Back to Created and Consumed: Prologue

Four years came and left me, I had given three children, I was thin and I hadn't seen light for months. The door’s shielding deactivated, signalling another ‘visit’. I cowered as the screams of other females reached my ears and curled in my tattered robes to try to block them out.

"Goodness... you are quite the looker aren't you?" the voice was amused and arrogant. I refused to look at him. "What is your name?" he asked. I did not answer, I didn't know anymore. He pressed a palm to my forehead, "Why haven't you eaten female? It proves nothing to starve yourself, how will you help the Covenant if you are dead?"

"I wish I were..." I muttered, my voice was unpractised and my words sounded new to me.

He chuckled and I became annoyed.

"Don't just eye me like a piece of meat, warrior... do what you came here to do and be done with it, after all…" I looked at him, "… it's what I'm here for..." I quoted.

His face hardened, "I have seen your past record, you haven't birthed for three cycles now, what would be the point in me having my way with you? You wouldn't have my children for me, you wouldn't willingly give yourself to me..." he crouched to look at me, cupped my cheek with his hand and scanned my face.
I jerked my head away and observed the floor, desperate not to look at him.
"I see..." he murmured, gravely, holding out a hand, "... get up, please, I wish to see you properly..." I narrowed my eyes; it was unnatural for me to be spoken to so differently, to be addressed so formally. He used kind gestures toward me. I was wary of these, they usually were a front, created to give a false sense of security before a male made his move on a female. This was the strangest and most unforgiving courtship I had ever experienced. I never looked forward to reliving it again.

Slowly, I stood, keeping my distance. He moved ever so slightly closer to me and I retreated into a small patch of light. It dappled my skin with a light lunar blue, making me partially visible.
"Agh, I can't see you..." he muttered, then thought for a moment, "... come with me..."
I was reluctant, this was new to me and he was beckoning me toward the door of my chamber, toward freedom. His shoulder blades and back were first to exit my enclosure, then the rest of his body until only I was left inside. I was just creeping up to the door when the chitter of one of the Unggoy patrol guards startled me.

"You be leavin' female to go to next one, yes? She not breed for Zealot Ado, yes?" its voice was shrill and annoying, "We have lots of trouble with this one, she silent, she not fertile…”

“Not fertile?” he looked through the door at me then back down to the shrill voice, “I seriously doubt her incapability to birth…”

“She not make children for Covenant, she refuse, Covenant has no time for such things. No worry, she be killed soon, then we get new female for here…" I edged closer to the doorway to better hear the conversation.

"Slay the unwilling? Why, it’s positively barbaric! Is this the will of the Prophets?" the male asked, he was positively mortified by the thought.

"Ungh? Will of Prophets? They no bother with lower city folks like us. Down here we do what Covenant law states, there no Prophets been down here for years!" I crept close enough to see the owner of the voice. He was a small creature, smaller than the aviary creatures and he had an odd growth on his back which made a hollow hiss every time he inhaled.

The male elite, who I could see more clearly now, was clad in elegant gold armour which had been specially fitted to his form. He wasn’t scarred like the others; he was relatively unscathed from battle, only sporting a small mark below his left eye. I saw that he noticed my slow emergence but continued to speak to the diminutive creature, “The Covenant law is formed by a Council which is ruled by three Prophet Hierarchs. All decisions made within this city are run by them first, therefore, the law you follow down here is the will of the Prophets, the same as above.”

The little creature scratched its head, “But Prophets not visit here, why we follow their rules if they not have time for lower City folks?” he pondered the conundrum for a further minute, giving me time to move out of the cell completely. The male watched me through the corner of his eye but never averted his gaze from the perplexed guard.
I collected my robes from around my ankles so that they didn’t drag on the metal floor and crept backward from my enclosure. The male knew I was escaping but didn’t turn or alert the guard. He just smiled kindly down at him, waiting for him to make sense of what had been said.

