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Lapidary	By : Savaialian Category: 1 through F > Doctor Who Views: 1563 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Doctor Who fandom, nor to I make money from writing about it. I use their creations with due respect.

Chapter List
- 1-Lapidary
- 2-TWO
- 3-THREE
- 4-FOUR
- 5-FIVE
- 6-SIX
- 7-SEVEN
- 8-EIGHT
- 9-NINE
- 10-TEN
- 11-ELEVEN
- 12-TWELVE
- 13-THIRTEEN
- 14-FOURTEEN
- 15-FIFTEEN
- 16-SIXTEEN
- 17-SEVENTEEN
- 18-EIGHTEEN
- 19-NINETEEN
- 20-TWENTY
- 21-TWENTY-ONE
- 22-TWENTY-TWO
- 23-TWENTY-THREE
- 24-TWENTY-FOUR
- 25-EPILOGUE
- 14
- 15
- 16
It took me two days of careful observation, but I finally saw a hint that the events of the wild worship site had an effect upon the Master. I’d been looking for signs of health changes, but there were none. However, when the Master walked into a room, all the candles and lamps flickered. At first I thought it was due to the breeze any living thing will stir up, but even the faraway light sources would shudder and dance as if trying to get his attention. And, he didn’t notice. His mind was so much on the city’s improvements that he barely thought to even eat. His only concessions to having a physical form were sleeping and bathing.
I wondered why I hadn’t exhibited any changes. I’d been there with him. Could the elemental powers only be keyed to the emperor, the man who brought the ceremonial piece to the fence? Or, perhaps the act of lighting the fire on the altar had changed him in some way? I wanted to set my TARDIS scanners on him, but he wouldn’t stay in his bedroom long enough for me to do that.
The Master was so busy, and I had little else to do but manage the household, read Water for Love, and interact with the delightfully direct Alair. We went out to the lake to feed the fish, and she was overjoyed to get a chance to even see the famed rainbow koi. We had a sack of different things to feed them, thinking to find their favorite.
“They won’t eat us,” she said, “but look at their teeth!” She leaned over for a better look, and I automatically let a hand hover over her in case she fell in. “It’s illegal to kill them, you know. I’m glad, because they’re so pretty.”
“There are a lot of pretty things that are dangerous,” I cautioned. It felt good to speak with my own voice again, but for some reason I wasn’t so intent on letting my mouth run anymore. “Your emperor is one of them.”
“Oh, I know,” she said dismissively, putting her bottom securely in the boat once more. “He’s Fire. He can warm you, protect you, make the food taste better, but he can also burn you.”
How very apt.
“But you’re like him,” Alair went on, digging around in the bag for the stale bread. She threw some out and clapped her hands as the fish made a spectacle of themselves trying to get it. “But, you’re Water, instead; giving life, making things grow; changing to fit the vessel that you’re poured in, but also a raging flood that wipes out everything in its path.”
Disquieted by the philosophical perception of such a young child, I bit my lip and tried not to stare at her. “Water, huh?”
“Yes, Water.” Alair tried the raspberries next, and the fish went absolutely wild. “Oh, they like these a lot!”
I sat up straight as I realized that fire had always been my worst fear, and that the Master was afraid of water. My God, the poetry in that… The implications staggered me.
“You should be able to do things to Water,” Alair went on. “Just as the pretty emperor makes the candles and lamps flare up.” She smiled over at me. “Go ahead, try something!”
I wondered if Matreus hadn’t known what would happen when the Master and I went to the glade, and that he’d sent him to get the Black Lotus on purpose. Then, I wondered if Alair hadn’t picked up on that, because she was a very quick study. But, Alair also believed in magic. I didn’t want to disappoint her, but I feared I would in this instance. Hoping she wouldn’t be too unhappy with my lack of water magic, I stretched out a hand and thought about making the water raise up in a column, like I’d seen in the glade.
To my utter shock, the water did exactly what I wanted. It spiraled up and up, reaching a massive height before I thought about making it stop. It surged back down and sent a wave over us both, rocking the boat. Alair laughed and laughed, clapping her hands for me just as she had for the fish. “Told you!” She crowed. “Now you have to show your husband he can do that with fire, show him his magic!” She dumped the rest of the food into the water, and the fish obligingly came up to eat.
As we rowed back, Alair sang songs and gave every appearance of complete happiness. I, however, was awash with awe and worry. The power of fire in the Master’s hands might not be a safe thing. Then again, he had plenty of power here on Seldatia already, and I’d yet to see him abuse it. He really seemed to be trying to prove his better nature, to himself, to me, to our dead and gone people.
“You worry too much, pretty Doctor,” Alair said as she clambered from the boat to the dock. “And your eyes are still sad.”
