Important Discoveries

[Nox]

Nox had sent his contacts at the Kremlin another important message 

New information the Ascendancy will want to hear personally

Though he never expected to meet with the man himself, he was always pleasantly surprised the most powerful man in the world took the time to meet with him -- personally.  He could just send a guy no matter how important the information was that Nox needed to relay to the Ascendancy. He had a handler, though he'd never actually met them in person but still the day to day stuff was not Nikolai Brandon's problem, but this -- this not channeling, healing and linking -- that was important.  Important enough to request the audience directly.

Nox did the usual.  He came dressed like always though this time he was sans the big puffy coat he'd been wearing.  There was no need for it with the warmth of the power flitting around his skin keeping him warm.  Though he dropped the power once he was inside. He didn't want to set off any of the Nine Rods of Dominion -- and he wasn't exactly sure he wanted to see Jay anytime soon.  That rejection stung alittle more than it had when it happened.  A lot hurt more now, than it had a week ago.

The receptionist looked up and gave him a curious glance.  She wasn't new. She knew who he was but Nox gave her his best smile. "I've an appointment with the Ascendancy -- Nox Durante." She nodded towards the chairs. "Someone will be with you shortly."  As usual they always doubted someone like him had a meeting with the Ascendancy. It'd be funny if one day the Ascendancy actually greeted him.  But that wasn't likely unless he was on the way out and it was a walk and talk meeting.  He didn't think the Ascendancy did those -- he was a normal person and he was always busy.

[Ascendancy]

The message had come through the usual encrypted channels. Another urgent delivery. Another disruption.

Nikolai Brandon did not look up from the datapad in his hand as the words were recited to him by his aide: concise, devoid of context, just enough to aggravate. "Nox Durante has arrived." That name again. It rarely brought good news.

He tapped the screen once, dismissing the briefing on orbital logistics he’d been reviewing. "Fine, but tell him to be quick," Nikolai said coldly. He stood, adjusting the cuff of his charcoal-gray jacket with a practiced motion.

He didn’t pace. Pacing was for the uncertain. Instead, he stood behind the massive obsidian desk, gaze fixed on the closed double doors ahead. He felt the weight of another uninvited complication threading its way into his schedule.

A knock. Then the doors opened, wide and silent. Nikolai’s eyes rose at last, unreadable. “Durante,” he said, voice like iron.

[Nox]

It wasn't so long ago that he sat here to tell the Ascendancy of his severing. It almost felt like another life. It was another life, one that was barely worth living. Though now had it's own issues.

Nox pulled his hands from the pocket of his hoodie and held the to his side palms out as he reached through the slime of the horde and found the power waiting to consume him. It was like a torrent of water rushing around him as he seized control of just the barest of trickle and used a weave of air to close the door behind him.

The revelation of what he'd just done was enough of a conversation starter. But Nox set the thumbdrive on the desk and took a seat before the Ascendancy. It was with out invitation and at the moment the risk was worth it. He was afraid of retribution, but there were more important things to discuss. "We found a way to heal the severing. I have before and after brain scans. We now know what happened, and you can replicate it. Though it's just as much a death sentence as an execution, except it's a slow death."

[Ascendancy]

He didn’t move when Nox reached into the power. But he felt it: the subtle distortion in the air, the hum like heat before a lightning strike. Not raw force, no grandstanding. Just a careful, deliberate touch on the invisible currents only a select few could manipulate. And Nox had just done it right in front of him.

It was instinct that made Nikolai’s hand shift toward the panel beneath the desk where he could trigger a silent alarm, if needed. But he stopped short. Not out of fear. Out of calculation. Nox wasn’t attacking. He was demonstrating. So it was true. The man who had once been severed from the Source... now drew on it again.

Nikolai stared at the small, unassuming drive on the table. So much power reduced to a few grams of plastic and data. He reached out and took it, sliding it slowly across the dark glass to himself. Turned it once in his fingers, weighing it. Not just physically, but politically. Strategically. Existentially. Then he looked back up at Nox, the edge of something dry and dangerous curling into his voice.

“Just that easy, huh?”

The implications were enormous. Healing the severing? A reversal of the ultimate sentence? Every channeled operative who had ever been punished, every burned-out asset, every casualty of power misuse. What did this mean for them? What did it mean for him, for the system?

Nikolai folded his hands together, resting them on the drive now between his knuckles.

“How many others know?” he asked, tone clipped and precise. “And what do you mean… a slow death?”

[Nox]

There was no alarm. No rushing in of armed men or the Nine who were really the only ones who would be able to protect the Ascendancy from Nox if he had chosen to be a threat.

He released the power. The demonstration over and he was not a threat -- not to the Ascendancy. There was no hope should he ever attack. He might get the jump on him once from an ambush but he would never survive long. It was one of the few things that reigned in his mouth at the best of times.

"It wasn't easy. But handing it over is part of our deal, I kinda like living." It might not be explicit, but Nox felt no desire for the Ascendancy to remove his ability to keep on living particularly with his Atharim status sorta retained. They never even knew he couldn't channel anymore, and he wasn't sure he ever wanted them to know. What they could do with that power. Nox didn't want to find out. Though he might need to even the playing field if the Ascendancy had the knowledge know. That was also a dangerous gamble. But Nox would trust in the man for as long as he had reason to.

