The Mountain and Mohammed

[Trillian]

Jack thought it over, pondered his answer for a long moment.  All of his answers had come this way, with heavy consideration.  Nothing was answered lightly or spontaneously.

"I am dormant and do not walk the earth.  Then, when the ritual is performed, I am offered a body to walk the earth with."  He thought about it some more before adding carefully; "I am not human, nor demonic.  I do not know of any others like me."

[Harlequin]

Sabrina interpreted Jack\'s long silence correctly, and let him have it. His answer seemed to satisfy her, as well, because her voice had lost most of its chill when she next spoke, "Do you remember where you came from?" she asked, avidly interested once again, "Before you were bound?" Determining his origin might lead her to other conclusions, "Or who bound you, for that matter?" She frowned, "Or...why they did so?"

The \'why\' was the biggest question, and the most worrying. She didn\'t know if she trusted him enough to tell the truth, in this regard – but there were generally two reasons for an entity to be bound thus: either they had a power somebody desired to harness, or they had done something very, very bad; bad enough that they were unfit even for reincarnation.

[Trillian]

"I... come from darkness," he said after another long pause, though the explanation wasn\'t quite right.  "I lie dormant in others.  They carry me.  A host for me, if you will.  I lay dark and sleeping in Ben until he joined me."

He knew about the ritual, for it had been explained to him and he\'d willingly allowed the tradition to take place.  Later, when summoned forth, he\'d actively sought out followers to his ritual in order to ensure the binding would continue to exist.  He feared an existence where there was nothing but darkness.

"I die.  I have died.  The binding ritual allows me to be dormant until it is time for me to come forth once more."  He stared at Sabrina for a shorter moment before adding to his explanation.  "The ritual was designed for my protection.  It is my curse and a blessing.  It allows me to revisit but I have no control over when."

[Harlequin]

"Protection?" Sabrina had heard of such a thing – and each and every one of the people who\'d carried out a binding for such a purpose had turned out to be horribly misguided in doing so. "That\'s terrible," she breathed, brows creased sympathetically. She still disapproved of what he was doing to Kerr through his unwillingness to part with information regarding the ritual – but she at least understood it now. The prospect of dying, over and over again, only to be resurrected at the whim of others...she suppressed a shudder.

"Do you know any of the people who\'ve..awakened you, in the past? Do you remember their names? Or what purpose they had in doing so?"

[Trillian]

Jack frowned.  The memories of the first awakening were dream-like and surreal.  His memory was blurry so that he wasn\'t sure what was real and what wasn\'t, anymore.

"It was a long time ago," he said, then looked at Kerr.  "I get confused sometimes, in the dark."  It was often during the times he questioned his own existence that he lost his memories into something that seemed transitional - like looking at changing pictures under running water.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr felt compelled to react when he was looked at, though he had no real words to contribute to the conversation; everything he thought of to ask was said first by Sabrina, and he certainly couldn\'t answer on Jack\'s behalf.

The good thing about sitting and listening was that all the confusion and humiliation he\'d been feeling was being cleared up and he was back to liking Jack again, no longer resenting him for being deceptive when it seemed that the being hadn\'t lied so much as not known what to say.  He certainly hoped this was the truth anyway, for he trusted it.

He offered a small smile and moved his hand so that he was in a position to brush the back of Jack\'s fingers with his own.  It was a reassuring gesture more than anything and made him feel better as well.

[Harlequin]

"If you remember anything, it might be helpful," pressed the halfbreed, "Even if it\'s confusing." She had the urge to reach out and take the fledge\'s hands (though he was really a vampire at all, was he?)

 "Do you remember the last time you were summoned? Take your time," she added, and emphasized – wanting him to actually think about it; because she knew that he was trying, but there wasn\'t a whole lot she could do with \'it was dark\'.

[Trillian]

He thought of the first time he\'d been summoned, where he\'d barely understood what was happening.  He vaguely remembered people with differently coloured faces and that they were almost always gathered around him for reasons he didn\'t understand.  He doubted this kind of information would travel far with Sabrina, it made him feel ridiculous to explain that he didn\'t know what he\'d seen, but found he didn\'t have to because she gave him an out with her next question.

