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feirswifttail · 2 years

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Chapter 1

[Note: So I never actually posted this!!! I wanted to get back into writing about my character Kairos so I went back to re-read what I had written before. And I’m like, girl where’s the rest? So here’s the first chapter, or basically the introduction.]

"psst, Kairos. Check this out!"

Kairos snapped out of her thoughts at the sound. She gave her wrench one last push to make sure the bolt was securely fastened, and then popped out from the cannon she was working on.

"What's u-

"Shhh," Airen cut her off, covering Kairos' mouth with a greasy paw. "S'posed to keep this on the downlow. Don't know who could be listening" Kairos followed her suspicious gaze back and forth across the workfloor, finding nothing out of the ordinary.

"Well, I guess there's no need to tell me if I can't know about it," Kairos shrugged and pushed Airen's paw away. "Best way to keep a secret is to not know it." She smiled impishly as she pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket to wipe the grease off her face, and used it to tie back her hair out of her face.

"Kai you *know* I have to tell you now," Airen huffed, "Secrets are also no fun if you can't share them with at least somebody. But this isn't a silly cub secret - check this out," she pulled out some kind of crumpled papers - no, blueprints. To some kind of... Musket?

"Airen, our 'band is working on outfitting cannons, not infantry weapons."

"I know but this is different. It's not the blueprints for just any musket, it's for the," she paused, then leaned in close and whispered "Ghostbore Musket."

Kairos pulled away and stared at Airen wide-eyed. "Wait, *The* ..." she hesitated to say the name out loud. Now she knew why Airen was being so hush-hush.

"Yes. *The*" Airen repeated.

"Wh- How did..." Kairos struggled to find the right words for all the questions filling her mind. These plans, hardly anyone even Knew about them, let alone was allowed to look at them. To have an actual Copy, or maybe even the Original, given how worn the paper looked to be. She leaned in and whispered to Airen "Does the Legionnaire know?"

"Of course, he's the one who gave them to me," she whispered back. It was a good thing both of the charr's horns did not grow forward due to how close they were whispering. Airen's whiskers brushed against Kairos' as she smiled, then pulled back and gave a little hop of excitement. "I can't wait to get started working with these. We're supposed to outfit these cannons, and-"

"Wait hold up," Kairos interrupted. "Why didn't he call the warband around and have us all go over this? Seems kind of important." It seems kind of suspicious, she thought to herself.

"He probably didn't want anyone to overhear and steal our ideas. Or get jealous. You know how ol' Burntstep can be," Airen waved the air, as if to push away any of her own doubts.

"Is anyone else going to be helping us with this? I mean, we need someone to *read* the plans," Kairos poked a claw at Airen playfully.

"ye- Hey!" she squeaked at the poke, causing both charr to giggle. "Just because I misread those plans that One Time, no one ever lets me catch a break!"

"I'm kidding, Airen," Kairos smiled at her friend. "Let's grab a quick drink and talk this over more inside."

"Kairos it's not even noon,"

"I meant water you doofus," she replied. "Besides, I really think Tenrad and Shiv would wanna get in on this. They're usually around for an early lunch, maybe we can catch one of them."

"Alright let's go then," and with that, the two of them set off towards the workyard break station.

The break station was basically the same as any other Iron legion workyard breakstation. There was a small campfire, a mid sized cooler to store the meat for lunch and water, and a few chairs to sit down while on break. One for every butt in the 'band, so nine unoccupied and two being used right now. Tenrad and Cordelia looked up and waved as Kairos and Airen approached, and scooted so there was room for the four to all sit together.

"Airen, and Kairos, just the gals we wanted to see," Cordelia growled, but in that special Cordelia way that made you know she was Very pleased to see you. But also still intimidating. "Burntstep told us to wait for you. Said it was big. Let's see what you've got."

"It is big," Kairos agreed, pulling up a chair and setting down.

"Huge, you could even say," Airen added, also getting seated.

"Well don't toy with us, just spill it," Tenrad huffed, crossing his arms.

Airen beckoned everyone in closer, until their whiskers brushed uncomfortably against each others'.

"We've got the Ghostbore blueprints," she whispered. Cordelia and Tenrad both narrowed their eyes in suspect and looked over at Kairos, who gave them a nod of affirmation.

"Well, I'll be," Tenrad raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "The real deal?"

"The real deal," Airen confirmed, and leaned back. Kairos pinned her ears back, and the other charr looked around to see what she heard.

"Kairos can't you let a guy have an entrance?" a shifty voice came up behind them. They looked on to see Shiv, holding his hands over his heart and pouting out his lip dramatically.