I climbed out after her and tied off the boat to keep it from drifting. “I know,” I admitted. “I’m very old, Alair, and I’ve seen a lot to make me sad and worried.”
She put her hands on her hips and gave me a fierce look that lost nothing to her age. “My daddy always said that worrying didn’t make you any taller, and he must have been right because he was very smart. You’re tall enough anyway.”
I couldn’t help laughing. I scooped her up and put her on my shoulder. “Well, you’re taller than me, now. How does it feel?”
“Great,” she announced. “Take me to the fruit trees so I can make use of being tall.”
I let her pick some fruit, listened to her sing her entire repertoire of songs twice, then delivered her to Matreus. As she hurried off to show Raenna her loot, the old physician gave me a keen look and bade me to sit. I did so, wondering what I was about to hear.
“Alair is of special blood, so don’t feel bad she showed you yourself,” he said, sitting opposite me in a well worn work chair. “She’s especially attuned to Water, too. That her parents died in it is a bit of irony that isn’t lost on me. I figure they only existed to bring her into the world, and that they died early to go on and reincarnate for other duties to this planet.” He picked up a pipe, lit it, and took a few good drags.
“You knew what would happen if we went to the glade,” I said.
“Yes, I did. History showed that the previous two emperors were too cowardly to take the gifts of the elements.” Matreus smiled a little and reapplied flame to his pipe. “The new emperor is as far from cowardly as they come. I can see he once struggled with a certain type of cowardice, but not any longer. He’s been very brave since his arrival.”
“You’ve put a dangerous man in a position to take a lot of power for himself,” I said.
“He always would have taken power. I’ve merely guided him into a basic way of it, My Lord Adjudicator. As your own power is the opposite of his, and you feel responsible for him anyway, how have I changed things for better or worse?” Matreus shrugged and smiled again. “If you want him to use his alignment with fire properly, then do the right thing and stay with him. I’m no fool; the two of you aren’t permanent additions to Seldatia. Eventually you’ll leave, and together.”
I sat and looked at the old physician a long time. He was reminiscent of the old hermit that lived behind my father’s farm, actually. Cryptic yet direct, full of knowledge but always learning more. “You remind me of K’anpo Rimpoche,” I said, just to hear what he’d say.
Matreus grinned. “Another old busybody?”
I smiled back. “You could say that.”
**
When the Master wearily dragged himself into his bedroom, he didn’t even pause to take off his outer robe. He flopped face down on the bed and gave a groan. “These stubborn old coots,” he complained. “Now they’re debating endlessly over whether or not to position the medical centers near the schools. Half of them think the children need the close proximity more, and the other half is divided between inner city and the dwellings of the elderly.”
“Rough day,” I commiserated. “I’ve had a bit of frustration myself.”
Really?” The Master rolled onto his side to look at me. “What happened to you?”
I got the bowl I’d taken from the kitchen and beckoned him to follow me into the bathroom. He lifted an eyebrow but obligingly hauled himself upright and followed me in. I plugged the sink and started running water. When the sink had enough water in it, I shut off the tap and set the bowl on the edge. As he watched, attentive, I made the water arc upward and flow into the bowl.
“What? How’d you do that?” The Master looked up at me with surprise and curiosity written all over his handsome face.
“I’m not finished.” I took his hand and made him go back into the bedroom. He let me position him in front of a candle. “Put out your hand and make that flame go higher,” I ordered.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” The Master twisted around to give me a dubious frown.
I used both hands to turn his face back in the proper direction. “Do it,” I prompted again. “Just think about it.”
The Master sighed and pointed at the flame. It leaped up as if starved for his focus, becoming a massive pillar of fire that threatened to burn the ceiling. He gave a little yelp and dropped his hand, prompting the flame to die back down into a now mostly melted candle. “What the hell?” He breathed.
“You’re attuned to fire, and I’m attuned to water,” I said. “Something we did in the glade caused it, but answers are not forthcoming.” I sat down at his desk and looked at him, watching his face turn from one emotion to the next with rapidity. “Matreus says that you also have a bit of air affinity, and that I have a bit of earth, but our dominant ones are water and fire.”
The Master looked up at the scorched ceiling a moment, still frowning. “Wood and spirit?”
“I think they follow earth and air, but how can I be sure?”
“Right.” The Master perched on the edge of the desk and folded his arms. “Well, good party tricks, but what’s their use?” He asked, surprising me.
“I suppose you could make a grand show,” I suggested.
He waved a hand impatiently. “I always make a grand show,” he argued shortly.
Haddon took a lot of pleasure in the beauty of his lover, in how others would stop and stare at him. He wished he could partake of that beauty up close, though.
