NSFW
| 5 |
The doors are still on their hinges but badly rended and the blood smears are on the metal of its framing. Casnar touches the blood on the floor with his finger and sniffs it, "…Whatever it belongs to, it's neither human nor drell, not anything I've ever cut open personally…"
Braith lifts an eyebrow at him, "…You have experience sniffing the blood of your many victims, Casnar?"
"I'm drell, I'm more sensitive to the scent than you are, that's plain to see," and he adds, "…and smell."
Braith bumps him with her shoulder, "…You like the way I smell, admit it, I don't smell foul."
He gives her a quiet smile and peers with her through the badly bent doors, "…Looks like whatever did that was trying to get out, got discouraged, went back inside…Maybe it's hurt."
"One way to find out," Braith melds her mind with her power, "…I'm going to…"
Shit…
"What is it, what were you going to say," he whispers, looking at her with some concern.
"My power…" She tries to create the joining again, "…I…Didn't…?"
She feels her neck.
"I took the separator off," Casnar says, understanding why should would do that, "…Are you unable to reach your power? You just did in the cab!" he hisses.
"I know, I know," she backs away from the doors, hearing the vents of the warehouse deeper in and feeling a chill, "…I think something's in there that's blocking my power from connecting…I'm going to the first doors, try something and see if I'm—" but before she can do any testing of her theory, the sound of movement again, and something heavy sighs.
Casnar looks at her, his hands holding both his gun and Diaustra's, "…You might want one of these..."
She takes his gun and admires the polish, sees it is well-cared for then nods to the doorway, "…Me first or you?"
"I've never heard a woman suggest herself for a dark space with something kind of possibly life-threatening inside…I'll go first."
"Chauvinist."
"You have no idea how good you have it," Casnar hitches the corner of his mouth with a smile, and pushes the door, pulls, and after Braith helps him slide it forward, one starts to give, "…I guess together then..." The movement on the other side turns into a rush of shadow, coming at them with a frightening bellow, and Casnar fires a shot, then gets hit by an arm before Braith can knock him away from the moving mass of gray rock busting the tiles with its heavy form, "…Lights!" she shouts, hoping there's an automated sensor with voice activation, as is custom to find in most of the structures throughout Lothairaxl's City Above.
The animal stops and lays in a heap on the ground. Braith runs over to help Casnar up, his face in pain, "…Can you walk?"
"I can…Barely…Breathe," he wheezes out, clutching his side, "…Help…me…"
He slumps down and cries out at the pain in his back and side. Braith starts to probe him for broken bones, ignoring his curses, and moves his coat up from his waist to check his ribs, "…Gods," she exclaims, seeing the darkening—bruising—over his golden waist of muscle…and the first trails of the knotted scars running across his back, "…You have an accident before this one?"
"I…need…medical…attention," he wheezes, "…Cuff…"
Braith lets his coat and shirt fall back over his wounded side, "…Stay here," then, "…Sorry, I'll be right back…We came for the reactor…Your cuff?"
He removes it, wheezing still from what feels to be several broken bones in his left side, "…Reactor…Please…Get it…" He blinks blearily through the pain at her gray eyes, and Braith puts the cuff on her forearm—it's loose on her arm, "…Please…"
"I'll get it, keep this," she gets his gun and puts it into his hand, "…Be alive…" She briefly holds his gaze, realizing how odd that sounds and cursing herself for saying the same stupid thing to Thane once, though there was more that followed it…Braith turns and hops over the sprawled limb of the immovable animal between the doors.
At its sudden whimper, and a keen little whistling, Braith slows and looks over her shoulder at the mound of monster…The eyes catch her, and she realizes it is intelligent, but hurt, and what's more, hurt by Casnar's shot to its shoulder, but close to the neck…
Call it a bad time to feel remorse…Looking about quickly, she sees an emergency kit on the wall and runs over to it. Braith unclips it and runs over to the animal, slows, looks at the pulsing blood, and against her better judgement, she can't leave it like that…Maybe it's scared and it overreacted, Gods know what Erec's been up to here, "…This is going to hurt," she says, and cracks open the kit with her hands splitting it apart…Two compartments reveal syringes and omnigel, gauze, and medicine.
Taking the omnigel pill out of its containing packaging, she presses it into the hole at the animal's neck and shoulder joining, and sees that is where a thick artery pours at blood…It's likely dying, she thinks, so she contemplates putting it out of its misery.
The hand reaches up and makes a sign.
"Casnar," she calls to the office, and he opens his eyes, "…It's a sentient being, I think it attacked because it didn't know any better."
"Do what you will, Braith," Casnar manages to catch his breath, "…Just…Don't waste time!"
She looks down at the animal—it has prominences jutting from the top, sides, and back of its skull, almost like a shark, and her brief contact with its skin reminded her of aquatic mammals she had seen corpses of on beaches growing up with the Alliance.
"Stay here, don't move…If you understand me," she backs away from it and hops over its limb, "…Casnar, medical kit, help yourself, okay?" She slides it over the floor to his reach.
"Hurry, Braith!" he hisses, wincing as he pulls the kit closer and starts to move his hand through the contents.
