spears of Uu'kata (CLEAN(ish) Version)

Chapter 36 - Vulnerable

Charlotte was in a castle! An actual fucking castle! And now she could do magic...

I'm in a fantasy show, she thought wistfully, smiling to herself as she walked past a window, glancing out to see nothing but sheets of falling rain. They hadn't been kidding when they'd said the rainy season was coming because it hadn't stopped raining even once since she's awakened from her coma.

She wore a long, loose-fitting, pale green gown of thin, soft material that tied up the middle and flowed out behind her. A pair of soft, black slippers on her feet.

Her steps were slow and measured, the new scars on her body pulling as she walked. Shodara sauntered beside her, arm-in-arm as she led her toward a bathing room, patiently answering the questions Charlotte peppered her with.

How was the castle built? Did they use magic? How big was the city? How many people were in the city? How did they make material without a printer? Back on her home planet, they used animal hair, did they use animal hair too?

Charlotte was surprised to find out that the Uu'k'asht actually got most of their food from farming and any meat and leather they acquired was from hunting. Apparently, they hadn't been kidding when they'd told her animals were too dangerous to keep as pets.

They walked down a long corridor and Shodara pushed through a set of heavy, double doors. Beyond them, was an extravagant room made from brilliant blue and yellow tile. A huge pool sat in the middle of it, lined with several large pillars. The water rippled with movement from the hundreds of Skath she could see swimming around in its depths. The air was steamy and smelled floral. In fact, it smelled like Shodara.

"Wow," she said as Shodara pulled her into the room and toward an area to the side with benches.

"We take our clothes off and put them in those cubbies there, then wash down here, with these bowls and sponges. Rinse off with the water in the pitchers, then we soak with the Skath," she explained.

"Easy enough," Charlotte said, unbuckling her belt.

She undressed and washed down as Shodara instructed and was about to get into the large bath when she caught sight of herself in a mirror.

Charlotte froze. It wasn't the scars on her skin that stopped her, but her eyes.

"What the fuck," she mumbled, moving closer and blinking several times.

She reached out and touched the mirror, then her eyelids.

"My eyes," she said. "Shodara, my eyes..."

Her sclera was black, like an Uu'k'asht, and she had bight yellow rings around her pupils.

Shodara came up behind her and slipped her arms around her, looking at her in the mirror.

"Yes, you finally do not have a child's eyes, my Charlotte. Bonding always changes our eyes. You will see better in the dark. You will see farther and in more detail too," Shodara said.

Charlotte looked at herself in the mirror again and swallowed. "I feel like I'm not even the same person anymore," she said quietly. "I'm scared. Some from the ennelath, some from having my implants removed. My eyes are different, something is inside me that wasn't there before. Even my blood has changed. It's like I'm losing myself and there's nothing I can do to fight it."

Shodara caressed the side of her face, her eyes empathetic. "Are you losing yourself? Or are you gaining yourself?" she asked.

"Being a bio-mech pilot was something I fought hard for. That is gone. My eyes were like my mother's and I always got to think of her when I looked in the mirror. Now, my own reflection is... alien," Charlotte said.