Note: Follow-up to Echo
A Talk
Author's Note: This feels disjointed and unfocused. I might scrap or rewrite this later.
"What's there to talk about?" The voice was familiar, but different. Her own, but not. It sounded like a younger Keydis, just a few years younger. It was the same voice as the ‘her' that had defeated the vistra-possessed airship.
Not that long ago, and yet ancient history.
The workshop seemed to fade from view, the forge, the anvil, the blood-stained tiles. Even the heat of the flames dissipated. She stood in a field of plain, unrelieved gray. In front of her was a perfect image of herself, clad in familiar clothing. Keydis Lysistrata, in a black long-coat with pruina-fur collar, a sleeveless red shirt underneath, gray shorts, black leather boots. A silver sword hilt at her waist. The doppelganger's hair was spiked up, brunette with dyed red bangs. She sat in an invisible seat, one knee pulled up to her chest. Her violet eyes, which Keydis remembered to be fiery and predatory, now seemed cautious and defensive.
She still had both arms.
"For starters, why did you abandon me?" Keydis asked her doppelganger, clenching her fist.
"Abandon? I'm not your partner, I'm not your ally. I'm not at your beck and call." Her other self, Caeancora, seemed to bristle at the very notion.
Keydis stepped forward, seemingly growing no closer. "Well, then, why did you suddenly turn coward right when I could have fucking used you?" She clutched at where her missing arm used to be. All it would have taken was just that little bit more. Just a little more and she would have been fine.
"The fuck you would have!" Caeancora growled out. They were one. It didn't matter if Keydis chose to shout her words out to the world or kept them in her head, it was one and the same. "I told you to stop! I told you to get the fuck out!"
"No, you didn..."
"I did! You ignored my warnings. That... man. His... beast. It's nothing like me. It's different. Darker. Older." The air seemed to ripple around Caeancora as it remembered the feelings, the abject dread that poured off of Culm the Blue-Eyed. "We felt it before at the restaurant but their boss held him in check. I didn't dare show myself there, and thank fuck you didn't ask me to."
Keydis paused for a moment and considered. At the restaurant, when she had acquired Niketas Leon, it had purely been a fist fight between her and the huge velen, Tigris. At the time it only made sense, keep the stakes low to avoid getting jumped by everyone at the table. With so many eyes on them from the other low-lifes in the restaurant, the Nine would not have wanted to look weak. They had to come off strong, humoring the bounty huntress.
Plus, their leader Guadriar and some of the others looked genuinely sickened by the accusations she laid at his feet.
Still, if things had gone badly, Keydis was prepared to use Caeancora's powers to make a tactical retreat. If what it said now was true, then that would have ended badly for her.
"Didn't dare show yourself," Keydis repeated, looking curiously at the manifestation of her inner corruption. "Why not? I'm pretty sure Culm already knows I'm a vistra. If he's one, too, shouldn't it know the same way you do?"
"It's different. This thing is hungry. If we clashed, there's no telling what could happen. Like I said, this thing is old. Perhaps one of the oldest of my kind. I couldn't face it. Especially not with you terrified of its host."
Surprised, Keydis fell back a step. "I never said I was afraid. I wasn't afraid! I went there to kill the fucker, what part of that makes it seem like I'm afraid? Huh? Answer me that!"
Caeancora chuffed and looked straight up at her. "Lie to yourself, if you want."
No longer comfortable with this line of questioning, Keydis sighed. "Forget that, what happened just now?"
"Don't make me say it," Caeancora pled.
"Go on. I'm waiting."
"I'm not ready for a new host. Besides, if that assassin was able to kill you, I'd end up inside her. Which will bring me right back to Culm." The younger her sighed and looked up into the empty grayness. "You may have lost your arm, but muscle memory is enough. I remember the pathways, your veins, your nerves. I can replicate them. I can manifest."
A tingling on her left side lit up and Keydis looked down, shocked. There was a faint purple outline of her arm. She held it up in front of her. She felt nothing at all but she could see it and, as she thought about it, she could curls its fingers and clench its fist.
"Already planning to use me, I see.
"If you're afraid of something, you can't just hide. You have to take care of it, clench your fist, grip your weapon."
"Like you did?" Caeancora asked pointedly. Then the apparition sat up straight, still seated but no longer slouching. "You're terrified of him!"
"But I went after him! I didn't run and hide!"
"Selfish. You didn't bring your friends, you didn't contact the guards. You went into that building to die." Caeancora scowled.
"Selfish... you already said we're not comrades."
"But I need you alive! Understand this, if you go up against him again, we won't win. We can't. Or do you need another lesson on that? This time, it won't just be a limb, though.
"When we fight, and we lose, you'll be dead. And I... well... When I was part of the slime, I was in control. With you, we're... we have an understanding. With him... I think I'd rather be unmade."
Keydis grit her teeth, then fixed Caeancora with a steely glare. "What you want, what I want, doesn't better. That assassin proves it. I was ready to stop, to give up. When Havital died, I... I lost my drive to get revenge. It just felt fucking pointless.
"They sent assassins anyway.
"I'm going to settle this. I'm going to need you to do it. What can you tell me?"