#
Casnar moves his limbs, trying to get up off the office floor. The syringes have been injected directly into his side, the medicine helping to mend his fractured bones together, and the burning is ongoing inside his body, as well as his back, the scars healing, "…Damn it all," he hisses aloud, and makes it to his feet.
Stepping tenderly over towards the broken doors, he looks down at the animal Braith told him was sentient.
It was huge, nearly the size of an elephant, maybe half of one, and it looked sadly up at him with its gold and sapphire eyes, "…Guess we're even," Casnar says and sighs, "…Where'd I hit you," he leans over to look closer.
The animal snarls, baring large canines in a narrow line of a mouth, the lips close to the gray skin.
"You broke my ribs and threw me across the room," Casnar snarls back, "…You and I are even, damn you, whatever you are…" Casnar limps away, but looks back at it, "…She helped you, did she?…If you're sentient, maybe you'll understand she saved your life…Whatever," he looks suddenly to the doors as a ping is heard, and the front doors of the office open. "Kine," Casnar reaches for his gun and draws it out, the animal under him laying still, "…Damn Erec."
Souledivinie walks through the doors, "…The great Casnar Soterios," Kine smiles, playing with the nozzle of his own pistol, "…Right where he said you'd be…You're necessary back at the brothaul. Dominga wants to strip your skin off your scalp and hang it on his wall, drell."
"That's Sered to you, Serepta," Casnar snarls, taking a step back to give himself a running start, or at least some distance before they start shooting, "…We were back on Rakhana, you'd be the same pitiful tower class you're trying to escape here, Pilandross."
Kine's smile disappears, "…Too bad you're an exile, you're beneath me, beneath all of us."
"I get the reactor," Casnar sneers back, "…I'll be returned to my homelands."
"Not in your favor," Kine replies, rolling his neck, "…Where's the woman…You sweet on her?"
"She's not here," Casnar lies, and glances at the drells moving into the office, rounding the desk.
"What's that," one of them stops and points at the giant mound of beast on the floor, "…That's one of Erec's stocks loose?"
Casnar looks down at the animal, and continues to back up, the eyes watching him, "…You want to know who's going to hurt her?" He nods to those in the other room, "…You can get up, can't you."
"Shepard's not at her apartment, and we sent some of us to the business venue, but you can make it easier for her case, just by telling me where she went to, Soterios."
Casnar bends his brow, a smile on his face, "…You'll have no luck with me, Kine…And definitely not with him," he turns and limps off, his body cut off from view by the rising beast now turning its gold-sapphire eyes towards the drells, and with a savage bellow, it rushes into the office, throwing the desk as it reels and hits those too stunned to move fast enough.
#
Braith, meanwhile, is searching as well she can for something she has no idea looks like…Passing the cage that must have housed the beast back on the floor outside the office room, Braith stops and goes back to read the label outside it, "…For direct distribution to Labs-V, Banton, Culmina Secta System, Andromeda…" She looks for more information, "…When transporting, seal from dark energy sources. May have adverse effect on biotic energy. Hold for further testing…" She purses her lips, …Brünner is going to run tests on it? Perhaps I was right, it does have an effect on my power…Is it biotic itself? she wonders.
Moving on from the cage, she enters another bay and looks about, "…Ligh—" Braith cuts herself off, seeing a peculiar red glow in the recesses of the room. Using it as a beacon, she travels through the bay towards it, passing more boxes and equipment of various sizes.
§
Laser beams move in a three-dimensional square around something small, that reminds her of a lantern with a wide bottom. Braith moves closer to the lasers, picks up a pencil from a table full of piles of papers nearby, and sticking the pencil—eraser first—into the moving red lines, one sears the pencil and cores it, showing her the lead and wood inside the implement. It smokes still from the singing remains, the other half now several pieces and having fallen to the base of the stand supporting the secured device.
"That's unforgiving," Braith remarks, and lowers the pencil remainder to the table.
She begins to look about for some means to turn off the security system.
"How do you even know that's what it is," Casnar's voice startles her and she steps back against the table, knocking a pile of paper into a precarious balancing act.
Casnar sets his hand on the table to take a rest and breathe a few, then looks at the laser box, "…It is, but what makes you think so," his emeralds look different in the glow, brighter, and Braith relaxes, lowering her hand from her chest.
"My experience tells me the cool stuff is always super-protected, and since you and Erec and Diaustra are making such a stink about this reactor, I figured it must be something ludicrously snared up in something like that," she gestures towards the stand, the lantern, and the lasers moving continuously around it.
"Big payload, if you want to lose an arm," Braith sees him straighten and search his coat for something…He pulls out a shiny rectanglular box with flourishes of detail amid the engraving and turns it open, "…Hold these for me," and Braith holds out her palm.
He dumps the bedis into her hand, Braith raising an eyebrow.
Moving towards the box of laser lines, Casnar turns the case over so it is completely smooth, and clicks the hinges into a seam…Moving it even closer with his hand, he interrupts the single moving line at the bottom of the grid, and it reflects upward into the stand at precisely thirty degrees, "…There," the lasers stop moving, "…Reach onto the stand, there is a switch, press it."