"You're just mad I can hear your tippy toes," Kairos gave him a friendly crooked sneer in greeting as Shiv pulled up another chair to their meeting. "Sure you're not an Ash legion spy, here to take our secrets?"

"Guilty as charged," Shiv replied. "So, spill 'em. Let's hear about this 'Real Deal'."

"Burntstep got us a copy of the Ghostbore blueprints," Cordelia growled softly. Airen had handed them over to her, and she tilted the top towards Shiv so he could read the title.

He let out a whistle of disbelief. "Guess I got my work cut out for me, assuming ol' Burntstep wants to keep this under wraps?"

"I'd assume he wants us to keep it secret, otherwise he would have told the whole 'band," Kairos agreed. She was excited to get started working with the 'prints. How did they make it work against the ghosts so well? Could the technology really be stretched to fit their cannons? How much longer were they all going to sit around and not be working on this? Her tail twitched anxiously as her thoughts spun.

"He wants us to outfit our cannons with this stuff?" Tenrad asked, looking up from the plans Cordelia had passed over to him. "Looks tricky. Good thing we're the best 'band in all the legions."

"C'mon, let's get working, then," Airen shuffled her feet as all of them looked towards Cordelia for their next move. As the Legionnaire's second in command, leadership of their little project fell onto her shoulders.

"Yeah yeah alright you grease kittens, let's get a move on," Cordelia growled as she stood up and started moving towards the cannon area of the workyard. The three followed her and Shiv slunk off to keep watch.

[/time break]

The past few weeks had started wildly exciting, but had slowed to a bore. Kairos blew a strand of hair out of her face as she screwed the two pieces of metal together. The Ghostbore plans were a lot more of a challenge than they had anticipated, and converting the firing mechanism from a hand weapon to their cannons was proving incredibly difficult.

"Why has this gotta be so hard?" Airen complained, laying flat splayed on the ground next to where Kairos was working.

"Because we're not doing anything new," Kairos answered, furrowing her brow as she looked back at her plans. "Just playing copycat with someone else's toys." The part she had made almost exactly like the plans outlined, and yet did not seem to work. Did the measurements have to be Exact? She had double checked the math on her scale increase, so it should be the exact same just 2x bigger. What was the secret to this?

"Cordelia has already gotten bored and is working with the other half of the 'band," Airen complained more. "And Tenrad is still cleaning up after he spilled whatever the heck these things shoot outta them off out of his fur."

"And you're still laying there, complaining to me instead of working," Kairos tried to jeer in a playful way, but her frustration must have come out more than she intended.

"Hey, I really was trying. But this is hopeless" Airen sat up, and started picking at her tail.

"It's not hopeless, but yea, I'm frustrated too," Kairos sighed, putting down her current project. "I wish we coulda talked to the charr that wrote the original plans. Maybe then we could make some progress." Probably not. She'd heard rumors that they were a bit of a loose cannon. Tribune Brimstone had taken a liking to them, and she'd heard enough about him to know his priorities did not align with the Iron Legion's best interests.

"I'm gonna go shoot our prototype musket, see if I can determine what it's shooting," Airen started to stand up.

"Not again," Kairos argued. "Doing the same thing over and over isn't gonna give you any new results."

"I know," Airen sighed. "I'm just bored."

"Hmm," Kairos hummed, thinking. They had created an exact replica of the Ghostbore Musket from the original blueprints first, to try to understand how it worked. But the annotations on the plans were shoddy at best, and completely omitted for most pieces. And the thing didn't seem to require any sort of bullet, or ammunition of any kind. Fueled by some kind of magic instead. Tenrad had found out when he'd spilled the weird substance and couldn't seem to wash it out of his fur.

"Waiiiittt..." Kairos drew out, trying to piece together something. The musket didn't take any bullets or ammunition, but managed to somehow form magic. All of them were Ironheads, with not much magic to share between them, yet somehow the gun had filled itself up. "Why don't we take it out for a field test?" Why didn't she think of it before? Firing test dummies would never get them the real 'Ghostbore' results like shooting an actual ghost would get!

"But, won't we get seen?" Airen asked, hesitant.

"Who are you and what have you done with Airen?" Kairos joked at her. Airen was never one to ignore a risky adventure. She must have taken this whole secrecy thing to heart.

"I mean, yes I want to, but what if Burntstep finds out?"

"Then we better make sure he doesn't find out," Kairos nudged her friend. "Besides, ghosts are like flies out there, it'll be easy to lure one into some secret place where no one will see us. And you know I'll hear if anyone is coming."