A Talk
Wordcount: 1,023
Author's Note: This feels disjointed and unfocused. I might scrap or rewrite this later.
"What's there to talk about?" The voice was familiar, but different. Her own, but not. It sounded like a younger Keydis, just a few years younger. It was the same voice as the ‘her' that had defeated the vistra-possessed airship.
Not that long ago, and yet ancient history.
The workshop seemed to fade from view, the forge, the anvil, the blood-stained tiles. Even the heat of the flames dissipated. She stood in a field of plain, unrelieved gray. In front of her was a perfect image of herself, clad in familiar clothing. Keydis Lysistrata, in a black long-coat with pruina-fur collar, a sleeveless red shirt underneath, gray shorts, black leather boots. A silver sword hilt at her waist. The doppelganger's hair was spiked up, brunette with dyed red bangs. She sat in an invisible seat, one knee pulled up to her chest. Her violet eyes, which Keydis remembered to be fiery and predatory, now seemed cautious and defensive.
She still had both arms.
"For starters, why did you abandon me?" Keydis asked her doppelganger, clenching her fist.
"Abandon? I'm not your partner, I'm not your ally. I'm not at your beck and call." Her other self, Caeancora, seemed to bristle at the very notion.
Keydis stepped forward, seemingly growing no closer. "Well, then, why did you suddenly turn coward right when I could have fucking used you?" She clutched at where her missing arm used to be. All it would have taken was just that little bit more. Just a little more and she would have been fine.
"The fuck you would have!" Caeancora growled out. They were one. It didn't matter if Keydis chose to shout her words out to the world or kept them in her head, it was one and the same. "I told you to stop! I told you to get the fuck out!"
"No, you didn..."
"I did! You ignored my warnings. That... man. His... beast. It's nothing like me. It's different. Darker. Older." The air seemed to ripple around Caeancora as it remembered the feelings, the abject dread that poured off of Culm the Blue-Eyed. "We felt it before at the restaurant but their boss held him in check. I didn't dare show myself there, and thank fuck you didn't ask me to."
Keydis paused for a moment and considered. At the restaurant, when she had acquired Niketas Leon, it had purely been a fist fight between her and the huge velen, Tigris. At the time it only made sense, keep the stakes low to avoid getting jumped by everyone at the table. With so many eyes on them from the other low-lifes in the restaurant, the Nine would not have wanted to look weak. They had to come off strong, humoring the bounty huntress.
Plus, their leader Guadriar and some of the others looked genuinely sickened by the accusations she laid at his feet.
Still, if things had gone badly, Keydis was prepared to use Caeancora's powers to make a tactical retreat. If what it said now was true, then that would have ended badly for her.
"Didn't dare show yourself," Keydis repeated, looking curiously at the manifestation of her inner corruption. "Why not? I'm pretty sure Culm already knows I'm a vistra. If he's one, too, shouldn't it know the same way you do?"
"It's different. This thing is hungry. If we clashed, there's no telling what could happen. Like I said, this thing is old. Perhaps one of the oldest of my kind. I couldn't face it. Especially not with you terrified of its host."
Surprised, Keydis fell back a step. "I never said I was afraid. I wasn't afraid! I went there to kill the fucker, what part of that makes it seem like I'm afraid? Huh? Answer me that!"
Caeancora chuffed and looked straight up at her. "Lie to yourself, if you want."
No longer comfortable with this line of questioning, Keydis sighed. "Forget that, what happened just now?"
"Don't make me say it," Caeancora pled.
"Go on. I'm waiting."
"I'm not ready for a new host. Besides, if that assassin was able to kill you, I'd end up inside her. Which will bring me right back to Culm." The younger her sighed and looked up into the empty grayness. "You may have lost your arm, but muscle memory is enough. I remember the pathways, your veins, your nerves. I can replicate them. I can manifest."
A tingling on her left side lit up and Keydis looked down, shocked. There was a faint purple outline of her arm. She held it up in front of her. She felt nothing at all but she could see it and, as she thought about it, she could curls its fingers and clench its fist.
"Already planning to use me, I see.
"If you're afraid of something, you can't just hide. You have to take care of it, clench your fist, grip your weapon."
"Like you did?" Caeancora asked pointedly. Then the apparition sat up straight, still seated but no longer slouching. "You're terrified of him!"
"But I went after him! I didn't run and hide!"
"Selfish. You didn't bring your friends, you didn't contact the guards. You went into that building to die." Caeancora scowled.
"Selfish... you already said we're not comrades."
"But I need you alive! Understand this, if you go up against him again, we won't win. We can't. Or do you need another lesson on that? This time, it won't just be a limb, though.
"When we fight, and we lose, you'll be dead. And I... well... When I was part of the slime, I was in control. With you, we're... we have an understanding. With him... I think I'd rather be unmade."
Keydis grit her teeth, then fixed Caeancora with a steely glare. "What you want, what I want, doesn't better. That assassin proves it. I was ready to stop, to give up. When Havital died, I... I lost my drive to get revenge. It just felt fucking pointless.
"They sent assassins anyway.
"I'm going to settle this. I'm going to need you to do it. What can you tell me?"