Fic: Shadow of Her Sins, Chapter One
Aug. 16th, 2013 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalWhile I'm waiting for my beta readers to get back to me on I Fought the Claw I've managed to start a followup to Shadow of the Red Vixen, c*oncentrating on Ali's history this time.
* * *
Alinadar woke up with a start, paw snatching up the stunner hidden under her pillow. She was sitting up in bed and holding the gun out in front of her before her brain caught up with her reflexes, and she realized there was no one there. She took a deep breath, setting the stunner down on her nightstand as she stood up. It was a good two hours before dawn by the clock on her dresser, but Ali knew there would be no hope of getting back to sleep now.
The young Foxen girl looked around the little room. It was a standard issue pre-fab bachelor housing module, common on many a startup colony world like Greenspring, not much more in it than a foldaway bed, a small kitchen unit in one corner, the Necessary Closet in another, and a cheap couch in front of a much more expensive entertainment and com unit. The only non-standard bit of furnishing was the locked weapons cabinet along one wall.
Ali rubbed her ears, squinting as she called up the lights. The dream, if it had been a dream that had woken her, was beyond her recall, though she had a vague impression of running down a corridor, dodging gunfire. Not that such a dream was very different from her own memories…
She frowned, shaking her head and tail, heading towards the Necessary. She wetted a wash cloth and ran it over her face, soaking her black and white face fur with cold water to finish waking up. Golden eyes stared back at her in the mirror when she raised her head again. Unconsciously, she touched the irregular strip of fur around her throat, where her old collar had protected her. The rest of her pelt had finished growing back almost two months ago, after it had been shaved away by Bloody Margo. The human pirate hadn’t been able to work the razor around the braided chains around Ali’s throat, and had finally given up in frustration after punching Ali in the stomach.
Well, that had been almost six months ago. Bloody Margo was bloody well dead, caught groundside when the Red Vixen had attacked her base. Margo had been enraged at Ali, to find her alive at in the Red Vixen’s employ, after being left for dead in a botched raid against one of the Red Vixen’s refueling caches.
Well, not employed exactly. Ali had been the Red Vixen’s slave, and before that Bloody Margo’s pet. Collared and owned by both, though under the Red Vixen she’d had a much happier life, stunning instead of slaughtering the crews of the merchant vessels they had attacked. Now…
Ali wasn’t sure about how freedom was working out. Under Lady Salli, she was still doing the same thing that she’d done under the Red Vixen’s collar, acting as a bodyguard. Not that there was much to guard against in the colony. Everyone here was either oath sworn to Lady Salli or employed by her, as they worked to ready the colony for the expected influx of permanent colonists scheduled to arrive later in the local planetary year. The only real threat was the possibility of a pirate, escaped when the Red Vixen had assaulted Margo’s base, turning up unexpectedly. One had appeared about six weeks ago actually, but he had been a pathetic and starving individual, who had been grateful to be finally caught and given a good meal before his trial and execution.
Necessities done, Ali got dressed in her usual outfit, black skirt over black leggings, a blue blouse with puffy sleeves, and a black waistcoat. Around her waist she buckled her weapons belt, with holsters for her stunner, a bulkier plasma pistol, a sheath for her combat knife, another for her pocket comp, and various pouches for containing a small first aid kit, a couple of energy bars, and a few other useful items. Finally she slipped on her leather gloves, weighted to add momentum to her punches, fingerless to let her use her claws properly, if things ever got that close and desperate.
Which still left her with an hour and a half until dawn, when she could legitimately show up at Lady Salli’s door to share breakfast.
She occupied the time by taking a tour of the grandly named Governor's Mansion, Lady Sallivera's domain and Ali's responsibility to secure and protect. In actuality it was merely a series of pre-fab domestic and office flats, all with the same drab beige plastic composite frames and walls, stacked two stories atop each other, making the place the tallest structure outside the motor pool's storage shed. But the utilitarian buildings served well enough for the young colony, until there were enough people and resources to build something more proper to compliment Lady Salli's position.
