<- previous
"-and that's when Lady Bien caught them."
Cedric concludes, holding Evander’s reliquary to his chest.
The great hall is quiet, the sounds of the Termina Festival floating in the distance. Evander sits heavily, head in hand and deep in thought, Octavia staring down in disapproval from her perch on his shoulder.
The armour delivered Astraea and L, bound and masked, before the dryad King. Half a dozen hands hold them in place, but the gauntlets on L's shoulders fall light compared to the weight of Evander's stare. She’d tried to steal his memories. Even if they allow her to defend herself, how can she? No, it’s worse than that. Regardless of her punishment, either he knows something and she’s tipped her hand - or he doesn’t, and she turned the most powerful being in Xylia from her ally to her enemy.
Evander waves to Astraea, and her mask slides open. "Explain, little sister."
"I… it… we…" Astraea tries, choking on her words. It’s all she can manage. The words just won’t come out. Evander sighs in frustration.
"This isn’t the first time they’ve stolen a book." Cedric pipes up. Evander raises an eyebrow as the goblin points at L. "She stole her reliquary a few days back!"
"...why was she allowed in the Library?"
“She was accompanied by Puck.” Cedrick answers, casting Astraea a withering glare. “He’d taken an interest because someone taught her to read."
Evander waves his hand, and Astraea’s mask snaps shut again. A moment later, L’s releases.
"Is this true, child?"
L’s wings dip, and she glances hopelessly to Astraea. The thought of throwing Puck under the bus turns her stomach, but what can she say? It’s her word against Cedric’s. "Puck...brought me to the library. But I took the reliquary. I - "
Evander leans forward, branches creaking. "No, no, child. Can you read?"
The question catches L off-guard. Anywhere else, this question would be pointless, obvious to the point of insulting. But here? Now? She swallows hard. Again, her word against Cedric’s. There’s no point in lying. "Yes. I can read."
Reaching forward, Evander rests a finger on her head. "Show me."
Octavia flits from her perch to the far end of the room, returning with a sizable scroll. She unrolls it before L, holding it close to her face. The force of her stare is almost as heavy as the weight of Evander’s hand. L clears her throat, trying not to shudder.
"'T-two further canals to be excavated. These will be formed to illuminate the steps before Brother Pyrus' estate, and are not to exceed- ' "
Evander's hand glows, and pressure clamps down on L’s skull.
"AH!"
L flinches, manacles rattling. The pressure doubles. Triples. Her ears pop, and then Evander’s finger slides away, trailing light in gossamer threads. The lines swirl and coalesce, forming a tiny crystal between Evander’s thumb and forefinger. He considers it, studying its pale glow.
"Try reading... again."
L blinks back tears, staring in confusion at the crystal. It's so small, barely visible in the elder dryad’s hand. She turns back to the scroll, squinting
It's just…
lines.
Angles. Swirls on a sheet of parchment. Sudden realisation strikes her.
"No - no, please- " L wails. Evander waves a third time, and the gag snaps shut, cutting off her cry. The gauntlets tighten around her, keeping her in place as he passes the crystal to Octavia. L watches helplessly as she spirits it away into the dark, struggling to comprehend through a wave of numbness.
Her literacy. Condensed and stolen and gone. She hadn’t been prepared, hadn’t even realised it was possible. Consequences, certainly. Imprisonment, separation from Astraea, further places and freedoms denied to her, but something so…intangibly personal.
Like her name.
Taken as easily as closing a book.
"BROTHER EVANDER!"
The doors crash open, and Helios charges into the room. Guards move to intercept him, forcing him back with crossed spears. "I just received word!"
"Ah.” Evander groans. “I see a lack of discipline has become endemic."
"I was so shocked to discover such blatant disrespect.”
“And so you rushed to interrupt a private matter of your elder’s judgement..?” Evander raises an eyebrow. Helios steps back, then delicately pushes the spears aside, giving himself enough room to bow low.
“I…my most sincere apologies, esteemed Elder Brother. I was moved to offer the nymph the discipline Sister Astraea refuses to give. Please forgive my zeal, I was overcome with compassion for her plight."
