Быть Гладу и Хладу / There will be Hunger and Cold: 12.

12. The earthling immediately understood the simple and obvious truth: they weren’t just trying to deceive him; they had already deceived him.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 10:15

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Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 10:14

The third tier of the "ink" classes, descended from the Sage, features a curious and often-chosen talent called "Memory of Doors." Unlocking it requires the appropriate talents acquired at tier two, as well as the right compensatory mechanisms. Well, unless you want to one day walk through a painted door to the wrong place and then wake up, relatively lucid, a couple of thousand kilometers from your previous coordinates, naked, in a pool of ice with the dismembered corpse of the ruling duchess at your side. A true story from the turbulent life of an overexerted earthling who fell into a temporary desynchronization, if anything.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 10:16

However, returning to the talent. This is a very powerful and extremely useful thing, in demand among both the natives and the earthlings. Even though the talent is passive, it is a subtype of traits-skills, akin to the same combat mastery talents, similar to Ilya's "Hunting Beast." This talent, first and foremost, greatly facilitates working with portals, passages, secret doors, and spatial manipulation. A very useful talent in a world where public transportation is nonexistent, only a very good Mechanist could assemble a personal car for you, and the subway, even if it were invented, would quickly be completely overrun by chthonic creatures born in the Darkness and emerging from underground.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 10:27

A high-level Sage has plenty of ways to play with space, as do many other classes, if they're focused on developing it. Ryuk, for example, focused. He also clearly had a "door" in his arsenal, for he was able to draw a simple chalk door on the surface of a rock and then manifest it, all too quickly. It was the same ritualistic inscription the old man had used before, when he chained Ilya in his house. Now the talent was the same, but it was used to create a spatial passage from one point to another. In principle, it was the familiar combination of "The Last Precept" and "The Chalice of Balance," only now with the door as the focus, rather than the contemplation standard in ritual inscriptions.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 10:30

In the end, the door, drawn without any external extras or lengthy casting, suddenly became real. The world believed the door was truly there. Ryuk might have been preparing this activation for a long time, but the ease and speed with which he executed it convinced Ilya that he had figured out another part of the old man's build. A part of him wanted to exhale a chill right as the old man walked through this passage, on the other side of which the familiar interior details of his candy house were visible. Perhaps he could destabilize the space and smear the poor guy between here, there, yesterday, tomorrow, and the Assembly's representative office.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 10:52

Of course, he didn't do anything so rash. He was eighty percent sure the old man had deliberately exposed himself to give Ilya a reason to strike first. He was even walking so leisurely, dragging his feet, as if he'd expended a great deal of energy inviting Ilya to kill himself against the wall. No, if this were a setup, relying on the talent-memory, then even Ilya's entire reserve wouldn't be enough to destabilize this passageway quickly. And if it wasn't quick, the old man would react and rip the head off Ilya's treacherous attacker. And it's important to note that he needed to act quickly by Ryuk's standards, not Ilya's, who wouldn't be able to achieve such speed even in his Form.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 10:54

And so, without arguing, Ilya followed Ryuk, who had invited him in, experiencing the incomparable bouquet of emotions that the human mind and body experience when passing through a spatial anomaly of a stable, connected type. To his credit, he didn't vomit or even trip over the threshold, falling face-first onto the floor. No, he limited himself to a face wrinkled with sudden nausea and a purely mental verbal construct directed at a certain unsociable old man. Clearly, he wouldn't be able to say such a thing out loud anytime soon, and only if he didn't finish his story of conquering the Broken One very soon.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 11:05

"I'm moving," Ryuk said, his first words as he walked through the door, nearly tripping Ilya in the process. "It's become too noisy here. You. The others. All of you are marked by Fate and Fortune. You all will be here. Your essence, your nature, will not allow you to remain silent and maintain the silence I so love. And so I will leave of my own accord, before it's too late."

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 11:06

"I can literally sense the unspoken 'but' here, sir," Ilya states politely, his gaze sweeping over the floor covered with symbols, noticing several circles that form a ritual figure, seeing and recognizing its parts, which made him grow gloomier the more he saw. "And I also intuitively understand that you, alas, will not believe my honest words to remain silent and forget you as if you were a nightmare."

