Origin Stories: Chapter One

Author: Sere O'Asis

Original post: https://forums-archive.eveonline.com/message/6169000#post6169000

Entry for the YC117 Pod and Planet Fiction Contest in the A Day in the Life category.

In the Beginning
There was only Chaos
In the Darkness
Of the Void.

Eons passed
And then something arose
That can only be described
As Need.

Need begat Want
Want begat Strife
And Strife birthed
A new form.

A seething mass
Of conflicting desires
That fed Strife bountifully,
And its name was Humanity.

Humanity fed Strife tears
Of Joy,
Of Lust,
And Lamentation.

By the end of the Beginning
Humanity knew Power;
And its attendants,
Lust, Envy, Anger, and Revenge.

Humanity indulged,
Sated itself on the weaker,
And no one indulged more
Than the Lord Kador.

Kador was by birth
An inheritor of the House of Kador.
Wealth, power, and near Immortality
Were his.

He exploited all to his advantage.
Until one day, an amarrian slave trader
Brought a matari woman to his house,
Cinnamouan.

Cinnamouan was not just beautiful,
She was a shining star,
Of innocence, trust,
Loyalty.

And Kador, who first thought of exploiting
This treasure,
Fell under the spell
Of Love.

Whether through design
Or accident
Of the gods,
Cinnamouan quickened with child.

Kador, uncharacteristically,
Allowed her to keep it.
When her time came,
The gods took pity on her

And cut short her pain,
Ending her life;
Leaving the child alive,
To spite Kador.

Kador,
Who had never known
Pain or Loss
Or Anguish

Knew all three
In the hour of this child’s birth,
And told its keepers to
Take It Away.

Thus Cinnamarr was born
Into this world,
Not with tears of joy,
But of loss and frustration.

Kador took his temper
Out on Solitude.
He gained famed.
He cared not.

A man haunted
By Loss
Cares
Not.

Not for himself,
Not for others,
Nor for the Future.
He simply cares not.

Time passed.
His heir, and inheritor,
Grew out of hand
Without Kador’s guidance.

So Kador
Came home,
To put his house
In order.

His first image
Of his son
Was his son
With a woman-child,

Somehow the
Very image of Cinnamouan,
Yet surpassing his lost lover
In every Grace.

Kador knew Rage.
His son would not have
Something finer
Than the father had possessed.

So he sent the child,
His child,
Whose name he did not even know,
Away.

Thus Cinnamarr
Was cast out
Into the world
Alone.

But Kador’s son
Was a true son of his father,
And arranged a covert escort, and
Future for his beloved.

Kador learning of this treachery
Sent assassins
To kill
His child with Cinnamouan.

The assassins met
Cinnamarr’s transport
Outside Caldari space
And attacked.

A young miner,
Named Kane,
Was nearby in a fleet and
Witnessed this assault.

With no thought to himself, or
His companions, he used his venture
To bump the pirates’ vessel
Out of range.

His fellow miners fled, leaving him,
And the survivor of the attack to face the pirates
Alone. They were not killed.
Kane and Cinnamarr were captured.

Cinnamarr was perfection,
Without fault, and the pirates
Quarreled over her
Dispensation.

Some wanting to sample
The wares before her sale,
While others argued against,
Knowing spoiled goods bring lower prices.

Cinnamarr fed these arguments. For
She, too, was a child of Kador
And had learned well
In her father’s house.

When her moment was ripe,
She fed the pirates’ frenzy
And they fell one upon another
Until all died.

Kane, she released in gratitude,
Knowing full well had he not
Stopped the pirates’ ship
She would have perished in the cold of space.

“Are they all dead?” he asked her.
She nodded.
“Who’s flying the ship?”
“I don’t know,” she replied.

Kane cataloged their resources.
They had the clothes on their back,
And the pirates’ vessel.
A pirate ship.

“I’m taking us to Thera,” he announced.
“Thera?”
“Thera,” he said, in a tone
That brooked no argument.

“Thera,” Cinnamarr repeated.
She nodded once and fell silent.
At Thera, she would meet her fate
And future. She knew it in her bones.

While Cinnamarr, was her father’s child,
Kane could have been the child of her mother.
He was kind, courteous, and patient.
He asked nothing of Cinnamarr she was unwilling to give.

Kane, she gave
Those treasures she valued most,
Her trust, her friendship,
And her loyalty.

Kane paid her back,
Presenting her half the isk
From the sale of the ship
And it’s goods.

“Be safe,” he told her. “Be good.”
“Be good? Be serious, Kane, with my looks? In this place?
“Goodness is probably not in my future” she replied, with a laugh.
Kane smiled down at her.

“Then be good at whatever you do.”
He ruffled her hair,
Smiled once, and strode off.
“I’ll be forever grateful,” she whispered.

Cinnamarr flourished in New Eden.
Having a quick mind, and lush body,
She determined using both
Would prosper her well.

