How to Train Your Channeler

[Zephyr]

Sasha whimpered a name. Oriena. She knew the woman's record. Knew that she was dangerous. But she knew more than that, she was on the list of names under Durante's protection. And that was it's own sort of problem.

This was a game to the channeler. In the shadows zef could not take a short and a ricochet might get them instead. Why was she here? It wasn't coincidence. It couldn't be. There was no reason for anyone to be down here. It wasn't a scenic place, want even a good place to sneak away for a quicky.

"What do you want? This is none of your business."

[Eidolon]

Eido gave a subtle indication of where the stranger would emerge, and Zephyr aimed into the shadows, but the newcomer spoke soon after. Given her unconcerned confidence and Patrova’s whimpering of a name, they had to assume the woman could channel. It froze Eido’s veins, not least because of the deranged look in her eye as she continued her languorous approach despite Zephyr’s warning. Eido’s own power did not answer in defense, though in desperation she did try. Even then, the flows had only ever tried to heal, not to protect.

“You will run, Zephyr. Please. The moment this goes sour. I will hold her attention. Leave Patrova, he cannot harm anyone how he is.” She whispered the words, quickly and quietly as her stance shifted, wrapping her fingers around the hilt of her weapon. It was the most she had ever spoken to the other woman since the commencement of their arrangement, and it felt like a final prayer. There was no fear, only a deep sense of peace. She thought of Kota, and wished she had been able to speak to him first. Strangely, she also thought of Kiyohito. But then she let all thoughts slip away, replaced only with focus.

[Oriena]

She heard Sasha’s voice, broken and pathetic around the syllables of her name, but only glanced at where he collapsed against the wall clutching his head. There were two women. One Asian, still as a blade and just as silent. The one who spoke was the one who held the gun ready. Oriena had no real idea if her power could ricochet a bullet before it ripped through her guts, but she wasn’t afraid to find out either. As it was she recognised the second woman, but only as a face who’d been to her club. Ori claimed no attachment to Jaxen Marveet, but it didn’t stop her noticing who he left with.

Her smirk twisted playful.

“He’s mine, sweetheart. It’s very much my business.”

She imagined they might show at least a little sense and be easy to scare off, especially given the whisper that had carried to her power-sensitive ears, but the dumb bitch aiming the gun took a bold step closer.

"I didn't see your name on him. Finders keepers and all that. He's mine now.”

Ori’s eyes rolled. Inwardly she bristled, mostly for the trap of her own words. Outwardly she just sent flows of fire into the gun itself, heating it until the woman’s hand jerked free from the shock of pain and it hit the ground. Ori knew exactly how painful that burn would be. This time it was her who took a step forward. “Good girl,” she said, half grinning, and absolutely meaning to tease her pride into ill-advised rashness. Her voice grew low and husky, menacing and seductive in equal measure. “Finders keepers and all that. Maybe you’re mine now.” Because if the snake was going to be stupid enough to think she stood any fucking chance here, then Oriena was going to teach her exactly why the Atharim ought to be scared of channelers. Her eyes glinted. Couldn’t say she hadn’t given them a fair chance.

The other woman shifted like liquid in the same instant Oriena moved, drawing her weapon (why the fuck did these people carry swords?) and pushing herself in front of her companion. She murmured a desperate plea behind her as she did so. But the more interesting thing to happen was the way a glow nimbused around her like a small sun. Oriena laughed. It didn’t phase her approach, just made it even more of a taunting stalk.

“Does your friend even know?” she asked curiously. A lattice of air wrapped the woman effortlessly, banded tight and dragged her up to the tips of her toes in a way that was probably painful. Ori didn’t even bother with a shield – let the mouse try. Meanwhile, wonder of wonders, said friend actually listened and ran. Ori let her go, watching with a catlike smile.

The one caught in her web had actually already guttered like a candle flame. Neither did she struggle against her bonds, instead just looking back at Ori with solemn acceptance. She murmured something in her own language which sounded like submission or a prayer, something entirely disappointing anyway, and Ori made a noise of disgust in her throat. She dropped her hold, and the woman fell gracefully, albeit to her knees, where she didn’t look up from that fallen position, black hair ghosting either side of her cheeks. In fact she didn’t move at all until Ori kicked her away. “For fuck’s sake, just fuck off already. I’m not going to hurt you.”

