Description: Once again, Vince finds himself lectured by the mysterious old sorceror. Is this leading towards a true apprenticeship, or is Sokaku's teaching being wasted on the young Vince?
A velvetine black sky pierced with pinpoints of starlight create an ocean of tranquility upon which wispy, silv'ry clouds drift lazily. The half-masked moon shines brilliantly upon the quaint village of Strolheim, illuminating the buildings only slightly less than their constructed lights, and creating a cascading shimmery light over the mountains and water. The village is still and quiet, peaceful and calm. If there's one thing Vince LaRose has discovered about Strolheim, it's that it's a very picture-esque, beautiful place. The likes of which he could get very lost in.
Fortunately, that seems to be what the proverbial doctor has ordered. It makes meditation much easier. The fighting he's done here, the more he reflects on it, has been... different, to say the least. What was at one time a sporadic occurance in his natural flow of chi has grown in intensity and frequency. And still, he's found no way to control it, other than to go with it. When it happens, he never expects it - and it all but engulfs him. This, he recognizes, could become something dangerous if left uncontrolled.
The young swordsman rests seated outside a tavern on a porch stool, cape settled mostly about his form. The eyes are shut, and the feather of his hat ruffles through the breeze. Upon the edge of the tavern's rooftop rests a familiar falcon, gray in color with pure black eyes.
And from the opposite direction of the tavern, an equally familiar sound - the sound of metal rings on a prayer staff ringing together as the old monk steps one by one towards the village itself. His hat pulled down low over his eyes and once again fish hanging from his staff, Sokaku enters Strolheim with a wide berth given beneath the moonlight, no one daring to meet his eyes (or hat) or stop and question why he was carrying fish or a travel-Shogi board beneath his arm or a prayer staff, or why he was dressed in the robes of a Japanese monk...or anything else about the unusual man.
He heads purposefully towards the center, flicking his eyes up to note the falcon, and the sharp mind beneath that hat channels together the necessary information. Slowly, sandals against the stone, he makes his way there, sitting down on the grass near Vince's location, crossing his legs, and stabbing his staff down into the ground to keep it where it is. Two fingers raise before his face.
"Have you practiced your spells as I demanded, son of LaRose?" The old monk asks, deep voice commanding and strong in the darkness.
The ringing is picked up, but distantly. Vince has done an effective job at tuning out the outside world, it seems. But the voice is enough to break Vince from his trance, icy blues opening slowly to take in the hatted monk before him.
Just as gradually as the eyes open, the falcon fades into the night.
"I never relent on my studies," Vince replies solemnly. "Though I did not expect to see you here.." He hitches a moment on recollection. "-Sensei," he recalls.
"Admirable," Sokaku replies, "And your memory is stronger than many I have taught before."
The monk selects one of the fish and lights it with his thumb, once more displaying his mastery over the natural world - or the natural world's mastery over him. The delicious smoked fish scent rises into the air. (What is it with him and eating, anyway?)
"I travel seeking evil, and where it gathers, so too do I arrive. It is my destiny, my duty, and my chosen calling. It is why I have decided to teach you."
"The conjuror's art is fraught with danger," he continues, "The world is not good nor evil, but parts of it are. You must learn to determine what is safe and what is not, and when it comes time, subjugate what is not to your will and join it with what is."
Vince descends his stool to stand naturally, eyes open more fully and set on the man in the rush hat. "That will make it good?," Vince ventures to ask. Given a moment's pause, he adds tentatively, "I'm not sure I understand how to do that." Of course, that's what training is primarily geared to do.
"No. Evil does not become good." He shakes his head ponderously. "It simply means that you will know how to wield the evil as if it were any other weapon. All sorcerors run a risk, a grave risk, of falling to that evil. Read the book Faustus, and you will understand more specifically what it means to call on evil without the proper knowledge."
He rolls back his sleeve, revealing a very long burn and a scar that almost looks like it's alive, branched-out and cracking along his arm. "No one is perfect. And no one is safe from evil."
"The play by Christopher Marlowe? I'm familiar with it," Vince replies. "I wasn't aware that it was ever a full bo-Oh mon Dieu!"
Vince's eyes widen at the scoring over Sokaku's arm, taken aback. "What happened? Is that a burn?"