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 11:08

Ryuk's gaze briefly became truly deadly, but the more closely Ilya examined the drawing of the as-yet-uncharged ritual, the less reason he saw to observe either politeness or even caution. Everything must be decided today and now. It was crucial for Ilya to make a choice, to adopt the right approach to this conversation. So much depended on it. If he bent too far, he could find himself in the same position for a very long time. In another situation, this would have been the only option, because there was no other option when dealing with the Third Step. But that was different. In Ryuk's case, some options wouldn't require him to bend too far, but there was a downside. If the Earthling showed too much arrogance and even hinted that he knew someone else's secret and was prepared to use it against Ryuk, he wouldn't even have life on a chain.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 11:17

He himself will no longer be in Broken.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 11:17

"I don't believe it, Outsider," the Sage said calmly, even with a certain malicious pleasure. "And if I had the chance to confirm that you've truly forgotten about our meeting, I'd take it. But I don't have that chance, do I? Heh-heh-heh, any advantage, no matter what it may be, can sometimes so suddenly turn into a fatal flaw, eh, Outsider? Isn't this the mockery of Those-Who-Lost at us, worms swarming in their corpses?"

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 11:22

Ilya suppressed a grimace with considerable difficulty. It wasn't even irritation, but something else he didn't fully understand. The words the native had spoken to him held something deeply personal, profound, and clearly not meant for anyone else's ears. He also casually noted that Ryuk was a follower, or at least a knower, of a rather unpleasant philosophical movement. Not religious, though connected to religion and faith, yes. The Deadworlders, as they are called here, and as this name has migrated to Earth. Those who believe that the Dead Gods were the World, not yet Broken at that point. That all of reality, all its layers, all the endless expanses of the Broken World are their rotting corpse, consumed by filth, rot, abomination, and everything that prevents people from surviving here.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 11:26

"I don't see the point in arguing." I still need to answer. I need to find an answer. The Sage masterfully began the conversation in such a way that the prepared templates quickly became completely unusable. "One who has become infused with the Cald must stay away from any manifestations of the Flame, for example. By accepting strength, one also gains vulnerability. The main thing is to maintain balance, as far as I'm concerned. And, let's be honest, I simply couldn't count on getting into a situation where my resilience would become a detriment rather than a benefit. I couldn't foresee it."

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 11:57

He also doesn't doubt, or at least has no faith, that if Ryuk had the ability to override Ilya's consciousness and memory protection, he would have limited himself to simply erasing his memories. Not to mention that he would have erased only Twin's memory, not Ilya's. A visit to the Forum, contact with other Earthlings, and now every dog ​​in the area knows about Ryuk. Which, by the way, would also work for death. If Twin dies, the Earthling would leak everything he understood about Ryuk, and Ryuk, if he truly understands the Outsider divers, would understand this too. He understands, yes, but he might significantly underestimate the extent of the Forum's integration into Earthling society and completely fail to appreciate the extent of cooperation between the inhabitants of the third world from the Sun.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 12:09

"You couldn't foresee it... so young you still are, even if you seem smart?" Now, when the Sage's voice and tone sounded not malice or mockery, but a kind of cheerful and sad pity at the same time, it became truly scary. "The most hated, the most dangerous, the most blessed of attributes does not forgive disbelief, does not forgive laxity or unpreparedness. Forgives no one... Do the other Outsiders know about me already?"

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 12:27

The abrupt transition from this "not forgives," so laced with pain that one couldn't help but suspect skillful acting, to more pointed and dangerous questions didn't unsettle the earthling. He'd been waiting for just that question, figuring from the start that they were trying to throw him off balance to facilitate interrogation. Well, some of the ritual lines drawn across the entire interior walls of the candy house were clearly configured as lie detectors, especially for omissions.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 12:29

"They know that Lazy is dangerous and should be avoided. They know that their lives, both current and future, are in danger here, and they know that I myself can't say more due to fear of such questions." If he were hoping to unsettle him with an abrupt transition or a dangerous question, something no ordinary diver from the world of a remote, near-medieval dump would expect, he miscalculated. "I'm not a fool; I understand perfectly well that I could find myself in a situation like this at any moment. Given the unlikelihood of our meeting, my fellow must have assumed I'd been locked up in the dungeons of the local city government."

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 12:33

"You wouldn't have liked it there," Ryuk said grimly, thoughtfully pouring himself some tea or some other brew. He didn't offer Ilya a seat, a drink, or even the chance to join the ritual circle, much less squeeze the duck, the old fart. "And I wouldn't either. Okay. Okay! I see your gaze sliding over my work. A gaze too understanding for someone who wouldn't understand what you've drawn. Who are you anyway? You have no talent for reading and drawing such rituals through the grace of the Mechanism. So this knowledge is yours, your own, gleaned from the real you, not a body woven from nothing. What are you, a disgraced king's son? The lover of the Supreme Keeper of Secrets?"

