Chapter Eight: You Will Endure
"My mother was a healer; she could read the stars. The king's only son fell ill, all known treatments had failed. She was known by many and was brought to the palace."
"She couldn't save the child; the disease had taken too strong a hold. By the time she got her hands on him she was blamed."
"Someone needed to be blamed and my mother was a foreigner within the land, educated, an intellectual they couldn't understand."
"She was sent to The Pit, told to continue her practice in the darkness."
"My mother was nearly torn apart by the men in The Pit, the same doctor that worked on my broken body, pulled her to safety. He was able to put her back together in a better fashion than my own twisted body."
"The surgeon was younger then, his sight sharper, his hands didn't shake as much, he kept my mother safe."
"She became pregnant."
"My mother lived long enough to give birth to me, as I suckled at her breast, she wrote her last words for me."
Bane kept the folded, irregular-shaped piece of paper in his inner coat pocket, the words long since faded, disappearing over the decades from him tracing his mother's last written characters under the scarred pads of his fingertips.
Bane had memorized her words long before they became illegible, distorted, the paper stained with splotches of rusty brown from her needing to use her own blood to write her last words before she stopped living.
Sofia pressed her lips together as Bane continued to avoid her eyes, reaching into his pocket to unfold the paper with the ragged edges, the paper whisper-thin from wear. He read aloud from the heavily creased page, seeing the characters from where they'd infiltrated his optic nerves, her words would live forever within his sight.
"My darling son, your burden will be great. Do not fight another's war or allow yourself to be swallowed up by a tyrant.
"You will suffer my sweet boy."
"Your body will be broken; you will face death. Do not blink and do not look away."
"My son, you are stronger than those that will attempt to take your life."
"Forge ahead through the discomfort, keep walking even as your feet burn my precious boy, for I have seen the heights to which you will soar."
"You are loved now my sweet son, and you will be again by one whose heart beats."
"You will endure my sweet boy, you will endure."
Sofia watched Bane carefully refold the page.
"Is that all remains of your mother?"
Bane looked up and met he eyes, she offered no pity. "Yes."
"That's certainly cold," she murmured, referring to his tea.
He passed the cup to her outstretched hand, allowing the touch of their fingertips to linger.
Bane secured the paper back in his pocket as Sofia prepared them both a fresh cup of tea.
"Have your mother's words proven true?" she asked as she set the steaming cup in front of him.
"There's still much to do, I do not have the luxury of self-examination," Bane murmured as he picked up the cup, inhaling deeply, pulling the floral tendrils of steam in through the front of his mask's titanium grid.
"You've certainly suffered great physical injury," Sofia added as she settled back in the chair across from him, the messy tabletop between them.
Bane felt exposed, suddenly vulnerable, hating what he had just admitted.
He fell silent, staring down at the marigold petals floating in the hot water.
"Do you think Talia is the tyrant your mother wrote about?" Sofia pressed.
"I've explained I don't have the time for personal reflection Miss Bishop," he finally said, breaking his silence with a defensive snap.
"You're the one who came here, you're the one who read me your dead mother's words in the first place," Sofia rebutted, slamming her cup back on the cluttered table, splashing scalding tea onto her hand.
"I'd mind your words," Bane warned, the words mechanical, low.
"I didn't invite you in, you goddamn vampire, I could be fixing a fucking intake manifold instead of dealing with this."
Bane slammed his own cup down, shattering the ceramic mug, tea spilling everywhere, soaking engine manuals, receipts, and maps as he rose to his full height.
"Well that's lovely," Sofia spit, trying to conceal the spike of fear that blossomed as the muscles rippled across Bane's broad chest.
She shook her hand free when Bane casually captured her wrist, keeping his grip loose as he attempted to wrangle her limbs and body without causing her physical harm.
Sofia pushed at his densely muscled body as she moved backwards, misjudging her steps, and knocking over a floor lamp, the bulb shattering.
The only light left in the room was from a desk lamp with a dim bulb. The wan light from the low wattage bulb cast their tussling shadows on the walls.
The plump albino frog had been making its way down the damp hallway as Sofia and Bane had been talking, it arrived in the doorway to see Bane and Sofia's shadows moving on the wall, undulating in a way that made them look like they were fucking.
Sofia knew how easily Bane could overpower her, positively break her in two if that was what he desired.
Bane also knew how easily he could overpower Sofia.
For only a few minutes, it seemed longer to Sofia, they sparred, Bane was electric, vibrating, his limbs filled with energy as he finally flexed his strength and locked Sofia up in his unbreakable hold.
"What do you want?" she shouted, her lips centimeters from the front of his mask, close enough to smell the antiseptic odor from his analgesic delivery system.
Behind his mask, Bane opened his mouth to answer but no words emerged from between his lips, just a low mechanical whine sounded from his mask.
She felt Bane's touch change before he spoke. "I don't want to fight with you anymore."
"What do you need?" Sofia asked in a softer tone, allowing herself to relax somewhat in his arms.
Bane again found himself unable to form coherent words, he didn't know how to express that he craved comfort, her closeness.
Sofia felt tension return to Bane's arms as they held her tight to the front of his body, "there's still too much to do right now to entertain personal needs Miss Bishop," Bane finally rasped, forcing himself to speak the words.
She reached up and traced her fingertips along the Kevlar straps that kept his mask firmly in place. "Right now there's nothing else," Sofia whispered as she rose onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to the corrugated metal mesh that covered his mouth.
