who is the lamb and who is the knife?

[vliste_staba]

Nexus regulars may have seen Deet here and there over the late Fall and the Winter. She's small and a little shy, but very distinctive, especially to human eyes. A girl with green-tinted skin, hair the color of undyed linen, wings like a dragonfly's, and less than two and a half feet tall. Most people assume she's a faery, and she doesn't mind that.

She's never seen without the sprouting wooden staff she carries, and the floor-length black feather cloak on her shoulders, both gifts from the Fallen Angels. They make her feel secure, particularly the cloak. Right now, she's crouched beside a pond, peering at a group of tadpoles milling in the water. Some have legs budding, and she's fascinated to watch this metamorphosis, slow but fast enough to be visible.

Around her, some of the cattails are tinted dark violet, a wash of purple energy that seems to surge and then recede again as the reeds quiver in the wind.

"When someone starts to change," she says, "they never know what they'll really look like when they've finished, do they?"

Sitting back on her heels, she tilts her head to watch the Darkening flux and retreat across the cattails. "And when someone has power, it's hard to decide what to do with it. If you thought there was even a small chance you could save your world from something terrible, what would you sacrifice for it? Would you become another person to do it?"

Comments

[chiaro_oscuro]

"The Emperor." Ben repeats the word, and there's a note of quiet anger Deet might hear. "Not the one I know, thankfully, but I can safely assume yours is trouble, too. What are Skeksis?"

Ben's better than he was when he first arrived, but there's still a sense of heaviness and exhaustion that surrounds him. There always will be, probably. But he doesn't want to burden this stranger with his own problems - his issues are his to work through.

It sounds like Deet's world has its own set of problems, between the Skeksis and this Emperor she mentioned. The title still instinctively sets him on edge even though they're seperate people. He relaxes when the conversation switches back to the angels.

"If you visit him and see small waterbird-like creatures there, those were my work. I traded them to him as part of a deal we made. He's good with animals. I kept one for myself, but the others are in his care."

[vliste_staba]

"Skeksis look a bit like birds. They're tall as you, or taller, and they have talons and sort of...toothy beaks. The two that are here now are friends. They oppose the Emperor, so if you do meet them, you don't have to be afraid. Or angry."

Angry seems more like what's going on in his head, not fear.

"Little waterbirds...I haven't seen many water creatures. At least, not of the kind that live above the surface of the ground. There were fish and things in our underground rivers, but nothing like birds."

[chiaro_oscuro]

"So the bird-creature who owns that tavern I visit sometimes is one of these two Skeksis, I assume. It's a good thing the ones here aren't here to start trouble." The one Ben encountered was considerably taller than him by a good three feet. "They aren't a species from my galaxy, but I'm sure there are birdlike aliens somewhere."

His native galaxy is a very diverse place, but there are plenty of species he's never even heard of in the Nexus.

"I think you'd like porgs. I have one who lives with me - she wandered into the industrial area and I figured I should take her in. She ought to come out and meet people." Also, it would be an excuse to explore outside Ben's usual haunts in the Nexus. "What kinds of creatures live on your planet?"