No Need For A Core?

Mordecai felt the weight of Ozuran's gaze sweep across the chamber, swiftly analyzing everything and spending a minuscule bit of attention on clearing away the lingering metallic scent of blood. The tiny, for a god's avatar, expenditure of energy was enough to make handling the influx of mana difficult.

Ozuran spoke softly as he returned his gaze to Mordecai, "This is not how I expected to find you when you awakened, nor so soon. You appear to have gotten married rather swiftly too, which should have interesting consequences."

There was a brief thought about saying that he wasn't actually married which got tangled in wondering why Ozuran said 'when', not 'if', but those didn't seem like the sorts of mistakes that Ozuran would make. Mordecai glanced down at his ring that was a duplicate of Moriko's, only to find it was now purple and gold.

"Oops," said Kazue. When Mordecai and Moriko looked at her, Kazue blushed. "Um, I think my thoughts might have sort of wandered and I had thoughts about what might happen now and then I am a shrine maiden so I've participated in a lot of weddings and am familiar with the rites and maybe I was daydreaming just a touch while everything was going on." There was a ring on her left hand too, which was certainly not Mordecai's fault.

It was fairly simple to figure out how it had happened without the normal vow and ritual; Kazue's imagination had shaped the magic that was already flowing between them, and found two people who were willing participants in the ongoing binding. The magic was not smart enough to parse the difference between itself and the other magic being deliberately woven. Because they had not spoken specific oaths, there were limits to how tightly bound they had become to the common conventions of marriage, and admittedly the marriage bond had some advantages, though those were mostly redundant compared to the other bond they had already forged.

"As entertaining as this might be," Ozuran said, "I first need to know how this happened, and I suspect that there are things I would rather not see." He turned to Danitsa and asked, "Would you tell me what you know of these events and why my mother has sent one of her agents here?"

While a god could choose to see and know just about anything, they were not omniscient and anything that they did choose to simply Know came in great detail all at once. Mordecai was quite content to not have his god peeking at what he and Moriko had been up to.

Danitsa bowed and said, "Kazue was reincarnated here by Lady Mericume's will. Moriko arrived here rather more recently and through events that have not been disclosed to me somehow fell down to where Mordecai was sealed. He escaped his prison by binding his soul to hers to be smuggled out, but this left him without a body and I rather suspect that his remaining power was quickly fading. Kazue, partially out of loneliness it seems, agreed to become host to his spirit instead, giving her a teacher and two companions, though it has left their souls thoroughly tangled."

Ozuran tapped a folded fan against his chin as he thought. "I see. I do wish Mother was rather less impulsive at times, but it would be difficult to claim that she doesn't mean well. Unless something gets her angry of course." That last line came with a pointed look at Mordecai.

"Now," he continued, "all of that is your business, and I do not need to know more about it. What I need to know, Mordecai, is if you understand why I am still very upset. Anger has faded, frustration and disappointment have not."

Mordecai winced and replied, "Yes, My Lord. I let anger and pain control my thoughts and actions, and I lashed out in pain. My methods did not just hurt those responsible but caught up innocents in my war."

"Yes," Ozuran said, "but that is incomplete. Let me be a bit more specific. First, you took action entirely upon yourself. While I wish I had known beforehand so that I could have warned you, both my church and my blessings would have been available to punish the evils that had been done to so many of your descendants and their families. Instead, the people that should have been your allies found themselves defending innocent communities from monsters." He paused for emphasis before saying, "Your actions killed your fellows in my church, some of whom you knew and had been friends with."

The thought left Mordecai feeling sick, and he didn't know how to respond.

"Guilt is good here, but we are not yet done," Ozuran said. "As your willful actions caused the readily predictable death and suffering of innocents and of your fellow devotees, you violated your oaths as a priest and a champion. Rather egregiously so, and I do not think any would fault me if I stripped you of all power I had ever granted you. Even with your modified avatar, which I would have issue with if I could not tell the price you paid for it, you would feel that loss of power greatly. As it is, I am trying to decide how I feel about having my blessings to your different avatars compounded into one."

That was a fear that had been haunting Mordecai since he had awoken, and part of why he had not dared to utter Ozuran's name or call upon any of his blessings.

"Furthermore, your reaction was arrogant from the start. You assumed that because you saw no sign of survivors, there were none. It did not occur to you that those who had fled or fought their way free might have had to use indiscriminate magic in their haste to ward themselves from being rediscovered. Yes, there were survivors, no, I will not tell you who or where they have gone. They and their descendants deserve to be the ones with the opportunity to chose whether or not to contact you."

A giant surge of hope, relief and pain welled up inside of Mordecai and it took him a moment to control it. When he felt that he could speak, Mordecai asked, "My Lord, you speak of my descendants. What of my inhabitants?"

Ozuran sighed again, but there was a faint hint of a smile. "Now he thinks to ask for my aid and knowledge. Though they were reluctant to leave, your mana reserves were finite and the most powerful of them were affected by this first. Some chose to leave, which required breaking their connection to you. Others chose to not strain your resources by killing their bodies and refusing to have new ones manifested, leaving their souls sleeping in your core. But even the storage of souls costs energy and space."

