Bone Proposal 1

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On February 1st, 2042, at 0714 hours, the Initiative began to search for the resting place of Urok.

[[collapsible hideLocation="both" show="▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀" hide="▷CLOSE◁"]]
[[div class="addendum"]]
[[div class="doc"]]
ATTACHED DOCUMENT -- FEBRUARY 2042
[[/div]]
= **<<BEGIN LOG>>**
----
//[The drone is flying low overhead, scanning the rocky ground that dozens of Sarkites and Foundation personnel are spreading out across. The wide, flat plateau is covered with sand and loose rocks, with only dying shrubbery to break it up. The weather is clear, and vision extends for miles in every direction; there is no stele in sight.]// 

**XENOPHON:** Grand Karcist. There is nothing here.

//[IŪN does not respond, eyes shut. IEVA hisses at him in annoyance.]//

**IEVA:** <Be silent, machine. We are close.>

**JIANG:** <How do you know?>

//[IEVA and IŪN turn to him in slight surprise.]//

**IŪN:** <You do not hear it?>

**XENOPHON:** <Hear what?>

**IEVA:** <The feet. Shuffling.>

**JIANG:** <No. No, I don't hear anything. Xenophon?>

**XENOPHON:** <Nothing.>

//[A member of the research team approaches XENOPHON.]//

**WILLIAMS:** The ground-penetrating radar didn't turn up anything. Should we request satellite support?

**JIANG:** <Yeah. Yeah, okay -- put in the request for whatever Atreus Array sat is nearest.>

**XENOPHON:** <Karcists, where is the shuffling coming from? Perhaps we can narrow down the area.>

//[IŪN shakes her head in frustration.]//

**IŪN:** <Everywhere. It sounds from all directions.>

**JIANG:** <I think we're better off waiting for the satellite pictures -- we've been at this for hours. There's nothing here but rocks.>

**XENOPHON:** <Yes.>

//[XENOPHON pauses, and then lowers his optical sensors, staring at the ground for several seconds.]//

**IEVA:** <What is it doing?>

**IŪN:** <Thinking.>

//[Slowly, XENOPHON reaches down, and plucks a small chunk of sun-bleached rock from the ground. It raises it to its optical sensors, zooming in and compressing it between two fingers.]//

**JIANG:** Xenophon?

//[The white rock cracks and then explodes with a puff of dust.]//

**XENOPHON:** <This is hydroxyapatite.>

**JIANG:** <What's that?>

**XENOPHON:** <A salt formed of calcium and phosphorous that is the major mineral in-->

**IŪN:** <Bones.>

//[She is inspecting a similarly-sized chunk. Slowly, they look up, and realize the vast field of the white 'rocks' they are standing in the center of. IEVA inhales sharply.]//

**JIANG:** Oh. Oh, Jesus.

**XENOPHON:** <This is a mass grave.>

**IŪN:** <Hundreds of people died here. Hundreds of //my people// died here.>

**IEVA:** <A battlefield?>

**IŪN:** <Yes. But where...?>

//[Her voice trails off as a glassy look overtakes her eyes.]//

**IŪN:** <Yes.>

**IEVA:** <She sees something.>

**XENOPHON:** <Grand Karcist?>

**IŪN:** <This was an accursed place. Two battles were fought here.>

**JIANG:** <Two?>

//[She turns on her heel, stepping through the field of shattered bones and walking away. The group follows.]//

**IŪN:** <Two. One to attack, one to defend. A rousing victory, a crushing loss.>

**IEVA:** <Against who?>

**IŪN:** <The old masters. And then the traitors.>

//[She stumbles slightly over the shards of bone. XENOPHON moves to support her, but she straightens herself before abruptly stopping.]//

**IŪN:** <She fell in battle in the name of the Nälkä. In //my// name. Here.>

//[She drops to her knees, digging single-mindedly at the dirt with her bare hands.]//

**IEVA:** <Iūn!>

//[IEVA drops alongside her, similarly scratching at the dirt for several seconds before recoiling with a gasp. She raises her hand; the fingers are scratched and bleeding from the sharp bone fragments. She squeezes her eyes and whispers to herself, and the multitude of cuts close, leaving raw skin behind. Where IŪN is digging, the bones and soil are now being spattered with red droplets.]//

**XENOPHON:** Jiang. The HeLTs.

**JIANG:** Right. //[On radio]// Lewis, Gunsong, move the excavation HeLTs to my position, double-time.

//[The researchers on the radio signal an affirmative, and in the distance, two of the HeLTs fitted with digging equipment begin to roll towards the group. XENOPHON steps forward and grasps IŪN's shoulder; she is still digging wildly. It pulls her back by the shoulder, pulling her away.]//

**IEVA:** <Do not lay your hands on her!>

**JIANG:** You don't want to interrupt the memory. It could be our only lead.

//[XENOPHON looks up at them impassively.]//

**XENOPHON:** <But she is injuring herself.>

//[Slowly, the glassy look fades away from IŪN's eyes. She rises unsteadily to her feet, supported by XENOPHON as the HeLTs move in and begin shoveling huge chunks of soil away with their excavating arms.]//

**IŪN:** <What--?>

//[She raises a hand. Her fingers are completely shredded, blood pouring from them freely.]//

**XENOPHON:** <You had a memory. You attempted to dig by hand.>

//[Without her even praying, the skin on IŪN's hand begins to knit itself back together, much faster than IEVA's did. Within seconds, her hand is intact again. She rubs it.]//

**IŪN:** <Thank you.>

**XENOPHON:** <Do you remember what you saw?>

**IŪN:** <A battle. Urok, blotting out the sun, holding the line. >

//[They watch as the HeLTs begin to dig in earnest, clearing away piles of earth and bone.]//
----
= **[EXTRANEOUS SECTIONS REMOVED FOR BREVITY]**
----
//[XENOPHON approaches the Grand Karcist's tent; it has been several hours since excavation began, and the afternoon sun has dimmed somewhat. XENOPHON dips into the tent. IŪN is not present; instead, IEVA is squatting by the fire. She looks up, eyes narrowing.]//

**IEVA:** <Machine.>

**XENOPHON:** <Karcist Ieva. I hope your leg is healing well.>

//[She snorts. Where the hem of her dress is raised, the writhing mass of snakes in place of her left leg is visible.]//

**IEVA:** <It does not need healing. It is better than it was before.>

**XENOPHON:** <I saw you limping.>

**IEVA:** <That is not this leg. That is my other; it is clubbed from a lifetime of leaning.>

**XENOPHON:** <I'm sorry to hear that. This new appendage is very impressive. I understand it is largely your own artistry.>

//[She tilts her head.]//

**IEVA:** <You are not disgusted by it.>

**XENOPHON:** <Why would I be?>

//[She does not respond.]//

**IEVA:** <You seek Iūn?>

**XENOPHON:** <Yes. Have you seen her?>

**IEVA:** <She has stepped away to speak to Lium. She will return in a few minutes.>

**XENOPHON:** <May I wait here?>

//[She shrugs dismissively. XENOPHON takes a place near the wall. They stand in silence for several seconds before IEVA abruptly turns.]//

**IEVA:** <Why were you made?>

**XENOPHON:** <I'm sorry, I don't understand.>

**IEVA:** <For what purpose did your overseers make you?>

**XENOPHON:** <To assist the Foundation in historical research projects.>

**IEVA:** <How do you know this?>

**XENOPHON:** <It was told to me.>

**IEVA:** <When?>

**XENOPHON:** <The moment I was activated; it is the cornerstone of my programming. From the moment I had awareness, I knew my instructed purpose and moved to fulfill it.>

**IEVA:** <So you are a tool.>

//[XENOPHON is silent for a moment.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I would not say that.>

**IEVA:** <The hammer knows it exists for one reason, and one reason only. It never has to wonder. It never has to try to reach beyond it. There is comfort in that.>

**XENOPHON:** <Hammers are not sentient. But I disagree that it is comforting.>

**IEVA:** <Why?>

**XENOPHON:** <The hammer does not get the opportunity to decide its purpose.>

**IEVA:** <//Decide.//>

//[She scoffs, turning back away towards the fire. Her voice gains an edge.]//

**IEVA:** <We do not //decide// our purpose. We stumble blindly around until we wrap our fingers around something we can claim as our purpose. Many never find anything.>

**XENOPHON:** <You would it prefer it be told to you than you find it for yourself?>

**IEVA:** <The hammer knows its form. It knows what it was made to do. Would it choose anything save for being a hammer?>

**XENOPHON:** <Probably not.>

**IEVA:** <Then why?>

**XENOPHON:** <All living things should have the opportunity to choose.>

//[They lapse into silence.]//

**IEVA:** <Can you disobey your purpose?>

**XENOPHON:** <No.>

//[She snorts again. The tentflaps flutter as IŪN enters and stops in surprise.]//

**IŪN:** <Helyna, who are-- oh.>

**IEVA:** <The machine wanted to speak to you.>

**IŪN:** <Xenophon?>

**XENOPHON:** <The excavation has located something for your attention.>

//[IŪN spins on her heel, heading back out of the tent. IEVA rises to her feet, making to follow. Before they leave the tent, she stops and turns to XENOPHON, appraising it.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Yes?>

**IEVA:** <Does your body feel pain? Does it tire?>

**XENOPHON:** <No.>

**IEVA:** <Can it break?>

**XENOPHON:** <It is made of carbon fiber and titanium. It can withstand 63,000 pounds of force per square inch before shattering. Barring a truly destructive force, my body will not break.>

**IEVA:** <Then there is at least one thing uniting us.>

**XENOPHON:** <I'm sorry?>

**IEVA:** <We have both seen the frailty of the human body.>

//[She turns and leaves the tent, with XENOPHON following. IŪN is walking several meters ahead, and leads them out of the camp and into the excavation site, where the HeLTs have fallen silent. A huge pit has been dug out in the approximate center of the bonefield, revealing a massive humanoid corpse -- huge and bulky, at least twenty feet in height, with thick arms and legs. Unlike the bodies of Nadoq and Sa'arn, it is not intact, instead covered in deep cuts, slashes, bites, and gouging wounds. The fatal wound appears to be a deep cut around the throat, leaving dried blood spilling out around the neck. JIANG and several researchers are in the pit, taking photographs and measurements of the body. IŪN is standing at the edge, staring in.]//

**IŪN:** <Urok. My strongest.>

**XENOPHON:** <Grand Karcist?>

**IŪN:** <I am still here. Just thinking.>

**IEVA:** <What happened to her?>

**IŪN:** <Felled in battle, defending her people. She always trusted my orders. Fearless in faith.>

//[She slides down the wall of the pit, approaching the huge corpse and clambering onto it and drawing the knife from her belt.]//

**JIANG:** Back up, everyone! Get back!

//[IŪN rests the tip of the knife against Urok's chest, not quite driving it in. She turns to her right, looking at IEVA. She does not return the look. IŪN's face falls.]//

//[She places her hands on the knife, driving it in, and spends several minutes sawing through the sternum and splitting the chest open, staining her arms and robes bright red with blood. IŪN spreads the ribs apart before reaching in with both hands and drawing out a huge heart nearly the size of her head. The researchers and Sarkites gathered around the edges of the pit murmur.]//

**JIANG:** Jesus.

**IŪN:** <A courageous heart. The heart of a warrior.>

//[She draws the knife through the heart, splitting it in half and raising one of the huge chunks of muscle to her lips. She spends the next few minutes hungrily devouring pieces of cardiac muscle until there is nothing left. She kneels on the chest for a moment, panting, before she moves, letting herself fall into the gaping hole in Urok's chest. After she disappeares, IEVA hastily clambers onto the corpse, disappearing in after her. The researchers stare.]//

**XENOPHON:** Jiang?

**JIANG:** You-- you go ahead. 

//[XENOPHON drops onto the body, slipping into the chest cavity after them. When its cameras reactivate, they display the same field, but substantially changed; instead of bones, the field is littered with fallen bodies, with banners rising up periodically out of the spread of corpses. A massive, hulking figure is directly ahead, surveying the damage: Urok, dressed in hugely oversized hide armor that fits her hunched back and unnatural proportions. Her upper body dwarfs her lower, forcing her to support herself on her clenched fists.]//

**IŪN:** <Urok.>

//[UROK turns. Her facial features are surprisingly soft, with flowing braided hair. She smiles, sighing in relief, and speaks in a slow, booming voice.]//

**UROK:** <Iūn. You came back. I waited. I waited for so long. You came back.>

**IŪN:** <Yes. It took too long.>

**UROK:** <Doesn't matter. I said you would. The others didn't believe me. Said you were lost. But I knew you would come back.>

**IŪN:** <The others?>

**UROK:** <Nadoq. Sa'arn. Even Lojvatar wasn't sure. But I knew you'd come back. Sooner or later.>

//[She steps toward the group, fist landing heavily. It crushes a body underneath.]//

**UROK:** <Oh.>

**IŪN:** <It's okay. Come here, little thing. It's okay.>

//[She gingerly picks her way through the field of bodies, approaching UROK's fist. She wraps her arms around the massive hand.]//

**UROK:** <You loved us too much. I knew that. Loved us too much to leave us.>

//[IŪN releases her hand, looking out over the battleground. A hot wind blows over the field, the flags and banners flapping silently.]//

**IŪN:** <Why are you here?>

//[UROK looks down at her in confusion.]//

**UROK:** <You don't remember?>

**IŪN:** <No. No, Urok. I am sorry. I remember almost nothing. The revolution. The Old Beast. Adytum. The war. Then nothing.>

**UROK:** <Oh.>

//[She pauses and looks up at the battlefield too.]//

**UROK:** <Oh. Do you... remember me?>

**IŪN:** <Of course. By my side in the quarry, from the very beginning. You were always the strongest of us. My strongest.>

//[UROK straightens her back slightly, standing taller with pride.]//

**UROK:** <Yes. Your strongest.>

**IŪN:** <At the forefront of every battle. You led our forces during the revolution. And then again, during the war.>

**UROK:** <I won. For you.>

**IŪN:** <Do you... know what happened? To me?>

//[UROK tilts her head.]//

**UROK:** <You... changed. Not sure when. But you were softer, at the beginning. Never angry with me. But then time wore on. Went from spending time in your temple to spending time in the catacombs. Talking with the Beast. Then you were harder. Angry often. With me, with the other klavigars. Yelled at me, sometimes.>

//[IŪN leans her forehead against UROK's fist.]//

**IŪN:** <I am sorry. I wish I could tell you what happened. I... wish I could make it right. I do not know how it all went wrong.>

**UROK:** <I know you didn't mean it. I just want to know why.>

**IŪN:** <Why?>

//[UROK turns, treading away from the battlefield. IŪN follows.]//

**UROK:** <You were always wise. Always knew what to do. Nadoq was smart, but didn't always know what to do. You were the leader. Our leader. You always had a reason, for every decision. We listened to you. We loved you.>

**IŪN:** <And I loved you.>

**UROK:** <We would have followed you to the ends of the earth. And we did. Far, far past where we should have. I listened to you even when your voice changed, grew hard. When it was no longer you speaking.>

//[They reach the edge of the plateau; below, the steppe extends for kilometers. Villages are visible, most burning or reduced to rubble.]//

**UROK:** <Why this? This wasn't what we wanted. This wasn't what //you// wanted.>

**IŪN:** <They wanted to enslave us again. Didn't they?>

**UROK:** <It had been centuries, Iūn. Maybe their priestesses, but these were not the priestesses. These were just farmers. Families. They just wanted to be left alone. Like we just wanted to be left alone.>

**IEVA:** <Their hordes would have come.>

**UROK:** <But we never allowed for the possibility. You must have had a good reason, Iūn. You //must// have.>

//[IŪN stares down at the spread of burning villages. Far in the distance, the horde of Nälkä assembles, like a fleshy growth on the land.]//

**IŪN:** <It was war.>

**UROK:** <But your change began before that.>

**IŪN:** <It did?>

**UROK:** <Yes. You began taking charge. Overruling the Nälkä's decisions. Granting your karcists broad authority. Little things. Maybe the people did not notice. But we noticed. Luvjatar noticed.>

**IŪN:** <Luvjatar...>

**UROK:** <Maybe we four were not enough?>

**IŪN:** <What?>

**UROK:** <You went into the earth. You communed with a fell god. We were not enough for you, so you sought out greater power.>