“What?” The Master eyed me quickly. “Who is Haddon?”
“I was reading Water for Love just before you came home,” I explained. “One of the Original Tales. They’re element based stories, and I thought I could find a clue in them.”
“Good thinking,” he praised easily. “Those stories have been around since they developed writing.” He slid off the desk and hovered in one place a moment before going for his closet. “You haven’t been consistent in keeping your mind closed off from me. Why?”
“You observed I was more truthful with my mind than my lips. I’m attempting to base our alliance on mutual trust, though God knows it’s a difficult undertaking.”
“For you, not for me,” the Master corrected. “You’ve always been the trustworthy one during an alliance, except for the treachery you unloosed upon me on Gallifrey, at the academy.” He held up his hand to cut me off before I could defend myself. “Yes, I know. I led a revolt that got me labeled as a renegade. You were trying to stop harm to innocent lives.”
“Why bring it up, then?” I asked, irritated.
“Because, my dear, regardless of your motives and my own, you were still a traitor to me. It set the mood.” The Master chose a long, black svond and threw it on the bed. “I’m not still wounded over it, so my only problem is trying to stop a habit in how I treat you. It isn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, but every now and then I get an urge.” He turned his head around and grinned back at me.
That charismatic, evil grin made my hearts beat out of rhythm. “You seem to be channeling your urges quite well,” I said, “or at least, suppressing them.”
“Work, duty, ambition and the pleasure of your constant company,” he explained lightly, but I knew he meant what he said. “You aren’t exactly an angel on the shoulder, but a sort of conscience that doesn’t nag too loudly, only when matters are important.” He paused, tilted his head at the ceiling and breathed out through his nose. “I’m completely aware you’re ‘managing’ me, but you don’t make it pushy and abhorrent. I think that’s because you’ve discovered some value in me. Or rediscovered. Or want to discover?”
Speechless, I watched him scoop up his clothing choices and go into the bathroom.
I didn’t nag too loudly?
Managing him?
Traitor…
I waited until I heard the water going full blast, and the sound of the Master periodically interrupting the flow, then concentrated on turning the shower ice cold. He gave a shriek that satisfied me to my soul. Grinning, I went back to Water for Love.
**
We’d both woken up grumpy and out of sorts, probably because the ever-blooming Nuealnath gave us frustration dreams and an unpleasant, teeth grinding sort of jangly and unfocused lust. I knew we shared it because when I’d thought about it, he’d concurred. Equal ground, again. We weren’t expected out of the palace today because it was a day of rest attributed to an old tradition of the Mated Pair, the constellation the Master had pointed out to me.
“Doing nothing is repugnant to me and I won’t comply,” he said as he put on his sandals.
“Bitch, bitch, bitch,” I muttered. I couldn’t find my left shoe. How could I perpetually be losing these red shoes? Red. Shoes. The Master owned nothing red. For a man who loved to shed human blood, he didn’t seem particularly enamored of a red theme in anything, not clothes or wall hangings or carpets or décor. “You couldn’t comply; you could never not be doing something. Your problem is you usually fill in the periods of inactivity with schemes and the maintenance of eight different plots. You have plots within plots.” I crawled into his closet and started tossing things out impatiently, determined my shoe had to be in there. I’d looked everywhere else. “And, now that you’re attempting some semblance of sanity and conscience, you can’t use the evil plots to fill in the time anymore.”
“You are so fucking redundant,” the Master said, his voice grating with offense. “Look at all the time references you used; never, usually, periods, now and time-filling. Can’t you oblige me with Gallifreyan instead of the disease that is English? You only use Gallifreyan for the sake of privacy.”
“Gallifreyan is even worse than English. I think English is elegant.” I found my other shoe and crawled back out.
“Put my footwear back, in order, grouped by purpose and sturdiness,” the Master said, looking down at me with his arms folded. Sternly, even. “This is why we weren’t roommates at the academy, why you got old Chlorrisulfandrinel instead of me. You’re untidy, disorganized, and tend to be disgusting.”
“We weren’t roommates because we were assigned our live-ins by the Prydonian Domestic Affairs Unit,” I corrected. “The same unit who had to hand your roommate over to the Psychiatric Evaluations and Rehabilitations Committee, after you gaslighted him into a jibbering wreck.” I stared lining his shoes up according to color instead of what he wanted, hearing him grinding his teeth. “Lighten up, Master; sometimes it’s good to be impulsive in a non-violent way.”
“You want impulsive?” He asked, and he suddenly was upon me in the mess of his shoes. “How’s this for impulsive, Doctor?” He grabbed my collar and hauled me close to his face, straddling my waist to pin me at the same time. I had a spare thought to the hard strength of his thighs, and then his mouth covered mine.
