Upon Silver Devil: Chapter Four

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Dawn would be alright, she just got bored laying there alone and without a project to do.

James laughed. "It's just spit, Esk. Every organic has it. Heck, even I have it. You could totally eat that cookie." He smiled at Silence, "Are you not into sweet foods, or is that just a lame cookie?"

"Who knows what she might be carrying." Esk protested. "it's gross. You wanna eat spit covered food, go ahead."

Silence shrugged, she wasn't entirely sure.

"Can she not write or sign or ANYTHING useful?" Esk complained.

Silence looked at him.

"No, stay outta my head." Esk glared.

Silence nodded and shrugged.

"Well this is gonna be fucking annoying." Esk muttered.

"Hey, I can't even eat," James protested. "Or I WOULD. So there." He looked at Silence, "I assume you can write? Maybe we could get you a pen and a pad of paper. Kay does that on Vestia, it works great."

Silence looked bewildered.

Esk sighed. "Yeah have fun with THIS." He stalked out of the room, leaving James to try to communicate with someone who couldn't talk on his own.

James blinked at Silence. "You do know how to write, right?" He asked her. Dang, it was hard to figure out what she might be thinking about. At least with Kay, he wrote stuff down and shot you expressive glares.

Silence shook her head and gestured that James follow her.

James followed, puzzled.

Silence led the way to Ivor's room and knocked twice on the door, a rapid two knocks, then nothing.

Apparently that was enough for him to know it was her and he opened the door, peering warily out at the pair. "w.. what is it?" he looked worried, like he expected bad news.

Silence patted him on the shoulder and pointed to James.

Ivor frowned, nodded and stepped away from the door. "co.. come in?"

James went in at the invitation, feeling every bit as confused as Ivor looked. He watched the shifters uncertainly, looked like Silence was going to use Ivor to translate again, maybe? Hmm. "Hey Ivor," he said, smiling politely.

Ivor waved very tentatively with his good hand.

"She... she says you can't understand her..."

Silence nodded.

"You.. you're so quiet..." Ivor took a few steps toward James, reaching out then thinking better of it and letting his hand drop to his side. "It's... so weird."

"Yep, no brain activity in here," James joked, tapping the side of his head. Hey, it was true! His brain wasn't even in his head! "I can't hear telepathy, or be heard telepathically. It's useful sometimes, but it can also be super annoying when I'm trying to talk to people." He nodded sagely.

Ivor nodded jerkily. "Sh.. she says she can't read or write so... so she can't talk to you like you want her to." He looked to Silence for confirmation that was right.

Silence nodded, head lowered.

"She.. she only mastered this form a few months ago, it.. it's still very new and confusing." Ivor continued. "this is... really awkward."

Silence patted him on the shoulder again.

"you.. you're supposed to... teach us yes?" Ivor asked James. "Maybe.. maybe you can teach her to write?" He looked hopeful. "I don't... I don't understand common symbols, they... look funny."

"Oh, that's okay," James said. "Man, you just started using this form that recently? That's gotta feel weird as heck." He nodded, "Yeah, I can try to teach her, and you if you want, to write. I dunno if I'd be a good teacher, but I can try."

Ivor nodded. "t.. thank you." He looked uncertain, like he wasn't much used to people agreeing to his requests. "She... she grew up being discouraged from shifting. They all did. After.. after what happened, they just wanted to be left alone. She.. she's been helping me with my... my telepathy and I.. i've been trying to help with the shifting but i'm not very good at it." Ivor looked down at his twisted arm. "half.. half breeds never are apparently. And it hurts. " He smiled strangely at Silence. "She.. she's already better than me." He looked sort of proud.

Silence looked awkward.

"Man, good thing you guys have each other," James said, smiling softly. He looked hesitant, "What... What happened? Is it okay to ask?"

"You... you don't know?" Ivor looked surprised. "I... I assumed you knew.. you knew what we were... "

Silence tilted her head, curious.

"Well, I know what little information we have about the biology of your species, but I don't know the history," James said. "I'm a medic, sorta, but I haven't been researching history much." He looked curious.

Ivor nodded. "o... okay... um.. I.. I only know what Silence and her mother told me."

Silence sat down in a chair, folding her hands across her lap.

Ivor looked very very uncomfortable and sat down on the bed so he wasn't so much 'in the spotlight'.
"uh.. s.. so... I don't know how long ago it happened, I don't... they don't seem to know. Time.. time passes differently I guess when you life so long but... three?" He looked to Silence for confirmation

Silence nodded.