She was just making her third circuit around the buildings, as the sky began to lighten, when her ears pricked up as she heard the rumble of a ship's thrusters descending towards the spaceport. The engine noise was higher pitched than the cargo lighters that House Lovejoy used. More to the point, the next scheduled cargo and passenger delivery wasn't due to arrive for nearly a fortnight.
Heart racing, Ali broke into a run towards, touching the com nestled in her ear. “Milady, did you hear the ship?” she asked as soon as Lady Salli picked up.
“I heard,” Lady Salli replied, already awake apparently. “Please meet whoever is landing and bring them to me. I'll contact the spaceport to make sure this isn't an emergency.”
“Milady, I should be with you,” Ali began to object.
“I have guards enough here. Be my eyes and ears, Alinadar.”
“Yes, Milady.” Ali changed course, heading towards the motor pool, slapping her palm on the lock for Lady Salli's personal ground skimmer. She peeled out towards the spaceport, honking at an early morning pedestrian crossing the street in front of her.
By the time she reached the spaceport some five klicks away, the ship had already landed. It was a needle thin singleship, bigger than a fightercraft, smaller than a yacht, the hull painted matte black. A single person courier ship, designed to get one Very Important Person to their chosen destination in a hurry.
Ali's heart raced a bit faster when she saw who was climbing down the boarding ladder. It was a foxen male perhaps five years older than her own age of twenty-five. His fur was stark white, save for black tips at the points of his ears and end of his tail. Also black was his uniform, save for discreet silver piping and a six pointed silver sunburst at his breast, marking the male as a member of the Allied Patrol.
She tried to calm down. A patrolmale visiting a frontier colony shouldn't be unexpected. It most definitely wasn't any reason to panic. At least, not anymore.
The patroller turned towards her as he stepped away from his ship. As he caught sight of her his eyes widened briefly and his ears flicked back, before recovering. Surprised at her sudden arrival maybe? Perhaps he wasn't expecting such a prompt welcome this early local time.
“Alinadar... Waterfarmer, isn't it?” the patrolmale asked slowly.
Well, Waterfarmer had been an alias once, but she didn't correct him. “Yah,” she said. “And you are?”
“Lt. Commander Lu Ciedias Blacksailor.” He paused, as if expecting her to recognize it, then moved on. “I've been dispatched to set up a Patrol coordination office here on Greenspring, to help in its defense against pirates and such.”
“The Foxen Navy keeps a destroyer in orbit for that. I'm sure it contacted you on the way in,” Ali told him. “Though to be honest, we didn't know you were coming.”
“Sorry, it's traditional for the Patrol not to announce its movements. Keeps the pirates guessing.”
“No pirates here,” Ali said. Not anymore, anyway.
“Not after Bloody Margo and her crew were so spectacularly defeated,” Commander Blacksailor agreed. “You were involved in that incident, if I read the reports correctly.”
“I was Lady Sallivera's bodyguard at the time. Still am actually. I got captured by Bloody Margo's crew, but Lady Salli avoided getting grabbed, and then managed to free me on her own.” In more than one sense. “Then a rival pirate , the Red Vixen, found Margo's base here on Greenspring while we were fleeing across the planet, and blew her flagship and most of her crew to the Cold and Dark. When she left, we used what was left of the base's com system to yell for help.” There. That was the first time she'd ever talked about what had happened with anyone beside Lady Salli's family, and best of all it was mostly the truth. If lacking in a few details.
“I see,” Commander Blacksailor said. “I need to speak to Lady Sallivera as soon as can be arranged. Do you know if she’ll be available today?”
“Sure. Milady ordered me to bring you to her right away.” Ali called Lady Salli back and explained the reason for the Patrolmale’s visit to her.
“Bring him straight to me, Ali. I’ll be in the arbor,” Milady ordered.
“Yes, Milady.” To Commander Blacksailor she said, “Lady Sallivera can see you right now, if you like. Do you have any luggage?”
“Just my kit bag and secured comp.” He climbed back into the ship to retrieve them, then Ali tossed them into the front seat of the skimmer to drive him to the Governor's Palace.
“So,” Commander Darksailor said, looking out at the passing pre-fab buildings, “have you been working for Lady Sallivera very long?”
