best_enemies | REC: "The Space Between Opposites," by Storyseller

This is the second of my three recs. The story has been recced at

calufrax, but it's still not as widely read as I think it deserves.

Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Simm!Master
Length: 5393
Warnings: None needed
Author on LJ: There's a

storyseller on LJ, but I don't know if it's the same person. That LJ has no entries and no information.
Author website: Storyseller has three stories on Teaspoon.
Why this must be read: A post-"Last of the Time Lords" AU in which the Doctor and the Master travel the universe together, this story uses what's become a fairly common trope (the Gallifreyan language as symbol for the Doctor/Master relationship) in a thought-provoking and emotionally complex way. There's serious linguistics in this story, and that delights my inner language geek, but those details are very much in service of a story about two people who've loved and fought over many lifetimes, and who are now the only inheritors of the culture that shaped them. Storyseller shows the profound alienness of the Gallifreyan culture and language while creating recognizable, resonant emotions. The story has some typos and the occasional awkward phrase, but they don't really detract from its impact.

Excerpt: [The Master has spoken the Doctor's name in Gallifreyan and demanded a response.]

The Doctor’s eyes skirt over controls, but the Master’s eyes do not waver. The Master stops the Doctor’s right hand with his own, forcing him to look at the Master.

The moment that gives the word meaning is entirely in the eyes, a downward flicker followed by a levelling of sight as the looks the Master gives are returned in full.

Then, the utterance.

“Master.”

It is, somehow, a power-play. But neither knows a word to describe what has been given and what has been taken and what has been left untouched, unacknowledged, but there, lying on the floor between them.

There is a Gallifreyan word that joins love and hate that roughly translates as ‘passion’ and carries traces of ‘consumption’ and hints of ‘consumed.’

It is a very rarely spoken word.

Link: Here on Teaspoon.