Video| In all my dreams, it's never quite as it seems

[ushahin]

[When the video opens up, Ushahin is lying once again inside his bathtub. It's about five o' clock in the morning, so at least he's only waking up the resident of Hadriel up at the crack of dawn instead of the middle of the night this time. He's considerate that way.]

Does anyone else hear it? The music? It's so lovely.

[There is, of course, no music. What he's hearing is the tune he's caught from passing through someone's mind while they sleep. It's had quite the effect on him.]

Music makes everything quiet inside.

[He starts humming to himself, tapping his fingers to keep rhythm. If that tune sounds somewhat familiar, well, it might have been your mind he was tapping into.]

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[ushahin]

Hmmm...I wonder...

[He gets up from the bathtub, a creaking sound evident as he swings his long legs over the side. He motions for Shadow to follow him, still holding his coffee in his left hand.

The bedroom is mostly bare, the unused bed neat as a pin. Ushahin retrieves a package from beneath it. It's a thick cloth covering an object that's very precious to the Dreamspinner. He uncovers it. There's two pieces of a helmet beneath it, a neat split down right down the middle. It's made of a dark material and it oozes invisible dark energy that's apparent even to those who aren't attuned to psychic waves. This is the Helm of Shadows. He offers one half to Shadow.]

Don't let it touch your bare skin. Can you feel it?

[ushahin]

[Ushahin runs one of his long, crooked fingers down the edge of the helmet. He can stand being near it, but only after using it for so many years. He can feel the dark power calling to him. Well, Shadow had wanted a story. Ushahin would give him a good one in the form of the helmet's history.]

That is the Helm of Shadows. It was once one of the great weapons of Urulat. It was forged by Haomane First-Born and captured on the field of battle during one of the first battles by his brother Satoris Third-Born, who then poured his own energies into the helm until its purpose had been turned for his own use. I used it quite often in his service. It focuses the mind and expands it outward, allowing you to see into the minds of others. It was destroyed during the last battle fought between Satoris and his brother's forces. I took it with me when I fled them. Even broken, I wouldn't trust the helm's powers to my enemies.

I seek to have it repaired.

[ushahin]

Yes. And for someone without powers, it temporarily gives them abilities to control the minds of others.

[He has wondered what the gods' reactions would be. Ushahin doesn't trust them, not a one, and so that's why he has kept Godslayer hidden from all. But they are his only chance to repair it. Mortal hands can't do the same.]

You'd feel the pain and anger and rage of my god Satoris. He poured it all into the Helm when he was shaping it to his will.

[ushahin]

There is always a price for the abilities that can shape the world. Madness was the price for mine. The pain of my master is the price that the Helm demands.

[Not just any pain either. It was a pain of the groin, feeling as if one had been stabbed there, a wound that would never heal. Ushahin can feel a faint echo from half of the Helm he's holding radiating out even now.]

[ushahin]

[Ushahin takes the pieces of the Helm and puts them back inside the cloth, wrapping them up securely, and placing them back where he had taken them from. The coffee he had set aside is nearly cool by this point, but he drinks it anyway.

How can he explain it to Shadow? His pain, his suffering, they are all what makes him up. Without it, he would lose part of who he is. And even if his body was healed, nothing can repair his mind save another with abilities like him.]

Anger is what helps to drive you. Pain is what drives me.

[ushahin]

[It is good to have a friend that accepts him for what he is with condemning him. Too often, Ushahin has faced judgement from others. He watches as the energy flickers around the hedgehog's hands. Now there's something new.]

What is that?

[The fingers of his crooked right hand trace down the gloved palm of Shadow's left hand.]

[ushahin]

[This is something Ushahin hasn't seen before. They both have their secrets, the two of them, even if he trusts Shadow far more than anyone else in Hadriel. He's not sure what to expect as the energy flows over him, but he's relieved when there's nothing more than a tingle flows over his ill-knit fingers. "...able to turn thought into power." Now there's an all too familiar phrase to the half-man.]

There is something similar in Urulat. Pieces of the Souma, the jewel that helped to create the world. One who holds a piece of it can shape the world around them to their liking. They're powerful enough to raise a castle, stop a beating heart, or even kill a god.

[And he's got a piece of it sitting in his house right now. Nobody knows about it. As soon as people know about power, they covet it. Ushahin won't trust Godslayer to anyone. Plus, on a personal level, the one who controls the little dagger can control him. His heart has a brand on it from the handle when he became immortal and anyone who holds the dagger can whisper commands that he'll be forced to obey.]

[ushahin]

First the left eyes and now we shall have jewels. Another connection...

[He's been looking for the spider webs that form ways that connect the people here. They all came from different worlds but certain patterns kept coming together. First, he had seen the power in Sans' left eye. His own was, of course, the source of pain and power both. Now a mention of jewels that could shape the world. Somehow, it was all interconnected. Ushahin just couldn't see the pattern yet.]

What does it all mean? A dragon would know.

[ushahin]

Odd? No. Humanity is like an infectious disease. They breed and multiply wherever they go.

[Ushahin's voice drips with contempt. If it were up to him, he'd likely wipe the whole lot of them out and start over with a race a little less inclined to wiping out others instead of getting along with them.]

But they are quite adaptive, I will give them that. It has allowed them to flourish above all other races in Urulat.

[ushahin]

[Ushahin's lips twitch at that. He agrees with the sentiment wholeheartedly.]

You are right. Perhaps it is another connection. That would make three I have seen thus far. The pattern by which people are being drawn here may not be as random as we have been led to believe.

[He's not sure where he's going with this. But Ushahin doesn't believe in coincidences or trustworthy gods. They were drawn here for more of a reason than simply to feed on their emotions.]

[ushahin]

No. My world still stands, but it is much changed from the one I knew.

[The war had taken everything from him: his home, his family, his god, even his madlings had to part from their master. He'd been heading for the swamps of the last dragon when he'd been drawn here, but even then, his plan for what he would do when he got there was fragmented and rudimentary at best.]

The god who wishes to rule it will change it further and eventually I will see all I hold dear destroyed or fade away. I am the last remnant of that which he wishes to be stamped out.

[ushahin]

Perhaps I shall. I have nothing to go back to and there is a purpose for which I am here.

[The threads that bind everything together still were present in Hadriel. There was a reason for him being here, even if he didn't precisely know what it was yet. Besides, he's grown used to the luxuries of running water and electric lights. It will be a very big difference if he has to go back to Urulat.]

And there are those here who need me.

[He has friends now and new madlings. He must look out for them, for no one else will.]