"Well, you got me there," Airen shook the floor dust off of her. "C'mon, let's go quick."

"Not right now," Kairos laughed at Airen's eagerness to go. "Let's wait until dark."

[/later that night]

"Kai, I'm having second thoughts," Airen hissed softly from behind Kairos. The two of them had snuck out into the night and were hiding out near a small camp filled with ghosts. Kairos watched them, meandering around with a pointless purpose. The human ghosts acted like they were in the thick of a war, eternally cursed to believe their home was under attack. Some even mimed like they were cooking a meat that wasn't there over an unlit fire, and some lay on blankets that had long since rotted away. Trapped in time. She almost felt pity towards them, if they weren't such violent invasive pests on her peoples' homeland.

Kairos turned towards Airen, holding a claw to her lips to keep quiet. She tiptoed over to where one of the ghosts stood off on his own, like he was supposed to be keeping watch. His head nodded periodically, like he was falling asleep. Ghosts don't sleep, but these believed they were still human, and acted as such. The musket seemed heavier in her hands as Kairos got in position. She had to make a clean shot, so as to give her enough time to examine her kill before the next watchman came out. She hoped the musket worked as intended, because if it didn't kill him in one shot, her and Airen would have a camp full of ghosts on their tails.

She took aim, slowing her breath so she heard nothing except the heartbeat of her prey. Or, she would have, had her prey have a heart. She fired the rifle, briefly surprised when it made no sound. She knew from the testing range the gun was silent, but using it outside she must have unconsciously believed it would be different.

And her aim held true. The magic that flew from her weapon met it's mark, and the nodding ghost... was gone. It happened almost too quick for her to see, and it took a second for her thoughts to register what had really happened. The shot pierced the ghost right through the neck, and as he dematerialized, seemed to be sucked into the space created by the shot.

Time stood still for Kairos. She held her breath, waiting for the camp to go up in alarm, or for Airen to call something, heck, she almost expected Legionnaire Burntstep to pop up behind her to scold her on sneaking out.

But none of that happened. Nothing happened. A bird or insect made a quiet sound far in the distance. Kairos slowly let out the breath she was holding, and time started again.

She slunk over to where the guard had been standing. No traces of ghosts. She examined her gun. Nothing was different. She crept back over to where Airen was hiding, and was met with a wide-eyed expression.

Airen opened her mouth and closed it a few times, her face a clear picture of the gears in her mind turning. Kairos smiled at her, sharing an expression of the same disbelief, but also triumph. The field test proved useful, in a way. They wordlessly moved back to their 'band bunks. Talking could wait until morning.

[/next morning]

"Kairos, I couldn't sleep," Airen whispered first thing in the morning.

"I know," Kairos replied. Airen's tossing and turning had kept her up most the night. Also the thoughts about the gun. She was beginning to piece it together. The Ghostbore Musket was rumored to not only kill ghosts, but to delay their reformation, possibly forever.

"Kairos, you have a look," Airen said as she poked her head over her bunk, leaning over where Kairos lay. "Did you figure it out?"

"I..." she hesitated. Did she figure it out? She had plenty of ideas, but she had to test them to be sure. "I might have something. It might be completely wrong." Airen's eyes widened, eager to hear.

"How much time you need?"

"Give me 5 minutes to have some breakfast, then meet me by the cannon workbench," Kairos replied.

[/a few minutes later]

Airen was waiting for her by the workbench, munching on a roast chicken. They hadn't been making much progress, so the 'band wasn't getting much red meat anymore.

"Ok, so here's my thoughts," Kairos began as Airen listened intently. "I think this rifle uses some kind of mists magic."

"Like, from the Mists?"

"Yea. I don't know how, but it does. Something about when it hits the ghost, it maybe opens up some sort of portal to the mists, small enough to suck the ghost in."

"But how does that stop them from coming back?"

"I think the cursed ghosts maybe never go to the mists. Like, when we kill 'em they don't actually get killed but instead just get smashed, like sand. Then they put themselves back together." Kairos shrugged. It sounded like a sound theory, but could also be wrong. Airen seemed convinced though.

"That's wild," she said. "I thought maybe the gunshot somehow just killed them even faster, which made them take longer to get their ghost thoughts together." she shrugged. "Yea, I don't understand ghosts or human magics."

"Yea, who knows what humans are thinking, ever." Kairos laughed.

"Ok ok, but tell me more," Airen urged.

