Chapter 9

Mortal Man's Mind

There was a sudden pain. Her head turned right suddenly. Averting her unopened eyes from what she could perceived to be blinding light bearing down upon her. A long throaty groan of discomfort rumbled from her unopened maw. Her breath came harsh if shallow. Every intake a rattle and every exhale a sudden and forceful release. Both arms were stretched out in either direction. Up in diagonal fashion. Only after this realization did she manage to hear the sound of clinking chains. Each link scraping those before it and after. Until reaching heavy but raised cuffs that were snapped along either wrist.

Tercáunya opened her eyes with great effort. Her mouth parted and she could feel the dryness there. The heaving breath that followed made her limp frame almost feel ready to pass out once more. Her head swinging down before she; with no small effort, managed to pick it back up. Steely eyes of varied colors swimming through pools of gray opened. Glossy as they were they glanced about. Shifting left to right. Her head motioning as she did. While she took in her surroundings.

She was in a bright room. Many lights, but not like that of fire, were lit about. Upon the walls, which were flattened like stone carved from the greats of masons. Yet they shone with metal. The floor too was laid with what would seem marble, but shone like metal in squared segments. Shifting her head back, and grimacing through an incredible pain that clutched at the back of her skull, she saw the ceiling was itself layered with these bright white lights. All of them shone, and unleashed a dull hum that buzzed the room. Many instruments hung from the ceiling upon some kind of device she did not know the name of. A circular face where many prongs and tools protruded from the circle. Itself attached to the wall by a great arm.

Tercáunya opened her mouth again. Only after swallowing with more effort then she had ever dared imagine such an act would require. Her eyes shutting as pain rippled through her body and her muscles all felt strained and bent. Grinding against unmoved positions. She opened her mouth once more but nothing came save for a whimpering wheeze. A shrill soft sound like a cat in pain. She shut her mouth and her head slumped forward again. Thoughts were difficult to formulate. The weariness in her body all consuming.

She was planted on the floor. Her knees underneath her and long since numbed legs slid under her body as she was pulled painfully upwards by the cuffs around her wrists. But, Tercáunya, through dewy eyes felt her fingers twitch. Little else. She was cold. Incredibly so. But, with effort she managed to gaze in either direction and behold her arms. Another breath came, harsh and rattled. Up and down a breath exhaled and freed from her body. As she felt her eyes widen more than meant for them to.

Her hands, bound. Her arms raised up. Around each wrist the cuffs were locked in terribly black irons. More still, through each wrist some blackened pillar had been stabbed through her flesh. Around each entry and exit wound dried blood could be seen to have pooled, and then dried. Forming a seal, not of natural design. Burnt flesh showed itself, and...only upon sight did Tercáunya perceive the pain. A long groaning horrified utterance released itself! She tried to push herself up on her knees, but immediately, upon attempt, she slunk forward and loosed what amounted to a bleat. Her body jerking forward made the cuffs and stabbed pillars pull painfully on her.

"Hah!" She managed to gasp in a shirking seethe. Her eyes wide and pain rampant as to tear any formulated words from her. She had none to give or share. She was bound by chains. Worse still, she perceived not her true state.

"Now now, none of that." A voice unfamiliar began. Tercáunya lifted her head again, and swallowed once more. Ignoring the pain as best she could.

"W…" She strained. Closing her eyes and violently shaking her head. Feeling the tendrils of her hair flow about her. Her dress from before marred and burnt in places, ripped and torn in others. She persisted.

"Who's there?!" She meekly rattled in a cry. Nearly sounding like a plea.

"One moment, Miss." The voice replied. Their footfalls sounding along the metal slabs along the floor. Boots that thumped one after the other. Until, after a moment longer, a man rounded himself around at her left. Tercáunya managed to turn to face him. Neck shivering and spasming under pressure and pain. Weary eyes saw a man, so she thought him. Short black hair upon his head that was slicked back. A trim of blackened hair enveloped his mouth and chain, but to his cheeks. His skin was darker, but not too dark. A browned nature, but his eyes were green. Deep green that looked down on her with something Tercáunya could not place. Pity? It would seem so, but then, she did not know...nor did she earnestly think so bound up as she was.

The man wore a strange white coat. It squared his shoulders, and fell down his body to his ankles. Pressed into his thin, but strong form, but a blackened belt around his waist that divided the coat. Many blackened buttons bound it up across his frame. His feet were in fact covered by thick and heavy blackened boots. While the very top of his coat remained sprawled open along the first two twin sets of buttons. Allowing one to perceive a black shirt underneath.

