Private Fangs Of A Different Kind

[Iskera Valest]

Every few seconds, the air recyclers exhaled through the vents with a wet, sighing pulse that pushed a ripple across the suspended glass of her workbench. Viscous threads of something black-green crawled lazily inside a stasis tube, faintly luminous in the violet emergency lights that lined the floor. A single chronometer blinked across the far wall, its red digits reflected in the curved metal of her respirator mask — five minutes until the appointed time.

Iskera was not one for waiting, but she understood patience. It had to steep, or the result curdled.

She moved through the room, sliding implements into a compact field kit — crystal scalpel, reagent injectors, sealed vials nested in shock-foam. The scent of solvent and ozone clung to her gloves. On the table beside her, a slim datapad displayed a map of Malachor's outer wastes: fault lines, obsidian trenches, old craters still bleeding radiation and the occasional scream of trapped energy. Somewhere out there lay what she needed — crystalline remains from the cataclysm that had once shattered this world.

She paused before a small containment case, its contents shifting like oil beneath glass. A sample of something that should not still be moving. "You'll have company soon," she murmured, tone neither tender nor mocking. The substance twitched in response.

From beyond the reinforced door came the distant groan of the Spire's inner structure — that low, geological noise that was never quite echo nor wind. Malachor's heart still turned beneath them, grinding its old bones.

Iskera's reflection wavered in the glass wall — tall, narrow, precise. She checked the chrono again. Four minutes. Whoever the Dark Court was sending — assassin, scholar, zealot, or some new hybrid creature in between — they would arrive soon.

Good. It would give her time to finish calibrating the extractor array.

Tag - Valaine Valentine

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Iskera Valest

She was to arrive just slightly early... Valaine trudged down a hall in her typically lazy and tired fashion, long strides punctuated with a heavy sluggish step like she had just woken up from a sleepless night. She brushed a hand through her long dark hair and gave a light yawn, fangs briefly flashing in the light as she set her tired eyes forward.

The young Sangnir had been tasked with assisting one of her fellow members of the Court and while she wasn't keenly aware of the details (or maybe just not paying attention) she'd make herself useful one way or another. She'd soon arrive at the room, the door opening before her as she walked in attired in her typical dark acolyte robes. Her pale visage turned as she glanced about the room and finally they settled on Iskera.

It wasn't someone she'd really interacted with before but not for a lack of desire, she was ever interested in meeting those she worked with. That being said she couldn't quite recall her name... She hummed in thought as she rubbed at the back of her neck awkwardly and made her presence known, "Hey uhh-..." she paused. "... You." she nodded lightly in greeting as she took a further few steps into the room.

Her tired gaze caught sight of the implements within, the strange glass containment cases with frankly things within that she didn't want to ask about. Iskera must've been some sort of scientist; it made sense then why Valaine had been asked to assist her. While she had some dabbling knowledge of the sciences herself she'd make for decent muscle if they were to head somewhere less friendly than their current surroundings, not that she doubted the other woman's capabilities to defend herself.

With a blink she turned back to Iskera, "Oh uh, it's Valaine, in case you like, didn't know or something." she spoke as she introduced herself. She folded her arms at her chest and looked to the prepared field kit. "... Remind me again what we're doing...?" she asked, trying her best to not betray the fact she just wasn't aware of their task.

 

[Iskera Valest]

The name — Valaine — reached her a heartbeat before the voice finished speaking, hanging faintly in the recycled air like perfume that hadn't decided whether to linger or flee. Only then did she glance over her shoulder, her eyes reflecting the Sangnir's arrival as if she were studying a chemical reaction in progress.

"You're early," she said — not unkindly, though her tone might have passed for it in the wrong light. The faintest curve touched her lips, a gesture too exact to be spontaneous. "That's… good."

She sealed the last vial with a soft click and set it in the case. "You were assigned as escort, yes? Protection, muscle, or—" she paused, letting her gaze trace the length of Valaine's frame with clinical appreciation, "—perhaps deterrent. Yes."

The lab's light flickered; the containment tanks sighed. Iskera crossed the floor, her footsteps soundless against the stone. Up close, the difference between them sharpened — one drawn and pale with exhaustion, the other poised and crisp as polished glass. Yet there was a peculiar gentleness when she spoke again, as though she recognized the Sangnir's fatigue as an honest state, not a flaw.

