The shadow echoed through the darkness, the cacophony of its silence resounding through the chaotic chamber. Its chains blazed white lightning, and the storm broke as the world opened, shadow and stone alike in dissolution, draining downwards, falling for an eternity before landing a silent droplet in the depths of the black ocean. Lightning arced overhead, restraining the thunderclouds as it forged chains between them. Far below in the black ocean, Saikea unfolded from the droplet and stood atop the vast stretch of water, fathoming the depths below her as a green lotus opened beneath, beckoning. She reached out a hand as it breeched the surface before her, a swirling orb of essence unknown, calling to her with the sound of the shadows and the depth of the lightning. It swallowed the stormclouds above and took form as a figure, immutable and armed with a sword of lightning. She called the shadow and it came to her, blade first, burning white-hot agony up through the white-bone gaps in her ribcage, and she staggered back as the black depths rose up to claim her.
The night was still, unimpugned by the breaking glory of dawn. Saikea opened her eyes, blood tinted, and sat up carefully, pressing a hand to the spot below her ribs and rubbing at it. With her subtle encouragement, the baby turned and removed a developing foot out of her diaphragm. She drew a breath, hard-pressed, and debated the futility of sleep to a loss, getting up instead and slipping into a silk robe. Her desk awaited, with its holographic world coming to life at a touch, and she stared at it with her eyes half-closed a moment, searching her memory for the Siren's song that would lead her to Capreae. She followed the shadows and found herself where, laying a finger on the map, while in lesser silence her servant stepped in, quietly inquisitive.
"I will go here." She spoke softly, and with uncharacteristic simplicity.
"Yes, Lady."
She nodded slightly, then added, "Alone."
Her handmaiden looked to her. "No."
Saikea half-smiled, still, the war between protection and obedience in the girl, although there was little left of the battlefield these days, so often razed had it been. "Yes. It speaks to me in the shadows. Kaedriel, it is a place of madness, and you don't have the will to defeat it. Accompany me, and you will surely become my enemy. That, I would spare you from."
"You need not spare me, Lady."
"If it suits you, say then that I would spare myself. I do not desire to fight with you. I've spent too much time building you to break you such."
"You will break me by leaving."
"I will not. You're strong enough to bear it, for a while. Your will grows too strong." She turned. "Here. Give it to me. I shall have need of it, where I am going."
The girl bowed her head, and Saikea drew the white fire from her, binding it through and into the chains. The shadows within her screamed their condemnations and urged her towards madness. Blood-stained eyes glanced to the map, marking well the spot where it lay.
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