The man observed Tercáunya for a long quiet moment while she observed him. His face tilted to his left. Allowing Tercáunya to see subtle flairs of silvery hair in his blackened head of strands. While his face showed a thin, mirthless smile that did not morph or change in any capacity. But, the lack of motion did pronounce his cheeks, high set, and sharp. He was not unseemly for the race of Men. But...something about his demeanor, his look, and those green eyes...immediately set Tercáunya on edge.

"I did not think you would wake so soon. Though, it is good you have." The man began. His unkind smile growing along the edges of his lips. He turned from her and march away. Tercáunya followed him with her eyes. Her head slumping over slightly as she did. Harshly and painfully she swallowed again. The man reached a small podium of blackened metal. He circled around it and began stabbing his fingers onto something unseen. Before a luminous light of blue symbols crawled without meaning to Tercáunya along his face.

"Whe...where am I?" She whimpered painfully, and with her voice scratching. "What is this place?"

"This place?" He hummed in mockery. That much was clear. He tilted his head up and grunted a mirthless laugh. "This place is your new home. As much as it may be called as much. You have been brought here by a Lord Valdaran as he called himself to me. Though I had heard another name used."

"Vald…" Tercáunya began. But, as she did so her brow furrowed and the Ainu sucked in a trembling breath whilst wrath suddenly forged over her eyes. A blaze entering them, and her shoulders hardened as she set herself up on her knees.

A crackle of some kind entered the room and a rumble. The man looked up to her and then his eyes traced the room. From the floor to the high set ceiling and the lights. Flecks of dust fell here and there, and her face contorted into wrath.

"Sauron!" She snarled. "The Deceiver! He lives!"

"Astute observation!" He mocked her again. Uncaring, unkind. Tercáunya felt sudden anger flash through her. Another of the race of Men who so terribly undermined her, and her words. Who even now looked at her with an unflinching dismissive haughtiness.

"Who are you?!" She commanded to know, while the resonance of thunder trembling continued. As though distant over a mountain range whilst at once born within this room. "I demand to know!"

"Demand." He repeated unflinching. "Very well. We're going to become close friends, and acquaintances while you're here, Miss. As for me, I am known as Doctor Kalev Zalliste. I studied and graduated from the University of Upper Axxila with several prestigious accolades. None of which, I am sure, would mean anything to you."

"Ax...Axxila?" She repeated. The word a whisper and difficult on her tongue. Not for the first time. "Where I…?" She slunk her head down and shook. Words seeming more than just difficult for her to pronounce. She was well spoken, but carried an air of unfamiliarity with her speech.

"Where...am...I?" She repeated slowly. Every syllable forced out with concentration.

"Some would say I am being pretentious. But, I prefer to think of it as...artistry." The man, Kalev prattled. "This facility is mine. You were brought here by Lord Valdaran, as you call him, Lord Sauron, in order to be party to experimentation of the utmost limits of what man, any man, can accomplish. You have been comatose for some time, but with a little gentle prodding, you awaken. Like any other creature with a heart, a brain, a limbic system etcetera etcetera." Kalev motioned his right hand and continued pressing keys along his unseen table.

Within a moment the arm above her began to whir to life! Tercáunya jumped and slunk in sudden unknowing fear. Eyes wide and twisting up...heavily so. Then, and only then, did she perceived something...something on her head. Her eyes could not properly look upon it, but she swung her head to and fro. Grunts snarled from her nostrils and mouth as she wagged back and forth! Yanking and pulling on her chains! The force of which rattled each and every link. The suddenness of her power raw and incredible. The man, Kalev, unimpressed at her movements, was nonetheless seemingly in awe of her strength. Silent and then leaning on his podium to watch her struggle. A glimmer of unknown satisfaction in his green-eyed depths.

"Incredible." He intoned as Tercáunya howled! The room once more shook with the remnant like the flashing shadowy ebbs of a rolling thunderclap through a far field. Yet, the sound was too distant to rise further than a fleeting memory. The scent of oncoming rain never grew greater than a vague idea. Tercáunya pulled and pulled hard! Both chains ground and snatched, yanked and tore at the wall. Yet, the metal squares that were bound there did not budge. Etched across the black metal slabs were unseen symbols twisted and fell in a language only few would know. Black Speech imbued upon every link and every metal bit. Whilst the Force...the Dark Side unheard by both occupants and unfelt gnashed in glory at her feeble display of resistance. Before, at last Tercáunya heaved a great and terrible breath. Fair beautiful face red in exertion. Eyes glossing from the rush of her body, and the long pants of her chest came hard and fast.