"Malachor's wastes are... uncooperative. The minerals I require are buried in a zone where the air corrodes metal and the soil leaks radiation. Machines fail there; people lose their nerve. I needed someone… resilient." Her head tilted faintly. "You seem... adequate. That will do."

She closed the case and slid it toward Valaine. "Carry this, if you would. Carefully — some of it is awake." The corner of her mouth twitched at her own dry humor before she continued, "I'll manage the extraction array. You manage whatever decides to resent our presence."

A quiet hum filled the silence, as if she were tasting the room's rhythm. "I'm Iskera Valest," she offered finally, as though realizing the omission only then. "Alchemist. Analyst. Occasionally human." A ghost of a smile.

Her gloved hands rested on the bench, precise, still. "If you're uncertain, that's fine. Curiosity is worth more than certainty out there. Just don't breathe anything that looks alive."

The lights dimmed again. "And try," she added softly, "not to cry near the samples."

Tag - Valaine Valentine

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Iskera Valest

"You were assigned as escort, yes? Protection, muscle, or—" she paused, letting her gaze trace the length of Valaine's frame with clinical appreciation, "—perhaps deterrent. Yes."

The young Sangnir paused to glance down at herself, thin and relatively tall when it came to most other women, and so she pondered in what context Iskera had meant 'deterrent' as confusion crossed her face and she glanced back up towards her. Her tired grey gaze kept track of her fellow member of the court as she crossed the room to approach.

Valaine gave a light tilt of her head in response to the word resilient. "Mm...? I mean, I can regenerate wounds a lot better than most... But I don't know how I'd do against radiation... We'd be bringing like, protective gear and stuff right?" she asked in response as the case was closed and slid towards her. She reached a hand forward, delicate pale fingers curling around the handle of the case as she pulled it off the table and let it hang at her side. Her eyes lingered upon it briefly at the mention of something... well, 'awake'. She held the case with an extra level of care upon those words.

"Oh, Iskera? Uh, nice to meet you." Valaine gave a light nod of her head as she casually brushed a hand through her own long dark hair. "So long as we're not expecting something crazy I'm sure we'll be fine. Just make sure to point out where I shouldn't stand..." she spoke as she lightly swapped the case in hand from one to the other, taking care not to jostle it too much. And not to... Cry?

The more she listened to Iskera the more she didn't want to know what she was carrying, but her mind couldn't help but wonder. She first thought of nascent Sithspawn, perhaps some kind of monster in the making. The references to things being awake or alive, or responding to others, seemed to indicate towards something of the sort.

Poor Valaine couldn't seem to help but get herself caught up with scientists lately... But regardless of that she seemed more than ready to begin their little expedition.

 

[Iskera Valest]

Iskera's expression softened — not warmly, but in the manner of a knife sheathing itself. "Protective gear, yes," she said, reaching for a compact respirator module and turning it over in her hands. "Though the wastes prefer to invent new ways to make mockery of preparation. I've brought filters rated for particulate, fungal, and low-grade radiological hazards. If we find anything worse, I'll improvise. Improvisation," she added, voice low and matter-of-fact, "is just planning that has been startled."

The respirator clicked as she adjusted the straps, the sound precise and strangely intimate in the sterile air. She gestured toward a sealed container near the exit — matte black, marked only by a red sigil. "Suit is in there. It should fit. If not, it will decide how to. It's alchemically reactive." Her eyes flicked up, faintly amused. "Do try not to argue with it."

She turned back to the bench, checking her instruments one final time, and continued speaking — the tone now almost conversational, though every sentence seemed weighed before release. "You're correct about regeneration. The waste zones test that more than most things. But your kind has a remarkable way of surviving what the rest of us would rather not name."

Valaine's quiet awkwardness did not seem to perturb her; in fact, Iskera appeared to find it grounding. "You'll be fine," she said after a moment, as if it were a certainty rather than reassurance. "And if something is crazy, I'll be the one who brought it, so we'll at least know who to blame." There was that flicker of humor again, restrained, dry, but undeniably present.

A final gesture — she lifted a small canister of luminescent liquid and slipped it into her satchel. "All right. The sooner we leave, the fewer ghosts we'll disturb. The Spire doesn't enjoy goodbyes."

She paused by the door, waiting for Valaine to join her. "And for what it's worth," she said quietly, "I'm glad they sent you. The Dark Court's talent for pairing opposites may finally prove useful."

Tag - Valaine Valentine