Oh, pronouns…
During the writing of this chapter I suddenly realized that it would be helpful to know something about the construction of ships…and it has proved somewhat problematic ever since.
Chapter Eight
The effects of the teleportation device were strange, and Girl was deposited at its other end in a state of complete bewilderment. The device's magic fled her body and nerves like an electrical charge, and hesitantly, she walked into the new environment she'd been whisked off to.
The place was strange—lit by windows and balconies and the wind howled through it like a living thing. She walked gingerly into the room's center, staring at the high ceiling with apprehension. Where on earth was she?
And then she began to hear unsettling noises from the darker corners of the room. Snarls and meowling, and the unmistakeable click-clacking of claws on tile.
Girl felt adrenaline rush to her limbs, her body ready to make a dash. She held her ground, assuming incorrectly, that the coeurls surrounding her would be as accepting of her as the others on the lower levels. Within minutes she was surrounded; but these coeurls seemed to regard her as an intruder, not a member of their harem.
They circled around her, fangs bared and snarling.
Six against one—the odds were definitely not in her favor.
And then she felt herself change. Her senses dulled, her claws turned to fingernails and her limbs returned to their usual length and appearance. She was a human again.
She uttered a curse and stood to her full height, perceiving where all her foes were standing, and making quick calculations in her head. Calculations that had become routine in some deep part of her consciousness. She had her dagger in hand and sprang forward.
If time could stand still, she would have sworn that it did. With the gracefulness of a dancer, she dove between two of the coeurls, slicing an arc on her way and leaving one of the coeurls bleeding on the floor, unable to stand. She ducked and wove, slashing and stabbing as the coeurls attacked. She was quick, but so were they, and she suffered several claws in her flesh and slashes in her clothing from her own poor defense. One coeurl stabbed her leg with one of its whip-like whiskers and she screamed with pain. The sound only seemed to drive the beasts to further frenzy, and she dizzily tried to fend them off as numbness spread down her leg.
As the seconds turned to minutes she knew she was going to lose. There were still four coeurls standing and she was tiring quickly.
They were about to close in on her when the coeurls suddenly stopped in their tracks and turned to look behind them, ears erect. Something else had entered the room and whatever it was, they had no desire to encounter it. A mighty wind swept across the room and made them scatter in all directions like spooked house-cats. Girl's dark hair blew across her face, and she swiped hanks of it away from her eyes as she limped backwards.
Concerned by the coeurls' aversion to the intruder, Girl took a moment to crawl behind a nearby pillar and stay out of sight from whatever was entering from the opposite side of the room. As she waited, the wind picked up in dervishes and the temperature dropped so quickly that goosebumps raised on her arms.
She held on to her knees and bent her head, trying to make herself as small as possible. And then she heard footstep—only two feet—but the clicking of claws on tile made Girl wonder what manner of creature it was that had scared the coeurls away from their near-kill. The feet walked a ways in each direction of the room and Girl hoped that she would remain unnoticed. When the footsteps began to approach her hiding place, Girl raised her head, her ears tuned to the sound of her pursuer. Too close. They were getting too close. She began to climb slowly to her feet, but only managed to half-stand when a powerful hand with claws for nails grabbed the back of her neck and threw her backwards.
The force of the throw startled her and she hit the floor hard enough to have the wind knocked out of her. She gasped for air, but her inhalation ended in a squeek as another hand pinned her head to the floor, choking her.
She grappled with the hand that held her pinned, and cracked her eyes open to look upon her attacker. A woman with cat-like amber eyes stood above her. Her golden hair raged behind her like long grass in a wind storm, and she had all the fierceness of something wild and untamed.
Without thinking, Girl began to fidget with her right hand. She was desperate for air, desperate to fill her lungs, and her chest burned furiously. Somewhere deep in her mind she knew what she needed to do. She focused the magic in her spirit on her right hand, the same hand forming signs—signs that channeled her magic into what she desired. She was summoning water to her palm—a great crushing force of water to be delivered in a single blow with her fist.