Evander nods in acknowledgement, then turns away, frowning in heavy concentration. Astraea shifts lightly in the armour’s grasp, leaning closer to L. She’s denied her words, but holding the memory of his promise to them in her pleading eyes, her held breath. It hangs heavy in the air. Evander’s frown deepens, growing colder.
"Sister Astraea needs to remember her dryadic responsibility. Perhaps you can assist her in this, little brother."
"Hgmmm?!" Astraea cries. Helios's eyes burn bright as the guards step away, letting him pass.
"As ever you are wise, Brother Evander - "
"One hunt.” The words stop Helios mid-stride. “For one hunt, you may use her as your songbird."
“But - “
“It is decided.”
“...y-yes. Yes, of course.” Helios bows again as Astraea slumps to the ground, gazing hopelessly to L.
She should be feeling the same despair, it’s obvious. Or fear. Or outrage. But all she can think of is that tiny crystal. The golden light, pulled free of her skull, disappearing into the Attendant’s cupped hands.
"Octavia will prepare the nymph.” Evander rumbles. “Tomorrow she will be delivered for your hunt. I have every confidence this…instruction will help us remember ourselves."
He gestures softly, and the armour pulls Astraea to her feet, supporting her on shaking legs.
“And our responsibilities to one another.”
It still doesn't feel real.
They took her to a room without a window. A cell, really, even if they preferred the polite fiction of a room. Octavia came to speak with her. L can remember her tone - disapproving, harsh even - but no details. No content. No words at all.
All of it gone, gone, gone.
All the stories she ever read. Her cheap paperback romances. Childhood fairy-tales, so different and so similar to the real thing. Homework. Menus. Shop signs. Lyra's fateful letter. All just...ripped out of her. All just bottled and filed away.
A day’s passed. She’s in a carriage, now. Resting on down-soft cushions and shrouded by gauzy draped curtains. Her arms are manacled, with a short chain running to the floorboards. She can’t stand, even if she wants to. And, of course, Helios sits across from her, indulging in the moment.
A bored, cruel child with his moth in a bottle.
"Quite the little adventure you're having."
"Is it?" A sardonic laugh bubbles up from somewhere deep in her heart. "Want to trade?"
Helios places a hand on her knee and her throat tightens. Spiders crawl up her thigh. Images flash of wrists bound, shadows in the doorway. The knife once pressed into Desdemona’s hand, gleaming as it descends toward her.
Or maybe...
Maybe something worse.
"You know,” Helios says, bringing her back to the jostle of the carriage. “Now that you mention it, I am a bit jealous.”
“Of what.” She raises her manacles, splaying her hands and rattling her bonds. “The chains?”
“Of having something to strive against. I wouldn’t expect you to understand, but that feeling of having no more mountains to climb? No challenge worth taking? When all it takes is the lightest pressure on the scale -”
His thumb presses down on her skin, and she forces herself to hold her knee perfectly still. She feels his fingers slip under her gossamer fabric. L holds her breath. Can’t think. Won’t move at all. Forces herself to ignore what he’s capable of. How easy it would be.
The lightest pressure, for him.
"Stifling. But you. Every one of your victories is a miracle. Actual rarity! It must invite ecstasy. Euphoria."
Her skin prickles, betraying her. She has to think fast, focus on something else. Break his attention.
"Easily solved." L croaks, jolting her head to the covered window. “Walk into the dark.”
His questing thumb stops. Helios releases her and leans back.
“Ironic, that you should say that.”
“It’s true.”
Helios raises an eyebrow at her, speculating.
“Well yes, but that's the counter-argument to the humanists, isn’t it? Against the chaos of the darkwood, we need order. It’s not we who insist, but the Wilds. She leaves no room for debate, no space for alternatives. She forces our hand to crush and form and calcify Her into something more…delicate."
He reaches forward, runs his knuckles along the side of her jaw, traces against her skin. Affectionately, like how Spencer would look at her at first. Like how Ian sometimes still did.
"Something soft and pleasurable.”
