♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #106
Pick a character from one of your books and interview him or her.
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Today on the blog I’ll be interviewing a very dark character from The Trailokya series: the Baron Morgentus. The baron is a danava of Jahannam, who rules over the Pit of Acheron in the province of Acheron. In his manifested form, he still resembles the engel he once was before burning down. However, his wings of sable have turned to leather and his alabaster skin has become cadaverous. The pale blue of his eyes pierce your mind, while you pray for the darkness within him to remain at bay. The scent of sulfur tinges the air. The baron seems put out to be with us today, the leather of his gloves rasping as he flexes.
Thank you for taking the time to be with my readers today, Baron.
(He offers a sardonic twist to his lips and mumbles in a language I don’t know.)
Well, umm. Let’s get to it then. My blog has interviewed both Captain Maiel and her husband Dominic. Today, I’d like to get your point of view on the matter. Do you think it’s fair to say that you stalked the captain and precipitated the downfall of Dominic?
(He chuckles part way through my question, but I continue despite him.) Fairness is not something my race is afforded. The duta have convinced themselves as well as the other races, including your own, that we are the embodiment of evil. The spin you’ve placed on the events will undoubtedly aid in that image.
I’m not going to spin a thing. I’ll share your words exactly as you say them.
Child, I am no fool. Do you understand what has been done? The question that you ask is loaded with words meant to skew a certain perception. I did not stalk the captain. She had come to your realm, this floating garbage pile, in fear of her very existence after failing orders her council had given her. I saw it as my responsibility to intervene before one of my brothers made her their trophy.
Brothers?
Princes of Jahannam, my fellow commanders. Even one of the lowest mudeaters could have fed upon her atman. Then where would her children be? Yet, I am painted the villain.
But did you not attempt to overtake her during the course of what was characterized as an imprisonment in your—labyrinth?
Maiel had suffered abuse, yet again, at the hands of her council, just as I had. They dole out their orders and sit back to watch you fail to fulfill them, time and again. They set them up. Some tasks they complete and thus they think they think they can fill expectations, but then they’re carefully worn down.
Some insist that’s the modus operandi of your kind.
(His eyebrow arches with a smirk.) Exactly. Projection is powerful. Is it not?
I suppose it is, more so from someone who seeks to purposely confuse things. Why, do you suppose, the councils would undertake such deviltry?
Because Zion wants to maintain control over everyone and everything. Free-will is an illusion.
I’ll admit that free-will as many think of it is a myth, especially after coming to know these events so intimately, but I don’t see the eradication of its actuality in any of Zion’s actions. I see only a world where we can come to know who we truly are and grow, whether that is for good or nefarious ends.
You’ll never be able to grow to your full potential, because Zion controls ever step, guiding you into the person they have chosen you to be.
Isn’t that against doctrine?
It is the doctrine behind their laws.
Isn’t it more likely that what you feel is umbrage for being denied your will to harm the dharma of others?
Who’s? I have only ever freed those I have counseled.
Such as Sabereh?
(The baron snickers at the mention of his wife, once human from the ancient nations. Despite the amusement, underneath, he is growing increasingly tense.) My wife was freed from servitude to the duta and her father.
You resent her. Is it because of the death of your son? He was sentenced to death in his infancy, considered a nephilim, an abomination—
(Ice blue eyes turn black, not a lick of white left in them.) He was a child. They murdered him to sate their revenge. Sabereh and I have both suffered under that history.
(I find myself taken back by the site of him now. His blackened eyes and the veins circuiting his face like rivers of hate. I stammer out my next words, unsure of how to proceed, to stay or run.) I empathize with your loss, and it is one of the reasons I have chosen to give you voice here today. But, what we really want to get to the heart of is your pursuit of Maiel and the strange partnership you’ve built with her husband. Many are seeing it as you seeking another bride, another that is not yours to take. Sabereh was the—what do they call it again? Ketu? Sabereh was the ketu of another man.
I am no man. I am a danava.
But you were a duta at the time. Their nature behavior is to mate for eternity, ketu. To violate that bond is sacrilege. Is that not why you were cast out? Further findings suggest you even raped your wife, forcing her into the match. That your child was the result of that assault, and that his atman was so damaged by this creation, it burned up when you were cast into Jahannam.
(His eyes return to their unnerving pallor.) Redundancy. Rape, is a term created as a horror to delight mankind from the pages of that ill-created book of yours. This is the same book that denigrates my kind as demons and raises duta to gods. It’s real meaning is the act of taking a bride that is promised to another. Sabereh was promised to a man that did not deserve her. A rather weaselly character.
And you did?
She became mine by her own will.
Why did you forge a partnership with Dominic when you believe he doesn’t deserve Captain Maiel in ketu?
The human needs guidance. Maiel’s kind are destroying them both for their own entertainment.
Does Dominic deserve Maiel?
She is not property to be bartered.
Answer the question, Baron.
No. A human should never be in ketu with duta. They are not equals.
But danava are the equal of Duta.
We were duta, until we became more. She will become more, too.
His eyes flash to black once more and I am filled with dread. Completing the interview becomes my only thought.
Thank you, Baron, for your time today.
My pleasure. (He sneers through his smile in a most malicious way.)
After my interview with the Captain, I am wary of The Baron and see through his twisted answers. Yet, somehow there are truths leeching through the ebon cloth of lies he weaves. Unfortunately, it is far too dangerous to delve deeper. Who knows what this danava is capable of, or the wrath my research might garner from the duta.
Hop on over and see who the other authors are interviewing today…
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Wow! I didn’t really know how one would interview an antagonist. Well done!
He very nearly writes himself, which is kind of scary. LOL
Wow, I loved that. Great interview, it really makes me want to find out more.
Thank you!