Fear and Remnants

an Escaflowne fanfic

by Serenade

Notes:
I wrote this snippet about Dilandau to express some ideas I had about his background and his demons. This piece seems to belong in a larger story, but it's been sitting neglected on my hard drive for a while, so I thought I'd let it loose. Any feedback is appreciated.

Disclaimer:
I don't own these characters, alas. They are the property of the creators of Vision of Escaflowne. I'm only playing with them.

The boy stood watching with frozen eyes, his small body pressed against the doorway of a room where he was not supposed to be. The odours of the hangar filled his lungs and throat - metal and oil and a strange acrid smell. It was almost like burning, but without the smoke.

There had been screams, a short while ago.

No one was screaming now. The sorcerer had arrived, and no one wanted to draw attention to themselves in his presence. They moved quietly, and spoke in low voices or not at all. But their eyes kept flicking to the dark-robed figure, and then away again. Perhaps they wanted to avoid looking at the thing in the centre of the room.

The machine dominated the floor of the hangar, its huge bulk dwarfing the workers skittering around its edge. An armoured giant, with massive jointed limbs, its right arm was lifted in a gesture of challenge. From the raised hand extruded several metal blades, twisted together to form a spiral lance. Its end was thrust into a stone block whose surface was rippled with impact rings. Splashes of liquefied metal had bubbled parts of the stone with superheated force.

The other arm hung limply from the shoulder. A dribble of once-molten metal clung to the vents. More metal leaked in frozen streams from the cracks in the casing. The door to the pilot's chamber glinted with dull silver-grey.

They were prying the door off now, using crowbars and wrenches. It came loose all of a sudden, clattering to the floor amid the heavy stillness. One of the men swore, averting his eyes from the exposed interior.

The boy caught a glimpse of a metal-shrouded lump before the canvas was draped over it. He could hear the shouts of the work crew echo loudly, almost as though coming from inside his head.

He had seen them arriving earlier, through the bars of the dormitory window. It was the fourth test they had run this week. He had heard that the new machines would be more powerful than any others, once the flaws had been found and corrected. They would even be able to fly.

He had gazed out through the narrow window at the pale blue sky beyond, and thought about flying.

Now he stared in blank horror at the scene unfolding before him. The thick, heavy smell of bubbled steel churned his stomach. Fighting the compulsion to turn and run, he backed slowly away from the door. As he retreated into the corridor, he looked up and found the eyes of the sorcerer fixed upon him.

From behind, he felt the weight of hands descend onto his shoulders. He didn't even bother trying to pull away. Instead he stood motionless, his throat tight with dread, as the sorcerer advanced towards him.

Then he heard the words.

"Prepare him."