L remains motionless. Unhearing and unfeeling. Helios smiles to himself, drawing away and peers through the curtain, and L can’t help but follow his focus. They're approaching the wall now, towards a gate she doesn’t recognize. A different guardian, someone other than Thiar, looming ominously against the sky.
"Well… either way, we’ll get a taste of exactly what the Wilds have to offer today, won't we?”
L’s mind clears enough to fill in the blanks.
Dryads for hunters.
Wilds for game.
Songbird for…
…bait.
A different fear bites through L’s dissociated fog with sharp little teeth, gnawing at her. Thoughts of red hunger and bloodied claws. "I've been there. Before." She insists. Helios smiles.
"Once. But you've forgotten all that, haven't you?”
“My body will know.”
“Relax.” He leans forward, pulls her hand onto his, clasping them. Soothing. Reassuring. “I’ve done this many times. Do exactly as I say, and I’ll keep you alive.”
L tenses as he leans closer, his voice a sweet sing-song.
“It’s good practice. After all, you and I are going to be spending a long, long time together. Today can be your first lesson in how that’s going to work for you."
"One hunt. Not so long." L glares up at him, calling the fog back over her mind.
“Of course.” Helios says. “One hunt.”
His thumb circles the hem of her dress, over and over. Never quite touching her skin.
The carriage trundles to a stop in front of a pillar-framed hunting blind, extending a hundred metres or so. A salt barrier shields the rear, while the front is obscured by mosses and fungi, pocked with arrowslits. The wall curves around the edge of a field of whispering grasses, trailing all the way to the beginning of the trees. A hunter’s hide, built like a fortress. Anything that wants to cross the field will have to venture into the open.
Out into the killing ground.
A burly troll in a heavy coat leads L into the field, first fitting her with an odd mask that loops over her ears, then securing her ankle with a thick chain running into a brass tube in the ground. The overpowering scent of blood on the shackle does wonders to cut through the haze in her mind. Her antennae jangles with it. No cover for her. Nothing to hide behind or climb.
"Can you hear me?"
Helios’ voice echoes through the metal of the mask, vibrating in L’s ears. It’s tinny and slightly too loud.
"No."
"Perfect." Helios responds. A light flickers through one of the hide’s windows. "You see that chain attached to your ankle? If you start acting up, I can..."
The chain clicks and whirrs, disappearing down the pipe. Before L can react, her foot is yanked out from under her, dropping her to the ground in an undignified heap. She groans and pushes herself up, brushing at the mud and grass stains now marring her clothes.
“How does any of this keep me alive?”
“If one of our quarry gets their teeth in you, this will stop them from dragging you away.”
A quick spike of fear stabs through her, and she darts a glance to the forest. The trees stand silent. No call today. No desire to let the dark embrace her. Only a single promise, or a warning.
Y̸o̸u̴ a̸r̸e̴ n̵o̵t̷ a̶l̴o̸n̷e̶.̷
Y̵o̶u̵ ̷a̵r̶e̴ w̵a̶t̷c̵h̷e̵d̵.̶ ̶
"T-tell me that’s not my only protection.”
“We’ll be watching.” Helios’ voice echoes. “And we are very dangerous.”
The note of finality in his words leaves L horribly convinced. She keeps her eyes on the treeline, the branches growing together like laced fingers, clenching and unclenching in the breeze. She suppresses a shiver, wings wavering in the crisp air.
"So then…what do I do?"
"Stay still, and sing."
L gives the ankle chain another tug. There's barely a metre of length. She can't imagine trying to scramble out of the way of...whatever might come charging out of the dark.
"Can’t you give me more room?"
“No. We can’t afford you panicking and crossing into the line of fire.”
“B-but I need it.” L hates the way her voice cracks. She can’t even begin to work out how to stop it.
“Lyra - ”
“P…please.”
Helios doesn’t answer, letting the silence sink into her bones. The wind catches in the trees. Lights dance behind the hide. Something in the tube clinks.
"Walk twenty paces closer to the blind. And when the quarry comes, don’t move unless I tell you to."
L nods, more to herself than Helios. The chain slithers in her wake as she walks backwards towards the blind. Counting as she goes, keeping her eyes on the wood. At twenty paces, it draws taut. She gives it a final pull, making sure it’s at the limit.
