The Story of Sheng Seleris - Part 2

From: Martin Laurie <102541.3423_at_CompuServe.COM>
Date: 19 Nov 96 13:47:26 EST


The Story of Sheng Seleris - Part 2

My first two years in the Instant Torture Camp were easy compared to what was to follow. Mostly that was due to influence of the man I first met on entering the camp, though I didn't know of his interest in me at the time. He had been none other than the Chen Taio; the Mandarin of Painful Enlightenment himself and the man directly responsible to the Exarch of Ignorance for the continued suffering of the camps' inmates and the smooth running of the its industries.

        The camp was an immense source of wealth for the Exarch of Ignorance and ultimately the Dragon Emperor; Godunya. The endless stream of political prisoners, rebels, criminals, madmen, fanatics and foreigners that were sent to this camp were put to work on a multitude of tasks from the forging of weapons to the quarrying of rock. From the making of saddles to the shaping of pots. Finally, when life came to an end, the body of the dead inmate was checked for usefulness and if strong enough, it was turned into a Zombie, either to stand guard over the inmates it had once been part of or to serve in the Dragon armies or navies as a rower or spear carrier. If the body was not tough enough for the Zombie ceremony to be worth it, they threw it into the Pit of Flame and Fat where the burning woods reduced flesh to a liquid that was collected from runnels built into the base of the pit. The human fat was used to lubricate many different products including the oar-locks of the Imperial navy. Nothing was wasted of the body and as I later found out, nothing of the soul either.

        After being assigned to a barracks, my first task was easy on my body but taxing on my mind and soul. I worked in the Black Lotus preparation factory, grinding and treating the flowers until they became the mind-altering dust that kept the lands of Ignorance in slumber as the Dragon Emperor demanded.

        For me the work was a revelation. Constant exposure to the drug combined with my own innate powers and vision took me beyond the normal abusers blank peacefulness into the world of spirits, ghosts and demons. If there was any place in the world to find such beings, it was this Hell of Endless Torture, they swarmed and screamed their agony of gibbering joys to those who could see them and wormed into the hearts of those who could not.

        The vision the Black Lotus gave me was acute, I could see the souls of those around me, know who was weak and who was strong. With such powers I knew who to avoid and who to dominate. More, I began to let my spirit wander at night while my flesh slept. At first I confined the exploration of this strange new world to my barracks where I visited the dreams of the other prisoners and twisted their minds to my will, but later I went beyond the walls and out, into the camp. What I saw out there shocked and intrigued me; I had found the heart of it all.

        In the centre of the camp hung an amorphous shape of gigantic size that was not immobile nor without hunger. . It pulsed with a purple glow that seemed to drain me of strength as I neared it. Fat, groping tentacles of power snaked around the camp looking for sustenance and souls. Sensing their danger I avoided them easily for they quested blindly and without intelligence as if seeking easier food than I. However, the closer to the central mass I went, the thicker the tentacles became and the higher my chances of being caught so I stayed back and observed. As I watched, entranced by its hellish beauty, writhing spirits appeared from all over the camp and were sucked or pulled into the seething mass. They struggled and strove but none had my strength or speed to resist its demonic attraction. Each time one was absorbed into the mass the purple glow flared up brightly then died again. Whatever this thing was it was hungry and without end in its appetites.

        I felt a surge behind me and span my spiritual body about. From my barracks a soul emerged. It glowed weakly yet for some reason it seemed familiar. It moved uncertainly about, like a foal trying its legs for the first time. It did not have long to get used to its new form of travel for a thick tentacle of purple hunger swung into view and encircled the soul. and began pulling it back towards the central mass with ease. The soul squirmed and struggled and I felt waves of pain emanating from its being. Its consciousness was fading but I recognised the memories of Tun Hwa, a prisoner who slept only three beds from mine and who'd been suffering from the Racking Disease for some time. Plainly the disease had ended his life and know this thing was going to take his
soul.

        I had a sudden urge to find out what it was doing and followed the tentacle and its catch closely. The purple limb pushed its way through the others as it went back to the central mass with its prize, this cleared the way for me too and I followed it through a wall of shimmering lights and jumping sparks into a pit of utter blackness. The soul of Tun Hwa spiraled below me and I followed,deep into the blackness.

        Other souls joined the spiral and I began to hear their screams, as if their very essence was being torn apart and indeed, as I looked they began to dissolve all around me until I was surrounded by a hazy mist of soul-stuff. Then, everything went dark.

         "I knew you would come." Said a voice in my head. I span this way and that butcould see nothing. "As I said; heart of a Tiger - brain of an Ox."

        I knew that voice but before I could blurt out his name, he became visible to me as did my surroundings. I floated in a cavern of immense size and Chen Taio; the Mandarin of Painful Enlightenment hovered beside me, still garbed in his red robes.

"What is this place?" I asked. My voice did not quaver but it was filled
with wonder.

"It is the heart of it all, the centre of the camp."
"The souls of the dead come here?" I asked, knowing the answer but
wanting to be sure.

