Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 65 SHAMESH.

“What?” Isaac demanded frantically. “Kahtesh, what’s wrong?”

The skeleton shook its head slowly as if it were an utterly strange motion but it knew it had to be done.

“No?” Isaac questioned. “No, what? Nothing is wrong?”

The skeleton shook its head again.

“No… no, you’re not Kahtesh?” Isaac asked worriedly. He felt a sudden pain in his chest that was entirely emotional but he refused to process or focus on it.

The skeleton nodded.

“Are, are you Shamsha?” Isaac questioned tentatively.

The skeleton shook its head again.

Isaac breathed a deep sigh of relief. “Then, who are you?” He questioned his physical shadow.

The skeleton’s head tilted to the side in a very familiar gesture. It then reached up and pointed at its mouth.

“You can’t speak?” Isaac asked and the skeleton nodded. “But you should be able to, there should be a magic spell that creates sound. That is how Shamsha was talking.”

The skeleton straightened and seemed to pause as it tried to figure out how to speak. It reminded Isaac of someone standing in front of a line of levers but they had no idea which lever did what. A high pitched screech blasted out of the skeleton at such a volume that Isaac and Lenna were both forced to cover their ears and use their respective healing to keep from having ruptured eardrums.

“TOO LOUD!” Isaac yelled at the skeleton. “LOWER THE VOLUME!” The sound abruptly cut off. Isaac’s hearing quickly returned to normal and he heard a quiet ringing. At first he thought that it was his ears but then he realized that it was coming from the skeleton. “A little louder.” Isaac told him and the volume spiked to merely ‘uncomfortably loud’ instead of ‘earsplitting’. “That is a little loud. Could you meet in the middle?” Isaac questioned. He could tell from the slight recoil and hunched posture of the skeleton that it didn’t think that his request was possible. Isaac waved it off. “That’s fine. What are you trying to say?”

The skeleton pointed at itself. “SHAMSHA AND KAHTESH.” It blasted loud enough that Isaac couldn’t suppress a wince but not loud enough to cause any real auditory damage.

“Both?” Lenna asked. “Isn’t that what you were trying to do?”

The skeleton and Isaac both shook their heads. “The plan was for Kahtesh to only learn Shamsha’s memories, not to merge them.” Isaac explained. “Are you separate or completely merged?” Isaac asked the skeleton. Shamsha/Kahtesh interlocked its fingers. It seemed like the skeleton wanted to speak as little as possible because it was aware of its own auditory difficulties. “One being, huh.” Isaac thought aloud. “Which one are you more like?”

The skeleton rocked its head to the side in a clear show of lacking understanding. “Which direction is your personality leaning?” Lenna tried to rephrase the question for it.

The skeleton rocked its head to the other side. “Okay, okay,” Isaac began. “we can figure that out later. Do you remember what I told you?” The skeleton nodded. “Say it outloud.”

The skeleton seemed to hesitate for a moment. “LEARN BUT REMEMBER: YOUR FAMILY, LENNA AND I, ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS, THINGS TO BE TREASURED AND PROTECTED, NOT USED AND DISCARDED.’” The skeleton played a perfect recording of Isaac’s internal voice at full volume.

It was then that Isaac realized that the skeleton had been using his old voice, the voice he had before he rebuilt his body, to speak. Isaac’s old voice wasn’t that much different than his current one, it was a little higher, more like it was spoken from a higher part of the throat rather than from a different person. They sounded similar enough that they could have been brothers. “W-what should I call you?” Isaac asked the skeleton. The skeleton shook its head and pointed at him. “You want me to name you?” The skeleton nodded.

“Are, are you still completely loyal to Isaac?” Lenna questioned pragmatically.

The skeleton turned to look at her and nodded. It pointed at Isaac. “MASTER, CREATOR, PRIMARY.” It explained.

“You really are a fragment of me then?” Isaac asked and the skeleton nodded. “I see.” Isaac said and then delved deep into his thoughts.

“Shamsha and Kahtesh are both written using two characters in draconic.” Lenna explained. “Sham, meaning hold or wait, and Sha, a feminine denotation. Kaht means a jolt like that of static or a little zap and Esh is the male denotation.”

