Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate.

Mists swirled in a dark chamber, existant only in the confines of her mind: the floor and walls endless gray slate, by turns smooth and chipped rough by ravages unknown. Along the walls, indefinable forms composed of black shadows bowed, made captive by chains of light. In the center of the room, a woman stood, seemingly composed of light but washed out and wraithlike, dark hair and liquid brown eyes faded to near translucency, arms encircled by the same chains of light, slipping through her fingers to wend around the captive shadows, captive marionettes to an equally captive puppeteer. Tendrils of shadows stretched out along the chains, repelled by pulses of light, but always they returned, hungry and seeking.

She watched them, bound and seething, and denied them their claim on her, but always the shadows returned, and in the mists she felt the whispers, hushed words urging, declaiming, tempting, counseling. The mists had not been so thick once, nor the shadows so vitriolic, but time changed all things. She bound them, but they held her, unrelenting and unreleasing. They gave her their power, or she took it from them: willingness meant nothing in this place, they were bound and their power was hers. Yet with it, every time, came the shadows, waiting for a time when she could no longer push them back, or for a time when she no longer chose to.

For now, the chains held.

Red gold light filtered in through a screen simulating an open window. Purplish wisps of clouds drifted delicately over the heather, lightening and dissipating as the sun rose. It was all fake, of course - the room wasn't anywhere near an actual window, and the building wasn't anywhere near an open field, and it was nine in the morning anyway. But it still made a pretty start to the day.

The light's red tint settled in Saikea's eyes as she slipped out of bed, abandoning its undesired solitude and wandering directly to a worktable, littered with bits and pieces of things, some mentionable, others less so. She touched a hidden control. "Tracking data. Alpha device." Calm words, her voice still softened by sleep. The holographic interface sprang to life, a map of the world with a small dot, blinking steadily.

The Arctic outpost, still. She had a feeling he wouldn't stay. He was far too restless to handle staying in such a locale long-term, especially after New York. She pulled up a few other parameters, but all the biometrics looked steady. The small amounts of extra speed and strength he'd drawn access from in New York were already replenished, the system self-sustaining as long as it wasn't overtaxed to an extreme.

The door whispered open behind her, closed again a moment later. "Lady." A quiet word. She ignored it, focused on the readouts instead. "You should eat." She ignored that, too, but glanced down at the quiet clink of a plate being placed on the worktable beside her. Little things. Red grapes. Almonds. A few crackers. She closed her eyes and looked away anyway, pretending to focus on the data in front of her.

The girl beside her glanced at the holo images as well, blue eyes darting over the data with dispassion of long familiarity with this routine. "You worry about him too much."

"I wanted him to come home," the Lady said softly.

"You could have made him." It would have been easy enough, with actions or words.

Saikea looked at her with quiet pity. "I wanted him to want to come home." Blue eyes returned the stare, uncomprehending. She sighed, shook her head. "Never mind." She picked up a cracker, nibbled at it absently, closing her eyes.

"Lady?"

"Just tired, is all. The bindings."

"Not just the bindings, Lady."

She sighed. "No. Not just the bindings. But they do strain at them. Come here." The girl stepped close, and Saikea put a hand on her chest, over her heart, tugging the girl's will away, blending it with her own and reinforcing the chains of light, the bindings within herself. She let her hand fall after a moment, placing it on the table and returning her gaze to the images before her.

This time, the girl did not object. In a day or two, she would recover the power to do so. But until then, her objections were silenced.

Saikea glanced at her, unmoved. I've reached the end of what I can do with her on my own. I need new effects. New subjects. New inspirations.

It was time to abandon solitude and secrecy, time to stop trying to figure out how to solve all the problems of the world on her own. Time to seek the counsel of others, ask them how they had done the things they had been able to do. Time to move back into the light.

So while it doesn't say anything here she is a precog with some form of mind control sort of a suggestion I guess? Either way this is good and I guess your blade brave character is her "favorite" subject? But still very good with a lot of awesome buildup.

Thanks, I know things are a little vague on the abilities. To be honest, I'm kind of working them out myself. I know she's got a macro-precog ability, but it's really only good for "Hm, weird things are about to happen in <city>" - essentially, it's a character-driven way to get her into events. I think her main meta ability is that she's figured out how to bind various powerful entities and is able to draw on their power for weird things, but mostly she prefers to fiddle around with test subjects and let the test subjects do the dirty work.

BladeBrave is indeed one of her creations, I intend to bounce the two off of one another a bit, but I kind of wanted a character who would be willing to hang around with the powerful villains, just because I don't have anyone who fits that description and there are some villains on CV who would be cool to hang out with. Anyway, I think she'll be fun. I have some plans for her.

Excellent story-prelude. Curious to see how it takes shape.