LOG: Zaladane and Selene Meet; To Be Continued in Comments
"Right." Selene sighed.
She could not determine if this had all been done to humiliate her and shoved her hands into the pockets of her skirt. She watched the jungle around her in silence, having spent enough time in South America to recognize small differences she knew this was somewhere new.
She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. The smell was lovely, the bird sounds were foreign. The young mutant did not cry or scream. She felt, at first, emotionally impotent and expected to boil over with rage at any moment. She didn't. Selene stood there, and scratched an irritated lump on the back of her neck. A bug bite, she thought.
There were no paths. No trails. Wandering could not make her any more lost and yet, Selene chose to exercise patience and prudence over immediate action. She stood perfectly still. Though she heard the cries of birds, she had yet to see one.
Zaladane, high priestess to the great sun god, wise and cherished ruler of her people, great sorceress. She had many titles and names, and at that moment, she was acting the role of watchful eye. Brainchild had decided he wanted to make a play for all of the Savage Lands, that by right should be hers. She was just making sure he stayed where he was for now, and as she watched the ebb and flow of the magical ley lines, she noticed a not so little twisting. Something had come through, and they were within her realm. Did he honestly think he was going to be able to infiltrate her holdings like that?
With a flourish, the high priestess donned her cloak and headed to the terrace that overlooked the Sun People who worshiped Garokk and his priestess. A few of them looked up and watched in quiet awe as she lifted herself from the terrace and flew out over the trees. She was doing their god's work, and she would return. She always seemed to do that, no matter what was done to her.
Flying while watching the other wasn't the easiest task, but soon she was able to find where the rip had occurred. Of course, she could have an army to meet whatever Brainchild might have thought was a good diversion, but what could he throw at her that she had not already faced by now? Slowly she settled into a spot not far from the interloper.
"Who are you?" There was a hint of the power she controlled, just a hint of it that made the trees shake with hidden fur
The young girl waited only hours until she was found. The flying woman, with the sun behind her, resembled Illyana so strongly that Selene was paralyzed with joy. It was not until the stranger landed that she realized this was someone new. Her resemblance, coupled with a very fresh reminder that Illyana was dead, pained her.
The intruder could not stop staring.
"Selene," she finally replied. "I'm afraid I don't know how I came to be here."
And then, because Sel realized she was far from home and the attire Zaladane wore was so completely foreign, and the stranger did carry herself like royalty, Selene curtsied. It was a bit awkward in a pencil skirt, but she did her best. The heels of her shoes sank into the mud and the blouse she wore was too warm for this weather. Selene did her best to ignore her own discomfort.
There was a soft sound, almost like a growl, but it was easily dismissive. The high priestess looked as if she belonged in a jungle with a tribe to follow her every command. Her cloak billowed slightly, never touching the ground behind her. Her boots were flat, and she wore little to keep herself "decent". What did she need worry about decency, when she was the one who decided the rules/requirements for such?
Zaladane walked slowly toward the young woman, brow raised in question; she'd left the headdress at home, deciding that it caused problems in flight sometimes. Instead she wore a simple circlet with a sun emblazoned upon the front. With long strides, not exaggerated stalkings, she started to circle the young woman.
"You gave me your name, but that means little. I could call you 'girl' and it would mean the same thing. Who are you? What are you?" The high priestess was already working through the name given, testing its existence, seeing if the syllables of "Selene" would give her more information. Zaladane knew there was power in words and in names, but she wasn't about to give that information to some outsider. Magic was being used to tease out more information from the young woman's aura. "What is it you think you will do here?"
Selene, deciding that she might need help softening the stranger, thought it wouldn't hurt using her hypnotic abilities as she spoke. But she felt no change in her eyes. She frowned. It was important not to immediately panic. Testing the extent of the situation, she moved her hand but could not will it to move preternaturally fast.
"I'm a student at a school very far away. I have enemies who I believe are trying to assassinate me via displacement. I merely intend to return home and put a stop to their actions."
It was the short version, but Selene did not want to test the stranger's patience. With no power to defend herself, she did not want to find out if handicap extended to her healing abilities.
