The Birth of Legends
Clara poked her head around the door of the TARDIS and surveyed the desert landscape.
'So far Ancient Kaltragia looks exactly the same as modern Kaltragia just with more blue people.'
'Well it is the same place, Clara, you can't expect it to be radically different.'
'Modern London looks radically different from London 200BC,' she argued.
'The civilisation of Kaltragia is hundreds of thousands of years old very little about it has changed in the last few millennia. The only reason it did change at all was the plague.'
'What did the plague do?'
He looked at her as though she was stupid. 'Resulted in 'fewer blue people' as you might put it. For a long while there were barely any native Kaltragians left. Led to an influx of immigrants and a watering down of traditional culture. Hence the loss of ceremonies such as the one that thing is used for,' he pointed at the necklace still reluctant to address it by its title as though it were a person who had not earned such niceties.
Clara took a steadying breath. 'Everyone is going to stare at me,' she said.
The Doctor looked down at her outfit, the TARDIS having made further adjustments to it to fit the requirements of the era. He had to admit there really wasn't an awful lot left of it. Clara had something more draped around her hips but this seemed to have been at the cost of what little had covered her breasts. They taunted him now, her nipples barely covered by a swirl of golden thread loosely bound. The Coupling Stone lay between them heavily, it had been glowing continuously since they landed, aware perhaps that it was home.
'They won't stare at you it's the design of the time, all the females will be wearing something similar.'
'I'm not blue, I'll stand out, anyway look at them!' Clara pointed out of the door at the crowd of Kaltragians passing by and at one group of women in particular gathered around a fountain. 'They're all so voluptuous, all hips and breasts and curves. I'm nothing like that, you told me once I looked like a boy!'
'You do not look like a boy,' The Doctor reassured her. Clara looked at him hesitantly while adjusting her scanty top best she could. 'You don't! You are extremely… feminine… '
'Doctor…'
'Don't make me compliment you on your physique, Clara,' he said tersely then blushed and looked down. Clara smirked, that blush alone made her feel better.
'Ok so where do we start?' she said to relieve his embarrassment.
'Temple, same place we went before but several millennia earlier. It's not a museum now it's an actual place of worship and the Coupling Ceremony takes place there. We'll go, find a Temple Master and ask them how to get that thing undone.'
'OK, sounds simple,' Clara looked across the crowd. 'And there's the temple? Looks just the same.' She hopped out of the TARDIS and waited expectantly for the Doctor, 'Come on, this thing round my neck is getting pretty excited, I can feel it tingling.'
He raised his eyebrows. 'Really?'
'Yes, I think it knows where it is…' she made towards the Temple with the Doctor in tow. Around them the crowd jostled and pulled. There appeared to be some sort of market or event going on, Clara could hear excited chatter and debate alongside an occasional louder call. She caught the eye of a few blue skinned Kaltragians as she passed.
'See I told you they'd stare…'
'Hmm…'
Three female Kaltragians in Clara's path turned to face her and almost as one stepped back out of her way. Across their skin were delicate and ornate painted patterns in pale green. Their eyes almond shaped and wide, black and pupil-less. Clara noticed with a slight shudder that they appeared to have no eyelids but blinked sideways with a reptilian membrane. Think positive, Oswald, you're on a mission.
'They are polite though,' she said, 'I mean it's so busy here and I've not had to push my way through….'
The women's eyes flickered over her then came to rest of the Doctor suspiciously. He caught up to Clara in a few longer strides.
'Clara just be cautious,' he warned under his breath.
'Cautious about what?'
Another trio of Kaltragians stepped aside from them and this time the Doctor saw the direction of their gaze straight onto the jewel around Clara's neck. He glanced back and saw that the crowd had closed the gap behind them. He placed a hand on Clara's arm and drew her to a halt.
'What is it?' she asked.
The crowd suddenly seemed quieter, the last of its chatter dying away even as Clara asked him. They had reached the steps of the Temple.
'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?' Clara whispered.
'Because you've been on too many of these trips with me and know how it usually turns out,' the Doctor said drawing her to him and casting his eyes over the crowd slowly. A hundred or more eyes looked back at them, dark and still, ebony set in cool water. He took a pace backwards up the steps to the Temple and pulled her with him.
'We need to get inside. Now,' he said urgently. Clara followed his lead. As they took another two steps the crowd paced forward almost as one, their shining black gaze never leaving the pair as they inched closer to the doors. They were so focused on the Kaltragians that they didn't notice the Temple Master until Clara backed straight into him, his thick blue arms closing around her waist so that when she struggled against him she was lifted clear off the ground.