"My family knows. Who they told about me I don't know, about the how to fix it, again my family knows. That will be a secret we keep to ourselves for now" At least he hoped everyone knew better than to go around spouting truths like that. Yet here he was doing what he didn't think they should do.

Nox sighed before answering the latter question. "It doesn't kill you, not outright. It saps your will to live. Everything you lived for is gone. The light. The color. Even the sound is diminished. Seizing the power is like life itself. And when it's gone, there is nothing but death. You are nothing but walking death, just waiting for a reason to end it. It was better than the horde. Is better than the horde, but I wouldn't wish it on anyone." He still hadn't had a moment to take in what was happening, what happened, what was about to happen, how was he going to survive the horde? There were so many emotions just bubbling beyond reach, but Nox kept them at bay -- business first, then he could lose his shit. And he knew he would do that eventually.

[Ascendancy]

Nikolai studied Nox with unreadable eyes, fingers still resting lightly atop the data drive as if it were a loaded weapon. In many ways, it was. There had been no alarm. No panicked security response. No Nine bursting in through the hidden entrance. The fact that none had come was a silent acknowledgment. He had assessed the threat and chosen not to call for response. And Nox had not pressed the advantage. Smart. Perhaps someday he would learn to fully trust Nox, but maybe he would never trust anyone.

He listened carefully as Nox spoke. About the deal. About survival. About who else knew. The unspoken layers beneath those words weren't lost on Nikolai: trust, fear, calculation. Nox had played his card face-up, but not without the quiet implication that more were tucked away in his sleeve. Still, it was the last thing he said, the description of what it meant to be severed. That held Nikolai’s focus.

The words rang like a tolling bell. Not poetic, but real. And painfully useful. He leaned back slightly, the polished chair whispering against the smooth floor, and let the silence stretch. Let the weight of the implications settle like dust across the office.

A weapon. That’s what this was. But unlike any before.

Until now, their only answer to rogue channelers had been death. Swift, efficient, permanent. Even imprisonment carried risks and resources. And if they someone was severed completely, it would have been irrevocable.

But this… this opened a door. Reversible severing. The ability to remove someone’s power. Temporarily or permanently, and control if and when it was given back.

It changed the rules. And if managed correctly, it changed everything.

He tapped the drive once with his finger. A light sound.

“This is going to save lives. Not just in the way you might imagine.” He looked up at Nox, eyes sharper now. Less the politician, more the strategist.

The words weren’t sentimental. They were practical. Dead men couldn’t learn. Broken men couldn’t serve. But a channeler who could be disarmed, and later restored, was a tool. A deterrent. A lesson.

“But it must be regulated,” Nikolai continued, voice tightening like a drawstring. “Closely. No rogue elements. No underground miracles. This kind of knowledge, in the wrong hands, could undo everything I've built to keep the world safe.” Yet as he spoke, he realized that if Nox could stumble upon these circumstances, eventually someone else would too. Nikolai must be in control of the entire world before that happened.

“I’ll have this analyzed by people I trust. If it holds up, and I believe it will, I'll move carefully. Quietly. But make no mistake…” He fixed Nox with a gaze that weighed as much as the Kremlin’s walls. “You’ve just changed the world.”

Then, with a hint of dry amusement undercutting the gravity: “…Not bad for someone who sat here not long ago, ready to die.”

He reached for a comm tab and tapped a silent notification through. Then leaned back again.

“Now. Tell me about this slow death you mentioned... and why it’s still better than the Horde.”

[Nox]

Nox wasn't sure about the saving lives part but it would defintely be useful. And it did change the world. Though he was also pretty sure there was a veiled threat that went with it. If he told people, if his people told people, things might end badly. He would have to warn Emily and Jared. The rest were pretty much easily kept under control. Not that he was one to tell people what to do or not. He could only make the suggestion.

"That feeling never leaves. That ready to die." There was still the minor depression and the value of his own life that filtered through his mind and soul. He fought with it everyday which is why it had been better than the horde. "I fight the feeling nearly every day. At least with nothing I didn't have to fight the horde too. I have no control over the instincts, it overrides with primal instincts instead of logic and rationalization. Right now it's a dull hum, the horde, I barely feel it. I'm not sure why, it's different than before, but it's still there. Still tainting the source of our power, still a dull hum of noise. But I'm only days in and haven't had time to process much less deal with what I feel."

"It's a slow death only because you lack the will to live. Life is not the same. It's dull. Boring. It could break a weak person, and it will wear down a strong one. It was hard to make the feeling go away. I'm not one to induldge in drugs, but I was tempted. And suicide, well... That's far easier to think about. But I promised myself I wouldn't end like my father. And I'm nothing if I'm not a man of my word." The truth stung. He was nothing... he failed a promise, didn't keep it. He had his excuses. His reasons. And it stung everytime he said 'I promise' to anyone. How could he make that promise? How could he make any promise? He was nothing...