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 12:36

Ilya nearly choked on the witty remark that was threatening to escape. He'd make a joke in response to the mockery, and then scrape himself off the walls... although no, given the number of signs defining Hunger, these walls and signs would devour his scraps themselves. And yet, he had the nerve to at least glance indignantly at the old man staring imperturbably into his soul. He began to explain, with utmost honesty and clarity, how Earth's society operates in terms of dives. Well, and he was also advertising himself, so to speak. He was submitting a résumé, as is the local tradition, showing off all the ways he could be useful and yet not dangerous. Incidentally, this type of "advertising" is conducted through lectures, specifically for contact with local authorities at various levels. And with a multitude of variations, depending on your position and the person you're talking to.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 12:40

"Interesting." The parsimony in the other man's tone is matched only by his own ominousness. "And clever. Logical, even. If I were a hundred years younger, I might not have understood how diligently you hide from me what you don't wish to voice. After all, I've seen you, Outsider, seen you in battle and beyond, always, albeit out of the corner of my eye, watching your path."

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 12:42

"I'm downright embarrassed." The respectful servility in the earthling's voice was waning, while the gradually creeping sense of doom was growing. "Even when I was changing?"

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 12:44

"You're being cheeky, aren't you?" The old man's smile is almost a snarl, evoking a deep-seated dread, a feeling akin to that of a man standing next to an orbital shuttle taking off, its engines about to unleash fiery flares. "And yet, I even believe you. Not everything you've told me, but the fact that you, on your own, don't have an entire faction behind you, embodying their hopes in you. You're just lucky, huh? Fortune kissed you, and Fate chose you not here, but there, in your home? You hide it, you don't voice it or offer it, but I see it. The Drop of Perfection, granted to us by the grace of the Almighty Mechanism, is being acquired by you with excessive speed, so fast it could never be acquired by anyone, anywhere, ever. You are the essence of a goose, an egg like a pure diamond, a cup that can draw from the source of all existence as much as you can carry. And you are now mine, entirely and completely, Outsider. And since your secret is no longer yours alone, since you understand your value and my power, I expect, first and foremost, obedience. For starters."

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 11:38

So, the words have been spoken, and the choice before Ilya is taking shape, and what Ryuk is offering isn't as hopeless and ass-wrenching as it might seem. He's essentially recruiting him, and while the dialogue may be based on a threat, there'll be plenty of honey added to this barrel, too, just later. First, he needs to make him understand the hopelessness of the situation, make him realize the depth of his delusions, and ultimately punish him for his deliberate insolence. The old man would probably have acted more gently if he hadn't seen that Ilya didn't believe him and had no intention of trusting him. If he hadn't realized that Ilya had roughly deciphered the outline of the ritual, and realized where this whole conversation was heading.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 12:33

In any other situation, the diver would have bowed his head and accepted the terms, perhaps haggling within them, securing himself a collar made of non-allergenic materials and a larger cage. But that would have been in a different situation, one where he would be speaking with Third Step in full force and power, surrounded by his retinue and people. Or if he were speaking to a hiding loner, ruthless, inhumane, yet healthy and uninhibited. But there was a limitation; the drops of Essence gained for this secret had long since been absorbed into Ilya's altar, becoming part of his power. And so, standing on the razor's edge, choosing between "guaranteed bad," "highly likely total disaster," and "some chance of staying in line," Ilya doesn't act as he should.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 13:20

Overly provocative, overly risky, overly stupid, and completely out of line with the style he had been taught by good, proven professionals.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 13:22

But let's be honest, all these experts, no matter how proven and correct they were in their lessons, simply could not have imagined the same situation in which Ilya found himself.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 13:23

No one, ever, not a single expert or eminent scientist, will be able to predict the Broken One and how the said Broken One will turn out under the power of your FaFo.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 13:24

And this is also taught, only not in cheap courses or “successful diving training” from online fraud gurus, but in the truly best institutions on Earth.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 13:34

They teach that in a completely unconventional situation, an Earthling should rely not on memorized tables and numerous methodological manuals, but only on themselves. Because none of the true legends had these tables and manuals with them, they wrote their own stories, relying on intuition, the situation, and a simple desire to live. You can become a decent diver by relying entirely on borrowed knowledge; that's what made Earth so strong, so powerful, and so successful in the Broken. But you can only become a truly good diver by learning to think for yourself, relying on your own knowledge, taking risks, and dying not in simulations or test problems, but in your own dive.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 13:44

"I think I'll decline, venerable Ryuk," Ilya said calmly and politely, without mockery or disdain, but with a firmness he'd never fully felt, looking into the pupils that had dilated ever so slightly at such a rebuff. "Yes, you're right. I rightfully won the Challenge. I possess what my status doesn't allow me, and for which hundreds of other masters would have been found. Just as those hundreds of masters would have been found for me, should they only learn of my gifts. But I'm not the only one here who holds secrets that could cost lives, freedom, and everything else, am I?"