His voice softened now. "I did what I could. I could not in good conscience avoid lending my power and knowledge to those who sought to seal you, but I could influence the seal that was crafted by mortal hands. It sealed only you."

He sounded sad as he continued, "Simply reviving them was not an option, not with the choices they had already made. But I could take willing souls into my domain, some others went to the deities they had worshiped other than myself, and those who did not want to go with me and had never chosen a deity went to be judged by Yamaraja. I do not know their individual fates from there."

Ozuran gestured with his fan as his voice returned to normal. "As for those who left, I can tell you most made it past those who were standing vigil against your return. Much like your descendants, any who might be able to live this long have the choice to contact you or not. I will not help. But we are not done with the wrongs you committed."

Mordecai felt like a child being lectured by his father, but all things considered, that might be rather appropriate.

"Your monsters," Ozuran said, "did not die when your connection to them was cut. It was bad enough that you created them to be monsters rather than giving them a chance to be people, but they were too good at being war machines, too driven to survive at any cost. Without your flow of mana, they were starving for energy and so they devoured any and all sources of energy they could, with no care of who or what they destroyed to feed their never ending hunger."

Ozuran's gaze unfocused as he remembered those distant events. "Heroes came from across the world, though many were more glory seekers than true heroes. After them came armies of all sorts, sent by nations who feared what would happen if these creatures were not contained and killed. Much was lost in your war, even more was lost in its aftermath. So much suffering. Yet, here you are."

He gestured across the room, his sweeping motion taking in the merged core, Kazue, and Moriko.

"Married, if somewhat accidentally, to two young women, and your three souls far too connected to readily separate. It was only by this strange twist of chance that you were not broken free by a storm once your wards were weak enough."

He paused for a moment before adding, "Chance? Or luck?"

Mordecai was a bit too distracted by Ozuran's earlier words to focus on the god's musings immediately. There was only one type of 'storm' he could think of that would have been likely to break him out.

Connections started forming between some of the things that Ozuran had said. There had been a vigil of some sort guarding against Mordecai and his creatures. They would have acted against anyone who sought to free him. But breaking even a weakened seal would require significant strength to do so safely. Both of these issues could be solved by time. Time which was gifted to him through Ozuran's actions.

There was a sweet sort of pain to the relief of knowing that Ozuran had been willing to giving him that sort of chance, even when he was quite rightly so angry at Mordecai. He wanted to say something to express his feelings, but when he focused on Ozuran again, the god's expression interrupted that intention.

"That is quite a coincidence," Ozuran said thoughtful. "It's quite a coincidence that Mother chose to reincarnate Kazue so close to where your core used to be. It was also very lucky for all of you that the first person to enter Kazue's territory was someone who could survive a fall all the way down to where you were sealed and would have a temperament that was willing to save your life despite the burden it would place on her."

Mordecai's eyes widened as he started to pick up on Ozuran's implications. "Wait..."

"No," Ozuran said with a smile, "I don't think I will. It seems there is little more need for me here, and I do need to prepare to receive an unexpected visitor. When our mutual friend Li arrives, I will have to tell him over tea that his friend Mordecai has returned from vacation and has a new home. I expect your life to rapidly get very interesting."

"That's... do you really think it was his influence?" Mordecai asked. The thought brought a fresh mix of pain and hope with it.

"I find it likely," Ozuran said, "but given his nature, his shards can't know you are back until he is informed, so chance will guide a shard to someone who can tell him. Which seems to be me. But before I leave, I feel I should say something. Kazue, Moriko, your lives are now bound to Mordecai's, and you have heard much of what happened in the aftermath of the worst day of his life. But you should also know that for all the risks involved in your bonds, he deliberately took the greatest risks on himself. I can see the residue of safeties he'd laid that would have sacrificed himself to ensure you were not harmed if his rituals failed, even if the sacrifice was not just his life, but his soul."

Both of them looked at Mordecai, but before any of them could say anything, Ozuran continued to speak. "Oh, and Mordecai, I acknowledge you as a high priest and champion still, because I believe your regret is sincere and the lesson learned. You still need to pay penance for a very long time, but I think your own conscience will guide you best there. Still, there will be many eyes upon you, judging and demanding. Dangers as well; for all of the destruction you wrought, your attempted purge was not complete, just as theirs was not. You have a second chance here, and I can not be lenient if you misstep. Please, do better with this life."

With that, he was gone, leaving Mordecai feeling the pressure of a multitude of questions across his link with the women who were now his wives. After he dealt with the fox that was still watching them.

"Do you still have business with us?" he asked.

Danitsa laughed and said, "No, I think all business is concluded. Pleasure on the other hand, well, I have no pressing matters to attend to, and I do want to see what havoc Li will create here. Oh, don't mind me, you won't even notice I'm here." Light and shadow flowed around the celestial fox and she vanished. Not even their cores could detect her presence, but Mordecai was certain that she was still around somewhere.

Great.

Now to answer the questions behind two very intense gazes.