"How do you know these things?" She does so, and the lasers disappear.
Closing the case back to its original form, Casnar uncrouches with her help, "…It's my design."
#
Braith and Casnar walk back through the bay, the little lantern reactor tucked securely in Casnar's armpit, and his lips holding a bedi as he lights the end with a laser from his omni-tool, back on his wrist.
"Now what are you going to do with it, Casnar," Braith looks at him beside her, a bit disappointed it was all so simple—relatively speaking…She was used to fighting skyscraper-high Reapers—and as he draws a pull off the bedi, exhales away from them, Casnar looks at her face…He places a kiss on her cheek, stopping her, moving her back some.
"Hey, what was that for?" She rubs the mark away, feeling the rush but not sure about him…It's nothing fatal, she thinks, …He could just be grateful.
"I want to thank you, you've given me a chance to redeem myself to my people."
"How," she feels warm suddenly, "…Was it true what Diaustra told me, you're some kind of destined leader on Rakhana? The moot, the brother with a limp—" She sees the stoniness set on his face, "…What…"
"My error was ever thinking to leave it," he says, winces at a knit of pain in his side, and pulls another puff from the bedi…Closing his eyes, "…Nualavera, fatherland, motherland, home of blue-silver durril, the Horn rises, the call of the day beckons with wind, sun, and three waking blasts from our Ghorn trumpets…" His eyes open and he looks blearily at her, "…I am what they call a Tyrannus on my continent…I was to become Gov'annon, that is the head of our government, which resides in the Crandal, a place called the Craig, in Umay, a city made of white alabas'rah stone…It is by the ocean, we have piers, we have trade, we have life."
Casnar straightens and tries to ignore the pulling, then leans heavily forward, Braith catching him, "…Your injury," she says, wiping the sweat off his brow scales, "…Casnar?"
"I think the medicine is temporary," he answers, "…I need to go to a hospital."
"I'll take you some place better," she assists him as they walk back to the entrance.
§
At the office room once again, Braith and Casnar stare at the carnage.
"My gods," Braith whispers, and looks to the animal in the corner, leaning its weight into the wall, shot to pieces, there is so much blood.
Casnar limps over with her help, looking down at the pulverized bodies, some half-stuck under the desk that had been flipped…No sign of Kine, Casnar sees with disappointment.
Braith leaves Casnar by the door and goes over to the—What was that on the signage? Banton, it's a banton…She touches the skin of the big forearm, covering the creature's eyes.
Casnar sighs, "…I believe you were right, it was intelligent…It seemed to understand those who help it, and those who mean harm to those who help it."
"It's not from here, this galaxy I mean," Braith says, moving the forearm away from the face, "…Poor thing…It—" the animal sighs, "…You are one tough mother," Braith says, standing up and looking for another kit, "…We're not leaving it here."
"And how exactly do you intend to move something as big as a yahg, Braith," Casnar follows her with the turn of his head, "…Braith?"
#
The lift moves through the busted doors, pushing them outwards and finally breaking them with sharp clangs off their hinges and onto the floor, Braith steering the stocking lift owards the banton on the floor and wall by the corner, and positioning the pneumatic platform on the bottom setting, she stands and climbs down from the control box, moving to the banton. "I need you to try and lift yourself onto that stage there," she points at the metal lift, "…And I'll get you to someplace for help…You'll be okay."
The eyes slope to the corners, and the banton peers less-than-enthusiastically at the lift's staging. Casnar summons what strength he has and moves over to start pushing the banton's shoulder towards the lift, "…Go on. Longer we wait here, sooner it will be your captors return and put you out of your misery, or lock you up," and at that encouragement, the banton shifts and moves its blood-sticky limbs to clamber onto the metal staging.
Braith probes its shoulder and says, "…Don't mind this," as she jabs a syringe into its muscle, and the banton gives her an alarmed look, "…Sorry," she smiles apologetically, "…It's going to help you," she explains, glad that communicating with the banton seems so easy and she tentatively holds her hand to his small, flaring nostrils, his breaths warm, "…I didn't mean for it to hurt, but needles—delivering good or bad medicine—usually pinch…I may need to do some more for you," she pats the short prominence on the side of its head and looks into a second medical kit she procured while inside the stocking lift. "Just in case," and making eyes with the banton, Braith injects a second dose of healing agent into the thick shoulder, "…Should help with any infection as well as help close the wounds with clotting…That's a lot of blood, but you're a big guy, makes sense, I guess," the blood of the banton is blue and covers its body, making him look navy instead of gray, "…Maybe laced rounds, do you think they dip their bullets in anything, Casnar?" she asks, meaning Souledivinie.
Casnar sticks his finger into one of the holes, the banton craning its head around as he pulls out a bullet, "…There will be more of that," Casnar says sternly to the animal's glower, "…Just bear with me. You seem to be doing alright what with all the damage you've sustained…Bugbites by the depth of these, your superior artery on your neck was a lucky shot, and that looks well-clotted…I should thank you for taking care of Souledivinie, they're usually well-armed…You might have died twice," he examines the bullet above his face, by the way of the light from the ceiling.
Braith chuckles, "…That's something he and I have in common if it's true."
