INTERLUDE: Valkyrie's Insomnia, Atropos' Ear
AN: Yeah, I know it's a bit long for an interlude, but I couldn't help myself.
1
Lachesis woke up and immediately sensed something amiss. He peeked into Valkyrie's room, only to find it empty and the bed un-slept in. Eventually, he finds her outside sitting on Clotho's grave twirling the scissors on her finger. She stops the blade with her left hand and spins it the other way, only to stop it again and repeat the process as though in a trance. Ultimately, Lachesis stepped forward to stop the blade himself and pries it from her hands. She doesn't look at him throughout the entire conversation, but at the impression of the scissors seared onto the trunk of the feijoa tree.
[Can't sleep?] Lachesis asks hesitantly, sitting next to her and holding the shears in his lap.
[No shit,] Val replies dryly.
[Wanna tell me what's wrong?]
[You tell me: you're the one with the visions. Why should I be getting them?]
[Visions?]
[Dreams… more like memories. A long time ago, my name was Ma'at. Am I right?]
[You're not supposed to know…]
[I was married to an orchardist…] she continued, ignoring him. [But, my lover, Priam – I'd known him since we were young and before I was betrothed, I helped him take care of his baby brother - Iapetos. I conceived a child to him and managed to keep her true paternity from my husband – until she grew. She looked so much like her father… my husband had her slain.]
[Val… I never knew that much, I'm sorry.]
[Her name was Lachesis,] Valkyrie concluded, ignoring her companion's sympathy. [This is your area of expertise – tell me what it means.]
Lachesis was taken aback by this revelation. [I-in all honesty, I can't say,] he stammered finally [The fact that your daughter had my name – that could mean everything, it could mean nothing. Were they consistent? The dreams?]
[No, in the first one I found the child's body, in the second I was in my lover's arms. It seemed they were confused…]
[Have you been able to make anything of it for yourself?]
[Not much – but it doesn't make sense… it doesn't seem to fit.] Valkyrie finally turned her head to her companion and he can see that she'd been crying. [I can't help but think I'm going to loose you.]
[Oh, Val. I won't leave you any time soon, you know that.] He brushed the remaining tears from her cheeks and kissed the corner of her eye.
Valkyrie took his hand and held it between hers against her bosom. He could feel the erratic beat of her heart beneath her left breast. [You can't promise that. Atropos said death is no longer in our hands. What if this little quest of ours costs me you? I-if that's the price of preserving Derry, I – I don't want to fight anymore.]
Lachesis pulled his hand free and placed them both on her shoulders, forcing her to face him. [You can't mean –!]
[I do!] She shrieked hysterically before he could finish. [It's too soon! I keep fearing that no matter how hard I fight on the day it won't make any difference to your fate. I can't have your death on my shoulders. How can I exist without you?] She finished in a whisper and collapsed on his shoulder.
By the time dawn began to seep into the void of night, her sobs had subsided. Weakly, Valkyrie rose and peeled Lachesis' grip from around her.
[Where are you going?] Lachesis asked timidly. She's not in her right mind, something inside him warned.
[To speak with Iapetos.] She confirmed his inner-voice.
2
She found Atropos seated in his makeshift lounge, his legs stretched and crossed at the ankles and his fingers laced together. He seemed to be waiting for her.
[Iapetos…] she began.
[I know why you're here, Ma'at.] He interrupted, sitting up straight. [You want to know why you've been given certain knowledge that is usually hidden from the likes of us, correct?]
Valkyrie was startled, how could he know? [Did you send me those dreams?]
Atropos shook his head, [look around you, sweet-cheeks. You think I'd have that sort of power? I can't tell you who sent them, but I can help you understand them. How much do they tell you?]
[Everything: the first time I saw you, Priam was holding a dagger over you in your cot. Did you know that?]
The Random's eyes widened. [Everything? Every memory of your short-time life? What about Nona?]
[Who's Nona?]
[Never mind,] unconsciously, Atropos' hand reached up to his throat – to where the once-St Christopher medallion now hung around Valkyrie's neck. [Clotho… Priam… wanted me dead?] He remembered vaguely looking up at his brother as he argued with the Long-Time Nona, his sister's namesake Valkyrie and his own predecessor, Morte.
The Purpose mirrored his gesture and looked at the silver pendant as she entwined the chain around her hand. The St Christopher had been transformed by the fate in front of her to resemble an open pair of scissors and a scalpel – but she didn't know that. All she knew was that it was all she wore on the day she woke up, groggy and confused underneath the feijoa tree outside her home.
