ValentineDavis21
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Tarkhon had been true to his word: They’d been waiting for Aethan and Ghor to return this whole time. Tarkhon had done more than just convert them into his own dark religion. He’d remade them into something completely new. A nightmare not even Ghor could conjure up in his worse nightmares. Xera, Gromm, and the Saurians had been melded together into a grotesque, seamless collage of flesh and muscles. Ribcages were spread open, intertwining with twisting lengths of muscle and calcified bone t
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As they passed the dead proximity monitors, Aethan recalled the first time he’d stepped onto the ship; it was a memory he knew he’d never be able to forget. He remembered how the air had smelled of dust and age and the green musty smell of the moss. And yet the atmosphere had seemed to carry a static charge to it, a life. He and the expedition team hadn’t just been stepping into the remnants of a dead civilization but another world. Seeing the camp as it was, a cluster of tents and small buildin
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Each time the darkness took him Aethan prayed it would be the last. How many times could your head sink below the surface before it simply didn’t come back up any more? This was the first true thought that crossed through his mind before it was cut off by a screaming alarm bell of pain. And the answer was: At least once more…Maybe next time. He jerked his hand away, slapping at the air frantically, not knowing what he was slapping at, only sensing that he wasn’t alone and he was in danger.
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Aethan and Ghor led Tarkhon away from the compound towards the desolate edge of the valley. Other than the sound of sand crunching beneath their feet and the occasional cryptic mutter from the Kaldari, everything was completely silent. The Cathesan had no choice but to confront his own racing thoughts. In the end he knew that he had made his decision and that he would carry it out even if it meant the cost of his sanity. The cost of his soul. The determination had yet to drain from his bone
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The moment they stepped out of the tent, Ghor steered Aethan in the direction of the greenhouse as a parent might a sleepy child. It took all the felid’s effort to simply not scoop the Cathesan up in his arms and carry him the rest of the way. If the prince had proven to be completely incapable of movement he would have, but Aethan was conscious enough that he stumbled after him, his face completely blank. Remote. Completely devoid of emotion. It was an expression that filled Ghor with an uniden
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He has stayed with Aethan. The boy and Chakabron have moved on
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For a moment Aethan was blind, unable to see through the static that filled his head. A thousand bells clanged in his ears and a red light pulsed in his eyes. One minute he was standing in inky darkness and then the violent red light faded away, revealing colors and smears of light just below his feet. He knew where he would find himself before his feet had touched silent ground. Like many of the souls still buried in the dark chambers of Aethan’s subconscious, the child spirit that had infiltra
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Chakabron paused long enough for a heavy silence to fill the tent. His eyes swept the room, pausing on each watchful face. After a moment he cleared his throat and continued. “We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. If we had I don't think we would have…” “There is no sense in feeling shame for a past we cannot change,” the cleric said through Aethan's mouth in his dry croak of a voice. “The Vol-Khet wouldn't have let you…You were under their influence the same as we were under
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“You have a look of such sorrow upon your face,” Chakabron said solemnly in the Vrevil tongue. “It makes you look well beyond your years. It makes me feel even older.” “I’m sorry,” Aethan said, leaning back in his chair so that the Vrevil commander had his full attention. “I don’t mean to waste your final hours with my own self-pity. I just wish that there was more I could do for you. If we were back on my home planet I’m sure…” “But we’re not back on your home planet. You torture and
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Not for the first time had the feeling that he was stepping into another world. A feeling of superstitious dread mixed with wondrous stupefying awe. It was the same feeling he had felt when he'd first seen the black hole - studying them and actually seeing them were two completely different things he would tell you - and again when he'd first stumbled off the Threnbody shuttle into the driving, flesh-eating sandstorm on Kharon-IV. And many times on the ship, each new discovery more wondrous and
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The last thing Aethan remembered was the way Ghor’s strong arms had closed around him, slowly pulling him in until the Cathesan’s back was pressed up against his chest. The steady kick of his heart against Aethan’s shoulderblade and the deep rumble of his breath reminded the prince of his very first memories of when Vash had held him as a child, singing lullabies. Vash was gone but another felid had entered into his life…Crashed into it, really. With this thought in mind, coupled with the irony
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We are currently at a slower-paced moment before the final sustained ramp-up. By chapter 3.45 I think you will really like how things ramp up between the characters. When you reach that point please let me know how I did building up to it, if it feels natural, or if it seems terribly out of place with the characters...if you don't mind.
