Past Comes Knocking [Kavala]

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

3rd Fall 512 AV

There were many times Serrif wished he could see things more clearly in his life. It would help him get bearings on some of the things he felt and some of the scars he carried. Even though the fragments he had were twisted and nightmarish he knew that he would eventually know the truth. He still wanted to know how these memories would hold up to the truth. He still didn’t know so much about his own life…how could he now even begin to comprehend the life before this one and the damage he had done to Crescent…who now was staring him right in the face as Kavala?

He had thought on this several times now; still unsure how to even approach the subject with her. Much less what to say if they even happened on the subject in conversation. It was something he was very uncomfortable with especially when other workers around the Sanctuary were within earshot. He wasn’t exactly proud of what Tizack had done. The man seemed foreign to Serrif, but the memories he had experienced about Tizack and Crescent were more real than his own memories at times. And the fact that Kavala knew of him only made his assumptions more concrete…

Serenity…he needed serenity right now. His work for the day was done and he had made everything in the ledger that the staff had asked of him. He didn’t think anyone could possibly dream up more work for him. It was also getting a little late, his body told him this well enough, working in the within sapped his perception of time completely making him unaware how much time had really passed. But his body never lied, it knew when it was getting tired. It was just about time for him to go to sleep.

He denoted in the log that he had made the required items and then took what was asked of him up to the clinic for storage and use. Just like Kavala had asked him to do when he made a finished product. The system worked well when followed which was why it was in place. The sun had set, he had spent all day in the within making medicine. Well…that was typical; as well as what he was here for. Maybe tomorrow he would get to experiment some more.

A crescent moon…everything came back to that didn’t it?

He shook his head in silence as he walked back down into the within. Seemed life just wanted to remind him of those events for one reason or another. Like he could get those images out of his head in the first place. Although it was all kind of ironic and just to him, he had made a slave out of Crescent in a past life and in this one he was a slave himself. Only real difference was that Crescent never got set free and he had. Tired he decided to take a load off and maybe meditate some in the bathing chamber Kavala had expertly finished last season. A good bath always seemed to get his mind off of things.

Before he knew it he had his clothing off and was soaking in the waters…He leaned his head back having only lit a few candles the ambient light was perfect for him. Flickering every now and then but generally staying at a very low light. He closed his eyes and thought about those memories…the ones he wish he could forget but just couldn’t seem to. He knew he would have to confront Kavala about them eventually. But eventually wasn’t right now, and in this moment he only wanted to rest, relax and think about what was…even if he was thinking about Tizack and Crescent….

[Kavala]

They always needed more help, but there was little coin to spare for it until such a time as the entire rebuild of Sanctuary was done. Kavala had finally, after a fight and a half with Shayru, got Tasival into bed and sleeping. He shared her suite, having a bed of his own and a sideroom screened off just for him. Once she was sure he was asleep, Kavala went to gather the laundry that was still hanging out to dry from earlier today. She'd done it all, but had known that it wasn't the best use of her time. There was always cleaning that needed to be done. There was always laundry. They shared the duty, but with everyone working extra hard on the rebuild, Kavala hated to ask and thus ended up doing all the extra things she should have had servants doing well after dark.

Gathering the bathing towels was one of those things.

But she didn't mind, not really, though she was bone tired and still dressed in her black leathers rather than the silk robe she favored after darkness fell. The night air was chill with the promise of fall settling in, and she was glad for the relative warmth of the leather as she stood out between the clinic and guest quarters and began pulling towels off the line. Clothespins were dropped in a woven basket along with the towels as she hurriedly gathered the air dried absorbent cloths. Along with bath towels, bandages, linens, there were clinic towels as well. It was too much to stand in the dark and fold so she decided to take a lantern and head to the bathing chamber to fold towels on the big counter there where she could put them away immediately. The lions share of the them were for the bath anyhow, and the clinic towels and bandages could go back to up to the clinic when she was done folding them, the basket being a great deal lighter then.

So Kavala, her laundry gathered in a large pile in a woven clothes basket, headed down to the bath. She gently nudged the stone door open after traversing the long stone corridors and walked in, bumping the door shut with a hip. Awkwardly she carried a lantern and the clothes basket. Setting the lantern down, then the clothes basket to one side, Kavala did not at first see the bath was occupied.

