*** The cat's apartment ***
After the man had left, the cats shuffled back into the room. They were met with the sight of their leader sitting on his pillow like a statue, lost in thought. They knew better than to bother him when he was in that state. So, everyone just went to lie down in their favourite spots on the Persian carpet, resisting the urge to ask all the burning questions.
Around thirty minutes later, Q'shar finally loudly exhaled, announcing the end of his pondering, and started to make himself more comfortable on his pillow.
Once he was done, one of the younger cats immediately asked a question, his burning desire for answers making him forget his manners, not waiting for the elders to start the business talk. "So, did he take the deal?"
The question was met with raised eyebrows as the young one realised his mistake. "I apologize. If one of the elders would like to start." His voice became quieter and subdued as he spoke, ending in barely a squeak.
"Apologies accepted, young one, but mind your manners in the future. And yes, he did" announced the Maine Coon.
"That quickly?" asked another cat, surprised. In his mind, negotiations like that should take at least a couple of hours, if not days.
"Yes, it might be strange to us, but I would be surprised if he tried to negotiate at all. All wizards tend to view things like politics as distractions. They usually delegate them to other people when they can. Samuel is no different in this case."
"But is it wise? While his strength may be formidable, from what I heard, his family has enemies, and his enemies will become ours once the deal becomes public knowledge." asked one of the older cats, tilting his head.
"Well, it is definitely a dangerous move, but any business worth doing comes with risks, and this time, I would say it was worth it." Q'shar's eyes lost a bit of focus, lost in a memory for a second. "Most of you probably don't remember his father. I was the one dealing with him after Hyas retired. I still remember seeing him for the first time. I thought that maybe someone was pulling a trick on me. Do you know what he was? In what form did he spend the last 800 years out of his 1300? Take a guess."
"I heard that he sacrificed his body. Was he a ghost?"
Q'Shar just smiled, "Nope."
"A zombie or a lich? Did he turn himself into an undead?"
"Not even close. He was a head in a jar." The revelation was accompanied by gasps of surprise and confusion. "Preserved by a mixture of magic and technology."
"What?" Asked a couple of the listeners.
The Maine Coon nodded his head knowingly. "That image is hard to reconcile with the infamous mage and the terror he has caused in stories. He lost much of his power, but still if you could feel his presence…" Q'Shar paused for a second, smiling to himself. "When I was younger and began taking over deals with the Alhazred family, we ran into an issue with one of the noble clans. They wanted to pressure us to join the Frumentarii branch associated with them. The Wealch family, if my memory serves me right, just changed heads to one much younger and ambitious. He wanted a monopoly over the information in our area and thought that the legends about our backers were just that, legends."
"The bloodless massacre," one of the older cats whispered, realising where it was going.
"Yes, we asked the Alhazred family for help, arguing that another family would control the information they received. That, of course, was out of the question, so they did 'help'. One night, the Wealch family just disappeared, all but the previous patriarch. He returned home to an empty house, no blood, no signs of battle. The man went crazy after, some say with help from someone in the Alhazred family. He said that he had nightmares about his son and the Abyss. He dreaded going to sleep and even tried to sue for the unprovoked attack, but there was no evidence. He was left alive, slowly losing his sanity as a warning to all the rest. A fully realized abyssal mage is a powerful ally."
"But still, are we sure this Abyss or whatever it is won't be turned against us?" asked one of the younger orange cats, concerned.
"Why the worry? You never were this cautious." Q'Shar asked from his pillow, looking at the speaker from behind half-closed lids with a bit of amusement on his face. "Does he unnerve you?"
"Well, not that, it's like, I don't know, like… yes, he does unnerve me," The cat tried to explain, his tail's quick and short swings betraying his emotions.
"At least you are honest, and yes, he does that. Alhazred's presence takes getting used to. It becomes easier with time."
"If we want to bet on the Abyss, are there no others with better reputations?" Asked another from the audience, a smaller gray cat, who was responsible for negotiations.
The Maine Coon just smiled. "The thing is, there are no others."
The gray cat's eyebrows shot up at the response. "There has to be. There are many practitioners of diff-"
"There is no other." Q'Shar interrupted. "Do you know what the Abyss or Void even is? Why is it so feared?"
"Well, not exactly." The speaker now realized that they were discussing the Abyss, without actually knowing what they were talking about. It was like everyone assumed it to be a mystery of some sort, not to be explained.
"No one exactly does. Even I, after all those years of dealing with the Alhazred family, don't know. But I do understand that it is the antithesis of sense, the un-existence of rules, the perfect void where nothing makes sense. They call it the well of nightmares, the hollow sea, the thirsting madness, and so on. There are many names. But there is one truth that everyone agrees on." The cat lowered his voice. "If you interact with it, you will go crazy sooner or later."
"Unless you are from that family? Is it their bloodline?"
"No, the family is human. It's a ritual. Once a family member is of age to handle it, they go through a ceremony of sorts. No one knows what it entails, but once performed, they lose the ability to feel fear."
Everyone was clearly expecting something much more impressive as they started to look at one another with questions and confusion clear in their eyes.
"That doesn't sound complicated. There are people without the ability to feel emotions on Earth. We can find them if needed."
"No, not like that." Q'Shar sighed in resignation. "I really have to get you to study more, don't I?"
