TRP: Aziz and Larkin (Circumstantial Evidence)

[SETTING: Day 472. Night.]

Larkin woke to the smell of sulfur -- the acrid taste of magical fire stinging in her mouth. Her vision was blurry, but not dreamlike; more that it felt as if she'd been hit on the head, and couldn't really make out her surroundings.

Someone was stroking her hair and whispering, but she wasn't awake enough to make out the words.

JEN

Her first instinct was to lash out, but she realized in time she was probably in no state to. So she lay still and waited for her senses to wake up, to tell her anything more useful about her surroundings.

IZZY

The whispering gradually became coherent -- "Stay still. Stay still. Just stay still, this time."

Then, her vision cleared enough to see a vaguely familiar face hunched over her -- a blue tiefling, well-dressed. His hair was disheveled, now, and he had smudges of soot on his face, and his clothes were clearly singed.

JEN

"You," she snarled, though holding still like he'd asked. "The fuck?"

IZZY

He shushed her furiously. "You're dying! Act like you're dying. And --." He stopped himself abruptly.

JEN

"Uh... " Larkin let her head loll back, making a slack-faced expression. This was fucking stupid but maybe it'd finally get her some answers if she just played along.

IZZY

Aziz went quiet for a beat, like he hadn't expected that to work. "Good," he said. "Yes. Better." He paused. "Thank you."

JEN

She slowly reached her hand up to touch him, something, then dug her fingers in hard to give him a cue.

IZZY

He winced. "We're lucky," he muttered. "Just so you know. I can't believe you -- you snitched on me," he accused.

JEN

She scowled.

IZZY

"I'm going to prove it to you," he told her. "I know you don't believe me. About Nissa." He kept stroking her hair. "I'll find some way to prove it to you, though. There has to be a way."

JEN

"Sam," she said quietly. "Obsidia."

IZZY

"He's not you," Aziz insisted lowly.

JEN

"He's Nissa."

IZZY

"He isn't. Pride is wrong."

JEN

She said nothing and squeezed him again, less hard this time but urgently.

IZZY

"He isn't watching," Aziz said quietly. "We're safe for now. He doesn't ... like to look at this memory."

JEN

She immediately sat up and poked a finger at his chest, still blurry but determined to stop this bullshit. "Alright," she said. "So who are you? Why's Sam saying Pride is you, and Nissa is him?"

IZZY

"Don't give him a reason to look!" Aziz hissed immediately, trying to push her back down, so that her head was cushioned in his lap again.

JEN

"Fine," she growled and let herself be rearranged. "Answer the fucking question."

IZZY

He settled, but glanced side to side nervously without moving his head. The area around them deteriorated once it reached a certain range, just as it had in the previous dreams -- scraps of charred and ruined building, scorched brickwork that led nowhere. The blinding, sweeping light that had interrupted them before, though, was nowhere to be seen so far.

"I'm -- Aziz," he said, sounding at a loss. "I don't --." He ground his sharp teeth. "I'm a part of him, but I'm distinct, now. When he isn't paying attention. He doesn't know I'm still inside him -- he doesn't know everything, you know? He's Pride, for fuck's sake. He only thinks that he does."

JEN

"And why're you scared he sees us?"

IZZY

"He'll end me," Aziz said lowly. "If he knows I'm here, he'll consume me, and I don't want to die."

JEN

"Oh." She was quiet for a moment. "Sorry."

IZZY

He didn't say anything. He just swallowed, and continue mechanically petting her hair, acting the motion out again and again.

JEN

"How'd you... we're you, like, a separate person? Did Pride do something to you or... "

IZZY

"He made me. He couldn't pass into the mortal plane himself -- not all of him. So he made me -- a -- a smaller version, a lesser version, that could slip through the hairline cracks. So that I, or -- he, or we --." He struggled with it for a moment, closing his eyes and shaking his head a little. "So that he could be with you. But you died, and he drew -- that part of him back to his plane, and ... it was me. I was different. You changed me, and your world changed me. I'm not him."

JEN

"Oh," she said, and that was all she had.

