[Author’s note: We've returned to Rin's encounter with Karkov, right after the events of episode 60.]
Rin stood. “You told Daryl I was going to kill him? And he believed you?”
Karkov shrugged. “Who can say?”
“That was low, even for you.”
“Well you do plan to kill him, don’t you?”
Though sorely tempted to give free rein to her displeasure, Rin decided it was more important to learn exactly what their little conversation had entailed.
“What else did you discuss with him? I assume you brought this up for some reason, and not just to antagonize me. Probably a foolish assumption.”
“Good guess — but no, I do have a point. You see, I never understood how you managed to defeat so many immortals. My recent chat with Darrouil was abbreviated for various reasons, but during our earlier one he did mention something interesting. As I told you, he described some of your missions together. Personally, I think it’s sweet that you took on a mentee. I guess that makes you a Big Sister, but with fucking.” He grinned and gave her a thumbs up. “I applaud your didactic spirit, for what it’s worth.”
“It’s worth very little.”
“You probably know that I had to kill a few troublemakers while you were sleeping or partying or whatever it was you did for a couple of thousand years.”
“Partying?!!?” Rin clenched her teeth, and it took all her effort not to attack Karkov right then. A deep breath. Another deep breath. “Wait, killed?”
“Yeah, same as Darrouil did. Drowning, bag over the head, whatever. These were Twos, mostly. And a couple of Fours.”
“Most Fours won’t die that easily,” Rin pointed out.
“These did. There only was one I couldn’t kill. So I buried him.”
“That does seem to be your thing,” she noted dryly. “What’s your point? If you’ve done it yourself, you know what we were about.”
“But I never tried with an Eight. And I certainly wouldn’t imagine I could … what was the term he used? Encumber. I certainly wouldn’t imagine I could encumber a Sixteen. Yet here you are.”
“Yes, here I am.” Rin gave a tight-lipped smile. “And you seemed pretty scared a few minutes ago. I take it you’ve concluded I can?”
“I’m going to make a wild guess how you do it, and you can tell me whether I’m right or wrong.”
“You’re always wrong.”
“That’s the nature of marriage. But since we’re estranged, maybe I’m allowed to be right about something.”
Rin appeared to be losing interest, so Karkov quickly continued.
“When you craft a sphere, you bind the person to it. The sphere can’t be altered and the protections are immutable.”
“A passable regurgitation of what I once explained to you. Apparently, you were paying attention. I guess I wasn’t that distracting, after all. Certainly not distracting enough to avoid being buried alive.”
“Maybe you were too distracting, and that’s why you were buried alive.”
Rin rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t even make sense. Anyway, what’s your point?”
“I think you were forthright about what you knew at the time. But what you didn’t know back then was that there exists a way to change the protections. You can craft another sphere, can’t you?”
Rin stared at Karkov. “What gave it away — the fact that I just threatened you with one? Don’t let me stop you, since you have it all figured out.”
“Actually, I’ve suspected as much ever since you escaped. I don’t think it’s how you escaped, though. That was inevitable. But it probably was how you managed to avoid being captured afterward. I’m not a complete idiot, you know.”
“The fact you’re here would seem to say otherwise.”
Karkov looked at the crown. “I knew you would escape, and I had plans to recapture you as often as needed.”
“Plans? You made plans for us? That’s so sweet. We hardly ever got to do anything together as a couple, because you were busy and I was buried. And then nothing. All this time I assumed you didn’t care. What’s a girl to think when her hubby won’t even put in the effort to recapture her?” As she spoke, Rin was appalled to realize her words were true. After everything that had happened, this was what bothered her. She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it but instead fell into a wistful silence. Almost a minute passed before Karkov finally replied.
“There was a reason I did what I did.”
Rin gave a cold grin. “I’m sure there was.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think. The point is that nothing changed when you escaped. I had to keep you imprisoned.”
Rin held out her hands in submission. “Well, here I am. For god, glory, or using your toothbrush, surely I still deserve to be imprisoned.”
Karkov shook his head slowly. “We both know you’re untouchable. And no, you don’t.”
“What’s changed? I’m a bigger threat to you than ever. Or are you trying to curry favor, now that I’m stronger than you?”
“I think you know by now I’m not trying to curry favor with anyone. Your purpose has changed. It more closely aligns with my own.”
“We politically agree, so you don’t want to bury me alive anymore. How noble of you. Our marriage feels mended.”
“Something like that. I could tell you why I did it, but then we’d just argue over who was right and who was wrong. Besides, would it matter?”
Rin shrugged. “I suppose not.”
Karkov nodded. “And I don’t need to know why you think you’re doing what you do. All that matters is what you are doing.”
“Why I think I’m doing it? Well, that’s a tad patronizing. And you somehow do know why I’m doing it? Pray enlighten me. This should be interesting, given that you don’t even know what I’m doing and soon won’t know anything at all. But I’m glad you’re okay with being encumbered by me.”
“That’s not what I meant. I’m just saying that we each know the other has a reason, and we don’t care what that reason is. We just care what they did. You hate me because of what I did, and I respect you for what you are doing.”
Rin choked back a sneer. “That paints you in a very magnanimous light. And I already told you, I don’t hate you.”
Karkov gave her a winning smile. “I knew you wanted to have sex.”