"Wonderful show!" Kalev clapped, and he meant it. Even if his words felt like ice crystals stabbing her ears in mockery. Tercáunya glared up at him from under the hood of her brow. But, could not yet move her head back up. However, catching her eyes then was the floor. Underneath her, warped and unnatural she could see a version of herself. Not quite right, and no great detail. But, she could see a version of whatever fell crown had been planted atop her head.

A blackened think like iron. It arched in four bands across and from front to back over her skull. A thick band ran over her brow, whilst twin screws were pushed deep into her skin at either temple. Not yet breaking flesh, but marring her flesh there twisted up in silky hair. Blood ran down, unseen, at the back of her skull, causing hair to clump together and leaving stained silvery locks in crimson flecks. A bolt at the back of her skull was screwed deep. Puncturing flesh, the center of the bolts was hollowed out, allowing for another unknown device to be implanted down the center for...unknown purpose. Three bolts with flattened heads were pressed into her brow and tightened hard enough to indent flesh. Under her chin was a strap that cupped her there. The bands of leather were tight and rough and the straps at either side of her face were covered in matching etchings in the tongue of fallen Mordor. Blood so too ran down her wrists and forearms from where the bolts had been stabbed through her. The fingers on either hand undulating at random intervals. Numb, but operable. Her body, so strong as it was by way of her spirit, fighting to heal and maintain her, but withheld by sorcery of a now unseen Dark Lord.

"What have...you done to...to...to me?!" She stuttered and pulled her head up and back. The clings and clangs of the heavy crown upon her head now only then seeming to register in her ears.

"Let me...one moment…" Kalev held up his left hand and forefinger. Snapping a few final keys as the device overhead fell down completely. The arm, loosed sounds of whirring, and scraping metal. It twisted in the air above Tercáunya and she shirked away from it as it twisted around her head. Pausing in front of her face.

"You would do well to not move, else it will take your eye out."

"Wh...what?" She confusedly wondered. Then, the machine produced a small cylinder. Its end open and hollow. Suddenly it pressed into her forehead. Tercáunya tried to shirk back, but the chains wouldn't allow her to move too far. The device loosed a puff of hot air, and Tercáunya yelped as the heat puffed out across her scalp. She felt something...like a powder of salve cover her brow where the clamps were not placed. Before the device moved away and began repeating at her left side, then her back, to her right.

Kalev left his podium and planted his hands behind his back. Pacing closer toward Tercáunya as he began to speak once more.

"You and I are going to become the closest of friends over the next...well," He smirked. "However long you end up being of use to us."

"Us?" Tercáunya repeated, wide eyes, soft and in many respects, childish, looking up at this man.

"Yes, us. I have taken a preliminary look at your blood. Fascinating. In many respects it matches another sample I have been given by Lord Sauron. The endearing fact of the matter is," Kalev continued and leaned himself down to a kneel. Coming eye level with Tercáunya. Her lips quivering as anger and fear melded into a concoction she was unused to.

"I many aspects I have seen genetic coding similar to yours. The Shi'ido, for instance. Or, the Clawdites as another. Yet, the viability and endurance that has been seen even in the brief glimpse I was given can mean...nothing but the most incredible of possibilities for what can and what will come next."

"I...I do not-"

"No, of course you don't." Kalev pat her left cheek, once, twice, and three times. "You are, for all this innate power unaware of the wider world." He mocked. "Lord Sauron understands, as you call him. Moreover, I am a man...deeply fascinated by things not so easily explained by science. You see, there are other powers in the galaxy you don't have even the barest comprehension of. If what Lord Sauron said of you was true? No matter." Kalev's smirk broadened for no discernible reason.

"The Force...it is beyond my ability to use, and to fully comprehend. This is something that irks me. I can break someone open and see how they function. Organ, gland, nervous system and all. I cannot...crack open the Force. You, are similar. I can...and intend on breaking you open, with time. Your body, your genetics, your physiology will make construction first facsimile, and then, recreation all the more easy. With time. But, I understand there are aspects to you that are, inherently, outside my ability to totally comprehend. Your healing factor, the manner in which your blood cells interact with one another, the white blood cells, the cultures of exposed bacteria. All of it doesn't make sense in a manner that is previously understood to the scientific community. We often get stuck in our ways, those of us who delve deep into how things work, you see." Kalev planted his hand onto his chest. His eyes glowering, seemingly, upon Tercáunya who shirked back from his glare. Hate, innate, within them. She could not know why.