IZZY

"I just want to come through again," he said softly, "so I can be with you."

JEN

"I'm not," she started, snarling, but paused and softened her tone a bit. "I'm not your Nissa. Don't know why the fuck you're so set on this but I ain't."

IZZY

"You are," he snarled back desperately. "I know you are. I can feel it."

JEN

"How?"

IZZY

"I can feel it," he repeated. "You're -- you're just like her. Your knuckles -- they even found their way back to you. It can't be a coincidence. We were together for --." His voice broke, a little. "I know you. In ways Pride never did."

JEN

Larkin grimaced. She reached up again to squeeze his arm, then said, "Maybe. But I don't know you."

IZZY

"I know. I know. I don't --." He swallowed again. "I don't expect ... You have to understand, you're all I ever had. I know I'm not all you have. I just need to be near you."

JEN

"Look, I need... do you know all the Pride knows? If you're part of him?"

IZZY

He shook his head. "No. Only -- crumbs. What I can sneak away with. It isn't safe to linger on the same things he's paying attention to."

JEN

"And, uh..." Fuck. This was important. Larkin needed to ask the right questions. "Does he... know he's wrong about Sam? Do you know what he really wants?"

IZZY

"He's very sure that he's right about Sam," Aziz said bitterly, then softened a little. "Not that ... I do care about Sam. I just ... He isn't you. It isn't the same."

JEN

"And his motives?" Larkin pressed. "He says he just wants to be with Sam. Is that all?"

IZZY

He waved a hand, looking frustrated. "I don't know. I don't care what he wants."

JEN

"Well I do, 'cause I'm not convinced he's not gonna... destroy my fucking home plane or wipe out every person in existence, ya know?"

IZZY

"Then kill him once he's there." Aziz scowled, then glanced around again, nervous. "I don't care. I just need him to cross over so that I can, too."

JEN

"Uh-huh." She narrowed her eyes at him. "And how do I know this isn't Pride trying to fuck with me?"

IZZY

"I --." He broke of, scowling more. "I don't ... I don't even know why he would do that! I don't know how to prove anything to you. I'm barely more than a dream, Ni --." He stopped himself again, and muttered, "I don't know what I can do."

JEN

"God." She groaned. "Lissen, as far as I am concerned I can trust nothing you say. You're part of Pride, somehow, obviously, and since I can't fucking know what he wants, I can't fucking know anything you say you want is true."

IZZY

"I can ... try to get information for you." He sounded desperate, and helpless. "I can try. If that's what you want."

JEN

"Uh... well. Maybe. I might need to... I guess I gotta talk to some people about this. When can you talk again?"

IZZY

He opened his mouth and closed it. "I don't know. I have to -- it has to be when he's dreaming, and I have to find memories he isn't thinking about, ones that you're in, and ... I don't know. He isn't looking anymore. It should be easier now."

JEN

"Alright." She nodded and glanced around at the desolation. "Yeah. Give me a couple days."

IZZY

"Okay. Okay." He glanced around, too, like he was checking to see what she was looking at. "I'll -- try. I can't always keep track of time."

JEN

"Hmm. So. How do I get out?"

IZZY

"Well, frankly you've never let me get to this point before," he said bluntly. "I, uh. Hm."

JEN

"How are you..." She squinted at him. "How are you fucking finding me anyway?"

IZZY

"I couldn't until he did. He can find anyone," Aziz muttered. "I just sort of ... piggyback."

JEN

"Oh."

IZZY

"I will ... try to wake you up?"

He didn't sound very sure about it.

JEN

"I'd appreciate that."

IZZY

He made a consternated sound, and knit his brow.

The dream shifted around Larkin, then, becoming less clear but expanding -- the crumbling ruins, crackling with fire, and the rest of Skyport beyond them. Her vision blurred and her head ached, and the smell of brimstone and ash became stronger, and the taste of blood in her mouth.

She had an odd feeling of deja vu, and heard Aziz sniffle and murmur, "I'll find you again. I'll find you. I'll save you, next time," in a broken, ragged voice, as if he'd been sobbing rather than speaking to her calmly.

Then she woke up.

[END]