Until We Have Faces

[ninefox]

Krell had to pin him with the Force to get him on the altar, and not gently. The back of his head might be bleeding, but it's hard to tell: the antechamber already smells of iron. The whole station is a bristling-black hulk of ancient ore, nickel and iron and ice and stone. The lack of anything resembling alloys or right angles makes it feel horribly unreliable, not a machine guaranteed to keep the air in, but an ancient brooding piece of debris untouched by the steadiness of engineers. It did have an airlock, that Krell and a few shame-faced clone guards shuffled him through, and iced-over doors somewhere in the dimness of their crisscrossed headlamps that must lead back into the warren of Ninefox Point.

The benighted promontory did not orbit so much as a brown dwarf or black hole: it was a rogue planetoid, drifting through the ragged stretches of starless, lifeless space. Here, old Strife, the Dark Side of War, had been confined ever since the ascendancy of the Jedi, noble Combat, and the rest of the Light pantheon. But even reviled and relegated Gods were due certain honors, and retained certain powers - and certain appetites. And Krell - who had his own suspicions about the future of that ascendancy - had come to give Strife his due and be rid of his most vexing problem in one blow.

It's pitch-black with him and the others gone. The heavy magnetic manacles embedded in the alter are utterly immovable; the stone beneath him is pitted and rough and cold, almost untouched since the creation of the universe - except, of course, for all the sacrifices that have come before.

Comments

[ninefox]

Awoken by the noise, the little creature in the boot squeaks, scrambles, and promptly falls out of it. It's a long russet-red tube - more the shape of just one of a fox's tails than an actual fox, if the iconography were correct, and smaller than Fives' forearm.

"Hello!" It says in a squeaky voice - nothing like Old Strife's - and bounces over to him, tentatively putting a tiny black paw on his thigh.

"Er...should I...that is...would food help?" It really should know how to deal with crying consorts by now, it thinks, but it's been such a long time since the last one.

[callmefives]

Fives doesn't so much as look up when the creature squeaks and falls out of the boot. He doubts it's going to hurt him, and he wouldn't really care if it did. When it balances itself against his thigh he lifts his eyes enough to look at it without lifting his head, then shakes it just a fraction before looking down again.

He doesn't want food, he wants this to be over.

[ninefox]

"Okay. Well. Maybe later. And you should have water, in a bit. But we can...stay here for now. That's good too."

Marten is really not very good at this. It tries to curl up with its head resting on Fives' leg, but really it's too small to make it work, so eventually it climbs up and sort of. Flops. Over Fives' knee. Just so he isn't so alone.

[callmefives]

He shakes his head at that too, the only acknowledgment that he gives the little creature, even it drapes itself over his thigh. Maybe the monster isn't going to kill him, but that doesn't mean he has to live. He can salvage what dignity and honor he has left after-

His shoulders shudder and he keeps his teeth clenched against the sob that wants to come out-

After being weak and pathetic enough to let himself be soiled like that, and find his own way to death, even if he has no hope, now, of spending it at the Lady's side. It still has to be better than to be a plaything for her ancient, evil enemy.

[ninefox]

"Oh. I'm doing it all wrong, aren't I? I'm sorry," Marten wheezes, wiggling a little. "I could call one of the other attendants? Toast would know what to do, probably. But the Lord said I should be the one so here I am and. If you tell me what would help I'll try to do that?"

[callmefives]

The little creature sounds so earnest Fives can't help looking at it again, and he has a brief urge to see if it's as soft as it feels. He keeps his hands curled against his knees, though.

"I don't... want help," he finally rasps. "Just-" He shakes his head and drops his eyes again- "Just leave me be."

[ninefox]

"I...can't," Marten admits, sounding a bit crestfallen. The Lord said he should attend. "But I could be quiet?"

He can try, anyway.

[callmefives]

Fives folds his arms over his updrawn knees and drops his head on them, letting the cold of the floor and the room and the altar at his back seep into him. Dying of thirst won't be quick and it won't be pleasant, maybe he can find some way to speed himself along before then, but for now he just... sits. Silent and still and miserable.

[ninefox]

Marten squeaks a little and falls off his leg; eventually he scampers up onto the stone, and then hops down onto Fives' shoulder, and finally curls up there, in a soft warm little ball.

He lasts about ten minutes.

"Could we....could we at least get out of the anteroom? Only it's much nicer inside, and we worked very hard on your chambers, and, and, and if you don't like it we'll fix it?"

Also Marten is starting to worry he could get in trouble for not doing any successful attending.

"...please?"

[callmefives]

Fives doesn't even move through the falling and climbing and general rearranging, though the little creature's warmth breaks the room's chill where it curls against him. At least it stays quiet... for a while.

"Chambers?" he asks roughly. He'd assumed that this was where he'd be left, that this miserable little stone room was to be the extent of his world until he manages to end himself.