She gathered her magic and then swung at the Fiend's arm. Her own strength would have been ineffective, but with the strength and force of a waterfall behind it, the blow buckled the Fiend's grip and forced her to retract her arm, hissing.
Girl took her chance, and gulped in air. The lightheadedness was hard to overcome, but she forced her legs to push her away and upwards. She wobbled to standing, her wounded leg threatening to buckle.
She faced the Fiend and the Fiend faced her, pacing in sideways steps, as she took in Girl's measure.
"Who—who are you?" Girl gasped.
"DO NOT SPEAK," the Fiend snarled back at her, fangs bared. "How dare you speak to one of the great Archfiends. Intruder, who are you and how did you find your way here?"
Girl hesitated, unable to find words, and the Fiend suddenly sped forward, propelled by an unearthly wind, gripped her hair, and threw her back to the ground on her knees. The jolt flew up Girl's legs to her teeth and it rattled her thoughts.
"You will answer when one of the Archfiends asks you a question, human!"
"I am no one," Girl answered feebly.
"Liar!" the Fiend screamed at her. "A no one does not cast magic such as yours. Who are you!"
"I—I work for the Doctor!" Girl offered, hoping that explanation was enough.
The fiend gripped her hair again and lifted her off the ground until they were face to face. Tears welled up in Girl's eyes from pain as she squinted at the fiend who was smiling at her with menace.
"So you're the one," the Fiend mused and then dropped Girl back to the floor. "I knew I smelled another human in his domain. And a 'no one' at that. How interesting," the Fiend continued, pacing back and forth.
Girl was feeling trapped and helpless. And desperate. She searched for water around her, searching for a source and found it. She called to it, focusing all her thoughts to the water and beckoning for it to heed her. And then she focused her anger—all of her frustrations. She felt the water above her in pipes begin to reverse course and seethe at the walls of their containment. While the fiend paced, Girl demanded more of the water and fed it all of her desperation.
It answered in an explosion of metal, bursting from its pipes and cascading from the ceiling like a curtain of daggers. The attack took the Fiend by surprise and she jumped back, surrounding herself with wind. The water penetrated some of Fiend's shield and continued to rage like a living thing in mid-air. Girl, amazed that her ploy had worked, felt the water asking for further instruction. Charged with her magic she felt that she could ask it to do anything. She stood and began to move her arms into forms—some simple, some complex. The water moved in accordance with her arms, pummeling and beating at the Fiend's magic until the screen of wind that protected her was gone. The fiend danced and wove away from the water, but just barely.
And then Girl felt it, the strain of too much magic used all at once. Her body was beginning to be sapped of energy as her spell looked for more fuel to sustain itself. Girl released the water, waves splashing uselessly over the tiles and dripping away, while her arms sagged with exhaustion. She sank to the floor unable to do anything more.
The Fiend kept her distance and stared at Girl with an approving look on her face.
"Very interesting," the fiend said silkily. "Welcome to the tower, little sister," she greeted coldly, and then charged forward and slammed the palm of her hand against Girl's head so hard that Girl was instantly senseless.
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The next thing Girl knew, she was waking up again in the doctor's lab.
Her head throbbed, so did her leg, and then everything else. She tried to sit up but couldn't, groaning. What had happened? She tried to remember how she had gotten injured in the first place, but her memories ended just before she'd last left the Doctor's lab. She had been so determined when she'd set out—to figure out what she was capable of. Had she failed so miserably?
"Awake at last?" she heard the Doctor ask at her right.
She turned to look at him dazedly, not realizing he'd been there. He was standing close to her slab, hands in the pockets of his dingy lab coat. His scraggly white hair was standing more on end than usual and his beady eyes were practically bugging out of his head.
"What happened?" she asked tiredly.
"You went into the tower to procure something for me, but you went far and got lost," he supplied nervously. "You were injured trying to find your way back. It was a lucky thing you managed to crawl back as close to the lab as you did or I wouldn't have found you."
Girl narrowed her eyes and turned away, thinking. Attacked. She was lost? She didn't remember any of it.
"You should sleep," the doctor informed her. "You'll need your strength for when you help me fix the rest of the machine. Or are we going back on our arrangement?"
