Cinder and Ash

I don't think I've lost my faith in humanity. I don't think I'd ever invested in it. I am removed from it, perhaps in the splicing of DNA, perhaps along the path to this moment. It may have been the precise moment it was explained to me that I am not human or not considered worthy to be by the members of such a prestigious club.
I watch them in their busy world, with their busy all importances as if watching flies gather on fetid meat. They buzz. They swarm. All without knowing the reason for their existance though always seeking validation in it.
I watch them with gelid reticence and coat them with a hoary ambiguosity.
No poking, prodding or even shaking will stir the components together as a mix of emotion for them.
Thus far not one have I found worthy.
I hear the cries and feel nothing. I am removed from it.

Trophies

I thought I had seen him here in the sullied streets. I know that it could not be but still I'd called to him. I wanted it to be. Everything felt ... real. Something had broken through the impassiveness ...


The bulbous eye visable even from that distance, swollen with the festering of imflammation only superficial as was the writing on his skin.There was something in the avian mannerisms that was familiar. Then there were the symbols, the marks of the Island, the signature of our creator. He wore them as if boasting our beginnings. All that I've kept hidden per the training,

written,

there

for all to see.

I want to carve it from him as a trophy, wear it as my own skin
but if ...

no, I can not allow myself to believe.

If he is not, then was he still kindred? Had he been crafted too in the likeness of our maker? Is he another of Racselis biological warfare?

Or is he the ... next?

I touched my cheek and wiped away a dampness, a brine that has never been mine before. I am not capable of remorse ... I am not ... I am not ...

not ... ( tic) not ... (tic) not

why now

is there moisture on my face,

seeping from my eyes.

Vertigo struck and the world spun in on itself. Bile rose in my throat and my stomach though empty continued to heave until the world went black again.

Lullabies

He came to me, in the variances of lights and darkness. I could hear him crying. I watched as his mouth opened in a scream so deafening that it rent my heart in two. I was reaching for him, reaching out to pull him to me. To hold him once again. To protect him from the monsters that lived in his dreams. My Septus. The ache for him pierced through the icy taloned fingers that held me suspended in nothingness.

A flood of memories raced havok between a long ago and my now. Much my own twin he could have been, not in physical attributes but of mind. The genetic spiralling doubled then split in half. He was a tortured creature, wrenched by the gruesome derivations created within us that only the songs of our sister could soothe. When they silenced her, he could no longer be contained. The keys no longer worked. They took him from me and the tear stained eyes blood red became etched on my own.

I would find a small gift tucked beneath my pillow. Loving signs that he had escaped. An ear, a finger, a sliver of a spleen. Sweet treasures. Then they stopped. They stopped long before I left Acresius.

In my dream, I could hearing him screaming and I reached for him.


Hush little seven don't say a word ...
Sister's going to find you ...


I woke in the darkness unsure of where I was.

I dare not dream ... I dare not dream

I dare not dream sam I am I dare not Dream at all

I'm too afraid of all I see I'm too afraid I'll fall

I saw you dark against a backdrop red

I saw you standing in the midst of the neverliving

There in the alley of the dead

I held you tight I held you true

and whispered in your ear

I dare not dream my little sweet

For when I have awakened

I fear that all I dreamed I will find I am mistaken

and had you for dinner as my treat

There was one more

I felt as if my veins were on fire, the throb behind my eyes pulsing my sight in shades of red. The sleeper was awake and still hungry. There was one more.

I found a writhing slave to send on the errand. She would know who to look for, she had served him before. Her masochistic need would throw her at his feet begging to be allowed to please him this time. I'd given her the anedote. She would tell him his slave had been taken and where.

Finding a darkened spot within the alley of a different district, I waited.
He came alone.

I knew he would.

The anger dissipated from his face when I stepped from the shadows. Relief flooding the squared features as he fell to his knees. The embrace of my waist was almost touching. Tenderly brushing his dark hair from his temple as he buried his face in my belly, I looked down at the man who had been my cruel keeper. Clutching his hair tight, it was a quick wrench of my hands until I heard the crunching snap. It amused me that I'd had enough strength. My thumb held against the side of his throat, counting the fading pulse until I realized it was my own that I felt and nothing more.

My timing had been precise, it was payday and his pouch was heavy with coin. Too, those in the streets would be in a hurry to pay their tabs or celebrate. No one noticed the fair featured slave as she stepped from the alleyway.
Each stride now seemed heavier and the apartment in the Anbar district seemed a million pasangs away.