"The last time is clearest," he said with a short nod, "I was in Italy.  It was near the turn of the century and there were many celebrations.  I saw it happen with a festival to end all," he told them, reminiscing with a delighted look upon his face.  He\'d obviously enjoyed that time.  "They were dressed more... " Jack struggled to find the appropriate word, even as he looked over Sabrina\'s and Kerr\'s clothing, "...extensively, then you are now, with many more colours, layers and accessories.  Music and art was very important to everyone."  He looked back at Sabrina\'s face.  "Then the volcano erupted and killed almost everyone," he said with grief.  "I escaped along with many others for we were far from Vesuvius, and moved to another city which wasn\'t anywhere near as enjoyable as the one I\'d come from.  The people were... unhappier, somehow.  There was more crime and less things that were important.  During an argument between the entire city population with itself, I returned to being dormant."  He thought he\'d best clarify in full.  "I died."

[Harlequin]

Sabrina listened raptly to his story, dissecting every word as it was spoken with the precision of a surgeon – and her gaze was appropriately (intimidatingly) intense, focused securely on his face the entire time he was speaking. This was the first real information she\'d gotten, regarding his history "Pompeii?" she guessed, and her brow furrowed. Very few had made it out alive – Pompeii and it\'s neighboring state had been utterly leveled by the eruption, "And you passed the mark before you...died? To some exceedingly lucky individual, who escaped Vulcan\'s fire?"

[Trillian]

"Pompeii had already been destroyed once.  I was in Ercolano, near Napoli," he said, using the local word for Naples.  "When Pompeii was rebuilt I heard it was nowhere near the expansive and luxurious city it once was, almost like they were too frightened to build it.  Vesuvius had erupted many times, and Ercolano was almost always spared by the wind that carried most of the ash the opposite way.  I believe the eruption I saw was one of the biggest, it had been compared to the one that destroyed Pompeii.  There was a lot of anger in it," he said before his glance flicked to Kerr, if only for a second before returning to Sabrina.  "I was on the city outskirts when I saw it happen.  I escaped with only my life, as did many others.  We had nothing when we settled in another city.  I... grieved for what I\'d lost."

He\'d learnt such an emotion back then, too.

"As for the mark, I believe I cannot pass it on myself with any success.  To be honest, I don\'t believe I can pass myself on when I am already walking the earth.  Others have to do it for me when I am gone."

[Harlequin]

That had happened...what? Mid 19th century? So relatively recently; during her lifetime, at least. Sabrina\'s brow was furrowed once again with sympathy, "I\'m sorry," she said, and genuinely was. It must have been agonizing to gain consciousness – only for everything to be ripped away, and that existence turned into a miserable one.

"Do you remember being awakened, in Ercolano?" she asked, after a moment\'s pause.

[Trillian]

"I remember there was a crowd gathered around me wearing robes.  Unnecessry, but I recall they began some kind of religion over it.  I... encouraged it," he said, if only to be able to walk the earth again.  They\'d had a faith that was both fascinating and eerie to him.  He didn\'t know how the secret order had formed, but it was in his interest for them to understand that once he died they had to continue.  He didn\'t know how many of them survived Vesuvius\' blast, but at least one certainly had, for him to be here now.

[Harlequin]

Those must have been the people who she\'d read about – or heard about; her contacts had been able to given her precious little more than she already knew. This group – if it still operated – was obviously very, very adept at keeping a lid on their activities, "And that\'s the only reason they performed the ritual? to help carry on the mark; to ensure your protection? They didn\'t want you to...do anything for them?" Her head tilted slightly, "No – slaughtering their enemies, raining fire from the heavens, bringing about the Apocalypse – nothing like that?"

[Trillian]

Jack was silent for a long moment.

"I believe they blamed the eruption of Vesuvius on me," he said, in a circular way of answering her question.  It had been after the fact, they hadn\'t asked him to blow up the volcano and destroy the city, but he\'d heard rumours that an order had meddled with something beyond their understanding and the result of their efforts had destroyed the city they lived in.  He believed the rumour was about him, though it hadn\'t named him directly.

[Harlequin]

Sabrina stopped mid-shrug (mid-dismissal, really; silly sheep she \'d been the mddle of thinking, but then – "They didn\'t...have anything there, did they?"

Couldn\'t help to keep her bases covered; though there weren\'t any volcanoes (that she knew of) within 100 miles.