The cat shifted in his seat, straightening up a bit to be heard better. Now, he looked like a professor teaching a class.
"Any living being is composed of three things: body, mind, and soul, all three deeply intertwined, all influencing one another. The body is the easiest to understand, the biological component of your existence, the least complicated one. Then there is the mind, a much more ethereal composition of your experiences and inborn preferences that make you, you. And then there is the soul. Not much is known about the soul, but it is the part of existence that is given to you by the very universe. No one knows its origin, but it is believed to be the source of free will."
Q'Shar checked if everyone was listening. They were, without a sound.
"The fears that you are talking about with people that don't feel fear originate from the body, a chemical reaction that can be easily blocked. Those are the fears of getting hurt or falling from a great height, for example. A natural response of the flesh, easy to suppress. One layer deeper are the fears coming from the mind. Those are the fears that are gained during your lifetime, such as fear of darkness, fear of being alone, or maybe fear of cars if you were in an accident and have trauma. Those are deeper and tougher to deal with, but still can be suppressed. Although mortals need therapists and strong medication, it can be done."
Q'Shar paused, looking around the room at everyone listening. Even the old priestess, who had somehow made her way into the room during the story, was attentively listening. The mysteries of the soul were a rare subject to hear about.
"But few know of the fears that come from within the soul. There are not many, and not much is known about them, but one such fear is the fear of death that every living being possesses. You can learn to live with it, ignore it, or accept it, but the fear will always be there. Another one, and as some say the greatest fear of all, is the fear of the unknown. Fear that keeps you from pursuing things you were not meant to see, that you can't comprehend. It is the feeling you get when thinking about the infinite void of the universe. At some point, you will probably start imagining how awful it would be to be stuck in that infinity for eternity. It is that fear speaking, warning you not to pursue things you were not meant to comprehend. That is because we are not created to understand things of such vastness. What the Alhazred ritual does is remove the very concept of fear from their existence, even from their soul. Fear and all emotions associated with it, like disgust, are gone. That is why they can interact with the Abyss with relatively few side effects. Even when seeing something so incomprehensible, they can study it as long as their body and mind can endure. And that is a massive advantage for a wizard."
"Can't the ritual be reproduced?"
"Many tried, no one succeeded. A soul is a tricky thing. Interacting with it is tough already. Removing parts of it can cause your entire being to collapse. Especially since the fear sits deep in the soul."
"Okay, it all sounds great," an older cat spoke, his voice loud and strong, "but you did not say 'interact with the abyss without side effects,' you said 'with relatively few.'"
"Well, knowledge like that has its burden, and the presence of the void can still twist them in other ways. This is why many Alhazreds, according to history, were a little bit mad. Nothing substantial, usually a bit of obsession here, a disregard for human life there. But the family has a set of rules to follow by its members, so our partner shouldn't do anything too crazy."
Some cats in the audience groaned. "You sure? That doesn't sound convincing."
"Well, there is something more that pushed me for that deal. His father, aside from the void that peeked through his eyes, had a sense of madness to him. But Samuel, he doesn't. I can't put my claw on it. Maybe it is because he is relatively young, but he seems to be taking in the sight of the void surprisingly well, even for an Alhazred. His eyes have the presence of his god in them, like all clerics do, but aside from that, the madness is not there. It's a bit weird…" The cat paused, mulling over his words, "Well, nothing more to it. We will honor the deal, and hopefully, once the race for resources starts, we will be able to secure a sizable chunk. That's all. Now stop lying around and get to work. There should be a lot of it coming our way."
The cats went about their own business, leaving Q'Shar alone with one more cat. It was an old orange cat with bite marks on its ear and a couple of scars on its face. His name was Hori, and he was Q'Shar's closest confidant and friend.
"Are you sure about that move? You know it is not all that easy." Hori asked once they were alone.
"It hopefully will be." Answered Q'Shar absentmindedly, still lost in his thoughts.
"You know that the things abyssal mages are capable of can put us against a lot of people, if not a whole world. What if he decides to contact Yith like his father? That can put a whole species on the road to extinction. We would be associated with a traitor to the human race."
"Hopefully, he will not be that stupid."
"That's not much of an assurance." Reminded Hori, gazing at his friend with raised eyebrows.
"Well, it is all the assurance we have."
They both locked eyes for a second. Finally, Hori looked away. "Fine, so what's the actual plan?"
"What do you mean?" The Maine Coon tilted his head.
"Don't sell me that bullshit about securing resources. You would not tie us to someone out of nowhere if you didn't have a bigger plan. You always were ambitious. So what's the plan?
Q'Shar smiled. His old friend really knew him well. "Well, you know that there were three main powers in Frumentarii. The information network, the auction and market houses, and the third one, the exorcists, created right after the war. Now, the first two remain, but exorcists were disbanded by the church when the Inquisition came around. The remaining two have old, already established connections that are hard to move. But if we can make a move to recreate the third one…"
The orange cat straightened up, realising what his friend's plan was. "And then take control of the network. You want to join the council as a third party?"
"Maybe"
"You want to add to the coming chaos? I think the Alhazreds are rubbing off on you," Sighed Hori.
"This universe supposedly emerged from the primordial chaos, and so shall we. This should be fun."
"They definitely rubbed off on you."