A new addiction hit me instantaneously. His lips were fire, pure fire, pouring life into me and consuming me in one breath. All thought of struggle burned up, too, leaving me feeling like molten taffy, like I had when we were locked away at the fertility festival. I met his demanding mouth, spurred to get more, having to get more of him. Too much could never be enough.
The Master groaned. It was surprise and approval, and the beauty of his voice like that made my groin give a mighty wrench. His dark copal scent unfurled over me, coating me in the heady need to give in, give up, let the man have me. I shook all over now, but I couldn’t stop tangling our tongues, couldn’t stop tasting him.
He followed my collapse to the bottom of the closet, holding me close even though I already clutched at him. The soft, gentle bites to my bottom lip made me whimper, but when he sucked that swollen lip into his mouth I thought I’d come on the spot. Master!
Oh, Christ, Doctor, the Master answered. He held me tight enough to bruise. “Stop,” he whispered, laying our opposing temples together and breathing every bit as hard as I was.
Just that little bit of caution pressed at my danger sense. I was able to quit holding him like my life depended on it. I felt thankful of his willpower, then, but also horribly empty. For a few seconds it was if everything I ever wanted was coming to pass, falling into my possession, pouring into me like water to a dying man. The Master gave a little shake, and a dam burst inside me. I tried to ball up, the loss was so bad.
“Get up, get up,” he urged, not unkindly, and dragged me from his wardrobe. “Open your TARDIS, Doctor, right now.”
I managed to snap my fingers, and the Master bundled us both inside. “Zero Room?”
I rattled off the directions and we lurched farther into my TARDIS using each other for support. I was crying silently and felt miserable about it until I glimpsed wetness at his eyes, too.
Pinkish grey light and utter peace descended upon me with the slam of a door. I lay beside the Master and we stared up at the muted, soothing nothing of the ceiling.
“Holy shit,” the Master said after about twenty standard minutes. “That was close.”
“Wha-?” I responded. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so stunned and cramped.
“That fucking vine,” he said. “I don’t care if it is sacred. It’s getting cut.”
“You can’t cut it,” I protested. “It’s against the law.”
“Hang the law!”
“Nope, gotta do what I say, because I’m the justiciar,” I reminded. “How about a neutralizing agent, like an ion generator?”
“How about a good dose of herbicide?” He shot back.
“We could uproot it and transplant it somewhere,” I returned.
The Master dragged a shaking hand through his hair. “All right. I’ll get some people on it, people that know how to handle it. Probably brewers, since they make drinks out of the horrible stuff.”
“Why’d it make us so cross before we-?”
“It’s got some sort of affinity with the pleasure centers of developed brains, but it enhances the mood of the moment,” the Master answered. “Why ask me, though? I’m a mathematician with a secondary focus on temporal structure and historical interplay, not a botanist.”
“You were a math teacher,” I said, giving a helpless, hysterical little giggle. “A good one, too.”
“Why, thank you, my dear.” The Master started chuckling, too.
“James Moriarity was a math teacher, too.”
“I taught him everything I knew about numbers and organized crime,” he said.
More giggling. We rolled onto our side at the same time to look at each other. “I have to be honest right now,” I said. “Vine or no vine, you kiss like nobody’s business.”
The Master’s unrehearsed grin was like sunlight. “I told you I worked on my technique,” he replied, his pleased voice rich with humor. He dropped his eyes for a lazy look at my mouth. “Your lips are obscene. Sorry.”
I reached up to feel them. Very slightly, they stung. “You need to shave,” I said. “Maybe your women like stubble burn, but I have higher standards.”
This set us off into fresh giggling, and a little bit of playful shoving. Eventually we sobered and sat up. The Master looked around the room a moment. “Your directions to get here were fairly good,” he admitted. “But I don’t think you’ve ever actually been in this room.”
“The TARDIS put the map in my head,” I confessed. “While we’re here, we could work on our little projects. You could fix the weather diagnostics equipment that Doctor Zaeus gave you, and I could work on those UV water purifiers.”
“Quit calling him ‘Doctor’ Zaeus; this isn’t Planet of the Apes,” the Master corrected absently. “Hm. Never considered it before, but that was a bit of brilliance, those humans recognizing they were apes. Allegorical and a social commentary at the same time.” He stood up and reached his hand down. “You have a good idea. I did say I’d fix their weather monitoring equipment, and those filters will be useful for the people who can’t or won’t hook up to the aqueduct.”
I accepted his aid and also got to my feet. “Well, let’s get to it, then,” I invited.
**
- 14
- 15
- 16
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Lapidary