This information brought her back to the present, and her determination to escape surged to the surface. "Fix the machine? You have all the necessary parts?"
"Yes, and the schematics."
Girl looked at him in a daze. "Good. The sooner it gets fixed…" she began and then trailed off as exhaustion won out and sleep claimed her once more.
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The Doctor left Girl to sleep and returned to his own quarters. Barbariccia was waiting for him, arms folded.
"She remembers nothing," Lugae announced.
The fiend nodded with a sly smile, golden hair bobbing of its own accord. "After what I did, it's a wonder she remembers who you are," she purred with satisfaction.
"I thought you were going to kill the girl," the Doctor pointed out; pleased but confused.
The fiend's eyes took on a steely cast and she pursed her lips. "The girl possesses magic the likes of which I've never seen. She could be the key to undoing the ninja of Eblan that Golbez has been searching for. Learn their secrets and then turn their own magic against them, I like it."
"Many ninja possess magic like hers," Lugae protested. "You really think she could reveal the answers Golbez wants?"
"Most of the ninja possess minor talents at best," Barbariccia answered with her nose in the air. "The girl has a gift. Answer me this, though; how have you convinced her to help you?"
"She believes her cooperation will be rewarded with freedom. She works because she believes I'll help her find a way to escape."
The Fiend smiled evilly. "Conniving little man," she approved. "And she doesn't know what it is you're working on?"
"She has only seen it in pieces, never the master plan."
"She's helping you build an airship, the perfect vessel for her escape, and she'll never be able use it," Barbariccia mused, and then laughed coldly. "That's the most delectable thing I've heard all day."
"How will I keep her unaware once it nears completion?" Lugae simpered.
Barbariccia gave him a measured look. "You? You think you'll be able to complete this project after all? Doctor, I'm impressed."
"I told you, all I needed was a new skystone," he complained. "I've found out what went wrong with the last one."
The Fiend's expression turned serious "If she asks questions, continue to mislead her. When the time comes I will intervene. Until then, make sure she doesn't escape."
Lugae nodded vehemently. "Of course. You have my word. She won't be going anywhere."
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It was weeks before Girl felt well enough to be on her feet. She had taken several of the doctor's potions and her wounds were closing satisfactorily, but her thoughts were constantly askew. Dreams plagued her from sleeping to wakefulness. Images of a woman with copper hair walking away haunted her dreams like so many nights before, but now every time she tried to see the woman's face, the face that greeted her became that of a woman with golden hair and amber cat-like eyes. Girl woke every morning in a sweat, with her heart racing, and feeling that she should have her weapon in hand.
Her last conversation with the Doctor also left her with questions. He's said she had gone to do errands for him. She knew that to be a lie, so what had actually happened to her? She had the kaleidoscope of dreams that plagued her every night, but she couldn't figure out the order to which they belonged. There was some important discovery she had made, but it was just beyond her reach. She wanted to grasp it so badly, but couldn't.
Disappointed with her faulty memory, she hoped that the tedium of working with the Doctor might bring her some measure of focus. At least help to soothe her boredom.
When she finally returned to the workshop, she found the doctor poring over the schematics for the machine. Intrigued, she joined him and read over his shoulder. The schematics were complicated and hard to understand, and all she saw were parts and pieces.
When she looked up at the rest of the room, she saw several large wooden beams and metal clamps scattered across the floor. How they had gotten into the lab was another of those insufferable mysteries so common to her day –to-day life. She eyed the Doctor suspiciously.
Sensing her regard, he looked back at her, equally suspicious.
"Do you remember any of your adventure?" he asked, sounding a little anxious as he readjusted his spectacles.
She shook her head. Truthfully, it annoyed her that she couldn't remember the events of the past few weeks. She knew her version of events and the Doctor's didn't line up; and the fact that he had asked twice for confirmation of her amnesia, signaled to her that he knew something she didn't.
"Are you able to do any work or will you be a useless sack of bones?" the Doctor then asked.
She glanced around the room at all of the materials and then looked back at the Doctor. "Doing what, exactly?"
"These beams need to be formed to match the schematics."
