When Laurentina woke up, she could tell she was alone. The familiar, comforting presence was gone. Nowhere on the air, nowhere on the landship of Rhodes Island. She knew that it had been there while she was asleep. The imprint in the mattress was still there, and the scent lingered for just the faintest of moments against the pillowcase and along her own arms. She'd left wordlessly, and silently at some point in the night. Without disturbing Laurentina, and part of her wished that she'd been able to see Skadi off before she'd left their room.
Laurentina woke up with a sigh, not even needing to open her eyes to know that her Skadi was gone, most likely on a mission that she herself wasn't needed for, or on one of her own excursions that no one was privy to the comings or goings of. It was rare that Skadi would disappear for reasons other than that. Rare, but not unheard of.
She hummed to herself as she opened her eyes, a familiar melody giving light to feelings other than the sorrow that occupied more than a tiny part of her heart. She liked the mornings the two would spend together in quiet unity, getting ready for missions, or for work in one of the various facilities of Rhodes Island. More often than not, Laurentina found herself dressing up, merely to go to the training room, to help provide the knowledge of the Abyssal Hunters to those operators who were strong enough to warrant her attention in attaining that last bit of knowledge in order to better perform their combat duties. But the feeling of sorrow… No, not sorrow, something closer to a longing, yet with undertones of complex feelings of sorrow at the lack of Skadi's familiar presence. She wasn't sure how best to vocalize the feelings, even through song, so she kept it to herself. Letting hints of it ring out in her melody, in the lyrics that her mind conjured as she slid her legs out from under the covers, and placed her feet against the floor.
She showered first, disrobing and sliding into the warmth of the stream of water, letting it run along her skin and through her hair. She frowned at the prospect of having to brush it all herself – but it was better than the tangle that it would undoubtedly become should she not.
The shower was shorter than one might expect, and used less hair product than one would expect either. She toweled away the excess water from her skin and wrapped her hair in another to let the last of the excess moisture wick itself away before brushing the knots away.
It took time, but she didn't mind it. She didn't mind the feeling of the brush running through her white hair, or the melody that danced in her throat as she worked on taking care of her hair. Her bangs drying first and tickling her nose as she worked. She blew a puff of air from her lips, not even missing a note of the melody of her hum.
Eventually it was time to don clothes, and make her way to the training room, beginning her morning regimen of training and practice. A black tank-top over her preferred sports undergarments, comfortable running shorts and shoes. There was enough training space there to tote her weapon along with her. She left the room, locking the door behind her as it silently slid shut. She didn't need to look to know that she'd shut it.
She walked through the halls of the landship, humming to herself and nodding hellos to those who passed her, those who weren't scared of her, for lack of knowledge of her fighting style, or graciousness that she was on their side after all. Or it was knowledge that she was, by far, the most approachable among those Abyssal Hunters on the landship or so the Little Iberian Birdie had told her one night when completing their duties.
She smiled when she passed a recognizable Iberian duo, one of whom she recognized. His Aegirian companion shrunk away when he realized who it was walking past. She motionlessly shrugged away his actions. It wasn't every day that she went to the training room wearing actual workout attire. Maybe that was part of it, she mused, or maybe it was his time in Iberia that had taught him to fear that which he didn't know.
She entered the training room to mostly silence, a Feline was across the room, lifting some indeterminate amount of weight above herself in swinging motions. A centurion's training regimen, not unfamiliar to Laurentina now, but not what she needed to do as part of her training.
Laurentina set her weapon near a treadmill, stretched a bit, and started out on her run. This was part of her warmup. Humming to herself as she pushed herself further and further to keep the pace and the distance that she'd grown accustomed to. Inexplicably humming despite taking deep breaths of air that she needed to keep her body moving. Keep her thoughts away from the absence persistent throughout her morning routine, and now through her workout. It wasn't often that Skadi would join her in the training room some mornings, but she still would enough times that it was pleasant to have her presence there with her, despite knowing how Skadi preferred her solitude in training and in her work.