She began sorting the towels, using the large counter off to one side, setting aside bandages and linens, before folding and rolling the folded towels to stow them neatly in the cubbyhole in the stone wall designed just for such a thing. She hummed softly as she worked, still not noticing the man half asleep in the bath as her back was too him while she worked.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Moments passed, his awareness flickered just like the light from the candle flame near him. Even with his eyes closed he could see the light, it was soothing, something he had little time for these past few days. He had fallen asleep in his chair at his desk in the workroom several times; which wasn’t good for his back…or his sleep patterns. So it was good to have a little relaxation right now. Which was likely how he missed Kavala coming in and starting to sort things out on it.

It took some time before he noticed that there was anyone else here at all…he was to busy thinking about Crescent. In all he understood quite well while Kavala would be a little hesitant with him. Neither she near he had any idea how much of Tizack was inside him. How much of Tizack was a part of him. He hadn’t spent a ton of time around her exclusively. No, most of their time had been spent rebuilding and making supplies and such. He had aided her in hard labor wherever and whenever she needed it.

And she did work him hard, and he didn’t mind it at all. His muscles ached, burned and sometimes spasamed a little. Aching burning muscles helped tell him that he was pushing himself physically. Not to mention recently feeling tired helped sooth his mind and put him to sleep more easily. Most of that work involved shoveling sand that Kavala was creating making new areas. There was plenty of other physical labor that he needed to do.

Crescent…She was almost always constantly on his mind every time he thought about or saw Kavala. Tizack…he still didn’t understand everything he had done to Crescent. What had developed between them and how much of it was real or just created by Tizack and forced into Crescent’s mind. From what he had known to be true Tizack had only put general thoughts into her. And then Crescent took those thoughts and ran with them.

Ethically, he didn’t know if what Tizack had done was good or bad…white or black. Tizack was left with a very difficult decision, if he let her go he would likely end up killing her later when she tried for his life again. He knew the brainwashing that Crescent received as part of the Ruv’na. She was coerced into believing things that weren’t true. She was a peon in a much bigger game; her life expendable. But was Tizack really any better? In a way he had brainwashed her far worse than her father or the Ruv’na ever had.

But he had given her a life that she could never have imagined. Yes…he had in a way killed Crescent and then resurrected her in an image he wished she would or could be. His mind was weak, which was why he had likely resurrected Crescent as a lover; even if he had intended her to just be a bodyguard. Since she was former Ruv’na she was a good candidate for a bodyguard…but what he had done to her was an injustice; even if it had the best of intentions at the beginning.

But which was really worse? Truth was he was becoming more and more familiar with all the various shades of grey that sat between ethical and unethical behavior. It wasn’t an easy path to tread by any means. He knew it wasn’t the right thing to do…but that also meant he was aware that it wasn’t the best thing to do.

With those thoughts from his head his eyes opened and he was looking at a lone figure in the darkness. He didn’t know who it was at first but with the blonde hair and a quick process of elimination it had to be Kavala. Just who I wanted to see right now… Eventually he knew he would have to face her about this; just now seemed like an awkward way to do it.

He watched her for a few minutes and saw her sorting laundry and folding it. “Do you ever take time off Kavala?” Petch I wasn’t supposed to say that! Here he was in a bathing room completely exposed, but Kavala had seen him nude before. He was a little uncomfortable around her still and he really did want to clear the air of all this.

[Kavala]

She heard the shifting of the water before he spoke, which gave away someone was quietly in the bath. She should have checked before she walked in, but with the folding of the towels, she was fairly well done for the day in terms of chores and Kavala would have some time to spend with Tasival. Then, hopefully, they could head to bed and sleep.

"Serrif. You startled me." Kavala said, turning around even as the water gently lapped the normally quiet pool. "You were so quiet. My apologies. I didn't notice you here. Would you like me to leave you alone?" She added, gesturing to the towels that she was almost done rolling and stowing away. "And to answer your question... I stop when the work is done.. or once a day. It usually is just which comes first." She said with a small smile.

Kavala kept her eyes on Serrif's eyes, in a way giving him privacy, knowing he didn't grow up among he Horseclans where there was no privacy and nudity was never an issue. "How have things been with you anyhow? I know we've both been too busy to really talk." She said softly, turning her back on him, grabbing another towel to roll up and prepared to finish her work should he not ask her to leave.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

He could see her, the defenseless Ruv’na girl when Kavala looked at him right in the eyes. It was as if Crescent herself were staring into his soul. The girl he changed and warped into some sort of image that he desired. He still had yet to make a hard line between him and Tizack, mostly because there were so many areas of grey. Because he understood why the man had done exactly what he had; and yet at the same time with this life he understood the sheer terror and distaste in the very actions themselves. It was a strange place to be really. But he knew that for now there was nothing he could do about it. There in her eyes he saw her…and he needed to make amends…if that were even possible at all.