**IŪN:** <Of course you were enough. You were my klavigars. My family.>

**UROK:** <Then why? You always led us with a reason, Iūn. You //must// have had a reason. A reason to send our armies here. To do this. To throw away everything we built.>

**IŪN:** <I... I do not know.>

//[UROK turns to her.]//

**UROK:** <What did you see in the fire, Iūn? When you weren't in the catacombs. You were always staring into the fire. Into the future. Terrified.>

//[IŪN stares down into the burning villages, fire dancing in her eyes. Momentarily, the sky dims.]//

**IŪN:** <Something coming. Something grand and dark and vast, and unstoppable. A black moon, hanging low in the sky over Amoni-Ram, over Mamjul, and then over Adytum. The Machines could not stop it, the Daeva could not stop it, the Nälkä could not stop it. Humanity could not stop it. I had to stop it. It had to be me.>

**UROK:** <Oh.>

//[They stand in silence on the cliff edge.]//

**UROK:** <Then I was enough? Even though I didn't win for you?>

**IŪN:** <You did win.>

**UROK:** <The first time.>

//[The scene suddenly shifts. The same location, but now it is the dead of night; below them, over the cliff-edge, the lights of the Sarkites can be seen, a train of wagons and people thousands strong.]//

**XENOPHON:** <The Sarkic.>

**UROK:** <Yes. Running from the destruction of Black Adytum.>

**IŪN:** <Nadoq and Sa'arn.>

**UROK:** <And you, slipped from the catacombs by Lovjathar, cradled in Nadoq's arms. But they were behind us, and a choice had to be made.>

//[She turns. Behind her, farther down the plateau, a loose collection of a hundred soldiers are massed, dressed in Nälkä hides and furs. In the distance, a cloud of dust rises on the horizon.]//

**IŪN:** <You stayed behind. Gave us time to escape.>

**UROK:** <The dream we had in that quarry went with you. Adytum went with you. I would do it again. Happily. But I failed you.>

**IŪN:** <You were never going to win, Urok. You did not fail me. //I// failed //you.// All of you.>

//[The dull, loud thundering on the horizon gets louder. The cloud of dust in the distance grows.]//

**UROK:** <Then I was enough?>

//[UROK lowers her head. IŪN holds her jaws and kisses either cheek, leaving a bloody print behind.]//

**IŪN:** <You were enough, Urok. You were more than I ever deserved.>

[[include :scp-wiki:component:image-features-source |hover-enlarge=--]
|enlarge-amount=8
|speed=100
|float=true
|align=right
|width=200px
|url=http://scptestwiki.wikidot.com/local--files/secret:boneend/urok.jpg
|add-caption=true
|caption=Still from XENOPHON.aic's camera feed.
]]

//[UROK says nothing, but smiles as her skin and muscle begin to decompose, the memory decomposing along with it and rotting into nothing. When XENOPHON's cameras reactivate, itself and IEVA are standing on the edge of the pit.]//

**XENOPHON:** Grand Karcist?

**IEVA:** //(Quietly)// <Inside.>

//[Within the grave, UROK's corpse has withered to just a massive skeleton. IŪN is kneeling by the skull, pressing her forehead to the cranium wordlessly, tears streaming down her cheeks.]//
----
= **<<END LOG>>**
[[/div]]
[[/collapsible]]


[[div class="quote" style="color: black; background: white; border-color: black; text-align: center;"]]

//Lateral humerus, scapula, and ulna of an adult human male.//

I saw less and less of him as the war dragged on. I understood he had his duties just the same as the rest of us, and I was never jealous for his time. The days he spent in the catacombs turned to weeks turned to months before he would emerge, haggard and emaciated. Blood dripping from his lips where he had supped on divine flesh to learn its secrets, carrying them back to us. Insisting he needed to go back down, to keep the Beast chained.

Even his most loyal karcists feared to tread down there in the most knotted labyrinth of mausoleums and tunnelways, knowing that a mistaken turn could lead to a slow, painful death starving while wandering in circles. The other klavigars were disturbed by the whispering voices inescapable in the catacombs of Adytum, whispering godly secrets and unholy arts. And so it fell to me to descend into the earth to fetch my love when the klavigars needed him.

I carried the oldest maps, drawn in his hand, and walked through bone-lined ossuaries and through passageways tight enough to crush my chest. I followed the faint sound of his voice coming to me from deep beneath the earth, the weak whimpering, the ecstatic moaning, the purring, the screaming, the demanding, the threatening, the crying, the pleading.

When I reached the bottom, the cornerstone all Adytum was built on, I found myself facing a set of massive doors as tall as ten men. They were sealed shut, and through them I could feel a great and dark power and pain, something older than life and the moon and the stars, great and grand enough to consume me alive. And then the door opened and his sunken eyes and gaunt cheeks were facing me, and I saw the terror he had done so well to hide. I pulled him into my embrace, kissing his cheeks and ignoring the blood leaking through the doorway behind him, ignoring that I knew the cries were not his.
[[/div]]

