Dark Shadows
Ch. 4

"I really don't know much," she said.

"Just tell me whatever you know," he said. "How did you meet?"

She thought for a moment and then began speaking, her voice barely audible. "We met on a slave ship. I hadn't been there very long. I don't know how long she'd been there before I'd arrived. Said she'd been slaved-out by some Mercs."

"She mentioned that." When she didn't go on he asked her to continue.

She sighed. "We escaped and some people were killed along the way. We went from planet to planet for a couple of years. Still can't believe she never got rid of me." She said this last sentence more to herself than to Riddick. "Said we were laying low but I could tell she was looking for someone. She'd ask around, convicts mostly. Tried to hide it from me but I found out eventually."

"She was looking for me," he said.

"Yes." Her eyes darted towards him for a moment and then returned to the floor. "She told me about the planet, the monsters. About the man that saved her and then dumped her on New Mecca."

"I didn't have a choice," he said.

"Doesn't matter." She shook her head. "Eventually she got tired of "laying low," left me that letter and took off after you."

"And that's all you know?" he asked. "You didn't hear from her after that?"

"I heard rumors that she'd killed too many of the wrong people, ended up in some max security slam," she said.

"Crematoria."

She nodded.

There was a moment of silence. Finally Li spoke.

"The blade."

"What about it?" he asked.

She gave him a confused look.

"You said..."

He smiled. "I said I'd get you whatever you needed."

"How do you know what I need?" Her voice had an edge of anger. She began to chew on her lower lip.

"I know you don't need that knife," he said. "Now how 'bout some breakfast?"