His gaze lifts back up to the man's face. Or hat, as it were. Somehow, he gets the feeling that this qualifies as a face and the wisened older man feels the same way. But there is a definite look of concern in those eyes of his. Vince definitely doesn't like the idea of being scarred horrifically, even if he throws himself into one dangerous situation after another.
Sokaku seems vaguely amused by the man's reaction. "This is my blacksmith's scar. You have heard the saying, that all scars tell a story, yes? But that is not true."
He rolls his sleeve back down, taking a bite of the fish. "All scars tell stories of mistakes. In my youth, I made them. This was my punishment, when I tried to bend the Earth to my will. Mistakes are not evil - they are how we learn."
"Do not feel concerned for this." He waves his hand at it. "It is a trifle. It has been here since I was younger than you, and will persist until I have become one with the Earth."
"A blacksmith's scar...," Vince repeats with severity. Smithing happens to be one of the things Vince enjoys doing. So try as Sokaku may to dissuade the frenchman's concern, it's only become exacerbated.
Exacerbated, but not a focal point.
"Then.. what you were saying earlier about evil," Vince says in an effort to not waste the man's time. He had the notion that this Sokaku person, as few times as he's seen him, tends to keep himself busy - or at least values his time and chooses deliberately how he rations it. "You're saying to -control- evil? Are you talking about chi, or people also?" The idea of controlling people in a direct, nigh sorcerous way is befuddling to him. Heck, the idea of considering his wind energy to be magic is new!
Sokaku laughs at that. "What I do is purify. I walk the Earth, seeking those of evil intent, and if possible, purify them of their actions. If not...I destroy them." He adjusts on the ground, finishing the fish. "Evil chi can spring forth from the ground, can be hammered into a workable shape by the strong will of a man who understands that he is both the riverbed and the raft, but evil hearts cannot; they must be dealt with."
He points at Vince again, meaty finger not accusatory, simply selective. "You cannot command a man or his heart. You can only aid him, even if to aid him you must beat him into submission. There is no magic in the world, no chi, that can force a man to do as you will from the depths of his heart."
Eyes first move to the fish moments before it's gone. They then move to the hat. Then finally, they cross to peer at the finger. After a considerable pause, Vince finally lifts his gaze back to Sokaku proper-like. "I understand. I've.. encountered these situations before, you could say."
"Have you?" Sokaku inquires carefully, "Where?"
"Mostly in Southtown," Vince replies without hesitation. "Though once in Egypt, as well. Criminals, for the most part, some selling guns, some people attacking the schools..."
Vince hesitates a moment before adding, "One more notable villain named Igniz, right in the school auditorium."
His right hand crosses to his left shoulder, rubbing over it slowly. "Some of these situations, I was successful in my efforts to stop their intentions. Some... I failed."
Sokaku nods. He sets fire to another fish, impaling it on a knife, and simply watches Vince from beneath that massive hat for a moment. Yes, this one would be a good student. He was sure now - the selflessness was what he had been looking for.
"Did you fail?" He asks, "Or did you fail to stop them, but deter them from their goal?"
The old monk's voice takes a slightly sharper tone. "When you fight, you must always ask, do you fight to end them, or do you fight to prevent them from getting what they want? For example, if a man is recruiting soldiers in a village, and you step in the way and send them running, did you lose or did you win?"
"Things are not so black and white."
The question brings a stunned pause from Vince. After a moment's consideration, he admits, "I'm not certain. When I confront a villain, I face them with everything that I have. Retreat should be a tactical option - not one to use when doing so would result in so many more, far more helpless, untrained people would be hurt. So I suppose the fact that I'm still alive today must mean that they were deterred, and I hadn't failed completely."
Otherwise, they'd go ahead and kill him, right? That's what Vince figures, at least.
"I think in that situation, the most effective target would be the man recruiting. The others could be saved, couldn't they?"
"Perhaps." He agrees. "I have never attacked an innocent. But my presence, and shows of force against the leader, can send them running. This is what I mean."
"It would make sense, because the only one truly devout to the evil cause is the recruiter. The others can be swayed with words, money, or fear." Vince bobs his head in a curt, proud nod. He feels he answered that pretty well! Considering how their last encounter went, that's a step in the right direction! No beration, no thinking of him as a fool!
Hopefully.
Finally, Vince looks at the fish again. "You.. enjoy the fish cooked that way? No seasonings?"
"I can appreciate the flavor best when nothing has been added but the heat of the fire channeled through my fingers." He agrees.