“Good.” Helios’ voice is soothing again. Calming, like talking to a child. “Now sing.”
And eyes on the periphery, armoured in torn gauze, she begins.
It’s the song she'd sung first, that debut in the Glade - but her words, this time. No magic. No helping hand. It’s all her, unpolished and clear. Fingers of aether glitter in the soil, echoing out in small waves like a ripple on a pond, growing and expanding until they fade away. The last motes of aetherlight drift lazily towards the city behind.
Xylia. In all its broken, cruel beauty.
Somewhere in there, Astraea is waiting for her. Trapped in the home she hadn't wanted to return to. Cordelia and Thisbe too… even Desdemona, unaware of just how many chains the city’s placed on them. Fili, trying and imperfect as she is, still fighting a way of thinking that’s sunk right to the very foundations of her world.
She thinks of her own foundations. Thinks of her parents, desperately wanting a safe life for her. Madeline and Hedrick and Trystan - they'd welcomed her, hadn't they? In their own way, no matter what she brought. Even the King, vengeful and capricious, trapped between a world of iron and a world of this. Could L really blame her?
And she thinks of Ian, waiting. His life hanging on her word. Her words drifting into the trees.
A snap.
L’s song comes to a sharp stop. The woods are still as death. The silence crawls, waking the old instincts stirring just under her skin.
"Good girl." Helios’s voice echoes in her ear.
L can’t bear to breathe. She can feel every drop of sweat trickling down her back. Every second ticks by in unbearable eternity.
A sudden burst from the underbrush, a screaming mass of flesh and fur charging straight for her. L freezes, uncomprehending. Hooked claws and matted fur, tusks and snout with long, loping limbs, and teeth teeth teeth -
Another shape crashes after it. A third. A fourth.
Standing here is death. Everything she is screams at her to run. L’s wings whirl, and she leaps into the air only for the chain to snap tight, yanking her back out of the sky.
"DROP DOWN!" Helios thunders. And she does. She drops. Hitting the grass, knocking the breath from her body. The world is alive with screams, ground trembling, feet thundering.
Four flashes, one after the next.
Four shapes strike the ground. Massive shadows tumble and sliding in the grip of suddenly-skewed momentum. One of them brushes against her arm, and L breathes in the charred stink of it. Old blood. Fresh blood. Burned fur and seared flesh. Its eyes are dull, glazing over already in death. It might have once been something like a bear. Her hands tremble. Her stomach roils.
"Bogills." Helios says. "Just hold there a moment.”
Footsteps split the stillness as the troll emerges. Methodically, one by one, he carves open the dead and spreads their entrails across the field. He hesitates as he steps over L.
"Good work, girl. Hang in there."
The troll shambles away without waiting for a response. L nods numbly anyway.
She gets back to her feet, stumbling to keep upright. She’s so dizzy. L takes a few wobbly steps closer to the blind, until the chain pulls up taut.
"Stay closer." Helios orders. "True quarry will be much faster."
“That wasn’t it?”
She can hear the laughter from behind the blind even without the aid of the mask. Her cheeks burn. Of course it wasn’t. Idiot.
"Adorable, Lyra.” Helios drawls, trying to force the mirth out of his voice. “No, we’ve only just started. Now be a good girl and sing."
Humiliated, she turns away from the blind and begins her song again.
Lower this time. Letting her mind wander less. Aetherlight flashes like a beacon, notes echo through the branches, dying away as she finishes. Nothing. Genuine silence, rather than predatory stillness. The chain tugs again, and she kicks back, shooting a dirty look at the blind. She can hear the hunters laughing once more.
“I’m going to need you to - “
“I know.” L snaps back, then turns away, filling her lungs. A third song. A fourth. Still nothing, and shouldn’t that be what she hopes for? Maybe nothing will hear her. Maybe the dryads have scared away whatever they're after.
Near the edge of the wood, the underbrush rustles. The faintest of movements. L stops.
Something's gotten close.
