yours. That is what fate has decided for us, so that is what will happen. We will find your daughter. We better do it quickly, before Scizzor does. He has the advantage of all our resources, and all we have is this shuttle. I cannot guarantee that we will succeed.”
BWORP!
The communications system comes back online with another missive from Warden’s brood. I sit back in my chair, stunned at the news. Ella is alive. Or at least, could be alive. Something good might finally he happening. I might get to see my daughter again.
“What is it, Scizzor?” Warden sighs as he opens the channel. This time, he opens the visual and audio connections. I know Scizzor can see the pair of us on screen. I should probably try to cover my nudity, but I don’t bother. This isn’t about me. This is about Ella.
“I don’t want to talk to you, Warden. I want to talk to the human. I have something to tell her.”
I know Scizzor cannot touch me, but just seeing him gives me the most intense sensation of pure animal fear. This is the predator who has been hiding in the darkness of the collective subconscious all these years. This is the monster under the bed. This is what lurks in the dark of night, when you wake with your heart pounding, sheets slicked with sweat, knowing something terrible is waiting for you.
“What do you want?” I keep my question short and my syllables clipped so he can’t hear the tremor in my voice.
“I wanted to tell you one thing, human murderer,” he hisses with all that vengeful rage which makes me the equivalent of a mouse facing the biggest cat in the world. “I am going to find your daughter. I am going to take her. And I am going to make her mine. That is how I will take my revenge on you. And human… I will make it a most thorough and painful revenge.”
“You touch her, you die.”
He laughs. “I am already dead, human. I died the day you took Saya from us. And you will die the day I take your daughter from you for a second time. I tell you now. You will never see her face again. You will never hear her voice. She will be as lost to you as Saya is to us.”
The communication channel closes with a finality which makes me want to scream. I manage to restrain myself enough that it is just a whimper which escapes me as the darkness floods in and leaves me empty all over again.
“As I said,” Warden says. “We will have to move quickly.”
“Why are you helping me?” I have to ask the question. He has no reason to help me find Ella. He doesn't know her. He can’t possibly care about her. I know he loves me, but that’s a chemical thing which makes him want to keep me alive. I never dared think it was anything more, well, human than that. I certainly never thought he truly cared about Ella.
“I knew before I met you what kind of a woman you were. I knew what crimes you had committed. I knew what I had to do to purge you of those sins. I did it. But it does not mean that I do not care. I thought you understood that.”
Have I offended him?
“When you took me, you didn’t know I’d committed a crime against you personally. You didn’t know I was responsible for the worst loss of your life. I am to you as to whoever took Ella from me was to me. I could never forgive them.”
“Forgiveness is not what you think it is, human. It is not forgetting. It is remembering, and knowing, but knowing more besides. You waged war on the scythkin out of desire for vengeance. You think my punishment of you is about vengeance too. It’s not. It never has been. What Scizzor is doing is emotional weakness, and that is why he will fail. What I am doing is justice, and that is why I have not, and will not lose control.”
He’s fucking impressive, this scythkin. Sometimes with all the muscle and blades and all the rest of their incredible forms, it is easy to forget that their intellects are just as sharp.
“On your knees, pet,” he growls softly. “I do not want you to forget who you are to me.”
I do as I am told, not knowing what he wants from me, but