding out from his form. At first it would only make the air feel thicker, more humid. Then, heavy, as if you were standing in a dense fog... And then? Suffocating. So thick, Loholt would find himself struggling to breathe, just like how his wife Saori had.

"The church drowned my wife, and I built my Dojo by the lake where she died... They took her from me and my children, because we did not worship their stars, because we did our duty..."

"Does that answer your question, Loholt Barden?"
(Kirai Kurokaiyo)
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[06:17] "Five." Loholt is able to make out before nigh-crawling backwards to further push himself against the wall, maintaining the distance between the two as the man approached-- though now he had nowhere left to run.

He remained paralyzed as he listened along and, in the midst of it all, he was somehow able to forget the situation he was in. A certain kinship was instead felt for the man and his suffering, even if the adolescent himself hadn't ever- and probably never would- experience anything of the same intensity.

That phase, however, did not last. He winced as the hand slammed down beside his face, pulling him back into the reality of the situation. And as if he wasn't already crippled enough by the paralyzing fear for the man before him, the aura was enough to completely push him over the edge. Mouth was kept open as he panted and gasped for air, desperately trying to make his body function as it normally would; not only struggling to breathe, but being completely unable to.

It is only after a flare of his own mana that he is somehow able to shock his body back into function, even if still not functioning as normal. "Iht... does. I ahm... sorry." the young Cadet managed to make out underneath his struggling breathing, the honesty of the man's words making it all so much more real.

And even amidst all this, his curiosity would not have itself hampered. "Ahnd-- And... do you hate the stars, sir?"

A bold question, to say the least.
(Loholt Barden)
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[06:27] Kirai would first stare down at the young boy before him, his aura slowly receding again as to allow the boy normal function. Then, upon hearing that question he'd cast his eyes up to the heavens and the stars that dwelled in it's void.

He is silent for several tense heartbeats, the only sound around them the crickets chirping and their own breathing.

Then...

"Looking up at the stars, I know quite well,
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time."

A poem, one he'd recite in a quiet and nostalgic tone, one that almost brought tears to his eyes long since cried dry. Turning his gaze back to Loholt, he'd shake his head slowly.

"That was Saori's favorite poem." He'd say simply, before pushing off the wall and turning away, taking several steps as if to leave. Then, pausing, he'd glance back.

"The stars mean nothing to me, just as I mean nothing to them. I cannot hate that which I cannot bring myself to care about... The church though?" He'd ponder, his eyes growing cold and hard. "The church will find itself rotting, with all it's priests crushed inside, one day. Even if I have to bring it down myself."

(All credit for the poem due to it's original author, W. H. Auden.)
(Kirai Kurokaiyo)
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[06:39] Loholt took a moment to completely catch his breath before once again fully devoting his attention onto the man. It was strange, to say the least, that it almost felt like his brief encounter with Kirai had taught him more about the stars than any of his multiple visits to the church. Despite what had just went down, Loholt couldn't feel anything but sympathy for the man-

and before he knew it, tears had filled his eyes.

"I... see. I hope that they you one day will mean something to them, and even them to you." A moment of silence as he pondered whether he should even say something else. The aspiring Knight in him wished to condemn Kirai's mission, yet another couldn't blame him. As a cadet, it wasn't his position to make calls such as that either way. For now, he did all that he could based on the brief encounter with the man who- although true to his rumors- appeared to be so much more.

"... Thank you, Sir Kurokaiyo."

He remained against the cliffside, though in a slouched rest rather than being pushed against it.
(Loholt Barden)
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[06:42] Kirai wouldn't say another word, only standing there for several moments as if undecided on how to proceed. His eyes stare off into the distance, before he simply begins to walk away, sparing the young cadet for now.

Perhaps, in time, Loholt would grow into a proper knight and be forced to act against Kirai for what he would soon do... But for now, he was just a boy, and Kirai would spare him the damnation he might have inflicted upon someone older and more devout to the stars.

Then, once he'd almost made it out of Loholt's earsight?

"I don't need the stars anyway... My clan has always walked in the shadows."
And with that, he was gone.
(Kirai Kurokaiyo)
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