Casnar looks at her, "…He?"
#
Walking out the front doorway, Braith seeks for some method to transport the banton to her offices at Nolyn, and spots the signage for the omnie round the left side of the building. She runs back inside, "…I found an omnie for the warehouse, it must be able to carry freight, let's bring him over to it and see he'll fit."
Casnar watches he skeptically—the banton doing the same—as she climbs into the control box, turns the machine, and starts it forward to the doorway.
"I'll get the doors," Casnar sighs.
"I got it, the edge of the platform will push them open."
"Erec's going to be pissed we leave this place torn apart," Casnar says, following the stocking lift and climbing onto the back, taking a seat over the covered rollers, "…Well, at least I have my reactor," he winces as he holds it up, turning the contraption over and seeing the dead durril inside.
Casnar passes several memories while he rides behind Braith and her new save-it project.
Autumn winds bring the galiennas from Suighan…Mikala, "…Two will do…Where is your mother?"
"Sick," I pass the tea to her with the bags of durril and leaf, "…How is the archess?"
"Expecting you to become a king first, before he decides to start selling and buying with Umay."
#
The galienna rocks with the descent of a ship through the cloud cover, and Tetonbaum and Ylyssus flee the trapdoor, as those on deck cry out to prepare for a boarding, or something worse…It is worse.
Tetonbaum leads Ylyssus to the cabin to collect his cloak, but sees the door is locked, and he turns to the railing, "…Over the side," both he and his rescue jump off the deck, into the ocean.
Landing in the vigorous chop now, Tetonbaum emerges and calls to Ylyssus over a building roar, "…Swim that way, straight on to Merce'des," he, however, travels with strong strokes back to the galienna to recover his cloak.
§
Kasumi runs out of the cabin and looks up, aiming her omni-tool to record the descent of the ship above, and its opening eye in its dark hull, "…What is it—" Silver light shoots liquid blue fire through the ship's mast, disintegrating the main from the boat deck, water erupting upward and evaporating with the explosion's intensity.
Anyone below deck was likely killed, and now the galienna flounders and begins to sink.
§
Grabbing onto the window's edge. Tetonbaum unties his cloak containing his life's possessions, and as he does he witnesses the incredible explosion, the bright blue-silver light, the door of the cabin hanging open on one sole hinge.
The form of the woman lays atop the door's other half, broken into splinters, and groans once before she stops moving.
#
Casnar walks ahead and sticks his neck out, looking both ways of the window on the omnie cab taking them to Bashin District. "You think the Surr will be displeased we got one of their omnies covered in monster blood," he turns and looks at her, sitting with the banton taking up the back of the large cabin.
Braith pats the banton's claws, "…Stay relaxed, big guy, my building is a stop on the omnie and we deal in freight sometimes like you, so it will be no problem moving you out once we arrive." She gives him a reassuring smile.
Casnar comes over and sits next to her on the bench, looking at the banton taking a deep sigh that sounds like an engine starting up, "…You're really something, Braith," he chuckles, "…Technically you've just stolen from your client…And destroyed property."
"Those doors were already ruined, and anyway, he's a former client," she corrects him, "…We needed to take this one with us…Accomplice," she smiles at Casnar.
Feeling better, but hoping for a medical evaluation sooner rather than later, Casnar nudges her with his shoulder, "…I appreciate you letting me take another shot for the pain…I'm a little giddy right now on it." He studies her face as she gazes down at the ailing banton, and takes hold of her arm, "…Mind if I try something?"
"What do you mean," she feels his lips press against her own.
Braith's eyes widen, and then close as she kisses him back, "…That was nice," she murmurs when his mouth moves away.
Casnar smiles, "…I've been wanting to do that all night."
#
Tetonbaum drops the heavy bundle of both cloak and materials belonging to himself, plus the new invisibility cloak he borrowed from the woman on the downed ship.
Whatever had fallen from the other vessel in the sky had plummeted straight through the galienna's main hold and destroyed any hopes that the galienna itself would make its rendez-vous, and everyone not trained for waters such as the Beirchardt—as Ylyssus and Tetonbaum were—was meeting a grave in the embrace of bered tentacles, or deeper down, among the fathoms of that ocean now storming outside…Save for one…
Leaving his cape and the other items to dry in the warmth of the seacave, Tetonbaum turns and moves to the form laying on her side. The long braid is warming now by the fire he has started in the hollow with a flue leading to the surface above the rock shelf they are inside, and it casts a warm yellow-orange glow across her pristine features, a cut or two on her face from the explosion and subsequent collision through the cabin door. Taking hold of the strings in her corset, he unties the knots and carefully loosens the article from her form, freeing everything.
Her cape and hood, the veil and its screening eye covers, hang from a string he has tied from one end of the cave to the other side, and a pool of seawater shivers continuously from the running drips out of the fabric and her accompanying gear, such as boots, garter, halter, belt, gloves, pants, more…The line is holding multiple pieces from her person, and Tetonbaum pauses to consider it all. "Too much is what she carries," he shakes his head, crests drying still from his swim in the storm and Beirchardt, "…No wonder she was so heavy to swim with," and he turns his face to the woman sleeping, or unconscious.
