Chapter Text
The woman with the cane introduced herself as Doctor Carmilla and her companion as the Toy Soldier, which Lucius thought was a rather odd name. But if that was what the Toy Soldier went by, that was what he would call them. Which reminded him.
“Excuse me, Doctor.” His voice sounded hoarse with misuse.
How long had it been since he’d last spoken?
He could think about that another time.
“May I ask what your pronouns are?”
“She/her for myself,” the doctor said with a slight smile. “And the Toy Soldier uses it/its. And you?”
Lucius had to think about that. “I think…he/him, please.” Yes, that felt right.
Carmilla nodded approvingly and stopped walking. “We’re at the ship,” she said, and Lucius looked up to see that the three of them had arrived at a sea cave. He could see the glint of something large and metal deep in the cave.
“We weren’t sure what your planet’s technology is like, so we decided to hide it,” Carmilla said. “Brian did an excellent job maneuvering in such a small space,” she added, sounding like a proud parent.
“Let’s see,” she said, sounding thoughtful. “You could stay on the shuttle, but someone might shoot you if they come back and see a stranger on board, so that’s probably not the best idea.” Lucius looked at her, alarmed.
“I-pardon me, but is there a realistic possibility of me being shot? ”
Carmilla blinked at him. “Well, yes.” She suddenly smacked herself on the forehead. “Oh, I always forget what’s it’s like for new people. You see, when we die we don’t stay dead, so problem-solving tends to consist of ‘shoot to kill’.”
Lucius’s mouth dropped open.
“You get used to it, after a while,” Carmilla offered.
“That-that doesn’t help!”
“Oh. Well. There is an alternative to staying on the shuttle. And I think you’ll be quite the help with it.”
“What is it?” Lucius asked cautiously.
“Raphaella wanted a sample of The Sea to study,” she said. “She had to stay on the Aurora because she tends to stick out more than the others, so I offered to get it for her. It…didn’t go quite as planned.” Carmilla gave him a small, slightly embarrassed grin, which made Lucius wonder what exactly she meant by that.
“Anyway. Your wings look large and strong enough for you to be able to fly, unless you’re unable to, in which case...” She trailed off, glancing down at her cane with an expression that he couldn’t quite read.
“I’ve…never tried.” Lucius stretched one wing into his field of vision. They had been a dark brown that reminded him of the wood of ships, but now…now they were the same white as the lab coat he’d used to hide them. Only the tips were their original wood-brown color, and he assumed the wings on his head were the same.
He had never considered them anything other that a badge of shame, a mark that he was different.
But this was a new part of his life.
“I…I suppose I could learn to,” he said hesitantly and Carmilla broke into a smile, revealing surprisingly sharp canine teeth.
“Excellent!”
~~~~~~~~~
As it turned out, Lucius didn’t have the first clue how to fly. Carmilla suggested he try jumping off a cliff, which was…well, it was certainly a suggestion. A suggestion Lucius did not particularly want to take.
Unfortunately for him, taking off from the ground wasn’t working.
“ Elch ,” Lucius said, spitting out his most recent mouth of sand.
“You are not going to generate enough lift if you keep doing that ,” Carmilla said impatiently.
“I cannot stress enough how much I do not want to jump off a cliff,” Lucius told her.
“If You Pretend That You Know How To, Perhaps You Will,” the Toy Soldier offered, and Lucius looked at it, startled. It hadn’t spoken until that point and he hadn’t even thought that it could. Admittedly, that probably wasn’t the strangest thing about the Toy Soldier.
“ What does that even mean?” Carmilla hissed at it.
“It’s What Works For Me. I Am Pretending To Be Alive, For Example,” it said cheerfully.
The Toy Soldier’s ability to speak was decidedly one of its least strange traits.
“I don’t think that would quite work for me,” Lucius said. “But thank you for the suggestion, I suppose.”
The Toy Soldier smiled brightly and saluted him. After a moment, Lucius smiled back.
Carmilla sighed loudly. “It’s lovely that you two are getting to know each other, but you may have noticed that we still do not have a sample .”
Oh dear. Lucius was going to have to jump off a cliff, wasn’t he?
“Drin,” he swore under his breath, then raised his voice. “Find me a tall enough cliff, I suppose.”
~~~~~~~~~
“I just…jump off?” Lucius looked down. And down. And even more down. Drin, it was a very long way down.
“Yes. Remember, spread your wings when you’re just above the waves. If you pull up too soon, you won’t be able to get the sample and if you don’t pull up in time, you’ll crash into The Sea,” Carmilla instructed, passing him a small, empty vial as she spoke.