“Almost a year now. I was hired to be her minder before she left on a Grand Tour of the Allied homeworlds. After the incident with Bloody Margo and the plot by the Countess Highglider, she decided to swear me to her service.”
“And before that?”
“Pretty much the same thing.” Just with a vastly different employer.
They arrived at the Governor's Palace, and Ali led Commander Blacksailor around to the rear to the arbor. It was still in the process of being planted with a mixture of native Greenspring and Foxen Prime vegetation, giving the whole place a scraggly look. In the center was a large, open pavilion, where Lady Salli did most of her on a her personal comp and met with petitioners when weather permitted.
Lady Salli was there now, the rising sun behind her as she sat on a comfortable hassock, her personal comp on a folding table beside her. She had managed to rise and dress in the time it had taken for Ali to meet Commander Blacksailor, and despite the hour and the rush looked perfectly calm and composed for this unexpected meeting.
The patroller paused a moment as he approached her, but then most people did the first time they met the formidable vixen. While Lady Salli was dressed quite properly for a foxen noblevixen, in a high necked, split skirt dress of deep blue silk, complementing her tall frame, it was her eye that gave her such an initially shocking appearance. Her left eye was a normal hazel, but the right was a dead black camera lens, crossed diagonally by three parallel scars, white fur grown over the wounds, standing out starkly from her dark brown pelt.
Only Ali was privileged to see behind that tall, proud stance, at the end of the day when the work was done, and Lady Salli allowed her shoulders to sag from the ache of holding them straight, the broken and re-healed bones paining her. Only Ali saw her in the darkness, when the night terrors robbed the noblevixen of sleep, and her bodyguard sat watch beside her bed as she tried to rest again, guarding against phantoms from Lady Salli's memories, of the husband that had abused and tormented her, until she had escaped, losing both her eye and nearly her soul. Only Ali was permitted that close, and if it wasn't as close as the younger vixen might have wanted, it was enough. Enough to entrusted with such secrets, entrusted to see the tall, proud vixen so vulnerable.
“Lt. Commander Lu Ciedias Blacksailor of the Allied Worlds Patrol, milady.” Ali stepped back, standing by one of the pavilion's pillars and taking up her customary duty of guarding Lady Salli while appearing to be a piece of furniture.
Recovering quickly, Blacksailor bowed suitably low for a Military caste addressing a high Noble. “Governor Darktail, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Welcome to Goodspring, Commander Blacksailor,” Lady Salli said graciously. “How may we help the Patrol?” At her gesture, Ali broke position briefly and pulled a second hassock from the side of the pavilion for Blacksailor to sit upon.
The patroller began explaining his task of establishing an Allied Worlds Patrol office. As he spoke though, he kept glancing back at Ali, ears flicking back and forth in seeming wariness. Ali tried not to frown at the attention. She was supposed to be an invisible servant. If he wanted to speak to Lady Salli in confidence he should have said something already. Ali would have then politely stepped out of earshot, if not line of sight.
His distraction had not missed Lady Salli's attention either. “Commander, are you not comfortable having Alinadar here while we talk?” she asked.
“No, I mean it's all right. I don't want to go away, please.” He pressed his paws together in front of him, ears flicked back, tail curled tight behind his legs in distress.
“Commander Blacksailor, what is the matter then?”
“I”m sorry, it's just that I think... I think...” He stood up, turning to face Ali. “Miss Waterfarmer, I know this might be an unwelcome request, but I must beg of you. May I have your scent?”
“What?” Ali said in surprise. The look on Blacksailor's face was almost desperate. She glanced behind him to Lady Salli, who made an opened pawed gesture of If you're willing. “Well, I suppose it's all right.”
“Thank you,” he said with obvious sincerity. He two tentative steps towards her, reaching out to take gentle hold of her shoulders. He's shaking, she suddenly realized.
He leaned forward, head bowing as he pressed his nose at the junction of her neck and shoulder. He breathed in deeply, taking in her scent in the manner of intimates. Blacksailor's grip on her shoulders tightened abruptly. Ali tensed, ready to push him away if he tried anything. Then she felt something warm and wet beginning to soak her exposed fur.
He's crying!
