Now that Kylo knows what the girl's mind feels like, he can't stop hearing her.
Oh she's silent alright. Silent as the watery grave he'd pulled her out from. But her presence is there right above him nonetheless. That void. Its silence pulls him in just as surely as as any bright and loud human's mind ever would, but hers is for all its subtlety that truly draws Kylo's curiosity to a peak.
After their hostile encounter upstairs, Kylo had left the girl to her own devices -whatever those may be- and went back down. He had made a fire as much for his own sake as for the health and comfort of the buck naked merwoman who would only benefit from the updraft of the chimney that flowed next to her room. Hopefully she was sentient enough not to burn herself on it, but some things Kylo is resigned to her just having to figure out on her own.
The fire was made, afternoon was progressing to evening, and Kylo tried to read. Tried to. That same void of a presence was deafening, at it made his attempts to research her situation all the more challenging.
He had started off with going over the tales from fishermen who had encountered the merfolk and lived. There were scant few of them and little of value was to be found there that Kylo didn't already know himself. Absolutely nothing alluding to one of the beast being able to transform itself.
Dead end. Next had been the tomes of mythology. Heavy, dense, books full of theories, theologies, and ancient history. Some good may have been had there, except these tomes had been written in the Old Language. It made for a challenging read under the best circumstances. The girl wasn't making this the best circumstances.
She was up to something. Kylo could sense it. Feel her frustration and panic slowly change to an emotion he could only describe as 'raw cunning'. Oh the fury was still there, and a very angry and disagreeable period had come and passed where she had rattled the door nearly off its hinges. That was when Kylo had been making the fire, but then as the space had begun to warm up she had quieted down and her inky nothingness had subdued back into obscurity.
Then there was the silence. She had been quiet for far too long, and now Kylo can't stop himself from constantly trying to peep into her evasive mind. It's like holding onto an eel in dark waters, he catches a wisp of it and then she slips away. Frustrating. Difficult. Admittedly intriguing.
She doesn't understand where she is or what's happening. Kylo had figured that much just from watching her with his eyes. Her mind however revealed an odd mix of both rational thoughts and instinctual feelings he couldn't begin to comprehend.
So what was she, then? Something half human, half not. She looked like a human. She looked very much like a human. She didn't act like a mermaid. Oh, she'd bite and scratch just like one, but Kylo had fought enough to know that their mind was a feral, chaotic thing of rage where this half-girl's was… off.
So, really, what was she?
Gods, that was the question he'd been asking himself all day. A question with an answer right upstairs.
Kylo closes the book. It snaps shuts with a cloud of ancient dust. A visual metaphor of the futility of his search for an answer.
Oh wait, that wasn't right. He hadn't found anything. Not a single word. Surely the absence of information counts for something, right? Right. It meant he'd just wasted a few precious hours which he could have spent being useful instead.
"Dinner. Food for thought. That's what I need, and maybe you're hungry too?"
Talking to himself was an old habit, but something he was acutely careful to only do when he was alone. Even though the girl could neither hear him from her tower or understand him if she did, her presence alone was enough to remind Kylo he was being a very poor host in more ways than one.
"What does a mermaid eat?" he wonders, standing up and cracking his back from sitting for so long. "Fish I suppose. Seaweed? Maybe?"
Out in the wild, the merfolk would hunt the big game of the ocean together in packs. Usually there was only little overlap with the fishermen who would leave the sharks and orca alone in search of a more manageable catch. Kylo had no idea if the merfolk diet extended further but, as skinny as the girl was, he hoped she wouldn't be too picky.
"Don't like it, you can go hungry."
Herring preserved in brine and boiled root vegetables. It's what Kylo would normally eat himself, and so that's what she'll get. As the potatoes and carrots boil, he starts preparing a few other things to take upstairs. Nothing sharp or too wieldy, of course, but since he fully intends to keep the girl locked up until he can figure out what to do with her, there are certain needs of hers he has to address.
"Even the lowest prisoners get water. You'll need that."
Two wooden bucks, one of which he fills with clean drinking water and he hangs a metal cup off the side. She may figure out how to use it, maybe not. Either way it wasn't heavy enough to do any real damage.
"Now for the other detail."
The other bucker is empty and- well, hopefully the girl is housebroken and will figure out what that one's for. Kylo eyes the prospects of the next day with a grimace, but there's nothing to be done for it. He can't hardly bring her down kicking and biting and screaming to use the outhouse behind the tower.
