Chapter 7: Coexistence

Welcome back, dear readers! We are in the final few chapters of this story and I am so excited! Oh my stars, I have cried a lot during all this storytelling!

Before we continue this story there’s a question that’s important to the general lore of Mork, and it’s “who is Tyrant?”. Tyrant is a demon of human origin that has existed since before humanity started to explore worlds outside of their solar system. She is a rogue reaper that has evaded magical authorities for thousands of years, and is unfairly accused of helping Khaezar’s ascension. Because of her past actions she has become a pariah and to redeem herself she tried to mentor a young Aureon to become the hero that would defeat Khaezar, but sadly Tyrant’s view of heroism was kind of toxic. Yeah, she messed up really bad.

My daughter Morkana is aware of Tyrant’s role in the story of the Almensch family, so she isn’t interested in the deals this demon offers. Tyrant doesn’t do Faustian bargains, she just wants to entertain herself by seeing what heroes and villains do, how they interact with each other, how they solve problems, or cause them, and how they change their worlds. However, in this chapter the mysterious demon woman isn’t trying to entertain herself, but wants to tell Morkana her honest opinion about what has happened in this story so far. I will leave Tyrant to do her own thing now.

INT. MORKANA’S ROOM - NIGHT

Morkana: “That’s a 76.52% increase, so the ratio should be-”

I am not going to pretend to know what my daughter is doing. She continues working even when resting on her bed and with her fancy pink pajamas with kitten patterns. What I do know is that there was no analogue demonic telephone on her night table one second ago and she is aware of that. Just as the telephone starts ringing, she lifts the strange device to her ear and speaks with a very deadpan voice.

Morkana: “Hello?”

Tyrant: "Tell me that I'm your own, my baby

Hello my baby, hello my honey

Hello my ragtime, summertime gal"

Morkana: "I am going to hang up this phone if you continue wasting my time."

Tyrant: "You called me, who doesn't say you're not the one wasting time here?"

Morkana: “You are the one that somehow summoned a ringing analogue telephone in my room, which shouldn’t be possible with all the anti-magic glyphs here.”

Tyrant: "I am not using regular magic. I use Magiyck. Adding more letters to the word magic makes it different enough to break the usual rules."

Morkana: “That’s not how-What do you want? I have already told you I am not interested in making any deals with you.”

Tyrant: "Listen, keep cool and don't be scared. I don't want to make any deals, I just want to talk.”

Morkana: “About what?”

Tyrant: "About your life choices. Some were pretty stupid."

Morkana’s face showed a lot of anger.

Morkana: “You aren’t the only one criticizing my life and I don’t need a hedonist to be my life coach.”

Tyrant: "Maybe you do, we hedonists know some things about life. Your first choice of a boyfriend was a terrible one. Hellsnake had so many alarm bells around them it was a wonder he never got a ticket for noise disturbance."

Morkana: “Just because you killed him doesn’t give you the right to victim blame me! Yes, I was a dumb teenager, but he is the one that took advantage of me!”

Tyrant: "I am not victim blaming you, I just thought you were smarter. But even I didn't see how far he would go... I am sorry for what he did to you."

The sound of Tyrant’s voice was sincere and not so energetic as she usually is.

Morkana: “That’s… fair… I guess. Look, I am not in the mood to think about that. Get to the point of what you want to say.”

This time Tyrant’s voice became more serious.

Tyrant: "I want to say you made some big mistakes and you have to confront them. One of them was to ignore smaller outside factors into your plans. If you had looked at Arther and his group you could have included him more successfully into your plans."

Morkana: “I already learned that by experience, thank you very much.”

Tyrant: "Say.... Is there any specific military operation you regret? Something that cost more lives than needed because of bad decisions?"

Morkana: “As if I would tell that information to a demon.”

Tyrant: "Oh, yes? What about Arther fighting Vhrutus? That one was a disaster."

Morkana: “That one was actually a bloodless accomplishment… One with many… Many… Unexpected factors.”

Tyrant: "But your handling of Arther himself later was very questionable."

Morkana realized where this conversation was going.

Morkana: “I never asked him  to risk his life so foolishly! Do you think I have any control over him?! If you ask him to do a job he will also do the extra step of saving everyone he can save! I have the right to be worried every time he puts his life in danger!”

Tyrant: "I am talking about how you treated him over the Jen debacle. You really didn't think things through there."