"So, you believe you are in my realm because there are those who wish to kill you? You were not sent here to assassinate me or mine?" The high priestess, having decided that the young woman was no threat at the moment, stepped closer, her fingers quickly claiming some of that rather inappropriate blouse to pull the girl forward, knock her off balance. "You want me to believe that you are not some spy?"
Perhaps now the intruder would feel the prickling over her skin as power was pulled from the Savage Lands, manipulated to do exactly as Zaladane wished. The prickling felt as if it could easily be turned into something worse than little pins and needles. Something deadly. The smile on the high priestess face was cruel and foreboding because the powers weren't so much to test the young womans' resistance, though it helped, but to prepare for the short trip home.
"Can you fly, little Selene?" The name was twisted, not yet owned, by the high priestess. The sun god Garokk's name had been claimed for use long ago. It was how Zaladane could always find her way back to the top among the Sun People. She knew when to use names. "Shall we find out?"
Selene felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. It took effort not to grab the hand which pulled her forward by the blouse, at least one of the buttons broke away and another came undone. Selene never thought she would so heavily regret putting a halt to her magical studies.
"What could I possibly do to convince you I intend you no harm?"
By now Selene was worried. Her eyes still contained some measure of defiance and the girl was incapable of not retaining at least some of her composure in the face of danger. Already she made an inventory of weak spots if it looked like Zaladane intended to kill her. The eyes were the most obvious. Maybe then Selene would stand a chance.
"You could die, but you don't seem the kind so willing to do so." Zaladane laughed at the defiance; it was meant to be used, not necessarily broken, honed, shaped. The blouse was released, but hands were quick to grab each arm. Sure, Selene could fight, but did she want to fall for her freedom? The two women were soon high above the trees, Zaladane holding onto the intruder perhaps rather painfully by her upper arms, kept tight to the body. It wasn't the best way to carry someone, but the high priestess wasn't planning on carrying her far.
"I repeat, can you fly?" The laughter cruel as it rang in the sky. Zaladane released the young woman before she had a chance to answer. Selene didn't have to worry about hitting the ground. The high priestess was simply curious to see what would happen.
It happened so quickly. She was grabbed, raised high into the air and then dropped. She supposed she should have screamed. It was what any other rational person would have done. Selene certainly gasped, but no other sound came out.
There was no time to pray exactly, no time to form complete sentences. Her life did not flash before her eyes. She, in fact, closed her eyes. In her mind, Selene pictured Nathan. It was not unlike a prayer but for what, she was not sure. But it was a comforting image.
Down the young woman was allowed to plummet, thankfully there was more of a drop because the high priestess had flown enough to make sure the girl wouldn't hit trees on the way down. She watched for any sign, anything; she knew that if Brainchild was behind this, perhaps he'd come to save the wretched girl, yet she also knew that if Brainchild was using her as a mere distraction...With just the tilt of her body, Zaladane flew down behind the girl, catching her with a soft grunt - it wasn't easy to pull someone up from a rather speedy return to the ground.
The high priestess wrapped her arms round the young woman; her eyes closed for now because she had to concentrate, pulling more power from the lands. The rush of it certainly brought color to the "older" woman's cheeks. Soon, they were buoyed in the air once more; this time, Selene's position was a little more secure.
"Well, if you are meant to be a decoy, you might be worth whatever he promised you. Let us see if you are worth expending energy for." The words hissed in the young woman's ear as they were quickly moving again - back to the high priestess' home, the sun god's temple. A place meant for true royalty. "You have questions to answer."
They flew over trees then over buildings that looked on the verge of ruin, only people were still using them for homes. There were fields with men and animals, dinosaurs perhaps, working them. There was a huge stone structure with a terrace hundreds of feet above the ancient city. Above the terrace was a sun emblem much like the one on Zaladane's circlet. The people looked up again, feeling better now that their high priestess had returned - Garokk would be pleased.
Zaladane landed on the terrace, shoving the girl in front of her, not apparently caring how the girl would land. The high priestess on the other hand landed with grace, her hands quickly working on the cloak that had rested on her shoulders. The terrace was large enough to act as a more than adequate landing pad for the high priestess and any flying creature she might wish to ride. There was a hint of something in the air though that suggested it was guarded by spells; it wasn't exactly the most secure part of a building if all one needed was a pterodactyl to get to it. The terrace could make a lovely place to sleep on the warmer nights. A small section of it had been decorated with many throw pillows under a water proof canopy.
