Riddick was not in a good mood, although that was nothing new. Ever since he’d been stuck as the Necromongers’ Lord Marshal, he hadn’t gotten a moment of peace. Either some sycophant was bugging him about spreading the so-called "truth about life" or that female dog in heat, Dame Vaako, was hanging all over him, whispering nonsense about "you keep what you kill". Apparently, being the wife to the second-in-command wasn’t good enough for her. She wanted Riddick to X out her hubby and take her as his own. Fat chance.
The only good that seemed to have come from this situation was the surprising number of Furyan men who had been hidden among the Necromonger forces. With Riddick now in charge, they had thrown off the Necromonger mind altering and were a loyal and lethal force. Like him, they displayed an almost preternatural awareness of their surroundings and astonishing speed and strength. They continued to wear the Necromonger armor but their loyalty was displayed by a crimson arm band around their left biceps, and they answered to no one but him.
They also seemed to be developing a psychic link of sorts between one another. Almost without thinking, Riddick could feel the throb of life from the two Furyans standing guard beside his throne. He could feel the steady heartbeats and the alert but relaxed mindsets. More distantly, he could sense the other two guards at the door, their physical and mental status the same as the two near the throne.
Still, it wasn’t enough to keep him content, especially since there was one thing that bugged him more than anything else, even Vaako’s conniving wife. Kyra’s body was gone. Had been gone, for nearly two months now. No one had admitted to taking it or had seen someone else taking it. Yet it was gone, and he knew it didn’t just get up and walk away by itself. One moment it had been laying there on the floor and Riddick was trying to gather the strength to pick it up and have it buried. Then someone had distracted him with a stupid question about releasing that thing that destroyed planets, and when he had answered that and turned back to the body, it was gone.
Dame Vaako chose to come in just as Riddick was contemplating this mystery again. She sauntered over to his throne, a seductive smile on her face. He growled low in annoyance and was answered by a wave of silent disgust emanating from his two guards. They didn’t like her any more than he did. "Lord Marshal Riddick," she purred, dropping into a low curtsey. "Have you made up your mind about my offer?"
"I told your husband about it," he replied. "Interesting that you’re trying to get him to kill me too. All kinds of garbage about how improper it is for the mighty Necromongers to be led by a mere ‘breeder’ and how I could never stand up to his strength, should he choose to use it. Or were you just trying to get him killed?" She looked astonished. He leaned forward, a smirk on his face. "Vaako is a loyal soldier, in spite of what his wife wants him to do. He learned his lesson when he tried to kill your previous leader and ended up bowing to me instead."
Furious now, she wheeled and marched out of the room, her skirts flowing behind her as she went out the door. No doubt going to upbraid Vaako for sharing their secret conversations with the Lord Marshal, Riddick thought, somewhat amused. He hoped that would keep her off his back for a while. He didn’t dare believe it would last forever. She’d just try a different tack. Then he sighed and turned his thoughts back to Kyra, his eyes drifting slowly toward the place where she’d last lain.
~~Some time later~~
She drifted along the corridor, almost as silent as her invisible companion. A dark hooded cloak hid her face and body from view. The gazes of the Necromonger guards slid over her and away, uninterested. They didn’t even register the presence of the Elemental at her side. "These are his guards?" she muttered in barely-held contempt.
A soft chuckle and a whispery reply eased her. "Not his personal guards. Those you will see shortly. And they will see us too."
She saw them then, and then felt them too, a tug on her soul as they were alerted by the invisible presence they sensed. Something within her cried out to answer, but she kept it down. It was not yet time. She noted the color of the armbands and snorted softly. No wonder Aereon had wanted her to wear this dress...
The eyes of the guards followed them suspiciously, but they weren’t challenged as they entered the throne room. There were quite a few Necromongers here today, all pressing for the attention of the Lord Marshal. There were more Furyan guards, too, in addition to the two at the door and the two at the throne. Five of them spread throughout the room, watching the Necromonger mob with distaste.