"Your thinking is correct...and this is why I have chosen to teach you. Because I see in you what I saw in all those others I have aided."
He jabs the fish-on-a-stick at Vince. "But at the same time, you must know the dangers of the summoner's art. Too far, and you fall to evil, and that I cannot allow. This is...yet another way I fight it."
He finishes off the remains of the fish. "What do you fight for?" The old man asks.
Eyes cross to look at the fish this time, before looking back to Sokaku. It makes a sort of sense, what he's saying. He fights evil by recruiting people to be trained not to -be- evil.
But the question, for some reason, throws Vince for a loop. Used to be, he could answer that without hesitation. But in light of this conversation, he's not entirely sure what the real answer is. After his hesitant pause, he offers, "A number of reasons. I'm fighting in Strolheim for the honor of my family. I confront villains for the sake of righteousness."
Sokaku shakes his head. "Why do you fight at all? Not in this tournament, not the villains...what drives you to war? What drives you to lay your life on the line - for that is what fighting is, fundamentally. Even with the safeguards of modern fighting," and he says 'modern fighting' like most would say 'cancerous growth', "What drives you to further yourself, to better yourself, and to continue what is a neverending conflict?"
Vince opens his mouth, then closes it again. "..Perfection?," he says at last. Though immediately afterwards, his head slouches. "I don't know anymore. It used to only be for the sake of honor and glory - to be the greatest swordsman to walk the Earth." He exhales a sigh. "But then, placed into situations where I had the chance to intervene and stop evil from succeeding, I took that. So.. I'm not even sure!"
There goes the thoughts of keeping sensei happy.
Sokaku, however, smiles at that. "Uncertainty is natural. It is your age, it is your life, and my question is one of hypothesis. I wanted to know more about the student I am taking under my wing."
He sets the shogi board down and begins setting it up, playing against himself quite calmly. "Perfection, honor, glory, and heroism are all common motivations. But you must know the truth, slice away the fog about it and find the secrets buried within your heart, before you can learn the true arts of the summoner. I can only teach you to temper the power you have now until you understand what lies within yourself...otherwise, I would risk inflicting on you a great evil, and that I will not do."
Vince glances back up to Sokaku, surprised look on his face. He isn't displeased? He was sure that would do it! But the explanation seems to suffice for Vince, and he nods once. "Very well. I.. I can plainly see your mastery of your craft," he says after some consideration on his words. "Your manipulation of chi is well beyond mine, and.. that I feel is a little disconcerting, in light of a few things."
Though Vince gradually becomes distracted with the monk, playing himself on the shogi board. He doesn't even know what's going on there.
Sokaku adjusts on his seat. "You're distracted," he says idly, "Keep your face on me. What I am doing with my hands does not matter - what you must keep your eyes on is the whole of me. If I were an enemy, this would be a prime distraction."
He chuckles. "However, this is simply an old man keeping in practice of his favorite game."
After a long moment of playing, he resets the board. "My craft," he begins, "Is not one that you can master. You are always a student in the arts of summoning, and you can only pass what you know along to a new generation. Summoning is an art, not a craft, and no artist can ever truly master his art; each summoning is unique, each new work is a masterpiece unto itself."
"Further," he continues, "Manipulating chi is not what I do. I flow with the chi - I am the riverbed, who guides the chi to its destination, and so too am I the raft, which on the river rides. Think of manipulation and control, and you open yourself to being controlled by the darkness."
Vince's head cocks slightly. "..Should I be wary of you, like I would others?," he asks. Given some time on that, Vince continues. "So the riverbed doesn't control where the water flows, but.. suggests it? I'm not sure I understand." His right hand, previously on his shoulder, now lifts to run through his hair, causing his hat to lift slightly.
Sokaku laughs. "Wary of me? I have no intention to harm you, but if I am to teach you, I will teach you even basics." The old monk adjusts his seating. "You must understand how the river works. The riverbed guides the water, but does not force it; the water flows towards the lowest point, and the riverbed leads it there, taking advantage of the way it functions. The raft then rides atop the water to its destination, with no say or control over where it goes."
Vince nods awkwardly. "I thought so.." He likes to think he knows the difference between ally and enemy, but were it an ambush.. maybe he'd be taken off guard. But that's very hard to always keep watch for!
