Chapter Text
The being who calls him brother does not look at him much as they traverse the tunnels. There is a beam above and ahead of glittering orange. He does not recognize it and he stops. The being keeps walking.
“Ah,” he says, glancing back at the space Maul fills. “Daylight, at last.”
The being speaks to him in a language he has a whole body reaction to. He retches and sobs and growls until the being ceases.
“I will be back brother,” says the man in a tongue that wounds Maul less. “Stay here.”
Maul creeps away into the shadows. He throws his arms over his eyes as daylight vomits into his passage when the being reaches the top of the tunnel.
He shrieks.
For a while he is alone and in that time he convinces himself nothing has changed.
“ It hasn't, it hasn't, it hasn't,” he says. He trembles with the effort of his survival.
“ A moment more ,” he says, struggling. “ Just a moment more.”
He breathes out.
Daylight, again. He does not cringe away at the sound of a voice.
“Brother?”
The man leads him to the ship. He creeps. He shudders.
“Come, “ the being takes him by the arm. His fingers are firm and coarse and they almost feel real. Maul obeys the grip. He has had many sensations in his existence. This is one that does belong to who he is now.
Maul searches for words.
‘Notcold’ his mind provides.
The word slips out his lips.
“Warmth,” says the man in his rumbling tone. “Fire, like your fire, in the sky.”
There is nothing, says a voice in Maul’s head. Like my fire.