"Yes. All who die in the camp are brought here by the Catcher, none
escape its clutches on death though some have made other....arrangements." I could tell from his tone that his was something he would not talk about so I changed my line of questioning. I wanted to know everything I could about this man and this place.

"Why? What use are the souls of the weak?"
        He laughed wildly. "Souls are what builds the Empire! Not enlightenment', not inner peace' but souls! Everything else is just words and illusion!" He gestured around him into the mist of souls. "This is my function, all Mandarins do this. We focus the spirits of the people for the Exarchs who in turn focus it for the Emperor. Such is the way of the Dragon. Worship of the lowest gives strength to the highest!"

        I was perplexed, such a concept was beyond my youthful mind yet I saw with an instinctual understanding of what he implied, it seemed wrong. "You lie! These people don't worship, they suffer your rule as do I. Give me a chance at escape and I would kill you where you stand!"

"Yes Tiger-Ox, that is true but does worship have to be given freely?"
"Of course!" I snapped. "What else is there?"
        He closed with me then and I felt his spirit grab me in a grip of power that was iron, unbending and unbreakable. His unmasked strength flared around me and I saw the might and fierce will that was the Mandarin of Painful Enlightenment. I saw deeper into his soul, saw the roots that fed him, saw the roots that bound him, saw how my agony strengthened him and realisation hit me like a thunderbolt.

"You _are_ the collector!" I blurted as I looked into the eye of the
tiger and possibly my own death.

        His burning rage cooled and was replaced instantly by calculation. He nodded as he released me. "Yes, I am the collector or at least a part of me is, it is not a conscious function."

"You take the souls of the inmates? But how does this help you, they do
not worship your Emperor, they curse him!"

        He laughed madly then grew serious, as he had at the gate that first day. "They hate him, its true but that is desired. Their suffering, hate, anger and pain is all part of the Emperors spirit. This camp and others like it gives the Emperor the strength he needs to enact suffering upon his own people, it is only a part of his power but a vital part. That is the secret of the Dragon Empire - it _is_ its people! It is its happiness, its contentment..... and its pain."

"He wishes to make his own people suffer?" I was bemused.
"Naturally! Should they act wrongly he must have the means to punish!
Without this there is no balance, no equilibrium."

        I saw then the dreadful simplicity of it all, even at that age my mind had the clarity of the Heavens. I saw how every act upon my journey had been designed to engender hate and how every rule of the camp was meant to break the human spirit into suffering and spite. No soul fled this camp, all were absorbed into the Dragon mind to give it the will to inflict damage upon itself should it be necessary. Its balance was wondrous but also wasteful to my way of thinking. I opened my thoughts to the Mandarin. "But this power of suffering is so easy to create, why waste it on harmony, use it for conquest!"

        He smiled strangely. "Spoke like a true barbarian Tiger-Ox. You are a child of your people right enough, no matter how advanced your spirit." He looked down at me sadly. "I had thought that you might make a suitable replacement for me but that may be impossible. I see it now. I show you balance and you see gain, I show you understanding and you seek conquest!"

        I glared into his eyes. "What else is there? We are weaned on war and blood. It is what we _are_. Is this why you allowed me here, gave me the Black Lotus to bring my soul forth? To teach me as your student?"

"Perhaps, perhaps I saw something in you that had been in me all those
decades ago when I first rose to my rank. I too had been an inmate of this place, I too felt the burning hate, the need for vengeance but in the end I felt one with the Dragon and knew my place in its energies. I can give you that place, I can make you whole but you must endure as I did and learn as I did. Can you do this, is it in you to open your mind?"

        I nodded my assent and held his gaze while his soul-sight searched my thoughts with incredible intensity. "Teach me and I shall follow." I said.

        He bared his teeth once more and shook his head. "We shall see Tiger-Ox, we shall see. Tell me that again, in a hundred years time when you are one with the Dragon. Perhaps then I will believe you fully but for now I'm prepared to ride the Tiger. Go back, go back and learn what suffering _is_, learn it to your core for only then will you know how to take it from others and use it as you must. Go back and _learn_."

        I felt my soul blown by a wind that pushed me like a leaf and I whirled back to my body to awake to the sounds of the Rising Gong. My arracks-mates clustered around the body of Tun Hwa, he was blue already.

        Jongir, a fellow Pentan from the Urkomal Tribe and a man who had been most friendly too me in a world of strangers nodded to the body. "Died in the night, another one for the Pit of Flames and Fat I think, he never was very strong." He peered at me strangely. "I saw you in my dreams last night, you stood at bay against a thing of evil and held part of your mind from it though it tried to seduce you. Are you a Shaman?" He asked almost reverantly. He was a man very much in tune with the spirits and would have made a fine shaman as well as the redoubtable warrior that he was.

        I glanced at the body and then at Jongir. "Survive with me and find out Jongir, perhaps the answer will surprise you as I hope to surprise another."

        I walked out that day with a defining sense of purpose. If pain and suffering were to be my sustenance for decades to come then I was going to enjoy sharing my 'meal' with others when I gained my freedom......

To be continued

Martin Laurie


End of Glorantha Digest V3 #294


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