Private Homecoming

[Lirka Ka]

JUTRAND

The deed had been done.

In the dark, shadowy places of the Galaxy Lirka Ka had committed another great sin, as she would do for time immemorial. In a petty quest, fueled by the maddening loneliness of a creature truly unique, the flame stoked by a mind always locked to the future. Potentiality. It was a vague concept. Yet it was something that drove Lirka to the depths of evil that few monsters in this were so wretched enough to reach. There were many potentialities in the day to come, be it weeks, years, decades, Lirka Ka watched those forces she deemed had the potential to grow into something mighty. Some in matters of raw power, others in matters of the grueling cruelty of politics. Quinn Varanin had unfortunately, and unknowingly, fallen into the latter most category. A royal, someone to walk in the shadow of, a soul that held great potential for ascension. Their exchange had been a brief one, of a kindly old veteran and a grieving princess.

A chance for Lirka, ever so slightly, to begin to sink in her claws.

But that had been mere circumstance, a fortunate meeting in the wake of the Princess's misfortune. Circumstance was an unreliable variable. Lirka Ka did not tolerate unreliable variables. She needed an in, a way to keep track on the way this potentiality would develop. Entered poor, poor Kirie a slave turned handmaiden - semi-officially, Kainate property, it painted a quaint target on the woman's back for those who knew to look. So, Lirka Ka had descended upon the Princess's most favored, and gifted to her a wound most grievous: a wound of flesh, a wound of mind. She was to be Lirka's in.

The girl's vocals had been stripped away, replaced by writhing foulness given life by that little piece of Lirka's own black, viscous being. Her mind warped with the false memories of a dozen poor souls ripped apart to form the story Lirka wanted. The one story, in all the impossible vastness of the Galaxy, where Lirka Ka, liar, murderer, scum, would be the hero. A hero that would reap every reward she could.

The savagery was a distant specter now, as her and her newest of "associates" walked the streets of Jutrand. Not mere cycles prior, she had been assailing the girl with her gaggle of scoundrels - all of which now dead beneath Lirka's blade, blown to stardust when her crime scene was washed away with the fiery explosion of reactor meltdown. The Once-Sephi kept her features cold for now, but she was mighty chuffed with herself. She had fears at first, and of course, those fears had not yet abated; there were still variables to be accounted for. But her crime? Well, it certainly felt like a masterwork, but now came the homecoming, the moment of truth. The field test of another experiment, to see if her grim crime would truly yield fruit.

With Kirie in tow, she had asked as nicely as she could muster to be the woman's guardian upon return to the Varanin apartment upon Jutrand. Who knew what "evil Kainites" might still have been lurking in the shadows of Jutrand's many alleys and corners. Lirka had already killed her fellows for the Weikian's sake, what would a few more have been? Though, in truth, Lirka's ambitions were far less kind than she may have let on - the girl had been freshly marred, and while she certainly could have simply sent her away for the Princess to pick up from the street...the hand delivery of a favored pet offered so much more potential.

Lirka Ka had walked head first into more warzones than most people would see in their whole lifespan, she had leapt from low atmosphere plenty of times, she had survived audience with a myriad of dark lords. But as she moved up the steps of the complex - she was heading into a battlefield grossly unfamiliar, she steeled her will. Today demanded a damn good showing if there was to be anything to gained from this venture other than the mere perpetuation of misery. As the pair finally reached the door of the home Lirka had so cruelly stolen Kirie from, she stood, silent, waiting. Certainly, the monstrous brute wasn't going to make the first move and do something like knock - she had brought Kirie along to do that sort of menial work.

Now all there was to do was wait, and think, and formulate a lie so sweet none could resist.

 

[Kirie]

'Lirka. Thank you again for taking me home. I don't know what would have happened if the people in that lab had been able to finish whatever they were doing.' Kirie's hands moved clumsily, her brain casting back to hours spent in the community hall on Cephis practicing sign conversations in ORSL. Thankfully, the droid circling over her head had a keen eye, and dutifully repeated back what it saw, turning it into crisp, mechanical words.

'I know this must have put you in a difficult position with the other Kainites.' Kirie continued. 'But, you already know I'm grateful, and Quinn is too.'

Kirie was unsure if it was because of the lingering terror of the ordeal, or the long lapses of unconsciousness she had experienced, but her brain still felt foggy. There were the memories she knew clearly, but there were also faded impressions, smudged afterimages so unfocused and jumbled she couldn't make sense of them. When they came to a stop outside the Varanin apartment, and Kirie caught a glimpse of Lirka framed against the quiet street, another one floated to the surface of her mind. She wasn't even consciously aware of what it was or what it meant, but it made her throat tighten.

She pushed the feeling down. Lirka was her saviour. Kirie would even go as far as to call her a hero, at list within the narrow lens of what the hulking woman had done for her. These flashes of fear, they were an unfair association to the captors that Lirka herself had butchered. No doubt they would fade in time, just as the strange order of events that had befallen her would straighten themselves out in their memory.

If there were gaps, so be it. Maybe it was better not to remember everything.

They arrived at the doorstep, with Lirka hanging back respectfully. Kirie felt a tinge of nervousness. She never wanted Quinn to fret, but there would be no avoiding her reaction to how Kirie was turning up at her door. The network of angry purple streaks across her neck, the Kainite brand on her arm returned to its former crimson glory, the plain clothes Lirka had scrounged up for her, the dark circles under her eyes, the cuts on her knuckles, scrapes on her knees and gash on her forhead. She was an unsightly wreck, but the thought of delaying their reunion even a second for her to clean up had been unbearable.

So here she was, in all her bedraggled, pathetic glory, but the sight of home made it all better.

'Ok. Home. I'm ready.'

Kirie raised her arm and knocked.

Quinn Varanin | Lirka Ka
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