Prompt: Sariel, Lucifer, Chayyiel…. and Cassiel discuss testing powers.

“Wow, what is this place?” The question came from a young Seosten man with blond hair as he stepped into a fifty foot by thirty foot rectangular room. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all bare metal, and there were a few scattered crates which, upon a quick glance, proved to be empty. “Let me guess, it’s going to be a storage room for the captain’s extensive fine wine collection.”

“Not exactly that sort of storage room, Lucifer,” Sariel replied while coming in behind him. She, like her companion, was still not quite even sixty years old, barely even an adult by their peoples’ standards. The two of them had been what amounted to interns during the Summus Proelium project. And now they were… well, no one quite knew what they were, exactly. Least of all them. They were essentially nothing, barely listed as crew members of the Olympus.

“It’s a trophy room,” she continued, her gaze shifting to take in the whole area. “Captain Puriel has a lot of trophies and medals from his service. His wife wants them displayed and polished for any holo opportunities that come up. She wanted them put in in the corridor just outside the bridge, but he disagreed. They compromised with this. A room that is safely out of the way, and which doesn’t actually take up any space within the actual ship.”

“Uh.” A new voice spoke up from the doorway, as an even younger figure poked their head in and looked both ways. The newcomer had black hair that was worn long on one side and short on the other, with bright green tips. “That’s--um, the… magic, right? They used magic.” From the sound of their voice, they were still somehow confused and amazed to be saying that out loud.

Sariel and Lucifer both exchanged glances before focusing that way, the latter speaking. “Yeah, they used magic, Cassiel. It used to just be a supply closet, but the two of them used extradimensional space magic on it to make it large enough for this. Are you okay over there?”

The figure stepped into the room finally, their expression making it seem like they were equating it to jumping into a cold pool of water. Clearly, they weren’t too sure about moving into space that had expanded magically. “Ohhhkay, it’s okay, it’s all fine. It’s great, I’m sure this magic thing works perfectly.”

Again, the two somewhat older Seosten looked at each other before Sariel offered, “I know you don’t remember much, but we use space-extending magic all the time. It’s perfectly safe.”

Didn’t remember much was an understatement. Apparently this young Seosten--child really, from appearances they had to be even younger than Sariel and Lucifer, maybe even as young as twenty-five or thirty years old, didn’t remember anything about themself aside from their name. Even that had taken them a minute to come up with when these two had found them in Tartarus.

That was the real mystery of their existence. This strange Seosten, too young to have been involved in any of this anyway, wasn’t on any of the records. No one knew who they were, and it seemed that Tartarus itself had erased their memory of almost everything. They were practically a blank slate when they had been found in that place. And they would have stayed in that place if Sariel and Lucifer hadn’t broken the rules to go in there looking for Chayyiel.

They went into Tartarus for Chayyiel and found her. But they had also found this strange, amnesiac figure, a Seosten who didn’t remember anything about their people. The best explanation that anyone could come up with was that this Cassiel had been another secret test subject from Director Aysien, Chayyiel’s father who ran the project. He had been doing all of that to help his daughter, including running his own tests that no one else knew about. Tests that had eventually ended up getting that same daughter trapped in Tartarus. It wasn’t really surprising to find out that he had apparently… misplaced another test subject in there for long enough that Cassiel had completely lost their memories. He probably didn’t expect them to ever be found. And his claim to not know anything about who this Seosten was couldn’t be taken seriously given everything else he had lied about. Hell, it was possible that he had deliberately erased Cassiel’s existence from his own memory along with all the records, just to maintain the lie.

In any case, what it came down to was that Cassiel barely remembered anything about their own people, even though they were absolutely, unquestioningly a Seosten. Genetic testing had turned up nothing so far, possibly because being in Tartarus had affected them at the molecular level. Which meant they had nowhere to go, and had thus been assigned to the Olympus alongside the rest of the Summus Proelium subjects.

Maybe someday they would remember more about who they were, but for the moment, they were simply tagging along with Lucifer, Sariel, and Chayyiel. All three of whom found it strange to have to explain very simple Seosten concepts, yet also somehow endearing.

Walking through the room then, Cassiel gave a low whistle. “Wow. So all this space was made from magic.”