“Please stay.” His answer came as she then continued on to ask him how things had been.

Honestly? He had been thinking not about himself, but about her. For various reasons as well, not because he was obsessed with her like some of the Akalak men could be said to be. No; because it seemed that their two lives were now becoming more and more intertwined. Something greater than him brought him here; it wasn’t just chance. He had resolved himself of chance a long time ago, nothing in his life had been chance. Rather it all seemed like one planned chain of events that led him to where he was now. Sitting in this bath with the opportunity to discuss something he was still torn about.

“Busy, as you know. Doing research here and there; taking notes making medicines. The usual really noting to interesting there.” Honestly his studies had been remarkably unremarkable but productive now that Elm had come to aid him. Kavala would be preferable but she had far more important things to tend to. So for now he was forging his own path…and that he did not mind.

“But, something has been on my mind Kavala.” There was a slight pause to indicate that he was being very serious here. Nude or not he was going to address this issue here and now.

“Us and I don’t mean just you and me, I mean who we were. What we did together, the organization we were important parts of. What they did. Well rather what we did.” He was interested to find out her opinion and knowledge on the subject; he knew this would bring up other memories as well. Some of his were still fresh in his mind; some he would rather not have and others he did not mind as much. But it was dangerous waters and he knew it.

“If you would rather speak of this later we can. Only I am not sure when the opportunity will present itself again.”

[Kavala]

The Konti turned around fully, her lean hip tilting slightly to catch the corner of the towl rack and hold her whole form there seemingly at ease. And though she leaned back looking relaxed, tension radiated up her body causing her to be alert in a way she rarely was in her own home.

For the longest time she said nothing, not sure what to say to Serrif. Kavala often found herself in that situation and she wondered almost absently if that's why he wanted to talk. Finally she nodded, gathered her thoughts and began to speak. "In this life, unlike the last, I have abilities that allow me to fully see... to re-experience the past. I know Crescent's life like the back of my hand. I remember her training, her father, even her reinvention at your hands. You can deny it but I know that you are as much Tizack as you are Serrif. Just as I am as much Crescent and as I am Kavala. I saw the manipulation on her Chavi for it is my own Chavi and it's twisting during that time in my life effects things now, in this time. It's unavoidable. It also makes things difficult for me sometimes. You ask if I ever rest and you and I both know that it is Crescents training. Never relax. Never stop moving. Never put off until tomorrow what you can get done today. You saw too it. You used me to keep from getting murdered in those early days. I remember it like I was still there. In many ways I still am." She paused, licked her lips, and shifted restlessly again.

Kavala was small, especially in Serrif's shadow. He was a big man compared to the Konti. Yet she moved without effort, smoothly, as if her muscles had been trained by darkness rather than light. She unconsciously always picked her position, strategically, so that light wasn't in her eyes or her escape wasn't blocked.

"How much of it do you remember? You are no Dreamwalker, not now, Serrif. I would know standing here because I bear Nysel's mark. And nothing on you sings back to me. How do you know so much about the past? How do you remember?" She asked. It was half a demand half a question, but none of it hurried. Kavala didn't seem upset as she spoke. In fact there was a calmness to her that would have meant deadly had her hair been dark and her face human. Crescent was always calm, even when she was killing.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

He watched her carefully and knew that while she was Kavala she was also very much Crescent as well. But one could not live an entire past life and not have some imprint of it on them. Maybe that was the reason he was marked by Rak’keli even though he still had so much anger inside him hidden away. Because in a way Rak’keli would only have been welcoming him back into her folds again; knowing well that he would do her bidding; even if at times his morality would be a little grey…however he never had the expressed intentions to hurt. Which was why he measured every one of his actions so carefully now.

And he KNEW the words she spoke were true; even if he wished he wasn’t like Tizack he knew he was. He could feel that man’s drive in almost everything he did. How he hungered after herbal remedies for sickness and disease; gave of himself willingly and openly even if it was at his own cost. But Serrif had also developed a very critical outlook at slavery, rape, starvation and the likes. He wouldn’t stand for any of it…which is why he couldn’t stand that Tizack was part of him. He didn’t want to slip like that man had…like he had.

“Dreams Kavala. Vivid dreams that were to perfect to be just figments of my own imagination. Granted I don’t know as much as you do, but I know certain things for sure. But for some reason when I saw you I saw her and when I said her name…you confirmed my suspicions. ” He rose from the water and stood before her, nude as before but he was comfortable like this before her. She had already undressed him once by command; and he obeyed only because he felt like she would ask only if she needed or wanted to see his marks.