Treading back over from hanging her corset, he lays beside her, knowing from Ylyssus that humans—which he is certain this woman is—have difficulty regulating their body temperature, and he looks down at her hair, ignoring the feel of her skin as he must…He figures out how it is fastened together at the bottom of the tail, by some long thread she has woven in among the thick, damp, black braids, and he undoes is, marveling at the mass of it…It is beautiful and reflects the fire.
Di'leans, he thinks, …grow their fur outward, but this hair, this woman and those like her, their hair grows downwards…
He looks over her shoulder, curious about what else is a part of her, then, taking a fistful of her scalp hair into his big grip, he wrings the excess water out between them, lays it in one-centimeter tresses upon the surface of her cool skin.
#
Staring down at his shoes on the floor of Nolyn Spire, the offices all lit brightly with Braith's access to the building, its underground facilities, Casnar checks the reactor under his arm then gazes upwards for the woman he kissed on the omnie…She is in a medical lab owned by Shepard Analytics.
She is taking an awful long time with that thing, he fusses mentally, …She called it a banton?…What is a banton, I wonder…He stands and goes to the glass doors into the lab area, knocking once on the wall…Braith looks up from a screen under her face, waves her fingers at him, smiles, and resumes her attention to whatever she is looking at.
Casnar looks sullenly at the giant banton, finally asleep in a glass box—with millions of little lights scanning back and forth over him…Him…Casnar cannot see any testicles that would reveal this…
How does she know?…Walking back to his seat on the outside bench, he sets his chin in his palm, and blows out a sigh.
#
Writing beside her screen on a tablet with a stylus Braith jots a few more notes, sets the healing cycle for the banton, and turns from the unconscious beast.
Erec, hiding a species here for scientific testing…An animal like this, she shakes her head and pinches her nosebridge, "…And you helped him."
She leans her hip against the console with its white underside, the icons all dimming from no longer being used, and looks to the drell in the passage between lab walls.
He sits on the other side of the glass, possessively holding his reactor.
Braith walks to the door and unlocks it, the door opening, "…He's done…Will be a while before he wakes…Want me to take a look at you now, Casnar?"
The emeralds connect to hers, "…Sure, where do you want me to go?"
She nods her head behind him, "…Over there…You may have to put that reactor of yours down."
"Not a chance."
"You see anyone here who might steal it?"
"No," he pouts.
"Come on," she walks out the door that closes behind her and locks, turning left and right through the glass maze, "…Bring your toy with you, you big kid."
Casnar stands and follows, clasping both hands to his reactor, "…Are you going to put me in a glass box like that banton?" He dislikes the idea.
"I'll have to do it for a little bit," she opens a cube and waves him in, "…Undress, please, and may I hold that?"
He reluctantly passes the reactor to Braith before heading inside. The reactor is surprisingly light. Braith gives it a look before setting it behind herself on a table.
Casnar stands in the cube, "…Now what."
Braith begins entering her access code for the healing tank, "…Just stand still for a bit."
#
The Beirchardt storms more calmly against the Isle of Tears, and rowers are sent out that dawn to search for the remains of the galienna that had taken Ylyssus from Merce'des.
Brother Grelan, his tebris slung low from buccals and jaw, makes low intonations to his student, "…You are certain they were foreigners to the Isle," his voice rasps.
"To the planet, Brother Grelan," Ylyssus confirms, standing in a new set of dark robes beside him, his cowl up, hood over his crests to block the rain from dampening the poultice healing the cut on his head, "…One spoke with several tongues all at once, but I believe strange technology was in use to accomplish this."
"And they were attacked by yet stranger technology from the sky…"
"Yes, I do not suspect they were anticipating what happened to their ship."
"Did you see it," Brother Grelan asks, turning his face some.
"It was still too high above the clouds, but it gave an immense light that moved before settling on the ship and from that light released great fire I have never witnessed in my life…It was molten lava, but directed, not tumbling in whatever direction it found…It focused through the ship."
"Do you believe it was intended for the ship."
"I…I do not know, Sered Grelan…" Ylyssus reserves his deductions from what he witnessed in the seconds before and the minutes after, floating in the water as the ship sank and Tetonbaum's form leapt feet first into the water from the window in the stern of the ship—carrying with him something like a body—and the great light that sank both down into the depths of the Beirchardt, silhouetting the beasts waiting below for the remains that eventually sink or be picked from the surface by scavengers…The light the faded into the clouds, not to return…For now, Ylyssus thinks.
"What of Tetonbaum."
Brother Grelan's voice brings Ylyssus to the present, out of his memories, "…He may have been injured, he was late to jump, collecting his cloak and menjaga, Brother Grelan."
"I'm sure he'll be along."
Ylyssus nods, "…Yes, it is Brother Soterios."
§
Tetonbaum stands back from the woman, wielding his menjaga towards him, "…Easy, off-worlder," he murmurs gently, holding out his hand, palm down, extending his arm towards her and low, "…You were saved by me…I do not intend to harm you."
She makes a stab for his hand, warding him back, "…Away," she speaks in Rakhïken, "…Away from me," and jabs at him warningly again.
