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[forced_unlife]

While Khel didn't exactly have anywhere he needed to be, he did like knowing where he was going. That wasn't really possible in his current situation, so he continued to wander the city for a bit before finally sitting down in front of a large temple. "The irony is not lost on me," he muttered to himself, waiting. He had been told that "Sheeana"

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[worm_dancer]

Luckily the worms were even more sensitive to vibration than she was. Their great leathery bodies turned in the sand filled great pool, pointing like loyal dogs at the source. She walked out, away from the alien YMCA and listened. ancient leather on the concrete, the sound of rattling bones. She walked towards the source and called when she saw him a block away.

"You set upon yourself to find me, eh Bone Lord? Most would be terrified to hear that, but i'm flattered."

[worm_dancer]

She mumbled the litany one more time as she stabilized herself. "Thank you, Khel. That was most impressive. Would you consider doing that again at my request? It would prove a useful training tool for acolytes."

[forced_unlife]

"I would not terribly mind, no, but I must admit that I feel ... uncomfortable using evil energies for any reason."

[worm_dancer]

"Good? Evil? The gift is yours, Bone Lord. Don't judge it." She sits at a bench designed for more limbs than she has, momentarily tired. To someone educated in a tradition that owes a lot to the Zensufi masters, moral judgements are very carefully avoided.

[forced_unlife]

"Negative energy is indeed an evil energy, Milady Brugh. It powers liches, devils, and other undead such as even myself. The more I use it, the more temptation I have to use it, and the more I use it, the more that same energy eats away at my spirit and morality. Eventually, I would be corrupted and wicked, like any other Death Knight." Khel shuddered, looking up to the temple behind them.

"Once I have crossed that threshold, all that remains for me is destruction, whether through my own hubris, or some fortunate adventurers." His face turned back to Sheeana, and even for a skeleton he looked extremely old.

"There have been nights when I have prayed for some young fool with a blade to have fortune enough to overpower and destroy me."

[worm_dancer]

There are parts of himself he fears and detests. She thinks.

"Now what have I told you about brooding, Bone Lord?" She lays a hand on bare scapula, unsure if the gesture of support will have the right effect given his nerveless state.

[forced_unlife]

If he could have made such a subtle gesture, Khel might have smirked. "Thou speak to me as if I were a man," he commented, uncertain about why it pleased him so.

[worm_dancer]

Be careful. His need for human affection is nearly palpable, and having it come from a girl as young and pretty as yourself could...confuse him. This was not thought with arrogance. Reverend Mothers knew how fleeting beauty was. It was a tool, nothing more, and she did not think less of old, fat Bellonda, for instance, for not possesing it. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"Of course you are. You're a man in a strange body with strange circumstances. But you are a man."

[forced_unlife]

To Khel, it wasn't about appearance. Not really. He knew that Sheeana was attractive, but it was a minor observation. Without a man's body and with the stretch of time came a separation from the idea of being human. He didn't feel those urges anymore. What he did notice was that she treated him like a man, like he was a human. It pained him as much as it it caused him joy. "No I'm not," he replied honestly, turning away. "I'm just a monster."

[worm_dancer]

She wanted to slap him, but again there was that nervelessness to contend with. Plus she might accidentally spin his skull around on his spine causing it to abruptly fall.

Or pinch his nose but he had none.

"Ahem. Are thou alright? Please, if thou still hath breath, awaken!...I have no desire to cause thee ... suffering." A perfect imitation. A Bene Gesserit trick. That is far from the worst they can do with their voices, too. "A monster wouldn't have cared if he caused me to suffer."

[forced_unlife]

"Lacking the muscle that pumps blood through the body does not render me heartless, Milady." He did not understand why Sheeana fought so hard to prove him wrong. Even Khel admitted he was a monster, and it was the truth. He was a violation of the laws of nature, an affront to gods of good.

"However," he continued, "if it shall please thee, no longer shall I call myself such."

[worm_dancer]

"It will please me." She stepped back to the bench and fit herself into the indentation where some unknown part of an alien body would normally go. "And now you will tell me your story, as you said you would."

[forced_unlife]

Khel did indeed tell his story, leaving out nothing, not one detail about his betrayal, or one iota of what he felt as an echoing spirit lingering over the site of his end. He told of his fruitless revenge, and of the loneliness when surrounded by nothing but death and undeath. "And so I cannot rest or find peace until I am absolved by Tyr, for the breaking of my vow."

[worm_dancer]

Sheeana listened with total attention. There was something of the Fremen in his attention to oaths. To her people, words were magical.

When he was totally done, she smiled beatifically. "Thank you, Khel."

[forced_unlife]

"Now thou might ken why I do not fight my presence here, why I do not deign to argue with the presence that has brought us here. Were only I to find redemption here, it would be a boon I have waited centuries for." Khel's eyes dimmed, making the skull appear as empty as it truly was. For a moment, he seemed less eldritch and more like a macabre puppet.

"Whether through restful afterlife or empty oblivion, I only desire for peace."

[worm_dancer]

"I do. And I think you've been given such a chance here, which is why I am going to break you of that habit of brooding you've fallen into over the centuries." She favored him a mischevious little smile.

Taking in strange cases, Sheeana? Odrade-within teased her from Other Memory. You'd think I was you. She replied in her head.

"Just before I found myself here, I was departing for parts unknown in a no-ship anyway. It was unlikely I would ever see my homeworld again."