Work Text:
She tells her sky man “The first rule of fire is survival” while sleeping next to him in a hammock at his people’s base. He listens but does not truly understand. He assumes all she wants is power, that he can dangle the lure of guns in front of her and she will gladly follow him to hell and his bed.
She will not deny she hungers for power, the nature of fire is to hunger and consume. His guns can turn the uncertain raids on poorly defended caravans into a stream of tribute towards a god empress, and there are nights where she dreams about it so strongly she can taste it. But fire is also a stubborn bitch, the left over smouldering embers from a hearth fire can burn a forest. Sacrifice must be quantified and measured against the reward, and the reward started lacking once the squidrays joined the battlefield. Varang didn’t even realize she could feel more betrayed by mother Eywa right until that moment.
She turns to look at her lover, and gauges the almost manic look in his eyes. She has gotten enough of a measure of him to realize he won’t abandon ship, not when the possibility of reuniting with his son lies so close. In a different context she might actually admire his dedication to his blood. Right now it makes him a dangerous liability. She calculates the value of abandoning an asset which is clearly costing more than it is worth against how he makes her fire burn and the loss of face if she does nothing for her mate. She orders three of her men to stay behind as bodyguards and lies to the colonel, “There is something in the air that requires my attention”.
He is not even paying attention as she orders a retreat to her people. Without protest, all of them peel off their engagements as best as they can and fly off, using their human “allies” as shields to cover their retreat. Such is the way of raiders after all.
They do not head back home, not when there is a much more tempting target. The human base is lightly defended and they can just stroll in and take command. They even have the general as a “highly esteemed guest” courtesy of one of her more enterprising men. She knows enough about humans to realize that this is not an infinitely sustainable position, but she has enough time to loot the base for all its worth, extract whatever technology and knowledge she can, and then cut the throats of any survivors so they cannot report back on her treachery. And then who knows, maybe there will be an opportunity to parlay with the next people who arrive?
After a few days her skyman returns, rescued from the abyss by one of his bodyguards who played dead and then fished her lover out of the water.
She slaps her mate, for his inconvenient obsession with Spider and the Sullivan family.
“What did I tell you the first rule of fire was?”
He is convulsing as she forces her neural queue to overload his senses.
“Survival” he grits out while taking her admonishment.
She lets him go and kisses him tenderly on the forehead.
“You have no more room for luxuries like revenge, my dear. We are going to have a child to raise”
She knows from the look in his eyes that she has him.