There was always a song in her throat, and words for the melody on her tongue, yet she kept them to herself, simply letting her hum stay tucked away underneath the thrumming of her footsteps against the treadmill, as not to bother the other person in the training room.
It wasn't long to get her heart pumping, and her mood was already noticeably improving from the exercise. She barely felt the same feelings that she'd felt when she'd woken up. Those feelings buried under the melody in her mouth as she continued with the next parts of her workout. Starting with the miscellaneous weight training, before eventually moving towards her own weapon training once the unnamed Feline moved on with her training and occupied her own space on the now unoccupied treadmill.
She continued through her regimen, keeping an eye on her heart rate, and drinking water when she needed it. Splashing some of it again over her hands to keep them moist while she gripped the weights and moved them around her body; feeling the way that her muscles would stretch in the manner that she swung the weights, pulling them closer or further away from her body. She reveled in the way her body felt, exquisite. She barely noticed when the black-haired operator left the training room, leaving Laurentina all alone, not that she cared much either way. Sharing the space with someone or not, she had a routine, and she wouldn't be breaking it for anyone, short of maybe the Doctor.
All the while not once did a melody leave her voice, even if she kept it to herself. She wished to share it with someone. Her heart knew who it longed to sing to, who to sing in harmony with, as the two would share this space on more than one occasion. She missed Skadi.
She wondered what she would do, if given the opportunity to work out with Laurentina, would she run first? Or would she focus more on the weights first? Maybe she would practice with her own weapon – although it was known as the weapon of the Walking Catastrophe, so Laurentina supposed that maybe she wouldn't go about swinging it indoors against training dummies, instead she might use one of the training weapons that were supplied, with additional weights to practice her form.
She didn't know, and yet was so infinitely curious.
Eventually, she moved onto her weapon training, focusing on the weight of it in her hands, the way it felt to swing, the way it chewed through the sand of the training dummy, giving the sense of teeth tearing through fabric, or something akin to that. It was pleasant to feel. Sweat beads its way along her scalp, and she can't help but smile at the feeling. Her exercise is tiring, but it's worth it. It's enjoyable, and fun to her, and the melody in her throat wells and wells until she can't help but swing and sing at the same time. This pattern continues, until she notices the mess that her blade has made, and the sweat pooling on the floor around her as she's danced about the weapon training area, pools of sand from decapitated training dummies littering the floor. She props her weapon against the wall, and grabs a nearby broom to help clean up the mess that her weapon's made. Brushing the sand towards the sand-trap, where all operators are expected to clean up the messes they make while training with her tools. She hums all the while. A song of joy, of exuberance, high spirits and of satisfaction with a morning's work. She doesn't need to glance at the clock. She doesn't need to do anything at all. Just take herself back to her room, and rest for a while, until the pangs of hunger drive her to acquire food.
She idly wonders if Skadi will be back today, if they'll have a chance to get dinner with one another, or if she'll have to eat alone.
She hums that question to herself, and picks up her weapon, slinging it over her shoulder with what one external observer might view as carelessness or lack of realization of how unsafe it was; but Laurentina felt was due elegance to her blade. Her tool, an extension of her own body, and it was treated with the same elegance as she would treat herself, her hair, her body.
She left the training room behind and went back towards her and Skadi's room. The cooler air of the hallway, a pleasant change to that of the warm air of the training room. She passed more operators, the majority of whom she didn't recognize, but as she watched them pass, she could tell that they had places to go. Things to do or tasks that were in need of completion. She made sure her weapon wasn't in their way.
She made it back to her room, and unlocked the door, noticing a note on the floor of her room as the door slid open.
She set her weapon in its spot by the door, and leaned down to pick up the note.
It was a folded piece of printer paper, her name written on it. She unfolded it and slid the door shut behind her. She immediately wished that she hadn't, needing to leave the room as soon as she read the note.
"Please come see me. In the Doctor's office.