[ninefox]

Marten seizes on this opening with enthusiasm.

"Yes! We did the light spectrum so it's perfectly suited for your eyes, and soft floors, except one bit that's bouncy, that one was my idea! And, and a bed, and chairs and things, Thief says you've got a skeleton that's good for chairs. And warmer than here! And games, if...if you like games. And a training place, because you're strong and all. And pretty colors on the walls, even some blue, even though the Lord doesn't really like blue."

[callmefives]

The idea that there could be light and warmth in this place, soft floors and luxuries like a bed and chairs is almost incomprehensible to him, and he doesn't want them anyway. And he wouldn't even know what to do with a game, or what one is, even if he were planning on settling in here. But-

"A training place?" he rasps, lifting his head a little.

[ninefox]

"Yes!" Marten hops down and scampers over to one of the doors limned in low yellow lights. "Come and see!"

It was actually one of the only places they barely changed at all; all of the sacrifices have been soldiers, after all, and most of them wanted something like it.

[callmefives]

Fives follows the little creature with his eyes, though he still doesn't move. If there have been quarters prepared for him, though, there's no point spending the next ten days dying of thirst here, and he probably won't be left to himself here anywhere, while he might be if he goes wherever he's meant to be.

"What's there?" he asks as he pushes to his feet, not letting any of the stiffness and pain show in the way he moves. The cloak slips the rest of the way off as he rises, and he ignores the boots and coat, though he does retrieve what's left of his blacks from where they've been tossed into a corner.

[ninefox]

"Put your hand on the door to open it," Marten tells him. "There, where the grooves are?"

It's close to hand-shaped, though not exactly - the actual image is a stylized one of the Ninefox's fanned tails.

[callmefives]

Fives lays his hand over the indicated panel. "The training place, what's in there?" he asks again. He wants to know if he can find anything he can use there.

[ninefox]

The eye-lights brighten, and the door just vanishes, opening on a corridor both eerie and beautiful. It still looks like stone, but instead of rough dark asteroid ore, it looks like the inside of a cave, with shining columns of white and iridescent stone, full of ancient curves worn smooth and cracks full of glinting crystals. Some of these are glowing: white and red and yellow. It's both warmer and brighter than the anteroom, and despite being technically smaller, proportion of the the high-ceilinged corridor makes it feel spacious.

"There's a target range, and an obstacle course, and an arena for running or dueling, and lots of climbing walls! Really steep ones! I like seeing how high I can get, except I'm not any good at the curled-over one. And there's weights and swords and big sticks - we fixed them to your hand size - and we can add in other things if you want!"

[callmefives]

That sounds promising. "Any vibroblades?" he asks. He's not trying to be subtle, he doesn't think the chattery little creature is likely to have any clue why he's interested.

[ninefox]

"The training weapons are all softlight, but we can adjust the specifications. How long is a vibroblade supposed to be?"

They've been isolated so long that the names of things change, sometimes.

[callmefives]

Fuck. That won't get him very far, but if there's any wood there he can make do with a splinter if it's solid enough. "They come in assorted lengths."

[ninefox]

There's a branch, and Marten takes the rightmost path; soon they come to a similar door to the one they came through. "It's all in there!"

[callmefives]

Fives lays his hand on the panel next to the door again, assuming it'll work like the first, then steps through the door when it fades away and looks around.

[ninefox]

It's still beautiful, and still a little eerie, but far more recognizable than what Fives has seen of Ninefox point so far. The light is bright, full-spectrum, shining from what look like salt lamps the approximate size of Fives' head dotting the high, arched ceiling. There's a sunken area of silvery sand lined with rans of softlight hilts and quarterstaves in a few different materials: collapsible light metal, specialty ceramic, hardwood, something with a sheen that Fives doesn't recognize. The climbing walls lean along one side of the area, the better to fall into the cushion of the sand, and there's a path around the edge of more packed dirt for running, that meanders off toward the obstacle course in the distance, which has almost the looking of a nature painting, sleek and stylized greens and browns like a forest that just happens to be in the shape of multiple elaborate physical challenges. The walls are similar, tiled in pretty, vivid mosaics that resemble landscapes, shifting from biome to biome.

[callmefives]

Fives heads straight for the weapons, running his hands admiringly over them; weapons have been too central to his life, too essential for his survival, for him to not appreciate them even now. What he's looking for, though, is any sign of something sharp enough to open his veins or pierce to his heart, or something that could be made sharp enough. If he doesn't find it with the weapons he'll do a circuit of the rest of the room, looking for anything he can use.

[ninefox]

All of the equipment is both sturdy and smooth-edged: it was clearly designed with rigorous safety standards. There is, however, an alcove with what looks to be a large, ornate glass water dispenser on top of a stone basin. Beautiful enameled lily-shaped cups sit on stone lily pads carved around the rim. It's full and cold, with condensation dripping down the sides.