Tetonbaum steps sideways, not crossing his feet, but then placing a foot behind him. He is naked but for his undinnias ( underwrapping ) and his skin is dried from the warmth of the fire that has gone out to embers behind him.
Kasumi holds the menjaga, heavy in her hand, but she will use its weight in the manner such a weight should best be dealt to leave a killing blow…She moves in a relative circle around him, keeping the menjaga pointed at his belly, or up at his golden tebris the way she aims it with her eyes, and steps closer to her invisibility cloak, which she is surprised—and relieved—to see there in the seacave with them.
#
Kasumi makes a grab for the invisibility cloak—at that moment of her divided attention, Tetonbaum whips about with his body ducking low and kicks her feet out, clear off the rock of the cave floor. Before she may land, however, she is caught—with the menjaga upright in her fist holding it to the side of his tebris, the gold folds slightly hiding the point as he protects her head from hitting the stone of the cave, or any other part of her for that matter…Kasumi lets out a soft, shaking breath, brown eyes widened at the drell's speed and strength, his red, green, blue and purple patak, the brilliant and sapphire eyes directly above hers, "…Will you stop attempting to flee me, and hopefully, reconsider killing me," he asks gently, his voice deep and graveled.
His hand cups the back of her head, hair covering his hand and fingers and wrist, and another hand supports her knee, his thigh under her lower back for support.
"You're at a disadvantage," Kasumi hisses, her voice sharp and whispery like the blade at his tebris…One push, and she may cut him open...The menjaga's tip remains held a centimeter from his artery.
"My blade is poison on its surface," Tetonbaum's eyes seem to be all that are speaking, he is that transfixing with those incredible sapphires…Like jewels, they are, she thinks, "…Break my flesh, and you will paralyze me, possibly even kill me," he whispers, carefully and intimate, "…But know that your ship was destroyed, your crew possibly wiped out, if not missing in the aftermath of that light that fell from the sky, my off-world friend…"
He lets that word linger to see if she will give it any weight in her head…
"Did you violate me," Kasumi asks, though not feeling any different—aside from a few bruises, scratches, a slight headache, and being naked in his warm hands…More hot, than warm, honestly, she thinks, noting the fire is out…Tetonbaum shakes his head, feeling the ease of resistance in the tip of his menjaga among his gold tebris.
"No," he swears, "…On my word, which is nothing if you think it, and everything if you believe it, I would not insult one made so fine by the hands of Musaphat himself," and he smiles.
#
His eyes follow her across the space of the seacave, Kasumi gathering her belongings, dressing unabashed in front of his eyes. Not that it mattered—he'd seen everything of her already, all but for her insides. Kasumi pretends to ignore him and takes down her halter, garter, her boots from the line he has strung from one rock crag to another, noting that even her omni-tool was removed and set on the string across the cave floor.
"You are from where," he asks her, his seat on the hearth his small ember-patch of a fire now, watching the door, so to speak, or the mouth of the cave which is nothing more than a thick piece of driftwood leaned into place.
Kasumi pulls on her pants and ties the front, then sets her feet into her boots as she balances with one leg on a stone coming through the floor of the cave.
"Not from around here, I'll say that much."
Tetonbaum nods, "…You travel this way often?"
She pulls her belt through her pant's loops, and sets apart her corset, ignoring the fact still that his eyes are on her…And to be honest with herself, she doesn't mind all too much.
"No, just passing through." She snakes her body into the soft lined inner leathers and brings her arms together, hands working through the strings.
"Will you be leaving," he asks, wondering if she will braid her hair with the strings the way say she hides her front corset's strings from his view.
"Of course," she replies, finally glancing over her shoulder at the colorful drell, sitting in his undinnias, his muscle-wrought physique relaxed and still looking like marble…And those eyes…Goddess, those eyes are something else, she takes her own away from him and his chiseled face, the colored-green lip above his cleft chin, the remarkable wave to his smooth crests, purple, red, and blue on his head, and the dark veining that creeps over his shoulders and abs of bright red among blue skin.
Tetonbaum shifts his weight to his feet as she reaches for her cloak—the invisibility one, not the one she was wearing. "How do you intend to leave if your ship is destroyed?"
She disappears, having brushed the inner fabric with her fingers much in the same way Tetonbaum uncovered how.
He feels her, however, and moves to meet her with a glove as she reappears to take it, deeper inside the cave.
"Thank you," she slips it on, and he hands her the other, but does not let go right away…Instead, he holds the wrist of it with his red fingers and looks keenly into her concealing hood, framed by some of her black hair…The almond eyes keenly watch back, and she tugs it.
He let's it go, grinning at her with much delight.
#
Pulling up his slacks after the tight underwear Braith has seen him sitting in for the past hour, Casnar zips his fly and buttons the top, then gestures for his shirt. Braith passes it to him from the console outside the opening to the cube, and her hand moves to grasp his leather belt next…Her eyes admire the buckle.
There is the shape of some eellike creature standing on the left of a round medallion engraved with what appears to be Cyrillic script, but she knows is not as fact.