-Doctor Kal'tsit"
She left her room behind, not knowing what awaited her. She didn't even bother changing. It wasn't summons like it would be for a mission, or some such thing. Such summons would be over the PA system, not on an unblemished note that was obviously placed there.
It didn't take long to reach the more labyrinthine innards of the land-ship, towards where the office of The Doctor was, towards where the more important medical facilities and the offices of people like Kal'tsit, or the ever-mysterious Doctor were.
Her stride was quick, and footsteps were practically silent as she made her way down to the office of the Doctor, where undoubtedly Kal'tsit was waiting for her.
She nodded at the guard outside the door, who nodded back. She recognized her, a black-haired Lupine woman who she knew was from Siracusa, her dual swords hanging attached to her hips.
When it was regarding the Doctor, their personal safety was always paramount, and that included the use of Operators of the highest caliber to serve as personal guards and adjutants. To have the guard on shift be standing outside their office, meant that this meeting between Laurentina, Kal'tsit and the Doctor was something that was secret.
The door obeyed her personal ID, and slid open, filling her nose with the smell of cleanliness of medical cleaning chemicals. She'd ever been in this office once, around the time that her past self was brought to Rhodes Island for the first time. She barely remembered it now. It felt so long ago.
"Good, we were waiting for you."
The hooded Doctor sits on the other side of a cluttered, yet organized desk. Kal'tsit stood behind him, her green dress shimmering under the LED lights of the room. The walls were lined with various knickknacks and books, as would be expected from maybe a professor's office, not the leader of Rhodes Island.
Kal'tsit's voice was level, if she had any emotion about what she'd summoned Laurentina here to talk about, she would betray none of that in her voice nor her body language. Skadi stood in the door, unsure whether or not to continue further into the room. The Doctor took a gloved hand and motioned towards one of the seats.
Laurentina sat.
"Apologies for entering your room. But we needed to get your attention without garnering undue attention." The Feline doctor spoke, looking at Laurentina, looking, observing for some type of reaction about that piece of information, that the Doctor, or maybe Kal'tsit herself had left the note. Laurentina simply smiled.
"It's not a problem, Doctors… What is this about?"
The pair of doctors shared a look between themselves. A quiet look that didn't express any outward emotion, nothing truly communicable, and part of Laurentina mused that maybe the Doctor was a mind reader, and that was why they always hid their face, their body.
"You know that we know about you and Skadi, correct?"
Laurentina nodded, but her smile didn't remove itself from her face. She didn't mind, and if anything, appreciated the reminder of the girl who had been otherwise missing from her life today.
"Do you know where she is?" Kal'tsit's voice didn't waver, she was direct, and to the point with her line of questioning.
The smile disappeared from Laurentina's face. "No, I don't. Why?"
"Are you sure?"
The lack of a smile was replaced with a frown.
"You were the last person to be around her, by all accounts. So, we figure," Kal'tsit motions at the seated Doctor, whose hands are folded in their lap, just beyond Laurentina's view. "That maybe you know something that the rest of us don't."
The frown doesn't leave Laurentina's face at all, if the only people she supposed knew where Skadi were, didn't know, then there was something more dire than she had initially supposed was happening.
"If you genuinely don't know anything; then that'll be all. We'll continue to keep an eye out for her during our information gathering. It's not the first time she's disappeared—"
"I know its not the first time, Doctor Kal'tsit… I'm just curious why it's suddenly a problem that she's done this. No one has ever asked me before, and we've been… An item," Her words feel a bit foreign on her lips. She's never been asked about the specifics of her relationship with Skadi. "For a while, at least a few times now."
The Doctors shared another look between the two of them. Another look where the communication was imperceptible, yet obvious there was some communication going on.
"We think that something may have occurred with her… Situation."
"What do you mean?" There was no melody hiding in Laurentina's throat, no thoughts about drifting hours around Skadi. Just the memory of what Skadi had told her about Ishar-mla, what it meant that all the Seaborn she'd encountered in that Iberian city had called her. "I know about Ishar-mla. She told me. Early on."