“Yes,” Lucifer explained patiently. “In most cases, a ship wouldn’t actually keep anything that might need to be accessed in the middle of battle in space like this. You know, given the potential for access to that space to be cut off.”

As soon as he said that, the man put a hand out to stop Cassiel from bolting for the exit. “It’s okay, we’re fine, I just mean in battle when… things can happen. But for something like this, there’s no problem. Even if this room did get completely cut off and we never found this--err, exactly space again, the only thing we’d lose are the trophies Kushiel wants to put in here.”

“Yes,” Sariel agreed, “and to be honest, from what I’ve seen, I believe there’s a fair chance that Captain Puriel himself might be at least somewhat rooting for that.”

Not that the man would say that outloud anywhere his wife might even possibly hear, but it did seem to be a distinct possibility. Pushing that out of her mind, she added, “This way they have a safe place that’s easy to bring any visitors to so they can see how impressive he is.” Sariel paused briefly before adding, “She’s very proud of her husband.” Her voice was carefully noncommittal about that whole thing.

“He’s probably not actually going to bring people down here.” That was the fourth and last member of their little group, and the closest thing that Sariel and Lucifer had to an actual assigned job besides trying to help jog Cassiel’s lost memories. That job being to take care of the girl and make sure she had everything she needed. Chayyiel, even more of an actual child than those two or Cassiel, stepped in behind them. “Captain Puriel doesn’t actually care about that sort of thing, he only allowed this to be set up to make her happy. But she’ll definitely still send people down here to clean all of it every single week anyway.” Her young face twisted a little. “I mean, she’ll probably send you to do it. Us.”

“She already wants us to bring the trophies from storage and set them up in here,” Cassiel piped up. “Right, Sariel? That’s what she was talking to you about up there earlier. I mean, talking at you about.”

The woman in question gave a short nod. “Yes, that’s how I found out about the room. But she wants to go over every single crate very closely first to make sure the people who moved their belongings onto the ship didn’t lose or break anything.”

Lucifer grimaced. “I only met the woman twice so far and I really hope, for those beings’ sake, that they didn’t so much as put a single scratch on anything.” He blinked once, then let his gaze slide toward Chayyiel. “I mean, the wife of our captain is a gracious, wonderful woman who--”

“She’s a bitch.” With that flat interruption, the young girl cut him off. “Come on, you can tell the truth. I’m not going to go tattle on you. Especially not after… umm…” She reached up to rub the back of her neck with obvious self-conscious awkwardness. “Not after you saved my life. I wouldn’t have gotten out of Tartarus if it wasn’t for you guys.”

“That goes for me too,” Cassiel noted with a raised hand. “Both of us are only here right now because you two saved us. We owe you everything. Even if I uhh, can’t actually remember where any of my vast riches are to pay you with.”

Chayyiel’s head was bobbing rapidly, the girl stepping over next to the amnesiac Seosten. “I know we both said it before, but I--I’m sorry you got in trouble for--”

“Stop.” That was Sariel, turning to face both of them before they could press on with the gratitude and apologies. “We told you before, you don’t have to apologize. It’s obvious that neither of you chose to go in there. It--it’s okay. What happened, happened. We just have to move on. But maybe we shouldn’t say anything negative about Kushiel. She’s had a stressful time, moving into the Olympus as the captain’s wife. It’s not fair to judge her based on how she behaves while she’s so stressed by all of that. Give her time to settle in. She might surprise us.”

Chayyiel, Cassiel, and Lucifer all exchanged dubious looks, but didn’t say anything else about that. Instead, the man strode to the middle of the room. “Okay, so we’re here and there’s a solid chance we won’t be interrupted. That’s what you said you needed, right, Chayyiel?”

The girl’s head bobbed up and down quickly at that. “Yes. So um, now I can help you guys. Well, you two more than Cassiel.”

Her words made the other two Seosten blink at each other, before Sariel questioned, “Help the two of us?”

Beaming, Chayyiel hurriedly explained, “You… um, you both know how my Tartarus gifts work. I mean, as much as anyone knows, anyway. We’re all still sort of working out the specifics.”

“Is that what we’re calling them putting you in a room and letting trained soldiers do their best to hurt you?” From their tone of voice, Cassiel’s annoyance about that particular subject was clear.

