Veins of Smoke and Shadow ✔️ || ONC 2023

2. | Emotional Warfare |

Karras sighed, his features sliding into the floor before returning to a shadow on the wall. "You sprinted through the prison quarters and made it past the med bays, if I had to wager a guess I would say we're getting eerily close to the foyer."

"I was a prisoner here...?"

He nodded.

"Were you?"

Another somewhat hesitant nod.

"What did they do to us...?"

The silence was unsettling, weighing her down like sand as Karras searched for the words.

"We were aligned with a band of Guardian's meant to bring down a Madman who'd begun kidnapping civilians for experimentation," he started, his figure rising to the height of her. "You led us... But you were also a great prize to him. As a Shapeshifter, you were already stronger than most, but your abilities to manipulate space and time fractionally drew his attention."

Faine glanced down at her hands again, realizing why they were shifting and changing in her panic.

"So when things went south, he captured you instead of killing you all together, running different experiments on your abilities."

She swallowed back the dread coating her throat.

Karras shook his head again, anger radiating from his presence. "I do not know many of the specifics, but I am aware that his tactics with you were mental and emotional."

Faine's body threatened to weaken again, her knees wobbling as she braced herself on the wall.

The darkness had not spoken to her again since her outburst, nor did she hear any sign of life from the building around them. Her mouth had gone dry with the information, but the uncomfortable grit stuck to her tongue made her cringe.

Emotional warfare.

The reason she felt so unstable, so uncertain.

Faine grappled for the right reply, only giving way to a soft noise in her throat.

She wanted to know more, she wanted to remember, but in the depths of her mind the only thing she could focus on was this moment. On Karras. On their current confinement.

"Where did you go?" Faine managed to ask.

Her chest flooded and rolled with varying emotions she couldn't control. It took all of her concentration to focus.

Karras slipped from his place on the wall into her own shadow. "This form is hard for me to maintain..." he said. "I won't always be able to interact with you if I want to stay alive."

The idea of him fading away reminded her of that distant panic still threatening to override her sanity.

"How do I help you?"

"First, we need to get out of this cesspit," Karras explained. His voice turned guarded and cold. "Then we can concern ourselves with more complicated matters."

Faine didn't know if she liked the sound of that. He didn't seem nearly as invested as she might've hoped, instead defaulting to some safe, unfeeling place.

She couldn't blame him for it either.

"Let's go," he said, a finger pointing forward. "The way out shouldn't be too much farther."

Faine nodded and followed instruction, her mind numbing with every step.

The idea of leaving this hellscape settled in her bones, allowing a sense of calm to find a way inside her.