Kal'tsit's eyes shot to the Doctor, who leaned forward against their elbows, propping themselves against the desk.
"You're aware then, of how important it is, that she doesn't succumb to the seaborn influence." The Doctor's voice is scratchy, almost bordering on hoarse, like their voice box has atrophied from disuse.
Laurentina's mouth would've dropped at the rare sound of the Doctor talking, if it weren't for the fact that her face was locked in a scowl. She didn't like what the Doctor and Kal'tsit were implying, what they were dancing around saying.
"Are you saying that maybe she's… Lost control?" She wants to bite back the words as soon as they leave her lips. Skadi would never lose control to those monstrosities. Her Skadi wouldn't lose without telling her.
"We're saying that we don't know. But that we know it's not off the table." Kal'tsit responds. "That you might've been the only one who did know, but its obviously not the case, so it's no longer a concern of yours."
"Are you telling me to not worry?" She feels an anger well up from deep within the pits of her stomach. "She and I are closer than most, Skadi wouldn't do anything to—"
It was the Doctor's turn to interrupt Laurentina. And when the Doctor spoke, everyone listened. "I don't think Skadi's a threat to this landship, if you were to accuse us of claiming such a thing, let those thoughts be quelled. We're worried for her safety. Just as much as you are, Specter." The Doctor only ever referred to their Operators through their codenames. Never once by personal names, even with the operators of the innermost circle of Rhodes Islanders.
Laurentina nods, feeling the anger dissipate in cold waves from her heart down to her legs. "I understand… I'm sorry."
"If you find anything out, Specter, please let me or the Doctor know." Kal'tsit instructs, there's no harshness in her words, no chiding for interrupting her, none of those such undertones or overtones. "For now, that's all we need from you, thank you for answering our questions." Laurentina recognizes when she's been dismissed and stands to leave.
Kal'tsit and the Doctor watch her leave, and the door sliding shut before either one says anything to one another.
"What do you think, Kal'tsit?" The Doctor's voice is just as scratchy, if not scratchier than normal today, Kal'tsit thinks to herself.
"I don't think she's lying. She has no reason to. Nor did Gladiia have any information about Skadi's whereabouts."
"This isn't the first time she's disappeared, Kal'tsit… Maybe its just another one of her excursions… Just like before."
"Sal Viento wasn't just another excursion, I would know."
"You would."
The two share in silence. Kal'tsit has no words to accost the Doctor, and they have no stoic wisdom as the operators under their command have grown used to hearing.
"If Sal Viento was the start of it all, we'll curse ourselves for not doing more then." Kal'tsit murmurs to herself.
"If Sal Viento was the start of it all, that means that we've barely begun to see the ripples."
"At least we know they're coming."
Weeks passed in much the same way as they always had. Except that Skadi wasn't there to share in the time between operations and between work duties. Laurentina missed her. The indentation from where she would normally lay in their shared bed having slowly dissipated as the time went by. Laurentina missed that indentation as much as she missed Her.
The days went by as they typically did. And Laurentina missed Skadi. It was much with the comings and goings of operations, both ones that she was apart of, and ones that she was not, that felt like the tides that kept the days in scope and prevented her from losing all track of time while she would much yearn for the warmth of her return.
Laurentina woke up to a ring that resounded all throughout the landship. The Main Circuit of Rhodes Island's PA, a mission announcement. A normal security operation that would be played out for a nearby mining company. Her name was among those requested to report to the briefing room.
She donned her combat attire, untangling the tassels and buckles, and pulling the ribbons from her hat, keeping them from tangling in her hair. It was an elegant thing, to get dressed for an elegant dance such as all good battles were.
The briefing was boring, led by the captain of the operation – the Lupine woman who stood guard outside the room that day Kal'tsit and the Doctor wanted to talk to Laurentina. But she did her best to focus on the presentation about the geography and deployment of the operators, where to expect combat to flow from, where it should ebb once it did. A battle like this was its own kind of dance, its own kind of sophisticated set of footholds and hand-holds, movements of the hips and chest, all for a purpose in much the same way that one may dance freely to their favorite song.