“Err, yeah that’s part of it,” the girl confirmed. “But they didn’t hurt me anyway, it’s okay. They just wanted to see what I could do. That was the whole point, every person they put in that room just made me learn more and more. The longer they were there, the more of their skills I absorbed. But it’s not just learning what other people can do. I know how to hurt them too. I know what their weaknesses are, their limitations. And I think that means I can help you guys learn how to use your gifts too. I mean, I haven’t really… umm, tried yet, but I’m pretty sure if I use my power to figure out how to counter yours, we’ll be able to… uh, you know, figure out what you can do. Cassiel not so much, since, uh, that’s basically the only thing they do know.” She gave the figure in question an apologetic look. “No offense.”

Yes, that was another somewhat odd thing. Cassiel really did seem to understand their powers, these strange paint-projections that could empower others, better than they understood even very basic things about their own people. Maybe because they’d used the paint to protect themself in that awful place, just to survive for so long.

“That’s why you wanted a private place where we wouldn’t be interrupted or--er, watched?” Sariel realized. “You know there’s others on the ship who could probably use just as much help with getting to understand their gifts too, right? Especially if you can show them any weaknesses.”

“They don’t like me,” Chayyiel pointed out quietly, dropping her gaze to the floor. “They don’t trust me. They think I’m the reason the project was broken so our people can’t access Tartarus anymore. If I try to tell them I can help show what their weaknesses are, it… it won’t go very well.”

“They just need to get to know you,” Lucifer assured the girl, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. “Give them time. Especially once they find out how helpful you can be. But for now, maybe you’re right, you should practice on us. That way we can figure out any… hiccups that might come up in the process.” He offered her a smile before adding, “The two of us like running scientific tests. Don’t we, Sariel?”

The woman nodded, stepping that way as she pushed her own uncertainties aside. “Of course.” She certainly wasn’t going to refuse to let Chayyiel practice using her weakness scanning ability on them when it was put like that. As uncertain as she might have been about her own new gifts, the suggestion that this could help Chayyiel in the future cut through all that quite effectively.

She just wasn’t sure which of the other two was most responsible for understanding how well that would work, the boy who had grown up alongside her and knew her as well as he knew himself, or the girl whose power almost certainly told her exactly how to do that.

Either way, she had to admit it would be nice to know just what this power of hers was capable of. The others, the official members of the crew, had their own official ongoing testing and training. For the most part, Lucifer, Cassiel, and she had simply been… briefly evaluated to have a general idea of what they could do before being sent away. With the latter being examined a bit longer to try (and fail) to understand their lack of memories.

Lack of memories. Obviously, that had triggered a bit of feelings in Sariel, given her own mother. But this was a very different sort of situation. This wasn’t the same sort of memory loss. Cassiel wasn’t trapped in her memories, lost in the past, they didn’t remember their past, or anything about their people. Still, it was enough for Sariel to feel particularly drawn to help the other Seosten. Somehow, someday, she would find a way to bring back Cassiel’s memories. Just like she would find a way to help her own mother. That was why she had become a scientist to begin with. Even if that whole thing had encountered this rather severe setback.

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Honestly, they were probably lucky that they hadn’t been exiled or imprisoned. They had, after all, been the ones who destroyed the single access point into Tartarus, which had been a potential solution to this millennia-long war with the Fomorians.

She didn’t blame them for being angry. But Cassiel and Chayyiel didn’t deserve that reaction. Especially the latter, given she was literally a child in every way. So if she could help the girl by letting her help them, so be it.

Lucifer had straightened up by that point, considering the room thoughtfully. “I suppose the easiest way to start, for me, would be to just… talk and see what your gift tells you about how to stop it from affecting you.” It hadn’t taken long for them to realize that his power allowed him to get people to believe anything he said, eventually. But they weren’t clear on the specifics, or any limitations it might have.

“Maybe you should use it on one of us while she watches,” Sariel quickly put in while gesturing back and forth between herself and Cassiel. “We still don’t know if there are any long term side effects.” The last thing she wanted to do was risk turning Chayyiel into some sort of permanent slave if the condition didn’t wear off. Which, come to think of it as she considered Cassiel’s own memory issues… “Me, you should use it on me.” So far people had gone back to normal after a relatively brief time, but if they were going to try it repeatedly… yes, better for her to be the test subject.