"How do you 'form' wooden beams?" she asked, mystified.
The Doctor eyed her speculatively. "Do you still not remember how to cast your magic?"
Girl took his meaning right away. "You need water," she mused.
"These beams need to be soaked and then clamped," he confirmed.
Her eyes widened. "You can bend beams that large with only water?" she asked.
"Water and pressure," he answered.
She looked again at the number of beams on the floor of the large workshop and felt her spirits sink. There were so many beams and each looked to weigh more than she could possibly hope to carry.
"How—" she began, completely daunted. "How do we even go about doing that?"
"We start small," the Doctor started saying, walking toward the piles of lumber.
"How small?" she asked, dubious.
"We'll have to build a vat for the water. That will be your task."
"Mine?"
"Build the vat, make sure it doesn't leak, and then fill it with water. I'll take care of the rest."
Girl took in the scope of the room and the length of the beams. "Just how long does this vat need to be?" she asked.
"Do you see how long these beams are?" the Doctor asked. When she nodded he added, "Longer than these."
Days passed in aggravation, as Girl sat atop piles of lumber, staring at the pages of schematics the Doctor had allowed her to keep. The Doctor had abandoned her to work on other portions of the project while she was left with the heavy lifting. In between trying to read the schematics and trying to figure out how to build a vat, she wondered what it was she had been trying to find in the hallways that had led to her being attacked. She remembered finding an abandoned corridor, something about coeurls, but she could still sense there were gaping holes in the details, and the face of the woman with cat-like eyes….
"I don't see any progress!" the Doctor complained at her, poking his head out of one of the workshop's side doors.
She glared at him. "How do you expect me to move any of these beams without any help?" she demanded. "I'm only one person and I can only lift so much!"
The Doctor vanished from the doorway, only to reappear several minutes later with a small horde of mobile metal mechanicals in tow. Girl jumped down from atop her perch and eyed the mechanicals and the Doctor warily. 'What are those?" she asked.
"For the heavy lifting," he explained, and then directed his voice to the bots on the floor. "Drones, locate thirty foot by one foot timber and relocate to ten feet north perpendicular to east wall."
The 'drones' didn't move for a minute as they processed this new command and then began to scurry toward the timbers, inspecting each beam until they found one they deemed the appropriate length and size. With their small mechanical arms, the eight of them arranged themselves along the length of the beam and lifted it off of the ground. Girl stood back and watched as they inched backwards, carrying the beam with them before setting it down ten feet away.
"Huh," she remarked, admiring the handiwork of the drones.
"Will these do?" he asked, wringing his hands together anxiously.
Girl nodded absently. "I think they'll do nicely," she assured him.
"Good, good," the Doctor mumbled to himself and then sauntered away without another word.
Girl watched his retreating form with an eyebrow raised and then looked at the drones on the floor "looking" at her with their mechanical eye stalks.
"Uh…" she said stupidly, completely aware that she had no idea how to order the drones to do her bidding.
"Command-'uh'-not-recognized," one of the drones squawked at her.
Girl's expression fell as she tried to remember how the Doctor had given the last order. "Drones, find beam 'this' size and move over here so beams are end to end," she ordered feebly, using hand gestures in an attempt to communicate.
The drones buzzed while they processed her command and then started moving in all directions, inspecting every beam of wood they could find. Each drone picked its own beam and began to push in all directions. The confusion led to Girl having to leap over beams that swung in wide arcs toward her legs, and flinching when other beams smashed into the walls of the workshop with sounds mimicking thunderclaps.
Girl watched the drones with dismay. "Stop!" she shouted, but the drones didn't heed her.
"Drones, stop!' she tried again. This time they obeyed, swiveling on their mechanical feet to look at her through their eye stalks.
She hung her head, discouraged. "Drones, stay," she ordered, walking out of the workshop in a state of defeat. The Doctor had meant to give her help, but instead, he'd given her another challenge, and her headache had returned. She'd figure this mess out in the morning.
