Memory 01

[wildnight]

"I need to threaten someone." (ref: HTK 236-251) significant neutral

Description:

Quoting liberally with this one because I'm lazy:

We stood at the foot of the Pier, gazing down at the city half a mile below.

"I need to threaten someone," I said.

I had not spoken since the oubliette. Nahadoth had accompanied me to the Pier, me meandering, him following. (The servants and highbloods gave us both a wide berth.) He said nothing now, though I felt him there beside me.

"The Minister of Mencheyev, a man named Gemd, who probably leads the alliance against Darr. Him."

"To threaten, you must have the power to cause harm," Nahadoth said.

I shrugged. "I've been adopted into the Arameri. Gemd has already assumed I have such power."

"Beyond Sky, your right to command us ends. Dekarta will never give you permission to harm a nation which has not offended him."

I said nothing.

Nahadoth glanced at me, amused. "I see. But a bluff wont hold this man long."

"It doesn't have to." I pushed away from the railing and turned to him. It only needs to hold him for four more days. "And I can use your power beyond Sky if you let me. Will you?"

Nahadoth straightened as well, to my surprise lifting a hand to my face. He cupped my cheek, drew a thumb along the bottom curve of my lips. I will not lie: this made me think dangerous thoughts.

"You commanded me to kill tonight," he said.

I swallowed. "For mercy."

"Yes." That disturbing, alien look was in his eyes again, and finally I could name it: understanding. An almost human compassion, as if for that instant he actually thought and felt like one of us.

"You will never be Enefa, he said. But you have some of her strength. Do not be offended by the comparison, little pawn." I started, wondering again if he could read minds. "I do not make it lightly."

Then Nahadoth stepped back. He spread his arms wide, revealing the black void of his body, and waited.

I stepped inside him and was enfolded in darkness. It might have been my imagination, but it seemed warmer this time.

Okay, actually doing some summarizing now. Naha uses his powers (he can travel anywhere it's night) to bring Yeine where she wants to go. Yeine tells Naha to try not to kill anyone—this will be important.

There's some conversation between Yeine and the Mencheyev during which Naha keeps out of sight, history, politics wars, etc. Talking goes here. Yeine gets around to giving commands and making those threats she mentioned to start with. Some of the Mencheyev take this very poorly, though Gemd is fairly restrained. Some of the others get threatening; Yeine stands her ground.

Finally, one of them tries to hit her.

Rish swung. I held still, tense for the blow. Three inches from my face Rishs fist seemed to glance off something no one could see and when it did, there was a high hard clacking sound, like stone striking stone.

Rish drew his hand away, startled and perhaps puzzled by his failure to put me in my place. He looked at his fist, on which a patch of shining, faceted black had appeared about the knuckles. I was close enough to see the flesh around this patch blistering, beading with moisture like meat cooked over a flame. Except it was not burning, but freezing; I could feel the waft of cold air from where I stood. The effect was the same, however, and as the flesh withered and crisped away as if it had been charred, what appeared underneath was not raw flesh, but stone.

I was surprised that Rish took so long to begin screaming.

Rish's hand turns to faceted black diamond (yes, really, it's a pretty swank curse okay), spreading up his harm. Two other men go to check this out, but the transformation spreads to the first one who touches him. The assembled are suitably horrified.

One of the men behind us abruptly fell silent, and I turned. Not the Tok; he was still shrieking while blackness ate its way down his spine. The diamond had spread to encompass Rishs mouth and was consuming the whole lower half of his face. It seemed to have stopped on his torso, though it was working its way down his remaining leg. I suspected it would stop altogether once it had consumed the nonvital parts of his body, leaving him mutilated and perhaps mad, but alive. I had, after all, asked Nahadoth not to kill.

I averted my eyes, lest I give myself away by throwing up.

Yeine is pretty horrified herself, but she pushes ahead with the threat and it's effective. Rather than have Naha reverse when he did (which she suspects he can do), she orders him to finish it to drive the point home. He does so by completing the transformation, turning the two men into man-sized faceted diamonds and effectively killing them. No cuteness here. When you go from being alive to being a crystal, you die.

Afterward, Naha takes Yeine back to Sky.

"My weapon," I said to him.