Chayyiel, however, disagreed, insisting that it made more sense for Lucifer to try it on her so her own power had more of an incentive to find any weaknesses. Sariel was outvoted, but made it clear that they were going to stop and time how long it took Chayyiel to come back to herself after each test, and that if the timing got to be too long, they were stopping immediately.

The other three agreed to the compromise, then Sariel stood out of the way and watched intently while they started the first test. Which simply amounted to Lucifer telling a story about a time when he and Sariel had found a wounded rodent and helped nurse it back to health. He could have been saying anything, really. All that mattered was that Chayyiel listened to his voice. They were going to start by having him use his power without her interrupting or doing anything to stop him first, so she could experience it.

After listening to his story for a minute, Chayyiel didn't even question when he asked her to stand on one foot and pat herself on the head several times. She continued to do that after she had fallen silent for about another twenty seconds before snapping out of it. Putting her foot back down and lowering her hand quickly, the girl turned pink before giggling. “Wow, I didn't even realize you were asking me to do anything weird. I mean, my power was telling me how to stop you when you started talking before, but by the time you asked me to stand like that, I completely forgot what we were doing. I was even telling myself not to do anything just because you said to, but it didn't work. Everything you said just sounded completely reasonable.”

“Do it on me, do it on me!” Cassiel insisted. “Come on, maybe if she stays focused on trying to think about how to stop you instead of being affected by it herself, she might pick up something else.”

They tested a couple more times on everyone, with the girl trying various ways to interrupt him, mainly focusing on making sure he couldn’t finish more than a few sentences. It could be stopped by doing something so he couldn't talk anymore, or by stopping herself from hearing the words. The fact remained, the more he spoke, the more absurd things anyone affected by it was willing to do just because he suggested it. On the other hand, they were able to conclude that his power had no lasting effects as far as they could tell. It took essentially the same amount of words to start affecting someone with the tenth attempt as it did with the first, and took just as long to snap out of it. Once his power wore off, the person had to be affected all over again from scratch. Which at the very least made Lucifer feel better about actually using his power. He hadn’t really enjoyed the idea that he might be permanently damaging people.

In Sariel’s case, there was really no way around it. The best method for letting Chayyiel experience her power so her own would tell her about any weaknesses it had was for Sariel to--well, throw things at her. Fortunately, there was no requirement that those things actually be harmful. They produced what amounted to soft foam balls and had the woman toss those from various distances and angles. Each time, Chayyiel was given flashes of insight as to precisely how she should move to give Sariel the most trouble when it came to hitting her, or how to disable her throwing arm most effectively and easily. But the most important thing they realized through the course of that testing had little to do with Chayyiel’s own power directly. Instead, the more Sariel reacted to the methods the younger girl used to evade her, the more aware she became of just how much control she had over her own body. She had understood that her gift came with enhanced aim, of course. But the more she pushed her own physical limits, the higher those limits seemed to be. Obviously, they couldn’t go to ridiculous extremes in this space, but still. The truth was that Sariel hadn’t truly tried to push herself, almost like she had been afraid of what this Tartarus gift was capable of. But with Chayyiel’s encouragement, she felt… better about seeing what it could do.

Even Cassiel had a chance to practice their power, despite the lack of apparent need. They simply held out their hand, creating a blob of red paint that hovered right in front of their palm. Bits of that paint would shoot out, hitting the foam balls. Then Cassiel made their own hand red as well, and the balls were pulled to them.

That was how Cassiel’s power worked. They shot paint or put it on themself, and each color did something different. In this case, anything touched by red could be pulled toward anything else touched by red. It was fascinating, especially the fact that they seemed to know it so well while knowing nothing about themself or their memories.

The group continued testing like that for awhile, before taking a break. All four slumped down together, exhausted. Lucifer’s own testing might not have involved much physical activity, but it still drained him to use it repeatedly.

“Do you think it’s helping?” Chayyiel asked, hopefully, while perched between her two designated caretakers, and across from the Seosten who had apparently been used as another secret test subject before her.