I bumped into something, it was short enough that I fell backward over it and it made a loud clatter on the floor. I was doused in what felt and smelt like vomit.
“EEEGH!” I heard from above my head, as I wiped the substance from my eyes, I began to realise who the voice belonged to. “Malak! You stupid! You knocked over the eats! Wait… you’re not Malak, how did you get out? Nyagh! Malak!” its screeching voice hurt my ears, “I told you to watch this place while I got us some eats!”

I looked down the hall to the male and the other creature. The male was shaking his head at my failure to get away. The little one covered his mouth with his hands then shook a fist at the other small creature closest to me, “Don’t just stand there! Shoot it!”

“No!” the male shouted but it was too late. I looked back above my head and saw a huge orb of green light. It released and showered me with hot plasma. I screamed and curled against the pain. This is when I realised that not only did the ‘eats’ smell awful but they were extremely combustible to boot. The heat of the plasma was amplified on my unprotected flesh by the blue flames created by the unknown chemicals in the spilt meals. My robes burned, my skin peeled, I hollered in agony while the one who shot me danced around me, cheering victory.
Partially blinded by pain, I stood and staggered away from my assailant, stumbled, then careered into the far wall. I felt ill, the scent of my own burnt flesh was making me nauseous. I slumped against the crete while the male swooped down and patted the flames out.

"Idiots!" I heard him yell, "Vile creatures! Get out of here, both of you!" two muscular arms lifted me from the deck. I wanted to fight them but I couldn’t hold on to consciousness. The last thing I heard was the male’s voice, "By the Rings… they will pay in blood for this…”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Are you alright?"
A soft hand touched my burnt face and I flinched. I opened my eyes to see them retreat back to their owner.
"You're quite a spectacle, female. I understand your dislike for physical contact but I assure you, I have no intention to harm you. Now, here, drink this..." the male handed me a flask of yellow liquid, it was sweet and slightly carbonated, the bubbles hurt my throat. I spat and coughed, then chucked the substance back.

The room was dimly lit but I could see a neat counter for food preparation which bore no sign of use for quite a while. This Sangheili had not lived here for long. "Why have you brought me here?" I asked, “What do you want from me?”
"I removed you from that cage because I felt it was the correct thing to do, you were injured and obviously you wouldn’t receive much help if you had remained unconscious down there...” he made a small smile then added, “I require nothing from you, female, only that you do not fear me.” He leaned forward in his seat to look over my burns, “They are not too severe, shouldn’t take more than a few days to seal from infection, but I’ll need to clean you up a bit first.” he made a tut-tut noise, “That Kig-Yar lowlife made a fair job of it…”

I could tell the room was far different than my enclosure. Through the outed lights I could see that the door was not protected by plasma and the room as a whole was immensely larger, why, the bed itself would have had to have folded in two for it to fit inside my home below the City. I attempted to sit up but my muscles seized, my head fell back and hit the bunk with a loud and painful clunk. The male laughed softly.
“Just relax, everything is fine.” He soothed and then began to dress my burns with antiseptic spray. I yelped upon contact, chemical had hit nerve, sending a shot of stinging pain through my body. After recovering slightly, I responded by kicking him square in the stomach, he doubled over and coughed.

Not going to harm me... what a load of fodder...

I managed the strength to stand for I would fight if I had to. This warrior would regret ever touching me and I would repay the Prophets for condemning me to this cruel fate. The male began to recover from my kick and was beginning to find his breath again. I saw a device on the counter and snatched it. My basic deduction was that it was some sort of live weaponry. It was lightweight and easily graspable around the handle. I found a trigger and squeezed it; a small green glow erupted from the nozzle of the device and became increasingly larger. I was shaking. The weapon vibrated fiercely with power. My unsure hands lost hold of the mechanism and the green orb of plasma shot directly into the male.

Sparks showered my feet as the plasma shattered a personal shield surrounding him; I stepped backward, charging the weapon again, "Stay away from me!"