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 13:46

The drawings on the walls flared up all at once, instantly, cutting off the candy house from the rest of the world, cutting Ilya off from his talents, from the eternal hunger and cold, cutting him off from even the very possibility of using his abilities. His body became human again, warm and vulnerable, but his mind remained the same, cold and hard, like tempered steel.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 13:36

"Explain yourself." This is no longer even an order, but a command that can only be contradicted once in a lifetime, the last and the first at once.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 13:46

"I'm still alive, venerable Ryuk." A simple answer to a complex question isn't easy; it's difficult to maintain a balance between politeness and insolence, lest you provoke an attack, even despite the other person's injuries. "And I shouldn't have been, even after our last meeting. You're a fine actor, but that alone won't change a simple fact. I know how someone with your power, hiding in your position, would react. You didn't destroy me before, and you still haven't, despite my words. I don't know the exact contours of your limitations, but I see them. And I'm prepared to do everything in my power to ensure you don't develop a truly compelling reason to kill me."

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 15:16

It wasn't that Ilya was scared, certainly not to the point of hysterical terror, no. It was just that this entire conversation had been incredibly tense and could end in his death at any moment. It was like walking through a minefield left over from the siege of some prominent Mechanist's fortress, and any mistake would be his last. While any success merely postponed death, allowing him to make a mistake later. There was no fear in voicing the fact that Ilya guessed the reason for old Ryuk's complacency and nobility; the fear remained somewhere out there, far away, still near the carcass of the slaughtered copper bull. Now he was simply finishing another arc of this strange, half-dialogue, half-confrontation.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 15:30

So what if this arc could end with his death, final and irreversible, ending his journey through the Broken? As if he hadn't studied every diving manual, as if he didn't realize such an outcome could overtake him at absolutely any moment, from the very start? He knew everything, and so he didn't give in to fear, merely accepting it and making it his weapon, his instrument, if you will. He looked into Ryuk's eyes — gray, plain, calm, concealing a storm of humiliation, hatred, a thirst for revenge, and animal cruelty— without flinching. Primarily because all that hatred wasn't directed at him at all; it only touched Ilya, a touch of the brush.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 16:19

"Smart one." Again, the words weren't praise, but a statement of fact, the kind that could easily become an epitaph on a grave, if there were one at all. "Well, then I won't hide it. Your nonexistence will cost me dearly, but I'm ready to pay for it, always have been, for everyone. But you really are smart and also cautious. We'll make a deal—your silence, silence even under torture or ritual breaking. You will not point to me by word, deed, thought, or hint, or you will die the moment you dare to break that line. And I... I'll let you seek your nonexistence on your own, without me."

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 16:33

In fact, this was the kind of conversation Ilya could only have imagined. It was not perfect, of course, but far better than he could have hoped for. Realizing that his victim wasn't falling for overt provocations, knew all about his weaknesses, and was mortally afraid to even try to exploit them, Ryuk simply decided to get rid of the annoying element in the most logical way. To slam a large, thick bolt from a siege ballista onto it, leaving it to tremble in fear somewhere far away from Ryuk. In the end, all parties were mutually satisfied. The old man was confident his secret was protected, and Ilya had the chance to live, rather than die over and over again until the bitter end.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 16:43

Perfect.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 20:08

So perfect that the earthling immediately grasped the simple and obvious truth: they weren't just trying to deceive him, they had already deceived him, because Ryuk had been leading the conversation toward this conclusion from the start, having calculated his interlocutor's reactions. When? How? Ilya frantically tried to process and understand the moment at which he had failed, and it wasn't surprising that he had found it. He had failed back when he'd received the drops for solving someone else's mystery, and from then on, he'd merely confirmed their suspicions. Some part of his mind desperately wanted to slap the diver on the back of the head, to tell him, come to your senses, man. You're up against the Sage Three. A fucking Sage! A class whose very essence is to understand and know, to find causes and connect them with consequences!