Blackheart raised his head, eyes bright with tears, voice rough with emotion. “Dear sister,” he gasped. “I thought you were lost forever!”
TBC
* * *
Alinadar woke up with a start, paw snatching up the stunner hidden under her pillow. She was sitting up in bed and holding the gun out in front of her before her brain caught up with her reflexes, and she realized there was no one there. She took a deep breath, setting the stunner down on her nightstand as she stood up. It was a good two hours before dawn by the clock on her dresser, but Ali knew there would be no hope of getting back to sleep now.
The young Foxen girl looked around the little room. It was a standard issue pre-fab bachelor housing module, common on many a startup colony world like Greenspring, not much more in it than a foldaway bed, a small kitchen unit in one corner, the Necessary Closet in another, and a cheap couch in front of a much more expensive entertainment and com unit. The only non-standard bit of furnishing was the locked weapons cabinet along one wall.
Ali rubbed her ears, squinting as she called up the lights. The dream, if it had been a dream that had woken her, was beyond her recall, though she had a vague impression of running down a corridor, dodging gunfire. Not that such a dream was very different from her own memories…
She frowned, shaking her head and tail, heading towards the Necessary. She wetted a wash cloth and ran it over her face, soaking her black and white face fur with cold water to finish waking up. Golden eyes stared back at her in the mirror when she raised her head again. Unconsciously, she touched the irregular strip of fur around her throat, where her old collar had protected her. The rest of her pelt had finished growing back almost two months ago, after it had been shaved away by Bloody Margo. The human pirate hadn’t been able to work the razor around the braided chains around Ali’s throat, and had finally given up in frustration after punching Ali in the stomach.
Well, that had been almost six months ago. Bloody Margo was bloody well dead, caught groundside when the Red Vixen had attacked her base. Margo had been enraged at Ali, to find her alive at in the Red Vixen’s employ, after being left for dead in a botched raid against one of the Red Vixen’s refueling caches.
Well, not employed exactly. Ali had been the Red Vixen’s slave, and before that Bloody Margo’s pet. Collared and owned by both, though under the Red Vixen she’d had a much happier life, stunning instead of slaughtering the crews of the merchant vessels they had attacked. Now…
Ali wasn’t sure about how freedom was working out. Under Lady Salli, she was still doing the same thing that she’d done under the Red Vixen’s collar, acting as a bodyguard. Not that there was much to guard against in the colony. Everyone here was either oath sworn to Lady Salli or employed by her, as they worked to ready the colony for the expected influx of permanent colonists scheduled to arrive later in the local planetary year. The only real threat was the possibility of a pirate, escaped when the Red Vixen had assaulted Margo’s base, turning up unexpectedly. One had appeared about six weeks ago actually, but he had been a pathetic and starving individual, who had been grateful to be finally caught and given a good meal before his trial and execution.
Necessities done, Ali got dressed in her usual outfit, black skirt over black leggings, a blue blouse with puffy sleeves, and a black waistcoat. Around her waist she buckled her weapons belt, with holsters for her stunner, a bulkier plasma pistol, a sheath for her combat knife, another for her pocket comp, and various pouches for containing a small first aid kit, a couple of energy bars, and a few other useful items. Finally she slipped on her leather gloves, weighted to add momentum to her punches, fingerless to let her use her claws properly, if things ever got that close and desperate.
Which still left her with an hour and a half until dawn, when she could legitimately show up at Lady Salli’s door to share breakfast.
She occupied the time by taking a tour of the grandly named Governor's Mansion, Lady Sallivera's domain and Ali's responsibility to secure and protect. In actuality it was merely a series of pre-fab domestic and office flats, all with the same drab beige plastic composite frames and walls, stacked two stories atop each other, making the place the tallest structure outside the motor pool's storage shed. But the utilitarian buildings served well enough for the young colony, until there were enough people and resources to build something more proper to compliment Lady Salli's position.
She was just making her third circuit around the buildings, as the sky began to lighten, when her ears pricked up as she heard the rumble of a ship's thrusters descending towards the spaceport. The engine noise was higher pitched than the cargo lighters that House Lovejoy used. More to the point, the next scheduled cargo and passenger delivery wasn't due to arrive for nearly a fortnight.