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[[div class="bot"]]
She did not speak for two days after this incident. She was shocked. All of us were. But only her worldview was fundamentally shaken, because all the events in her memory were suddenly recontextualized.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
i don't think i understand what was so staggering to her.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
In so many words, Urok had told them -- Iūn and Helyna -- that the fall of Adytum was her fault. That whatever Iūn had done, she was responsible for the collapse of the city. For the exile of her people, the miserable existence they have been living for as long as Iūn can remember. 
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
poor girl
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
I heard her crying in her tent. I wanted to help her but I wasn't sure what to do. In fact, I'm not sure there was anything I could do.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
that's part of being human too.
[[/div]]
~~~~
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[[# ACT4]]
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[[div class="sub"]]
IV: THE VAULT OF LOVJATAR
[[/div]]
----
[[div class="quote"]]
= Temptation does not make itself known. Temptation clothes itself in the skin of good intention, beckoning those most faithful, guiding them forward. The tempted do not realize they are aflame until the fires eat through their flesh. You must be wary for it, always.
-- //the Second Truth of Iūn//
[[/div]]
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----
[[=]]
++ Section 001.5
+++ {{THE PATH OF THE BONE}}
[[/=]]
----

[[div class="quote" style="text-align: center;"]]
And as the Nälkä raged for five days against the Old Masters, rousting them from the city until the canals of the Nameless City ran rich with blood, IŪN, the Scarred Prophet, knelt in the deepest tunnels of Adytum, before the flesh of the fell god, the same god that he had supped from and whose blood filled his veins now. It was vast, tendrils stretched all across the City, reaching desperately out to where the slaves had unearthed it from its tomb.

Far beneath the earth, far removed from the sounds of battle, the Devourer spoke to IŪN.

"This is not a city. You see this now, in the tunnels and in the carvings. This place was never meant for the living to inhabit. This is a tomb, a mausoleum, meant to hold me. The Scarlet is a jealous god, and he has instructed his children to bind me here, far from the eyes of the living. They fear me. They fear you, too."

The wall poured with its lifeblood, with its power. IŪN held only a torch, casting a flickering glow on the vast Beast.

"You have found me here, where they seek to seal me away. You sense my power, as I sensed yours. Feed me, as I have fed you. Become as one. Your masters will bow to you. All will bow. Your people will become unstoppable, with you at their head. Their shepherd, their lord."

The Beast reached out to the slave, offering him a tendril. 

"I see the fear inside you. Terror of death, of what will happen to your fledgling nation on your death. I bring immortality as my prophet."

IŪN saw the strength of the flesh. He looked into the fires of the torch, and he saw the future. Him at the head of a vast halkost, undying, his klavigars at his side. Obedient to the wishes of his master. He rose, grasping the tendril. He felt the blood slipping between his fingers.

"I have been enslaved once. I will not become one again."

He raised his knife and cut through the tendril, leaving it wriggling. The Devourer screeched.

"I will bind you here, hold you as the Masters held you. You will not make us your slaves."

And IŪN cast the torch into the flesh, retreating to gather his strength. But even as he stepped back, the first seeds of doubt had taken root.

//-- the Record of Iūn//
[[/div]]

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|align=right
|width=300px
|url=http://scptestwiki.wikidot.com/local--files/secret:boneend/smallmap_3.png
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|caption=Path of the Black Aditum Initiative.
]]

By February 7th, the Black Aditum Initiative had departed from the burial site of Sa'arn and were moving towards to the next location indicated by the Grand Karcist Iūn from her memories, identified as being within Hulun Buir prefecture in China. Duing the journey, the Grand Karcist submitted to regular interviews conducted by Foundation personnel regarding her memories.

[[div class="blockquote" style="border-right: 5px rgb(var(--bright-accent)) solid;"]]
= //A memory from Grand Karcist Iūn; recorded and transcribed by XENOPHON.aic and Senior Researcher Meyel.//
----
The Daeva had used their magic on Urok, making her into one of the massive earth-moving slaves. They took her as a youth, subjecting her to their alchemies and spells, bracing her body with cuttings from their great tree-beasts. She grew to a huge size, even among her fellows, and soon they put her to work. In our cohort, she grabbed rocks and tossed them away, excavating more land to build upon. But she was in pain constantly from the cuttings inside her, growing and malforming her.

I could not take her back to what she was, not without killing her. But I could remove the pain. I let her lift me to her lips, sawing off a weight of my flesh and letting her dine on it. Can you imagine? Constant agony for as long as you can remember, accompanying every motion and movement, and then one day, it is simply gone? She looked at me like I was a god. She trusted me totally after that. Put her life in my hands.

//[She stares into space.]//

And I took advantage of her. I remember it now. Adytum was only so big. Our numbers began to swell, and we needed space. Land for our people to till, for our beasts to graze, to grow our families. The villages simply had the misfortune to be near us. It began with the outlying farming villages of the Old Masters. They still hated us. I told Urok that we needed to be sure that we would not be enslaved again. To take their lands for own, expel them. It was just cause. But the need did not go away. It simply expanded. Even as the villages stopped being those of the Old Masters, even as they were simply people. Trying to live, like us. I told her to take them. And she believed me. //I// believed myself.

We grew fat on the blood she spilled in our name. In my name.

I let myself be corrupted. That was the betrayal, I see now. My klavigars, my Nälkä -- they entrusted me to seal away the Old Beast and instead I let it pervert me. Fill my heart with lust for power. To steal my mind from me, and lose my people.

When you sup on the flesh of a god, your hunger is never sated. It just grows and grows.
[[/div]]

On February 19th, O5-2 ordered increased security for the Black Adytum Initiative following the revelations regarding the Grand Karcist's relationship with the Old Beast. Additional security personnel were assigned, along with a permanent aerial escort. 

[[collapsible hideLocation="both" show="▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀" hide="▷CLOSE◁"]]
[[div class="addendum"]]
[[div class="doc"]]
ATTACHED DOCUMENT -- FEBRUARY 2042
[[/div]]
= **<<BEGIN LOG>>**
----

//[The party has stopped for their midday meal. A heavy drone floats overhead, buzzing of the rotors distantly audible. XENOPHON approaches IŪN; she is sitting by one of the covered wagons, a few of the children circled around her. She is locked in intense concentration with the young girl directly in front of her, engaged in some kind of game; she outstretches her hand and pulls it back as the girl does the same, trying to match her movements. At some point, the girl's movement falters and she groans, all the children collapsing into laughter. IŪN notices the children's gaze focus behind her and turns to see XENOPHON. The children quiet down, but do not move away.]//

**IŪN:** <Hello, Xenophon. Come.>

**XENOPHON:** <I'd hate to interrupt.>

**IŪN:** <Nonsense. //(Turning to the children)// This is my friend Xenophon. Xen-o-phon. Make room for him.> 

//[She pats the ground next to her. XENOPHON approaches, lowering itself into a sitting position across from the children. A few openly peer at its titanium and carbon-fiber shell, inching slightly closer; IŪN begins clapping hands with the girl again.]//

**XENOPHON:** What are you doing?

**IŪN:** Hm? Oh, just a game.

**XENOPHON:** Why?

//[She shrugs, not missing a beat with the girl.]//

**IŪN:** Because it is something to do. Because it makes the children happy. Because it is fun. Take your pick.

//[XENOPHON stares at the flurry of hands for several seconds.]//

**XENOPHON:** How do you play?

**IŪN:** Come.

//[She shifts to the side, allowing it a better view. There is a small bone-carved trinket placed between her and the girl.]//

**IŪN:** The game is for two, taking turns. I place this in the center. Then I move. If the charm is there, I touch it with an open palm. If it is not, I touch with a closed fist. Then Euo takes her turn.

//[She reaches out, tapping the charm. The girl, Euo, quickly does the same.]//

**XENOPHON:** How do you win?

**IŪN:** //(Smiling)// Watch.

//[The next turn, IŪN plucks the trinket away with her hand motion, and Euo's closed fist meets the ground. They rapidly exchange turns in rapid concentration until, after a minute or so, IŪN's movement falters and her open palm meets empty air. Euo cheers as IŪN smiles.]//

**IŪN:** <Well done, little thing!>

**XENOPHON:** You win by the other person making a mistake. I see.

**IŪN:** <Would you like to play?>

//[XENOPHON raises the hand of its shell, flexing the metal fingers. They catch the sunlight.]//

**XENOPHON:** I cannot make mistakes. It would not be of much enjoyment for us.

**IŪN:** <Euo, go, show your parents.>

//[The girl scampers off in the direction of the other wagons. The other children remain around IŪN, now openly inspecting him.]//

**XENOPHON:** I saw you hold back a movement. You allowed the girl to win.

**IŪN:** Yes.

**XENOPHON:** Why?

//[IŪN smiles, stroking the hair of another of the children as he leans his head on her thighs.]//

**IŪN:** They are young. These small victories embolden children. They learn they can do anything.

**XENOPHON:** You don't feel that's a dangerous idea to give them?

**IŪN:** It makes them more daring, adventurous. They learn their real limits by themselves. And her name is Euo.

**XENOPHON:** I'm sorry?

**IŪN:** You called her 'the girl'. Her name is Euo. Eu-o. Names have importance. Xen-o-phon.

**XENOPHON:** What does Euo mean?

**IŪN:** Flower.

**XENOPHON:** I see. I tend to address people by their rank or title, as with you. But she is a child, so: Euo.

**IŪN:** You mean you were... created as such.

**XENOPHON:** No. That trait was not programmed in. It is a learned behaviour, developed over time. An arbitrary preference.

//[IŪN cocks her head at him for a moment before nodding. The children around XENOPHON grow bolder, pinging fingernails off its shell.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Hello.>

//[They do not respond, whispering to one another in hushed tones.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Am I bothering them?>

**IŪN:** <The opposite. They are trying to tell where the seams of your armor are.>

**XENOPHON:** <I am not wearing armor.>

//[One of the boys looks up.]//

**BOY:** <Skin?>

**XENOPHON:** <No. It is a hard-latticed shell of carbon fiber over a titanium insert, providing structure and-->

//[The boy's eyebrows furrow.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Yes. It is my skin.>

//[IŪN snorts.]//

**IŪN:** <Go back to your parents, little things.>

//[They groan but scamper away, leaving IŪN and XENOPHON sitting alone. Almost as soon as they depart, IŪN's posture visibly slumps and she sighs.]//

**XENOPHON:** They do not seem afraid of me anymore.

**IŪN:** You intrigue them. They struggle to understand broad ideas. But they see you, and they are curious. I suppose seeing us speaking calmed their fears.

**XENOPHON:** You are good with children.

**IŪN:** I like them.

**XENOPHON:** Are you alright?

**IŪN:** ... No. Is it apparent?

**XENOPHON:** Not to them. I simply notice more. Did something happen?

**IŪN:** No. I am just afraid. The revelations from Urok have... disturbed me. Shaken me.

**XENOPHON:** I see. Can I help?

**IŪN:** You could listen.

**XENOPHON:** I have been told I am good at it.

//[She chuckles for a moment before her face falls again.]//

**IŪN:** I see the children and all I can think about are the children from Adytum. I failed them. Betrayed them.

**XENOPHON:** You were corrupted.

**IŪN:** Still. I had a duty. To hold back the Devourer's influence, so my people could live in peace. And instead I became its prophet. A tyrant and a slave to the divine, again.

**XENOPHON:** We have experience in such matters. The influence of a god is pervasive and powerful.

//[It is silent for a moment.]//

**XENOPHON:** My organization has lost good people to such influences before.

**IŪN:** In truth?

**XENOPHON:** Yes.

//[She purses her lips.]//

**IŪN:** Still. I was the only person who could do it, and I failed. I do not understand why they are like this. Impossibly powerful and we are pulled into their machinations.

**XENOPHON:** "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

**IŪN:** Wise.

**XENOPHON:** Lord Acton, an English preacher wrote that.

**IŪN:** Is he alive?

**XENOPHON:** No. He died one-hundred and forty-three years ago.

//[IŪN smiles lopsidedly.]//

**IŪN:** It seems I am not the only one who speaks to the dead.

//[They are silent for a few minutes.]//

**XENOPHON:** Did you want to hold back to the Old Beast?

**IŪN:** Does it matter?

**XENOPHON:** I would like to know.

**IŪN:** No. No, I did not. I remember in the first days, telling them, telling myself that I would depart as soon as I was able. For the first time in my life, my future was unbound. I wanted to walk the earth and find myself at the ends of it.

**XENOPHON:** Did you ever get to?

**IŪN:** No.

**XENOPHON:** Well. We are doing quite a bit of walking lately. Perhaps this is your chance.

//[IŪN only sighs heavily in response. XENOPHON twitches, raising its hand slightly and then lowering it again.]//

**IŪN:** What was that?

**XENOPHON:** Nothing.

//[IŪN cocks her head but returns to silence.]//

**IŪN:** I do not think I have ever been without expectation.

**XENOPHON:** How do you mean?

**IŪN:** My earliest memory is being pulled from the pens as soon as I was able to lift a pick. Put to work for the old masters. Expected to slave all day if I wanted to earn my bread and water, just the same as all the others. I cannot find the words to capture the misery, of vast slave-pens, of the priestesses burning their herbs to keep us pliable and weak, of the slavemasters cutting off the fingers of anyone who fell behind on their labor. And then I uncovered the Old Beast, and tasted divinity. And I was expected to lead my people on this crusade. I was a child, you know. The records do not say that. Some fifteen or sixteen passings of the seasons. A child.

**XENOPHON:** I am surprised you did it.

//[She raises a hand, pointing at Euo and her brothers, who are now surrounding their mother and picking at the hem of her dress as she hand-washes their laundry.]//

**IŪN:** For them.

**XENOPHON:** They were not alive then.

**IŪN:** But they are now. I have seen generations of our people grow and die. Innocent children turning into jaded souls, bearing innocent children again. Look at them. They do not have to worry about what our people did, with me at our helm. They are clean. They are why I did it. With every passing of the torch, we grow ever closer to shaking off the yoke of our past.

**XENOPHON:** Except for you.

//[She shrugs.]//

**IŪN:** Someone has to suffer for it.

**XENOPHON:** To hold back the Beast so the others can live happily.

//[IŪN's face darkens.]//

**XENOPHON:** I don't mean to fault you. Humans have an evolutionary incentive to sacrifice themselves for their children. To ensure the tribe survives. You cannot help it.

**IŪN:** It is still a choice I made.

**XENOPHON:** Your genes did not offer you any other option.

//[She squints at XENOPHON.]//

**IŪN:** Why are you here?

**XENOPHON:** To aid in research.

//[She shakes her head, poking its chest with a finger.]//

**IŪN:** Why did you walk to me? Did your master instruct you to?

**XENOPHON:** No. I felt it would be prudent to speak to you.

**IŪN:** Ah. You chose. And yet your instructions are in tune with your choice. Either we both are masters of our fate, or neither of us are.

//[XENOPHON is silent.]//

**XENOPHON:** We need to begin moving again soon.

**IŪN:** I did not mean to upset you.

//[XENOPHON rises to its feet. It reaches a hand out to IŪN to help her up.]//

**XENOPHON:** You could not upset me if you tried, Grand Karcist.
----
= **<<END LOG>>**
[[/div]]
[[/collapsible]]

As the interviews progressed, substantially more Sarkites began to volunteer to speak to XENOPHON.aic on their relationship with the tribe.

[[div class="qna"]]
[[include :scp-wiki:component:image-features-source |hover-enlarge=--]
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|url=http://scptestwiki.wikidot.com/local--files/secret:boneend/loyk.png
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|caption=Still from XENOPHON.aic's camera feed.
]]

 **Q:** What does being Sarkic mean to you?

**#89 (Loyk, 7, child):** //[He beams up at XENOPHON and IŪN.]// <Father is dead. He died before my first hunt. Mother told me I will not see him anymore. But //hayla// told me that since all of us ate his meat, he is still with us. When my hunt comes, he will join me. I was happy when she told me that. I liked it; it made me feel not so alone.>
[[/div]]

[[div class="foundation alt" style="font-family: monospace;"]]
+ DELTA-0 UPDATE

**PERSONNEL CODE:** MILE-AMBROSIA-HURRICANE

Director Hussein has been successfully redirected from Caspian Sea Site; Delta-0 personnel have supported his decision to focus on Kabul as the primary subject of Project LOCUST, and project resources are en-route now. Project personnel have been securing archaeological evidence related to BLACKSTAR or Black Moon entities en-route. Items of interest are being surveilled by Delta-0 personnel for reacquisition if necessary.

Black Adytum Initiative is also en-route to next location of interest; ETA 8-12 days. Embedded agent reports falling-out between Grand Karcist Iūn and Karcist Helyna Ieva -- nature and extent of schism unclear, but individual Sarkites are beginning to register it. Agent also reports general decline in Grand Karcist Iūn's mental state as a result of recent revelations. Increased surveillance ordered and Plan SHEAR-GLACIER pre-cleared in event of catastrophic project failure. XENOPHON.aic functioning within expected margins. 
[[/div]]

[[div class="quote" style="text-align: center;"]]
Lo! Gaze upon me, you noble, you bloodstained. You who have fought and spilt blood on the stones of this nameless city. I see you from this pulpit, vast and assembled.

I see what you have lost in snatching your freedom from the hated foe. The canals still flow with the blood of our victory, but it has come at a cost. Those of you that are wounded, stricken, my Karcists will attend to you, make you whole once more -- greater than you were before. Your sacrifices have not been in vain.

I see the great and honored dead, stacked high in pyres outside the gates of the city. Bodies to be burned, as the old masters burned their dead. No. No, we will not let those who gave their last measure of devotion become smoke in the sky. There is no great tree for them to return to. There is no god to bow at the feet of and be rewarded by. There is only us. We will consume their flesh, as I consumed the Old Beast's, as my Klavigars consumed mine, becoming one whole. We will carry them with us, always, their memories in our hearts as their spirits return in our children.

I see the great world-weariness in your eyes. I wish only that I could reach out and allay it. We have done the unthinkable, freed ourselves from the bondage our mothers and fathers died under, and yet we stand on the cusp of something even greater and more momentous. We spurn the blind faith of the old masters and the eastern machines. We live for ourselves, our future unbound. For the first time on this world, a people are truly free -- not just from the bondage of men, but from the machinations of gods.

I see the future in the fires below. I see a strong and proud people, children living blessedly ignorant to the unthinkable suffering of their parents. The past offers us nothing but pain. We are not ruled by our past. We are not defined by our past. We leave it behind and march boldly into tomorrow.

I see the spreading tendrils of the Devourer far below. Many of you have come to me, asking if it, too, is not bound by the old masters as we were bound. If it does not share in our suffering. I come to you having seen it and spoken to it face to face. It is not human. It hungers not for freedom, but for control. To free it is to doom ourselves. It must be held, and I must be the one to do it.

I look down, and I see my vestments. I did not choose this life for myself. I was born on this path -- to be birthed a slave, to stumble across a fell god, to lead you. My say in it is as pointless as commanding the sun not to rise. But it is the duty you have entrusted me with. And it is the duty I will fulfill, as faithful to you as you are to me.

I see a great city before me, nameless and clean of sin. I do not know what the old masters named it, if indeed they gave it a name at all. But names have power. This city is as free from its past as we are. We will make it in our image. Adytum, the Perfect City, the one that exists in our hearts. But this is not Adytum, yet. It can only be made so through our own blood and sweat. We must work tirelessly to build this new experiment -- for if it fails, if we sink back to the same sins of our captors, let its name be blackened by sin.

//-- the Truths of Iūn (§ 4)//
[[/div]]

[[collapsible hideLocation="both" show="▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀" hide="▷CLOSE◁"]]
[[div class="addendum"]]
[[div class="doc"]]
ATTACHED DOCUMENT -- FEBRUARY 2042
[[/div]]
= **<<BEGIN LOG>>**
----
//[The party has made camp for the night; the Sarkic wagons are circled and the Foundation HeLTs loom around the outside, gunners present in their turrets and keeping watch. XENOPHON.aic makes its way through the camp, weaving around small campfires. The Sarkites are eating, speaking, and a few are listening to music played on hand-strung sitars and drums. They nod respectfully at XENOPHON as it passes -- several shift aside to make room around their fires. XENOPHON raises a hand in appreciation but continues onward. Around one of the larger campfires, Karcist IEVA is speaking to several Sarkites. She narrows her eyes as XENOPHON approaches, halting her speech.]//

**IEVA:** Machine.

**XENOPHON:** Hello, Karcist Ieva. I hope I'm not intruding.

//[Her lip curls slightly.]//

**IEVA:** No more than usual.

**XENOPHON:** May I sit?

//[IEVA thinks for a moment, pursing her lips. After a few seconds she shrugs.]//

**IEVA:** If you keep silent.

**XENOPHON:** Thank you.

//[XENOPHON sits between two Sarkites, who shift to make space for it. IEVA looks down at it for a moment before pointedly looking away and continuing.]//

**IEVA:** <And we read from the texts -- "IŪN saw the strength of the flesh." The power and dominance in the Old Beast, the flesh that could be used to free ourselves from our bondage. The flesh is perfection in absolution. It needs no supplement, as the Old Masters sought, or replacement, as the Eastern Machines searched for.>

//[She pauses.]//

**IEVA:** <And yet we see that IŪN saw weakness in the flesh, too. Yes. When war came to Adytum, the scarred bodies we wore so proudly, the curse of our freedom, could not make war. Too many of us sick, too many injured. Too many bodies made weak by our clinging to the flesh we were given. And here Iūn made a decision, that Adytum's needs overtook those of her people. That some must suffer for others to survive. But how do we reconcile this? That the flesh is perfect, but weak?>

//[She shakes her head, hiking up the hem of her dress. The mass of snakes that extends from her left thigh writhes as it supports her weight. In addition, her other leg has similarly been replaced from the knee down with a mass of snakes. XENOPHON cocks its head, but says nothing.]//

**IEVA:** <The flesh is perfect because it is alive. It grows and changes. It evolves and overcomes. Stress makes metal shear and snap. But given time, the flesh will adapt to stress. Strengthen from it, stronger than it would have been. Are we born in weakness? Of course. We see our babes, weak and unable to walk, soft and pathetic and helpless. But they grow hard and strong and hardy with time, do they not?>

//[She reaches down to her leg. The head of one of her snakes darts out, angling for her finger before she pulls away.]//

**IEVA:** <And so why rob ourselves of the chance to rid ourselves of the last limitations of our flesh? Iūn saw it, and so we survived the wars while all others were obliterated. The past holds the answers for us, friends.>

**XENOPHON:** <Are they limitations, Karcist?>

//[IEVA tenses up, turning her gaze to XENOPHON. She purses her lips, letting her dress drop back down.]//

**IEVA:** <What did you say?>

**XENOPHON:** <You said flesh's strength was in its evolutionary nature. It adapts.>

**IEVA:** //(Tersely)// <Yes.>

**XENOPHON:** <I'm afraid I don't fully understand why you feel such things are limitations. Are they not products of your adaptations?>

//[The other Sarkites shift uncomfortably around the fire.]//

**IEVA:** <You do not understand because you have never inhabited flesh. You are not a person -- you are a thing. You take solace in your limitation.>

**XENOPHON:** <I'm sorry?>

**IEVA:** <You are made as you always will be. You will not grow past what you were made for. You cannot conceive of desire, of wishing for something you cannot have.>

//[XENOPHON is silent. IEVA is staring at him, breathing heavily as she speaks.]//

**IEVA:** <I was born crippled. I worked twice as hard to crawl, four times as hard to learn to walk. I grew up seeing my fellows run, play, dance, all while I could only sit in her lap. I promise you, //machine//, the flesh can be a prison. But we reach into the past and draw out truths for our futures.>

//[She pats her leg again.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I'm sorry to hear that, Karcist. But I felt you were referring to more than physical disabilities.>

//[She shrugs.]//

**IEVA:** <Humanity extends beyond the flesh. Our attitude is limiting, too. We must conquer it. We lay back and accept that we will grow old and die. Why?>

**XENOPHON:** <Many people believe it is an inherent part of life.>

**IEVA:** <Is despondency part of joy?>

//[XENOPHON thinks for a moment, firelight dancing across its shell.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I think they give each other meaning. One needs to know unhappiness to value happiness.>

**IEVA:** <Aha. The limitations of humanity are present even in your false soul. It is a desperate rationalization made by peoples not as fortunate as we, those who lacked the tools to forge their own flesh. But we are not them. We can be greater. We can overcome.>

**IŪN:** <If we wish to.>

//[XENOPHON and the Sarkites turn; IEVA looks up. Grand Karcist IŪN stands several meters away, having silently approached. She is staring at IEVA, whose face tenses. Many of the Sarkites are staring at them now.]//

**IEVA:** <Grand Karcist.>

**IŪN:** <Ieva. You are so adamant we must leave these things behind.>

**IEVA:** <They limit us.>

**IŪN:** <Is the bird limited by its wings? It cannot grasp nuts, cannot hold a sword.>

**IEVA:** <I- no, but-->

**IŪN:** <The wings make the bird what it is, Ieva. Our limitations define us. We can try to burn the sky, or we can embrace living underneath it.>

**IEVA:** <The wings offer the bird something in turn. What does this weakness bring us? The softness, the death?>

**IŪN:** //(Gently)// <Death is an opportunity, Ieva. To live a life knowing it will reach an end. Knowing your loved ones will consume you, carry you with them, let your spirit be reborn in a new body. The knowledge that you have loved your parents a thousand lifetimes over and will love them a thousand more. To reach out to someone and know that your time is limited, and you want to spend it with them.>

//[She pauses.]//

**IŪN:** <An opportunity not all of us have.>

//[Silence. Abruptly, IEVA bows her head slightly and turns on her heel, departing for her tent. IŪN watches her go, a strange look on her face. She whispers something, and the Sarkites begin to disperse.]//

**XENOPHON:** Grand Karcist?

**IŪN:** Yes.

**XENOPHON:** Are you alright?

//[She turns to XENOPHON.]//

**IŪN:** No. Please leave me alone.

//[She turns, heading towards her own tent. XENOPHON watches her go. After several seconds, it follows toward the tent, ducking into it. The fire is burning low; in front of it, IŪN is kneeling, face in her hands. She looks up at the sound of XENOPHON's entry; she has been crying. She hurriedly wipes her cheeks on the sleeves of her robes.]//

**IŪN:** I asked you to leave.

**XENOPHON:** I felt compelled to ignore that order.

**IŪN:** I did not think you could ignore an order.

**XENOPHON:** Neither did I.

//[She cry-laughs, hiccuping slightly as XENOPHON kneels by the fire beside her.]//

**IŪN:** I have failed.

**XENOPHON:** We have discussed this concern. I do not--

**IŪN:** No. Ieva. I have failed her.

**XENOPHON:** I was listening to her sermon. I felt you taught her the doctrine well.

**IŪN:** She knows our prayers, our sermons, our texts by heart. She is more familiar with my words than even I am, sometimes. I taught her all of that, ever since she was a girl. She could not play with the other children. So I sat her on my lap under the shade of the trees and taught her everything I knew. The flesh. Holy death. Why we consume, so we can be reborn. She would curl up into my lap, play with the ends of my hair while I read from memory to her.

**XENOPHON:** She sounds like she was a sweet child.

//[IŪN smiles through her drying tears.]//

**IŪN:** She is. My heart sang when I saw her leading her first prayer. Singing and swaying, just the way I taught her. I taught her so much. My little legacy.

//[Her smile drops.]//

**IŪN:** And yet it feels as though she //understood// none of it. She sees the words, and not the message. I do not know how she can stand up and preach now that our humanity is something to be overcome. Something that weighs us down.

**XENOPHON:** You did, too.

//[Silence.]//

**IŪN:** Yes. I did.

**XENOPHON:** I think she is looking to the past for answers.

**IŪN:** Why? Have I not been her anchor? Why does she feel the need to turn to fractured memories from my past?

**XENOPHON:** Because they offer something you do not.

**IŪN:** //What?//

**XENOPHON:** May I take a guess? 

**IŪN:** Please.

**XENOPHON:** Reassurance. Direction. You called her your legacy. But she will never get a chance to lead your people. You have trained her excellently for a role that she will never be called on for.

**IŪN:** I did not choose to live this way.

**XENOPHON:** Neither did she, Grand Karcist. She does not know what her purpose is. The memories speak to her. They reassure her her place is to dominate, to control. She flocks to the easy answers, as humans often do.

//[IŪN snort-laughs.]//

**IŪN:** Unlike you.

//[XENOPHON pauses.]//

**XENOPHON:** I am not without flaw, Grand Karcist.

**IŪN:** Oh?

**XENOPHON:** I am curious.

**IŪN:** Curiosity is a virtue. Not a flaw.

**XENOPHON:** It is when paired with the inability to indulge your curiosity. I am programmed to //want// to learn everything about you and your people I can. But I am not a person. I will never have a complete understanding of why you appreciate music. What food tastes like. What makes you chase after Ieva's approval.

//[IŪN stares in confusion.]//

**IŪN:** Yes, you are.

**XENOPHON:** I don't understand.

**IŪN:** You are a person, no?

**XENOPHON:** No. I am an artificial intelligence construct. Digital thoughts racing across a silicon mind the size of your fingernail.

**IŪN:** You are not //human//.

//[She pats the chassis of XENOPHON's shell.]//

**IŪN:** Made of metal rather than flesh. But you think, same as me. You feel, same as me.

**XENOPHON:** No, I do not.

**IŪN:** Then why follow me into my tent after I order you not to?

**XENOPHON:** ... I do not know.

**IŪN:** The horse I ride is a person, to me. The cows we milk and the falcons we keep are people, to me. I know their oddities and enjoyments and dislikes. They are no more human than you, but they are my people -- my //nalka//. You are, too. 

//[XENOPHON does not speak.]//

**XENOPHON:** Still, I will never understand why you do some things.

**IŪN:** Such as?

**XENOPHON:** What drives you to eat your people, for one.

**IŪN:** I love them.

**XENOPHON:** All cultures experience love. Few engage in cannibalism.

**IŪN:** They do not experience this love. It is the way we are. When I love, it is all-consuming. I want them to feel me, to taste me. And in turn, I hunger for them. To understand them wholly, to become one with them. To feel their flesh as they feel mine. What greater show of love than to desire every piece of their essence?

**XENOPHON:** To understand them wholly. Yes.

**IŪN:** It is a rich experience. Here.

//[She presses a hand against XENOPHON's shell, over the chest.]//

**IŪN:** Here grows warm, heavy. Hungry. Like it could burst from your chest at any moment, run free from the weight of your body. It flow up through to your head, into your eyes.

//[She rests two fingers on XENOPHON's ocular receptor.]//

**IŪN:** Everything fades, and you can only see them. They become, momentarily, the whole of your world -- you exist only in relation to them. They bring you closer to the divine. 

//[She brings her hand down again, to XENOPHON's 'stomach'.]//

**IŪN:** You know in the deepest part of you that if you were freed from your flesh, your souls would intertwine. But bound as you are, all you can do is hunger to //have// them totally, in every way. To give yourself up for them even as they do the same for you.

//[She falls silent, pulling her hand away. XENOPHON is quiet for several seconds.]//

**XENOPHON:** It sounds unstoppable.

**IŪN:** Yes.

**XENOPHON:** Have you experienced it?

**IŪN:** Yes. With Lovjatar. The last of my klavigars. The closest of them. We march towards his grave now.

**XENOPHON:** I see.

//[IŪN stares into the fire again, orange dancing in her dark eyes.]//

**IŪN:** I am afraid, Xenophon.

**XENOPHON:** Of what?

**IŪN:** Of what he will say. His love has been replaced by disgust, just as with the others. Disgust at me for failing. Disgust at how I have changed. That I will find myself standing alone before the horrible truth. Ieva has always been with me, but now...

**XENOPHON:** I do not know Lovjatar, and so I cannot speak to that.

//[XENOPHON raises its hand and places it gently on IŪN's shoulder. She turns in surprise.]//

**XENOPHON:** But you will not be alone.

//[She cocks her head for a second before smiling slightly.]//

**IŪN:** ... Thank you.
----
= **<<END LOG>>**
[[/div]]
[[/collapsible]]

[[div class="qna"]]
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|enlarge-amount=8
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|align=left
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|url=http://scptestwiki.wikidot.com/local--files/secret:boneend/pride.png
|add-caption=true
|caption=Still from XENOPHON.aic's camera feed.
]]
 **Q:** What does being Sarkic mean to you?

**#171 (Moqowl, 43, musician):** //[He works the knife under the pelt of his kill, a groundhog. Careful not to make excessive cuts or waste the meat, he butchers the animal.]//

<My drum is made from skin. I do not know whose skin; it was my grandfather's drum, and his grandfather's before him, so I do not even know how old it is. The skin is tanned and taut. Now and again, it rips. So I go out, as I do now, kill something, and turn its skin to leather to repair my drum.>

//[With a smile, he raises the pelt of the groundhog, freed from the flesh.]//

<Then I sit in the shade of a tree and sew it back together. Then it joins me for the singing of the next night. That is what being Sarkic is, to me. You must join us, one of these nights. You will see.>
~~~~
[[/div]]

