Abattoir/Part 13

The cavern was large, though not nearly as expansive as Alecto suspected the fifth level had been; this at least was a single room. The ceiling was several times her own height, but without stalactites to rake her head, and the room lacked entirely the uniformity that had maddened her almost past reason on the third level. Cracks zigzagged across the stone floor, but none wide enough for her to risk falling, and all easily avoided. The room's light shone from these cracks, yellow, sulfurous smoke coiling out of the earth.

One breath and Alecto knew the smoke was more than steam, more even than fire. She held that breath, slowing her body's use of oxygen and looking around quickly. She saw no obvious challenge; perhaps simple survival was the challenge. There was no door but the one through which she had come; was she supposed to wriggle down into one of the crevices after all? Was that the test—discerning which one led to the seventh level and not to an incinerating death?

Even stretched to its maximum efficiency, her air was running out, and Alecto's lungs were starting to ache. She called on the Force, demanding an answer, but the dark side did not dignify the question with acknowledgement. As her head started to pound, Alecto was forced to gasp.

The smoke did not sting, but it tasted strange. Alecto centered herself, but it did not seem to be harming her. Her lungs drew breath in, expelled it, and repeated. Her heart was accelerated from stress and anticipation, but it kept on beating, untroubled. Her stomach groaned and cried out in hunger, but she felt no nausea. Was this another test like the third level, then? Was Alecto supposed to find the thing out of place here, where everything was different instead of the same? That didn't seem right—the Abattoir had tested her attention to detail once, why waste a challenge on the same skill?—but she could think of nothing else.

She took a step forward and raised an eyebrow as the room shifted to be upside down. Her shortened hair hung toward the ceiling-that-had-become-the-floor, but her own personal gravity kept her anchored to the floor-that-had-become-the-ceiling, so it was all right.

She walked along the floor-ceiling, searching for the way out as the cavern expanded in size. The vent fissures widened, multicolored steam pouring forth as if the Abattoir had sighed in contentment. Alecto reflected on how very odd it was that she had not seen any dead Anzati down here. Did only those who could conquer this level brave it, perhaps?

She spread her wings and flew up onto a perch for a better vantage point. Looking at the floor kilometers below, she saw movement and dived, tucking her wings again for a killing strike, but her talons scraped only the floor, for some reason. Whatever had been there had moved. The left talon hurt from the attempt; she cawed in irritation and circled on the wing.

"Alecto…"

A whisper from below. She bared her fangs, landing on all fours and stalking through the shadows toward the something. Her tail twitched in anticipation and her eyes gleamed in the geothermal glow. She waited for the right moment, then pounced and missed.

The little girl turned, her hazel eyes sad and crinkled up as if she was trying not to cry. No more than nine or ten, she was wearing a little training tunic slashed through and stained with blood. Alecto froze, dropping from her feet to her knees in shock.

"You hurt me," the girl accused in a voice small with betrayal and terror. When she opened her mouth to speak, blood seeped over her red-stained teeth and dribbled down her lips. "You were supposed to be my friend."

"You hurt me first!" Alecto whispered, eyes wide.

"Friends forever!" the girl whimpered, patting at her chest with fingers that were skeleton bones. She held them out, the joints creaking as they dripped red. "Friends forever!"

Alecto pushed herself back. "I didn't…you made me do this! You deserved this!"

The little Human started to cry, and her tears were blood and salt; Alecto could taste their bitterness, and when she spat in shock, blood splattered the floor.

"I was afraid!" the girl wailed. She clawed at her cheeks; her bone hands cut right through the skin, but instead of muscle and blood, only darkness seeped out. Her tan flesh started to turn gray. "I was afraid and I would've been all alone and you killed me! I trusted you!"

"No…no, that isn't what happened!" Alecto insisted. Her own hands were starting to smoke and steam. "You betrayed me! I did what I had to do!"

"Murderer!"

"Traitor!"

"I was never your friend!" Odelia's mouth dropped open and her tongue fell out onto the cave floor. It flipped and flopped as her voice continued. "You don't have any friends! You just use people until we're no good to you anymore.  I hate you!"

Alecto screamed and tore the vibroblade from her belt. She leapt on the little girl, plunging the knife through her again, but the blade popped her like a balloon. The limp skin and clothes hung off the vibroblade; Alecto cried out in disgust and shook them free, and them fell to the ground and turned into a whirlpool. The ground sank beneath Alecto's feet, and she dropped into the swirling void, calling on the Force in fear and rage…

She looked up from her hands and knees and saw the hole in the rocks that led down. A ladder hung suspended from the ceiling, vanishing into the light of a thousand crystals and fungi. In the hole was only darkness, the void between stars, so full and complete that it was beyond knowing. Alecto breathed and the breath of darkness hurt; she extended a hand—intact, but pale—and chill crept up her fingers. Above was release from this. Below was only the dark.

Darth Alecto descended into the Heart of the Abattoir.