'Hello thief,' he growled.
Clara squealed and tried to wriggle her way free of his grip, the necklace burning her skin.
'Let her go!' the Doctor's tone was of barely controlled rage, his sonic pointed squarely at the Temple Master's head. 'She's no thief!'
'Then perhaps you are,' the Temple Master cast his eyes over the Doctor's form, tall slim and pale and a complete contrast to his own stocky blue body. He motioned to a set of guards hovering nearby and they closed around the Doctor who glanced between them and Clara as though calculating his chances. There were too many and she was vulnerable. The light from the sonic died.
'I haven't come here to steal,' The Doctor said his arms raised in semi surrender, 'Quite the opposite in fact.'
'Then you come to return what you took? Our Gem has been missing a long time, its disappearance has delayed our fertility ceremonies, our harvest will fail and our people suffer. Babies fail to be born, the circle of life breaks. Perhaps your conscious is eating at you now and you realise the damage you have done.'
'What?' he asked, confused, 'No, we came for advice…'
The Temple Master burst into deep laughter at the absurdity of this suggestion. 'Advice?' he rumbled, dragging Clara bodily through the wide doors of the Temple, 'You claim you seek advice. Well how can we possibly advise you, friend, do tell us how we can be of aid?' His tone set the Doctor on edge and he followed at a short distance catching Clara's eye as she continued to struggle, behind him several tall and thick set guards prevented any sudden moves.
'We found the jewel…' the Doctor started.
'Found!' the Temple Master spun before his altar and carelessly flung Clara from his grasp. She landed in a heap at his feet, holding her ribs and gasping. The Doctor made to move forward but was immediately hauled back by one of the guards. 'You did not find your jewel, you took it, perhaps you thought you could use its power, old man, where your own potency has failed. But now you do not understand it, its magic leaves you helpless, so you bring it back? Am I right?'
'Well about some of it apart from the stealing it bit… and the potency, I resent that,' the Doctor said, 'Look I don't know who took it but I'm a Time Traveller, and I found your jewel several millennia away from here. Believe me it's caused nothing but bother so you're very welcome to have it back.'
The Temple Master looked at him incredulously.
'Time… Traveller?' he said dubiously.
'Yes, I'm the Doctor, I'm a Time Lord, and that woman you just tossed on the floor as though she means nothing is Clara, my…'
'She is Bound to you,' the Temple Master observed approaching him slowly and reading volumes in his eyes, 'You Bound her to you with our Gem…'
'Unintentionally…' the Doctor began.
'No Coupling can be truly unintentional,' The Temple Master Correct, 'You are aware of that, Doctor.'
'I didn't know what it was when I put it on her…'
'Part of you did,' The Temple Master assured the ominous tone never leaving him. 'Part of you must have even if your logical mind denies it. You wanted this woman but now that she is yours you try and flee from her. Why do you deny yourself, Doctor? Now there's an interesting question…'
The Doctor fixed him icily with his stare but the flush in his cheeks revealed the Temple Master had indeed hit a nerve. 'Look just take it back. Take it off her and take your Gem back and we can both be happy.'
'Oh I intend to take it back, 'The Temple Master gestured to his altar and for the first time the Doctor saw the sculpture upon it. Another robust female form, rounded and inviting, its finely carved face benevolent. Around its neck a space where a necklace once lay. 'There is only one woman who wears this Gem and she is the Temple Mistress, she is mine, and she lies weakened in the heart of our temple without this Stone. She has been denied the Coupling Ceremony because of you thief, we are Unbound, barren and our people lose faith… so yes, I intend to take it back…'
'Good…?' The Doctor said warily.
'There's just one problem,' The Temple Master turned his attention to where Clara was slowly regaining her breath at the foot of the altar. 'Once that necklace is on there are only two ways to remove it and neither of those is available to me… they would only be available to you as the wearer of the gem….' Clara scrabbled to get to her feet and with a sharp kick he pushed her back down. The Doctor felt two pairs of hands restrain him just above his elbows.
'No we cannot remove the necklace in the usual way,' he continued bending to look Clara in the eyes, 'I'll just have to have her killed.'
'No!' The Doctor cried.
The Temple Master calmly straightened and looked back at the strange pale man with amusement in his eyes, 'Or I could have you killed, either way it will break the bond. Maybe you're right, maybe it should be you, she's a pretty little thing, it would be such a waste, I'm sure we could find a suitable position for her here in the Temple… kill him,' he ordered his men and stooped to grab Clara by the arm.