It took every part of her to not start humming in the middle of the Lupine woman's briefing. There was a part of her that wanted to dance to her own song, to sing its words and enjoy the way they would undoubtedly ring in her own ears.
Once the deployment began, she dropped from the airship that whisked them from the top-deck of Rhodes Island to the area of operations. Her ribbons and tassels fluttering in the winds kicked up by the rotors of the airship.
She followed orders from the unseen Doctor, a robotic voice directing her to her deployment zone. Her weapon dangled loosely from her fingertips and hung gently with the spinning teeth pointed towards the ground. As she walked, she gave it a short spin, humming in satisfaction at the sound it made and the familiar buzzing of it in her hands.
The operation was by and large quiet. There were a few Originium Slugs that she quickly dispatched, and the occasional enemy that was around was quickly disabled, at least those that put up resistance. She allowed those to surrender that did upon the sight of the Unchained's deadly battle dance.
The enemy was weak, and barely put up a fight that warranted such an elegant, gorgeous dance. But the feeling of a fight for the first time in what felt like forever, gave a spring to Specter's step, and a hum rose to the top of her voice.
Her earpiece rung at her, garnering her attention. She looked up to face an enemy, quickly closing the distance with inhuman speed, and separating the weapon from the masked person's hands. If she had been an inch or two lower, she would've separated their hands with the weapon. She knew the Doctor wouldn't like that, so she avoided it as best she could.
There was a glimpse of something in the corner of her vision. Dazzling blue. Blue like sky, blue like water, blue like the ocean. And she lunged at it, fingers coiling around the hilt of her blade and tearing the rock behind the poor reunion member asunder. She barely noticed him scramble away from herself as she homed in on the blue, chasing it down. She tore it to shreds with her blade, sending bits of Seaborne flesh to shreds, and the blue innards stained her spinning blade.
She gasped for air, like she'd been holding it in her chest, breathing in the sickly-sweet stench of the sliced-apart sea-terror. Breathing in deeply of the scent of its innards, the nature of such a beast ending up this far inland barely registering in her mind as she did.
Something moved in the corner of her vision, and she darted after it. Anything that moved was to be regarded as an enemy in her eyes; especially now that there were seaborn around. She didn't even think to speak into her earpiece to her teammates to find out if they'd found anything similar. No, it was about the hunt, something inside her urged, that these things needed to be snuffed out.
She urged herself onwards, after the movement, dodging around corners and jarring edges of the rocky crevasse that was her area of responsibility, following the thing that moved. Closer and closer she drew to it, until she felt almost like she could taste it but couldn't quite resolve it with her eyes. But she could practically smell the color as much as she could see it.
Red like blood. Red like love. Red like crimson surfacing on the ocean's waves of familiarity and yet something more alien than that. It was just a flash of it, but it was familiar, hanging in the closet and in the corner of idle fantasies and musings that were nothing more than just those things. The Red that would disappear from her forever if she didn't chase after it. She ignored the pinging in her ears and begun her pursuit. Leaving the joyous sounds of battle behind her as she headed towards the familiar red that would continue to hang in the corner of her vision as she followed it between rocks and crevasses. The pinging in her ears continued, increasing in volume until she slid the earpiece into a pocket of her attire, and silenced it forever. It was a tactic to get her attention if she had been incapacitated. The Doctor undoubtedly had no idea that she was here, and if she truly was, then she had to come back, wouldn't she?
She had noticed, on the third day of Skadi's absence, how the Red was conspicuously absent from any of her belongings that hadn't been brought with her, wherever she had gone. She recognized the Red, from the time in Sal Viento, the Red of the blood of the Captain and the Red of the vicious warrior who helped bring her from that accursed place. Something about it was comforting to her now. Yet in the same sweeping breath, it reminded her of all that had happened to her. That church was no place for a nun like her.
Yet, this Red meant so much more than just the horrid past. It was a symbol of the future to her. A future Unchained from any hindrances, away from that which plagued her, a future where she could sculpt whatever she wished, to sing whatever song would be found by her heart.