“Yes,” Sariel confirmed, putting one hand on the girl’s shoulder. “If nothing else, just using them with you helped me…” She glanced away, frowning briefly. “... I suppose I was avoiding them because they’re a sign of what happened. I wanted to be a part of the science team because my--because my mother needs help. I saw the Summus Proelium project as my best chance to find that help for her, and now it’s shut down. I know others see these powers as gifts, but I haven’t. I saw it as a sign of my failure, a sign that I wouldn’t be able to use that project to find a cure for my mother.”

Chayyiel cringed a little and started to apologize again, but Sariel stopped her. “It wasn’t your fault, and I wouldn’t change what we did. We could have the same choice a thousand times and I’d never make a different one. But still, I think I didn’t care about these… abilities because they were a reminder that the project is gone and we’ll be lucky to ever step into another one. At least one that prestigious.”

“We’ll find a way to help your mother, Sariel,” Lucifer insisted. “Even if we have to do it on our own.”

“Hey, absolutely,” Cassiel agreed immediately. “I’m alive because you guys got me out of there. Even if I don’t remember anything about, you know, who our people are, I know that much. I owe you.”

Chayyiel’s head bobbed quickly. “Yeah! We’ll help her, definitely. You guys saved me, so I’m going to help too. No matter what we have to do.

“Even if it takes a thousand years.”

***********

Prompt: Manakel talks to Lucifer, Sariel… and Cassiel about promotions

“Why are the three of you holding mops?” With a raised eyebrow, Manakel finished cleansing his hands under the hygienic spray in a corner of the medical lab as he looked his guests up and down.

Confused, Lucifer, Cassiel, and Sariel glanced to each other, then back to him. The latter spoke. “Sir, we were told to report here because you had requested our assistance. We assumed you needed some extra cleaning done.”

Cassiel’s head bobbed. “Yeah, like, that’s what everyone wants us to do. Oh, but if it’s a matter of moving stuff, I can totally help with--”

“Stop,” Manakel interrupted before they could go on, head shaking. His hand gave a somewhat dismissive flick toward a closet in the corner. “Put the cleaning materials over there for now, please. You’re not here for that, or for moving anything. No, you’re here to learn a few things.”

The three young Seosten (one incredibly young given their memories extended only as far back as being rescued from Tartarus) very clearly had no idea what he meant by that, but did as the man asked. Soon, the mops, brooms, and bucket of cleansing solution were put away and they returned to a spot in front of the ship’s primary doctor. Lucifer asked, “Is this about taking our mandatory first aid evaluation? Because I thought that wasn’t due for another few months.”

“It’s not about that,” Manakel noted, “but to be clear, you should be prepared for that test at any point. We administer it randomly. Always assume it could happen at any moment. As it happens, medical emergencies don’t tend to follow strict schedules, thus neither do the tests I administer that are meant to evaluate your ability to react to those emergencies. Stay on your toes, keep up with your studies, and be certain the only time I will not spring the tests on you is the day they are scheduled for.” He paused briefly before smiling in a way that showed his teeth. “Unless I do.”

After letting the three of them react to that for a moment, the man gave a soft chuckle. “But no, as I said, this isn’t about that. It’s actually about teaching all of you to become officers on this ship.”

His words made Sariel and Cassiel both give a noise of confusion, rocking backward on their heels. Lucifer wasn’t any less surprised, but still managed to at least somewhat recover faster, asking, “Sorry, what? Sir, I don’t know if you--I mean the three of us aren’t… you remember that Sariel and I were the ones who--”

“Yes, as it happens, I know very well who both of you are, and why you were put in your current positions,” Manakel interrupted shortly. “And I remember the details of our friend Cassiel here is suffering from. Though, given the lack of urgency they seem to have toward recovering those lost memories, perhaps suffering is the wrong word.”

Cassiel started to say something to that, but he shook his head at them. “Enough. I know the suggestions that have been put forward, that you don’t wish to remember your past because you did something awful in order for the director to safely remove you from all records without anyone noticing. I don’t know how much stock I put in that, but I do understand that you have chosen not to pursue looking into your past, and I respect that decision.”

After letting that stand for a moment, he continued. “However, unlike Cassiel here, I have not recently suffered the loss of nine-tenths of my memories. I also know why you both did what you did at that time, as does the captain. Just as we understand why one might choose not to try as hard as they can to retrieve a lost identity. We have both taken great care to evaluate the three of you on your own merits through this first year of our little journey. The promise you’ve shown in that time, the effort you’ve both put forth when it comes to helping this ship fulfill its mission of exploration and growth, have not been ignored. We have watched and thoroughly discussed everything you’ve done. Well, everything we know about, though we are fairly certain that’s not the extent of your activities.” That last bit came with a pointed look. “You have assisted this ship in ways that cannot be confirmed, because for you to actually take credit for such aid would mean admitting that you have access to systems and tools that you should not have.”