The doors to the high priestess quarters weren't more than fabric, but it shone nicely in the sun, looking as if metal blocked the way. Zaladane, cloak over one arm, walked over to the intruder to claim and arm and direct her to the "doors".
It took a great deal of will power not to cling to the flying woman while she was still high in the air. It took more to do nothing at all. Selene did not dare protest or struggle. If she was dropped again she was not certain Zaladane would make such an effort to catch her again. The point was made, for the time being Selene was hers.
She watched the village in the ruins below and spotted her first dinosaur. The young woman was completely blown away and no longer had any concept of where she was. Nothing could prepare her for this.
When they landed, Selene fell abruptly to the floor on her hands and knees. The break from Zaladane's grasp was brief and she obediently walked toward the fabric doors. At least she could walk a little easier in heels on solid ground.
Zaladane dropped the cloak on one of the fuller chairs - it wasn't just piles of pillows after all. The place looked like it was something out of Arabian Nights - Sharizadi would have longed for a night in this place, but then she probably wouldn't have liked what she'd need to do to stay alive. Not many people would possibly like to be kept in this room by this one woman. Her hair was short, more efficient that way, and she even went so far as to keep her clothing to a minimum. The moment she enter the large living area, she started to remove her boots.
"The foot wear, remove it. It is filthy, and filth does not belong in the Sun God's Temple." Zaladane paused to give the young woman another look, sizing her up. "You will tell me who you are, of what you are capable, and you will remove those disgusting clothes. They are not of my people, and we will not be forced to look at outsider garb. You smell of that place's industries, and you feel as if you've been washed in the blood of business and modernity." Yes, she knew some of the words - she'd had to learn them quickly to work with the few outsiders she'd met.
"Strip while you talk." She finished with her own boots and moved to what looked like a bell pull, whatever it did, it didn't make a sound when she pulled it. "Or I could have someone remove your garb for you, but I do not think you'd like it. Speak, girl."
It gave Selene some hope that Zaladane knew about where she came from. She was willing to be at a disadvantage knowing almost nothing of this place for the time being, knowing that home might not be an impossible time or distance away.
She removed her shoes first.
"My name is Selene Gallio. I'm from the UK."
She removed her tights and did her best to put on a brave face. She tried to take comfort in memories in Dani, Julian and Illyana. Were they in her shoes, they would attempt to think their way out of the situation, she was sure of it. Well, Julian might have tried to seduce his way out. Selene didn't dare smile at the thought but she felt braver thinking of him.
"I have powers. Or had them. They don't appear to work here."
Selene unbuttoned her blouse and then untucked it from her skirt. She kept her undergarments on at first, letting the discarded clothing drop to the floor next to her. She looked down as she dropped the skirt from her waist, hoping the stranger would afford her at least a small measure of modesty. Her long hair was pulled up, and the raised section of irritated skin was much more visible.
"What sort of powers?" Zaladane wasn't looking away; it wasn't as if she hadn't seen a woman's body before, or a man's for that matter. Bodies were bodies; they lived, they died, they worked for as long as they were useful. Some bodies seemed more useful than others. The young woman had a pleasing enough body, but it was no more pleasing than Zaladane's own and, therefore, not very remarkable in that. The powers seemed more promising.
"What are the powers and when did they stop working? And remove the rest of the clothing. It reeks, and all of it will be burned. You will have nothing from the outside world." Zaladane moved closer, smiling slightly; curiosity was more amusing when one had the object under her will. "Trust me. You want to do this yourself, or they will do it for you..."
As if "they" heard her, two women stepped into the room. They looked hard and more than willing to wrestle her to the ground to do their queen-priestess' bidding. The blue skin might have had something of an effect as well, but Zaladane didn't seem to care either way.
Selene removed the last of her clothing, and pulled the clip from her hair, letting her dark hair fall past her shoulders. She was thankful that she wasn't wearing any jewelry of sentimental value. The young girl tried to think of potential advantages to being here rather than South America. She tried to put out of her mind the fact that three strangers appeared to be examining her naked body.