A future that was perfectly, inseparably tied with Her.
Part of Laurentina's heart longed oh so dearly for the nights of comfort against the pale skin of Skadi. Of the feelings of plentiful comfort and safety next to her very own personal catastrophe, who was shy enough when presented with affection and accepting of Laurentina's personal love despite her reserved nature.
It had felt like so long since had seen that who was the object of all her affection.
She knew this Red and knew that if she didn't follow it now, she may not ever find Her again.
Yet, something felt off about this. Why would she be here, a mining operation, of all places?
She took in a gulp of air as she kept up her chase, ignoring the ringing from the pocket as the Doctor incessantly tried to get her attention.
There was something off about the smell of the air. For a land so far away from the Ocean, so plentiful were the smells and memories associated with it. Of kelp and seaweed, of fish and the lucre of countless ships sunk at the bottom.
There was something wrong here. A trap? No, Skadi would never… Then this wasn't Skadi.
She rounded a corner and came face to face with the thing that bore Skadi's skin, her eyes, and hair. It wasn't her. It didn't smell like her. This Thing smells like the ocean, and the ocean that smells like seaborn, like Him. Clad in that cardinal red, and most definitely of the figure of Her.
The thing before her wasn't Skadi. It had never been. But it had been the one in her bed. And she in hers and in each other's mind every time one wanted the other and couldn't have them. But now that was gone, and Laurentina knew this for certain. That every moment of intimacy between her and Skadi had been lost to what lurked beyond the shadow of doubt; naively thinking that the resentment of that what they had been cursed by, what She had been cursed by, would turn it to dust. A blight, but one that Laurentina had accepted and loved her for all the same that she would've without a moment's hesitation. That who had been in Laurentina's bed was inexplicably Skadi, it always had been. But that meant that this, whatever this was – couldn't be the same flesh and blood that of Skadi. Something horrible instead had taken her place.
"Give her back." Laurentina demanded.
The Thing cocked its head. As if it didn't understand the question. Specter tightened her grip around her weapon, and Laurentina hated this thing for taking the face of someone so familiar and so close to her. Her blade spun once with a loud buzzing sound.
"Why?" It asked. Simply, and with Her voice. There were undertones of hoarseness, like it hadn't used Her voice in a while, or at all.
"She's mine." Laurentina hisses, her blade stands at the ready in her hands. "She doesn't belong to you, Ishar-mla." She feels dirty saying this name directed at that which bears Skadi's skin. As if She doesn't deserve to hear that name spoken around Her.
"We know who you are, Laurentina."
"Don't call me that." Her blade roars, and she leaps at Him, it gracefully steps back, Red fluttering in the air as it does. Specter's blade misses its mark. She's not sure whether she intended for it to hit Her, or not. "You don't have the right to call me that name. Ishar-mla!" She takes another roaring, arcing leap at the Thing, and it sidesteps her attack once more, with just as much ease as it did the first time.
"Yet, you recognize us all the same." Laurentina winces and takes another swing with Specter's weapon at the Thing, barely missing the ribbons tied at the front of the Red attire. Her blade spins into the rock where the Thing once stood. Sending shards and dust into the air.
Her arms shake, not from the exertion of moving her weapon, or leaping at the Thing that stole her Skin, but from the anger with it. With the insolence of taking something so dear to her, and then refusing to give her back.
There's no voice to her anger, just action. She leaps twice more at the Thing, missing the first, and barely skimming the lace of Her skirt as she swung that second time. Shimmering shards of red bursting from the spinning tip of Specter's blade and flying into the air.
She cursed herself for damaging it. For coming so close to hurting Her.
"Why don't you wait and talk, instead of attacking?" The hoarse voice belonging to Her asked, as the Thing looked at Laurentina with Her eyes.
"Because there's nothing to say to you!" Laurentina swung, "Give. Her. Back." She swung as punctuation between her words, taking broad arcs with her weapon as she did. Only on the last swing, did she come close to hitting the Thing; as it deflected her swing with the case it carried, slung over its shoulder.
