Interlude - Red Bloom
The tread of heavy iron boots echoed down the winding hallways spiraling through the imposing Castrum, a monstrosity of masonry and technological prowess which overlooked a rugged coastline, just one of many strongholds that guarded the ever-growing borders of the mighty empire of Garlemald. Inside its thick metal-clad walls the only signs of the nearby sea were the slight scent of salt water in the air and the distant cries of seabirds which echoed down vents which provided even the lowest and most secret chambers with purified air. No light could penetrate into those deep, dark corners, but Ceruleum-powered lights were a suitable substitute.
A man clad in crimson armor stopped in front of an unassuming door, one of many dozens of its like spread around the ornately decorated but identical hallways he'd passed on his long way down. A single individual stood on watch to greet him, one hand on his weapon while the other was awkwardly held out in front of him in an impromptu, incompetent attempt at a salute. The guard didn't say a word, but swallowed thickly.
"This is where you are keeping the… specimen?" the crimson-hued man asked.
The guard nodded quickly, his helmet slipping across his bald scalp as he did so. "Yes! M-my lord!" He flung his arm across his body in a more believable attempt at the imperial salute, then bowed his head in supplication. "Praefectus Aulus mentioned that you showed an interest in his work, my Lord!"
"Huh. Did he?" The armored officer cocked his head to the side, his mask displaying none of his features to the lower-ranking recruit, save for the permanent disapproving scowl etched into its faceplate. "Tell me, what is a mere Lictor like yourself doing here, guarding a significant prisoner like this? And where is your partner? Do the laws of our fair nation not explicitly state that two recruits must be paired up at all times to keep watch over each other? Speak."
The guard swallowed nervously. "You are completely right, my Lord. Unfortunately…" He glanced behind him. "My… partner… got a little too close to our charge, and…" He swallowed again. "I imagine he thought the wild stories to be mere exaggeration. He was new - just recently flown in from Castrum Occidens after a tour there." He shook his head. "I - this position has become, uh, prisoner duty, I'm afraid. My Lord." He shuddered. "I'm not sure the thing needs guards. Four people have ended up in the infirmary in the last week alone!"
"I see." The officer waited for a long moment. "I believe my purpose here is obvious, and yet it appears you have failed to grasp the meaning of my presence. Will you allow me to pass, or shall I have to move you?"
"Ah…! R-right!" The man jumped aside, wincing as his helmet shifted. "Just… be careful in there, alright? If that monster ends up beheading a Legatus next, it'll be on my head."
The officer paused at the door. "Perhaps, Lictor, you should have considered such things before you got yourself signed onto prisoner duty. Do not let anyone enter after me without warning - be they a slave or the very Emperor himself. Am I understood?"
"Y-yes, sir."
The cells were dinghy, but not because they were filled with filth and refuse - such squalor would not be permitted in even the worst of the Garlean prisons. The dusty chambers were dimly lit by rather primitive Ceruleum lamps that could not be rendered into crude explosives by an inventive engineer. Such had been tried with more modern ceruleum-based models by numerous prisoners, which led to the present conditions. Not that the subject he was dealing with today had much of a talent for engineering - or anything else.
The creature lay at the far side of its cell, an innocent bundle at first glance, shivering and cringing away from even the flickering lamps in its enclosure. It didn't look particularly dangerous, but such was the trap that had ensnared several unfortunate guards - appearances could be deceiving. This went double for the creature before him, for at first blush it appeared to be a woman. An exotic one, to be sure, features foreign and her skin a strange amalgam of flesh and steel, wired throughout with copper and other materials which sparked on rare occasions with flickers of lightning, or perhaps an excitation of Aether. The beast seemed eerily familiar in some respects, yet clearly inhuman in others. And its skin, beyond its substance, was a marvel - for every inch of it was decorated with wild patterns, a grand artwork of flowers and colors splashing across the beast's hide with wild abandon. An artist's masterwork placed atop the body of a monster.
"Are you awake?" the officer stated boldly, one hand on his weapon. "Do you understand my language, or shall I have to debase myself with lesser tongues?"