Rin chose to ignore the provocation if that’s what it was, and she certainly chose to ignore it if that’s not what it was. She gave him a cold look. However, there was something she always had wondered about.
“If you were so bent on keeping me imprisoned, why did nobody come after me when I escaped? I took every measure to evade detection and hid for over a century. I assumed your soldiers were in close pursuit. You said you made plans to recapture me, but there was nothing.”
Karkov shook his head. “Actually, I had no idea the tomb had been dug up. By then the country had changed hands three times, and I had my own set of problems. I found myself without a home, as did we all. We had long since scattered.”
“I thought you were persecuting Proteges and the survivors fled. You just said you killed a bunch.”
“I encouraged them to believe that, but no. I never harmed any until much later, and those were the belligerent ones.”
Rin gleefully clapped her hands together. “Sounds like a failure of leadership. You’re immortal and a Sixteen. You ruled a tiny impoverished dungheap of a country, yet somehow managed to lose even that. How much more pathetic can you possibly be?”
Karkov scratched his chin contemplatively. “Well, let’s see. I suppose I could rule a single person and lose him.”
In response to the dangerous glint in Rin’s eye, he quickly moved on. “As each of us has learned through bitter experience, the greatest sphere protects no one but its owner. We can fight our way through an army, but that doesn’t mean we can save anyone else from those soldiers. Even with modern weaponry it would be difficult for a single immortal to conquer a country, let alone maintain control of it. Conquest and occupation require large numbers of soldiers and a vast infrastructure. Most importantly, they require loyalty. Sure, our visible presence may deter invaders and perhaps — with sufficient theological embellishment — allow us to control large numbers of people.”
Karkov gave Rin a pointed look before continuing. “Not all of us are unrecognizable, and having a visible presence creates a host of problems.” He sighed. “Ultimately, we are limited to working from the shadows. As such, we are singularly exposed to the flux of human ambition and folly. Surely you know this as well as anyone.”
Rin laughed. “Well, that was a rather pompous speech. And completely worthless. It was a tiny shithole, surrounded by other tiny shitholes. I personally saw you vanquish an entire army single-handed. I made you indestructible, you idiot.”
Karkov offered a guilty grin. “You got me. Our conquest may not have been entirely accidental. Let’s just say it’s dangerous for too many immortals to congregate in one place. We’ve agreed not to discuss our purposes, so I will leave it that.”
This sounded too much like an evasion. If Karkov wasn’t answering, it probably meant the answer was worth hearing. “Whatever your reason, it still doesn’t make sense. If it was so important to bury your own wife, why weren’t you there to recapture me?”
Karkov smiled sweetly. “Were you disappointed? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel unwanted. I always was thinking of you.”
“Yes, I’m sure. Lovingly thinking about how to get me back in a hole in the ground. You still haven’t explained why you couldn’t. Even exiled, you surely had resources. Or maybe you decided that this ‘purpose’ of yours was just a passing fancy, no longer worth your time after you’d wasted two centuries of mine.”
Karkov stared at her in disbelief. “My god, you’re actually upset that I didn’t hound you.” He leaned back. “If you must know, life got in the way. By the time I found out you had escaped, you were long gone. And you almost never surfaced. When you did, the accounts made clear you weren’t a Four anymore. In fact, it took a while for me even to connect you with those stories. I surmised you probably were beyond me by then.”
Rin raised an eyebrow.
“And I found your trophies,” he added.
“How unfortunate. When was that?”
“Why?” Karkov gave her a cold look. “Is there somebody new in there I should know about? A sister, perhaps?”
Rin shook her head. “Sree has her own special sepulcher. But I had no idea my little storage depot had become a tourist attraction. I’ll have to properly thank the people I left guarding it.”
Karkov shifted in his seat. “That was almost two centuries ago, so I doubt you’ll have the opportunity. But no, there was nobody guarding it. What does it matter, though? The point is that I recognized some of your … guests. I wasn’t certain they were yours at the time, but it seemed likely. Who else could do such a thing?”
“I see.”
“An Eight cannot be killed easily,” Karkov mused. “As I said, it is doubtful that even I could find a way. But these weren’t dead. They seemed to be frozen or paralyzed. This word you use, it describes them well. They were encumbered.”
He studied her for a moment. “It is conceivable that a Four could manage such a thing through stealth or deception, but it seems very unlikely. And once word got out, you would have been located and destroyed before long. You simply would have been too vulnerable as a Four. Just because I didn’t destroy you doesn’t mean others would make the same mistake.” He looked at Rin. “What are you now?”
She gave a wan smile. “Your wife, I suppose. And the one who will encumber you.”
“Aren’t those the same? My guess is that you figured out some way to replace a sphere with a better one. It’s the reason you can walk in here and confront a Sixteen, the very man who imprisoned you and whom you feared for centuries.”
In response to Rin’s reticence, Karkov frowned. “Remember our agreement. You promised to tell me whatever I want to know.”
Rin decided there was no point in keeping it secret. It would do Karkov no good to know, and she was proud of her accomplishment. Somebody should know what she was doing and how, even if only for a little while.
“This ‘exchange’ appears to be quite one-sided,” she noted with a touch of irritation. “But okay, I’ll explain it to you. Then you’ll tell me what I want to know.”