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Aethan was more tired than he could ever recall being in his life; even after he’d been resurrected from cryosleep, his muscles turned to jelly from atrophy. But it was a different kind of exhaustion than the kind born from distress or terror. It was a sleepy, shuffling exhaustion, one that made him feel like a wrung out scrap of cloth. Ghor stalked beside him, deliberately matching him stride for stride, pretending to be focused on something else. Yet Aethan could sense that the felid was track
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It was no easy task pulling Ghor’s loincloth; with each passing second it seemed to swell another centimeter larger, but Aethan knew such a thing wasn't possible. He would manage to get it halfway down, revealing the upper portion of the felid's cock and a long vein that tapered down like a crease in the middle of a page. The massive organ seemed to beat with an inner life of its own. He would reach the limit to which the cloth could stretch, enough that he could see the opposite wall through th
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Aethan was held aloft with only Ghor’s hold to support him in the air. He needn’t have worried about the felid losing his grip. His fingers almost completely encompassed Aethan’s back and thighs. For a moment Aethan was back in the theatre again with Vash, sitting in the highest booth, the booth honored to the Crown Prince, watching as Cathesan and felid performers soared through the air, holding and flipping onto trapeze over a five hundred foot drop or even height, seeming to defy gravit
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Aethan gasped, cupping his hands over his crotch and turning away. His first thought was that he hadn’t thought to bring a towel with him…And his uniform was resting on the bench on the far wall, whose path Ghor was standing directly in front of. “Sorry,” he gasped. “I was just about to duck about.” It was stupid gibberish, blurting out the first thought that came to his mind. “I was just about to duck out.” “Without a towel? Wet as you are? It would be very hard to get your clothes on
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Aethan wasn’t sure how long they remained like this, his head pillowed on the thick bush of the felid’s chest hair, his heart kicking powerfully against his cheek. He didn’t want the moment to end. He wanted to believe that as long as they stayed like this, there was nothing that could touch them. Nothing that could harm them. It was a silly idea, utterly preposterous, but it was a feeling that had nothing to do with the brain or rationale. He wasn’t the only one who felt this way. He could feel
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The world spun in dizzying circles, the ground lurching up to meet him. There was a buzzing in his ears as if he were surrounded by the vellum, the pesky desert moths that the sandstorm had kicked up on the way to the ship oh so long ago. He was in a mindless panic, pursued by phantoms without face or name, adrenaline pumping madly through his veins, his breath coming out in whistling shrieks. He did not stop until he ran face first into the door, slamming into the clear window to send him flyin
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Thank you, that means a lot.
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Aethan's blood buzzed in his ear. The voices of a thousand strangers screamed in his mind; but in a way they were also familiar for they were very much a part of him now. In the minds of those who now existed within his subconscious it was the fear of being forced to endure the nightmare that had brought their ruin yet again. Aethan’s fears at the moment were more personal than existential. A fresh wave of adrenaline pumped through his veins, throwing everything into sharp focus: the crunch of s
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By the time Aethan reached the command tent, his face was still wet with tears. He stopped outside the entrance and wiped at his face, sniffling, feeling exhausted, ridiculous. Trembling, a phantom crackle in the back of his throat. For the first time in weeks he found himself craving Estristatmer as never before, his mouth watering, his tongue rolling around an imaginary lozenge. At least then he would feel numb for a time. At least then he wouldn't feel like he was caught in a neverending danc
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At first Aethan felt as cold and stiff as a statue, unsure if he wanted to draw away or if he wanted to let Ghor keep touching him. This is no different than on the night when you slept in the same tent together - in the same bed, he told himself sternly. But of course he knew better. Sure the nights they had slept together had been intimate and comforting but they had also been about survival. Survival in the face of something alien, familiarity in a space that did not play by the same rules, t
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Close. Close to the end now. Close enough that he could see the end of the track. What will happen after the track ends is a mystery. Without his own true body, his existence and that of the priest and the other souls stored within this mind was tied to the survival of the host. Through his eyes they would continue to learn and experience. He gradually became aware of other things, one thing in particular: the host’s brain. Inside was a reservoir of knowledge, a vast catalog of thoughts, memorie
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I'm finally glad someone is able to sympathize with Aethan a little bit. You will see that tension between them continues to ebb and flow throughout Arc 3 and leads into some dark/difficult territory. As the writer I didn't want Aethan to just be a victim of abuse or Ghor the abuser. It's a lot more nuanced than that. There have been some comments where Aethan has been accused of being morally superior or cruel when really he is the first person to ever stand up to Ghor and become the catalyst for change. But in the end they are really just chemically reacting to their environment which changes and is as unpredictable as the planet itself. Thank you for reading and for your comments.
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Ghor’s ears twitched as the fans inside the Halo began to spin into life, the device switching on with a low hum. Characters and shapes materialized, but they might as well have been from a different language since the felid could not make out what they were. He took assurance in the fact that Xera seemed to have relaxed now that the Kaldari was back in his element; if there was reason to be nervous the horned alien would have been more tense. The Kaldari leaned forward, his narrow frame blockin