And there they were again, a grotesque yet beautiful painting across his skin. Painted carelessly with a lazy yet vicious hand; the tools varied but the results were clearly seen. Slashes, rips, tears and burns all of them from tools she would likely realize. Some were long and smooth, others short and jagged forming an incomplete yet horrid piece of artwork that was draped on his Isle kissed skin. The water dripped off him as he locked his eyes with hers; direct yet gentle at the same time.

“Kavala, I know what he did. And I can’t stand what Tizack…” ‘No I did this, it is finally time to own it!’ “I did to you in the past. I know I’ve seen the horrors we both have. I have both his good and bad but I’m trying to come to terms with the horrors he inflicted on you. It’s difficult.” He admitted openly as he approached her even closer and took one of the towels from the table and held it in his hand for a few more moments speaking to her still.

“But I have Tizack’s drive to help and aid others, his thirst for knowledge of medicine. But what he lacked in guiding principals and morality I have gained through my experiences. So maybe this time around I will get it right.” There was sincerity in his voice as he spoke to her; “I want to be a colleague with you, I would like for things not to be so…tense between us. Although I know it would be foolish to say such things would happen merely by me asking.”

[Kavala]

Kavala listened quietly, her eyes soft and calm, not full of judgment. Serrif was one of those people who you simply didn’t know what he was going to say before he said it and thus she always needed to listen carefully. It wasn’t that he was different than other humans, because everyone was somewhat wounded inside. It was more that she didn’t know him enough to know what he was going to do or say because he was a stranger. He was a stranger living under her own roof, within her stone, and she needed to change that fact. If she was going to reinvigorate the Cytali, she needed Serrif on board with her plans. He frankly knew more than she did and was privy to a whole new bunch of information Kavala didn’t have – if he could access his mind – or she could access his Chavi.

“Dreams indeed. I trust them more than reality at times. Nysel is a fair lord. He’s one that lets you be both dark and light all at once. And he forgives your transgressions or rather allows for them Serrif.” Kavala said, perhaps referring to Tizack’s sins. She openly looked at Serrif’s body as he emerged from the water. It was not Tizack’s that Crescent was familiar with. It was a new form, one that had been ill used, and she wondered for a moment if he ever dreamed about their time together in the past and thought about their time together now in the future. The Konti was both stronger and weaker than she had been back then. Now she had a powerful weapon though, one that Crescent didn’t have. She had awareness.


“What do you hate that he did exactly, Serrif? Are you horrified that he wiped Crescents memories of who she was utterly clean and took her to bed and used her for his protection and pleasure for the rest of her life keeping her ignorant? She had no more killed her own father for him, not knowing that she was doing it, before he had to have her? Even before the corpse in the hall was cold, Tizack spilled her maiden blood. Or is something else more horrifying that’s bothering you?” Kavala said softly. She moved then, having been holding silent the entire time. She had learned one lesson in this lifetime and that men were men, regardless of how noble they were. It was the one reason she kept Ronan at arms length too. Kavala walked forward, unfraid of Serrif but curious as to what he actually wanted from her.

Forgiveness? No… he couldn’t ask that of her before he was more Tizack than Serrif and truly knew what he was asking. Serrif met her more than half way, grabbing a towel off the counter and wrapping it around him. He spoke finally, acknowledging the tension that had always been there and the strain that existed between them.

“I’d like to be friends too, Serrif. But there’s a problem. You are just as much Tizack as you are Serrif. I am just as much Crescent as I am Kavala. Until you willingly blend the two, it won’t work. Until you relive your past and understand things, it can’t work because you will always be conflicted. I know Rak’keli is your master now, but those values that Tizack held are still in there. What I want to do here can’t have a basis in pure ethics and morality. There is going to be war on the outside. There has been before and there will be again. When the time comes we’ll be ready and we won’t… we can’t… have principles to hide behind. We’ll have to do what we must to get the job done that needs doing. If we don’t think that way, we’ll perish and be too weak.” She said softly, calmly.