In the days that followed Clara would not be fully able to explain what happened at that moment, describing it as she would one of her echoes, only half remembered. For the Doctor it happened so fast that his memory was clouded but he was later able to piece together the events using references from texts describing the powers rooted in the Kaltragian culture. Whatever the details it became clear that the necklace used its power to protect them both at that moment.
As the guards closed around the Doctor he became completely obscured from Clara's view and at that second the gem at her throat burst into light. Not the pale glow it had demonstrated before, not even the brighter glow it had given off when trying to lure them together. This light was harsh and startling, forcing itself out across the walls of the temple, blinding guards and worshippers alike, brilliant, white and painful it tore across the distance between her and the Doctor and threw aside the guards. Its force toppled the Temple Master as he clasped at her, freeing her from his hands, and as the bodies of the guards began to crawl away from the heat of the necklace, Clara, unaffected by its blinding rays locked eyes with the Doctor and told him,
'Run. Run you clever boy….'
And it filled him with fear because he knew what those words meant.
The wall of light grew brighter still, the bodies at their feet began to scream in pain and something told him that she was in control and that as always she would keep him safe. It told him that but it also told him that she was in danger, that she was a sacrifice now.
Run you clever boy…
How often he had heard those words before an echo sacrificed herself for him and he looked at her in horror as she stood magnificent before the altar as though transformed into the Temple Mistress or an unnamed goddess, light streaming from the necklace and from within her. Around him the building began to shake and dust fell from above them. They had moments before it toppled and took both of them with it.
Run…
He would not leave her, it was his job to keep her safe, so stepping over the guards he reached for her hand watching as the light from the Gem shone from her eyes and in the direction of her sight as she flicked her gaze around the room, a weapon against any who came between them. The building rumbled and the foundations creaked beneath them and together they ran from it and out into the frightened crowd beyond who stared darkly at them and in awe at Clara. The sea of bodies parted under the light from her eyes and before the town could truly respond to the destruction of their Temple the Doctor had pulled them to the safety of the TARDIS and sent her spinning out into time and space.
Clara soon felt the strength fade from her and collapsed into one of the chairs in the console room letting the minutes drift past in silence. He was leaning over the console guiding them back to her present when he heard her voice, 'Doctor?' he glanced across noting the necklace still intact, still around her neck and now without any sign of a glow. The soft blues and browns swirled together gently as they always had. The jewel seemed oblivious to the ruin it had just caused.
'What just happened?' she asked.
'Where do I start?' he replied honestly. 'You just destroyed the Temple, probably most of their religious sect and rewrote the history of Kaltragia. I mean look at this,' he pulled the monitor towards them and pulled up some information, 'That huge building we visited? The museum? Gone. In its place…' he gestured at the screen, 'A vast monument to a suspiciously human looking female with large eyes and a funny shaped nose. Apparently 'fire came from her gaze and destroyed the old ways when the Temple Master challenged her'.'
Clara opened her mouth in a wide 'O' and then wisely shut it again looking down at the gem.
'This thing really doesn't want me to take it off does it?' she mused.
The Doctor joined her in one of the jump seats. 'Back to the drawing board,' he said. 'Except there's no-one left to ask about it,' he sighed.
'Can I take the outfit off now?' Clara indicated her Kaltragian garb.
He glanced down at her barely covered body and then back up to catch her eye before very deliberately looking away. 'Yes it would probably be best.'
Clara slipped off the seat and began to make her way out of the room before hesitating at the threshold 'You need to follow me or you'll end up suffering again.'
'I seem to be alright.'
Clara frowned, 'That's odd, there's quite a gap between us, maybe the spell or whatever it is, is weakening.'
The Doctor looked up at her sadly, 'No, I don't think it is. I just think we've reassured the necklace a little about the status of our relationship.'
She looked at him curiously, 'What do you mean?'
'Run you clever boy?' he replied quoting her, 'You were about to sacrifice yourself to get me out of there. Again.'
'And you wouldn't let me,'
'I don't usually get the chance to intervene, with your echoes I mean. I wasn't about to let the real thing get hurt.'
They held each other's eyes for a moment and then Clara nodded to herself her fingers covering the gem briefly before they looked away. 'Sometimes I wonder if this necklace knows something I don't,' she commented conscious of the Doctor shifting a little uncomfortably over by the controls.
'I will always try to protect you, Clara,' he said quietly, 'If that gem interprets that as love then…,' he hesitated fiddling with the edge of the console and clearing his throat, unable to go further. 'Go and get changed,' he finished awkwardly.