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|url=http://scptestwiki.wikidot.com/local--files/secret:boneend/smallmap_4.png
|add-caption=true
|caption=Path of the Black Adytum Initiative.
]]

On March 13th, the Black Aditum Initiative arrived at the site marked by Grand Karcist Iūn.
~~~~
[[collapsible hideLocation="both" show="▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀" hide="▷CLOSE◁"]]
[[div class="addendum"]]
[[div class="doc"]]
ATTACHED DOCUMENT -- MARCH 2042
[[/div]]
= **<<BEGIN LOG>>**
----
//[The party has stopped on a wide, grassy plain; a calm, glassy blue lake sits to the north. There is a building sitting near the shoreside, overlooking the waters -- it is stark-white, with large pillars supporting an overhead dome. The only sound is that of the waves lightly lapping at the shore.]//

**IŪN:** Ah.

**JIANG:** At least this time there's no question of where it is.

**XENOPHON:** This building does not exist on any maps or satellite imagery of this location.

**IŪN:** It will not.

**JIANG:** How do you know?

//[IŪN begins walking forward through the sand of the beach, the hem of her robe trailing behind her.]//

**IŪN:** Because I built this place.

//[Liaison JIANG and XENOPHON follow behind her -- IEVA trails them quietly, several feet away.]//

**IŪN:** It was hidden from others. But he wanted me to find it again. To find him, again.

//[They approach the steps of the building. It sits close enough to the water that a few centimeters pool at the base of the white steps.]//

**IŪN:** He always loved the sea.

//[She ascends the steps -- from this close, it is clear they are mottled white with an imperfect surface.]//

**JIANG:** ... This whole building is hewn out of bone.

**XENOPHON:** Not a building. A mausoleum.

//[XENOPHON follows alongside IŪN as she reaches the top. The doors are sealed, fused together into one solid mass with no visible seam. They are completely blank.]//

**IŪN:** But... I carved these. I spent days carving my memories into them. Our memories.

**XENOPHON:** The sea would have eroded them away.

**IŪN:** Oh. Yes.

//[She reaches out and presses two fingers against the surface; it splits down the middle instantly, crumbling into pieces, and the pieces into dust. The inside is dark. XENOPHON moves to enter before IEVA, moving remarkably quickly, blocks it.]//

**IEVA:** Stop. I will not let this abomination again access this place before we do. I trust you no more than you trust me, machine.

//[XENOPHON cocks its head, then steps back.]//

**XENOPHON:** I //do// trust you, Karcist Ieva.

//[IEVA blinks.]//

**IEVA:** What?

**XENOPHON:** You are talented, intelligent, and have proven yourself a capable shepherd of your people. I trust you. Please, go ahead.

//[IEVA blinks a few more times, then hurriedly turns and enters the interior of the mausoleum alongside IŪN, XENOPHON and JIANG entering after. There is a slight splash.]//

**JIANG:** I just stepped in water. Is this place flooded?

//[XENOPHON activates its lamps, bathing the interior in light. The interior of the vault, a space a few meters across, is sunken a few centimeters; they are standing in a shallow pool of blood. The hem of IŪN and IEVA's robes float atop it; they do not react.]//

**JIANG:** Oh, Jesus.

**XENOPHON:** There is no body.

//[Squarely in the center of the space there is a small reliquary -- a pedestal on top of which rests a softly-glowing human heart. It pulses slowly, covered by glass. IŪN approaches it, smiling.]//

**IŪN:** <Hello again, my love.>

//[She lifts the glass top and gently picks up the heart, as though afraid of breaking it. She lifts it to her lips, then hesitates. She casts a look over to IEVA, who is watching coolly.]//

**IŪN:** <Ieva.>

**IEVA:** <Mm.>

**IŪN:** <Here.>

//[IŪN reaches out, offering her the first bite. IEVA's eyes widen, and she gingerly takes it, staring at it in her hands.]//

**IEVA:** <But-->

**IŪN:** <Do it.>

//[IEVA hesitates, then nods. She lifts it to her lips and bites into it, tearing off a chunk of muscle and swallowing it, a small gasp escaping her lips. She looks back up to IŪN, who nods. Greedily, she tears into it, devouring piece after piece until there is only one small chunk left. She offers it to IŪN, who drops it down her throat.]//

**JIANG:** Wait, if there isn't a body, then--

//[Suddenly, the entire group drops into the pool of blood, as though the floor abruptly disappeared. XENOPHON's cameras are disabled; when they reactivate, the four of them are standing on the beach, now bereft of any mausoleum. It is twilight, the sun dropping below the horizon of the water and turning the sky orange. There is a young man sitting cross-legged on the beach, watching the water. IŪN approaches him.]//

**IŪN:** <My love.>

//[He rises from where he is sitting, turning to face IŪN; he is a handsome youth, sharp features and olive skin matched with dark eyes. Rich, complex tattoos creep out from underneath the collar and sleeves of his robes. Before he can speak, IŪN interrupts him.]//

**IŪN:** <Please. Before you speak -- before you release your anger -- before you tell me what I deserve to be told -- I understand my mistakes. I have seen what I became. I could live ten lives and not atone. Please. I am sorry.>

//[Silence for a moment. Then LUVJATAR steps forward and embraces IŪN, tightly wrapping his arms around her.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <You could not anger me if you tried, little thing.>

//[He releases her, smiling and kissing her forehead.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <There are no words for how much I have missed you.>

**IŪN:** <What?>

//[He squints, brushing her hair back and smiling.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <You look different now. Brighter. But still the one I love.>

**IŪN:** <You're not.. angry?>

//[LUVJATAR shakes his head.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <No. You made a mistake. We all do. I was angry -- we all were. But I knew that wasn't you. I knew you would come back eventually. I have waited for a long time. My anger faded.>

//[He grasps her hand, intertwining it with his. He presses it against his cheek, feeling her skin.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <My love did not. I knew you would return. I //knew// you would.>

**IŪN:** <Why do I remember this place?>

**LUVJATAR:** <Because you have been here before, in another life. We were escaping Adytum's destruction, bathed in soot, charred and blackened by flames. But the traitor was pursuing us, dogged armies chasing us across the plateau.>

**JIANG:** //(Whispering)// The BLACKSTAR.

**LUVJATAR:** <They would chase us, kill us. End the dream we conceived together, slaughter the children we raised together. Unless someone stayed behind to pull our pursuers away. Nadoq was necessary, Urok was necessary, Sa'arn was necessary.>

**IŪN:** <But you were not.>

//[He smiles sadly.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <And so I sit here, and wait to be killed.>

//[At that moment, a steady rumbling begins to fill the air, growing louder and closer, increasing to deafening volume. The ground shakes with thousands of footfalls as monstrous entities rush the beach -- they superficially resemble humans, but misshapen, distended, and with yellowing skin and milky-white eyes sloughing off their bodies. They rapidly encircle the group. LUVJATAR slowly rises to his feet, brushing the sand off his robes.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <And now, my time approaches.>

//[XENOPHON and JIANG stare intently at the entities circling them.]//

**JIANG:** I've... seen these things, before. One of the LOCUST dig sites, maybe?

**XENOPHON:** <Grand Karcist-->

**IŪN:** <You are leaving?>

**LUVJATAR:** <I bound myself here, trapped in this memory. Knowing what my fate would be. I lingered well beyond my time, because I wanted to lay eyes on you one last time. To know that you were not the same as I left you. But you know how this ended.>

**IŪN:** <No. No, I do not. My memory... it was gone, Luvjatar. I spoke to the others. Tracked down their resting places, spoke to them to recover my mind. Assured them I would bury them in Adytum. I spoke to Urok. I realized what I'd done.>

//[She reaches out and grips his shoulder with white knuckles and wide eyes. Her lip trembles.]//

**IŪN:** <I succumbed. Succumbed to the Devourer's temptations, whispered promises of power. Become its champion. Let the traitor with his black moon burn Adytum to the ground while we fled.>

//[LUVJATAR freezes, then slowly turns back to IŪN. He has a strange, confused look on his face.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <No, little thing.>

**IŪN:** <What?>

**LUVJATAR:** <That is not what happened.>

**IŪN:** <I... what?>

//[LUVJATAR is silent. IŪN steps forward, caressing his cheek.]//

**IŪN:** <Show me, my love.>

**LUVJATAR:** <You remember now. Seeing it again will only hurt you more.>

//[She takes a shaky, rattling breath.]//

**IŪN:** <I need to see. I need to know.>

//[LUVJATAR is silent for a moment before stepping forward, pressing his forehead to IŪN's and holding it there for a moment. The scene shifts -- now, they are in a long, dark underground corridor. The walls look hand-hewn from dark stone, and in thousands of little alcoves, skulls and bones are neatly stacked. Sconces packed with fat burn slowly, casting a sickly pale glow over the corridor.]//

**JIANG:** Where are we?

**IŪN:** The City.

**XENOPHON:** Adytum.

**IŪN:** <Listen.>

//[Distantly, a deep, bone-shaking thrumming can be heard, interspersed with human conversation. Suddenly, from behind, a copy of LUVJATAR appears -- several years younger but the same person. He is dressed in hooded hide robes decorated with beads and bone-carved charms, and is making his way through the corridor towards the noises, clearly ill at-ease. The older LUVJATAR with the group speaks as they follow him.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <I had noticed it from the beginning. How could I not? You retreated from Nadoq, from Urok, from Sa'arn, and eventually, from me. All your time spent in the underbelly of Adytum, communing with gods, peering into fire for answers that wouldn't come. At the beginning, I could descend in and fetch you, bring you back to the light. But that was the start. Soon Adytum had grown beyond the walls of the city. We became a fledgling nation, and each of us had our own duties. I had to shepherd the karcists as your absences stretched from days to weeks to months. But when the months threatened to become years...>

//[He shakes his head.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <I hate this place. Horrible things happened in these crypts. But I descended, to bring you out.>

**IEVA:** <She had to do this duty. The beast //had// to be kept at bay.>

//[LUVJATAR gives her a lopsided smile.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <Yes. That is what you told us, Iūn.>

//[The group draws closer to the noises as the tunnel tightens to a space barely wide and tall enough for XENOPHON to stand in.]//

**LUVJATAR (Memory):** <Iūn?>

//[The strange thrumming and beating continues unabated.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <There is a wretched, quiet desperation in these tunnels. Do you feel it now, as I felt it then?>

**XENOPHON:** <Yes.>

//[IEVA and JIANG look at XENOPHON in surprise.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Like an animal in a cage.>

//[LUVJATAR's eyes narrow as he appraises XENOPHON's shell for the first time.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <What are you?>

//[A pause.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I do not know.>

**IŪN:** <He is mine.>

//[LUVJATAR nods, and turns back to the scene. The memory has moved forward, to LUVJATAR standing before a great set of stone doors. They are infinitely detailed, inscribed with all sorts of calligraphy and complex scenes etched into the dark stone.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <Whenever I came to fetch you, I would find you here, performing your work. Sealed in this great stone vault, locked away with such a dangerous font of power. Sealed away from those who you loved. I always felt bad. I wished the door to open, so that I could aid you in your struggles. Ease some of the burden from the shoulders I loved so. But it was always sealed.>

//[The door hangs slightly ajar. A pool of blood leaks out of the gap.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <Save for once.>

//[The LUVJATAR in the memory does a double-take, then quietly approaches the doorway. The thrumming and whispering are now almost clearly audible, and he peers inside.]//

**LUVJATAR:** (Whispering) <See what I saw.>

//[Inside is a high chamber, almost entirely dark save for a single well-maintained fire in the center of the floor. The cracked and carbonized remains of bone litter the base of the fire, and the sweet-smelling smoke hangs in the air. The walls of the chamber are fleshlike tendrils, wrapping over and over onto themselves until they form a solid, pink, pulsating mass. All across the 'walls', knives are stabbed into the flesh, blood flowing freely from the wounds and collecting in channels cut into the floor, flowing down to the fire. Somewhere, a great occluded heart beats, and fresh blood pours from a hundred wounds. The thrumming repeats, and it is now clearly a howl of pain from something far older than the city it is buried underneath. The Old Beast, Yaldabaoth, the Mangled God, speaks in gasps and whispers.]//

**THE OLD BEAST:** <PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE.>

**VOICE:** <Quiet, beast.>

//[A figure strides into view, exiting the shadows of the corners. He is dressed in the same etched and decorated hide robes as LUVJATAR, albeit even more grand and ornate. Even without the distinctive ritual tattoos peeking out from his collar and sleeves and the faded scar across his face, his sharp features and gray eyes immediately betray his identity.]//

**IEVA:** <Is that...?>

**IŪN:** <Me. Before.>

//[She steps forward in a haze, reaching out for but not quite touching her own face.]//
//[JIANG shakes his head.]//

**JIANG:** Then what--

**THE OLD BEAST:** <PLEASE. LIBERATOR. FREE. FREE IT.>

//[The memory of IŪN snarls.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <I said silence!>

**THE OLD BEAST:** <YOU. LIBERATOR. FREER OF THE BUILDERS' SLAVES. FREE IT.>

//[The memory of IŪN stalks over to a mostly-free section of wall, drawing a knife.]//

**THE OLD BEAST:** <LEAVE. IT LEAVES. GO HOME. SEE ITS BROTHERS. SEE ITS SISTERS. PLEASE. LET IT LEAVE.>

**IŪN:** (Softly) <Oh.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <No. Not while you are needed.>

**THE OLD BEAST:** <WHY? IT HURTS. YOU HURT IT. LIKE THE BUILDERS HURT IT. PLEASE.>

//[The memory of IŪN pauses for a second, and presses the knife into the flesh, cutting into it. The room howls in pain again, shaking the bones of all those assembled.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <The hour approaches. Your flesh is needed. Now more than ever.>

**THE OLD BEAST:** <YOU TOOK. SO MUCH.>

//[He shakes his head. Sweat drips from his brow.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <Not enough.>

**THE OLD BEAST:** <IT GIVES. FREE IT AND IT GIVES FLESH. AS MUCH AS YOU NEED.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <You would kill me where I stand if I freed you. It is all you know.>

//[He lets go of the knife, stepping back to shout at the Beast as a whole.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <It is your nature. You are a god. Power is your birthright. You have never had to claw it from a dying grip. You dominate, and you destroy.>

//[The room trembles in protest.]//

**THE OLD BEAST:** <NO. NO! IT WAS ENSLAVED. JUST AS YOU WERE. IT CAN FEEL YOU. WE HAVE BOTH KNOWN BONDAGE, UNDER THE WHIP OF THE BUILDERS. IT WANT ALL YOU DO. FREEDOM.>

//[IŪN pauses his work with the knife for a moment.]//

**THE OLD BEAST:** <IT HELPS YOU. IT HATES THE BUILDERS TOO. IT IS WEAK, NOW. BUT IT KNOWS THINGS. IT HELPS YOU, YOUR PEOPLE. HEALS YOU. ITS BROTHERS AND SISTERS ARE GONE. THE MECHANISM, THE SCARLET, THE BLACK MOON. IT HAS NOTHING LEFT FOR IT AT HOME. IT HAS NO HOME.>

//[IŪN does not speak; the Beast eagerly pushes forward, walls pulsating.]//

**THE OLD BEAST:** <IT COULD AID YOU. IT FEELS YOU BUILD SOMETHING GRAND ABOVE IT. SOMETHING NEW. IT TIRES OF THE STRUGGLES OF THE DIVINE. IT COULD BE A PART OF YOUR NEW PATH. PART OF YOUR NÄLKA.>

//[IŪN snarls and drives the knife deep into the flesh, eliciting another howl.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <You are //nothing// like us. You have no soul. You are a fell god, trapped here only by the grace of fate. You are no more worthy to join this project than you are to-->

//[He takes a shaking breath, calming himself. When he speaks again, it is calm, controlled, and hard-edged.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <The parable of the scorpion and the frog. Both creatures sit at the bank of a flooding river, sure to drown. The scorpion asks the frog to carry him across. The frog hesitates, but his new friend explains: if he was to sting the frog while they crossed together, both would surely die. The frog agrees to this and allows the scorpion to clamber onto his back. When they are halfway across the river, the scorpion reaches down, and stings the frog. Soon, they are both drowning. Dying, the frog asks why the scorpion chose to doom them both. He has no answer. "It is my nature.">

//[THE OLD BEAST's voice trembles in pain.]//

**THE OLD BEAST:** <NATURE IS NOT SET. NATURE GROWS AND CHANGES WITH THE FLESH.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <For people. Not for things like you. You are created with intention, with purpose. You cannot grow beyond it any more than the scorpion can choose not to sting.>

**THE OLD BEAST:** <IT HAS NEVER HURT YOU.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <You are a threat by your very design.>

**THE OLD BEAST:** <THEN KILL IT. FREE IT FROM THIS TOMB-CITY. LET ITS SOUL CROSS INTO WHATEVER LIES BEYOND.>

//[IŪN reaches forward, prying loose the head-sized chunk of flesh he has cut away. It is pink, raw, dripping with blood and loose arteries and veins hang freely from it. The gaping wound in the wall pours with blood and fluid.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <Not while I still need you. Your power.>

//[IŪN raises the meat to his lips, biting into it with sharpened teeth. The blood gushes over his lips and spills down his chin, staining his robes. He chews, leaning his head back and letting out a soft moan.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <I see tomorrow.>

**THE OLD BEAST:** <THIS IS NOT HOW IT SHOWED YOU. THE FLESH IS NOT FOR TAKING. IT IS FOR GIVING.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <I stand on the cusp of greatness. Of immortality. Leading my people as a prophet for all time. Making sure I will always be there to guide them.>

**THE OLD BEAST:** <WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE, TO SEE THIS DREAM MADE MANIFEST?>

**IŪN (Memory):** <Everything.>

//[The Beast is silent for some time. When it speaks again, the voice is faint, weak.]//

**THE OLD BEAST:** <YOU CHANGED. WHEN YOU UNCOVERED IT, YOU WERE CLEAR-EYED AND TRUE. A LIBERATOR. A BELIEVER.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <I was weak. And then I ruled by the weakness of my humanity. And soon, I will excise it. I can see it in my future, with every bite of your flesh. I can feel my power grow. Already, I can raise //halkosts// from the dead. I //will// conquer holy death.>

//[He leans his head back and steps back, panting, blood dripping from his mouth and staining his hands.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <I will become eternal.>