Heart racing, Ali broke into a run towards, touching the com nestled in her ear. “Milady, did you hear the ship?” she asked as soon as Lady Salli picked up.
“I heard,” Lady Salli replied, already awake apparently. “Please meet whoever is landing and bring them to me. I'll contact the spaceport to make sure this isn't an emergency.”
“Milady, I should be with you,” Ali began to object.
“I have guards enough here. Be my eyes and ears, Alinadar.”
“Yes, Milady.” Ali changed course, heading towards the motor pool, slapping her palm on the lock for Lady Salli's personal ground skimmer. She peeled out towards the spaceport, honking at an early morning pedestrian crossing the street in front of her.
By the time she reached the spaceport some five klicks away, the ship had already landed. It was a needle thin singleship, bigger than a fightercraft, smaller than a yacht, the hull painted matte black. A single person courier ship, designed to get one Very Important Person to their chosen destination in a hurry.
Ali's heart raced a bit faster when she saw who was climbing down the boarding ladder. It was a foxen male perhaps five years older than her own age of twenty-five. His fur was stark white, save for black tips at the points of his ears and end of his tail. Also black was his uniform, save for discreet silver piping and a six pointed silver sunburst at his breast, marking the male as a member of the Allied Patrol.
She tried to calm down. A patrolmale visiting a frontier colony shouldn't be unexpected. It most definitely wasn't any reason to panic. At least, not anymore.
The patroller turned towards her as he stepped away from his ship. As he caught sight of her his eyes widened briefly and his ears flicked back, before recovering. Surprised at her sudden arrival maybe? Perhaps he wasn't expecting such a prompt welcome this early local time.
“Alinadar... Waterfarmer, isn't it?” the patrolmale asked slowly.
Well, Waterfarmer had been an alias once, but she didn't correct him. “Yah,” she said. “And you are?”
“Lt. Commander Lu Ciedias Blacksailor.” He paused, as if expecting her to recognize it, then moved on. “I've been dispatched to set up a Patrol coordination office here on Greenspring, to help in its defense against pirates and such.”
“The Foxen Navy keeps a destroyer in orbit for that. I'm sure it contacted you on the way in,” Ali told him. “Though to be honest, we didn't know you were coming.”
“Sorry, it's traditional for the Patrol not to announce its movements. Keeps the pirates guessing.”
“No pirates here,” Ali said. Not anymore, anyway.
“Not after Bloody Margo and her crew were so spectacularly defeated,” Commander Blacksailor agreed. “You were involved in that incident, if I read the reports correctly.”
“I was Lady Sallivera's bodyguard at the time. Still am actually. I got captured by Bloody Margo's crew, but Lady Salli avoided getting grabbed, and then managed to free me on her own.” In more than one sense. “Then a rival pirate , the Red Vixen, found Margo's base here on Greenspring while we were fleeing across the planet, and blew her flagship and most of her crew to the Cold and Dark. When she left, we used what was left of the base's com system to yell for help.” There. That was the first time she'd ever talked about what had happened with anyone beside Lady Salli's family, and best of all it was mostly the truth. If lacking in a few details.
“I see,” Commander Blacksailor said. “I need to speak to Lady Sallivera as soon as can be arranged. Do you know if she’ll be available today?”
“Sure. Milady ordered me to bring you to her right away.” Ali called Lady Salli back and explained the reason for the Patrolmale’s visit to her.
“Bring him straight to me, Ali. I’ll be in the arbor,” Milady ordered.
“Yes, Milady.” To Commander Blacksailor she said, “Lady Sallivera can see you right now, if you like. Do you have any luggage?”
“Just my kit bag and secured comp.” He climbed back into the ship to retrieve them, then Ali tossed them into the front seat of the skimmer to drive him to the Governor's Palace.
“So,” Commander Darksailor said, looking out at the passing pre-fab buildings, “have you been working for Lady Sallivera very long?”
“Almost a year now. I was hired to be her minder before she left on a Grand Tour of the Allied homeworlds. After the incident with Bloody Margo and the plot by the Countess Highglider, she decided to swear me to her service.”