Riddick looked completely uninterested in anything that was going on around him. Then he lifted his eyes and gazed at her -- no, past her at the spot where Aereon stood. Smiling, the Elemental became visible and inclined her head in acknowledgment of Riddick’s skill.
"So what do you want from me now?" he said aloud, the deep rumble of his voice cutting through the din of the petitioners around his throne.
"Nothing," Aereon said as she drifted to his side. The guard nearest her tensed, but Riddick flicked a glance at him and he relaxed again. "Merely to see how you are getting on." She paused for a second, and then added, "Oh, and I brought you a friend."
"A friend?" Riddick asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes," Aereon replied, and her gaze swept toward the woman in the crowd. It was time.
The woman didn’t move, except to raise her head slightly. What she did was release the part of her that touched all the Furyans in the room, let it reach out and feel their lifeforces flow. Riddick’s was powerful, thundering, and it nearly made her cry out. Instead, she answered it with a force of her own and silently demanded to be noticed.
The Furyan guards twitched. Riddick didn’t, but his attention as well as theirs was suddenly focused on the nondescript figure in the cloak. She moved forward, once again an earthbound imitator of Aereon’s movements. "And just who are you?" Riddick asked as she stopped in front of the throne.
She kept her head inclined, not letting him glimpse the face under the cloak’s hood. It was Aereon who answered for her. "She is whatever you wish her to be. A mate, perhaps? I should think, to paraphrase an old saying, that one good Furyan deserves another..."
Riddick made a soft sound low in his throat, but whether it was agreement or scorn, the woman couldn’t tell. "Let me see you," he said to her. "Take off the cloak."
She shook her head slowly. "If you want me, I’ll take it off. If you don’t...well, you’ll never know what you’ve missed."
Riddick’s hands tightened on the armrests of the throne. An obsequious Necromonger jumped forward and asked, "Shall I have her removed from your presence, Lord Marshal?"
"I don’t think so," Riddick rumbled, putting a fair amount of threat into his voice. The Necromonger hastily returned to his former position. Riddick stared at the woman in unhurried contemplation, and she waited patiently for his answer.
His eyes flicked past her for a second, then he rose from the throne and moved to stand in front of her. "You’re Furyan?"
She didn’t look up at him but simply answered, "Yes."
"How?"
"Family that fled the Necromonger destruction and interbred with other peoples. It diluted the blood, but both my parents had it."
His hands lifted, hesitated at the edges of the hood. Then they dropped to the clasp at her neck. He unfastened it and flung the cloak backward to reveal the woman underneath.
Astonishment robbed him of the ability to do anything but stand and stare at her. The long red dress displayed the curves of her body and matched the color of the armbands worn by the Furyan guards. Her dark hair was unbound and fell midway down her back. And her eyes, wide and dark, gazed serenely into his.
It wasn’t just her looks that froze his tongue, and after a few attempts, he finally managed to blurt out, "Kyra? But how?"
"Death is often simply another plane of existence," Aereon said. "Some of my race have learned how to call souls back from that place. But trust me, they return to true life, not some half-dead existence such as the previous Lord Marshal lived."
Riddick tore his gaze from the impossibly alive Kyra to confront Aereon. "You took her body."
"Yes. Those that are willing to come must have a body to come back to. We repaired it and kept it in stasis until it was needed." She paused, then added, "Often, a body will be changed in inexplicable ways when the soul returns. Almost as if--"
"I wanted it to be this way," Kyra finished. She felt someone glaring at her back and instinctively knew it was Dame Vaako. It had been her that Riddick had looked at before coming to a decision about accepting Kyra. Now Kyra struggled to make him understand that she had not come back as a soulless, emotionless Necromonger woman. "I didn’t want to be numb when I came back, I wanted to be whole. I...I wanted..."
She took his hand and held it with both of hers, letting their auras touch as she conveyed all the love, need, and happiness she felt for him and because of him. Underneath it all there was the old pain of abandonment and abuse, like the voice of a child alone in the dark, and he understood what she meant when she said "whole". The Necromonger mind and body altering had been wiped away and Kyra was completely human again. Human, alive...and his.
Suddenly, life didn’t seem so bleak and lonely anymore.
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