A vague notion enters his mind at that. One that maybe soon he'll be able to reason with her. To reach her mind and convince her without words that it really is for her own good to stay here where she's safe from both his men and whoever did whatever they did to her. If he can convince of this, both of their experiences of each other will be greatly improved.
"Clothes. You're going to get cold, especially if I have to be gone for a while and the fire goes out."
All Kylo can offer her is a tunic of his own and another cowl. There were only two female members of his Knights, and they both dressed as men. They kept their spare armor here, but nothing even remotely suitable for a waif of a girl with a vendetta to wear.
"If you're still here in a few day's time, I'll get something in town. Some shift dress or the like of that."
Another log on the fire and Kylo realizes that he's both keeping the place warmer than he normally would, and also very much delaying the forthcoming encounter. he's had rather enough of wrestling with violent mermaids for the day, thank you, but hopefully the girl has exhausted herself by now.
He takes the food, clothes, and provision, and trudges up the steps with a heavy footfall. Let the girl know he's coming. Let her plan her ambush. No good ever comes from surprising a wild animal.
Kylo unlocks the door himself but opens it with the power of the Force. He fully expects to be toppled by a naked flurry of limbs and claws. Maybe the wretched beast will spill her dinner all over him, and she won't get another, that's for certain.
Instead, the room is quiet. Too quiet. Kylo narrows his eyes and reaches out with his mind.
Anger. Insolence.
Go away.
Ah, there she is. Her mind ferrets away so fast, but he'd caught it. He'd caught her message to him.
"I brought you food and drink. You're welcome."
Kylo steps inside, kicking the door behind him. The girl is at the far side of the room, and she's awkwardly perched at the sill of one of the many windows that open up along the walls of the lighthouse. In the evening sun, she's creating a silhouette. One that could be seen from outside, if someone were looking.
"We'll have to do something about that," he says, setting the various gifts in his arms down on the wooden table. "I can feel my men coming, but that does me no good if I'm away and not here. Curtains at least. I wish I could trust you to behave better."
The girl cocks her head. It looks like she's really listening to him, and Kylo almost cracks a smile at her attentiveness. Then he takes a step toward her, offered plate of food in hand, and her grip on the window edge falters. She stumbles, collapsing to her knees in a very inelegant heap.
"You were trying to stand. That's what you were doing over there."
The merwoman blinks. She has the nerve to look a little offended at Kylo's surprised tone, as if of course she was trying to stand, what else would she have been doing?
Kylo reaches forward, attempting to offer her a hand, but she immediately recoils. She crawls away then, dragging herself along the floor by the power of her arms alone until Kylo sighs and withdraws.
"You're going to tear open your wounds like that, you know that, right?"
Already he can see fresh blood and bruises along her legs. They're painful to look at, and Kylo can't stop the inner pang of feeling that he was somehow accomplice to her latest round of injuries.
So he makes a show of stepping back. Of giving the feral, wild thing plenty of space. He sets the buckets down, with the empty one in the far corner and the water bucket in the middle of the room. He splashes his hand through it and her chin picks up, her eyes following the movement.
"Thirsty? You haven't drunk anything all day long."
He unhooks the cup from the edge of the bucket and fills it with the water. Then he raises it and pours it back in from a distance, letting the girl see it flow out. She presses her lips together, her eyes widening.
But she doesn't move. She stays there, hunched and as far from him as she can.
Kylo reaches to her mind, and pushes hard. She flinches back, shoving him out, but not before he catches the real concern that's keeping her away.
"You think this is a trick? That I'm just taunting you and will take this away?"
That's it. That's what she's thinking. Someone had done that to her. She had been very hungry and thirsty and Kylo could almost feel the stinging bite of metal around his wrists cutting into flesh that had been rubbed raw from trying to get away.
Someone had done that to her. The knowledge brings with it a swell of emotion. Feelings that aren't his own, but still so familiar at the same time.
"I'm sorry," he says quietly.
He had only wanted to coax her close her, not torment her.
So he pours the glass again and places it halfway between them. A halfway that favors his side slightly more, but he waits to see what she'll do.
The girl -he'll need to name her soon, won't he?- waits. Waits and doesn't move. Kylo matches her, staying as tall and motionless as he can. Slowly, carefully, with tentative hesitancy, she shifts forward. She's crawling on her hands and knees now, he notes. Already her legs are becoming part of her sense of self. Interesting.
Her hand reaches for the glass. Kylo waits. She looks up at him.
