The Light On Your Face For The First Time

With a gasp, his eyes peeled open to blinding white light and a stiffness in his back. It took a few seconds to remember what brought him to this moment.

The aftermath of a sanctioned death was not greeted with doting hands, but sterile emptiness. Redmaw's end, though surely deserved when he toppled off that building, was delayed until he'd returned to the Sanctum, where his cumulative wounds demanded euthanasia in order to properly restore him to prime condition. Since witnessing his own teammates vanish in permanent death, Redmaw was hesitant. Why? I've done this hundreds of times, he had thought. Yet as consciousness flickered away from him, he envisioned something he didn't want to surrender to death. Someone that he craved to suffer for. What if I don't wake up this time?

But he did. Redmaw sat up, clutching his bare face before someone handed him the mask that made him. Swinging his feet off the table, he stripped off the blue hospital gown he always appeared in and accepted a fresh black tunic and pants. Then he followed Evander out of the materialization room, with its blank white walls and floor, and the lights outside that flashed red for an impending body. Every regeneration left Redmaw feeling crisp, disoriented but energetic, his old aches and pains erased. So too were his most recent memories, until Evander sat him down in the interrogation room for a Wellness Evaluation following his latest death.

"Today is Day 164 of Known Year 801. The time is 10:44 PM," Evander began. "Your designation is Redmaw, Knive Superior. Three hours ago, you returned from a mission to recover samples of an anomalous crystal and investigate rebel activity in the Lunar Bathory Hotel. One of your teammates, Reignhaunt, was apprehended due to detection of anomalous contamination in his system. Do you remember this?"

Redmaw dredged up the sensations evoked by those memories. Fury from Nightchurch's ambush, uncertainty approaching the hotel, anger when Reignhaunt disobeyed him. Obsession surrounding every move and word from Lotusfoil. "Yes."

"Do you know how the anomalous crystal could have contaminated Reignhaunt?"

"No. I only observed him inspecting it at close range."

"The contamination is inside his skull," said Evander.

How is that even possible? Redmaw mulled on it, but had no explanation. "He called it webbed shard. Coldstern believes it's the same crystal she can create with her Type 1 ability, and likewise with my Type 2 ability."

Evander hummed. The door opened with a masked researcher delivering a fragment of null shard to the table. With an open palm, Evander invited him to call upon his ability. Redmaw touched the crystal, turning it translucent and fractal. The same researcher carefully transferred the webbed shard into a plastic pouch and took it away.

"We will have confirmation of parity soon enough," said Evander. "And Nightchurch?"

"She was hiding an object contaminated with webbed shard in Room 515 and believes we stole it. She seems to be unaware that her treasure infected the rebel I found there."

Silence betrayed all the thoughts unraveling in Evander's mind. He shared nothing with Redmaw. A few standard, invasive questions later, Evander dismissed him, and Redmaw was relinquished to the warm summer night fallen over the courtyard.

But he couldn't rest. In the privacy of his personal quarters, Redmaw paced. His mind was a jumble of electric thoughts and pent up energy he didn't know how to expel besides taking off for a night patrol, until his attention stagnated on his cot, and he was struck with inspiration. Redmaw knelt and reached under the mattress for his book. A knock on the door startled him back to his feet.

The instant he opened it, Lotusfoil pushed inside. Her tight black sleepwear left little to the imagination of the shape of her lean body. The black sleeping veil on her face dared to flutter and expose a corner of her jaw.