"Yes so I think the gun uses some sort of mists magic. So, if we can figure out how, and I think it has something to do with the weird magic-y stuff. Something in the shape and size of the original blueprint is able to tap into the mists, or form some sort of connection, or, or something." Kairos spun her hand around, hoping the motion would move her mind in the right direction. She had ideas and thoughts, but they weren't quite at the word phase yet.

"Ok, makes no sense to me. But I think you have an idea of what to do," Airen's muzzles moved around to follow the motions Kairos made. "Tell me what I can do to help."

The two of them got to work. Airen gathered the parts Kairos requested, and held up some of the heavier pieces. Kairos pulled her hair back with one of her grease handkerchiefs, trying to keep from being distracted. If her idea was right, this could really be huge. They made five of the ammo pools same as the original design, and then a tunneling converter to channel whatever magic that got shot into the barrel of the cannon.

It went against protocol to crawl down the business end of a cannon, but Kairos wanted to be sure everything was lined up right. She thought she was being smart by blocking the firing mechanism. Her tail whipped around with excitement, and she could just barely hear Airen's laughter from the outside of the cannon. She probably looked ridiculous, with her rump sticking out of the cannon, her big hind feet holding the rim securely as she worked face first inside the huge gun. She tightened the last screw in place, giving it an ol' iron legion tap. Feeling satisfied with the converter in place, she placed the wrench in her jaws to use both hands to help wriggle herself out.

Kairos heard a high pitched whine.

Kairos heard an Airen pitched cry.

Kairos didn't hear anything.

[/time skip]

Kairos heard whispers.

Kairos heard faint music.

Kairos heard her name.

"Kairos..." a voice whispered.

"Kairos." a voice spoke.

"KAIROS." a voice shouted.

She shot up, opened her eyes, and immediately closed them with regret. There was nothing around her, yet also everything. She wasn't sitting, or laying down, or standing. She couldn't feel anything, yet she felt so much. She hurt, she felt tired and rested, hungry and full, thirsty and parched. She felt satisfied, and yet so so uncomfortable.

"Kairos." a voice spoke.

She shook her head. Kairos. That's her name.

"You do not belong here." the voice spoke.

It was gentle, motherly. It was firm, commanding, motherly.

"Go back home." the voice spoke.

It was kind, like a mother. It was cold and demanding, like it was not her mother. It crackled, like mothers are prone to do.

Were mothers prone to crackling?

"Go." the voice spoke.

It was gentle, like a crackle. It was mother, like a demand. It was gone, and Kairos went as well.

[/time skip]

Kairos heard footsteps approach her.

"What the h- what are you doing here? This is a restricted area," A voice, a charr voice, called out to her. It was angry, concerned, confused.

So was she.

Kairos ached, but she sprung up. She hesitated for a fraction of a second before opening her eyes. It did not hurt. She saw the workspace, empty. She saw a charr moving towards her, not empty. He had a weapon. Drawn.

"What time is it?" Kairos asked, eyes wide. She was supposed to be working. Did she pass out? She couldn't remember what she was supposed to be working on. Was she supposed to go home? That sounded familiar.

"It's ... uh, 4 pm?" The charr sounded confused. The charr. Kairos was charr, who was this charr?

"4pm." Kairos repeated. That wasn't right, it was morning, she had just got to working. Or was it supposed to be night? She was supposed to go home...

"What are you doing here?" the charr asked her. He had lowered his weapons. He was not scared of her, he was confused of her. Confused by her. Was she confusing.

"I am not sure. I think I am supposed to go home?" Kairos asked him. Both felt as if they would much rather not be having this conversation. He stared blankly at her for a few seconds.

"Who," he cleared his throat. "Who is your Legionnaire?" he asked her. Her Legionnaire? Her Legionnaire was not here. He had a fun sounding name, and she always knew when he was approaching because of his uneven walk. He had injured his foot. Some kind of fire magic.

"Legionnaire Burntstep." she replied. His eyes widened at her answer.

"Are you," he seemed nervous now. "Are you Kairos?" Kairos. Yes.

"Yes, that's me," she answered with a slight nod. "And you are?"

"I need to take you to the tribune right now," he said, not answering her question. "Please, come with me." He hesitated for a second, then extended his hand towards hers. She took it instinctively. This situation felt odd to her, but she felt it best to follow the rules. He wanted to take her to the Tribune. Did her Legionnaire get in trouble?

The two of them stood, hand in hand for a second. Neither seemed to know what to do next. The charr gave a little chuff of laughter. Kairos looked over at him, head tilted slightly in question.

"This is the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me," he answered her silent question. "Call me Rend."

"Nice to meet you, Rend." Kairos answered, moving their held hands in a shake motion. "This is also the weirdest thing that's happened to me, although if I'm being honest, I don't really know what's happening."