Eyes flash. Just for a moment, L can see the shape in the greenery, pressed down flat against the ground. A tangle of wild hair. Long limbs and broad wings. A greenish-grey face with wide, staring eyes. With a start, she realises what it is - another nymph. Watching her with, if it isn't concern, at least curiosity.
L picks up her note again, Her heart thumping. She locks eyes with the girl, giving her head a shake. Can't she see the chain? Doesn't she know?
The nymph stirs, but before L can decide how to warn her away, another movement draws her eye. More bogills? L crouches warily, her song wavering. She's not going to bother to wait this time. As soon as whatever it is breaks cover, she'll be on the ground.
It steps forward carefully, sniffing the wind.
A white coat, hints of dappled spots of youth. A pair of fresh, small antlers. A white stag, she realises, young and pristine. No malice in his eyes. Hauntingly familiar, in some way she -
B̵l̸o̵o̵d̴ ̸o̷n̶ ̶h̸e̶r̶ ̷t̵e̴e̶t̶h̴
̴A̵ ̵r̸u̵s̶t̵l̷e̸ ̴i̷n̶ ̶t̵h̸e̷ ̴s̸h̷a̵d̴o̷w̴s̴
- can’t place. He's... come to listen to her sing. He doesn't know the danger.
L's wings flash open, red spots flaring.
The stag’s tail goes up, and he wheels away, bounding back into the forest. A flash of light burns through the air, scorching grass and shredding bark - but too late. The stag’s vanished.
L hasn't missed a note. With her face turned to the trees, she's sure Helios can't see her smile.
"You scared it off!" Helios hisses from the mask. “Do you know how rare - “
"I thought it was another monster."
"They’re all monsters. Yourself included.” Helios snaps. “Don’t do something like that again.”
Her chain rattles, pulling her back to the centre. L follows it, tossing a look to the trees. There’s no sign of her would-be observer. Maybe the bolt of light was enough for her to understand, and she’s moved on. L hopes she has, anyway.
L clears her throat and settles down, smoothing out an area of grass around her with her foot as she resumes. She’s growing more comfortable. Not that she trusts Helios and his companions, but they seem to know what they're doing. Maybe they'll get what they're after and the hunt can be over.
Something crackles, out there in the dark. L can see the treeline shift as a trunk falls, sending flocks of giant insects into the air. Swarms of beetles flash iridescent blue and green, glittering in the light of Xylia. L’s voice wavers as the atmosphere grows electric.
"Here she is..." whispers Helios.
The stink of blood floods across the field, heavy and metallic, laden with sulphur and ozone.
And then, too high in the canopy to be real, an eye opens. Turns. Fixes its gaze on L, as its twin slips into view. Slitted pupils widen. A clear membrane flicks back and forth across them.
L's voice curdles. Her own wings quiver, then dip.
She takes a step back. "D...do something."
Her chain clacks and a hidden mechanism whirrs, spitting loose coils like a geyser.
"Fly!" Helios commands.
L leaps into the air, chain trailing behind like a kite, above the blind and soaring higher. The dragon charges, snapping winged arms as she clears the trees. It’s fast and moving faster, gliding over the ground like a viper, aetherlight glittering from copper scales.
Someone's screaming.
Its teeth are long and hooked, set in a head the length of L’s body. Its eyes are great pools of golden light.
The scream is so close.
The dragon smells like charcoal and campfires, like the still-warm ashes of a burning woodland.
Is it coming from her?
A blast of liquid flame flashes past, close enough to blister the length of her leg. Screaming in pain, L veers and swoops low, skimming the grass. The dragon lunges, fangs missing but snagging the chain. The dragon whips its head back.
Yanks L out of the air.
She hits the ground shoulder-first, tumbling over and over in a bruising roll across the clearing until her body comes to an abrupt stop against one of the bogill corpses. L pushes herself up, her vision blurring with tears. The dragon’s already rounding on her, flame spilling between its teeth.
A barrage of lights fill the night sky.
They take their quarry full in the flank, blasts crashing through its copper scales like a battering ram. The dragon shrieks, the urge to kill overwhelmed by confusion and panic. Leathery wings snap wide, knocking L back to the ground with the force of their passage as the dragon takes off.