After a moment the woman made a decision and ran.

It was only after she was sure they were both gone that she turned her impatience on Sasha. She was half inclined to leave him to fend for himself now his little problem had been dispersed, but the noises he made were pathetic enough that she stalked over to where he was crouched against the wall instead. She squatted close in front of him, ran her hand against his jaw to lift it. It might have been sweet except when her fingers raked into his hair she closed her fist to lift his head. “The fuck is wrong with you?”

[[modes with permission, Zef's dialogue by Zef]]

[Sasha]

There was pain. Zef ran and Oriena captured the other woman. Though she collapsed soon after the evil bitch left. Sasha barely registered Oriena's rough handling. It felt good to have her skin against his.

She asked what was wrong. And it took Sasha several moments to get the will to move through the pain. He grabbed her hand and pulled it through his hair too the device embedded in his skill. He could feel the six legs buried deep in his brain. The cold metal that pressed against his skull. "She controls it"

The pain grew worse and Sasha screamed. It was light a rope that tightened around his head and pulled him toward her. But he couldn't move the pain was too much. Worse than any withdrawal he'd ever experienced. Worse than the sickness he'd had before. He screamed more.

[Oriena]

After a moment Sasha dragged her hand backwards through his hair, though she’d already caught the metallic edges of it by then. Whatever the fuck it was. She shoved his head down to get a better look, smacking away his own hands, though she supposed she could see why he was scrabbling at his skull so desperately now. Her expression darkened, a little frisson of fury that sat like a supernova in her chest when he told her it was for control. She half glanced over her shoulder, but chasing the fuckers down was pointless: these tunnels branched like rabbit warrens. And if the snake really did control it, what fuck happened if she got too far away?

Under usual circumstances she would have just hauled him to Nox and dumped him on the doorstep, much like Sasha had already done with her to Ezekiel. Make it someone else’s problem, whatever the consequences. But she knew Nox was busy. And flipping the bag of drugs back in Sasha’s face was really going to have no satisfaction to it if he was too busy writhing around screaming to even fucking notice. Or dead. That was equally inconvenient.

This time her glance was upwards, into the humming darkness above their heads. Nothing there to see, of course, but plenty for Oriena to feel. The hungryhungryhungry of their thoughts, for they’d already felt the power of him once, held back only by the will of their queen, who’d been more interested in forcing her way into Oriena’s mind at the time. The device must cut Sasha off from the power, or at least make it too difficult to access through the pain. And it looked like something out of a movie – cutting edge tech maybe, else very very old. She still had fragments of memory from the earlier possessions; the tools the ijiraq had tried to infuse in her for the task she had promised them. And those had felt ancient.

Ori sat back on her ass, legs tangled around his. Her jaw was hard, her eyes the wrong side of crazy. She jammed the side of her arm against his mouth, didn’t care if he bit – kind of the point, to shut him up. But his eyes were glazed. She didn’t think he’d hear a word. “Remember what I said before, about showing you what was wrong with me?” Her grin was deranged, because it was a terrible idea. But the confrontation had been building for weeks, more and more inevitable with every single nosebleed. And now was as good a time as any. She’d never planned on going quietly.

It happened fast. The moment she pulled on her own power. Her throat clogged with blood, and her eyes rolled upwards. Ori herself slumped inwards, a complete dead weight.

Minutes passed like that. Occasionally she trembled. Twitched.

And finally she shuddered a breath.

Her eyes weren’t right when she opened them; they were afraid. For a moment she was entirely disorientated, and reached to push away from the body she was collapsed against. She dragged a hand across her own face, smeared away the remnants of blood. Her pulse was racing, adjusting. Let-us,Let-us,Let-us was a hoarse and brittle whisper in the back of her mind, like a wind across scorched earth.