Returning to the present, she nodded. [He blamed you for you mother's death: it was me who stayed his hand.]
3
"Priam, no!"
But the boy she had grown up with, the boy she had grown to love, was unmoving. Even though his back was turned to her, she knew his handsome face would be contorted by an ugly hatred.
"He killed her…" Priam uttered, without turning around. He tightened his grip on the hilt of the ornate dagger, raising it, preparing to strike. "He… killed… her!"
Ma'at rushed forward, ignoring the danger of her friend's distress and snatches the babe from his crib. "You think that if you kill him, your mama will return? Do not be foolish, Priam! Clotho herself cannot bring her back and you will so willingly give this child up to Atropos? Lachesis has gifted this child to us and we will raise him like our own. Call him Iapetos if you wish for he has wounded you so but do not kill him!"
Priam glared at her but knew he could not hate her.
She glared right back defiantly but diverted her attention when the child began to cry. She easily hushed him with a kiss on his little nose. She didn't see Priam looking on, astonished. Hugging the infant to her bosom, she raised her head to her oldest friend with pleading eyes.
"All right," Priam nodded eventually, placing the dagger in its sheath and replacing it on the mantle. He stepped forward and Ma'at placed the child in his arms. "Iapetos…" he whispered as the baby, still red-faced from crying, reached up to grasp his brother's nose…
4
[Iapetos…] Valkyrie began again but Atropos silenced her with a gesture.
[I saw it,] he stated simply and rose from his chair. [It was so vivid…] he gently took her right hand between his and added, [there must be something in them, something someone higher up wants you to discover. Maybe it'll be something to help us defeat this creature, maybe it's some sort of warning… whatever it is, I'll help you find it, I promise.]
[Thank you, Brother,] she smiled into his scarred face. [How can I repay you?] When her eyes rested on the hole under his left temple, the answer came to her immediately. As if by impulse, she glanced around the room. Atropos watched perplexed as she strolled over to a makeshift shelf where a small carved wooden box lay forgotten after seventeen years. He made to stop her when she reached for it but thought the better of it. Something else is controlling her, he realized when she carefully removed the lid and placed it underneath the box.
She picked up the contents and doubled over, dropping the box and clutching the left side of her head in agony. Atropos ran to her and when she raised her head he saw blood seeping between her fingers from an unseen wound. His severed ear was clutched in her right hand. The lobe was torn in an angry V that matched his other ear. He moved to take it from her when her hands closed over the detached extremity and she stood, bidding him rise with her.
The ear was perfectly preserved, untouched by either decay or carrion beasts, the blood on the lobe and the severed edge still fresh even though the Atropos' wound had healed years ago. Valkyrie caressed the open wound and Atropos flinched as he felt the touch in his scar tissue. The Purpose drew her scissors from her pocket, for a split second, the Random thought she would use them to cut the thing in two before she flicked them open and rested one of the sharp blades against his scar.
[Do it,] he urged her.
In reply, she applied pressure to the tip and cut into the healed tissue, locking eyes with her counter-part as he winced through the procedure. Keeping her eyes on his, she dragged the blade down until the hideous scar was completely scored in two. She folded them closed and returned them to the pocket in her smock, still keeping her eyes locked with the Random's. She raised the ear in her cupped palm and blew on it, as though making one of her psychic bullets, enveloping the ear in a violet haze. Slowly, she leaned forward and kissed the incision lightly before placing the glowing ear over it and absently licking Atropos' blood off her lips. Holding it in place with her right hand, she sucked away the violet, letting the Random's maroon aura reclaim it.
Valkyrie stepped back, admiring her work, Atropos turned and strode over to the ancient mirror on the far wall. Turning his head to the right as far as he could, he examined the ear, looking in vain for a seam of some kind. Even the lobe had returned to its whole self. He looked up at Valkyrie's reflection and nodded his thanks.
[We three are ka-tet, whether we like it or not.]
Val nodded her agreement, [We have to fight this to the end, don't we? No matter what it costs us,] she felt a pang as she thought of her argument with Lachesis that morning. [You won't back out, will you?]
Atropos shook his head lightly. [We share a bond, you and I. You spared my life then, but I couldn't save yours. Maybe this is my chance to make up for it. I'm old, Ma'at, not spent. I'll look out for you, and if that high-class fuck doesn't like it, he can suck my white hairless arse.]