ASGARD: Manuel

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

Manuel foils a conspiratorial plot against the Lord of Lies, and is rewarded for his diligence. Loki forces him to accept some of what he has done, and Manuel is haunted by a memory of a woman that he can't see.



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Manuel looked around the crowded meadhall with some amusement. Loki had pulled out all the stops for this party - something about a new clan of Frost Giants who had come into the fold, bringing with them a runt of their own kind that Loki had saved from death by exposure. He was being very secretive as to who this new runt was, but Manuel knew that Loki would introduce him in good time.

For now, he merely watched the feast in progress - the trio of skalds reciting epic tales of blood spilled and women taken, a pair of jugglers seeking to amuse jaded and bored warriors, and a small horde of very available wenches looking to snare an unwary warrior into their matrimonial traps. No one gave the empath a second glance, and the reason for _that_ was the faint red glow about Manuel's eyes. He was masking himself from them, for two months now literally a man apart.

The crowd was fairly well-behaved, but as the crowds surged and parted Manuel got a glimpse of something darker - an old warrior missing an arm whose feelings were positively murderous. Manuel grinned as he slipped off of his chair and melded with the crowd. He took pains to keep from running into anyone - as his social invisibility weave meant that no one took notice of his passing - not even to get out of his way. Progress through the throng was slow, but he managed to keep the old warrior's emotions firmly in view. He and three other men were sitting at a table well in the back, keeping to themselves and using the bulk of nearby Frost Giants to keep prying eyes from their business.

A shame they had never reckoned with empathic sensing - it might have helped them live longer.

"The Runt Lord must fall." argued a blonde youth with barely a patch of decent beard on his cheeks. The man next to him, bald, hushed him with a gesture. "Not so loud, Ragni. Do you want him or his cursed new Midgarder spy to hear? Yes, Loki must be brought to heel, and his damned Giants with him. But we're too few - we're not ready!"

"Nor will you be." said Manuel, dropping his social invisibility weave. "Fools - did you think you could plot murder and treason in Loki's _own hall_ and not have us find out about it?" he asked sarcastically, drawing his sword Needle and pointing it at the Ragni.

Instead of feeling fear or remorse, all four men smiled grimly and pulled out their own weapons. "Maybe we were just hoping you'd notice, Redeyes" grinned a dark-haired man sitting on the other side of the blond youth. "If you're dead, Loki will know we mean business."

Manuel grinned. "Stupid limpdicks." he said, and then his eyes burned red as he projected crippling fear into the minds of each man. They folded to a man, weeping hot tears and curling into a ball to protect themselves against the horrors only they could see. ~Loki!~ Manuel mentally shouted. ~More conspirators to be questioned!~

~Good work.~ Loki thought back. ~I'll have some men pick them up from you. When they're gone, come meet me in your room. I have a present for you.~

Manuel had a stab of involuntary fear shoot through him - he kept some things in his room that Loki would be greatly displeased about if he knew they existed - his sketches of the dark-haired woman who haunted his dreams and the Globe of Frailty that Loki used as both goad and reward. As the guards shackled the men, Manuel hurried through the crowd to go back to his quarters - to see what mischief the Lord of Chaos had in mind for him now.

Manny drew back the leathers that served him as a door and entered his own room, only to see Loki seated upon his sleeping furs, and a slender cloaked figure sitting at Loki's feet. Loki was idly playing with the Globe of Frailty, and inwardly Manuel cursed. "You've been lying to me." said Loki with a grin. "You've not cleared the globe nearly as much as you should of. You still hang onto the life you had, instead of the life you have _now_."

"There are some things I don't want to give up. Who is the black-haired woman? Why does it seem that I know everything about her, but I can't remember her clearly? I remember everything now - you broke that block for me."

Loki shook his head. "I did _nothing_. You broke that block - it was your first success with the Globe." he taunted. "Now, I want you to break another block for me. Empathy demands total control of your own emotions - I've showed you that time and time again. And yet still you _refuse_ to confront some of your demons! You will, now." said Loki, his emotions focused into a mindblade of pure anger.

"All right." Manuel said, swallowing heavily as he took the globe from Loki's hands. Staring into it, the globe flashed green, and Manuel's nose was filled with the scent of roasting steak and seared flesh. As always, he felt the fear and guilt soak into his very being, but this time Manuel pushed back against the feelings. "I will feel no guilt. I will feel no fear. I am Empath. I am in control."

The globe throbbed in his hands, flashing a brighter emerald green in response to Manuel's pushing against it. Inside his mind, he relived the entire experience - from his victim's point of view. Tears, unbidden, tracked down his face and despite himself he smiled despite the terror at the loss of control.

"Embrace your victims. Embrace their pain, and let it pass through you. You are the master of emotion - do not let it rule you!" Loki urged, watching Manuel struggle against the Globe intently. The slender robed figure ignored the proceedings, staring straight ahead blankly.

Manuel swallowed heavily as he tried to embrace the pain and pleasure he had given - tried to grasp it with his very essence, to take it all in. The pleasure and the fear warred within him, twisting his body and wrenching a low moan from his throat at the intensity of the pleasure that he had given. He struggled, and the emerald glow from the globe faded, slowly, into clarity.

"Good." said Loki, prying the Globe of Frailty from Manuel's cramping hands and setting it on top of the most recent ash-smudge artwork that Manuel had done - a girl, in profile, with jagged scars and the suggestion of a glowing pendant around her throat. "The girl you asked me about was once very close to you." he said. "If you clear the globe entirely, I will intercede on your behalf with my daughter, to search the afterworld for her spirit. Then you will know if she yet lives or if she has passed beyond."

"Why can't I remember her?" groaned Manuel, still unsettled from his attempt to master the Globe. "I know her - I know how she felt, how much she hated my music. I know that she needed me. She still needs me. I _know_ it, but I can't see her face!" Manuel wailed.

Loki grabbed a hold of Manuel's shirt-front and shook him hard. "ENOUGH!" said the Lord of Lies, releasing Manuel roughly once he was sure he had the Spaniard's full attention. "I have a present for you. Come here, my dear, and let down your hood so that we can see you."

The robed figure stood up obediently, lowering its hood to reveal a girl with raven tresses and ice-blue eyes. "My lord?" she asked, directing her query to both Loki and Manuel.

"She is yours." Loki said simply, gesturing with his left hand to conjure a runestone into Manuel's hand. "So long as you keep the runestone about you, she is yours, body and soul."

Manuel looked at the runestone in his hand, and something about it, something about the runes, reminded him dimly of something. He knew it was important - something about runes, about _these_ runes, but the memory slipped away from him faster the more ardently he pursued it.

Shaking his head to clear away the ghosts, Manuel grinned at the stone in his hand and the girl who waited passively for him. "Mine." he whispered as Loki let himself out of his room. "All mine."



Lyrical cut-tag from Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime. Track is 'Breaking the Silence'