Blinking, Ori reached to cup the back of Sasha’s head – just enough to hold him still. Her grip was firm. Her eyes still slightly unfocused as the power flowed in. The lattice of it was more delicate than anything she usually attempted, but it felt weirdly like something known. Or known once, anyway. The same way she learned to shield – or the theory of severing. Her memory was already slipping just like it had that time too, leaving something closer to an imprint.

After a moment, there was a shiver of release. The arms of the device contracted their sting. It tumbled to the floor.

[Sasha]

Oriena manhandled him more but he barely noticed through the pain. He barely noticed what happened with her. The pain was unbearable. His eyes watered. His body shook and he was pretty sure he could no longer scream because his throat was raw from the intensity of all of it.

He did notice the shiver down his spine, and then it just stopped. It hurt worse than it had before and then suddenly it was done. Blood dripped from the bore holes and Sasha dashed away from the wall and Oriena, tripping over their tangled legs and falling face first into the hard rock floor. But it was nothing compared to the pain of before.

The spiderlike things lay on the ground twitching. Sasha didn't try to move. The urge to stomp on it was strong but he could barely move. Shock. Releif. But now that he was free of it...

He wanted to smash it. Destroy it. Destroy Zephyr. He would destroy her but later. Not now. With his head pressed against the cold stone floor Sasha muttered "Thank you." He didn't expect her to help him. He wondered why she would help him. But Oriena was unlikely to answer any of those questions. And he really didn't feel like talking or moving...

[Oriena]

Sasha bolted, and it didn’t surprise her an inch. Ori spent several moments breathing before she pushed herself up on her feet. She still felt a little unsteady, but it was fading fast, largely overtaken by a new feeling of the most gratifying lightness. The claws in her head were gone – that constant, grinding pressure to act according to the oath she had made. She was free.

But she wasn’t alone.

Let us, Mother
Hungry, Mother
Please, Mother

Their voices weren’t distant static anymore, but like clear masculine whispers in the shell of her ear. When they spoke together it cascaded like a waterfall, but she realised now that they were not actually one being, as the amorphous hive had usually felt to her: they each had a distinct feeling and shape. Though she looked then, there was no evidence of the three of them in the darkness around them, though she could have pointed each one out where it hovered utterly invisible.

Oriena felt no sense of coercion. Their hunger was not bleeding into hers; she only felt it like a pulse of shared information. They were just… waiting.

Right.

That.

Her memories were fragmented, eroding like they always had in the past, leaving only the pertinent pieces of information with no real sense of how she had learned it. “You can’t kill him,” she said, to which the hovering ijiraq didn’t respond. At least not in words. They appeared to have understood something from her feeling, and that was what they each acknowledged. Ori’s expression darkened, and she wasn't quite sure what she made of it. Or even what they thought they had understood.

She glanced down at the fallen device, still twitching like a dying animal, but only nudged it with her foot as she passed. It looked like the kind of sinister shit Nox would be interested in. For now she left it though, in favour of the man slumped forward on his face – because the dumb fuck hadn’t gone far before collapsing. “Don’t thank me yet,” she said, as she shoved him with her boot to roll him over.

Sasha was tall and broad even if he was skinny, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t have resisted. But he was always a permanent victim. Ori straddled his chest, pinned his arms by his head. Mostly that was to stop him running again. He looked shitty and pale, and his day was about to get worse before it got better. Blood smeared his neck where the device’s pincers had retracted their hold, though it was too dark to see exactly how bad the mess was.

“You’re going to have to trust me,” she told him. A dangerous smirk played on her lips as she looked down at him. “I need you to channel.”

She just laughed a little over any whimpering protest he might offer. He hadn’t even known what he was last time they met, clutching his hand like his power came from a talisman rather than inside himself. It hadn’t been so hard to coax it out of him that time, and she didn’t think it would be this time either. One way or another at least, and Ori really didn’t care which method worked. She slid closer, pressed low enough that her breath touched his ear when she spoke next, more teasing lover than predator, though perhaps only just. Her weight pinning his hands did not relent.

“You should be angry, Sash. Incandescent with what they tried to take from you. And the sooner you learn to take what you want when you want it, the sooner it’ll never happen again.”