Chapter Text
During the ride in the shuttle neither of them speak. Lillandyr, still sore but now at least comfortable, sits in a seat, the belt buckled around her. Suspecting something like this, she brought a change of clothes, so replacing her torn shirt was just a matter of effort. Marazhai, on the other hand, sits in his seat without the safety belt, legs splayed, a drink in hand. She too has a drink in hers, but also has a cigarillo, from which she draws smoke after smoke, looking ahead of her and through the viewport.
The moment Marazhai let her down, followed by another deep kiss, he told her that they are taking one shuttle for this last journey. This time actually heading for the last stop, the destination of this strange scavenger hunt. And the moment they were aboard, the drukhari insisted on cutting all communication with Lillandyr’s flagship. “Give them coordinates and let them fly us there. Nothing else.” He simply put and that’s what she did, not arguing about it.
Because of everything that happened so far, it slipped Lillandyr’s notice what kind of coordinates Marazhai have injected into the shuttle’s systems. So when a hulking station, long abandoned, begins to get closer, she looks at him with a question.
Marazhai notices her look and smirks a lazy kind of smile, by this point clearly satisfied physically and with how things have progressed. Like a predator who had its full. “Surprised?”
Lillandyr looks back to the viewport and while she does not answer, she is in fact, surprised. Chartist Vessel. Location of Marazhai’s trickery and her demise. No, not demise… The place of her change. Where it all began, more monumental than Vhaebos VI in every regard.
Putting out her smoke, Lillandyr sighs and runs a hand over her hair that finally started to dry out from the sweat that made it stick to her back on Galadelos. She doesn’t need to say a word, recognizing that Marazhai didn’t pick this spot for no reason and that in the end – he did actually arrange something for her. And despite the gnawing thought at the back of her head, telling Lillandyr that it’s another trick, that she’s going to be taken to Commorragh again, yapping at her like an untrained dog, she ignores it knowing for it is not true. He wouldn’t resort to same techniques he used before. And especially she is sure of it because of what kind of path led her here this time.
“We’re landing.” Marazhai says uselessly because Lillandyr knows this herself. The thrusters engage and the station grows in size the closer it gets.
They land.
For a moment neither of them move, but Marazhai breaks the stagnation by standing up with a satisfied sigh, downing his drink and tossing the glass onto the command board. It doesn’t break, just rolls over the buttons until it bumps in a lever and Lillandyr follows suit, emptying her glass and setting it aside. She unbuckles herself and stands while Marazhai walks to the door and opens it, letting the ramp drop heavily against the rockcrete of the abandoned station.
When he turns to her, Marazhai waits for Lillandyr to join his side. After she does that, he puts a hand on her shoulder, a strange mockery of a guiding touch, and walks out with her onto the surface. Decaying architecture surrounds them both, but Marazhai is not perturbed, nor he is looking around. Why would he, considering it was he who scoured the station before, when he was setting a trap for Lillandyr. Lillandyr, however, turns her head this way and that, finally taking in the place of probably the most significant incident of her life. Or the one, at the very least, that led her to others, more devastating ones. Ones that she does not want to think about but is forced to.
Marazhai’s hand does not let the woman slow or trail behind him, pulling her forwards. She never expected herself to return. If anything, Lillandyr imagines coming back here only to unleash the fury of her ship and rain ammunition upon the hollow crossroad of sorrows. But then, her attention is drawn by a strange buzzing, like an overcharged plasma gun that is trying to recuperate from being used too much.
She glances at Marazhai but his eyes are straight ahead of him, purpose reflected on features that are no more mocking or prideful. The goal is within his grasp at last. And hers. And then they both stop.
After turning a corner, they emerge into a wide area, purpose of which have been washed away by centuries of disuse. But there, in the very center of it, there’s a light. Lillandyr forgets Marazhai at her side when she makes one tentative step forwards, then another. The following ones are faster as they carry the woman to a prison of drukhari design. It’s hard to comprehend what exactly it is and how it works, besides the four machines that are obviously powering the stasis field, forming a rectangular prison, aglow with a pale, bluish light. When Lillandyr stops right before it, she rises a hand, hypnotized not by the glow of the field or the brilliancy of xenotech, but by the furious eyes looking back at her.
“I hope you appreciate the reward.” Marazhai says, a degree of pride seeping through his words and Lillandyr struggles to respond, her eyes boring into a creature before her, helplessly suspended in the force-prison that Marazhai, or someone else who did it for him, arranged.
Tervantias.
Tervantias the Archmachinator.
Tervantias the Haemonculus.
The one who she hates the most.
Lillandyr’s eyes finally snap away from the monster and turn to Marazhai. He greets her gaze with a widening grin, then steps closer, gently pulling her hand down. “Don’t touch it. Not yet. You will have time. All the time you wish to do whatever you want to do. That - is my gift to you.” He purrs, clearly satisfied with himself by taking Lillandyr’s speech away.
Once more she looks at Tervantias who scowls at her, or maybe Marazhai, but most likely both of them, unable to speak or even scream. But something tells Lillandyr that he will scream. And oh how will he scream. Before looking back at Marazhai, she notices a table, full of instruments and does not even need to begin guessing what they are for.
“Do you think the reward is fitting, Lillandyr?” Marazhai purrs and she looks at him, a wide smile blooming on her face like the most beautiful flower in this reality or the next. With back of his fingers, the drukhari strokes her cheek and pulls her closer, eyes almost manically fixing on hers. “Will you show me? What you can do?” He breathes heavily like he hasn’t been this aroused ever before and Lillandyr upturns her face, letting him lean closer.
She kisses him, deeply and with a strange feeling of dark joy making her excited. Their tongues tangle for a moment before Lillandyr pulls back and moves her fingers over the gem hanging from Marazhai’s neck, his crazed with anticipation eyes not leaving hers, not even blinking and at last she gives him the answer he craves to hear. With a smile so wide it almost hurts her face, Lillandyr nods.
“I’ll show you.”