Casnar watches her studying it and tracing it with her finger tip, the others lifted delicately away, "…Thank you for letting me use your tech-labs for healing my ribs, and then some," he looks with half-effort to his backside, over his shoulder, "…Removing the scars?…That will make a tremendous shock when I return and folks see it, my back, I mean."
"The scars mean something?" she asks, raising her eyes from the belt buckle.
He nods, "…I'm a bit renowned in my country…I'm a Tyrannus drell," he says with a mild pride, "…Reduced to an exile." His countenance still grins, but with some deprecation.
"I heard some of that talk from your best friends at Souledivinie and Brünner Corp," Braith hands him his belt, "…Having the reactor and those scars removed will change that?"
"Hopefully," his expression turns vacant, though he is very much in thought.
Braith steps into the cube and takes the belt through the remaining loops for him, while he comes out of his memories.
"Casnar," she slips the tongue through the metal buckle, which gleams with a blue sheen, "…Tell me about it?"
He blinks his eyelids, one darker inner pair and a golden outer layer, "…Braith," he cups her hand over the buckle, "…Why do you want to know."
She lets his hand stay on hers, and can feel his belly lifting outward and receding to also reveal deeper canals among his abdomen, the canals lining his muscles.
Being so close, she can smell his caramel scent, and realizes it is his venom, as she stands a little taller and sniffs him.
The signal arouses him, and his tebris unclasps from his neck.
#
A plume of white spray and gray foam curls against the dark rocks, and purple, green-tinted water rushes out of the tidal captures and crags in the cliff facing the sea.
Detritus of seaweed and drift surge to and from the base of the rocks far below Kasumi's gaze.
"So where are you from," she turns and asks him, Tetonbaum preparing to leave.
She sees him pull his cape on, and tug the hood close to his face but does not cover himself yet…His eyes shine back at her, "…I live here…And when not here, all of Rakhana is my home."
He strides over to the opening of the seacave and stands next to the driftwood door he has moved for her to see where she is, "…I will return with food and drink…Stay here?"
"I can't stay here," she starts to laugh in a slight, delicate, mocking sort of way, and Tetonbaum's smile does not slough from the corners of his lips.
He reaches above the cave's opening, and says, "…There is dry wood and flint if you wish to start another fire…That one is near out."
And with that, he pulls himself by his fingers and hands up over the sheer jut-out of the seacave, Kasumi gaping after his disappearing cloak tail.
#
The glass healing tank echoes with the sound of their bumps and slides, skids of shoe soles down the wall of it and across the floor, setting off notifications on the outer console displays that the subject within its confinement is off-center and needs to move closer.
The chair is set upright and Braith pushes Casnar down atop it, taking apart his shirt and kissing his mouth while doing it, "…Easy, easy," Casnar gets out between kissing her and breathing.
"My gods, you taste good," Braith licks his tebris and cuts herself—It's only a nick, but it makes her jump back, "…Shit, what was—" She stares at the blood on her finger, from touching her tongue, "…Ow…" Her eyes freeze.
"Oh," Casnar holds her waist, her skin warm under his palms, her belly showing no navel, but he is looking only at her eyes, fixated to the blood on her finger, "…Oh, shit…Did you cut your tongue on one of my barbs?"
She looks at him, and blinks a few times, "…I feel…I think I'm getting high?"
Casnar tightens his hold on her, "…Didn't you date a drell only a few hours ago?"
She grabs his face and covers him with her face, locking lips with him again.
#
Clouds scud across the sky under yet more clouds. This month, Tetonbaum thinks as he jogs over the rocks and away from his quarry, …Has seen much poorly weather, I hope it will clear and we see some moonlight or sun…Stars would be nice.
He stops between two eroded pylons of dark stone, mottled with a cast of white salt and moss, eyes to the west where eight galienna's move out to sea…In the direction from which I came, he thinks to himself. Why would they return…Unless Ylyssus reached home and informed the others.
He tenses, thinking what they might find floating on the water and not yet sunk…But the galienna that was struck is surely gone…And what struck it hopefully too.
§
Kasumi paces the seacave, shaking out her omni-tool and hoping it will start again. She does not dare turn it on with so much water in it.
How did I get here…Did he really swim with me on his chest? Why am I stuck in this cave?…What of the others? She glances at the cold embers, and then to the near pile of driftwood.
Picking up the posts, she sets them together and searches for the flint—As the drell had said, the flint was readily at hand.
Kasumi hits the flint against its twin, and sparks ignite. She continues, adding smaller bits of wood to help kindle the flames yet to be made, and works hard at it.
She is used to buswax, ship lights, and higher technology.
How could this have happened! She needed to see the video she took of the ship and the explosion…It's obviously not from here either…Rakhana doesn't have that tech but for in Nualavera…Nothing is like what I saw!
The kindling catches, and she blows carefully, but blows out the flame.
Pouting, she sits back on her calves and looks to the door over the seacave's opening.
#
Standing four miles above the water and its rock-fanged murk, Kasumi steps back inside to the shelter of the cave, uncomfortable with the vertigo she's experiencing…Just thinking about him climbing up the face of that jut-out makes me want to throw up, she looks longingly to sea.
