by Raiha on October 27th, 2010, 2:07 am
Kanikra had helped herself to the contents of the kitchen, packing one of Raiha’s leather pouches with food. She’d be fine… sooner or later, anyway, but food would expediate the proess. She didn’t know where the Coalinga mines were, but at least Hatot did. She guided her mount after him, feeling some alien bit of idle pleasure that at least the sun was coming up. She shook her head. That feeling had to have come from Raiha. It was a useless feeling; neither of them relied on the sun to see, and it would be dark where they were going anyway. The sunlight was merely a warm comfort that would turn into an uncomfortable, sticky heat that would lick at her skin and turn them purple. She distracted herself with thoughts of Spiritism as they rode. She would learn it for the sole purpose of ruining the ghost that had ruined her arm. She’d catch it and enslave it, and…
Now that’s a plan, Raiha’s words whispered along Kanikra’s subconscious, disrupting her thoughts.
Where would you start? Kanikra inquired of her sister. Don’t be stupid. At least this has proved that you, all of you, have a pretty major weakness in your perceived defenses. A hole in the armor. And it needs to be patched. Quickly, too. You’ve wasted enough time hiding up here, and what have we to show for it? Nothing, Raiha! You play with your birds and Kelvics, learning and doing nothing. At this rate, a year will pass, a whole year, and we’ll still be sitting here as we were when we arrived. If you’re not going to do something, I will. Some self-preservation, please?
By the time they’d reached the Coalinga mines, Raiha had quieted, and Kanikra was left to her own devices without Raiha fussing in her ear, for once. She dismounted and had a look around in the morning light, flexing her scaly, reptilian arm, a look of utter distaste on her face. The ghost had not been gentle, and the forced morphing, and the three-way struggle for control had been draining – she was still tired. She’d have a few more things to eat, and try some more. Where Raiha had failed, perhaps she would manage when she had recovered more djed. The others in town could take a while, which would give her time to work, and find out just where her twin’s Kelvic bondmates were.
She was pinching the crumb off of a sturdy-crusted bun as she spotted the corpse, and merely stared at it, taking in the various implements sticking out of the man’s body. Sloppy, she thought to herself. So very, very sloppy…
‘Sloppy?!’ Raiha repeated incredulously as Kanikra surveyed the corpse a little more, still picking at her bun. That’s horrible.
That’s life. Or the absence of it, if you want to nitpick, Raiha’s twin answered, not at all particularly disturbed. It was almost sort of creative, and she supposed one could say that the arrangement was almost artistic. This is why we have to toughen you up. Unlike Mura, the rest of Mizahar is a dangerous place. That could be you one day. Now shut up. That’s a trap. She looked up at Hatot as he essentially voiced her thoughts about going into the mines on a whim in a rush. Fools rushed in, after all. She looked up at Hatot when he offered her beef, and shook her head slightly. “You eat it. I brought plenty. But thank you,” she held up the leather pouch stuffed with comestibles that she had packed prior to leaving, though she was still working on the bun, clutching it with her right hand and picking off of it with the left.
Akasha arrived, then, something that brought pleasure and relief to Raiha, and at the same time, a bit of worry. While they both knew what she was capable of, they had half a notion of what their opponent lying in ambush was waiting for. Don’t get her hurt unduly, she warned Kanikra.
Would you stop worrying? She’s more than capable of using that blade. Stop acting like a mother hen with chicks, Kanikra scolded. You can’t protect them. They’re here to protect you. One look at Kanikra, though, once Akasha got over the shock of the Akontak’s mutated arm, and the Kelvic could tell something beyond the obvious was wrong. This both was and wasn’t her bondmate: the sister-soul with whom she shared a body with was at the forefront. “Calm down,” the impassive voice was Kanikra’s. “Now, quietly. Not that it matters, I suppose. It knows we’re here… though not how many…” she nodded at Asim’s arrival, and just eyed him when he made the comment about ‘not a word’. They’d met. The last meeting hadn’t been, well, particularly pleasant.