“You have to come to a place, Serrif, where you don’t hate yourself for what you did or blame another person for using someone in your past. You stole a tool from the Ruv’na that you used for your own purpose. And I was beautiful so you petched me every day of your life, sometimes more than once, and made me think I loved you so I’d be willing. I could have been in a cage. I could have willed death to your children every time I gave you one because they were a product of rape. But it wasn’t rape. You saw to that. You were just a coward, back then, afraid to let a woman get to know a man for whom he really was. You were afraid of rejection and needed to control everything about you. Instead of trusting yourself and your ability to undo the damage the upbringing that Crescent had caused, you cut corners and took shortcuts and got what you wanted. But it was an empty victory wasn’t it? You never knew for sure if I loved you. And it made you miserable your whole life.” Kavala said softly, thoughtfully, still watching the big man.

“I won’t acknowledge your grief and sorrow at it because it is misguided and misplaced. When you can think back to those days and own those memories completely and acknowledge that you liked it and wanted it and would do it again if you had to, then we can be friends. You have to own that you were a coward and took short cuts. They aren’t things I’ll let you do here. Everything worth doing here is worth doing right so no one has any regrets or mixed emotions.” Kavala said softly. She hoped he understood why she said it as she had. She wanted more than values, more than integrity, Kavala demanded honesty.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Her words always had a way of cutting surgically right to the point when she needed them to. Shame, he felt shame ant outrage for what Tizack had done. More than anything because he knew now what that was like. To forget, to have every memory stolen away from you and to only be left with the scars of those thoughts. Almost every haunting memory is a nightmare streaking from the deepest depths of the human heart. Lurching forward encompassing him entirely threatening to devour his soul and mind completely. However he had escaped it all, he now had freedom. And in his mind Crescent never really did. The relationship between them was built on lies, that eventually had truths buried somewhere in them.

“The reality is when do lies become the truth, and when do truths become lies?” That was the question that was eating at him. And he shook his head answering one of Kavala’s many questions.

“What horrifies me is that I know in a way how Crescent felt. Or what it feels like to have your memory erased. The helplessness, the void that you feel when you don’t know your own name any longer; when nothing feels familiar. But unlike Crescent I was free to make my own way through this world; and I obtained freedom.” He sighed and shook his head knowing this to be more true than he could admit.

“But I do know that there will come a time when things aren’t so black and white. Most of the world is not this way. I only hope that we can walk through the grey and not lose who and what we are in the process.” Was Kavala really insisting that there would come a time that they would have to suspend morality and plunge into the deep dark grey in order to get things done. He didn’t know when this time would come. But he knew that he would have to be ready for it. Or else they would indeed perish.

Would he do it again? Honestly would he? This thought would indeed linger with him for some time. And if he was going to be truthful to her about it, he would have to really ponder on this question before giving a good answer to it. His mind churned as he was lost for a few moments in his own little barrage of memories and values. Everything was weighed, he remembered what happened. He knew that it was wrong and that indeed many shortcuts were taken. His back leaned against the wall of the bathing room and he thought. Continuing to really fight this battle inside him over what he really thought of this.

Tizack had turned Crescent into a tool. But at first that was all she ever was for the Ruv’na anyway. Indoctrinated and misguided; but hadn’t Tizack done the same thing when he stripped her of her identity and made her his. That much Serrif agreed with, but what the man did with her afterward…well that was what bothered him. The fact that he violated her, raped her, and then eventually she ended up loving him for it. There was definitely black mixed in with the white there. Morality was indeed a very hard concept for Serrif to wrap his head around in this circumstance. He was lost in it…liberating Crescent from the Ruv’na was indeed the right thing to do. But were there other options?

No, Tizack had made the right decision; he had only executed it wrong. Planning was needed and he rushed into it all. Cutting corners, and thus dirtying his hands the entire way though it. And once he started he just could not stop; one thing compounded onto another and before Tizack knew it he had a wife and a child…exactly what he eventually wanted from her. What his heart needed for his own souls healing. It was rough to come to the conclusion but someone was always hurt while someone else gained. That seemed to be the natural order of things.

He was silent, dead silent as he thought it all over. One by one, detail by detail. Someone had to lose out in order for someone else to profit. Especially in matters like this one. Tizack stole her from the Ruv’na in order to save her. In order to make her eventually the free loved woman that she was to him. Later in life he loved her with everything he had; everything he was. But still even in his death she did not know the truth of what was. That was what disturbed him the most, that she never knew who she really was…just like he wanted to know who he was before the memories were stolen away from him.

But what would he do with those memories? What if he had a wife and a child? What if even worse they were dead causing him even more distress? But even worse what if he was guilty of some horrible crime? He didn’t know, so in a way he was thankful for the fresh start. Still part of him wanted to know; there was a void in him that he was slowly wanting to inquire more and more about. In a way Crescent was lucky, Tizack had constructed a past for her, leaving her wanting nothing. She had her memories, and a past even if it was a constructed one. And she lived her life according to it; instead of floundering around like he did at times.