It did.
She opened pleasure houses,
Where conversation was as valued
As flesh.

Where secrets were commodities,
And isk simply a means
Of keeping
Score.

But in time, Cinnamarr
Met
Her
Match.

His name was James,
The scion of a Caldari
Trading house,
The unequaled star of his family.

They met,
Schemed,
Joined flesh
And fell in love.

Then a brighter star,
Called Caroline’s,
Appeared on their horizon,
And Kane returned.

Cinnamarr saw him first
And left James’ side,
Rushing to Kane,
A smile lighting her face like a nova.

“Kaneeeee!!!!!”
“Cinnamarr!”
Kane swept her up in his arms,
And James split with jealousy.

James saw this tall blond Amarrian
Standing before him, saw
HIS woman cradled by this man’s arms
And knew hate.

Black, strong, death dealing
Hate.
Crooking a finger, he sealed Kane’s fate.
“Take care of HIM,” James murmured.

The servitor at James side, nodded,
Once.
Kane
Would go to Oubliette.

When Kane woke,
He woke to Darkness,
Damp,
And the sound of grown men weeping.

“What is this place?” Kane murmured.
A guard lit a match, and answered,
“Hell.
“And you’re on the menu.”

Cinnamarr had employees,
Attendants, debtors, and
Those who wished to be owed.
It was one of those that came forward.

“What do mean he was taken?
“Who took him?
“When?
“Where?”

“Tell me.
“Isk?
“Favors?
“Flesh?”

“Name your price.
“And you shall have it.
“For I will know.”
I will know.

So Cinnamarr learned her lover
Had sent her friend
To a house of forgetting;
And lost her mind.

“Who are you?” the prison governor asked.
A laugh like soft chimes pealed out,
“Call me….Erotica,”
The woman answered, with a lazy smile.

“Erotica?
“Well…Erotica, the man you seek
“Has been here for three months.”
‘I’m aware of that.”

“He’s here
“Because of me.
“I came to see his punishment.
“First hand.”

“Well, well,” the governor replied.
“I’m sure we can work….something out.”
“Do not look above your station, Governor,
“Remember, well, who sent Kane here

“And why.”
The governor bit his lip. The rich were…..
“As you wish, Madam.” At the ‘madam’ more peals of laughter
Poured out.

“Kane?
“Kane?
“Can you answer me?” the voice whispered.
“Cinnamarr?” Kane answered.

“I’ve not much time, Kane.”
“Cinnamarr?” Kane’s voice strengthened.
“Yes, it’s me. I’ve come to get you out.”
“You can’t, I’ve…my clone…is tied to this place.”

“It was.
“It isn’t any longer.”
And Kane took his chain,
And broke his own neck.

Cinnamarr/Erotica smiled.
Put her ring to her lips,
Swallowed.
The poison killed the body before it hit the floor.

“Cinnamarr!” Kane bellowed from the clone vat.
“It’s alright, it’s alright Kane.
“You’re here. With me.
“It’s alright.”

“Is he?”
“Just passed out, mistress.
“His physical injuries are gone.”
“The mental ones?” she asked.

“I know,” Cinnamarr whispered.
“Will take time.”
Will….take time.
Will….take….time.

The House of Forgetting
Was a special purpose prison
Where prisoners were not fed.
Oh, oh they could eat

If they chose to do so,
But only upon the flesh
Of those
They killed.

Once dead, the deceased
Were cloned, and
Given the choice, again,
To die by starvation or to fight a fellow
And feed.

Initially, Kane starved
And starved again,
And again,
And again.

For three months, he starved,
Less than a day before
Salvation came for him
He had chosen

To feed.
Less than
Twenty-four
Hours.

Cinnamarr never recovered
From Kane’s fate.
She both hated and loved Kane
As she both hated and loved James.

But in the end
Hate wore Love out.
She began throwing lavish entertainments
In her pleasure palaces.

Bonus Rooms, she called them.
She invited the Greedy, the Proud,
The Self-Important to participate.
Those who wished to feast

Upon the misery of others, came.
In time, they were called the Tear Collectors.
James was appalled.
Cinnamarr laughed at him.

They quarreled, parted.
Kissed and made up.
And parted again.
James blamed Kane.

Kane transformed.
James could not touch him.
But he could punish where Kane came from,
The mining colonies.

James would punish miners,
All miners,
Because one miner, as he saw it,
Had stolen the love of his life.

Kane became a deadly fighter.
He would never again be at another’s mercy.
Nor would he allow innocents to suffer at the hands
Of fools, lackwits, or the greedy.

And Cinnamarr?
Cinnamarr was lost to madness
Until the gods took pity on her.
For the gods, given time, do care

For the foolish.

So, here ends, the origin story
Of James the 315th of his line,
Erotica, the First,
And Cannibal Kane.