"There's no need for anger. You can spend eternity with Her, should you submit." The thing's voice becomes less and less hoarse, sounding more and more like Skadi, but with words she would never use against Laurentina. She swings again. This time coming close to the Thing's fake face. She winces at the thought of her blade tearing into Skadi's flesh. Even if it isn't Hers' anymore. "We would just like to talk. After all, She was the one who brought us to you."
Laurentina shudders, and doesn't swing her weapon, instead leaving it lodged in the ground, as the thing in Red lightly steps onto a rock, almost like a child playing, balancing itself on its feet as it made strides. Like it was getting used to its new body. Or rather the control it exerted over itself. The case still dangled from its straps slung over its stolen shoulder. She glares at it. "What do you mean?"
"She wanted to see you." The Thing smiles at her. "So, I let her lead us back to the land."
Specter wants to swing again with her weapon, but Laurentina's body refuses. Somewhere, still inside Her skin, is her Skadi.
Specter takes her weapon up, swinging it over her shoulder into a ready, but not quite ready to strike stance. She spins the blade once or twice for good measure.
"And why should I believe someone who stole her skin?"
A sly smile crosses His face. It unnerves Laurentina to see the way it toys with Her skin to pull Her lips into a smile. "Because you don't want to hurt her, truly. If you did, you would be so much more serious with your swings." The case slung over His shoulder falls to the ground, and the enclosed sword is revealed. "And I can hurt her in ways that you can't imagine. And the reason I haven't is because I need this body as much as she does. She survives in me, and I in Her."
Specter's grip on her weapon didn't weaken, and she glared at Him.
"What did she want to see me for?" The voice that comes out from Laurentina's lips are as much a plead as much as they're a demand for answers.
"The longer and longer I've spent with her these past few days, the quieter and quieter her voice gets."
Laurentina wished to scream at this. Scream at Him, scream for Skadi to answer her instead of this faceless thing that had instead taken her face and voice. She lunges from her stance, blade whirring through the air as she does. The rock where He had stood was turned to dust at the end of her blade, and the case was discarded to the side as He leapt through the air. Sword in hand, Specter whirled on her feet to face where He landed, taking another lunge, but stopping herself partway through to try and anticipate where He might leap in response.
He didn't leap, but returned the lunge, using her weapon as a springboard and pushing it out and away from her vice-like grip. Utilizing the strength of the stolen body as best as He could.
There was something terrifyingly beautiful about this foreign manner of fighting that Laurentina was witnessing from Skadi's body, grand arcs with her body and blade, not just her blade as was the norm for her fighting style. But neither were really hers anymore.
She couldn't handle this, seeing Her be used in such a foreign and disrespectful manner, to have Her stolen by something uncontrollable.
And every time He opened its stolen mouth, she wished to drive deeper her blade, to bring herself closer to ridding herself and the world of the thing that had stolen Skadi from her.
She leapt for her weapon, trying to bring it back into her hands, but He was faster than she, and intercepted her mid-leap, with a sharp kick to the ribs—and a sickening crack as she was.
Laurentina went flying away from her weapon, smacking into the side of the crevasse as she did with a sickening crack of rock and bone. She falls from the side of the crevasse, her body screaming in pain as she lands face-up, facing the paling sky as twilight started to creep across Terra.
The breath is gone from her lungs, and she groans in agony at the sharp pain from even trying to breathe in.
Her vision fills with Red; but not that of blood, that of the attire of Her stolen body.
Ishar-mla stands over Laurentina, sword in one hand, the other open and outstretched for her to take. Her ears ring; "Things would be so much simpler if you just submitted to Us."
It takes all she can do to gnash her teeth at the outstretched hand. "Give… Her… Back…" Laurentina wheezes, her eyes welling with tears from the pain of each laborious word.
"I cannot." He says politely, as if saying so with such conciseness is in of itself a form of mercy.