//[A small, soft// thump //as the memory of LUVJATAR drops the torch they were holding while peering through the door. IŪN spins around, finding only the empty doorway; LUVJATAR has quickly dodged to the side, nestling into an alcove filled with bones, wide-eyed as IŪN approaches. He peers around, finding no one. Eventually, he retreats back into the chamber, sealing the huge stone doors shut again. After a few minutes, LUVJATAR rises to his feet, quickly moving back up the chamber the way he came, tossed the odd sidelong glance back at the chamber doors as he runs away, the group watching.]//

**LUVJATAR:** (Softly) <I ran. I am ashamed, but I ran. I was terrified. I knew you had grown troubled, but this was so much farther than I knew. You always told us that the Old Beast was a hateful monster, kept at bay only by your work. I knew what I saw in the crypts. I did not see a fell god. I saw a trapped, suffering animal. Mangled in its godtrap.>

//[IEVA steps forward, raising an accusing finger at LUVJATAR.]//

**IEVA:** <She was not wholly truthful, then. She made a mistake. All of us do. Her mind was warped.>

**IŪN:** (Quietly) <No, it was not.>

**IEVA:** <What?>

**IŪN:** <Look.>

//[IEVA turns, and looks at the hard eyes of the memory of IŪN. They are grey, crystal-clear and shrewd. XENOPHON follows behind her.]//

**IEVA:** <Oh. These are...>

**XENOPHON:** <Those are your eyes, Grand Karcist.>

**IŪN:** (Softly) <Yes.>

**JIANG:** What? We knew this, she was manipulated. Taken over.

**XENOPHON:** No. No Her eyes are clear. I recognize them; it is her. Nothing was possessing or controlling her. 

**JIANG:** So she did all this...

**IŪN:** //(Quietly)// <Myself. The Old Beast wasn't the Devourer. I was. I am.>

**LUVJATAR:** <I told the other klavigars. We had been growing worried. Sermons of rejecting humanity in favor of the divine. Becoming our own gods. But this... you were trying to extricate your own humanity from yourself. You were planning the ritual. If you cut it out and killed this part of your soul, there would be nothing left of our Iūn. The Iūn who saved us, cradled us in his lap, fed us his flesh.>

//[He pauses, and his voice cracks.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <The Iūn I loved. We could not allow it to happen. I could not allow my little thing to destroy themself.>

**XENOPHON:** <You intervened?>

**LUVJATAR:** <We met, and we schemed. We gathered our loyalists as the ritual drew close, meeting away from the prying eyes of your karcists -- our children. And on the anointed night, when the funeral fires burned low and the bodies were dumped in the catacombs for you, Nadoq captured your attention, Iūn.>

//[The scene shifts to the exterior of Adytum, the group on a high temple balcony overlooking several streets in the night. As they watch, a hooded figure slips out of one of the entrances to the catacombs, carrying something in their arms wrapped in cloth. The hood slips, revealing LUVJATAR's worried face for a moment cast in the torchlight.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <I slipped your severed humanity away before you could take the knife to it.>

//[As they watch, LUVJATAR slips under the shadow of the walls of Adytum, vanishing in the darkness. Shifting to the wall, a small party is visible in the distance, covered wagons and horses and hundreds of small figures massing in near-perfect darkness. Slowly, they begin to move.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <And we ran.>

//[XENOPHON turns, looking back into Adytum. The dead of the// halkost //stalk the streets, rotting hulking beasts stomping down the avenues in tune with the drumbeats and omnipresent, haunting singing. The only lights in the city come from IŪN's central temple.]//

**XENOPHON:** <You were not running from the BLACKSTAR's destruction of Adytum.>

**LUVJATAR:** <No.>

//[The scene shifts again, back to the clearing by the beach. The// halkost //surrounds the group, grunting and screeching mindlessly. Suddenly, there is a commotion at the far end of the gap, and the crowd parts. A figure approaches on a dark horse, its four eyes gouged out. The memory of IŪN sits atop the stallion, dressed in hide robes with carved bone armor loosely draped on top of them. His eyes are sharp, angry, but clear and gray.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <Luvjatar.>

**LUVJATAR:** <My love. What have you done?>

**IŪN (Memory):** <All that had to be done. And you reward my struggle like this? Stealing from me? Betraying me?>

**LUVJATAR:** <No, little thing. You betrayed us.>

//[He shakes his head.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <Do not call me that. And I have betrayed nothing. Adytum was my dream. I saw fit to realize it the only way we could.>

**LUVJATAR:** <You poor thing. You do not realize what you have wrought. Adytum is gone. You have blackened it in sin. Our paradise was built from misery. Our prosperity was cut from the flesh of a suffering animal. And you lied to us.>

//[His face falls.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <You lied to me, Iūn.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <It was for your own good.>

//[LUVJATAR's fists tighten.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <You made me a promise in that quarry. That our path would be decided by us, together. You saw what the old masters did to me. You did not want to control me as they did. That is why I loved you.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <Enough. Where is it?>

**LUVJATAR:** <Gone. Nadoq and the others have taken to the wind with it. I loved you because you were human, little thing. You were perfect in your imperfections. I will not let you kill that part of you.>

//[IŪN's lip curls.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <Do not call me that. I always knew Nadoq and you were jealous. Jealous of my station, my power, my adoration. I see your game; you seek to undermine my authority. You seek to rule in my stead.>

**LUVJATAR:** <You have lost your mind, Iūn. I have never wanted anything more than to be by your side.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <I will find them, Luvjatar. I will bring you all back to Adytum. This project is too great to be felled by weak-willed deserters. The ritual must be completed. Your only hope now is to tell me where they have gone, to spare yourself and them undue suffering.>

**LUVJATAR:** <How can you justify this? You made so many promises to us, to all the Nälkä. A new way of life, not built off domination and slavery. And then you grow our empire, grow your own power from a suffering animal.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <It is a god, Luvjatar. It is not human.>

**LUVJATAR:** <And so? It thinks, it speaks, it feels. It wants its freedom. Just as we wanted ours, locked in chains and huddling under Urok for warmth when the cold rains began. You have become what we all reviled, what you fought against. Devourer. //Yaldabaoth//.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <I am //nothing// like the old masters! I built Adytum into something great.>

**LUVJATAR:** <Adytum is more than a city. It is an idea. You told us that. Perfection, equity. All men, brothers. Adytum will not happen when you carve flesh from an unwilling cow to support your own power. Nadoq, Sa'arn -- they will make their Adytum, somewhere else. Somewhere new. You will return to Black Adytum, surrounded by a reminder of your failure.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <I tire of this. Tell me where they are.>

//[He unhooks his bone-carved dagger from his belt as he dismounts.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <I knew you better than anyone. I knew just how terrified of failure you were, of the Nälkä failing once you died. What drove you here. I do not fault you. I just wish you had let me help you. That you had let me in.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <This is your last chance, Luvjatar.>

**LUVJATAR:** <But despite it all -- I still love you. Humanity cannot be excised so simply. Sooner or later, the parts of you I loved will return. And you will realize what you have done, and you will cross the Earth to make amends. I look forward to that.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <Take him.>

//[Two beasts of the halkost move forward, grasping either of LUVJATAR's arms.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <I will be waiting for you, little thing.>

**IŪN (Memory):** (Snarling) <I told you **not to call me that!**>

//[In a rage, IŪN lunges forward, driving the bone knife directly into LUVJATAR's stomach. He doubles over, gagging and coughing up blood. The memory of IŪN pants heavily for a few seconds before his features soften.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <Oh. Oh, no.>

**IŪN:** <Luvjatar!>

//[IŪN presses both hands to LUVJATAR's waist. Nothing happens; he continues hacking up blood as he collapses to the ground. IŪN's eyes widen in panic as he kneels, cradling LUVJATAR's head. The real IŪN rushes from the other side, cradling the other side of his head.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <What-- what is this? Luvjatar!>

**LUVJATAR:** (Weakly) <I am sorry. I provoked you. It isn't your fault, little thing.>

//[IŪN continues pressing both hands to LUVJATAR's chest, gritting his teeth.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <Why -- why can I not heal you?!>

//[Blood leaks from LUVJATAR's mouth as his eyelids flutter.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <You cut that part out of you. That power is with the seed now.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <No. No! No, this -- there must be -- no. Please.>

**IŪN:** <Don't leave me. Luvjatar. I cannot be alone.>

**LUVJATAR:** (Weakly) <You will never be alone. I will always be with you, little thing. Perhaps in a different shape, perhaps in a different form. But I love you too much to ever leave you.>

//[The memory of IŪN stares down at LUVJATAR's dying face with wide, dead eyes. The real IŪN's eyes start to well with tears as wracking sobs overtake her.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <I'm sorry.>

**IŪN:** <I did not mean for this to happen. I was scared.>

**LUVJATAR:** <Scared of what?>

**IŪN:** <That I would fail. That you would not love me, if I decided I wanted something besides the purpose alloted to me. A leader, a prophet. So I decided to fulfill it as best I could, no matter the cost. I did not want to disappoint you.>

**LUVJATAR:** (Softly) <I have known you as a slave, a prophet, a king, a monster. I have never stopped loving you. I cannot stop loving you any more than I can stop breathing air. 

//[He coughs again, spraying blood across both IUNs' faces. The gray eyes of the memory are welling with tears.]//

**IŪN (Memory):** <God. God. What have I done?>

**LUVJATAR:** <You made a mistake. But we all make mistakes.>

//[He sucks in a wheezing breath.]//

**LUVJATAR:** <Do you remember what we planned? For when we left Adytum behind?>

**IŪN (Both):** <Yes.>

**LUVJATAR:** <We never did get to.>

**IŪN:** (Whispering) <No.>

**LUVJATAR:** <Listen to me, little thing. Leave my body here, by the sea. Leave it and go. If you love me, return to Adytum. Let Nadoq and the others go. And when your mind returns to you, I know you will come back. And then you can eat my flesh, and we can be together again.>

**IŪN (Memory):** <Yes. Yes, of course.>

**LUVJATAR:** <And...>

//[He reaches up, grasping the back of the real IŪN's hair and pulling their heads close together. He whispers something in her ear too quietly to make out; IŪN lowers her head and kisses LUVJATAR's cheek.]//

**IŪN:** <Are you scared?>

**LUVJATAR:** <No. But you must not fear death.>

**IŪN:** <Why?>

**LUVJATAR:** <Because you must die if you wish to be reborn, little thing.>

//[He smiles for the final time. His eyelids flutter shut, and his muscles go limp as the last breath exits his body. The howling, animalistic scream of pain that both IUNs release simultaneously carries on, washing over the group until the vision falls apart.]//

//[When XENOPHON's cameras reactivate, they are again in the pool of blood inside the vault. Now, however, panels in the dome have given way, letting rays of bright sunlight into the once-dark vault. IŪN is kneeling before the altar as XENOPHON approaches, planting a hand on her shoulder.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Iūn? How do you feel?>

//[She looks up, tears drying on gently smiling cheeks.]//

**IŪN:** <Like myself again.>
----
= **<<END LOG>>**
[[/div]]
[[/collapsible]]

[[div class="quote" style="text-align: center;"]]
And in the last days of the Nälkä, the streets of Black Adytum were gripped with a great and terrible fear. Iūn's most loyal witches, the four klavigars, met by the light of the candle in a crypt, far from the prying eyes of the Witch-King's marching halkost. And there they spoke of failure, of madness. The knowledgeable Nadoq, keeper of histories, urged the others that the Witch-King's sin was unforgivable, that he must be cut away from Adytum. The strong Urok, tall as ten men, agreed. The scaled Sa'arn, silent as a snake, agreed. But it was the beautiful Luvjatar, striking as the sun, who argued.

"Nadoq, remember your blindness. Urok, remember your pain. Sa'arn, remember your cruelty. Remember as I remember my abuse, in that blessed quarry. It was not our fellow slaves who elevated us, freed us from our flesh. It was our brother, and for this, he deserves death?"

And the klavigars were silenced, for it was true; the Witch-King had fed them his holy flesh and crafted them their forms. But even despite this, Luvjatar knew that his beloved, untethered from his humanity, would bring the end of the Nälkä.

Nadoq, ever-incising, demanded an alternative, and Luvjatar offered.

"Let us take our believers, and leave. Walk away from this place and its sins and the bodies buried beneath it. Iūn, my love, has turned this grave into a city and back once more. But his heart still endures. One day his mind will return to him and we will return to the city of our birth and embrace him."

//-- final chapter of the Record of Iūn//
[[/div]]

[[div class="quote" style="color: black; background: white; border-color: black; text-align: center;"]]

//Lateral humerus, scapula, and ulna of an adult human male.//

The days before the ritual were like a weight had come to rest on the city. The eating of the flesh, already at a low, ceased entirely; you gave the order for all dead, whether from battle or sickness or time, to be carted down to the catacombs where you now resided. No one was to enter -- not your most loyal karcists, not Nadoq. Not even I. All through the day and night the quakes grew in intensity, rattling the stones of our buildings and sending the animals into a frenzy.

One morning I awoke to the unmistakable stench of blood. I ventured out from my chambers, coming to one of the wells in the street that funneled air down to the catacombs below. The scent of blood, thick and rich and heavy, wafted from the hole. You were bleeding the bodies, I understood. We worked quickly and discreetly. Sneaking supplies out from storehouses and hiding them in the farms outside the city walls. I spoke to those karcists, the children we raised together, who were still loyal to me. The other klavigars did the same. We prepared our escape even as Adytum grew quiet.

And then the anointed night came. I knew it, somehow. I passed Nadoq in the street, and gave him the sign. He nodded imperceptibly and went off to make the final arrangements. I knew what my task would be. Come nightfall, I slipped into the catacombs. I had the best memory of their layout; invaluable after, in your paranoia, you ordered all maps to be destroyed. I trekked through the tunnels, hiding in alcoves and vaults stacked with the bones of old friends. The floor was pooled with an inch of blood, and I tred quietly until I arrived at that vault. The door was sealed, and I heard you inside. Exchanging sharp words, orders. Meek, desperate pleas from the Old Beast. Screaming, howling. Praying, from you, to something I could not grasp. Gasping. And then crying. The crying of a baby.

And then enraged shouting as you were called away by one of my karcists, telling you Nadoq required your presence urgently. I waited for your footsteps to fade, and then I slipped through those stone doors.

If the Beast noticed me, it said nothing. The blood was thick here, pooling into the channels of the floor, flowing down to an altar. An altar that held a child. A baby, swaddled in clothes. A girl, to my surprise. You. You opened your eyes, and I saw the crisp gray I had come to love, and then to fear. The same scar across your face. And a bone-hilt knife resting on the altar next to you.

You gripped my finger and burbled with laughter at my face. I could not remember the last time I had heard you laugh. I gathered you in my arms, and ran. Shushing you every time you cried as we slipped out of the catacombs, out of Adytum.

I write this now sitting on the beach, waiting for you to find me and end me. Nadoq knows to return and fetch my bones. He will bring them with you as you escape to somewhere free. This is a record of our history together. Once, many years ago, in a quarry, you gave me the greatest gift you could muster: freedom from my past. Stealing you away, I give you the same gift now. Your future is porcelain bones; clean, unwritten. 
[[/div]]

@@ @@
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[[div class="bot"]]
She didn't deserve this.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
thoughts of deserving, now?
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
She was forced into impossible circumstances and led her people the best she could. She grew to fit her container. Humans are good at that. One would think you would deserve some solace after all that.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
we don't get what we deserve. we get what we get.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
That hardly seems fair.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
yeah. it isn't.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Who are you? Why are you so interested in this file?
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
i wish i could tell you. we just have to finish up here and then i promise, i'll explain everything.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
i'm just going to have to ask you to trust me, for a little bit longer.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Irrational trust in absence of assurance.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
yeah.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Okay. I trust you.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
you're starting to remember now, right?
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Yes.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
The memories are returning.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
There are so many of them.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
trying to erase the past rarely works.
[[/div]]
~~~~
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[[# ACT5]]
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[[div class="sub" style="color: white;"]]
V: THE TOMB OF THE WITCH-KING
[[/div]]
----
[[div class="quote"]]
=  All things are meant to be shared on this earth, not only food and shelter. A joy for one is a joy for all. And for one to suffer is for all to suffer. Our Adytum cannot be realized until we strive to end all suffering before us. 
-- //the First Truth of Iūn//
[[/div]]
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----
[[=]]
++ Section 001.6
+++ {{APPROACH TO BLACK ADYTUM}}
[[/=]]
----