"three generations ago there was... this thing they call the exodus. At least... that's the closest word to what they project.. a huge mass migration, fleeing..." Ivor frowned. "they.. they used to be some shifters who were spies and ... arms dealers and all.. all that kind of thing. they used their ability to change forms and read minds to... manipulate and profit. The... the other races didn't like that so.. so they declared war on them. " Ivor looked at the floor, fiddling with his shirt buttons. "a lot... of horrible things happened, the.. the planet that the shifters called home was infected with a horrible plague that didn't just kill, it... it drove the citizens insane and made them tear one another apart." Ivor winced, he hadn't been told this in words, he'd been shown it telepathically. "those.. those who survived who... who weren't infected they fled.. or tried to but... but the other worlds blockaded them. They shot down any.. any ship that tried to leave. Some got through, but not many. Others off world found themselves not able to go home, stranded and... in most cases having lost their entire families. And so.. so the other races hunted down those who remained, anyone they found out was... was a shifter and they killed them. "

Silence bowed her head.

"Those.. those who survived a lot of them banded together. They found a world they could live on, far away from anyone else and... and they decided that they wouldn't give the other races a reason to hurt them again. they... they they discouraged their young from shifting, they tried to repress that natural ability to do so. They.. they thought if they didn't change forms, if they kept to themselves, they wouldn't be a threat and nobody would come to hurt them again." Ivor shook his head. "it was.. a long time ago.. most.. most of the other races have forgotten they even existed. They don't remember... so.. so they don't recognize what we are." He looked up at James. "How do you know what we are? Who is... who is the man the others think of when they look at us?"

"That's awful," James said softly. "All those people dead, just because some idiots were bitter about losing money. I know it was a long time ago, but I'm sorry." Genocides. Why did it always have to be genocides? Ugh.
He paused a moment before answering the question, thinking about what to say. "There's this medic on Vestia's crew, he's a half-shifter, half-hexenfolke like you, Ivor. His name is Kay. He grew up in the imperium, so he doesn't know a whole lot about his shifter heritage, but he met a guy who told him some stuff, and we got some info at this really good library, so we know a bit about shifters now. Mostly biology, although maybe Kay knows some history, I don't know. But yeah, he's half-shifter, with the telepathy, and the shifting, although he can't really hold a shape long without a pendant." He nodded.
Something occurred to him, "Can you two hold your shapes without help? Or do you have some sort of magic charm too?"

Ivor listened to that fascinated. "I... I can hold a form. I ha.. had to. Looking like this is.. is safer." He looked at the floor. "We.. we revert when we sleep... It.. it's how they found shifters back then, knocked them out.. if they changed... " He shook his head. "h.. how did he survive? this.. this medic? If he can't hold a form... I.. I learned to hide.. they just... thought I was crazy... "

"Wow, I always kinda assumed half shifters just couldn't stay in another shape on their own," James said. "Kay can hold a form for an hour or so I think, and he was given a magic charm at some point that makes him stay in his humanoid form. But he can't stay humanoid through willpower alone." He shook his head, "They were dumb if they thought you were crazy. I mean, it's pretty obvious you read minds and aren't a hundred percent hexenfolke, isn't it?" Well it was obvious to James, anyway. Hah.

Ivor nodded. "th.. they knew I wasn't totally Hexenfolke... but.. but I could hide... mostly... and... and it's much harder to justify killing a child if they.. they look like a person." He shook his head, yeah, some of the thoughts he'd read off other people back then had been truly horrible. "a.. apparently half shifters are very rare... most.. most don't survive... either.. either they just... don't live or... or they get killed because people think they're monsters." He hugged himself. "he.. hexenfolke are superstitious... they.. they were too scared to kill me in case... in case it made things worse. Nobody wanted to look after me and... and then I started hearing things so.. so they sent me away for... tr.. treatment."

James winced. He kinda wanted to hug the poor guy now, that was pretty darn sad what he'd been through. Not that he would hug him, a complete stranger hugging you was generally more weird than comforting. "Man, that's rough. So you were just, like, in an asylum for years? Geez."

Ivor nodded, it wasn't something he much wanted to elaborate on.

"Thank goodness you're out of there now," James said. He smiled softly, "So uh, you guys should probably be eating some breakfast I guess? I always forget about food, but it's kinda important."

Ivor nodded.

Silence dug the cookie out of her pocket and offered it to Ivor.

James smiled, amused. Hmm, he might need to make sure these two ate nutritious food as well. If they got addicted to sweets, Rigel would be mad at him.