One
Two
Six blasts tear through the tough membrane. Copper shrapnel and burning blood rain down as the dragon crashes back to the field. The pummeling breaks through the copper scale, striking flesh underneath. The dragon bellows, loosing fire blindly and clawing at the earth in violent desperate upheaval.
L curls tight in the grass, hands over antennae, knees against chest. The sound goes on and on. The ground shakes. Another blast. Heat sweeps over her - smoke in its wake, thick and choking.
And, in one final earth-shaking impact, the world goes silent.
Distantly, she hears cheers.
"THAT'S IT!” Helios roars jubilantly, painfully loud in her ears. “WE DID IT!!"
L sits up, looking around in a daze.
The dragon slumps across half the clearing, wings shredded, great smoking holes cratering its side. Something once awful and terrifying, now torn apart and ruined. Brush fires burn everywhere, grass smouldering, shrubbery scorched to cinders. It takes L a moment to register the sharp pain on her thigh, clothes burned away exposing red, blistered skin. She’s still in shock, unable to make sense of it all.
The chain tugs. Distantly, L look up to see. Helios pulling her back? Surely there can’t be another beast?
No. Not Helios.
The nymph.
Crouched behind the fallen dragon, she’s taking a serrated obsidian knife to the chain, frenetically working away at it. With a gasp, L drops to her hands and knees, ducking behind the corpse. The nymph doesn’t look up, utterly focused on her task.
"You - " L draws in a breath, her eyes widening. How can she explain? There's no time to make her understand. " - no. I can't. Please go. Go."
"I will… free!" The nymph says, her voice a disused rasp. Sparks skip from her tool’s cutting edge. "I will free! Sister. Sister.”
"No. I have to stay." L grabs her hand, stopping her. "You can't help!"
The nymph looks up, fixing her with flat, frightened eyes. "You are wrong. I will free! I can help. I can-"
Something strikes the nymph from behind, and for one horrified moment L thinks the girl has been shot - until she sees the coils and straps of bronze wrapping around her, encasing her within.
"No... NO!!" The nymph wails, thrashing. Understanding more than L knew. "NO!! - “
A thick panel slaps over her face, and she drops, still struggling. Helios steps out from around the dragon’s slack jaws, chuckling to himself as he leans down and throws the thrashing nymph over his shoulder.
"A little bonus for me. But more importantly..." He steps down on the chain, a little burst of light snapping it in two. "I believe we should be getting back."
L crouches before him on the killing ground, struggling to breathe as the nymph kicks and screams. Something glints in the smouldering underbrush. The nymph’s knife. With a hoarse yell, L snatches it up and flies at Helios, landing on his side and slashing at the nymph's bindings.
It's the troll that tackles her. The troll that wrestles the blade from her hands and binds her arms behind her.
Helios merely watches in satisfaction.
They had to wrestle her back inside the carriage.
L's perched on the seat like a bird, wings splayed at odd angles, watching Helios with wild eyes. They didn't bother to chain her to the floor, not with her arms pinned behind her. Her face is pale and sweat pours over her brows, runs down her cheeks. Her leg has kindled to roaring agony.
"An excellent performance." Helios says, hands crossed on his lap.
L hisses, baring her teeth.
He breathes out a laugh, letting his eyes roam over her. He follows the trail of burns tutting at the way some of her garment has actually fused, melted into her blisters. Helios reaches over -
“Don’t touch it.”
He pulls back, hands up in mock-surrender. L pulls her wings close, shielding the burn without touching. Even that little movement is excruciating.
“Release her.” She says.
Helios tilts his head, pursing his lips in consideration. “No.”
“She wasn’t your quarry.”
“Lyra - “
“She was just trying to help me.” She snaps. The carriage jostles and L loses her balance, hissing in pain as her burned leg hits the cushioned seat. He stands, but L kicks out with her good foot, keeping him back. “DON’T.”
Helios watches silently as she uses her wings to awkwardly right herself. L leans back against the seat, breathing raspily.
“What are you going to do with her?”