The tone of Tyrant’s voice was more stern and this accusation made Morkana take a defensive stance.

Morkana: “Okay, listen up you guilt tripping narcissist, he made an oath behind my back with the father of that woman, a man willing to let thousands of people die to protect his own family! How do you think I felt when the love of my life ran to grab that unconscious woman and ran away instead of running to me to see if I wasn’t injured?! I was pregnant and I didn’t know it at that moment! And despite all the pain I felt in my heart that day I was willing to forgive him and waited 6 fucking years, and when he finally returned I was willing to let go of all that pain, but guess what? He told me he had a daughter with the woman that almost killed me and our child! Do you really think I am the villain of this story after what I have told you?!”

Tyrant: "One villain. More or less. Arther was tricked and manipulated as you were. You weren't the only victim in this situation. You have to realize that unleashing your fury on Arther was wrong and there would have been better targets for your wrath, deserving targets."

At this point Morkana was boiling with rage.

Morkana: “You don’t have the right to stand on a soap box, bitch! If you cared about people you could have stopped my father from taking me from my mother! You could have stopped him from beating me and my siblings! You could have stopped him from committing atrocities and starting a war! But noooo, you can’t leave your little safe space for fear of the reaper police or some shit!”

This hit Tyrant strongly.

Tyrant: "I can't just take action everywhere I want. If all people like me would take action all the time there would be a war worse than any you ever saw, heard or fought in! This is why the reaper police would hunt me down the second I come out! I need to be more subtle in my approach!"

Morkana: “Subtle my ass! You can use corpses as puppets and influence animals. To you I’m just a character you follow and expect me to behave in a certain way, but I have my own freewill and make mistakes, and I know I made many!”

Morkana sighed. She puts a hand on her forehead and is trying not to cry.

Morkana: “Look, I know I treated Flamewing poorly this year and that I shouldn’t have been so angry towards Helen. I have been so stressed lately and all these feelings of pain have only made things worse for me. I am just… so tired… I just wanted things to be like how they used to be.”

Tyrant: "Something I wish sometimes myself.... Oh, yes. But the past is not so easily changed.... Also these kinds of situations get awkward if the author of your actions doesn't know the whole picture. Well, listen to me: true regret, true remorse and true wish for atonement are worth the most when you see your mistakes as mistakes."

Morkana: “I do recognize the responsibility of my past actions, especially about Jen… You know how I treated her, don’t you? Before she went insane I… I mocked her. I told her that she lost, that Arther was mine and that he didn’t love her. This was Arther and mine’s love story, not hers!”

Tyrant: "You went too far. Jen was a victim as well."

Morkana: “Even so, she still killed many people on her path to try to kill me and my baby, though I think the reason she stopped was because she sensed I was pregnant.”

Tyrant: "Time to make peace... Ever thought of getting into contact with her ghost? After dying, people who suffered under psychological issues are often freed of them because they are freed of their biological bodies."

Morkana: “Heck no! I want peace, but I ain’t doing necromancy. Her soul is at peace in the afterlife so let her be in peace. Besides, wasn’t reviving the dead recklessly one of the offenses you are wanted for?”

Tyrant: "I still believe necromancy should be normal. Just using it shouldn't be a crime. Also I am saying that you should find peace via apologizing to Jen directly."

Morkana: “At the moment I am not planning to forgive Jen any time soon, but I should make it up to Helen, and to my son too. They have nothing to do with the stupid things we adults do.”

Tyrant: "It sounded to me like you forgave her already... In any case don't force the sins of the mother onto Helen. Those aren't her sins... You should have never done that in the first place. By that logic Prince could be blamed for every assasination you ordered."

Morkana: "Understanding isn't the same as forgiving, but you are right. I don't want people to think badly about Prince because of me and Helen shouldn't go through the same. Wait, was this phone call just to give me emotional therapy?"

Tyrant: "I can't just make snarky comments, can I? Giving emotional help to the most powerful person in the known worlds should improve people's lives a lot."

Morkana: “I still think you are crazy, but… It was nice talking to someone about all of this.”

Tyrant: "Anytime Milady. Just be nice to Arther and Helen. Also some general advice: don't be too much tsundere, people don't like it if a nice guy is hurt all the time."

Before Morkana could respond, the telephone disappeared, leaving her confused and with many feelings of regret.

Morkana: “You really are an annoyance, but you are right.”