Tick.
The moment was passing her by, she could feel it like nails scraping softly up her back. The room had filled with silence long ago, every nook and cranny attesting to the lack of words, accusatory and pained.
Tock.
He was beauty. She had always thought that of him for he had been the one that taught her the meaning. It had informed her of what she perceived to be beauty. Silky fiber optic-like strands flowed from his head like a river of golden light, framing a face harsh with angles, and golden eyes with no pupils. Those golden eyes so similar to her own and yet so very alien were open and watching now, watching as she failed again.
Tick.
As alien as she was from everyone else she had ever met, Taliesin was a magnitude above in that area. Unfathomable was an adjective she had heard some use but never had the word been used for its true purpose, the only one that could apply to Taliesin with truth.
Tock.
"I cannot." She whispered, the simple statement shattering the still, smashing it with the eloquence of a child's scream during a pause in a symphony. "You have taken to lying. A trait I had not anticipated to develop in you." His voice was a delicate layer of musical tones pulled taut over an undeniable strength.
The words struck Val like a physical blow, she could feel herself flinch. "How" How then, Taliesin?" Her voice was raw, but the words were devoid of emotion, she had been wrung dry of those months ago. The core of her still survived but she doubted that would be the case if life continued as it had. It was not a true life, a half life would be closer to her reality but even that was suspect.
Taliesin was not really there, Val knew that to be a fact....most days she knew it. How many days had passed with her trapped in this place" It could have been weeks, years, centuries for all the deep darkness of the closed room told Val as the seconds marched on.
The stranger, the man that had put her here, was just a vague shadow of memory and his intentions lost. He had told Val, or so she believed, why she had been locked in, but those words were lost in a sea of delusions and dreams.
She had been repaired. Repaired....accurate and damning rolled into one small term. People were cured, Val was not a person, not a real one.
Taliesin's image wavered, and a string of other images took his place: a man with sunglasses on at night, a hunter, a hawk, the creator, the destroyer, then a frenzy of those that had felt the cold kiss of her inhumanity.
To see the parade of lives she had taken did nothing to warm up the core of ice within, she had done what she had done and her soul, if she had one, did not quail at the sight of them. The first few faces however....those had been the ones that gave her false hope that she was more than what he had meant for her to achieve; that man that had given her this semblance of life and his grand aspirations and attempts at godhood.
"Wake up." A voice broke into her thoughts, clear as a bell and beckoned.
"Valentine Song, I am collecting on a debt owed. Wake up."
The light that greeted the slight opening of her lids was blinding, nothing beyond it could be discerned. After a few moments had passed more of the world could be brought into focus, but what greeted her brought a groan to her lips.
"I am real." The man said as if he could read her thoughts that believed she was still trapped in the nightmare.
Val could feel warmth wrap around her wrist and lift her arm up so that her fingers could brush along the contours of his face. He felt real, more real than anything else in her life had ever felt.
Her lips moved, silently, her mind reeling as it tried to process, tried to shift perceptions to test the reality of this time and place.
"I am real." He said again, slower and with more force, the subtle tones of harmony becoming more pronounced as he attempted to bring her into the same space he inhabited. "Why did you leave me?" The unbidden words escaped from a parched throat and sounding far more pained than she would have believed could be felt, that secret part of her heart having been denied for so very long.
"I never did. You left, I did not follow." He turned his face and placed a tender kiss on her palm before lowering her hand again. "You will leave again, it is still not time."
The growl that followed brought a smile to his lips, it meant a returning of the woman he remembered. "I never..." The protest died before it could pick up speed. She had left, but she had thought he would follow, had never imagined he would just let her fly away. He was right, she would leave again, there was business that had been left unfinished and she was not the type of ....person to let that lie, not even to remain with him.
"I will be there when it is time. You still owe me a debt, Songbird."
She would always owe him that debt. It could not be repaid in full, not while she continued to function.
"I will return."
"I know." He disappeared, the space he had been flooding with emptiness quicker than she could capture and slipping into that deep place within Val where he always resided.
A screen on the wall came to life, instructions flowing across the display:
24 hours until destination is reached New wardrobe available in the closet Medical supplies on deck 2 Weapons on deck 2, encrypted, Songbird Communication device in command, set to automatic currently, encrypted, Songbird .... ...
The list continued and Val absorbed the information. The trail of tears slowly rolling down her cheeks were ignored as she started her mental preparations. She would mourn the loss of him later, for now she had business to attend.