“This and that.” He answers. Her fists tighten in their shackles, but she knows there’s no point in pushing. Again, he moves towards her. Slow. Steady. Like approaching an injured bird. “That looks painful.”
She doesn’t answer. Helios smiles, making a soft sound of approval. He raises his hand. “I’m going to make the pain go away.”
“No.” She pulls back. “Astraea will… when we arrive. I don’t need you to do anything.”
His smile curls the corners of his mouth. Helios takes his seat again. "Are we issuing an edict?"
"One hunt. You got it. It’s over.”
“And when you act out again, today, tomorrow?” She gives him an ugly look, but no reply. He lets out a little laugh. “You know, judging by the way things have been going, I’d say in a week’s time Brother Evander will simply give you to me.”
"He won't."
"Oh no? And what makes you so certain? Surely you don't think you're in his good graces, after your little incident at the library.”
L bares her teeth.
"I'll… behave."
“Forgive me if I find that less than convincing.” She rocks, a little with the pain, a little with the carriage. Helios blows out a low whistle. “You really don’t understand, do you?”
Leaning back, he knocks on the window leading to the front of the carriage, and the whole vehicle comes to a stop.
“What are you doing?” L shuffles back, tight against the far wall, heart picking up. “Why are we stopping?”
“The hunt isn’t over.”
“Yes it is.”
“No. It’s not.”
“You got your dragon! You got your nymph, what more do you - ”
“They weren’t the quarry I was after.”
Her mouth snaps shut. Helios sits up straighter, leans closer.
“Ah. Finally. She understands.”
He reaches out in one smooth motion, gripping her burn and squeezing. L cries in agony, twisting and writhing to get away. But he holds tight, and with her arms chained, all she can do is suffer through it. Helios tucks his free hand into his robes and procures a blade. L recognizes it immediately. Forcing her knee still, he slips the blade under the fabric right along where it’s melted to her, slicing up and around the burn.
“I have another riddle for you. If you can answer it right, then this little hunt I’m on will go one way. Answer wrong, and, heh, well…”
He slides the knife the rest of the way through, snatches the end of the now cut fabric, and rips it back and away from her skin. L manages to turn her scream into a gasp, tears streaking her face as a thin line of blood wells up from the wound.
“Understand?” Helios asks, hovering close to her face, his look of pure delight spreading across his expression like a disease. The pain is too overwhelming for her to speak, but L squeezes her eyes closed, nodding her understanding.
“Perfect!” Helios grips her dress again. “The question is; under what circumstances would my quarry escape me today?” The knife cleaves through the fabric, cutting away strip after strip. L’s mind races.
What could she do to escape? Could someone intervene? Maybe if she accused him of mishandling her? No, no, that’s not how this works. The little pile of fabric grows, her tattered garments eroding away under the blade. She can’t run. She can’t even fight. She has no political power, no physical power. She can’t even read. She has…
Nothing.
There’s not… a single thing she can do to stop this from happening.
The only one that can stop Helios, is...
“You.”
His knife stops. Just above her navel. Half of her torso exposed.
“... go on,” Helios says.
“You’re the only one that can stop this from happening.”
A smile creeps slowly across his face. “Now why would I do a silly thing like that?”
“Because…” L swallows. “You’re enjoying the chase too much.”
“But I thought I only got one hunt.” Helios muses. “Shouldn’t I take advantage?”
Her heart hurts. She feels ill. In a very small voice she answers.
“Not if you’re sure you’ll win. Like you s-said. For someone like you all it takes…”
“...is the slightest bit of pressure.” He finishes for her.
The knife glints as he returns it to its sheathe. Gently, tenderly even, he places his hand on her thigh. L shivers at the touch, seizing a little. He closes his eyes, and his hand glows. Relief flows over her skin, and her burn recedes like melting frost.
“Right answer.”
continue reading ->
Don’t worry, we hate him too.
Sometimes the story calls for a complex or sympathetic villain, and sometimes it needs…this guy. Thanks for reading along with us as always, everyone! We’ll pick back up on Friday, December 13th, when we’ll see how L’s luck holds in the aftermath of the hunt - and what she plans for her next move!
+ Hark