“And before that?”
“Pretty much the same thing.” Just with a vastly different employer.
They arrived at the Governor's Palace, and Ali led Commander Blacksailor around to the rear to the arbor. It was still in the process of being planted with a mixture of native Greenspring and Foxen Prime vegetation, giving the whole place a scraggly look. In the center was a large, open pavilion, where Lady Salli did most of her on a her personal comp and met with petitioners when weather permitted.
Lady Salli was there now, the rising sun behind her as she sat on a comfortable hassock, her personal comp on a folding table beside her. She had managed to rise and dress in the time it had taken for Ali to meet Commander Blacksailor, and despite the hour and the rush looked perfectly calm and composed for this unexpected meeting.
The patroller paused a moment as he approached her, but then most people did the first time they met the formidable vixen. While Lady Salli was dressed quite properly for a foxen noblevixen, in a high necked, split skirt dress of deep blue silk, complementing her tall frame, it was her eye that gave her such an initially shocking appearance. Her left eye was a normal hazel, but the right was a dead black camera lens, crossed diagonally by three parallel scars, white fur grown over the wounds, standing out starkly from her dark brown pelt.
Only Ali was privileged to see behind that tall, proud stance, at the end of the day when the work was done, and Lady Salli allowed her shoulders to sag from the ache of holding them straight, the broken and re-healed bones paining her. Only Ali saw her in the darkness, when the night terrors robbed the noblevixen of sleep, and her bodyguard sat watch beside her bed as she tried to rest again, guarding against phantoms from Lady Salli's memories, of the husband that had abused and tormented her, until she had escaped, losing both her eye and nearly her soul. Only Ali was permitted that close, and if it wasn't as close as the younger vixen might have wanted, it was enough. Enough to entrusted with such secrets, entrusted to see the tall, proud vixen so vulnerable.
“Lt. Commander Lu Ciedias Blacksailor of the Allied Worlds Patrol, milady.” Ali stepped back, standing by one of the pavilion's pillars and taking up her customary duty of guarding Lady Salli while appearing to be a piece of furniture.
Recovering quickly, Blacksailor bowed suitably low for a Military caste addressing a high Noble. “Governor Darktail, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Welcome to Goodspring, Commander Blacksailor,” Lady Salli said graciously. “How may we help the Patrol?” At her gesture, Ali broke position briefly and pulled a second hassock from the side of the pavilion for Blacksailor to sit upon.
The patroller began explaining his task of establishing an Allied Worlds Patrol office. As he spoke though, he kept glancing back at Ali, ears flicking back and forth in seeming wariness. Ali tried not to frown at the attention. She was supposed to be an invisible servant. If he wanted to speak to Lady Salli in confidence he should have said something already. Ali would have then politely stepped out of earshot, if not line of sight.
His distraction had not missed Lady Salli's attention either. “Commander, are you not comfortable having Alinadar here while we talk?” she asked.
“No, I mean it's all right. I don't want to go away, please.” He pressed his paws together in front of him, ears flicked back, tail curled tight behind his legs in distress.
“Commander Blacksailor, what is the matter then?”
“I”m sorry, it's just that I think... I think...” He stood up, turning to face Ali. “Miss Waterfarmer, I know this might be an unwelcome request, but I must beg of you. May I have your scent?”
“What?” Ali said in surprise. The look on Blacksailor's face was almost desperate. She glanced behind him to Lady Salli, who made an opened pawed gesture of If you're willing. “Well, I suppose it's all right.”
“Thank you,” he said with obvious sincerity. He two tentative steps towards her, reaching out to take gentle hold of her shoulders. He's shaking, she suddenly realized.
He leaned forward, head bowing as he pressed his nose at the junction of her neck and shoulder. He breathed in deeply, taking in her scent in the manner of intimates. Blacksailor's grip on her shoulders tightened abruptly. Ali tensed, ready to push him away if he tried anything. Then she felt something warm and wet beginning to soak her exposed fur.
He's crying!
Blackheart raised his head, eyes bright with tears, voice rough with emotion. “Dear sister,” he gasped. “I thought you were lost forever!”
TBC
