In three thousand or so years of fucking with humans, Balthazar knows from experience that people who have never before encountered anything the slightest bit supernatural, and even some who have, often start experiencing a sort of animal-like existentialism. They are reduced to clutching their faces and whimpering, why is this happening to me? What's going on?
Since his rebirth in fire, Balthazar hasn't wondered that. He knew. He was allowed to see the inner workings of the universe, and became one of the terrible cogs in it. He was a thing that happened to other people. There were most definitely many higher powers, and no one could claim to understand God, but he knew. He understood. He was the magician's assistant who disappeared or drowned or had knives thrown at them but was in on the secret.
Not for the first time since arriving in Baedal but now in a most unpleasant way, he's forced to confront the fact he no longer knows or understands anything. It's possible he can see more than your average Baedal citizen, but seeing no longer brings any answers. Why is the sky glowing and whirling? Why is it ripping open and allowing creatures from other places — some more dark than he's ever seen, and he has seen darkness — and giving him a blinding headache? At first he hides. He has been a general in Hell's army but he has never been a soldier. That wasn't the fucking point of him.
And then he can feel them, the seplavites. They are calling out in their mindless way, confused at their arrival, sniffing around for a leader the same way he sniffed around too his first day here. They know he's here, but in his absence, they just do what they do, which is hunt.
He could get out there and command them. It's his birthright. They must do as he says. That's their birthright. He could save people, or command them to attack either of the two House Ecumenal churches, just because.
After a long hesitation, he begins walking toward Mafaton, a mere shadow to anyone unable to see past his illusions: scentless, soundless, barely there at all. The seplavites join him in trickles, unable to resist his presence. And they can't hide themselves at all, curiously well-behaved despite being slavering, brainless corpses.
NOW WITH FIRST PARAGRAPH I'M THE BEST RPER
Since his rebirth in fire, Balthazar hasn't wondered that. He knew. He was allowed to see the inner workings of the universe, and became one of the terrible cogs in it. He was a thing that happened to other people. There were most definitely many higher powers, and no one could claim to understand God, but he knew. He understood. He was the magician's assistant who disappeared or drowned or had knives thrown at them but was in on the secret.
Not for the first time since arriving in Baedal but now in a most unpleasant way, he's forced to confront the fact he no longer knows or understands anything. It's possible he can see more than your average Baedal citizen, but seeing no longer brings any answers. Why is the sky glowing and whirling? Why is it ripping open and allowing creatures from other places — some more dark than he's ever seen, and he has seen darkness — and giving him a blinding headache? At first he hides. He has been a general in Hell's army but he has never been a soldier. That wasn't the fucking point of him.
And then he can feel them, the seplavites. They are calling out in their mindless way, confused at their arrival, sniffing around for a leader the same way he sniffed around too his first day here. They know he's here, but in his absence, they just do what they do, which is hunt.
He could get out there and command them. It's his birthright. They must do as he says. That's their birthright. He could save people, or command them to attack either of the two House Ecumenal churches, just because.
After a long hesitation, he begins walking toward Mafaton, a mere shadow to anyone unable to see past his illusions: scentless, soundless, barely there at all. The seplavites join him in trickles, unable to resist his presence. And they can't hide themselves at all, curiously well-behaved despite being slavering, brainless corpses.