"As you are mine."

In the aftermath of terrorism and murder, Yeine gets a little giddy and stupid and starts making passes at Naha, which is a pretty dangerous thing to do, since in Sky, during his imprisonment, this usually leads to people getting dead. The exchange is fairly brief, and comes to:

"Last night," I said, lowering my arms at last. "Why didn't you kill me?"

"You're more useful alive."

I laughed. I felt light-headed, reckless. "Does that mean I'm the only person in Sky who has nothing to fear from you?" I knew it was a stupid question before I finished speaking, but I do not think I was entirely sane in that moment.

Fortunately, the Nightlord did not answer my stupid, dangerous question. I glanced back at him to gauge his mood and saw that his nightcloak had changed again. This time the wisps had spun long and thin, drifting through the garden like layers of campfire smoke. The ones nearest me curled inward, surrounding me on all sides. I was reminded of certain plants in my homeland, which grew teeth or sticky tendrils to ensnare insects.

And at the heart of this dark flower, my bait: his glowing face, his lightless eyes. I stepped closer, deeper into his shadow, and he smiled.

"You wouldn't have had to kill me," I said softly. I ducked my head and looked up at him through my lashes, curving my body in silent invitation. I had seen prettier women do this all my life, yet never dared myself. I lifted a hand and moved it toward his chest, half-expecting to touch nothing and be snatched forward into darkness. But this time there was a body within the shadows, startling in its solidity. I could not see it, or my own hand where I touched him, but I could feel skin, smooth and cool beneath my fingertips.

Bare skin. Gods.

I licked my lips and met his eyes. "There's a great deal you could have done without compromising my usefulness."

Something in his face changed, like a cloud across the moon: the shadow of the predator. His teeth were sharper when he spoke. "I know."

Something in me changed, too, as the wild feeling went still. That look in his face. Some part of me had been waiting for it.

"Would you?" I licked my lips again, swallowed around sudden tightness in my throat. "Kill me? If I asked?"

There was a pause.

When the Lord of Night touched my face, fingertips tracing my jaw, I thought I was imagining things. There was an unmistakable tenderness in the gesture. But then, just as tenderly, the hand slid farther down and curled around my neck. As he leaned close, I closed my eyes.

"Are you asking?" His lips brushed my ear as he whispered.

I opened my mouth to speak and could not. All at once I was trembling. Tears welled in my eyes, spilled down my face onto his wrist. I wanted to speak, to ask, so badly. But I just stood there, trembling and crying, while his breath tickled my ear. In and out. Three times.

Then he released my neck, and my knees buckled. I fell forward, and suddenly I was buried in the soft, cool dark of him, pressed against a chest I could not see, and I began sobbing into it. After a moment, the hand that had almost killed me cupped the nape of my neck. I must have bawled for an hour, though maybe it was less. I dont know. He held me tight the whole time.

And end memory.

Notes:
-Clothes are for suckers. Just saying.
-More seriously, this is all from Yeine's POV, so what Naha is feeling or thinking is really a mystery. Some of it comes through, but you'll have to bear with me for headcanoning out what's going on with him.
-Naha likes Yeine, in her way. She's useful, yes, though he's not certain precisely how she's meant to be useful. Maybe they're going to make her the next Arameri head to free them? No, that seems unlikely. Whatever the plan is, he knows he's a slave and a weapon, and that she's the piece (the pawn) that might be able to change that. But he also likes her for herself, for being kind of crazy, and alternately violent and compassionate.
-If Naha likes you, or you are useful to him, he has no problem killing or torturing people for you. It was kind of interesting. But don't expect there not to be a price—Yeine said not to kill anyone, and she had to face how far she was willing to go for that. She chose to kill them. I doubt that was entirely unintentional on Naha's part.
-Sex and violence are linked. Pretty directly. He is, however, willing to ramp that down a little for her, which comes through.
-Still no name.
-Still no idea who Tempa is.
-As Naha's memories go, this one is possibly sharable without too high a risk of going insane, though in the parts I glossed over (like Naha's method of teleportation), there is still some stuff that would bend your average mortal brain in uncomfortable ways.

Form: A tin of sardines. Eating the sardines gives the memory.
Uses Left: 6 of 8