“I accept that I would’ve done the same, however; I would’ve prepared better. Not rushed as much as he did. However the coward I was not who I am now. I did those things; acting in the grey for what I believed was the greater good. I would likely do them again if presented the correct situation. “ It was hard to say, but he had come to the conclusion that it was very likely he would have to act in the grey again sometime very soon…in order to help a cause much greater than his own.

“I will be willing and ready to act in the grey again. If…when the need arises.” He realized sometimes things weren’t so clean cut. That grey while not good and not evil was a very delicate place to operate. However, morality and principals were good guides but prevented needed action from time to time. And sometimes one needed to get from behind those walls and get into the trenches; maybe get a little dirty and bloody in order to get the work done. And he would have to be ready for that. Or else many others could be harmed in ways unimaginable by him right now.

[Kavala]

She interrupted his train of thought immediately. Anger flashed across her face, but not at the situation, at his constant assigning of emotion to a situation that had none. "No, Serrif. You don't know how Crescent felt. She didn't have any regrets. She didn't even know... I didn't even know what had happened. You did your job well. That's where you are wrong. You are beating yourself up for something that didn't happen." Kavala stepped forward and tapped his chest, getting his attention and driving her point home. "You did your work very well. You wiped her mind. She had no regrets. You back filled her history with memories of you and wiped away all her memories of her father. You superimposed your form on his and when she started having your children, you raised them exactly as Crescent's father raised her because you learned from him and took all the Ruv'na secrets and utilized them. Crescent never had any regrets. She lived... no I lived a good life. You did a damn fine job. You should be congratulating yourself instead though your beating yourself up about it." Kavala said.

"She had a better life than most Nakivaks. And Tizack was incredibly good in bed." Kavala said, looking thoughtful. She paced the length of the bath, not sure how to make him understand that she could not respect him until he stopped beating himself up for HER past which was a past she enjoyed.

"That's why there is tension, Serrif. You can't move on. You can't move forward. You cling to your morality, but it's misplaced and misguided. Walking my own Chavi taught me how to literally strip someone's memories and reshape them. If Nysel ever grants me a second mark, I'll use that ability, I swear to you, and I'll turn all our enemies into lovers if that's whats required of me. And I won't regret one second of it. Will they be slaves? I don't know. You would define them as such, but to me they won't be because they will be happy. And because of Tizack I know how. Because of you, Serrif." Kavala said, her voice not cold but determined, and serious.

"The Ruv'na aren't dead. I dream sometimes of them. And Nysel has warned me twice that we have enemies on the rise. And if you were Cytali again, and they existed like I plan for them to be, Serrif, I'm not going to bat an eyelash if you rewrite one's life and throw her in your bed. You know they raise killers. They always have. I was one of them. You don't think, you don't have needs, wants or desires past the kill. And yes, I know you would have gone slower. But Tizack got spooked. She... I almost killed him. With enough time I would have. I would have killed you, Serrif, without a single emotion or regret or feeling about it other than curiosity about my next assignment. I had stalked you for years." She said, pausing at the counter and picking up a bar of soap that was unopened. Kavala lifted it to her nose and inhaled the lavender scent.

"Ultimately you are just upset that you'll never know if she could have loved you on her own. You aren't upset you stripped her memories away. She would... no I would have killed you Serrif, if you hadn't. And if she would have willingly given what you forcefully took. But that doesn't change anything, Tizack. Not a single thing." Kavala stepped closer, tilting her head back to look up at him. Serrif dwarfed her in this big human body, her Konti form even more delicate than her human one had ever been.

She reached out and took his hand. Then she lifted it up so he cupped her jawline. Her eyes were fierce and so was her expression. "I'm Crescent, Serrif. We are one in the same. Slowly, every day, I teach my body a bit more about killing, and remember a bit more about her training. Tell me, Serrif, here and now all the things you wanted to tell me as Tizack but could not. It's puss in your mind, festering away and killing you. Lance it and just tell me." She said, dropping her hand and reaching forward to lay it on his waist. Touching like that, his hand on her jaw, hers on his waist, formed a sort of circuit of energy, and a union of sorts.

"And then tell me, as Kavala, what you are capable of as Serrif in this life to get things done. Tell me what extent you will go to in order to make sure the Cytali, once its reborn, survives." The Konti pressed, her voice almost vicious, her spirit wholly Crescent's in that moment.