He didn't advance or retreat, he just watched me fumble with the weapon, "I'm not going to hurt you..." he repeated and opened his hand palm up to me, "... give me that, my over-shields will only endure one of those hits and then it starts to hurt me..."

I aimed and hoped that I could keep it together. My palms began to sweat with fear. His overpowering calm made me think I was doing something wrong, something which guaranteed my failure in this little stalemate. "Open the door..." I commanded shakily.

"Are you sure you want me to do that?" he asked calmly, “It’s very bright out in those halls.”

"Do it." I twitched the weapon to better explain the order, "Or this will do more than hurt you..."

"Very well..." he stood and walked to the door, looking back at me, "Are you absolutely sure?" a small smile etched into his face made me hesitate.

"Y-yes..."

He pressed some digits into the wall and the door slid open, dazzling my eyes with bright hues. I cringed and dropped the weapon to shield my eyes letting the plasma shoot harmlessly into the crete. The device landed with a clatter on the floor. I stepped back into the bunk, I couldn't see, it was too bright. I dropped to my knees and covered my eyes then the male closed the doors again.

”I did warn you…" he whispered, crouching beside me. He wasn’t amused, "If you go out there, you'll be killed in cold blood. They don’t care that you’re female, they don’t care that you’re unarmed. You only have these flimsy pieces of cloth and your own skills to protect your body and neither is reliable in a dangerous situation." his hand lifted my chin so that he could look me in the eyes, "I, on the other hand, am quite reliable.” He observed me for a few long moments, moments which I felt lasted cycles. His face shifted from concern to interest, “What is your name?” he asked, “I feel like I should know you…”

I looked away, "I don't remember my name..."

His face saddened, "Not even any name at all?" he moved into my line of sight, he was acting like a child, "Do you know my name?"

I looked back at him, “Certainly not.” I scathed, then in seeing his disappointment I racked my brain to try to remember anything which may have given this Sangheili’s name away. I remembered, the guard had called him something, a Zealot, whatever that was, "Zealot?” he smiled, “Zealot is an odd name for a Sangheili warrior..." I commented; from his smile escaped a laugh.

"The term Zealot is that which is given to a warrior of my status, I'm a high ranking commander of the Sangheili army." He laughed again, “My ‘name’ is Ado.” He stood and walked to a small outlet in the wall, it had digits. I watched him key them in; top-left, middle-bottom, centre, bottom-right, centre, top-left, and then he produced a small platter of cooked meat on a warm bone, "Are you hungry?" he asked. My mouth began to water and I nodded. I took the platter and smelt the flesh over. I could have cried; it smelled so glorious. The male watched me from across the room as I tasted and tentatively began to eat the food, after establishing that I was in fact eating, he began to go about his own business, "So what should I call you, seeing you have no name?" he asked.

I was half way through a mouthful of a deliciously crunchy vegetable and found it difficult to reply straight away. In truth, I didn't know what to say and just stuttered on my words for a while. He waited patiently while I finished eating then asked me again.

"You need to have a name, how would I call on you if you don't?" He rested his elbows on the counter, “Identity is essential in a City as large as High Charity, yet you don’t have one, how peculiar.”

I still didn't know what to say, but I knew someone who would, "Do you know a Prophet by the name of Sanctuary?" I asked.

Ado's expression darkened, "I’m not taking you to see any of the Prophets. You’re in enough danger as it is…”

“Well that’s your fault isn’t it?” I replied, placing down the bone which I had stripped of meat, “I didn’t ask for you to take me from the Chambers, did I?”

“You didn’t have to, you were to be executed for resisting the Covenant, and I couldn’t let your death rest on my conscience. You're not going to see the Prophets, that’s that."

“Oh I see now. I’m just a way out of your guilt. Tell me, how many females have you sent to death row just because they didn’t do what you wanted? How many warriors have you slain for not following your orders? How many deaths do you have already resting on your conscience, Zealot?”

