Peter left with Deadra after throwing a tarp over her cage. Leaving words she only half heard. Something about leaving.

Butch found the confidence to lounge, seconds after his departure. Daisy circled the room. Her tail leaving wakes in the dust. Two waited for everything to end.

“What, were you doing here.” Daisy stopped in front of her. Tone free of the accusation Two knew she was feeling. She looked into their eyes.

Piercing yellow orbs stared back. Her slit pupils undercut her relaxed posture.

Two wasn’t afraid. Or nervous. Or anything, It had all drained away. Fed to the runes. Leaving trickles of emotion. Like a cloud wrung dry.

“Why?” the word hid so many questions.

Daisy leaned back, She pursed her lip. “Why what,” she smiled wryly.

Why do you care so much? Yet not light enough to say those words. “Why won’t you let me go.”

Daisy’s eyes softened. She wrapped her arms around Two. Who couldn’t bother being upset. This could be the last time. The thought stumbled through her heart. Casting waves in the little she could feel. ”Because, My dear. There are so few of us. In this entire city how many Serpent progeni exist.” Her voice was soft. Their rage twisted into protection. They tasted like spiced sugar.

“Not many,” Two muttered with a deep breath. It was nostalgic.

Daisy chuckled and ruffled her hair. “Indeed, and how many of them, share our ambition,”

Ambition. The words echoed. Ambition. She wanted to cry, kick and scream. Ambition.

Heat rose in her chest, but she lacked the fuel to combust. So fury settled to wrath. Settling in her heart like heavy coals.

“I -“ she couldn’t find the words. Was it too much for her to be safe? To live without fear that today someone would decide to remove the taint in their midst. She dreamed of a day where she could be. Was it wrong to “want to be left alone.”

“I know,” she smiled sadly. Like she understood, and Two believed her.

Two drank the anger that suffused Daisy. It was familiar. She noticed something new. It was old. Ache upon ache stacked until they twisted into something new. It wasn’t anger or hate, but a feeling of wrongness with the world. Yet she could sense the edge of something more. Where it mixed with greed.

“And you know that won’t happen, because you are poor, weak, a serpent. Tainted.” Each word hammered into Two. Daisy leaned close, rill their noses almost touched. “So, my dear. Time to grow up. To fight for your peace.”

Two shut her eyes. It was almost funny. “I understand,” she really was her daughter.

She could feel Daisy’s smile, “You’ve made your decision,”

“Yes,”

Daisy wrapped her in an embrace of warm skin and cool scales. She returned it.

Then light filled the world.

***

Matter faded away. The walls. The floors, the air.

Her skin, her eyes. Yet she was aware. It hurt everything but her non-existent flesh. It was too bright. She could see too much. She didn’t have eyes. Her thoughts screamed as she saw.

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The world was a puzzle. A tapestry of impossible proportion. She was a loose thread. Tinted incapable of holding colour.

Somewhere above her. A pair of steely eyes stared down. They were beautiful. Like something carved of the finest dark iron. She could see the geometry in its form. The intricate simplicity of its iris.

It picked the world apart with its gaze. Thread by thread. They found the collection that was her. They judged her wrong.

Covetous fingers seized her and pried her from the light’s gaze.

Matter snapped back. Her reinstated stomach voiced its displeasure. She suppressed a surge of vomit. Blinking back tears. The room came into focus

The ceiling stood. Along with a confused stag and his captive. A short dishevelled woman. And a steely-eyed, angel. Its cold eyes filled with possible cheer. Their white wings seemed to glow in the dim light.

Daisy hissed and tossed Two into her coils.

The angels smiled.

A scream pierced her ear. The other raven became a blur. Launching themselves at Peter. Butch laughed, and the next instant he was replaced by a hole in the wall. Daisy coiled tight, becoming prison and shield.

Then she moved.

Her world became flashes of light and crashes. The momentum threw her against daisy scales A sudden turn knocked the breath out of her. Another Scattered her scrambling mind.

She tasted blood then greed and desire bloomed in her awareness. Like light and colour seared into her minds eye. It filled the air twisted. Then everything stopped.

Her head spun, her stomach roiled. She was too sick to throw up. Desires filled the air, Competing for dominance in turbulent swirls. She could find no nuance. Nothing but churning rampant emotion. She found the strength to throw. She blinked down at the bloody chunk-filled mixture.

She tilted back into daisy coils. Onto the cage, Daisy had pressed to the floor.

She blinked. Deadra blinked up at her. Bruised and bloodied, her chest rose. Breaths escaped her in wheezes.

Two looked up. She was at the edge of an expanse of cracked scoured grey stone. Rimmed by crushed half-collapsed buildings.

Like someone had popped exposing the fresh flesh beneath. She faintly wondered where the tunnel was.

“Give her to me,” the raven commanded from the rim’s other side. Her torn robes were splattered with blood.

“I think my employer might disagree with that.” Daisy hissed in a raged voice. Deep lines blackened her scales and carved into her burnt flesh.

The stag stood, cuts littered his body. Freely leaking streams of blood onto the ground below. But he maintained his casual air as if his bronze skin wasn’t stained burgundy. He wiped his lip. “I think there is a misunderstanding Lady Leandra.” Her maintained his casual air.

Leandra turned her glare on him. “Misunderstanding?” daring an answer,

He straightened his suit. “Why of course. My associate and I learned that there was a threat to your niece’s life. So I directed procurement.”

Two was confused. Her spinning head didn’t help. She glanced at Daisy. Her face was impassive, but she tasted uncertainty in the settling air.

The raven feathers puffed further. Sticking from her hair like blades.“You expect me to believe that child of Eberwith.” her voice was cold.

“No, but I expect you to consider it with the turmoil in your house. It would not be the first succession dispute”

There was something building in the woman. Condensing with every relaxed muscle. Sharpening. “Are you accusing me of trying to kill my niece?”

“No, no, simply… clearing the misunderstanding.” He smiled.

She stared.

Daisy tightened her hold.

The angel smiled. “That’s the most convoluted lie I’ve ever heard.” All eyes snapped to him. Even Deadra’s listless ones. He hummed. Disparate motes of light hovered around him and condensed into an impossibly white sword. Like reality had been replaced with a void of light. He idly twirled it.

His eyes smiled as his gaze swept over them. Judging. “So Leandra, do we kill them.” He smiled. Like their death was a passing flower.

Leandra smiled. It was a vicious thing, “Leave the man..”

Two struggled to think of something. Leaving Daisy protection. If that was even possible. Was picking a certain death over a probable one. Opening her mouth risked turning warding scales into a lethal embrace.

Gambling not only on a half-conscious Deadra’s assistance but their mercy.

Pressure mounted. Choked her senses. The prelude to violence. She opened her mouth.

A sigh interrupted her. She glanced up. Her heart sank. Another one. A winged figure slowly descended to the ground. Their feathered limbs lazily flapped like gravity was a suggestion.

Matter faded. The sun spilled its borders. Fading into the sky. Losing borders. Forms bleeding into forms. Until nothing made sense.

She was lost, but fear slipped past her. Fog had replaced the world. It was a cool, soft, gentle gray.

Then searing light ordered the world.

They were back in the Warehouse. Deadra was uncuffed and free. Two feet, fine. Not sick, or nursing forming bruises. Even her feet felt fine after a day of walking.

She looked at the gathered figures, noting two additions. Each looked confused as she felt. Save the angels.

A long deep sigh filled the room. She turned to the gay-eyed angel, “Can we talk now.”