The Blood Hound
Scherezade looked at the lower level of her ship and sighed. The blood was still on the walls; the very blood she’d used to write her memories of the second time in the Darkness. All of them. Empty liquor bottles rolled back and forth in the air that came out of the vents, giving the hangar bay and eerie feel.
Upstairs was not much better. The room that had been her bedroom, the one she had shared so often with Gerwald that she had come to consider it as their room, was closed. All the sheets that had contained his scent had been burned two months ago. At least, everything but a single pillow case, that she was never ever going to touch again.
The room that Gerwald had slept in that first night on her ship had been altered as well. When Darth Tacitus had begun to try to manipulate her into wanting to kill both Gerwald and Katrine, she had gone into that room and written all of her memories with Gerwald on the walls. This time, it was ink.
Where once a kitchen full of fresh meat and cheese had been, was now an empty kitchen, filled with nothing but liquor bottles, some of them empty, some of them half full. Four copies on blueprints were rolled up, laying on the table. Her grand plan. The greatest gift she’d wanted to bestow to Gerwald. A future in which the children they might have had would never have to grow up as he had, with all Lupines in their lives being limited to family members. The plans were detailed enough, and she knew how she’d wanted them to come to be. But she’d become disposable to him. She’d never given him the plans, as well as the offer of the Warrior King crown of Endelaan, because she hadn’t mattered. Not truly. It had been a wager she had not known she was participating in, and he had titled Katrine as the victor.
And the Darkness… She had not had any REM sleep in two months. She had not eaten properly in that amount of time either.
A small suitcase containing a few items she’d need, mostly weapons and her new armor, were ready to be taken by her droid into her new ship, the Nutcracker.
The Giggledust was going to be sealed off.
Josh was there, on the Giggledust. He was the first and only person to enter it since she’d fought her way out of the Darkness only to be so completely and utterly broken. No one else had been here, and under normal circumstances, neither would he.
“Hide the ship somewhere in SJO space, please,” she said as she punched a few buttons, handing over control to him, “I’d ask you to destroy it… But I might need it. It’s my only way of reaching my ancestral home planet if I ever do something to get my memories back. Seal it. No one needs to see this, not even Jyorti.”
And that… That was part of the plan, wasn’t it? She’d imbued a few small loopholes into her spell, to make her memories able to return. There were two, actually. She’d told Josh only of one of them. Do not, under any circumstances, let me enter this ship. Walking in and seeing the writing on the wall would immediately bring the old Scherezade back. It was an SOS plan, in case of need. The other way… She didn’t tell him what the other way was. It wasn’t going to happen anyway.
“I’ve got the other ship parked next to this one,” she said as she looked at Josh, “if everything works right, once I finish the last parts of the spell, I’m going to fall asleep. I tried to time it for half an hour, but I might be totally wrong and end up sleeping either way less or way more. When I wake up…”
When she woke up, she would no longer be Scherezade.
She had to do it. There was no other way. Her only options were this, ump back into the Darkness, or kill herself. Everything hurt too much. She had spent the entire night laying on her side in the mattress that had been shoved into the corner of the hall, bitterly crying. She hadn’t told Josh or anyone else, but all her nights over the past few weeks were like that. Daytime was… Only less worse by a smudge.
At least Daisy and Uncle Angelo had been warned in advance as well. They would know. They, along with Josh, were the only people the spell would not remove from her mind and memories, though a certain amount of the memories with them would be altered.
“When I wake up, I’ll be Madalena,” she said, “Madalena Antares. You’ll still be Josh, the guy who was my twin brother’s best friend and became my friend as well over the years. Our parents died when we were sixteen, and you were our pillar of support. You gave me the lightsabers on my eighteenth’s birthday, and you have Brayden a pair as well. Mine were for werewolves because those were my favorite folklore stories, and Brayden’s were witches, so you made something to match.”
She had thought about everything. She had not even tried to sleep these past three days, working on the incantations, thinking of every loophole she could. It was… As perfect as she could get it to be. She could only hope it was enough.
There was no need to change Brayden’s name. No one knew him. Not even Scherezade.
And now that she knew she was doing, now that Josh was here… A certain serenity took her over. For the first time since he’d seen her, her pain seemed to have lessened. Perhaps… "Maybe a few months, or a few years, of being Madalena, and then going back to being Scherezade, would make things better. Nothing else had. And maybe… Maybe Madalena would succeed where Scherezade failed, and would have a life that was worth living. If that happens, destroy my ship."