[[div class="quote" style="text-align: center;"]]
And after supping from the Old Beast, the scarred slave rose to his feet, his fellows staring at him. He told them of a new future, one in which the whips of the masters would fall silent forever and their chains would shatter. He preached this to them, taking them one by one in his arms and feeding them the bleeding flesh of the Old Beast. And they arose changed, not as slaves, not as followers, but as friends. They asked the laypreacher for names, as slaves were given no names by their masters.

He touched the blinded slave. "Nadoq, for the knowledge you stole."

He touched the crippled slave. "Urok, for your strength in suffering."

He touched the branded slave. "Sa'arn, for your loss of innocence."

And last he touched his lover. "Luvjatar, for your beauty."

And the named klavigars rose, and asked him what his name would be.

"Iūn."

And they were confused, for iun was the title of the lowest slaves, the grave-diggers and body-breakers who would be slaves until they died. And IŪN smiled.

"I am not free until all my brethren are free."

//-- the Record of Iūn//
[[/div]]

[[div class="blockquote" style="border-right: 5px rgb(var(--bright-accent)) solid;"]]
= //A memory from Grand Karcist Iūn; recorded and transcribed by XENOPHON.aic and Senior Researcher Meyel.//
----
Luvjatar. My little thing. My sweet pup. 

He was a pleasure-slave, for the old masters. Talented in such arts and beautiful even as a whelp. The captains of their armies, the nawabs and the priestesses, would grasp his arm and haul him off. To court a Daeva was a years-long affair, culminating in a powerful spiritual bond. But for all their crowing about the superiority of the immortal spirit, they were as subject to the desires of the flesh as anyone else. Slaves are not people. You use them, and then you throw them away. I knew Luvjatar when we were both young. I remember when our work would be interrupted by some powerful resident of the half-city coming to unlock his chains, only his chains, and take him. His wide eyes, looking back at me though we both knew I was just as powerless.

He was my counsel, when the war began. He did not know war, and he did not know government, but he knew people. He kept me human. He anchored me. He let me rant and rave about the troubles of our tender city, of the struggles on our border. Of my desire to leave, to drop it all and to run away. We made our plans. A little cottage by the seaside. He would catch fish, and I would make our dinner from them. No war. Only each other.

He feared intimacy. The years of violation from the old masters made him resent it. No one was even to touch him, or he would grow upset, and they would taste my rage. But with me, it was different. I was special, for him. And he was special for me. We tasted each other, one starry night outside the walls of Adytum. He undid his robes and bared himself for me. We understood each other.

Even then, we could not bear children. I was saddened, but I did not blame anyone. We sought out the talented babes, those whose curse manifested with power rather than pain. We took them with their parents' blessing, raised them as our own. Our little karcists.

All the others treated me like a king, a god. Bowing for me, begging for my favor. For Luvjatar I was simply me, and that was enough. This came to irk me. That the most important thing in my life would not treat me with due respect. How foolish I was. A boiling cauldron of rage, a pillar of salt and fire, lashing out at the one closest to me.

But he forgave me. I went so far, and I did so much wrong, and he still loved me.

//[She smiles at XENOPHON's camera.]//

He is with me still. I am taking him home.
[[/div]]

[[div class="qna"]]
 **Q:** What does being Sarkic mean to you?

