Difference between revisions of "Arrival"

Latest revision as of 10:18, 8 February 2013

Zirak, Part 1

The carrier was silent except for the hum of the warp drive. The men and women in the ship occasionally looked to one another, but idle conversation wasn’t what any of them were useful for. Well, there was one, but he was bound and gagged to the wall. He still smiled from behind the gag, which was infuriating to the woman who had been standing the entire time.

Well, standing was a bad word for it. Her feet never quite touched the ground, and since she had boarded the transport behemoth, she had a look like she had smelled something awful. The gagged man suspected that he was most of the cause of it. Which was why he was smiling. The only drawback was that he couldn’t taunt her from behind the gag.

A cloaked figure knelt to the side in the giant chamber, praying while occasionally flipping the hourglass around her neck over, making sure that the silvery sands contained within never stopped moving. Next to her the auburn haired man sat on the floor of the Behemoth, arms crossed. His eyes were closed, but the bound man felt that he was still staring at all of them from behind his heavy lids. He gave an involuntary shudder before looking to his companions in bondage.

One was drugged, he was sure. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been still for this entire journey. She was beautiful when she was knocked out, he could clearly see her thin face, her white hair. Now the other… Well, she was bound for attacking their expedition’s leader. He half expected the floating woman to immolate her in white flames, but instead she was only disabled by the efforts of another woman, who he couldn’t see anymore. Her blue hair moved like she was underwater, and she sullenly stared back at the man, full lips in a pout.

“Zirak.”

He looked up upon hearing his name. The floating woman had been joined by another, who flickered around her, crystalline hair with flames flickering inside. Zirak saw two different colors burning inside, but kept this to himself, like he did most secrets. The one who had spoken was not the Sovereign or her new arrival, but the man who had fooled the others into thinking he was asleep. He had stood up, dwarfing all others but the floating woman with his mere presence. “You understand what you are here to do, do you not Fiend?”

The Fiend gave as much of a shrug as his restraints allowed. He knew this man’s type, which was infinitely more interesting than the floating woman.

“Someone remove the gag so I can have a conversation with him, please.” He said, exasperated. Zirak noted that he wasn’t going to walk past the other Sovereign. Or maybe he wasn’t going to walk next to the Hierarch. The second colored flame was burning a little more intense now that Faredun had stood up.

“That won’t be a problem, my liege.” He said, the gag slipping to the ground with the other restraints. Faredun either didn’t notice the dripping sarcasm or was ignoring it. “As you can tell, there are no restraints that can hold me.” The floating woman turned her gaze of disapproval to Zirak. Ashna, the Hierarch, sneered at him as well and spoke in a voice like a thousand crystals chiming:

“Then why, my dear companion, have you stayed bound for so long?”

“Because it amused me to do so, you bitch.”

Almost instantly, he felt the mind-blades at his throat. His lips curled up into a cruel smile and he ran his tongue over his lips.

“Go ahead. Kill me. Then you’ll have to explain to the fucking mini-Ramethus out there why he no longer has the Spiral’s greatest spy to account for in his ridiculous strategies.” He sounded confident, but part of him was already searching for a way out, preparing a charm to slide through her psychic powers like they were nothing. But what about after that? She was warning him now, but soon he wasn’t going to know where the attacks were coming from, he couldn’t dodge those forever…

“Stand down Ashna.” Roshan finally said, her voice booming through the behemoth. “As much as I’d like to see you eviscerate him right here, the little snake is right. We need him to bring down the Gunstar.”

Silence descended back onto the group. All eyes were on Zirak. He shifted uncomfortably. This wasn’t a situation he could control. That made him nervous. When he was nervous, he makes mistakes. That was how he ended back here.

“…But yes, I understand what I need to do.” He said simply, before reaching over and giving Emet a shake. Her red eyes snapped open. “That doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”

“Theion damn you!” shrieked Roshan. White fire poured from her mouth and eyes and rolled over Zirak. Well, where the Fiend was. Only wisps of shadow remained where he was, as he rematerialized next to the Benefactor, adjusting his coat. He heard laughing coming from the scene of chaos he had created, and felt a swell of pride inside his chest.

That was when he felt the massive hand of Faredun on his shoulder.

“Don’t think she’s going to forgive you easily on this. Her compassion may be large, but her wrath is infinitely larger.” Was he restraining laughter? Zirak felt his smile creep back onto his face.

“I fear your wrath more than hers, to be honest.” He paused, realizing he was not being honest. “You should help get the Scourge back in line so I may slip away. Talking and not stopping me would be bad form, would it not?”

Faredun hesitated for only a moment, but Zirak took that as his chance to slip down the brass and obsidian stairs to the other quarters.

“You truly are a successor to ultimate darkness, aren’t you Zirak?” Spoke a voice barely above a whisper. She was near, but was probably hiding for a dramatic entrance later.

“I wouldn’t say successor. He was more of a shitty father figure that I couldn’t help but inevitably become.” Emet would buy him this alone time that he so craved. “Basic human patterns and all that.”

“Every story does need an antagonist…” Came the voice again, as she emerged from the wall, draped in metaphor and heavy in her build up. Zirak was never sure what she was writing herself as to appear to him or even if she was really a woman. Such distinctions stopped matter a long time to him.

“And every good antagonist needs to hear how vile and awful he is.” He ran his tongue across his lips in anticipation. “This will be the last time we have any alone time before we reach the Gunstar. I humbly suggest that you and I make the best of this, Ona. After all, a broken romance is the best story one can tell, yes?”