[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]
Upstairs was not much better. The room that had been her bedroom, the one she had shared so often with Gerwald that she had come to consider it as their room, was closed. All the sheets that had contained his scent had been burned two months ago. At least, everything but a single pillow case, that she was never ever going to touch again.
The room that Gerwald had slept in that first night on her ship had been altered as well. When Darth Tacitus had begun to try to manipulate her into wanting to kill both Gerwald and Katrine, she had gone into that room and written all of her memories with Gerwald on the walls. This time, it was ink.
Where once a kitchen full of fresh meat and cheese had been, was now an empty kitchen, filled with nothing but liquor bottles, some of them empty, some of them half full. Four copies on blueprints were rolled up, laying on the table. Her grand plan. The greatest gift she’d wanted to bestow to Gerwald. A future in which the children they might have had would never have to grow up as he had, with all Lupines in their lives being limited to family members. The plans were detailed enough, and she knew how she’d wanted them to come to be. But she’d become disposable to him. She’d never given him the plans, as well as the offer of the Warrior King crown of Endelaan, because she hadn’t mattered. Not truly. It had been a wager she had not known she was participating in, and he had titled Katrine as the victor.
And the Darkness… She had not had any REM sleep in two months. She had not eaten properly in that amount of time either.
A small suitcase containing a few items she’d need, mostly weapons and her new armor, were ready to be taken by her droid into her new ship, the Nutcracker.
The Giggledust was going to be sealed off.
Josh was there, on the Giggledust. He was the first and only person to enter it since she’d fought her way out of the Darkness only to be so completely and utterly broken. No one else had been here, and under normal circumstances, neither would he.
“Hide the ship somewhere in SJO space, please,” she said as she punched a few buttons, handing over control to him, “I’d ask you to destroy it… But I might need it. It’s my only way of reaching my ancestral home planet if I ever do something to get my memories back. Seal it. No one needs to see this, not even Jyorti.”
And that… That was part of the plan, wasn’t it? She’d imbued a few small loopholes into her spell, to make her memories able to return. There were two, actually. She’d told Josh only of one of them. Do not, under any circumstances, let me enter this ship. Walking in and seeing the writing on the wall would immediately bring the old Scherezade back. It was an SOS plan, in case of need. The other way… She didn’t tell him what the other way was. It wasn’t going to happen anyway.
“I’ve got the other ship parked next to this one,” she said as she looked at Josh, “if everything works right, once I finish the last parts of the spell, I’m going to fall asleep. I tried to time it for half an hour, but I might be totally wrong and end up sleeping either way less or way more. When I wake up…”
When she woke up, she would no longer be Scherezade.
She had to do it. There was no other way. Her only options were this, ump back into the Darkness, or kill herself. Everything hurt too much. She had spent the entire night laying on her side in the mattress that had been shoved into the corner of the hall, bitterly crying. She hadn’t told Josh or anyone else, but all her nights over the past few weeks were like that. Daytime was… Only less worse by a smudge.
At least Daisy and Uncle Angelo had been warned in advance as well. They would know. They, along with Josh, were the only people the spell would not remove from her mind and memories, though a certain amount of the memories with them would be altered.
“When I wake up, I’ll be Madalena,” she said, “Madalena Antares. You’ll still be Josh, the guy who was my twin brother’s best friend and became my friend as well over the years. Our parents died when we were sixteen, and you were our pillar of support. You gave me the lightsabers on my eighteenth’s birthday, and you have Brayden a pair as well. Mine were for werewolves because those were my favorite folklore stories, and Brayden’s were witches, so you made something to match.”
She had thought about everything. She had not even tried to sleep these past three days, working on the incantations, thinking of every loophole she could. It was… As perfect as she could get it to be. She could only hope it was enough.
There was no need to change Brayden’s name. No one knew him. Not even Scherezade.
And now that she knew she was doing, now that Josh was here… A certain serenity took her over. For the first time since he’d seen her, her pain seemed to have lessened. Perhaps… "Maybe a few months, or a few years, of being Madalena, and then going back to being Scherezade, would make things better. Nothing else had. And maybe… Maybe Madalena would succeed where Scherezade failed, and would have a life that was worth living. If that happens, destroy my ship."
[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]
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