WHO: Seivarden & Kell WHAT: Kell disappears because faeries WHEN: Friday evening WHERE: Station WARNINGS: Copious amounts of magical blood letting
Kell had settled into his life at Station with more ease than he would have suspected. Almost nothing had gone exactly how he had thought it would, but Kell had found that, so far, that had been rather good for him.
Kell was in an unusually relaxed mood, seated across from Seivarden as they shared some tea. He was even doing the whole bowl thing rather than a cup this evening, which meant that he had a wet spot or two dotting the front of his shirt.
Kell rose, moving to retrieve more water. He was halfway across the floor when he felt something warm drip down his face. He expected it to be water, but when he reached up to touch his cheek, his fingers came away red. Blood.
It was something that Kell was familiar to seeing, but this time it caught him off guard. He moved his hand to his forehead, trying to find where he had cut himself -- and was unable to. Despite that, the blood started to come in a steady stream, pattering onto the ground beneath him.
…
Having Kell as a lover and a friend was going far better than Seivarden could have imagined, as well. It was a very familiar arrangement for her; in a way, Kell was something of a lieutenant to Breq and Station here as well, just as Ekalu had been. And Kell already knew that he wasn’t a replacement for Ekalu, nor would Ekalu necessarily replace Kell if she arrived. But Seivarden did not really expect Ekalu to arrive, if she were being completely honest.
Most of their routine was the same as it had been since Kell had arrived on Station, having tea, having meals at odd hours of the day and night. On Friday evening, Seivarden didn’t have a shift to attend at midnight, so she was staying up much later than normal to have tea with Kell. She was tired, but the tea had woken her up.
“Kell,” Station said suddenly from the nearby voice box, “You need to go to Medical.”
Seivarden looked up from her bowl of tea, startled. She knew enough about Station to know that even though the AI’s voice was as flat and even as it always was, she was worried. And as soon as Seivarden looked at Kell, she immediately saw why.
“Shit,” she said, rising immediately from her seat and going to his side. “Come on.”
It was weird that he was bleeding from his eye - that wasn’t a wound Seivarden had ever seen, and it had, as far as she knew, come out of nowhere. But a basic corrective should be able to stop the bleeding, and if something worse was wrong, Station would be able to see it once they were in the medical bay.
-- Kell was trying to stem the bleeding with one hand, but that wasn’t doing anything at all. He was peripherally aware of Station speaking and Seivarden moving toward him. Kell was trying to think. He couldn’t heal himself, of course, and he wasn’t entirely sure if there was a cut to seal -- this all seemed to be like someone else’s doing.
“As Anasae,” Kell spoke aloud, trying his spell for dispelling.
The bleeding did not stop.
And by now Kell could make out what his blood was painting on the floor. His stomach lurched, and he looked up toward Seivarden, alarmed.
“Stop--” he warned, holding out one hand so that Seivarden wouldn’t step inside the door that was being created beneath him. At the same time, the door opened and Kell disappeared through the floor.
...
Seivarden wasn’t sure if Kell’s first words didn’t make any sense, or if she was panicking too much to understand them. She stopped, though, when Kell held out his arm, and automatically grabbed hold of his wrist. But his arm was almost immediately pulled out of her grip, as he was pulled through the floor.
“Kell!” she screamed after him, and tried to jump in after her, but the portal closed and the floor was solid when her feet touched it. She stumbled, not expecting the landing, and caught herself on the table.
“Station,” she said, panicked and breathless. “Where did he go?” There was no immediate answer. “Station?”
For one awful, panicked moment, Seivarden thought Station had somehow disappeared too. And then Station said, “I don’t know.”
“Shit,” Seivarden said, and then, “Breq?”
“On her way,” Station answered. Seivarden nodded, scrubbed her hands over her face, and tried to think, but only ended up staring at the blood on the floor. It was in the shape of a strange mark, and she didn’t know what it meant. Kell was a blood magician, but he hadn’t used his blood on purpose, she knew that. He had said something, maybe an incantation, but -- no, he had been trying to stop it. So whatever had taken him was even more powerfully magical than him, and that meant…
“The invitation,” she said slowly. “Thirteen souls. They really are taking people.”