"What...we as scientists must be willing to do, is understand there are orders. Magnitudes of the universe. We operate on this line." He planted both thumbs and forefingers together and stretched them out in a flat line from one another. "You, operate on a line beyond it. As does the Force. Don't worry, you're not expected to understand what I'm talking about. Just as I would not understand what you would have to talk about, surely." He preempted her.

"The Force...does not like it when you try to recreate something that has, by happenstance or circumstance, through the great freedom of will and chaos good or ill, been created without interference. Not where the Jedi or the Sith are concerned. Those who wield such great powers. I am not foolish enough to commit such an error with one of your innate power. So little as I have been party to even here in this room just moments ago. I have seen what another of your kind can do. Extraordinary. I seek to but, touch that power." Kalev again raised and planted his right hand on Tercáunya's left cheek. Soft as his flesh was, her heart worn as raiment pounded in flush and fear within. Her pulse bounding rampantly. His hand, then tightened onto her skin and she grimaced without sound.

"But, in order to touch that power, I must suffer your presence, silver-haired one. The universe...has a way of mocking me!" He barred and spoke through his teeth. "This form...this tender lithe thing. Sickening." He all but spat as he eyed her up and down. "So many of you before…" He stopped himself, and the Ainu watched this mortal man shiver as he repressed some thought...or more likely a memory. Averting his face, before centering it again and forcing an utterly mirthless smile back onto his features.

"We shall manage, shan't we?"

"Man...manage what?" She whispered fearfully.

"You asked it, when you first awoke." Kalev intoned and pat her face a final time. More a slap, and Tercáunya reeled but gently. A slight sting on her face as a tear fell down her right cheek.

"'Where am I? What is this place?'" Kalev mocked her soft tone and rose to his full height.

"This, Miss, is Genesis. Your new home. With me." Kalev chuckled. Taking a long draw of breath through his nose and tilting his gaze about the wide and high room.

"You will be put through pain, and horror, and trial unlike anything I believe you could imagine, my Dear. All of these things are done on behalf of our Lord. Of a greater vision of what tomorrow may and will bring. Through howl, through blood, through shattered mind, you will be Mother to greatness abounding. And I?" Kalev idly spoke to the air around himself. Eyes growing distant as the machine arm planted itself at the back of Tercáunya's neck. Her breath rising to pants. Something cold, twin spokes on either side of her neck.

"I shall be as Father. For our Lord, and his vision. Welcome to Genesis."

Tercáunya screamed! Electrical spokes churned to life and bolts ripped through her mortal worn flesh! Her spirit screamed in unison and none were left to hear, but One. Yet, on Tercáunya screamed. To what end and for what purpose? Only Kalev, and perhaps Sauron knew. Her body more than her mind was of concern.

Its breaking was but afterbirth of this New Age.

L's Note: Hey everyone, another short snippet, so to speak, but important! Thanks to everyone who is keeping up with Lord Kun's story even through all the issues the website has been having as of this posting. Lol, and yes Archon we may be moving on AO3 soon. ;P

That said, please do keep in mind Lord Kun does have other duties, in terms of writing for his income. Another reason why this story was always meant to be longer but with shorter chapters. Big ones like last time are meant to be rarer, but we'll see what happens going forward. :3

Newboy! You bring up a good point. But, before you get too upset with the Death Star think on this: The last chapter and the Death Star scene was not from Sauron's pov. We didn't see what he thought of the weapon from his mind, nor what Vica could have thought during the interaction. We will come to know what Sauron thinks of the Death Star in time. BUT, that doesn't take away from the fact the machine has already begun construction within the Confederacy. His knowing of it, and getting on top of it was inevitable to some degree. But, that said Lord Kun appreciates the thought you put into Sauron's opinion of such a wasteful machine. He has as well. ;3

Anyways, as usual please leave reviews! They do help Lord Kun to get back to writing for this tale. And, if you find any grammatical errors, pleas either point them out to me or ignore them if they are glaring. I try my best, but you can't find them all.

Till the next.

-L

Edit Note: Edited/Updated 11/24/2023