Seeker of Thrones 5-47
Chapter: 5
“Prince Kassardis was swift, and he was young and his mind was honed. The land about his kingdom was barren but not fierce, and the roads were well kept. Even so, the sun had barely dipped below the horizon before he knew he would soon be caught. For as he glanced back over his shoulder, he saw the cruel glint on Vastoki’s eyeglasses as she traversed the bluffs behind him. And a little further back than that, even for all this distance, he thought he could hear the awful grinding of Littari’s cauldron as she dragged it across the bare earth. And even further back, just cresting the horizon, were the bright and lazy banners of Ipreski as her palanquin was borne along into the desert.”
– Tales of the Silver Prince
Man Cio is mean.
Still not the scariest fanfic writer I’ve met though.
Your comment begs a question I dare not ask directly.
Gahahaha! Now Al-Yis-Un, thou sees the face behind the mask! Ultimately, we all are such a hungry flame.
On the bright side, the Heretics’ Court very rarely punishes insolence immediately.
Destroying everything someone was and leaving what remains trapped in a prison of terror over what would happen if they relapsed takes time, after all.
Didn’t she once EXPLICITLY tell Allison about doing just that in her backstory?
Let’s be fair here, Allison isn’t particularly bright.
Where’s Incubus’s stupid confidence when you need it? Did the 30-day shareware version expire?
A mask! A face! Does it need one? Does it not? To define. To focus. To exist.
-The Maskmaker, from the game “Hollow Knight”
That thing reminded me exactly of Hollow Knight as well.
Not even sure who got the idea first, since this comic has been around for longer with the mask thing.
Hail, Hail the Lords of the Deep
Unseen Regents of Throne’s unending sleep
From their osseous court, do baleful eyes gaze
Dreaming of countless dreams to burn or raze
Seek not their twisted, blackened flame
That turns sharp minds soft, conquerors lame
The black flame burns brightest in the cold and dark places of the universe. No place, however, is colder and darker than Throne.
I think you’re being unreasonable here, Allison. I mean, Cio doesn’t judge you for your Naruto phase, does she?
David Bowie will see you now.
Human meat is quite foul; if one is reduced to consuming meat, cows suffice. To make humans as cattle is to consume a less tasty animal, which, in my mind, is as grotesque as eating man in the first place. Has the average devil seen what the average human lives in? I would rather risk consuming discount seafood.
Nay, manflesh is belike sweet pork.
But have you not seen what delicious falsehoods make up their soul flames?
There is a right order to the universe, where all of the ten thousand things have their duty. Servants serve, angels maintain the law, and humans feed their ambition and behold the wonders of the cosmos. Even the chaotic devils have their place, with the Pact.
But chaos chafes at its bindings. Though there is a mandated order, it is not in a devil’s nature to obey. Some will go to…extreme lengths to maintain their independence.
The best shocked eyes I’ve ever seen.
Some devil’s prefer not to be bound, yet the Goliant Bird is literally chained.
Are bonds of chain truly so preferable to bonds of the word?
In my experience the bonds of word are fate, and to be bound by fate is the be bound by circumstance. I for one would not be bound thusly, wouldst thou?
Never thought I’d need say it, but for once I’m glad ‘a this bluebonnet mask and the trouble it’s saved me.
Ah hell, no I’m not.
Ah, this is so welcoming and relaxing. Somehow it just feels like home. 🙂
Don Quixote was similarly deluded.
“To march into hell for a heavenly cause”
When the truth is too horrible to integrate:
Chirp away, Chirp away.
Everything eats. What is it, I wonder, the makes human flesh so holy?
Humans tumble along on our long, slow life cycles.
Would a forester cast their hopes on the pine sapling that grows on a mountain, in the hopes that they may one day harvest an ancient, sacred tree? No, of course not! An ordinary pine would grow taller, straighter and faster.
Cannibalism is perverse; there are many, many beasts that taste better and cost a fraction what a human does per pound. It is very unfortunate for devils that livestock have such weak soul flames.
Souls:
The Angels bear the Cold, White Flame.
The many kinds of Sustainers bear the Cool, White Flame.
The Humans bare the Warm, Black Flame.
The Devils bear the Hot, Black Flame.
I imagine consuming the White Flame would be something like attempting to burn ice. This leaves few options. And perhaps there is a reason Devils do not consume each other more than they do. The masks? The Heretics’ (this is the correct form, not “Heretic’s”) Court? I remain unsure.
Warm black flame.
This is axiomatic.
I have just realized that while it was previously called the Heretics’ Court by Cio, the title text of this page is “Heretic’s Court”.
(Abby? Is one of these wrong?)
The humanness of it, I imagine. Most people don’t like to think of their selves as food for a fire, however pretty it might be. Unless they’re crazy, or desparate.
Humans are infused with the white flame, which is that which the black flame covets and cannot itself have.
Nay, men are of the Black Flame. For they are the Children of YS Aesma. Man’s embers are the Warm Black Flame and the demons’ Hot Black Flame. The devils leech off of mankind’s less chaotic flame and vent their own heat unto man.
Many sincere apologies! It is right that you are, and my mind had forgotten the nuance. Woe!
Woe! Woe! A Thousand Times Woe!
-so spake the High Hermit Pessimist as I dashed his skull ‘gainst the stairs of his own monastery
Kill Six Billion Demons has literally every kind of philosophy and belief system in it — so you just know that somewhere is a burning tower of ice filled to overflowing with vegan devils wondering what the hell is going on. eating humans is unsustainable after all — infinity only goes so far and then curves back on itself. whadalyadoo when all the humans is et and shat out, gobsmackers?
You don’t eat them all at once, you breed them like cattle
That’s not fair on your own kind, Cio!
Devils can see the world for ALL its food groups!
Dare we look our self in the mirror? There is no truth there, just a shell inhabited by our self deceptions. The pit wears at my heart. I dare not linger.
Regardless of what they eat, devils have spectacularly bad table manners. Never talk business with one over lunch.
Wait is that one devil constructing devil masks from human faces?
…please tell me that’s not where all devil masks come from.
No, no, of course not.
He is removing the faces to make Hollows out of the bodies, so that devils can be forced inside of them later. We saw this happen twice, some time ago.
..though, to be honest, I do not know what he keeps the faces for. Decoration?
Snacks
Nay, ’tis carving out a human’s skull to house the Hot Black Flame. Later, a Mask is placed on the gaping cavity and the Hot Black Flame summoned into the husk. Thus, a Hollow is born.
This page was really well made, the ending especially
It takes guts to venture into the lair of a predator, and make no mistake these devils are predators at the exclusion of all else. It also takes stupidity, mostly stupidity in fact, but still a fair amount of guts.
Sometimes you also require guts, and by that I mean actual entrails, to use as a distraction… but lets not get too sidetracked here.
Yet another thing (among many) I don’t get. Why does Allison need permission from the head devil itself to rent a crew from Oscar in order to then raid the dragon’s hoard? Where’s the logic chain? What’s the quid pro quo?
She doesn’t, per se. However, the Heretics’ Court holds tremendous power and authority over the affairs of devils; one would be hard-pressed to find any willing to engage in such a high-profile venture without the Court’s blessing.
Yeah, I’m with Grouchy Phrynos. Just ‘cuz Alison doesn’t need permission does not mean that the thugs she is hiring don’t have to answer to a higher power. Sorta like hiring the neighbor kid to mow yer lawn, but he’s gotta check with his folks. Yeah, like that. …only darker, bloodier, and meaner.