The moment was passing her by, she could feel it like nails scraping softly up her back. The room had filled with silence long ago, every nook and cranny attesting to the lack of words, accusatory and pained.
Tock.
He was beauty. She had always thought that of him for he had been the one that taught her the meaning. It had informed her of what she perceived to be beauty. Silky fiber optic-like strands flowed from his head like a river of golden light, framing a face harsh with angles, and golden eyes with no pupils. Those golden eyes so similar to her own and yet so very alien were open and watching now, watching as she failed again.
Tick.
As alien as she was from everyone else she had ever met, Taliesin was a magnitude above in that area. Unfathomable was an adjective she had heard some use but never had the word been used for its true purpose, the only one that could apply to Taliesin with truth.
Tock.
"I cannot." She whispered, the simple statement shattering the still, smashing it with the eloquence of a child's scream during a pause in a symphony. "You have taken to lying. A trait I had not anticipated to develop in you." His voice was a delicate layer of musical tones pulled taut over an undeniable strength.
The words struck Val like a physical blow, she could feel herself flinch. "How" How then, Taliesin?" Her voice was raw, but the words were devoid of emotion, she had been wrung dry of those months ago. The core of her still survived but she doubted that would be the case if life continued as it had. It was not a true life, a half life would be closer to her reality but even that was suspect.
Taliesin was not really there, Val knew that to be a fact....most days she knew it. How many days had passed with her trapped in this place" It could have been weeks, years, centuries for all the deep darkness of the closed room told Val as the seconds marched on.
The stranger, the man that had put her here, was just a vague shadow of memory and his intentions lost. He had told Val, or so she believed, why she had been locked in, but those words were lost in a sea of delusions and dreams.
She had been repaired. Repaired....accurate and damning rolled into one small term. People were cured, Val was not a person, not a real one.
Taliesin's image wavered, and a string of other images took his place: a man with sunglasses on at night, a hunter, a hawk, the creator, the destroyer, then a frenzy of those that had felt the cold kiss of her inhumanity.
To see the parade of lives she had taken did nothing to warm up the core of ice within, she had done what she had done and her soul, if she had one, did not quail at the sight of them. The first few faces however....those had been the ones that gave her false hope that she was more than what he had meant for her to achieve; that man that had given her this semblance of life and his grand aspirations and attempts at godhood.
"Wake up." A voice broke into her thoughts, clear as a bell and beckoned.
"Valentine Song, I am collecting on a debt owed. Wake up."
The light that greeted the slight opening of her lids was blinding, nothing beyond it could be discerned. After a few moments had passed more of the world could be brought into focus, but what greeted her brought a groan to her lips.
"I am real." The man said as if he could read her thoughts that believed she was still trapped in the nightmare.
Val could feel warmth wrap around her wrist and lift her arm up so that her fingers could brush along the contours of his face. He felt real, more real than anything else in her life had ever felt.
Her lips moved, silently, her mind reeling as it tried to process, tried to shift perceptions to test the reality of this time and place.
"I am real." He said again, slower and with more force, the subtle tones of harmony becoming more pronounced as he attempted to bring her into the same space he inhabited. "Why did you leave me?" The unbidden words escaped from a parched throat and sounding far more pained than she would have believed could be felt, that secret part of her heart having been denied for so very long.
"I never did. You left, I did not follow." He turned his face and placed a tender kiss on her palm before lowering her hand again. "You will leave again, it is still not time."
The growl that followed brought a smile to his lips, it meant a returning of the woman he remembered. "I never..." The protest died before it could pick up speed. She had left, but she had thought he would follow, had never imagined he would just let her fly away. He was right, she would leave again, there was business that had been left unfinished and she was not the type of ....person to let that lie, not even to remain with him.
"I will be there when it is time. You still owe me a debt, Songbird."
She would always owe him that debt. It could not be repaid in full, not while she continued to function.
"I will return."
"I know." He disappeared, the space he had been flooding with emptiness quicker than she could capture and slipping into that deep place within Val where he always resided.
A screen on the wall came to life, instructions flowing across the display:
24 hours until destination is reached New wardrobe available in the closet Medical supplies on deck 2 Weapons on deck 2, encrypted, Songbird Communication device in command, set to automatic currently, encrypted, Songbird .... ...
The list continued and Val absorbed the information. The trail of tears slowly rolling down her cheeks were ignored as she started her mental preparations. She would mourn the loss of him later, for now she had business to attend.