There's a wheezing pause between the two, Laurentina's lungs feel warm, and her breaths grow increasingly shallow. She stares daggers into His familiar, stolen eyes. She resents them, how they're the last thing she sees when he raises the stolen blade above his head and plunges it into her throat.
When Laurentina came to; she couldn't tell if she was alone. Sweat covered her body, and she stirred lightly. Something was constricting her body, but there wasn't the tell-tale chiming of the end of her tassels as she tried to wiggle her way to freedom. Only after a moment did she open her eyes to see what it was that was keeping her tied down. She was met with the ceiling of her room on Rhodes Island.
There's a stirring to her left, and she looks down to see the face of Skadi, her body shifting beneath the sheets of their bed.
Laurentina's breath hitches for a moment, not believing this is real. And yet, there's no aura of indifference,
Skadi stirs once again, this time her eyes opening ever so slightly as Laurentina stares at them in horror. The low light of the room giving her eyes a gentle red glow. "Are you okay…?" Skadi asks in a hushed voice.
Laurentina wordlessly shakes her head. The vision of Skadi standing over her, plunging Her blade into her throat wouldn't leave her mind, so vivid were the images that she saw, that she had thought them real.
"Bad dreams again…?"
She nods silently.
"C'mere." Skadi opens her arms, and pulls Laurentina into the crook of her neck, and wrapping her legs around Laurentina, giving her a squeeze of reassurance as she does. "It'll be okay…" Skadi whispers, nearly inaudibly, but Laurentina hears her.
She nods against the crook of Skadi's neck. The pillow is soft, and the smell of Skadi is familiar and welcoming to her. She doesn't smell like the Ocean, she smells like Skadi, and that means safety here.
Distantly, her mind drifts back to Red, and she squeezes her eyes shut against the image in her mind until she can see sparks. Her body shudders at the feeling of the gentle hold that Skadi has her in, when just a few moments prior, she was so vividly dreaming that it was her body that was tearing her to shreds in such a one-sided manner. Skadi gives Laurentina a gentle squeeze as she feels her shudder within her arms.
Skadi takes a deep breath, and Laurentina follows, they exhale together.
The only Red that has room here, is the memory of Skadi's sleepy eyes looking at Laurentina. There was no alienation in those eyes. Just the comfort that came with the look of a tired girl looking up at her lover post-nightmare. That's all it was, wasn't it? Her mind tells her. It was all just some sort of messed up nightmare, nothing real.
Skadi begins to hum, a comforting song, one that's familiar to Laurentina – a song meant to soothe and to express love. One with gentle notes, and a melody fit for two people, but perfectly acceptable for just the one singer. A comforting song that only was needed for the one person.
Those distant thoughts of violent Red dissipate from Laurentina's mind and are replaced with the wordless melody that Skadi hums gently to her.
When morning comes; Skadi won't ask what nightmares Laurentina had seen. They're not her business. If Laurentina wanted to share, she would.
They would go about their morning routine, even helping comb and brush one another's long, white hair as they normally would, before going about their day. Laurentina would don her workout clothing, and go to the training room, and Skadi would follow, taking her own routine in her own set of workout attire, in colors that were different than Laurentina's own, but beautiful in their own right.
They would go together to get lunch in the cafeteria, and sit by themselves, enjoying their time with one another, and then go about their separate work duties aboard the Landship.
And all the while, Laurentina would be watching Skadi from the corner of her eye, until she turned right down the hallway where Laurentina would need to turn left. It wasn't from worry, or anxiety that maybe her nightmares would come to life.
No.
Her Skadi would never give in to the influence of Him.
It was compassion that beset her eyes upon her lover.
Laurentina knew of the burdens each one of them carried, and how they weighed down on each of them in their own ways.
But these things would not impart until the morning; and until then, Laurentina would tuck her nose a little bit closer to Skadi's skin, and Skadi would wrap her arms around Laurentina that much tighter, and Skadi's song would wash over her, and lull the pair of them into a more peaceful sleep.
1