"Oh. Yea, that makes sense," he said. They started walking. "I mean, you just sort of appeared. One second you weren't there, the next you were. I think it's insane, but well, you're the one doing the appearing." He chuckled again in disbelief. Some charr find it comforting to laugh in the face of discomfort, uncertainty, or even fear. He didn't seem scared of her. He seemed very confused. She felt similar.

"Yea, I supposed it makes sense." she laughed a little bit too.

"Do you," he started. Rend cleared his throat, thinking his words carefully. "What do you remember?"

What did she remember?

"I remember..." she started. Thinking. "I remember I woke up, but I was tired. I don't think I slept well. I remember having to go to work. It was morning. I remember having big ideas, big plans, big thoughts. I remember hearing a friend. I remember being satisfied with my work. I remember... " she paused for a moment. "A voice. Telling me it was time to go home."

He didn't stop walking, but he stared at her in disbelief. "Damn dude." He didn't know what else to say. She didn't know what else to say. She shrugged.

"What do you remember?" Kairos asked him.

"What do I?" he paused. "Well, I remember I woke up this morning, trained with my band until noon. I was assigned to guard this area for any suspicious activity this afternoon. I remember seeing nothing, I remember being bored, and I remember suddenly seeing you. Just there. Where you weren't a second before." He gave another pause. "And I remember the stories about Burntstep's 'band." Rend said the last bit in a whisper. But Kairos heard him.

Stories of his 'band? Her warband? She was beginning to think something hokey had happened. She had a lot of questions.

"What kind of stories?" was what she chose to ask.

"The bad kind," he said. He swallowed uncomfortably. His palm pad was starting to get sweaty in her grip. They were almost to the Tribune's quarters. She felt like she was going to get in trouble. She did something wrong, and she was going to be punished. The thought traveled down her spine in a shiver, and she felt herself begin to sweat.

[/time skip]

Kairos was in trouble.

Well, more officially Legionnaire Burntstep was in trouble. He was accused of plagiarism, among other things. Apparently he did not get the blueprints through official means. He got his title stripped. He was no longer around. Kairos could not get a clear answer of if he was like, dead, but it was not something people were willing to talk to her about.

Her warband was in trouble. Cordelia, Tenrad, and Shiv were accused of complacency. They assisted in a project that they knew was not permitted. They were allowed to go their own way. Kairos heard Shiv had found himself a new warband, one that fit his skillset better. Kairos also heard that Cordelia had joined with the Sentinels. She also heard one whisper, presumably one she was not supposed to hear, about Cordelia's death. Cordelia had died the way she had lived: hissing and spitting in the face of danger. Dragon minions are just a bit more dangerous than experimental weaponry. Kairos heard Tenrad had joined the Durmund Priory, and was stuffing his nose in old OLD blueprints now.

Her warband was in trouble. The other members changed their name, appointed a new Legionnaire, and washed their hands of the ordeal. They had to serve scrapper duty for two weeks, and have since moved on.

Her friend was in trouble. Airen Heavystep was accused of the murder of her bandmate, Kairos. She heard Airen was distraught. She heard Airen was in tears. She heard the rest of the 'band vouched for Airen; She and Kairos were best buds, Airen would never do such a thing. She heard that Airen was stripped of her rank. Stripped of the dignity of calling herself a charr. She heard that Airen worked at the docks in Lion's Arch, with a heavy heart.

Kairos was in trouble. She was accused of being murdered. And yet, here she was. Not. Like, not dead. At least not anymore. Her 'death' was roughly three years ago.

She felt a little bit ashamed. Like, what kind of charr was she, couldn't even stay dead. She also felt a little bit proud. Like, she was the kind of charr that could just say 'no thanks!' to death. Obviously she didn't want to push her luck and try it a second time, but the thought was nice. She also felt a little bit tired. She was given scrapper duty. A bit of a harsh punishment for being murdered, but she felt she owed it to her old band to do at least the same amount of time they did. She only had to work for a month. Then she thought she might try to find a new band. Maybe visit Airen way over in Lion's arch. Maybe not, it might scare her poor old friend out of her skin.

And so she scrapped. And listened. She never knew how full the scrapyards were. Voices, everywhere. Some she could barely hear. Some quite loud, but making no sense to her. Like a different language. Sometimes she stood still and would just listen. Sometimes she would lose track of time, listening. Sometimes a firm, motherly voice would crackle at her. A command.

"Kairos."

She got back to work.

#long post #Feir writing #Kairos Mistwrought

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