The Spirit That Negates
(This time Foxfire and Zephyra (who will be making another appearance on Saturday herself!) are getting their chance for @bombawife‘s OC week. Trigger warning for violence, blood, and mind manipulation toward the end.)
Zephyra knew she shouldn’t be listening to this. She valued her own neck too much to get into the boss’s business. But when Macavity came back from the Junkyard in a bigger rage than she’d ever seen, storming into the back room of the Mouser’s Palace with electricity crackling off his fur, her curiosity got the better of her.
The first thing he did was tear the place apart. A hellish, frustrated scream tore from the back of his throat, setting Zephyra’s teeth on edge, as he lashed out with his claws at everything he could reach. Curtains, empty crates, old ledgers–none of it was safe. The ground was a shredded mess as the hurricane subsided, and Macavity stood in the middle of it panting. Fury in his face, eyes wide and staring, but seeing nothing. Zephyra held her breath and remained very still behind the crack in the door.
“I know you can hear me!” Macavity cried after a moment’s stillness, and Żyleta was never so relieved to see his back turned to her. “Show yourself, you thieving bastard!”
“Thieving?” A new voice rang out, and both their heads whipped around to see another cat where there hadn’t been before, lounging casually on an uninjured crate. “Don’t tell me we need to go over all that again, do we? You lot do have such short memories.” At first glance, this new arrival didn’t seem so remarkable–just another tabby with gold fur. But she’d never seen such markings on his face and pelt, like…painted red and black ink to cover up the sculptor’s mistakes. Too strangely purposeful for an ordinary coat pattern. And there was something… insubstantial about him as well. Blurred around the edges, like he was caught between this world and someplace else. All at once, every rumor Zephyra ever heard about Macavity’s patron–some Fae creature he’d taken his powers from–came rushing back to her and ripped her between fascination and fear.
Macavity’s rage did not subside. A growl built in his chest as he seized the new cat by pawfuls of chest fur, yanking him upright and sending his head snapping painfully backward. “I had them–”
“Oh, did you now?” the gold tom drawled, utterly unmoved. Macavity ignored him and barreled on.
“I had Deuteronomy in chains, I had Demeter under my power, I had the rest of them cowering in the shadows, and what did you do?” His grip tightened until his claws should have drawn blood. “You revoked my power when I needed it most! You made me look like a fool in front of the entire Junkyard!”
“Well, of course–it wouldn’t be any fun to take it away sooner.”
His growl reaching its apex until it filled the room like thunder, Macavity threw the gold tom violently against the crate. His spine bent with the impact so that it should have broken in two, and Zephyra barely kept herself from flinching. “Why? Why do you delight in tormenting me like this?”
“Answered your own question, I’d say, haven’t you?” Peeling himself from the crate, spine somehow still whole and undamaged, the gold tom merely shook out his fur and smiled. Splinters fell from his back like water off a duck. “You are delightful when you lose your temper like this–it’s adorable, frankly.”
“Have I not proved myself by now?” Macavity demanded. Sparks still flew from his fur, and his unsheathed claws were jagged and rough. “Do I not deserve the power you gave me to begin with? What more must I do to convince you?”
“Oh, you know it doesn’t work like that,” the gold tom replied with the exaggerated patience of a tired parent to his kitten. “You said so yourself–power has to be taken. Really, I deserve some credit for humoring you all these years.”
A faint zap ran down the length of Macavity’s tail as he loomed over him, grabbing his chin none too gently and forcing him to make eye contact. “If you were less than what you are,” he sneered, “I would have you gutted for mocking me like this.” And he let go just as roughly, the gold tom’s head jerking to one side while he remained unmoved. “I do not need you. I can find the magic I need anywhere else–”
“Is that so? You think you can find another alleyway with another kindly spirit waiting around for some young upstart to help himself to some magic? Without so much as a by-your-leave, I might add?”
“If I bested you as little more than a kitten, I can certainly do better now!”
“Mm… that isn’t quite how I remember it going.” Zephyra watched as the gold tom slowly walked forward, actually forcing Macavity backward and giving himself enough room to trace a wide, winding path around him. “I just happened to be hanging about on the street where you found me. You just happened to be looking for a scrap, so what could I do but indulge you? And when you demanded some satisfaction, I just happened to be in a generous mood myself.” He was such a small cat in comparison, and there was such a long space between them, yet somehow Macavity looked like a rat in a trap, eyes never leaving the meandering circle. Never daring to look away. “You’ve come this far on a combination of sheer dumb luck and my own goodwill. I should think a little gratitude is due… and perhaps some humility.”
“You dare to question what I’ve built?” Something a little less than fury rumbled through Macavity’s voice now.
“Oh, not at all,” the gold tom hummed. He hadn’t deigned to look Macavity in the face before now, and Zephyra wondered for a moment at the color of his eyes. Like the inside of a fire. “No, I’m sure your little toadies here stay for your sparkling personality. To say nothing of your kept beauties–pity you couldn’t keep them after all, could you?”
At this, Macavity finally had enough. With another impotent roar, he charged with claws and teeth at the ready. But just as quickly as he’d arrived, the gold tom was nowhere to be found. And before she could move away from the door, Macavity found his outlet, thundering out of the room and throwing Zephyra to the ground. She could feel the blood across her shoulders and the last of her silk bow unraveling before the pain even registered.
“How long were you listening?” he hissed, leaning over her and pressing her head to the ground. The tips of his claws pressed at the soft of her ear as if to pierce it through.
Between her dignity and her life, it was no choice at all. “Just a few minutes, I swear! I–” Her head suddenly filled with the buzzing of radio static, of a thousand bees, of her own brain threatening to boil itself. As the terrible noise reached a crescendo, Macavity’s voice cut through it, calm as ever.
“Get back to your post. These corridors are dangerous, and you should know better than to wander off. It won’t happen again.”
Gently lifting away his paw, he let her up. Zephyra nodded once before patting down her fur and making her way back down the hallway. Silly of her, really, to try and peek in on an empty room.
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