King of Swords 4-39
“Many great men ask me why I keep such numerous, rare, and expensive flowers in my palace. This is to warn me of the habits of weak kings. A king should always be attentive to his flowers, and keep a great number of them. If he does not pay his servants enough to take care of them, they will pluck some in secret, and sell them in the market. If his servants do not care enough for their master or their service, they will willfully neglect his flowers, and they will die. If he forces his servants to water the flowers out of fear, the delicate flowers will be overwatered and they will die. If he keeps lavish flowers, he must educate his servants sufficiently to take care of them, or they will die. A king with wilted flowers, or no flowers at all is not worth trusting. This is the first measure I take of my rival lords.”
– Au Vam, Pankrator of Vesh, the Yellow City
AL-YISUN has undergone many changes in brief times, and even years are not enough to understand the depths of one’s own psyche. as stated by others, unsettled feelings are to be expected when many powerful beings quest for one’s blood.
I really can’t figure out what Cio’s ‘skin’ is supposed to be like. At first I thought I was looking at her clothes, something like an armored bodysuit made out of discarded shells. Now she looks almost insectile, with rubbery, flexible skin showing between the plates at the joints. Does she have an almost-shell, flexible, mottled and with little spikes and bone deposits?
Formless chaos given form.
Given form by the will of men. The devils look like that because, on some level, that is how we believe they ought to look. They reflect the mask and names we give them. May the gods help our sick and twisted race.
Devils seem fairly casual about form and structure, I imagine that much as she can gain about five feet of height and considerable mass simply by being blown up and peeved about it, her skin likely changes in accordance with her moods and the moment. Over the course of the story It seems to me the color and texture of her skin has changed in subtle and a few alarmingly unsubtle ways.
I’ve oft noticed that every time I do indulge thyself into much drink, a new revelation comes hither.
“Do as thou wilt”. It reminds me of the inscription on the back of the Auryn, the amulet in Michael Ende’s Neverending Story. Tu Was Du Willst.
The story is about a boy who travels to a fantasy world and slowly realizes he loses his identity there, much like Allison’s dilemma in this comic page.
The instruction to do what you want can be interpreted as “go ahead, have fun and do whatever you want,” but it can also be taken to mean responsibility: make that which you find truly important, reality.
IT SEEMS THE LITTLE DEVIL HAS, FOR ALL HER HARD-WON WISDOM, YET TO UNDERSTAND P U R P O S E, AND THE LONGING ALL THE CHILDREN OF CREATION LESS INUNDATED WITH THE BLACK FLAME FEEL FOR IT.
IT IS PURPOSE THAT CREATED US, PURPOSE THAT PULLS US, THAT GUIDES US, THAT DRIVES US. IT IS THE REASON THAT SENDS ME OUT TO RESTPRE THE L A W, ONCE AS A KNIGHT OF ROOTS AND NOW AS A KNIGHT OF THORNS. AND IT IS THE BANE OF MORTAL HUMANS WHEN THEY LACK IT.
AND THE RISING KING, FOR ALL HER NEW STRENGTH, IS LACKING IN PURPOSE.
I really dig the panels in the top right being the window frame, that’s some clever paneling right there.
Beams of light illuminate
but without shimmering frustrate
the king has yet to coronate
KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS!…..more like LAY WITH ONE SPECIFIC DEMON AM I RIGHT!?
six billion times!
Le petit mort.
Poor Allison. There’s a lot on her shoulders…
I love Cio’s enthusiasm though, haha!
Them’s mighty buff shoulders, though.
Last panel reminded me: “You know, this metaphoric stuff… it realy hurts” (c) Alan Moore, “Promethea”. I wonder whether Abbadon is familiar with this masterpice. It also has quite a bunch of Crowley references, by the way.
A light that burned, blossomed in my breast; my body cracked. Yet even with these faults, rimed in gold, burning, cast anew. My soul remains asunder; cast askew. I am that I am. What I do.
BACK WHEN I BEDDED THE AMAZON QUEEN OF KOLOSTRA
IM SCREAMING
I LOVE CIO
Au Vam has an interesting take on things, but I’m not sure I agree with him.
First, it seems like he spends a lot of time, money, and energy taking care of flowers than add nothing to his city, except to promote their owners sense of vanity. I’d rather focus on the farmers, merchants, and soldiers, or you’ll be watering your garden right up until the moment an enemy breaks down your door or your citizens revolt.
Second, it seems like waving a big flag around advertising what kind of person you are. Frankly, I’d rather than my enemies live in doubt, so they can’t attempt to plan around my personality. Allies too, in fact, since you can never be certain when one will become the other.
May I be so bold as to suggest you try a fine mask. They hide everything from your enemies except that you are the type of person who wears a mask, and are much less expensive than farmers, merchants, soldiers, or even flowers.
You also can never be certain when an enemy may become an ally.
A frequent user of the elevator I steal from, a consecrate accountant of the Anointed Order, kicks me into the corner when he sees me, and so I treat him with contempt. That is, he did until recently. One day he had a change of heart, and instead of kicking me, he shared his oil-bread with me. As we talked he revealed to me that he had been observing my contempt for him, and determined that my level of contempt was perfect for the ranks of the consecrate accountants. Not quite the Bank of the Grand Dragon, but it would be a decent vehicle back into the sphere of the wealthy and powerful.
However, as I thanked him for considering me for the position, I had become too thankful, a trait that was forbidden in the Anointed Order, and so he carved the logo of the local Anointed chapter into my marble-flesh. He no longer uses my elevator. I have lost a significant portion of my theft income.
-From the Book of the Void-
“People in this World look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment.
In the Way of Strategy also, those who study as warriors think that whatever they cannot understand in their craft is the void. This is not the true void.
To attain the way of Strategy as a warrior you must study fully other martial arts and not deviate even a little from the Way of the warrior. With your spirit settled, accumulate practice day by day, and hour by hour. Polish the two fold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the two fold gaze perception and sight.
When your spirit is not the least bit clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void.”
– Shinmen Musashi- “A Book of Five Rings” 1645
As someone who has undergone a similar transformation (which is to say, moved to a foreign land and got into a shape other than a bag of garbage left in a corner) and has had said transformation bring on some kind of identity crisis, man, panel 6 is the biggest fucking mood right now.
Cio is not very good at “casual”.
Devils are nothing if not intense.
Oh my Teagan and Sara! *faints*
Yeah Alison. His name is Zaid
You think she’ll end up fighting him?
Considering that Zaid is under Bigbeards tutelage and probably being groomed to fight in that yearly tournament. I imagine we might see Zaid as a foil to Allison at least, if not Allison using magic and Burning Fingers to fight a Ki Rata trained Zaid.
Just finished getting through this whole comic, I love it! I can’t wait to see where it goes!
Hrmm… Locket and chain. Don’t recall seeing that before. Didn’t have it at the beginning, so she musta picked it up here. Gift from Cio, maybe?
.OUT BODY IS NOT OURS_
.THIS DOES NOT MAKE US ONE WITH THE KING_
.WE LACK A FACE_
.OUR HOUSE IS A FALSE NUMBER OF BIRDS_
>ERROR: // :DYSPH0R1A_
I wonder if that is indeed what this is building to. There’s certainly enough text to support it thus far. It is not the only thing that would fit, but it *would fit*.
and they were roommates
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Thanks for the blog post buddy! Keep them coming…
In her own imp-ish, belligerent way, Cio is very sweet and caring. This is exceedingly cute and I applaud it.