“Then, since you aren’t a lightning dragon anymore, but you are made from the shadow and impressions of three males, what about Shamesh? Patience, that is what your name would be in Standard.” Isaac offered his familiar that was a mix of two-three beings. Isaac wanted more than anything, not related to Lenna, to know that he hadn’t destroyed his companion. Isaac had slowly begun to actually care for the dragon to some degree and it made him feel awful to think that he might’ve crushed the poor thing under the weight of his power and Shamsha’s lingering impression. Kahtesh was just so young, so new, and had such little time to truly become himself that there was a very real fear that the impression of Shamsha had broken Kahtesh apart and the new being was just a swirling mass of the two powered by the shadow of Isaac’s soul.

The skeleton nodded. “I LIKE IT.” He told Isaac and, for the first time since the change, Isaac felt emotion flow through their link. It was joy and thankfulness. Isaac breathed such a huge sigh of relief that he almost had to sit down.

“That’s good.” Isaac said barely louder than a whisper. “Try saying it.”

The skeleton nodded. “SHAMESH.” He spoke and then hopped in a very childish and dragon-like movement that resulted in his toes catching on the ground and him toppling and crashing into the ground. He just stayed there for a moment and Isaac felt humor being sent his way. Isaac chuckled at the collapsed skeleton.

“I think you need to relearn how to walk.” Isaac told him. “Or at least how to run and jump. Your weight and center of balance is all off compared to Shamsha and, well, your anatomy is entirely different from Kahtesh.”

Shamesh nodded. “I WILL LEARN. I AM SHAMESH.”

Isaac laughed at the child-like excitement. “Yes, yes you are buddy.”

“What in the name of all that is holy is going on up here?!” Celeste demanded as she barged onto the roof. “What is that?!”

“SHAMESH.” Shamesh replied.

Celeste recoiled at the volume. “I got that much.” She said with a wince. “Isaac, what is that?”

“My skeleton.” Isaac explained. “You remember the little dragon.”

“Yes.” Celeste replied.

“I sort of merged him with an ancient wizard and he is trying to learn how to speak.” Isaac told her. “It might take him a bit to get the volume right.” He turned to look back at the skeleton. “Can you try to lower the volume again now that you’ve had more time to get used to it?”

Shamesh nodded and then spoke so quietly Isaac and Lenna could barely hear him, Celeste was still recovering from his earlier words. “is this quiet enough?” Shamsha questioned.

“Try to meet in the middle again.” Isaac told him.

“Like this?” Shamesh replied. His volume was that of a person trying to be heard over the sound of a busy dining room.

“Good enough for now.” Isaac told him. “Say hello to Celeste.”

Shamesh looked at Celeste with his orbs made of death flames. She felt a faint chill run up her spine. “Hello.” He told her.

“Yes, hello.” Celeste replied. “If you keep at your current volume you can keep talking until ten bells.” She explained. “If you can lower to this volume then as long as you are in the room you can talk all night for all I care.”

Shamesh nodded. “I will try.” He told her.

Celeste gave him a strained smile. “Thank you.” She told the skeleton and turned to its master. “Isaac, you know this will cause a panic right?” She demanded. “A dragon skeleton was a lot for people already, but because he wasn’t walking ‘round on two legs they were able to disassociate enough to let it go. What are you going to do when the inquisitors show up from the capital calling you a necromancer?”

“I’ll figure it out.” Isaac promised her. “For now we will keep him hidden from the public. Once he’s gotten a hold of walking and moving around I’ll send him into my shadow and take him to the towers. Maybe Alexander or Jala will have an idea on how to keep people from panicking when they see him.”

Celeste could only shake her head. “You could paint him pink and give him a rainbow wig and people would still panic, Isaac. You are going to need a miracle to keep from topping the church’s most wanted list.”

“Good thing miracles aren’t that uncommon.” Isaac replied casually. Celeste was so utterly dumbfounded by the ridiculousness that had just come out of Isaac’s mouth that she couldn’t come up with a response. Celeste just shook her head and turned around. She walked back down the stairs and, right as she was walking through the threshold into the rest of the building, Isaac just barely caught her swearing under her breath about gray hairs and old age.