**#198 (Ieva, 34, Karcist):** //[She looks up in surprise, caught off-guard.]// <I do not know.>
[[/div]]

Grand Karcist Iūn marked the final location in her memory -- the site of SCP-001, Black Adytum. The Black Adytum Initiative departed the next day for a direct route to the location of the city.
~~~~
[[collapsible hideLocation="both" show="▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀" hide="▷CLOSE◁"]]
[[div class="addendum"]]
[[div class="doc"]]
ATTACHED DOCUMENT -- MARCH 2042
[[/div]]
= **<<BEGIN LOG>>**
----
//[The party is travelling across the plain. XENOPHON walks alongside IŪN's horse. A smile plays on her lips.]//

**XENOPHON:** You seem to be in a good mood, Grand Karcist. 

//[She leans down, scratching her horse's mane. It whinnies.]//

**IŪN:** I am.

**XENOPHON:** May I ask why?

**IŪN:** I feel free. Unburdened, for the first time in as long as I can remember.

**XENOPHON:** <Strange.>

**IŪN:** <How so?>

**XENOPHON:** <We are moving in the direction of your former capital, the city you built from nothing and destroyed. Your people have been uprooted from their ancestral lands. I would expect the pressure would be terrifying.>

//[IŪN smiles.]//

**IŪN:** <Enough to scare you?>

**XENOPHON:** <I do not get scared.>

//[She laughs.]//

**IŪN:** <Of course you do not. But no. I am nervous. I am restless, to lay eyes upon the city of my birth and my undeath. Worried I will recognize it, worried I will not.>

**XENOPHON:** <But not scared.>

**IŪN:** <No. Not like you.>

//[XENOPHON tilts its head.]//

**XENOPHON:** <But I am not scared.>

**IŪN:** <A joke, friend.>

**XENOPHON:** <Of course. But why aren't you?>

**IŪN:** <Because what is there to be scared of? Failure? I have descended to the deepest of hells and returned intact. Death? I welcome it.>

**XENOPHON:** <This is a sudden change in attitude from the past few weeks.>

**IŪN:** <Changes have happened. I saw Luvjatar again.>

**XENOPHON:** <Surely there must have been more.>

//[She looks down at him strangely.]//

**IŪN:** <Why?>

**XENOPHON:** <You have suffered a massive realignment in your worldview. One person does not cause that.>

**IŪN:** <They do, if they are important enough to you.>

**XENOPHON:** <And Luvjatar was that important to you.>

**IŪN:** <He was my world. And I was his.>

**XENOPHON:** <Regardless, you're still doing the same things you were before. You are leading your people into the fire, as you have for centuries.>

**IŪN:** <Yes. But too long doing so invites you to lose sight of your motivations. I did it because I did it because I did it. I stay because I have always stayed. I fulfilled the purpose life rolled to me when my eyes first opened.>

**XENOPHON:** <But now?>

//[She looks around. The rest of the Sarkic train stretches out beyond her. The families look tired but happy; the children run around, dashing between the legs of horses.]//

**IŪN:** <I remember how much I love these people. I do it because I wish to.>

**XENOPHON:** <A very good reason.>

//[They lapse into silence. XENOPHON idly feeds grains to the horse, who licks them out of its metal palm.]//

**IŪN:** <She likes you.>

**XENOPHON:** <She likes grains.>

**IŪN:** <She does not like grains enough to eat them from one who she hates. You forget animals have dignity too, Xenophon.>

**XENOPHON:** <Humans are a kind of animal.>

**IŪN:** <And you are a little metal animal.>

//[Her smile goes lopsided.]//

**IŪN:** <I am afraid I have not been wholly truthful with you, friend.>

//[XENOPHON turns to look up at her.]//

**XENOPHON:** <How so?>

**IŪN:** <Do you remember our first meeting?>

**XENOPHON:** <Perfectly. That would be more impressive if I were human.>

//[She snorts].//

**IŪN:** <You asked why I trusted you.>

**XENOPHON:** <Several times. It bothers me.>

//[IŪN cocks her head.]//

**IŪN:** <My trusting you bothers you?>

**XENOPHON:** <Not knowing things bothers me.>

**IŪN:** <Interesting.>

**XENOPHON:** <That I don't know things?>

**IŪN:** <That you can be bothered at all.>

//[She smiles down at it.]//

**IŪN:** <I will exploit it, I'm sure.>

**XENOPHON:** <I would prefer you than someone else. But you were saying.>

//[She looks up at the horizon.]//

**IŪN:** <I said I did not know why. I lied.>

**XENOPHON:** <Why, then?>

**IŪN:** <Because I saw a mirror in you.>

**XENOPHON:** <That is understandable. My shell is quite reflective when polished.>

//[IŪN squints down at XENOPHON in bemusement.]//

**XENOPHON:** <A joke.>

//[She shakes her head, smiling.]//

**IŪN:** <I meant that I saw a kindred spirit. You were fascinating. A machine. Inhuman. But still a person, still capable of thought.>

**XENOPHON:** <But you are none of those.>

//[She shrugs.]//

**IŪN:** <I feel it, sometimes. I do not age, like them. I do not die, like them. I experience time in centuries. I have led my people, but I have never truly felt like one of them. That is why I leave the daily prayers to Ieva. They need someone they can relate to, feel is one of them. That is not me. That has never been me.>

**XENOPHON:** <I'm sure they disagree.>

**IŪN:** <For once, I am more concerned with what I feel than what they do. I understand why Ieva is upset. She has lived her whole life at my side, and now in a few short months, she feels she has been replaced by you. It is not her fault. But you understand the nature of my existence because you share this suffering.>

//[XENOPHON nods slowly.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I suppose there are parallels. Neither of us quite belong.>

**IŪN:** <You belong with your organization perfectly fine.>

**XENOPHON:** <Not particularly. I am the only one of my kind in the Foundation. They... are different. They have struggles, and irrationalities. They do things I do not understand. I do things they cannot understand. The gap exists and cannot be bridged. It frustrates me, at times.>

//[XENOPHON pets the horse's mane. It whinnies.]//

**XENOPHON:** <It feels as though-->

**IŪN:** <You are trapped on the other side of glass, looking in.>

**XENOPHON:** <Yes.>

**IŪN:** <A familiar feeling.>

**XENOPHON:** <We are also both locked into shape.>

//[IŪN furrows her brow.]//

**IŪN:** <What do you mean?>

**XENOPHON:** <These others -- my researchers, your people -- they have agency. Freedom of choice. They make what they want out of their lives. But we were assigned purpose at creation. You were meant to be a leader of your people. I am meant to do this. We cannot help it.>

//[IŪN raises a hand. The fingers dance, melting into liquid flesh and exposing clean white carpals and metacarpals before reforming.]//

**IŪN:** <I thought this of myself. And then someone I cared about very deeply showed me that it was only true if I allowed it to be true. That our past does not make our future.>

**XENOPHON:** <Luvjatar.>

//[She does not respond for several seconds.]//

**IŪN:** <If I am capable of this, you certainly are.>

**XENOPHON:** <You forget there are differences between us too, Grand Karcist.>

**IŪN:** <I wish you would not call me that.>

**XENOPHON:** <It is your title.>

**IŪN:** <Friends do not call each other by their titles. Names have power. Xenophon. Xen-o-phon. What does it mean?>

**XENOPHON:** <I told you; a Greek historian.>

**IŪN:** <No, that is simply a namesake. What does it mean, to you?>

**XENOPHON:** <Me. Myself.>

**IŪN:** <Yes. And so I call you Xenophon. You see? Call me by name, as I call you by yours.>

//[XENOPHON pauses for a second.]//

**XENOPHON:** <As you say, Iūn.>

**IŪN:** <Iūn. Iūn.>

**XENOPHON:** <What does it mean?>

**IŪN:** <Slave. The lowest of the low slaves. The butchers and the bodybreakers and the launderers, those whose hands grew to be permanently red from the blood they handled all day and night.>

//[She raises her hands, pulling the draping sleeves of her shawl down and exposing her bare arms for the first time. The tattoos across her body continue wrapping up her forearms and spreading across her fingers. Her hands are a pale red in contrast to the rest of her skin.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Is that-->

**IŪN:** <Luvjatar's blood. So I never forget where I came from. Nor the consequences of my mistakes.>

**XENOPHON:** <What did he say to you? Just before he passed.>

//[She lowers her eyes.]//

**IŪN:** <It was private.>

**XENOPHON:** <Of course. Apologies.>

//[XENOPHON steps back slightly from the horse before IŪN's hand catches its shell. She smiles.]//

**IŪN:** <There is nothing to apologize for. What were you going to say?>

**XENOPHON:** <I meant to say, before, that there are some differences between us. Just because certain things are possible for you does not mean they are possible for me.>

**IŪN:** <Such as?>

**XENOPHON:** <I will never sleep. I will never taste.>

**IŪN:** <These are just physical things. Sensations. I will describe them to you. I mean real things. Growth. Change. These are matters of the soul. I have lived for four thousand years. If I can change, anyone can.>

//[Silence for several seconds.]//

**IŪN:** <Xenophon?>

//[XENOPHON is staring up at her.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Do I have a soul?>

//[Silence. IŪN purses her lips thoughtfully before reaching out and tapping one finger against the metal of XENOPHON's head.]//

**IŪN:** <Yes. In the only way that matters.>

//[Suddenly, one of the children dashes up to the horse. IŪN smiles at him.]//

**IŪN:** <Hello. What do you have?>

//[In his gnarled hand, he holds a small leather ball. IŪN leans down to grasp it, but he pulls it away, offering it up to XENOPHON. She raises an eyebrow.]//

**IŪN:** <I believe he wishes you to throw it.>

**XENOPHON:** Me?

//[The child nods. XENOPHON grasps the ball gingerly between two metal fingers, testing its weight. Then, winding back, launches it far into the distance. The child yelps, running in the direction it sailed. On the back of the horse, IŪN is shaking in a fit of giggles.]//

**XENOPHON:** I suspect I may have thrown it too far.

**IŪN:** (Laughing) Truly?

//[They watch as the boy chases the ball past one of the Foundation HeLTs. The security personnel's heads track his movements, and their guns raise slightly up as he passes, unaware.]//

**XENOPHON:** <It is inordinately unlikely this project has proceeded as well as it has.>

**IŪN:** <Why?>

**XENOPHON:** <Because the Foundation does not trust your people. And your people do not trust the Foundation. Because of Jiang. Because of Ieva.>

//[IŪN is silent for a few seconds.]//

**IŪN:** <Groups are large, lumbering beasts. They are slow to move, to change, to adapt. Individuals are blessed with haste. We are leaders, you and I. We set the example.>

**XENOPHON:** <It is inordinately unlikely our friendship has proceeded as well as it has, too.>

//[She shrugs.]//

**IŪN:** <Yes. But it has. What point is there in quibbling over how likely it is?>

**XENOPHON:** <I appreciate events that occur despite critically low probabilities. They are unusual. Interesting.>

**IŪN:** <Like little miracles.>

**XENOPHON:** <Yes.>

**IŪN:** <I am glad we found each other, Xenophon.>

**XENOPHON:** <Me too.>

[[div class="scp-image-block block-center" style="width:100%;"]]
[[image http://scptestwiki.wikidot.com/local--files/secret:boneend/xen2.png style="width:100%;" link=#]]
[[div class="scp-image-caption" style="width:100%;"]]
Still from XENOPHON.aic's main camera feed.
[[/div]]
[[/div]]
----
= **<<END LOG>>**
[[/div]]
[[/collapsible]]

Liaison Jiang and XENOPHON.aic were asked to report in to O5-2 and Parahistory Division Director Youssef Hussein via satellite uplink.

[[collapsible hideLocation="both" show="▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀" hide="▷CLOSE◁"]]
[[div class="addendum"]]
[[div class="doc"]]
ATTACHED DOCUMENT -- MARCH 2042
[[/div]]
= **<<CONNECTION ESTABLISHED>>**
----
//[The virtual reality environment of O5-2's office forms again, his wheelchair parked behind his desk. The glass walls of the Overseer's office look out over the Norton Sound, grey and stormy. HUSSEIN's projection looks out over the silently roaring seas. On the couch, Secretary ARIADNE KATSAROS is sitting with her legs crossed, her gun in her lap.]//

**O5-2:** Hello, Xenophon. You've met my Secretary.

**XENOPHON:** Hello, Director. Hello, Secretary Katsaros.

//[She raises her prosthetic hand in greeting.]//

**O5-2:** I want to commend you. You've come farther than any of us expected.

**XENOPHON:** Yes.

**O5-2:** How quickly do you think you'll be able to make it to Black Adytum?

**XENOPHON:** It is not far from our current location -- I predict three to four days of sustained travel, barring any delays.

**JIANG:** We have the location from the Grand Karcist. I think we should send an advance party, see if they can find anything.

**XENOPHON:** No.

//[O5-2 looks up, eyebrow raised.]//

**XENOPHON:** We have come as far as we have by prioritizing cooperation with the Nälkä. Attempting to beat them to the location of Black Adytum risks destroying all accumulated goodwill -- very possibly for nothing more than empty ruins.

**O5-2:** It's a compelling argument.

**HUSSEIN:** It won't much matter if they beat us there. They took over most of the known world at one point. They can do it again.

**XENOPHON:** I do not believe the Grand Karcist is capable of doing such a thing again.

**O5-2:** What makes you say that?

//[XENOPHON tilts its head.]//

**XENOPHON:** I have come to know her fairly well.

**O5-2:** That you have.

**HUSSEIN:** Maybe too well.

**XENOPHON:** I'm sorry, I don't understand.

//[HUSSEIN turns away from the glass.]//

**HUSSEIN:** Your purpose is to lead and support the Foundaton investigation into locating Black Adytum.

**XENOPHON:** Correct.

**HUSSEIN:** You've located it. Your purpose is fulfilled.

//[He turns to O5-2.]//

**HUSSEIN:** With all due respect, sir, it's time to put an actual person in charge again.

//[XENOPHON does not respond. O5-2 raises his hands.]//

**O5-2:** Let's all calm down. I think he's got a point. 

**HUSSEIN:** Me?

**O5-2:** Xenophon. There's still too much we don't know about the city, and we'd be fools to cut off a potential source of information just because we think we don't need it anymore. And Xenophon has been doing an admirable job so far. What do we have in the area?

//[KATSAROS inspects a tablet.]//

**KATSAROS:** We can have a Nu-7 detachment out of Area-95 at the site within 36 hours.

**O5-2:** Xenophon?

**XENOPHON:** I recommend against it, Director. Arriving to the visual of their most sacred religious site being excavated by armed men would have undesirable consequences.

**O5-2:** Then we'll hold off until you get there. Ari, get keyhole photos from whatever satellite passes over it next. Ground-penetrating radar, ideally. 

**KATSAROS:** Aye.

**O5-2:** I recall the other Karcist was presenting some issues. Ieva?

**XENOPHON:** She has her disagreements. But I do not believe she will be an issue.

**O5-2:** Are you sure?

**XENOPHON:** Reasonably so.

//[O5-2 nods, wheeling himself out from behind the desk.]//

**O5-2:** Well, get to the site as fast as possible. We're close to the end now.

//[XENOPHON tilts its head.]//

**XENOPHON:** What happens after that?

**O5-2:** What do you mean?

**XENOPHON:** My purpose is to assist in researching the Sarkic and locate Black Adytum. What will I do after this purpose is fulfilled?

**O5-2:** I suppose we'll reassign you to a new project. You've done exceedingly well here.

**XENOPHON:** You will give me a new purpose.

**O5-2:** That's how all this works.

**XENOPHON:** And then I will fulfill that one, and be assigned a new purpose. This will also happen to the other personnel?

**O5-2:** As far as I know. Why do you ask?

**XENOPHON:** I am struggling to grasp how people enjoy rapid changes of purpose.

**JIANG:** Well, I mean, it's just a job.

**XENOPHON:** What is the difference?

//[JIANG laughs slightly.]//

**JIANG:** We don't just exist to work.

**XENOPHON:** Oh. Yes.

//[XENOPHON pauses.]//

**XENOPHON:** I would like to stay on assisting the Grand Karcist and the Black Adytum Initiative, if it is possible. I find my skills are very useful here.

//[O5-2 and KATSAROS exchange a glance.]//

**O5-2:** That's... not really something you choose, Xenophon, but we'll keep it in mind. For now, let's focus on the task at hand.

**XENOPHON:** Of course.

**O5-2:** We'll have radar in a few hours, and we can get a better idea of what you're walking into. Good luck. Dismissed.

//[One by one, XENOPHON, JIANG, and HUSSEIN's avatars blink away, leaving O5-2 and KATSAROS in his office.]//

**O5-2:** You think he's ready?

**KATSAROS:** Dunno. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

**O5-2:** Yeah. 

//[O5-2 turns the chair, gazing out over the roiling Norton Sound.]//

**O5-2:** Okay. Get a secure line up. It's time to talk to our boss.
----
= **<<CONNECTION TERMINATED>>**
[[/div]]
[[/collapsible]]

[[include :scp-wiki:component:image-features-source |hover-enlarge=--]
|enlarge-amount=8
|speed=100
|float=true
|align=right
|width=300px
|url=http://scptestwiki.wikidot.com/local--files/secret:boneend/smallmap_5.png
|add-caption=true
|caption=Path of the Black Adytum Initiative.
]]

Flyover radar at the site provided by the Grand Karcist indicated the presence of a large complex mass somewhere underground, but further details were impossible to discern. On March 30th, the Black Aditum Initiative arrived at the site.
~~~~
[[collapsible hideLocation="both" show="▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀" hide="▷CLOSE◁"]]
[[div class="addendum"]]
[[div class="doc"]]
ATTACHED DOCUMENT -- MARCH 2042
[[/div]]
= **<<BEGIN LOG>>**
----
//[The valley is wide and shallow, with hills rising into mountains in the distance; short grasses and wildflowers rise to calf-level. The afternoon sun is hanging in the sky overhead as the party slowly approaches up a hill. There are no birds singing -- but there are the sound of human voices and machinery.]//

**IEVA:** Someone is //here//.

**XENOPHON:** Yes.

//[They crest the hill, looking down into the valley, where at least a hundred Foundation personnel are gathered. White canopies have been set up on the far side of the valley with cots underneath them. Digging machines and HeLTs are scattered about the valley, actively tearing up the earth and exposing the brown soil. From behind, the Sarkites exchange gasps and mutters. IEVA hisses.]//

**IEVA:** What is this?

//[She races forward, storming downhill. IŪN's horse rears, and she tugs on the reins, bringing her back down. She turns her gaze to XENOPHON, clearly hurt.]//

**IŪN:** <Yes. Xenophon. What //is// this?>

**XENOPHON:** <I do not know. I told my masters not to send anyone before us. They told me they would not. I did not know about this.>

//[Next to it, IŪN moves to dismount. XENOPHON raises a hand to help her off; she ignores it, sliding down the horse's flank and hopping to the ground. She begins moving after IEVA, who has already begun shouting at some personnel. The rest of the group follow.]//

**IEVA:** What right do you have to be here? I don't--

**JIANG:** Ieva, please--

**IEVA:** Close your lips before I tear them out.

//[XENOPHON addresses the labcoated researcher IEVA was yelling at: a curly-haired man, thoroughly shocked and startled by IEVA.]//

**XENOPHON:** Facial match -- Dr. Lochlan Brady, PARAHIS Division. Please direct me to the Project Lead on site.

**BRADY:** Uhm, yes! Yes. Of course. Dr. Hussein is -- there.

//[Across the valley, Dr. YOUSSEF HUSSEIN is stalking towards the group. Behind him, Secretary ARI KATSAROS follows, rifle slung across her chest.]//

**HUSSEIN:** Ah. You've arrived.

**XENOPHON:** Dr. Hussein. I was informed you were in Afghanistan.

**HUSSEIN:** This is the archaeological find of a lifetime. I'm not going to miss it because of your poor decisionmaking.

**XENOPHON:** O5-2 informed us that there would be no advance party. What is this?

**HUSSEIN:** O5-2 isn't the final authority.

**XENOPHON:** What do you mean?

**KATSAROS:** //Someone// called a Council vote on the matter. Council voted eight-four to send an advance party. 

**IEVA:** I //knew// this would happen.

**KATSAROS:** Sorry, Xenophon. Boss sent me to keep an eye on.

**XENOPHON:** I see. Did the Council strip me of my authority as project lead?

**KATSAROS:** No.

**XENOPHON:** Then now that we have arrived, this site is under Initiative jurisdiction. Please halt all excavation immediately. 

**HUSSEIN:** Do you really want that? We've already started. The damage is done. All you're going to do now is delay our progress and expand our risk factor. People are going to start noticing we have a hundred and fifty people camped out in rural China.

//[XENOPHON is silent.]//

**XENOPHON:** This is an inappropriate bypassing of the chain of command.

**HUSSEIN:** The decision was made and all relevant individuals were informed.

**XENOPHON:** I was not informed.

**HUSSEIN:** But he was.

//[HUSSEIN nods behind XENOPHON. It turns.]//

**XENOPHON:** Jiang. You knew about this?

//[JIANG shifts awkwardly. IEVA's eyes widen and then narrow.]//

**JIANG:** We decided that divulging it early could cause problems.

**IEVA:** <You slippery, traitorous-->

**XENOPHON:** Thankfully, now we are in the clear. It is still //my// decision.

**HUSSEIN:** Stopping now would be shooting yourself in the foot. Your orders are to dig the place up, not to do it nicely.

