Initiation

Invisible chains made for invisible slave. I had slept soundly, the soft snoring of Castor somehow soothing in its rhythmic beat. Ahns after lar torvis had risen and the glow of morning had bathed us in bright light, I awoke. He however, slept soundly. Soon I would realize the reason why.

She sat across from us, clad in black from head to toe, even her face masked. She was a woman heavily armed and unmoving, turning only in my direction once I had raised to a sitting position. Her finger immediately moved in front of her lips, a sign for me to stay silent, and then she motioned for me to follow. It didn’t take long for me to realize that she had drugged him, the evidence in the empty syringe she showed me.

I broke the silence in way of question asking what she had given him, but she would not speak to me, simply rising from her seated position and walking to the doors that would lead into the hallway. Of course, I followed.

Straight to Helix’s room.

Quiet betrayers, caught in a game of hide and seek. But it wasn't the body that hid. One step back was taken from the woman while she knocked on Helix’s door, I feeling as if I were caught up in some preordained plan.

When Helix had opened the door, she’d again put her finger to her lips and stepped inside.

Unification of three. Or maybe two. Fate followed, as was expected, but I hadn't quite made it inside before the biting jaws of the door snapped closed, catching the lower half of robed hems. May haps he thought he was protecting me, I can not, of course be sure, but once the woman was in the room, he’d stepped behind her and slammed the door. Was this to be my escape? Had he only know, if that was indeed his intention, that there was no escape for me. I had no place to flee.

I tugged on the garment caught between door and jam, the renting of fabric heard as she snatched it free. There was an altercation within, but what exactly was going on I would never know. If only the blind could see. Or at least the seeing could gaze through walls. The innocent and the unimaginable. So closely knit were the two, I could feel the emotion from the other side bleeding through the wood. After some moments, when the war of noises had declined from within, my hand dropped to the knob and I allowed myself entrance, an open invitation granted. Ragged edged robes tapped about my ankles, I quickly stepping inside, then leaning against the closed door.

The woman had disarmed herself, her gloves and the mask. Her flesh had a translucent quality and I was incensed with a strange déjà vu.

"Do you even know who I am, do you wish to know?"

And then she spoke. "I can not say that I do, but I do know someone a bit higher up?" She was pointing to the room over head, where Caster lay. "How is Kane these days?

Helix did not know his name, not his true name, for he had told only me. And then I knew.

Birth bound by memories. Temptations told by touch. Recognition realized with righteous indignation. "Kane is fine, when not drugged." She had changed over the vars, her hair no longer red. Her soul no longer pure. Once Castor’s woman, now Aiden’s mother. I stepped closer, though I was still out of her reach, though barely. "Does your son know you're here? Or have you come for a different reason?"

I glanced to Helix, introductions obviously required. "Helix, this is Aiden's mother." The

relationship to Castor yet undetailed.

"Then you don't know Kane as well as you think you do, Red. My son thinks I am dead and I am sure Kane does as well. Kane is Castor's birth name, I was once his free companion. I am guessing your wondering what the point of all this is Helix. Why I did not try to kill you, what I am here for. Haven't you said as much? I have come to offer you the aid where no one else will." She lifted her finger indicating the number one. "Before you let your pride get in the way, remember this. Castor Minos’ sole purpose in this city is the bidding of the Initiates. They wish you dead. Their reach spans almost every square foot of Gor. If they want you dead there is only one man who can stop them." She paused and smiled, and for the first time, I realized there was a tenderness to it. "And one woman that can help you get the leverage you need."

"I've yet to hear why Castor decided to spare me other than a job.... is that what you come to speak about or do you have something else in mind. I might consider your aid if you can tell me the cost."

In dreams, visions fall in a reigning mist. In nightmares, vengeance is wrought with a screaming hiss. Such an eerie similarity was seen in numbers, both the woman's visual ones, and the ones carved in Castor's flesh. An icy chill drew up my spine, shiver forthcoming though not concealed.

My voice drew only emptiness as I tried to speak, finding I was quickly becoming the vessel of kept secrets. Lies fortified by forked tongue. I turned and moved to the window, arms crossing as I looked out. I shouldn't be here, shouldn't be listening to what could prove fatal to the man upstairs, and perhaps, ultimately me. "I believe I should go check on the man you drugged." Too, I knew I had to be there when he woke up, lest he become too suspicious. "Will we speak later?" Said to the woman, though a quick glance was cut in Helix's direction.

She moved to me, quickly. Grabbing me, though she sought to use fabric between us, not touching me directly. "Yes go to your beloved monster. See to him. He will need your eyes more than ever now, the tables are turning for him. More enemies than friends these days. "She leaned in towards me and whispered. "Our children will be siblings."

And the serpents touch will steal the breath of body, even though no poison would seep into the wounds, bound by cloth. My eyes widened, light infected locks twisting over my shoulder my head turning in Helix's direction. Had he spoken? I was sure he had, but what I did not know. A step back from the woman was taken, whispered words caught in the slipstream of thoughts, I quickly circumventing her in a wider circle of avoidance. "I wish all well." Pale palm slid to the knob, pulling it inward and disappearing into the hallway beyond.

Only now am I am truly afraid. Not of Castor, but for him.