by Calista Skye
The girl's eyes flicked to her left at the small brush of music resounding the air. A girl with brilliant, violet eyes and a warm, welcoming smile nodded to her in agreement.
"We're going to be make sure you get home."
The words trailed off in ripples as Ayanu felt a wave of exhaustion rush through her, the scent of a sort of smoke pluming the air around her.
"This will help you gather some strength and dream pleasantly."
It was the male who said that last. Somehow, she could tell his words were sincere, but there was something more there. A shame or regret within himself that laced the edges of his words with a plea for... approval? Forgiveness? She couldn't be sure which. She knew that words should make sense, but as she looked for them to do so, they evaded her completely.
"We can't bring her to a lodge if she cannot walk."
"She'll walk."
"When?"
"Soon, Jana. It will all take time."
"That's all fine and good, Kesh. But we don't have a great deal of that resource to play with, do we?"
Kesh. The female had referred to the male as Kesh.
The enforcer's daughter felt a burst of warmth at the sound of the name. It was like... She strained to remember the word. The word that immersed her thoughts like rain. Like rain and the rays of a newborn sun. Like raining stars around the dazzle tree. Her heart squeezed at the associations she made to the male's voice, at the mix of feelings it stirred in her. Somehow they seemed at odds, even as her mind attempted to join them in her consciousness.
Who was he?
Slipping deeper into slumber, she grabbed hold of the first key she instinctively realized she would need to have to piece her mind together. Ayanu. Her name. Relief flooded her system. Yes. Her name was Ayanu. And she was Tavalar. By tradition. Not necessarily by blood. She'd been told as much.
Remembered a life before the people she'd come to claim as her own. The people who'd come to claim her... but there was something else.
Something... Fear clutched her gut in the cold, grip of icy dread. A sense of doom, a sure doom. A loss of self she struggled to connect to its source, to the monstrous force, the remembrance of which prickled her skin.
Her new skin. This skin was new.
Eyes bursting open again, Ayanu remembered, so fully she was desperate to cry out. But no sound came.
And the image of red eyes, the potent, soul-sucking memory of it would not let go even as she lay there helpless, unable to shake them from her mind's eye.
Eyes, burning red, like boiling blood.
"They cannot hurt you," the male assured her, seeming to reach into her mind and wipe the image away like a protector. Perhaps that was his role. Ayanu turned to look at him, the sight of him sending a shiver of tingles over her prone form.
He was beautiful, and... she knew him too, didn't she?
No. Not well. She'd only seen him in passing, she thought. Training her gaze on him, she dug into her deep mind, instinctively sorting through its pictures, until the image of him emerged, just before another vision that squeezed her heart with a fear that sent the first sound hurdling from her mouth.
A scream.
Ayanu screamed like her very life depended on it.
8
Kesh
He watched her flail wildly, not yet in control of her limbs, with a scream that sent the hairs on his arms standing erect at attention. Kesh knew exactly what she was remembering, and the knowledge of it squeezed his heart as he attempted to console her.
"You're okay now," he assured.
But there was no calming her.
She screamed until tears pricked her jewel eyes and rolled down her cheeks. The girl was horrified, remembering her own death. Knowing he'd been present when her brother had disembodied her.
"Jana. The sedating herbs, quickly." Wafting the stick in the ether surrounding the enforcer's daughter, he set his jaw with determination.
It was several minutes before the girl was overcome by it and finally fell into a slumber that they could only hope would hold until starset.
"How are we to gain her help if she's going to be screaming at the sight of you, Kesh?"
"The memory may fade as she pieces the rest of her world together. At least for awhile," he answered, exasperated.
"And when it returns after that?"
"Let's hope it doesn't return until after we've won her trust and have a chance to explain ourselves."
Breathing heavily, Jana folded her arms over her chest, making a show of her dissatisfaction before exiting the room entirely, leaving Kesh to watch over the girl with an aching heart.
The wait to follow was fitful for Kesh, and the hollow words of assurance he'd given Jana did little for his own worries as he waited for the enforcer's daughter to wake. He told himself he wasn't in over his head. With the blessing of the ancestors, there was no way they could fail, right?
Drawing a sip of calming tea from his flask, he scanned a star map, running a finger along the most optimal routes they could take to Karlek Sho that might help them avoid the need for a lodge.
If she woke with her memories of Tarik and Kesh, bringing her to a lodge wouldn't be an option. They'd probably be finished before they began. Rebirthing her was one piece of the equation, maybe even two if it satisfied the Tavalar enforcer, but the girl was their only known ticket to reclaiming the stolen blood.
That couldn't be allowed to remain in the hands of the acquisitoners even one more day span if it could be helped.
Starting at the groan escaping the girl's lips, Kesh's eyes trained on her, intent as his heart took into a thump in his chest. Any moment now, he'd know if his theory was right. That they could actually go on.
He had a plan if the memory that had made it necessary to sedate her again proved correct. A plan that involved telling her she'd been rebirthed, that her disembodiment was an accident.
There was no more clever an option than to be candid, to give her the truth of her ordeal and how they'd rectified it.