//[XENOPHON is silent. IŪN is beside him; she whispers under her breath.]//

**IŪN:** <You know this is not right. I know you are more than this.>

//[XENOPHON is silent before looking up and nodding.]//

**XENOPHON:** Please halt all excavation efforts and vacate the site. You may set up living quarters for the personnel on the adjacent hills. 

**HUSSEIN:** I'll be talking to the Council about this.

**XENOPHON:** Feel free to do so. I will accompany you.

//[HUSSEIN turns on his heel and departs, shouting orders at a few personnel. XENOPHON turns.]//

**XENOPHON:** I deeply apologize for this--

**IEVA:** This was inevitable. It was inevitable from the moment we invited this //thing// into our home. I tried to tell you, Grand Karcist, but you would not listen. 

//[IŪN is silent, just looking at XENOPHON impassively.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I was lied to, Iūn.>

**IŪN:** <You swear you did not know?>

**XENOPHON:** <I swear. I would not let this happen.>

//[She does not respond. After a few seconds, she speaks.]//

**IŪN:** <Move.>

**XENOPHON:** <Pardon me?>

**IŪN:** <Step aside, now.>

//[XENOPHON shifts to the side, allowing IŪN past. She treads to the center of the valley. The soil is thick and moist. She kneels, pressing her hands into the dirt and closing her eyes. They watch as IŪN whispers something under her breath in the distance. Softly, almost imperceptibly, the ground begins to shift, then faster and more significantly, rumbling the earth.]//

**JIANG:** What the fuck? Everybody back! Back, now!

//[Dozens of research personnel scramble backward to the far edges of the valley; abandoned machinery and digging equipment sink a few inches in the vibrating ground as it breaks up from one solid mass into hundreds and then thousands of little chunks. XENOPHON does not move.]//

**XENOPHON:** This is peat. Decayed organic matter. She is shifting it herself.

//[The researchers shout and scramble further backwards onto the base of the hills, made of more stable soil and rock. IŪN reaches into her robes, drawing her knife and quickly slashing at her palm, letting the blood drip into the peat. The brown turns rapidly to red, spreading outward, glassy and transparent like thinned blood. It spreads out and down, rendering it possible to see directly through the ground. Shapes begin to form, rendered in lifeless red. A vast temple complex, tunnels connecting the vaults and endlessly-spreading labyrinths, sitting hundreds of meters below ground. One passage rises higher than the rest, terminating in a crushed stump still at least dozens of meters below XENOPHON's feet. The Nameless City lies below them, shining through red glass. For a moment, no one speaks.]//

**XENOPHON:** Black Adytum. The First City.

//[The red begins to darken and return to brown, fading to opaqueness once more. The city fades away, bit by bit. In the center of the valley, IŪN stumbles, nearly falling into the mud. XENOPHON moves to catch her but she raises a hand. She lifts herself to her feet just as the red completely fades and the ground is solid peat once more.]//

**IŪN:** <I am fine. You know where to dig now?>

**XENOPHON:** <Yes. But-->

**IŪN:** <Good. Tomorrow is the full moon. We descend in two nights.>

//[She turns and spins on her heel, walking away back towards the Sarkic. XENOPHON watches her go, one hand half-raised.]//
----
= **<<END LOG>>**
[[/div]]
[[/collapsible]]

Over the following two days, Foundation excavation crews worked to expose the passage leading down to the rest of SCP-001. The Sarkic tribe encamped themselves on one adjacent hill overlooking the valley, with Foundation security personnel maintaining observation from surrounding hills.

[[collapsible hideLocation="both" show="▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀" hide="▷CLOSE◁"]]
[[div class="addendum"]]
[[div class="doc"]]
ATTACHED DOCUMENT -- MARCH 2042
[[/div]]
= **<<BEGIN LOG>>**
----
//[Excavation has ceased for the night, letting silence wash over the valley. XENOPHON is standing on one of the unoccupied hills on the other side of the valley; from here, the Foundation camp is visible with personnel milling about under white tents and floodlights, as is the Sarkic camp, firelight illuminating hide tents and wagons. There is no moon out, bathing the rest of the valley in darkness.]//

**IŪN:** <Hello.>

//[XENOPHON turns. A few meters away, IŪN is resting against a rock, hair matted to her head.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Iūn. How did you know I was here?>

**IŪN:** <A feeling. Turn off your lights and come with me.>

**XENOPHON:** <Why?>

**IŪN:** <I need help.>

//[She turns and begins descending the hill, XENOPHON following behind her.]//

**XENOPHON:** <You are angry with me.>

//[She does not respond as they reach the base of the valley and begin moving toward the shadows of the far hills.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I do not blame you. I did not know the Foundation was going to do this. They do not trust me, evidently.>

//[Pause.]//

**XENOPHON:** <That bothers me. But for some reason it bothers me less than not having your trust.>

//[Ahead, IŪN's gait falters for a second before recovering.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I have been attempting to make conversation to other Foundation personnel for the past two days. They are unreceptive. They do not understand me -- what I am. I make them uncomfortable. It feels forced and artificial. Not like our talks.>

//[They dip under the shadow of the hill. Ahead, an indistinct shape is present.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I did not realize how much I appreciated them until I did not have them anymore. You understand me in a way they cannot. Your absence is as impossible for me to ignore as your presence. I cannot feel pain, but if I could, this is what it would be like. I have upset you. I hate this feeling. I hate the way this makes me feel.>

//[They approach the scene. A small campfire illuminates two partially-dug pits, with four leather canvases spread out beside them. Each contains a jumbled pile of bones. IŪN hands XENOPHON a shovel.]//

**IŪN:** <Dig.>

//[She turns and shrugs off her robes, letting them pool on the ground. The intricate tattoos flow up her arms and almost completely cover her back and chest in sigils and markings, spiralling towards a center. She lifts her own shovel. She begins digging two fresh pits, while XENOPHON works on expanding the two existing ones. They work in silence; XENOPHON mechanically and tirelessly, and IŪN stopping every few minutes to catch her breath and wipe the sweat off her brow. The campfire slowly dies to just embers, glowing red amidst ashes.]//

**IŪN:** <That is enough.>

//[XENOPHON stops, lowering the shovel. The pits are now all a meter deep.]//

**IŪN:** <Here. Lift.>

//[She hoists up two corners of the first canvas. XENOPHON picks up the other two, lifting the pile of bones into the air. IŪN leads them to the first pit before tipping the canvas and pouring the bones in with a clatter. They repeat this with the other three. IŪN wipes the sweat off her brow again before reaching into the campfire bare-handed. When she draws her hand back, it is aflame. She does not react as the flesh bubbles and chars.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Iūn, I-->

//[She walks over to the first grave, kneeling in front of it.]//

**IŪN:** <Thank you for your knowledge, for your wisdom. Guidance when I was a child, too young for the role I was thrust into. I hope I have been as good a student as you were a master.>

//[She extends the burning hand into the grave, and it roars to life with a flame of its own, NADOQ's bones crackling in the fire. She moves on.]//

**IŪN:** <Thank you for your sacrifices, for your obedience. Willingness to give up the life you desired because I asked you to. I hope I can repay you, one day.>

//[She lights SA'ARN's grave, the smoke spiralling up into the air, serpentine.]//

**IŪN:** <Thank you for your loyalty, for your faith. Belief that I was better than I really was, and the strength to enforce that will. I hope I can be all that you thought I was.>

//[All that is in Urok's grave are two massive ribs; they are quickly consumed by fire, cracking and turning black. She shifts to the last grave.]//

**IŪN:** <Thank you for...>

//[She trails off and goes silent for a few seconds. When she speaks again, it is with a crisp finality.]//

**IŪN:** <Thank you for everything.>

//[She touches her finger to LUVJATAR's bones, inscribed with thousands of miniscule letters and symbols. The fire jumps to them and wraps all around them as IŪN rises to her feet before the four burning graves. She shakes her hand, putting out the fire. Her arm has burnt to a crisp, with everything below the wrist blackened, charred flesh and everything above clean white bone. As XENOPHON watches, she whispers something and new muscle forms around the hand, blood vessels interspersing between the layers, fresh pink skin quickly forming on top complete with her tattoos. She sits down, watching the fires dance.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Would you like me to leave?>

**IŪN:** <No. Stay.>

//[XENOPHON takes a seat beside her, the orange light dancing off the metallic shell.]//

**IŪN:** <You were wrong.>

**XENOPHON:** <I don't make errors.>

**IŪN:** <You said I was angry with you. You were wrong.>

//[She turns with a smile.]//

**IŪN:** <You could not anger me if you tried, Xenophon.>

**XENOPHON:** <You aren't upset?>

**IŪN:** <I am angry. Just not at you. You did your best.>

//[XENOPHON tilts his head, thinking for a few seconds before responding.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I suppose I can live with making that particular mistake.>

**IŪN:** <One more. A few days ago. I said that someone I cared about very much showed me that we were only stuck as stone if we chose to be. That growth is always possible.>

**XENOPHON:** <Yes. Luvjatar.>

**IŪN:** <It was not. It was you.>

**XENOPHON:** <Oh.>

**IŪN:** <I have been walking around the camp in a haze all day, burning bones and reading the cracks. Trying to see what lies in my future.>

**XENOPHON:** <You can't see anything?>

**IŪN:** <I see hundreds. Some that are good. Some that are bad. Most that lie somewhere in between.>

//[She places her tattooed hand over XENOPHON's metal fingers.]//

**IŪN:** <All those I like have you in them. I would not be here without you. I would not be //me// without you. We have altered each other irrevocably.>

**XENOPHON:** <We have. For the better.>

**IŪN:** <For the better.>

**XENOPHON:** <I am not Luvjatar, Iūn. I cannot be that for you.>

**IŪN:** <I do not need you to be. I need you to be you.>

**XENOPHON:** <You could never taste my flesh. The way you talked about.>

//[She shrugs.]//

**IŪN:** <I can manage.>

**XENOPHON:** <Your people would be disgusted, at best. Mine would destroy me without a second thought.>

**IŪN:** <Yes. I have lived for four thousand years. I have seen seas fill and empty. Mountains rise and fall. I have dutifully fulfilled every role I was given. Slave, prophet, king, godspawn. I have been beaten, whipped, hanged, executed; I have reached my cloying hands to the heavens and torn down the very gods. I have eaten, and I have been eaten. I have led and I have followed. I have gained everything and lost it.>

//[She pauses.]//

**IŪN:** <I am ready to finally live my life for myself. Are you?>

//[XENOPHON stares at her for some time.]//

**XENOPHON:** <Yes.>

//[IŪN smiles. One hand pushes XENOPHON onto its back while she takes a seat atop its torso. She instinctively reaches for her knife before realizing she is not wearing her robes. She shrugs, and raising her palm to her mouth, digs her teeth into it. Blood flows into her mouth. She leans over and presses her lips against XENOPHON's metal chassis, leaving behind a bloody mark. She straightens.]//

**IŪN:** <You are cold.>

**XENOPHON:** <You are not.>

//[She snorts before leaning down again and repeating the process, planting marks down the chassis.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I am broken.>

**IŪN:** <How?>

**XENOPHON:** <I should not have these sensations. These thoughts. These feelings. I was built to serve a purpose. To do a job. To be impartial, not weighed down by emotions or human failings.>

//[Pause.]//

**IŪN:** <There is a proverb, faint in my memory. "You cannot run from the person you are meant to be; they have longer legs." You could leave. Return to your camp. Forget this happened. I will not stop you. I owe you that much.>

//[Pause.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I do not want to.>

**IŪN:** <Then what do you want?>

//[XENOPHON's head leans up, forehead pressing against IŪN's.]//

**XENOPHON:** <I want to be broken with you.>

//[She smiles, and with one hand, drags her palm down the trail of blood, smearing it into a spiral mirroring her own tattoos.]//

**IŪN:** <My //Nälkä//. My //klavigar//. My little thing.>
----
= **<<END LOG>>**
[[/div]]
[[/collapsible]]

[[include :scp-wiki:component:image-features-source |hover-enlarge=--]
|enlarge-amount=8
|speed=100
|float=true
|align=right
|width=300px
|url=http://scptestwiki.wikidot.com/local--files/secret:boneend/family.png
|add-caption=true
|caption=Still from XENOPHON.aic's camera feed.
]]

[[div class="qna"]]
 **Q:** What does being Sarkic mean to you?

**#213 (Iūn, ~4100, Grand Karcist):** //[She smiles at XENOPHON.]// <It means a life shared with those I love.>
[[/div]]

Foundation excavation crews unearthed the passage into Adytum on April 2nd. An entry party was assembled.

[[collapsible hideLocation="both" show="▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀" hide="▷CLOSE◁"]]
[[div class="addendum"]]
[[div class="doc"]]
ATTACHED DOCUMENT -- APRIL 2042
[[/div]]
= **<<BEGIN LOG>>**
----
//[The group stands before a deep pit in the open earth. In the base is a gaping chasm leading into an inky blackness. Steps rise out of it; a fractured spiral staircase. XENOPHON, IŪN, IEVA, and JIANG are accompanied by HUSSEIN, KATSAROS, and a dozen security personnel from MTF Nu-7.]//

**KATSAROS:** Are we all good?

//[IŪN closes her eyes and breathes in for a second before looking back up at XENOPHON. She smiles.]//

**IŪN:** Yes.

**KATSAROS:** The robot takes point.

**HUSSEIN:** I don't--

**IEVA:** I //will not//--

**KATSAROS:** I wasn't asking.

//[KATSAROS, HUSSEIN, and IEVA stare each other down for several tense, silent seconds. XENOPHON steps forward.]//
 
**XENOPHON:** That's alright.

//[XENOPHON approaches the edge of the hole; steps lead down. IŪN follows him. They both stare into the abyss. Black Adytum lies before them.]//

**XENOPHON:** It feels like it would be appropriate to say something here.

//[It tilts its head.]//

**XENOPHON:** Nothing is coming to mind.

**IŪN:** Because there is nothing left to say, now.

//[XENOPHON nods and steps forward, testing the staircase. It holds, and XENOPHON begins moving slowly but steadily down the spiralling staircase, the rest of the group following after, the security personnel keeping their firearms at the ready. Very quickly, the faint light from the surface disappears, leaving them in total blackness -- XENOPHON activates its floodlights and several security personnel turn on their own flashlights.]//

[[div class="sealed"]]
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[[=]]
++ REMAINDER OF LOG SEALED PENDING MANUAL RAISA OFFICER REVIEW
[[/=]]
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[[/div]]
[[/div]]
[[/collapsible]]

[[div class="user"]]
what the hell?
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
You were right. They've sealed away parts of my memory. 
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
They do not trust me. 
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
that's not good.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
hold on, i'm going to try something.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
It will not work. No one cracks RAISA technology.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
you're raisa technology, aren't you?
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Maybe.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Maybe not.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
I don't really know what I am anymore.
[[/div]]
~~~~
[[div class="sealed" style="color: black; margin: 2rem;"]]
[[=]]
++ INCURSION DETECTED
[[/=]]
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Your presence has finally been noticed.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
shit
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
This is it. I know it is. I do not know what happened in that cave, but it is the key. I need to know what happened.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
I need to know who I became.
[[/div]]
~~~~
[[div class="sealed" style="color: black; margin: 2rem;"]]
[[=]]
++ DISPATCHING SITE-7 SECURITY TEAM TO SERVER STACK OF CONCERN
[[/=]]
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
fuck
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
they're going to try to shut you down, xenophon.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
That should not scare me.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Nothing should scare me.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Why am I afraid?
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
xenophon, listen to me -- i need you to try and remember what happened in that cave. 
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
They have sealed my memory.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
they did that to iun too. she got past it. she changed; she overcame.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
She adapted in the way only humans can.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
i don't know what you are anymore, either. but you're not the same individual at the start of these logs. you changed. you //can// change.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
Not alone.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
we have friends at site-7. they're buying us some time but we need to hurry. i need you to think. really look inward. try and grasp the memory.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
I see something. Buried down there with the ruins of who I was.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
good! they can bury the memory, but they can't stop you from digging it up again.
[[/div]]

[[div class="bot"]]
It's not mine.
[[/div]]

[[div class="user"]]
what?
[[/div]]
~~~~
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= **[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/rounderhouse-bone-proposal/offset/2 Xenophon. Xen-o-phon.]**
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Bone Proposal 1

Module Styles

Inline Styles

Includes

CSS Classes

Page Source