"Strength, speed, a healing factor."
She didn't want to reveal everything. It would be handy to keep her life draining abilities under wraps until she knew what she was fully dealing with. It was a risk. If Zaladane was capable of forcing the information from her the older woman might be displeased.
The high priestess stared at the now naked body; it wasn't a woman. It was just a body. The powers were useful, she supposed, but they were nothing all that extraordinary. The woman sighed softly, a hand lifting to brush back a few of her own wayward hairs from her eyes.
"I do hope you're more useful than that. If that is all there is to you, I should have let you drop." She sighed again, before looking at the two women.
"Bathe her, and check her for any disease or weapons. If she fights, remove all hair from her body and chain her to the flyer's post outside." The woman hadn't mentioned anything about clothing, and the post was indicated by a small flick of her fingers to the terrace beyond the "doors." "If she behaves, robe her and bring her back to me. I will need to be alone with her. Bring fruits and water as well."
That was all Zaladane had to say about the matter as she turned to a table covered in maps and scrolls. Her attention was now on something more important. The girl would have to prove her worth and quickly.
The two women took Selene from the arm and out of the room. Selene did her best not to protest, but felt uncomfortable being dragged openly and naked through the halls of the temple. If she'd had her power to start she might have stood a chance. They passed other servants, but most of them knew better than to look for too long.
The water was drawn for the bath, but the water was freezing cold. Selene yelped, and finally shivered when her body became accustomed to it. Apparently Zaladane's instructions were to be taken literally as Selene was not permitted to bathe herself. The blue women were impressively strong and grabbed Selene and directed her, sometimes forcefully but never violently, where to move. They seemed as unimpressed with her nudity as Zaladane was and scrubbed her skin until it felt raw and red.
Then lifting her out of the tub like property, they dried her skin and gave her a robe. Though dry Selene had not quite recovered from the chill. The servants deposited Selene back to Zaladane's quarters and left as their mistress desired.
Zaladane had apparently thought a bath was what she needed as well, for she smelled of some tropical flower, and her hair looked a little damp. The robe she wore was thin, light, and hid little of what was beneath, but it did its job in keeping her somewhat covered. She was stretched out on one of the many piles of pillows, enjoying something of a rub down from another of the blue skinned people, this one male. As soon as Selene entered, the high priestess waved off the hands and dismissed him; she didn't remind anyone to bring food - it would come soon.
With the same hand she'd dismissed the man servant, she motioned for the intruder to sit close by. There was a hint of question in her eyes as she watched Selene; the magic electrified the air and was certainly dancing over the intruder's skin. Something was there, and Zaladane wanted to find it. What could keep the woman's abilities from working? She knew that abilities weren't just shut down moving from the world outside the Savage Lands to here; she'd seen many use their own abilities, usually against her. So, she knew that something else was going on.
"Now, Selene Gallio." The name turned again, tasted, and incorporated into something more; the magic seemed to even play with the name. "Why not tell me what you can really do? And, then you might be allowed to have something to eat and drink."
Selene did not speak at first, walking cautiously to Zaladane's side. Regardless of what she said, her life was in hands of a madwoman. If she did not poses an impressive level of power she would presumably be killed. Too much power and she'd meet the same fate if the flying stranger felt threatened by her potential. She settled on a compromise.
"Do you know what a vampire is?"
Selene decided to reveal her abilities slowly until Zaladane appeared satisfied.
"Let's say I don't." The answer was neither "yes" or "no." For some it would have seemed the answer was definitely not, but with the high priestess, the answer could have been anything. She lounged on the pillows, looking as if she had this sort of conversation regularly, and how would Selene know otherwise?
"What does it have to do with you?" Her brow lifted in the manner of a demand; she wanted an answer - a straight one. A pair of blue skinned servants entered carrying a tray full of luscious fruits, some Selene might not have seen before, and an earthenware decanter with matching mugs. It was set on a low table nearby. The pair waited for a moment, but upon receiving no further commands, removed themselves without sound. Zaladane seemed only interested in the woman before her, or at least she seemed interested enough to leave the food be for the moment.