He looked at me, at this stage I felt he was going to kill me right there. He came right up to me and spoke quietly to my face, "They will kill you… they have killed before… they are the ones who discipline this city. They are the Hierarchs, and they show no mercy for your type." I looked back at him. He seemed so angry yet he didn’t want to fight me, “The deaths on my conscience I feel each night when I lay my head to rest. They haunt my dreams. All I am able to do is go on in the hope that someday this will all be over and those spirits and I can rest in peace.”

His expression was unreadable, he had gone through so many personality changes in these past few minutes that I had lost track. I decided to pursue my original question, “Ado, I never said anything about actually going to see any of the Hierarchs, I only asked, do you know the Prophet of Sanctuary? He is the only member of the Covenant that would know anything about my name and where I came from.”

“He is no member of our Covenant. He was exiled years ago. This Prophet is a blasphemous being apparently. He raised seventy-odd children in secret, right under the noses of the Hierarchs. His plea was something along the lines of Mercy not living up to his name and Truth being a rotten lie. It didn’t do him good to be raising females above ground either.” I blushed; Ado, by now, knew I had ties with Prophet Sanctuary. After scrounging around behind the counter for a while he produced a small diskette, "This, female, is information on Prophet Sanctuary, everything you need to know about him is on here. Documents, sermons, and every crime he committed within our City walls. It’s all here.” He handed the information over to me and nodded toward a console embedded in the wall, “Just plug in the information converter and read, it might take a while though, there’s a lot there to go through.”

I did as I had been instructed and watched as holographic symbols scrolled before my eyes. They made no sense to me but Ado seemed to understand them perfectly. I remained bewildered while he scrolled down through the information.

“Are you following any of this?” he asked. I blinked twice to display my confusion, none of the symbols made a shred of sense. He laughed, “Would you like me to read it to you?”

I nodded. Already silent, I rested on my elbows and tried to find words in the documents Ado was reading out to me. Slowly I began to see forms of sounds and some type of sentence structure but eventually gave up on trying to read the code and just listened to his voice.

It took hours for Ado to translate everything, from what I understood, Sanctuary was a bit of a fighter in his prime. He was a young prophet, no more than forty or fifty Cycles. He was once a Hierarch but was overruled by one named Truth and eventually exiled for withholding information from the Covenant and supporting an unauthorised breeding program. None within the Covenant knew if he was still alive or not. None even knew where he was exiled to for his trial was held in secret, away from the rest of the Covenant. I began to drowse toward the end of Ado’s explanation and my eyelids felt heavy over my pupils. I rested my head down on the cold table surface.

"Eia?" Ado asked. He had taken to calling me this Sangheili no-name seeing as the information on my father proved no help in finding my name.

"Hmm?" I lifted my head slightly, yawning widely and stretching my stiff jaws.

"Eia, you cannot leave this place. I must forbid it. Out there you stand no chance against even the most stupid of the guard. They all have one advantage over you and that’s weaponry." He lowered his head to meet my eyes, “You must promise me that you won’t leave here in the night or when you wake. Promise me, Eia.”

I nodded. Even if I did want to leave this haven, I knew what was out there in those halls. Those who had used me in the past resided close by and I didn’t enjoy the thought of a reunion. He scooped me up in his arms and carried me to a soft bed, then placed me carefully down, being careful of my wounds. He touched his finger to my forehead and murmured a quiet prayer then addressed me, "Eia," I opened my eyes with great effort, "When you wake, I will be outside of my quarters. It is absolutely essential that you do not let anyone enter.” I nodded again, “I will have food out for you to eat, I suggest you consume all of it," he said and smiled warmly, "now sleep, I’ll be just outside this room if you require anything..."

I did as I was told. I let my eyelids fall and my mind ebb into silence while the low hum of the City's inner systems numbed my thoughts into blankness.

Onward to Created and Consumed: Ch 2 Pt 1