The lecture on the river, with more explanation, gets Vince to be quiet once more. He takes a seat on the stool, as he had earlier, and adjusts his hat to sit properly again. "So the idea is that we -want- to be the riverbed to guide the flow of water, and..." He draws a blank. "..I'm not sure I understand the raft."
Sokaku nods. "You are at the whim of the water." He says calmly. "You are riding atop it, you are subject to its twists and turns, and should it object to your presence, you will be flung off and surely drown within it. While you guide the chi to its destination, using its natural flow, you also ride atop it, and risk being swallowed by its majesty if you do not learn to ride it without fighting it."
Sokaku sets his third fish ablaze. "You must learn not to steer against the current, but with it; learn not to fight the chi, but ride it. That is the raft."
This time, it makes much more sense to Vince. Maybe because he's sitting down now. Or perhaps because it was just elaborated. Either way, he gives an appreciative nod. "I understand now," he concedes.
"So then... what should I do?" Arms settle along the knees, and he leans forward a bit to get a better look at the old man. Not that he can see any more than a hat from this angle, but still. The attention is there.
Sokaku takes a huge chunk out of the fish. "When you fought recently, what have you done? Have you felt the flow, or have you tried to temper it into your own?"
"I've tried to draw it out when I felt it was needed," Vince replies. "But then it always..." He trails off, brow furrowing. Distracted by his own thoughts, the teenager's gaze wanders askew.
Sokaku says, "Always?"
Vince's gaze snaps back to Sokaku. "I always reach a point where the wind seems to completely overtake me. But.. it's never been a -bad- thing, I don't think. I feel it surging around me, then flowing through me. It's as if it has a mind of its own, and is.. asking, in a way, to be drawn into use. It's an overwhelming experience, and I never feel completely in control when it happens."
Sokaku purses his lips together. "You are not." He agrees. "You are surrendering yourself to be a vessel, a riverbed for the wind to follow. However..." He continues. "There are places in the world tainted with evil, unequivocably black and soul-crushing in every way possible. When you open yourself to them, you will feel their power, and you must know that then and only then should you restrict yourself. Do you understand?"
The first question that pops into Vince's head is, "There are naturally evil places on Earth?" This seems a little odd. "As in.. irrevocably evil? How is that possible?"
Sokaku shifts. "Because of man. Because of nature itself. It is the way of things." He shrugs. "I do not dwell on why or how. I dwell on how to stop it and how to prevent it from overtaking me."
"And how do you do that, then?," Vince asks. "What sort of place could be tainted that badly?" If nothing else, Sokaku seems to know how to spin a rivetting tale.
"As I said, the sites of great battles are often sick with the tainted chi of painful deaths and bloodshed spilled. To know how to handle it requires a veteran's touch, an artist's skill, and the knowledge of one who has made the mistake before...and you have none of these. You are an amateur with a paintbrush splattering paint upon a canvas, and while you see the shapes forming, you haven't yet learned to tap into all the elements, nor have you learned how to wield the chi you do specialize in without that fear of losing control. You must learn to forget control."
He drums his fingers on the fish. "You must remember your place in the world's great circle, in the flowing of chi, and in the world itself. However...I cannot teach you to know how to stop the taint from overtaking you. I can only warn you."
Vince's brow knits again in confusion. "But isn't a complete lack of control dangerous? Have you no paddle, no rudder by which to steer your raft? No sails?" His gaze turns aside. "I'm not entirely sure surrendering completely to that rush of wind would be safe. It becomes violent quickly."
Sokaku clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "A lack of control is not the same as a lack of guidance. The wind looks to you to guide it, not put a saddle and reigns upon it and force it in the direction you wish."
Vince is silent for a while after this is said, clearly mulling it over. "It's difficult to find the line there," he admits at last. "In one hand, I could chance going against it enough to damage myself. On the other, I might lose myself in it and hurt someone."
Sokaku raises his eyebrows behind the hat. "Do not fear losing yourself. But do not go against it. That is a fatal mistake. It is as though you are standing in the middle of a gale, and you will be swept away if you attempt to be the wall to stop it."
He adjusts his seat again. "The wind knows what it must do, and you know where it must go to do what you want it to do, yes?"
This analogy gets a fretful twitch in Vince's expression. Not at all a comforting thought, and considering Sokaku's arm... he'll be taking his advice. At the question, however, he looks back to him. "Yes."
Sokaku tilts his head to the side. "So why do you fear losing control, when you both know what must be done?"