“There was a ghost in Sanctuary earlier. Raiha was possessed, and it morphed our arm using djed. We’ll fix it. We are waiting for another group – those in Sanctuary… Akela, Kavala, and so on – to get here. They were going to the library to see if they could find any information… or a Spiritist, one who uses magic for and against Ghosts… to help. But calm yourself,” this last comment was directed at Akasha. “There was nothing you could have been able to do anyway had you been there. This is likely the work of the same ghost.” She jerked her head in the direction of the corpse in the tent over there. She needed to keep the ever-passionate Akasha calm. While she normally eschewed contact, she elected to make an exception, and draped her good arm over Akasha’s shoulders, giving her a bit of a squeeze. “This is Hatot,” she told Akasha, turning the Kelvic slightly with her body to face him a bit. “He lives at Sanctuary. He’s Kavala’s partner. This is Akasha,” she told the Akalak, brisk with introductions. “She and Asim, you’ve seen him around… are Raiha’s Kelvic partners. Laeraix is around somewhere. She’ll turn up.” For someone who had been spiritually violated, forcibly morphed, and shown a violently murdered corpse, Kanikra was amazingly calm.
She looked over the entrance of the Coalinga mines, bringing the djed into focus so she could have another look around. The events of the earlier morning had proven that one needed to pay far more attention to what was going on beyond the realm of what was easily visible to the naked eye. She studied her reptilian arm, flexing it, watching it carefully to see how the limb looked when one studied it under a different light, so to speak, focusing on it, her stare intent as she tried to bring the limb back down to the longer, smooth, blue appendage it had been before. Satisfied with her effort in that regard, she turned her attention towards the mouth of the mines, watching it. She looked down at the avian Kelvic tucked into her side and sighed inwardly. At least these two would be useful if they decided to go down there before the others got there.
As the sun got higher, Kanikra was right about the sun getting annoying. At least it would be cooler down in the mines when they got down there, out of the heat of the sun. She rested, ate, and kept vigil, occasionally rubbing her reptilian arm to test the feeling in it, keeping an eye on Asim and Akasha. Those two could do some damage. Even in the closed-quarters of the mine, Akasha had her katana, and Asim, well, Asim was a menace. Treat them with the respect that they’re due. It comes back tenfold, Raiha advised her sister.
And if I don’t, then what? What can you do about it? I can keep you back there indefinitely, you know, Kanikra taunted.
I swear to Akajia… Raiha began.
Go on, get angry, Kanikra encouraged as she wordlessly offered the others the pouch of food she’d packed in silent offering. You need that. A bit of fire.
Aren’t you the one who says emotion clouds your judgment and impairs your senses? Raiha retorted. The rest had done her some good, but Kanikra wasn’t about to surrender the body right then. There wasn’t much Raiha could do about it in that regard. Fighting for control right now would only be to the detriment of both of them. If Kanikra wanted it right then… Raiha supposed she would have to let her have it.
In your case, you need it. You’re like a turtle. You need a fire lit under you just so that you’ll stick your head out, much less get moving. You’re not happy about what happened here? Do something about it. She frowned as something began to intrude on the formulating she had been doing from where she had been sitting in the shade offered behind a fortunately corpse-free tent, watching the entrance of the mines with her Auristics. She had a feeling something was coming up before she heard the screams, getting up and making her way over to the entrance. The need to heal, to pass on her divine aunt’s gift to the world… It irritated Kanikra to know that if she caused damage, she needed to heal it, and the Akontak stood there, lips pursed, gold eyes narrowed, even as Hatot forbid her entry, as the screams died out. There was a tightness in her usually aloof features, a sort of tension as she watched the man being dragged back in just as quickly as he had appeared. But she knew in a way she didn’t want to possess, that the injured party was still alive and suffering, even though she could no longer see or hear him. “I need to go in there. Now,” she grated out through clenched teeth. “Rak’keli insists, and the goddess's summons must be heeded.”
The first rule of Akajia is you do not talk about Akajia.
