A/N: Thanks to prettytightkid and ChildOfFury93 for their words of encouragement.
She pivoted and began the trek towards the graveyard. It was a long trek, but she needed the time. The time to wrap her brain around what she suspected Shirah was trying to engineer. The time to give the man with her at least a brief history lesson. She walked in silence for a time, then asked, "Do you know anything of Furya?"
"Only the prophecy about the male child being a warrior's downfall."
She threw a glance over at him. "You're the child. Fucking figures. I take it the bastard Zhylaw is dead?"
"Yeah."
"Good," she said, pausing briefly to look around at the city laid to waste. "Furyan's are exceptional warriors. Some think we were engineered to be that way, others believe it is an evolutionary adaptation. In any case, if a planet or system needed fighting to be done, and they could afford it, they would hire a company of Furyans. We could field such a fighting force..."
Masala let out a frustrated breath. "How the hell could this happen?"
It still pissed her off. She could not understand how the premier warriors in the universe had fallen to Zhylaw's purge. She did not know which made her angrier, the fact that it had happened or the fact that her people had been unable to stop it.
Riddick said nothing, merely matching his stride to hers.
She began her story again. "Warrior skills were trained and developed from the time a child could walk. We had Guilds for specialists as well as armor and weapons smiths. Only the Assassins Guild remains as it was the only one located off-world. As the Guilds go, it was the smallest with, perhaps, only 100 members spread out through the 'verse. Every year a handful of youngsters would be chosen to try out for the Assassins Guild. In a good year, two or three would be selected. Most years all candidates were rejected."
Of all the Guild Members, one had a special rank and special weapons which only they were allowed to carry. This assassin was sworn to serve Furya's needs before all other contracts. The mantle was passed on to another when the current bearer could no longer fulfill their duties. The old and the new would go before the Leader and the Seer to have the appointed accepted and anointed…That assassin is the Blade of Furya."
She fell silent; the only sound the crunching of their steps over the rubble of Etna. They topped a rise and before them lay the first rows of the headstones. Night had fallen while they walked and a low mist blanketed the ground. Her jaw clenched. She gave the markers only a cursory glance, knowing without a doubt everyone she had known on Furya was among the dead, and began threading her way through them.
Riddick's voice broke through her thoughts. "You're an assassin. Do know who this Blade is?"
"I know who it was," she answered quietly. "The new Blade has not been confirmed by Seer and Leader."
"Because there is no Leader," he stated.
"Yes, and, until I arrived, no one other than Shirah had set foot on Furya in over thirty years."
She stopped before the steps of the mausoleum. "Riddick, there's something else."
He had slid his goggles up when darkness descended around them. Her attention had been on their surroundings and not on him as the ground rose up to meet the mausoleum. He was a step behind her on purpose, keeping a wary eye on everything, but especially her. Even before she had said it, he knew there was something she was holding back. She turned and came face to face with him, her eyes widening in surprise at seeing his shining eyes.
The handprint on her chest pulsed brighter, and the vision came flooding back to her. Shirah striding out from among the headstones and placing her hand on her, calling her home. Then the Seer showed her the face of an Alpha Furyan, the lost Leader she had called him. She only remembered the shine of his eyes thinking it to be the vision of a double moon hanging in the sky.
"You said there was something else," he prompted.
She could not tear her eyes from his. "Yes…I believe Shirah intends you to be the new Leader. I only suspected before…"
"Why are you sure of it now?"
"She showed me your face in a vision, but all I remembered were your eyes. I thought they were a double moon. They are…beautiful."
She could not help the hand that rose to touch his face. It was so odd to see a vision made flesh…and to see not just another Furyan after so many years but another Alpha as well. Just as her fingers were about to caress his cheek, she felt a presence behind her and spun, long black blades appearing in her hands. Masala relaxed only slightly when she saw that it was Shirah coalescing from the mists. She kept her blades at hand.
Shirah looked the same as she did in the visions. There but not there, only partially corporeal. She had been fully in this world when Masala had last seen her.
"Seer Shirah," she greeted with wariness.
"Masala, child, it is good to see you again. You've grown so."
As Shirah came forward, Masala took a step back. Her back heel caught on Riddick's boot, and he instinctively reached out to steady her. Another pulse of blue lightning passed between them, but this one did not jar like the other, only tingled.
Shirah looked past Masala to Riddick. "I see you've brought our lost Leader home."
Masala shook her head, "It has to be his choice. You cannot force or trick him into it. If you try, I'll not accept the confirmation."
The Seer raised an eyebrow at her, "Your defense of him shows you have already accepted him as Leader."
"No," the assassin protested. "I only defend his right as an Alpha to choose. It is the right of every Alpha as it is the right of every Furyan. "
"And if there are no other Alphas and he chooses no? Would you take it up?" Shirah asked.
She was being tested, Masala knew it. "You know as well as I do that I am already committed elsewhere. If he chooses no then we find another Furyan who is willing and able and bind the Alpha gift to them. It has been done before."
"Not in a century or more."
"And how long have you been Seer?"
Shirah smiled. "Point taken."
The Seer moved to go around Masala, but the assassin kept herself between Shirah and Riddick. She had not been that awe-struck girl called to the Seer's temple in decades. She had seen, done and experienced plenty of things between then and this minute to make her suspicious of even the most benign seeming beings. And no Furyan could ever be accused of being benign, especially not one accustomed to orchestrating things according to her own designs.
Riddick watched the encounter between the two Furyan women with curiosity, his luminous eyes taking in the nuances of their speech and body language. The spectral woman was amused and intrigued by the other. The assassin was both wary and reverent, her stance defensive, a line of coiled tension in her shoulders. He decided to test something. He put a hand on Masala's shoulder, noted the pulse passing between them once again.
"Masala," he said.
Her head turned just a hair towards him, indicating she was listening.
"Stand down."
It was a request, not a command. She considered a moment before making the long blades vanish and stepping to the side. He moved forward, bringing himself face to face with the one who gave him back his earliest memories.
"What do you want from me?" he asked, his deep voice reverberating in this place of death.
"Masala was right," Shirah told him. "I intend for you to be the new Furyan Leader."
His eyes slid briefly towards Masala who noticed but did not acknowledge it. She stood ready to intervene, her gaze never wavering from Shirah.
"Leader? Of two," he paused to look Shirah up and down, "well, one and a half people?"
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Masala let out a snort of laughter. The same thought had crossed her mind. As far as she knew, she and Riddick were the only living Furyans. Her Guild had suffered many losses in the last thirty-five years, and when she had begun the journey to Furya five years ago, there were only four others remaining. She had no idea if any of those four were still alive. And she was not about to personally repopulate the planet. Hell no.
"Others have been called home," Shirah said.
"What makes you think I'd agree?" he asked.
"You killed Zhylaw. You avenged our people," she told him.
"I didn't do it for you or your people," he stated.
Masala shifted and gave him a curious glance, wondering what he meant exactly.
"And yet you heeded my call to come to Furya."
He shrugged. "I didn't have anything better to do, and I was curious."
"And has your curiosity been satisfied?"
"Not yet."