All he could do was hope that she'd recognize the amends, as well as their plight when he presented it to her. If she had enough fight in her to overcome the programming attached to her memory, she might even want to seek her own recompense for the evils the acquisitioners had exacted upon her.
He was banking on that most of all, more than he hoped for his people to be awarded with her sympathy alone.
The thudding of his heart stilled when her eyes fluttered open, then sensing him, set on him. She searched his face for a long stretch of time before attempting to speak. Then she touched a hand to her throat, and a helplessness flit across her features before she averted her eyes from him.
"Your voice will return. I'm sorry the process is not so quick, but you've... been through quite a lot. There was no other way to help you."
Kesh fought himself, straining to keep his eyes from wandering over the lush curves the blanket she was covered in clung to. Jana had come in to take her measurements and was busying herself with sewing an outfit that would fit her properly before they reached civil space where they could procure more for her.
The outfit would be cut in a Teleran style, but it was unlikely the girl would immediately recoil from that.
Her Tavalar conditioning would trickle back into her perception, and by the time it was fully restored and fired off in her synapses, her experience with them might override her inherited notions of Telerans.
One could hope, anyway.
Catching the light of the visipanel's stars reflecting off of her lashes, Kesh saw the beginnings of a tear starting into its descent down her sculpted cheeks. His gut tightened and his heart heavied seeing it. He felt responsible for this. More than Tarik. If he'd just listened and taken a guard with him, he'd have never crossed her path. Tarik would have never been forced to disembody her when she'd lunged for him.
But then, the guard would have killed her instead, and there might not have been any time to snatch a strand of her hair wit
h which to bring her back. So, as Han always liked to say: There is a cause for every effect. Do not judge the events of your life so closely without every shred of evidence.
Indeed, if he'd done things any differently, they might find themselves with no leads at all to the blood the people would need to have returned to them at the first opportunity. The girl's disembodiment had essentially been a sacrifice. One that could save them if she was willing.
Still, he was sorry she had already endured so much hardship. Even as an agent for the acquisitioners, it had surely not been her own choice. To be taken and forced to undergo things Kesh could only imagine, only to be turned into a monstrous version of oneself... and then be used to harm others, and be disembodied... it was horrific. A quality of experience the acquisitioners specialized in.
Kesh frowned, then quickly turned it into as assuring a smile as he could manage when the girl looked to him again, her hand pressing to her stomach. Her gaze boring into his, she rubbed it. Recognition sparked Kesh's eyes.
"You must be famished. Here, have some tea, and I'll prepare something for you right away."
Extending his flask, Kesh rose, more nervous around her than he imagined he should be. Some of it was the obvious, the guilt he'd fought his way through as she slept, but it was something else. Her beauty... A stillness within her that the absolute depths of his maleness reacted to with an intensity that made it a task to hold onto his head around her.
When she looked to him again, he remembered he was still standing and gawking and quickly made his way to the food station to rustle up something light to start her off with. Solid foods wouldn't be consumable so early into her rebirth. Maybe by starset he could fix her some Shomsha.
At the sound of Jana's hover boots clanking up the small ramp behind him, he turned to find her less than pleased expression. Arms folded over her chest, she frowned at him with a dark glint in her eyes.
"Next time you decide to leave babysitting duty, give a girl a heads-up, yes?"
Kesh's eyes averted to the corridor then back to Jana. His expression fell.
"She can't be far," his fiery partner confirmed. "I'm coming with. Flick off the cooker. You'll burn us down if you leave that thing on unsupervised."
Sucking in a breath, Kesh nodded and reached to flick off the switch.
9
Ayanu
Holding her head, Ayanu rushed through the corridor, pushing against the walls, searching for a vulnerable spot. Nothing. The red eyes followed her. The other her with the maniac smile and knowing gaze lurked in the corners of her mind, taunting her, waiting to eat her and take her over.
"Please stop running. We're here to help you."
Jerking her head to the right, Ayanu's gaze landed on the kind-eyed male who'd put her to sleep. Her heart and her gut battled with her as he looked into her eyes, by all indication harmless and well-meaning. Aiming to help. But he'd been there. He'd... she squeezed her eyes shut, grabbing her head. She'd... she'd planned to hurt him.
"Whatever you remember... there's more to it than you may recall."
Blinking her eyes open again, Ayanu bored her eyes into him, her instincts telling her to run, her heart telling her to wait. To listen. That he could be trusted. It was impossible. Like she had two minds battling for dominance that would surely drive her insane.
"You were changed by the acquisitioners. You may not remember..."
Red eyes. Voltage. Screaming. Many, many girls.
Cricking her brows, she grit her teeth.
"They sent you to get something aboard our ship."
The male held his hands out now; the curvy woman stood beside him like she was ready to be far more rough than he if the need called for it. Ayanu felt the other her steel and coil with readiness for battle, like a space cat arching its back with a warning growl.
"My brother... he thought you were going to hurt me. And things got out of hand. I petitioned the spirits to bring you back. To grant you form again."