All three of the younger Seosten blushed self-consciously and squirmed, Sariel finding her voice first that time. “There… have been times that an opportunity to help presented itself, and to wait for someone who was… technically allowed to make such a choice would have meant allowing that opportunity to disappear. But yes, we have done a few things that we shouldn’t have, sir.”

“You have made decisions that are only for command officers of this ship to make,” Manakel agreed in a flat tone. “Which means you should either be expelled and potentially imprisoned for violating the leadership structure of our people, or made officers of the ship so you can continue to make such decisions without breaking our laws. The captain and I have discussed the matter at length and the latter is what we would prefer. But if you wish to pursue the former instead, it can be arranged.” There was no real threat behind his words, though his voice was so dry it took the three a moment to realize he was joking. He let that sit before asking, “Which do you like?”

“Um, the officers thing,” Cassiel immediately answered with a raised hand. “If we really get a choice in the matter.”

Lucifer nodded in agreement rapidly, nudging Sariel so she would do the same as he added, “But it’s just--don’t get us wrong, we’re more grateful than I could ever say--”

“Which itself says quite a bit,” Manakel noted, “given your well-established talent with words.”

Sariel carefully put in, “What he means is, people hate us. People with a great deal of political power back in the core government.”

Cassiel agreed, “Yeah, they hate those two because of the whole Tartarus closing thing. And they think I had something to do with everything that went wrong there. Like you said, it seems like the only way Aysien could have so thoroughly erased me is if I had… yeah, something bad in my past. The three of us take a lot of blame for all that.”

Lucifer put in, “If they find out that Captain Puriel made us-- if they learn about this, they won’t be happy. This was supposed to be what amounts to exile for us.”

“As the captain of this ship, Puriel has a great deal of latitude when it comes to promoting crew members,” Manakel reminded them. “Any recognized, officially listed member of the crew is entitled to a promotion, should he deem them worthy. Regardless of what sort of punishment was intended by assigning you here, you are officially listed members of the crew. Thus, he is within his rights to grant you those positions. Particularly if that decision is seconded by another member of the command crew, such as the ship’s physician. Now, would you like to continue to argue against your own promotions for another few hours, or can we perhaps get on with this? There will, after all, be a fair amount of scrutiny over this decision, as you yourselves noted. If you are going to perform your new duties adequately, and without thoroughly embarrassing the captain, you need to spend the next few months before our scheduled return to command space learning what takes other Seosten several years. It will not be easy. But we believe you are capable.”

The three quickly agreed to do anything it took to learn what they needed to for the promotions to stick. Suffice to say, none had expected anything like this. They thought their careers were completely over, that they had essentially hit a deadend here as what amounted to babysitters and go-fers on this ship, allowed to help in a crisis and fill in where needed, but never trusted, never given any authority. This… this was more than they could have hoped for. And all of it was thanks to Puriel and Manakel.

For several weeks straight, the three of them did everything Manakel requested, following each of his instructions as they learned how to behave as officers on the ship would be expected to behave. Finally, it was time for their first field test, a mission they would be joining not simply as what amounted to disposable aides who could do whatever was needed, but as semi-official officer trainees, provisional members of the bridge crew itself. They would be an official part of the mission’s command structure, terrifying as that was for each of them to think about.

Sariel had stopped by Manakel’s lab before they were all set to depart. Shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other, she offered, “I just--I wanted to say thank you for everything you’ve done already. And, you know, I thought I should say goodbye before we left for this mission, just in--”

“Stop,” Manakel interrupted. “Sariel, listen to me. What you just did, what you were trying to do, that’s bad luck. When you’re leaving on a mission, saying goodbye invites… bad things.” He stepped that way, putting a hand on her shoulder as their gazes met. “I have a rule, never tell anyone goodbye unless you know you’ll never see them again, understand?”

“Yes,” Sariel murmured.

“I’ll remember that, sir.”