“And die,” Lucius added, because she seemed to have forgotten that part.
Carmilla paused to consider that. “Maybe. But who knows?”
He stared at her. “What. What do you mean who knows ?”
She shrugged. “You could be immortal. But we won’t know for sure unless you die, and I doubt you want that.”
“No, I don’t,” Lucius agreed under his breath. He looked down again, and this time the cliff seemed even taller, how was that even possible? He gulped.
“Do you want me to push you off,” Carmilla said. Lucius whipped around and stared at her. “What-no, what in The Sea is wrong with you?!”
“I was just offering some help,” she said, sounding disgruntled. “But if you keep stalling, I might just push you anyway.”
Lucius glared at Carmilla. He was liking her less and less by the minute. Just get her a piece of The Sea, and then you can… His train of thought trailed off. What could he do? He couldn’t just go home, that was for certain. Just get her a piece of The Sea and then you don’t have to be around her anymore. That could work.
Trying to keep the thought in mind, Lucius turned, took a huge breath, and leaped off the edge.
He fell, and fell, and fell even more. The wind screamed past his face and The Sea rushed to meet him at an alarming rate. Was he falling too fast? Would he be able to stop? IT’S-STOP NO TOO FAST I WILL CRASH I WILL DIE-
Something (someone?) screamed at him to pull up NOW, and Lucius reacted instinctually. His wings shot out to catch the wind and his body slammed upright as if he’d run into a wall. He wobbled, almost falling out of the air, before evening out. Lucius looked down and saw the surface of The Sea shooting by and he realized that he was flying.
He was FLYING!
He flapped experimentally, and went up! He went up! Lucius laughed out loud and gained more altitude. The smaller wings on his head extended and he could feel them flutter with the wind currents. Was that their purpose, sensing the flow of the air? They’d never really seemed to do anything useful before, and he’d assumed that they were for decoration. This was really the better use, in his opinion.
Lucius circled around and noticed the Toy Soldier, who waved at him with a smile large enough to see from the air, and Dr. Carmilla, who waved her arms at him and then pointed at The Sea frantically. Oh, right. The sample. How do I…go down?
He tried angling his wings downwards the way he’d seen seabirds do and carefully swooped towards the surface until he was about an arm’s length away from it. He reached down, scooped some of The Sea into the vial Carmilla had given him, and awkwardly flapped into a hover so he could put in the vial’s stopper.
Lucius did not see the shadow in the water below him until the verlon lurking just under the surface lunged into the air, grabbed him in its jaws, and dragged him under.
~~~~~~~~~
Lucius washed ashore for the second time that day. He dragged himself to all fours and coughed up a lungful of Sea water. Dimly, he noticed a woman holding a cane and what appeared to be a soldier standing next to him. Wait, he knew these people. Right. The woman was Dr. Carmilla and the other…yes, the Toy Soldier.
Carmilla…was she saying something? Yes, she was.
“HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU ALIVE?”
Lucius coughed again. “I-I’m sorry?”
“Whatever that thing was-“
“The verlon.”
“Whatever! It dragged you completely underwater. There was a lot of-well, I assumed it was blood-what color is your blood?”
Lucius stared at her. “I-it’s red?”
“Okay, so that was blood, and there was a whole fucking lot of it, how are you still alive!?”
“I…don’t know. I’ve never heard of anyone surviving a verlon attack,” he said. How…how was he alive?
Carmilla’s head jerked as if she’d had a sudden thought, and Lucius looked at her.
“What is it,” he asked. She glanced at him and the glint in her eyes made him nervous.
“Lucius, do you have the sample,” she asked him.
“Oh!” Lucius felt his pockets. Feeling the vial, he pulled it out and handed it to her.
“Thank you.” Carmilla held it up to the light and examined the Sea water inside with a thoughtful expression.
“Toy Soldier,” she said calmly. “Kill him.”
“WHAT,” Lucius yelped. He frantically looked at the Toy Soldier. It-it wouldn’t actually kill him, would it? Would it?
The Toy Soldier looked at him, it’s expression unreadable. Maybe it was just his terrified imagination, but it seemed almost hesitant.
Finally, it looked at Carmilla and simply said, “No.”
She bared her teeth at it. “Fine. Be like that,” she snarled. She pulled out a gun and aimed it at him. Before he could react, there was a loud noise and then there was nothing at all.
~~~~~~~~~
Lucius opened his eyes. Carmilla stood over him, holding the uncorked vial of Sea water. She gave him a sharp toothed grin.
“Raphaella is going to be quite pleased.”