Disbelieving what she was hearing, Ayanu took a cautionary step back.
"We want to return you to your family. Jana and I. I am Kesh."
His hand touched his chest.
"Do you recall your name?"
Eyes misting, Ayanu felt the other relax, only suspicious now, no longer preparing to react with violence. Something fell away from her as he spoke. His lush lips forming the gravelly soft of his words. His eyes imploring her, deep like the still pools of Sho-Sho. He was as elegant as a statue, having a look of nobility, though his heart felt like that of a seer or caretaker of some sort, even as a sure might crackled in his aura, reined in and subdued, but unmistakeable to her, even still.
She wanted to trust him, but she could not trust why. Looking upon him made her feel... things that were surely compromising her head, making his sweet words sound logical when perhaps they were self-serving, more than anything else.
"Please. Allow us a chance to help you regain yourself. Your father-"
The woman nudged him, but he went on.
"Your father will be very relieved to know you are intact. And we'd like to give you the chance to repay the fiends who have placed us all in this position. If it is your wish."
Ayanu tilted her head, eying him suspiciously.
"Would you at least like to put on the clothes Jana's prepared for you? Take time to think through it all? If you find you want to go your own way, we will drop you off at the nearest lodge and hail your father, so he can come and retrieve you."
Ayanu's heart thumped in her chest.
Father.
"Please, just... let us help."
Gaze softening, Ayanu found herself and her other helpless under the force of that gaze. The sweetness of this male's soul vibrating through her. Drawing a stilling breath, she averted her eyes.
"It's up to you," he said.
~
Running her hands over the cloth of the form-fitting suit the woman alien had made her, Ayanu flinched at the woman's shouting. As soon as her clothes had been delivered to her, the pair had left to argue about the promise the male had made to Ayanu. The walls of the ship were thin, and they had likely forgotten that Ayanu could hear every word they uttered.
The vibrations of the woman's anger were discomfiting to say the least. Every sound Ayanu'd heard since waking seemed to go right through her, but angered words, especially, were extremely hard to process.
Lifting up her flask, she took another sip of the warm liquid it contained. Sweet and oily, it took the edge off of the harsh tones coming from the next room. Lowering the flask, she touched a hand to her throat.
Eking out her own sound, she frowned at the failed attempt at speech, her heart falling a little with the failure. How long would it take for her to remember herself? To function normally? To speak when she wished? To dream without being dragged through a hell she wasn't sure she truly wanted to remember every moment until she opened her eyes again.
Head jerking up at the sound of footsteps approaching, she found the kind eyes of the male again. Kesh, he said his name was. Her eyes averted to the bowl-shell and flask in his hands.
"You won't be able to hold a great deal down. Start with this."
He made slow, careful movements toward her, and she couldn't help but flinch and scoot to the edge of the cot reactively. Ayanu wasn't afraid of him exactly, but her body was cautious.
An instinct within her told her not to trust too deeply. Not so immediately, anyway.
The other growled within her, but she fought her back. It wasn't easy, but she was stronger, at least right now. The other hadn't regained herself and maybe never would. As long as she didn't overtake who Ayanu was, she would do what she could to fight against the violent impulses in the other version of herself embedded within her.
Fear chugged through her veins every time she slept and the pale, red-eyed men poked and prodded her. Her memories of them flooded her in cutting bits that seemed intent to further fragment her mind. Whoever they were, it seemed
they had almost meant to discourage her so deeply that even in escape, she would never be free of them. It angered her, but if she was being honest with herself, it made her afraid right then, so vulnerable and without even her voice.
What if they came for her again?
Her thoughts turned to the male. Kesh. Was he her protector? Should she consider him in such a way? She remembered his own fear when the ferocity of his kin unleashed itself, monstrous as it shifted partial shape, the might of an animal in his kin's eyes. This Kesh had seemed helpless then. His kin had chosen to protect him. How could she place her trust in this Kesh?
She watched him set the shell down on the cot beside her, bending to retrieve the first flask and replace it on the ramp panels with the other. The new one was warm. She could feel its heat wafting off from it from where she sat.
"Oh, and I... I thought this might help. It's a good story. I figure you'll have an easier time forming your words if you take in some stories. Refamiliarize yourself with things. There's a small data terminal here, as well. If you... want to study while we await our destination."
She could feel the other within her bare her teeth.
But she, the one in power right then, merely accepted the book and looked away.
10
Kesh
The girl's eyes snapped open at the sound of the pulser, their irises red-red. On instant alert, Kesh stood and grit his jaw. She squeezed her eyes shut, her legs curling toward her belly in discomfort. Groaning, she rolled to her side, slowly rocking herself. Kesh's heart opened to her in the instant, but he'd seen her eyes. Whatever the acquisitioners had implanted in her consciousness was awake, and it wouldn't do to take such a danger lightly.
Eyes blinking open again, they shot to him, and her brows narrowed nearly to a V over her eyes. He knew that look. She'd worn it in her first body when she'd attempted to attack him. But they'd handled it wrong. Followed tradition. He wouldn't do that now.