The feminine creature stirred, though her gaze failed to find him, wandering aimlessly. She seemed almost impossibly pale and listless, but that was comparing her acts to the expectations he had of a normal human - and she was certainly no human. She had no ears or hair to speak of, but instead bore a thick layer of slowly twitching tendrils atop her head, bound together until their ends disappeared beyond the edge of her strange body, betraying its nature as a product of artifice, as her creation, or that of another. The only sign which marred her pale features, the only imperfection, was a small half-moon carved into her cheek, a mark that was doubtless of some symbolic importance due to its prominent placement upon her visage.
"Hear me, beast," the officer stated. "You now face Nero tol Scaeva, Tribunus Laticlavius of Garlemald's XIVth Legion, sworn to Legatus Gaius van Balsar, the Black Wolf." He cocked his head to the side as the creature's eyes finally seemed to meet his, and they widened a fraction of an ilm. "...But please, call me Nero."
The creature's body moved slowly, jerking uneasily as she stared at him with uneasy eyes, her artifice body creaking and groaning as metal wore against metal in ways that seemed, to Nero's ears, a betrayal of gross malfunction. Finally the creature stilled, her mouth moving without expelling words. Perhaps she could not - perhaps she was merely shaped like the race of man, not capable of its higher faculties. Many beast tribes pretended to be intelligent, but in the end they were little more than their wild cousins, just infused with too much Aether.
"Aulus mal Asina tells me you may be voidsent - a creature from beyond the borders of the three continents, and perhaps the world. He thinks you a mere animal - but I do not agree with that claim. Voidsent are monsters who hunger where you do not, kill where you merely maim. Three times you have thrown people from your cell, four as of yesterday, and you could have killed them with contemptuous ease. You refrained. That, to me, speaks of some intellect - or at any rate, an understanding of your precarious situation. The rabid coeurl is shot, after all…"
The creature shifted once more, but did not respond.
"'Tis cruel to be a beast with the face of a fair maiden," Nero mused lyrically. "Ah, but so says a fair man with the face of a beast!" He reached up to his helmet and removed it with a single swift movement, revealing his handsome features as he smiled roguishly and pulled one hand through his blond, short-cropped hair. "Now, we are as equals… save for the cell in which you find yourself. Pity, that."
Nero paced back and forth in front of the cell as the woman-faced creature followed his every step. "Aulus has plans for you, I believe - he sees your dangerous nature as potentially useful, if you were allowed to… adjust… to your newfound situation." He shrugged. "He means to employ brainwashing of some description, I'm sure. It's beyond me what the more esoteric researchers get up to these days. He tells me that the process he has in mind would have other benefits as well - enhanced communication, increased understanding." He nodded. "I would much desire to speak to you, when the day comes you can look me in the eye without hatred or suspicion."
He met her eyes with as much sincerity as he could manage. "Then, perhaps, there are other matters we can discuss as well. The others here do not see what I do - they believe your body is a doll, an artifact bereft of aether or life, little more than an ornament. But I can see the truth, the sublime elegance of that which you hold - and which holds you. I wish to understand it. To know who threaded those lifeless sinews, those metal muscles which turned a monstrosity into a marvel. If I can understand you, I can use that to propel myself onward - perhaps it will be sufficient to surpass even Garlond, and leave him far behind me." He grinned broadly. "Indeed, I shall surpass whoever created you as well!"
His gaze lingered on the broken hinges of the gorgeously patterned body. "I know what hides within your broken shell. Tell me, if you possess a dozen limbs or more, why do you constrain yourself to using only four? What leads a creature to desire humanity, however crudely wrought? You carry not a spark of aether - merely dead metal and dreams - and yet you spark in me so many brilliant ideas. Why did I never consider the prospect of a full body prosthetic? To unite the form of man with the soul of a monster - would it be possible to do the reverse…?"
The guard outside knocked on the heavy door, then shoved it open and peered inside. "...Uh, sir?"
"What?" Nero snarled, glaring at the intruder. "Can you not tell that I am engaged in conversation, Lictor?"
"...You do know it doesn't talk, right?" the man asked. "It doesn't speak our language."
"I was aware of that," Nero replied with supreme patience. "Nevertheless, I thought she should be made aware of her fate - whether she understands the words is not my concern, merely propriety." He shook his head. "Besides," he murmured to himself. "If there is one thing I never tire of, it is hearing my own voice…"
AN: I've been writing for some of my old fics recently, and I still had most of a scene written, but never posted. I'm not sure how likely it is I'll be dropping more chapters soon (given that I'm not currently playing FF14) but I'm at least interested in picking it back up.