Whatever had hit their boat, she needed to know what it was…The omni-tool still had yet to dry, and her fire-building abilities were lacking…If the omni-tool were operational, she could use a laser built into its case, but forget fires…She could contact Shepard and request help, but then Shepard would want to know why she was trading on Rakhana…
And trading what, she would ask…
Kasumi couldn't simply tell her she was trafficking bodies…And the last job, the Ylyssus Tan'nanshul barter, that would have been lucrative…But now the Suighan would be pissed she failed to make rendez-vous.
Perhaps they saw the light?
Likely it would have been too far off.
Kasumi goes back to the fire hearth and picks up the flint stones again.
#
Pressing his ear to her chest, Casnar hears the rapid beat, and feels it as well, "…You feeling okay?"
She doesn't answer.
He moves up to peel back her eyelids, "…Braith, can I use this tank for clearing venom out of you?"
She shakes her head.
Sitting up, he sets his hands on his thighs, "…Fuck it all," and starts to pull down her pants.
Braith wraps her legs around him, relief at finally getting the surge of his entrance into her, and crying out at the extra sensation that seems to echo with each impact.
They are in a glass box, and there is that…But the venom barb has entered its chemical into her bloodstream, and Casnar had stopped, uncertain how she would react.
"Put it in," she had done a few things to him that made him break the chair, what with how tense he was, feeling her use her mouth on him and with such fervor, and he had nearly ejaculated.
He felt guilty, stopped again.
She had then laid down and complained about an ache in her head, and still holding onto his hand, had urged him to fix it.
Now he was regretting having waited…She felt astoundingly sweet on him, and his body ached to move through her.
The glass echoed with his fervor, and Braith's noises were making him harder than he had ever felt with the porn vids…Or even with a female of his own species.
"I hope this has a cleaning mechanism," he feels her explode on him, slapping his jaulses ( testicles ) repeatedly against her joining, and with a groan, he bends her feet and legs over his shoulders, jumping his hips at her.
#
Laying on the bottom of a wet-covered glass tank, Casnar holds Braith against his chest, licking her lip to encourage her to ride him again.
Braith's eyes open, little back moons…Casnar chuckles as she moves into position, takes his heaviness up, and squeezes down on the erection.
Casnar winces as she rides him fast, and he grabs onto her buttocks to keep her steady, "…Don't stop…Keep going…I'm almost…" He sighs as her bucking makes him ejaculate again, and Casnar buries his face in her neck, "…Mithras…" He opens his mouth, and four fangs appear where his upper and lower canines were.
Braith's eyes widen at the intense pain, and she freezes, feeling as if an animal has her by the meat of her shoulder…If she tears away, there will be too much damage, but the moment she realizes Casnar has bitten her, he's released.
He kisses her temple, wet with sweat and reeking of his venom, and aroused once more, he starts flying his hips and bouncing her sweaty thighs off his made of stone muscle…
Braith and Casnar both pant harder during that final seventh session of orgasm-building sex, and Braith no longer feels the pain in her shoulder.
Pulling back her head by her hair in his fist, he watches her accept his seed, and knows he's screwed up bad again…
But this time, he doesn't care.
She's going to always be mine, Casnar thinks in that head-lightness that comes with a Tyrannus drell's first official claim, and he closes his lips with hers, letting her taste her blood, mixed with his venom.
§
The lights flicker, sanitizing the cube.
"Casnar," Braith says weakly, "…Why did you bite my shoulder? That really hurts."
"I…I was excited…I haven't been with someone for a while, and…Let's go find this locker room of yours."
Taking the reactor with him, he follows her through the labs, passed the dozing banton's tank, and into a lift.
Casnar grabs her waist and pulls her against him, dizzy himself for having had his marking fangs come out…It was painful, but the sensation of release from biting her, followed by the subsequent sex, helped to numb it away…Now he was left with the euphoria of having claimed a mate.
One not of his own kind.
His father would kill him, if his own enemies did not take care of that for him.
#
More wind picks up, buffeting the thin banners black among the crags sticking up out over the Isle, shredded into long streaming strips by salt water and violent gusts when the weather grew vicious…As it was doing now.
Buswax drips into trays under sconces it burns in, leaving more to pile and rebuild the nourishing light in the carved sea tunnels. Tetonbaum walks surefooted through the winding maze inside the island, making his way to the kitchens and storage rooms, wondering if he can select what would please her…and that he can make it back in time before the weather worsens.
She will be hungry, and if she has not figured out how to climb down the cliff to the Beirchardt and swim to the mainland, she surely will be hungrier if I do not return in decent enough time, he muses...The kitchens are empty, and Tetonbaum takes care to wait to see if anyone will show from one of the lower storage rooms unexpectedly…He grabs a leatherskin and begins to fill it with chauas, roots, herbs, dried meats, grains to bake for her, plus fill that slim belly.
"She will be hungry, indeed, skinny as she is," he pauses in thought, the bag he is gathering closed with his hands, and he looks down at the reeded floor, "…Why am I…This woman…Why have I…"
He shakes his head, he has never wanted anything, but seeing her in the galienna cabin, dressing herself, was something that made him hot…
He has all that he needs to cook for her…
He only needs fresh water.