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 16:48

He likely couldn't easily read his status log from a great distance as well as up close, but he couldn't help but notice the drops of essence that had arrived. It was too characteristic. Not in the aura, but in the behavior, in the way the gifted one peers within themselves for a moment, aware of these drops, their fall into their Vessel. The slightest changes in bodily movement for a Sage of his stage are like an open book or even a billboard. Even then, Ryuk guessed what had happened, realized he could have been discovered, and simply decided to wait rather than react immediately. He probably hoped that Ilya, having learned the secret, would rush to use it to his advantage. This would have freed Ryuk's arms, legs, and indeed all parts of his body and aura. But the earthling didn't get excited, and the old man continued to wait, even until the end of the cycle, to allow Ilya to reveal the secret on the other side of the universe.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 16:53

However, he no longer counted on it, not seriously. Otherwise, he wouldn't have given him that chance. The old man believed Ilya would remain silent on Earth as well, even though every limb was probably itching to immediately slay the insolent Wendigo. He understood everything; otherwise, he wouldn't have invested so much effort in drawing up the ritual, wouldn't have invested even more effort in making it understandable to Ilya. After all, he knew Ilya had figured out his secret, which meant he assumed his erudition was sufficient to understand it. And all his veiled compliments about Ilya being the disgraced son of some king were merely an attempt to reassure the little man, who was being lured into the trap of self-confidence. Or rather, Ryuk might have believed Ilya to be such in reality, but he was deliberately playing on his interlocutor's pride and ego, without directly investing in flattery — quite the contrary. All this was done so that Ilya would risk revealing his thoughts and knowledge and fall into the trap that had been set.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 17:01

Hence, there was a deliberate attempt to put a chain around his neck. A bit clumsy and hasty, even, greedy and therefore especially truthful. Ryuk would never have refused the opportunity to gain the unquestionable loyalty of the bearer of the Great Trait, but he, right now, in this particular situation, doesn't need such a tool. Most likely, he's physically incapable of using the Essence and evolving in any way; at most, he can only restrain his degradation. For him, a dead Ilya is far more useful than a living Ilya with a collar, no matter the Great Trait. He wouldn't have refused if the earthling had allowed him to enslave him in every possible way, to swear an oath, and bind him with unbreakable obligations. But the old asshole deliberately constructed the situation so that Ilya would believe he could extricate himself from this bondage.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 17:04

And so the old man overdid it. He'd simply underestimated Ilya's intimate knowledge of the local aristocracy in general, and the Sages in particular. They looked into each other's eyes and both realized that the other understood, too; both realized their cards were on the table. The Earthman swallowed with a dry throat, took a deep breath, and smiled his most charming smile, addressing his interlocutor with the sincere and utmost respect he was capable of at that moment. It was at that moment that he finally believed he had a chance of getting out of here alive and relatively capable, simply because even such a sophisticated jerk couldn't wait for him to act.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 17:06

"I fully agree with your proposal, esteemed Ryuk." He looked at him with what seemed to be the slightest bewilderment, though for some reason it was believed that this emotion was genuine. "But, if it is your will, may I take a look at the details of the deal you outlined? And, with your permission, make a few amendments, of course, that will not in the slightest alter the main thread of the said ritual contract?"

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 20:10

As the saying goes, he found the wrong person to scare and confuse with contract magic. Of all people, it was the earthlings, for obvious reasons, who understood these matters better than anyone else. Ilya wasn't a pure "lawyer," as individuals who thoroughly study the mysteries of contract law in the Broken World are called, but he attended the required electives, and afterward, he significantly developed his erudition with optional courses and manuals. And if there was a level of knowledge in which he stood a chance of matching even a third-level Sage, it was the technique of concluding ritual contracts. Because Ryuk couldn't use overtly oppressive methods of directly distorting contracts due to his injury, they were too sensitive to the telltale signs of damage to his subtle bodies.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 18:01

And in any more or less “honest” moments of work with the ritual features of mutual obligations, Ilya understands enough to hope for survival.

Camrad_RIP 19.09.25 в 18:01

"Heh, well, surprise me, Outsider." If the old man sensed a shadow of doubt, he didn't show it, not even in the slightest.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 20:09

Ilya only made his smile a little wider and then turned himself inside out in order not to disappoint the old, sick man in his innocent request.

Camrad_RIP 18.09.25 в 20:08