"Because when it happens, I always feel as though I'm taking a backseat. As if the wind itself is possessing and energizing me, assuming control of a human being." Vince's gaze falls, and he shakes his head. "It's both exhilorating and terrible at the same time. I know only rudimentarily what to do with it when it comes."
Sokaku nods. "What you feel is natural, and your fear is natural. You are taking in the world's soul, or at least a part of it - it cannot be expected that you would know what to do instantly."
He crosses his arms. "But you must learn to trust the world as it trusts you with its power. You are born from the Earth as well, like every other human; you must forget this notion that humanity is the ruler of the Earth, and understand that we are permitted here...and that it is trusting you with the same gift it trusts all those who understand the summoner's arts.
Vince lets this information soak in for the time being, then finally lifts his head again to regard the sensei. "What of the evil parts of Earth? Would it thrust tainted winds at me? If resisting the energy would be my demise, what would it mean to resist tainted energy?"
Sokaku seems amused. "The tainted parts, the evil of the Earth, is beyond you for now. You must realize when not to accept its aid, and divert it around you as the river splits in two parts. But you do not yet have the experience to understand the subtleties."
He shifts once more. "You are but a novice now. The Earth does not care what you wish. When you have grown in understanding, the Earth, too, will grow in acceptance of you. Trust it, and trust me."
Vince lowers an eyebrow and gives Sokaku a critical look. "But should the Earth surge it towards me without my consent as I am...?," he asks.
Sokaku simply stares at him. "Then you must make the judgement call, then and there."
"What sort of decision could I make?" Vince, though unable to see Sokaku's eyes, gets the feeling that their gaze is evenly set.
"What do you think?"
Vince's gaze momentarily lowers to the porch, then back to Sokaku. "Either embrace is and become tainted, or fight it and die?"
Sokaku laughs. "No. Embrace it, or deny it. You do not need to fight chi to deny chi."
That's much easier said than done, in this case! Vince looks both exasporated and defeated. "I have no idea how to deny it. It comes like a rush, like the force of a hurricane sweeping into me. Is it even possible to will something like that away?"
Sokaku nods. "You create a new channel for it to flow down."
Vince visibly slouches on the stool, shoulders slumping. Even his feather sags a bit. "You make it sound as easy as saying 'no'," he says dryly.
Sokaku seems amused. "It is. Though the soul of the world belongs to the world alone, your body is yours. With practice, you can learn to keep yourself from illness, from disease, even hunger. However," he admits, finishing off his third fish. "There is no substitute for good food."
Practice. That's a word he was expecting to hear, and not one that gets a groan from him. Training and studying are certainly not removed from the young noble's mind. And now, he has something to focus some of that study to - a considerable part, at that. Working more with chi, only now guided rather than controlled.
But still.
No matter how much he tries to rationalize going with the flow of chi, somewhere in the back of his mind, the full rage of the winds concerns him.
Vince's gaze lowers again to the third, yet remaining fish. "...On that, I can readily agree." Vince's gaze lifts back to Sokaku, offering a weak smile.
Sokaku points at one of the fishes. "Would you like some, then? I have spare, after all. I have eaten my fill, and wasting it is nonsensical."
Vince, after a moment's thought, nods. "Sure. No point wasting it, as you said." With that, Vince climbs down from the stool and reaches for one of the fish.
He'll just have to overlook the googly eyeballs and whatnot. For as much as he likes roughing it, some things just give him the jeepers.
Sokaku notices Vince's eerie staring at the fish. His thumb lights with flame, and his hand slashes across the fish in a chop; the head falls to the ground, and he tosses it to the alleys, where a cat snags it from the ground and bites into it. He taps the side of his head as he stands.
"You must learn to trust nature," he says, "Though it goes against all that man believes in this day and age, I tell you that this day, this age is wrong; it is most twisted, and man believes it can domesticate what does not belong to it to rule over." With that, Sokaku pries his staff from the ground easily. "I have somewhere I must be. I will see you in the future, scion of the LaRose; let us see if you have acquired a greater sense of your world when next we meet, or if you have fallen prey to the temptations of power...and if it is the second, you will expect my visit to be far less pleasant."
With that, the old man disappears into the night, the sound of his rings singing out into the darkness.
Log created on 20:17:39 01/13/2009 by Sokaku, and last modified on 00:32:11 01/14/2009.