With the last bit of adrenaline I had, I climbed the firewalk to the roof of an abandoned insula halfway back, crumpling into a small heap.

Tea for two

Feigning female ailments secured a day to myself. My keeper would believe I was with the physician, the physician would believe I was with my keeper.

It is not difficulty to acquire things in the district. For all the locks, bars and assortments of barriers to prevent loss people are quite lax with their belongings. A robe of yellow and white was snatched from the line it was left to dry on. Some little wisp would carry the marks of her oversight as I drew it on. Layers of veils easily shielded my face as I found Wessick's house. Lady Olivieta met me at the door, so pleased to see me. Her mate was in the library. It had become his fortress to escape the shrieking of his shrew companion. I was more than glad to close the door leaving the barrage of her insessant demands on the other side.

It is not sex that a lonely man truly wishes for. Wessick's hunger was simply for quiet conversation, understanding, genteel entertainment. The day was spent offering him a banquet. We shared kalana instead of bazi tea, discussing whatever came to mind and laughter often filled the little study. He was delighted to rise and join me in a dance. One that was dear to his heart, one that was practiced by his people but never allowed in his own home at his mate's fierce request. Today, he stood strong. He ushered her away, silencing her protests firmly. He would have what he wanted and she would be silent about it. He stood taller, the staueque epitome of a man's virility. When I wrapped him in my arms, his eyes widened with surprise. The stiletto blade had slid easily between two ribs to pierce the balloon sac of a lung and the withering organ of his heart. He thought he had found his miseries saviour only to feel it slipping through the fissure in a slickened ooze. It was a delicate smile that met him, reassuring that all would be alright. My lips surrounding his in an affectioned kiss drank in the hiss of expelled air. I helped him down to one of the thick carpets and brushed my fingers along his brow. I think he even smiled as I took his own fingertip, dipping it in the magenta stain and began to write on the hard wood flooring ... Liv

The lady of the house in her impatience burst through the door and immediately began to shriek. This was nothing that she had planned. How could I? How dare I? The demise ... yes, the method ... no. I rose to meet her. Soothing dulcet tones quieted her leaving the length of the blade extended from her stomach. She did what most do. She grasped the hilt between her hands.

It was not satisfaction. It was not remorse. It was not even insanity that brought the proud inhale and deepening smile just as I reached the door.

Once out on the street, I screamed and pointed back to the house, 'She's gone mad'

It was easy to slide into the gathering crowd of curiosity seekers.

The robe was left in a refuge heap long before I returned to the apartment. The purse of coins the woman no longer needed would be added to the collection.

tueur compatissant

It was almost closing time when the bell rang on the front door. The physician's aggravation was highly noteable as he growled at the intruder. Sorticles had plans for those few moments before I returned to the insula and the intrusion was unwelcomed. The tirade was short lived however when he saw who had entered. A centurian, obviously in distress had found his way to the healer rambling about needing a serum to reduce fever. His young daughter was close to delirium with it. The entreaties of the armed guardsman would have been compelling to someone sentimental.Such a compassionate killer. It gave me an opportunity.
My employer was shooing the uniformed soldier toward the door with murmurs that we were closed .. come back tomorrow. All that it took was a gentle rest of my hand against the emerald sleeve to quiet him. We had a few moments to spare and it would offer a few more coins. I went to find the small vial that would cure the child's ails. The soldier's gratitude spilled into the street as he held the small package like it was made of gold. I took advantage of the moment to slip between the two men and bid them both farewell for the day.
I left them both behind while I hurried along the street. I sought that niche in the cement of an alley wall to poke part of the day's earnings. Once the bits were safe, I stepped back out within the crowds. If I had been studying faces looking for one in particular it was not the one that stopped me in my tracks.
Could it be? Was it him? My mind told me the improbabilty but the intense rise of emotion .. so new to me ...washed away reasoning. I found myself calling out across the way, trying to capture his attention. So emmersed in this beckoning, I'd not noticed Jelus coming up behind me. There was no mistaking that steel clutch at my arm. The bruises now layered on my skin in a rainbow of purple to greenish yellow fades. How long had he been there? How much had he seen?
For a moment I tried to break the grasp, reaching out across time, across distance, even across impossibility for Septus, the only male that had been allowed to live ... my brother.
That disobedience, that bit of defiance would cost me dearly. That night, Jelus earned a new place at the top of my book of retribution