She had just stepped through the workshop doors when she perceived someone's eyes on her. She stopped in her tracks and looked up. Girl's heart instantly hammered in her chest, but she stilled it with a few deep, controlled breaths. In front of her, with head tilted appraisingly, stood the golden haired woman with the cat-like eyes.
"You must be the Doctor's assistant," the unknown woman said with a sneer, looking into the room behind Girl with an unimpressed glance. "Seems you have a lot of work to do," she wryly observed, brushing past Girl without so much as a by-your-leave. Girl was so stunned to have encountered the woman from her nightmares, that she couldn't force her feet to move. "You may call me Barbariccia," the woman called over her shoulder in a sing-song. "Looks like we will be seeing a lot of each other from now on."
Girl hesitantly turned and watched as Barbariccia disappeared around the workshop wall. Her blood had gone cold, as pieces of the puzzle began to snick together in her mind. Elemental Archfiend. The word came unbidden through her thoughts. What was she doing here? Why hadn't she attacked? What business did she have with the Doctor?
Girl finally pried her feet from where they'd rooted to the floor and peered through the workshop doorway. Barbariccia was walking toward the Doctor's personal work-space, strides long and graceful.
Coeurls, water, and an explosion. Girl pinched the bridge of her nose, memories rushing back. Despite Barbariccia's present demeanor, Girl was utterly convinced that the Fiend was her enemy. Why was she pretending to be an ally?
They think you won't remember, she realized.
She'd known for a while that the Doctor had been hiding things from her, playing some sort of game, but this was a new move on his part. This was bold, blatant—and downright insulting. He had told her many times to stay out of sight, to remain unnoticed. Why would he be so insistent of her invisibility if he allowed an Archfiend to encroach on their territory without the slightest of warnings? Girl's mind raced. The tables were turning. She wasn't sure how or when it had happened, but she was finding herself several steps behind. The Doctor had kept her out of his workspace, out of his projects, and now he had invited her to work directly with schematics. Her role had changed, and now there was another interested party. What exactly were they hoping she wouldn't find out, that they would go to such lengths to alter her memory?
Pretend you don't remember, play along, she convinced herself. If she let on that she knew what they were planning, they would eliminate her. Barbariccia had already tried, but clearly they had some use for her or she wouldn't still be here, still playing their game.
Girl nervously returned to her "room", but not to sleep. There would be no sleeping with an Archfiend underfoot. She could only think and strategize. Her life had just become more complicated with another player on the board and she had never been particularly good at winning…or lying. She sat atop her slab, clutching her knees in an attempt to keep her hands from shaking. First the man in black armor, then her dawning magic, and now an Archfiend. If there truly was a war coming—who was it between? She had worried before over who it was she was really working for by agreeing to help the Doctor. But he had never threatened her life, and he had convinced her that his creations were for the benefit of her people in the coming war.
She was left with a few thoughts. Either the Doctor was lying to her entirely, that he was her enemy and therefore an enemy to her kingdom; or the war was being fought by her people against someone else—Baron?—and it was her own people who had hired the Doctor to make creations that would aide their efforts. The notion of Eblan, her supposed kingdom of origin, was hazy at best, but hazier still were the other nations in the world. She could grasp the concepts and eccentricities of the tower, but beyond that, she was truly in the dark. Even so, she found it hard to believe that her own people would agree to work with the man in black armor, or even with an Archfiend, and so came to the conclusion that perhaps the Doctor's creations weren't as noble as he claimed. Which led her to another gut wrenching conclusion:
Had she found herself on the wrong side?
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A/N: Sick AGAIN. Ugh! I feel like all of my updates this year have been a catalogue of all my illnesses…
Anyway…it's quite difficult to write cat and mouse, I've found. I don't feel like this chapter is as polished as it could have been, but…it's still an update. For those of you following and you haven't quite been sold yet, this chapter was another transition, but things ARE starting to warm up from here on out, I promise.
The brief mention of the woman with copper hair is in reference to a few chapters back. Yes, that person will be revealed eventually :)
It's also been pointed out to me that my italics run into the following punctuation or sentences. There are supposed to be spaces between the words. If there aren't, I blame the site.
Thanks for reading! Hope everyone's having a good start to November!
~myth