"Do you want me to drink some first? Go on, then, I'm losing patience."
It's very much like tempting a stray cat or dog. Give them little bits of encouragement. Show them that it's safe. Show her that whatever she thinks he's trying to do, truthfully he's just trying to get her to give him even a modicum of trust.
The girl finally gives in and takes the cup. She fumbles with it, some of the water sloshing over and she squeaks as it does. Then she forms a bowl with the palm of her other hand and pours the water from the cup into that to drink out of face-first. It's a bizarre sight, and as a proof of good intentions Kylo brings the whole bucket closer. She doesn't recoil as far then, he notes again, but there's an angry sidelong glare to her face as she tips the bucket toward her a little and drinks from the edge.
A warning. That's what that pissy expression is. Come and try and take this from me, see what happens.
"I'd worry about losing a finger, m'lady, but I'm afraid I'm rather attached to them."
It's a lame joke even to Kylo's ears. Luckily the girl only looks at him blankly, the nuances of his terrible humor escaping her completely.
"Lucky you. Hungry? You're probably hungry. Have some."
He sets the plate down close to him. Close as in within arms reach. And he squats there, waiting for her. This she doesn't like. This time the feral cat's not taking the bait.
"Alright then, have it your way."
He picks up a wedge of boiled potato and eats it himself. It's undercooked and bland. Completely undeserving of the rather loud 'mhmm' he makes in false appreciation.
Her lip curls back, bearing her teeth.
"You want to take this from me, don't you?"
This time he goes for a piece of fish. Her face darkens. More teeth. A hint of a growl.
Kylo pops the fish in his mouth. It's… briny. Unpleasantly so, because he didn't prepare it correctly, but perhaps it will remind her of the ocean?
Then, with the tip of his index finger, he nudges the plate further form himself and closer to her.
The girls edges closer, just a little. Her arm extends to its furthest reach. Kylo shakes his head at her, his lips fighting the urge to break out into a lopsided grin. She ignores the potatoes with a frown and goes right for the fish.
"Would you prefer it raw? I could arrange that next time."
Whether she would or not is immaterial to the crinkle-nosed, head shaking frown she makes when she first tries the salty, cured fish.
"It's an acquired taste, I suppose," Kylo says with a laugh. "Try the rest of it, you may like it better."
Her eyes flick up. Eyebrows raised. She's listening, but not comprehending.
So Kylo tries something different. He closes his eyes, risking putting himself in harms way should his captive decide to make a play for him, and he reaches out with his mind. He pushes an image of her eating into her psyche. Visualizes her trying it and not hating his mediocre cooking abilities as much as she necessarily could.
He's not sure he's making a connection. That void mind of hers. It's like shouting into an abyss. No echo, just putting it out there and seeing if anything comes of it.
Then, when he opens his eyes, she's nibbling at a carrot with an expression of deep consternation. He's not going to ask how it is, no need for that. But he still smiles when she draws the plate toward her, her movements accepting but less than what could be called enthusiastic.
"Alright, criticism noted. I'll try to do something better for breakfast."
He leaves her to her meal to finish up the last order of the day: her clothes. Or his clothes, technically, but gods be damned if Kylo doesn't have a clue how too put her in them without undoing the tiny thread of trust he may have bought himself by feeding her. If he got too close, she'd either flee or fight and that would get neither of them anywhere. If he tried to put her under a sleep spell… well, he probably could, but doing so many so soon could hardly be good for her.
"Are you cold? It's actually rather warm up here, but it won't be forever. When I go to bed you'll need something."
She had summarily ignored the bed from before in favor of wadding up the torn remnants of his cowl underneath it. If Kylo squints, he can almost picture her making a kelp bed for herself on an ocean shelf somewhere deep beneath the waves.
He places the two pieces of clothing on top of it, making her a somewhat warmer nest. It will have to do, until he can convince her to wear the damn things.
The girl is still picking over her food, apparently finding the undercooked potatoes the greatest offender to her sensibilities but even those are getting a scowlish nibble as she works her way around the plate.
Kylo watches her for a minute. He studies the details of her face and the excessively accurate shape of her body. Whatever she is, she's a hell of a forgery.
He clears his throat, and the girl looks up at him. Perhaps there's less of an angry glint to her eyes then before, or maybe that's just his vanity playing tricks on him.
"Goodnight, m'lady," he says.
Then he leaves, eager to both put some distance between him and his prisoner and to put another log on the fire.