CW:

Violence. Talk of lost memories and rebirth and torturing a Fae you've staked to a tree. Bulderii POV!!!

“Wake up, Fae.” Purrs Undreka to our prize, moving to kneel before her.

The Tigress might have opened her eyes but… Our Hr̥daya tore them all out by root and stem.

Keeping to the grim humor of the title bestowed the day her little wretch slew the Matron.

The Fae’s flesh and bones pop and groan, a rasp of attempted song twisting from her throat but… no magic. Not a single note of melody escapes her throat.

The arrows we’ve staked her to the tree with ensure that. This Form halfway between her war-shaping and soft Fae one. Limbs broken and twisted at horribly painful angles that refuse to let her heal without tearing herself apart.

“I have questions, and you will answer them.” Undreka says with such soft calm. “If your answers please me, then I will free you.”

A low growl rumbles up in the Fae, but is choked by pain when she tries once again to weave her healing tune.

My fellow Reaver chuckles and reaches up to grip one of my arrows. “Trying to sing us a song? Fae?”

Then she twists the arrow, and the Tigress howls in such pain.

The Wood around us trembles.

“I am patient, and wouldn’t mind more of these delicious songs.” Undreka growls. “Feel free to ask and I can drown you in the proper inspirations for them.”

The Fae goes still and silent for a long while, then rasps through torn throat. “What questions? And for their answers you’ll gift me freedom?”

“Truthful answers, Fae. No lies or deceptions.” Undreka purrs. “For them, I will free you.”

The Fae hisses. “Not freedom from life, mind you. You will release me from these bonds and let me venture forth under my own power. No tricks to slaughter me afterwards, from you or those others who I fought.”

Undreka glances back to where I stand vigil, and our Hr̥daya sits on a fallen tree their conflict broke. Thendra nods, face a blank thing of pitch purpose in the gloom of this broken Rift’s weeping sigh.

“All here and within our power agree, Fae.” Undreka twists back to face her. “Do you accept these terms?”

“I will, but first release me from these–”

But she is cut off when the Reaver strikes one of the arrows again, sending the Fae into spitting and growling sounds of pain.

And the Rift weeps at her cries.

“No, only after answering us will you be free of this.” Undreka murmurs, settling to sit comfortably in the blood soaked grass. “Do you accept these terms?”

The Fae stills from the pain she drowns in, then nods. “I accept. Ask, then set me free.”

And so starts the aimless questions.

What is your name, and why do you hunt this prey?

How many Fae are searching? Are there any roaming Theradas?

What are the names of your current Elders, and where do they nest?

Who is the Fae Envoy to Ukalon? To Dreadweave?

Where are the Scrolls of Rime?

Which Everflame have you commissioned to hunt in the Obsidian wastes?

Do you know which Rift the Fae you seek sleeps in?

On and on and on. Almost a full day of questions that aren’t questions. And answers that make me almost balk at her ignorance. Many times the Fae resists answering or claims confusion or lack of knowledge. Undreka hurts her then, tears more echoing screams from the wood around but… soon moves on. Seeming content with the truths given.

This Fae never sought to master even the foundations of lying, must have spent many cycles just… basking in the hunt. Engorged on old instincts and blood.

So blind to anything and everything without. Only barely noticing the shiftings in the Sapana.

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Which is why she was kept secluded, I would hope. A flesh-eating songstress cannot be allowed to wander their peaceful Woods, much less the wider Rifts.

Else the Rot and Ruin follow and use her as a vessel to infest the ‘Dream’. Maybe even eventually leading her to develop the same tastes as Thendra’s wretch.

“Why…” The Fae finally asks a question after Undreka goes silent for about a hundred heartbeats. “Why follow that broken Fae? It’s only a matter of time before she cracks and rots.”

Follow? So… Thendra was right? They… they really think we belong to her and not the other way around?

“Oaths kept, and a wondrous bounty of Soulflame left in her wake.” Undreka lies with such ease. “Not to mention the spoils to be gained in the madness following a Godthing’s death.”

The Fae grinds her mismatched teeth. “Scavengers then? From how well you laid that trap and fought I’d thought better of you lot.”

Undreka laughs. “There are different ways to hunt prey. So long as they lead to the feast the method is of little consequence.”

A pause… and the Fae seems to look past Undreka. Not… not quite on target but… senses are good enough to let her know where our Hr̥daya sits. “I noticed that curse on your chest.”

Thendra hides it well, but I can sense her amusement at the Fae’s coming bleating ignorance.

“She bound you with that, didn’t she?” The Fae states, “My kind can sing it away, if you offer her to us.”

Undreka barks out a laugh. “Unwind the cursed binding laid by a Godthing and Fae? How?”

The Fae does her best to shrug. “She won’t be singing for long, and once her will is blighted away it’s melody in the Dream will weaken.”

Undreka seems to consider that. “We’ll weigh the options. But now It’s time for us to keep our Oaths.”

A tense pause passes, then Undreka rises. Begins to pull my arrows free and let the Fae slump to the forest floor. “You are free to return to your people, but weakened. I’d recommend not trying to hunt us or the Godthing you seek again.”

Then my old equal turns, and approaches us. Even absently reaves a Riftwalk to the city drowning in Sand and Spice before even our Hr̥daya can rise. No words are spoken, but the message is as clear as the Shattered Sapana.

A show of how easily she handles her Soulflame.

We leave without even glancing back at the slowly healing Fae as the Riftwalk closes. Now left standing on the outskirts of Theradas. Almost… almost too close to the bleeding edge of the Rift. The air here is spiced heavy with encroaching Blight.

Undreka walks ten long paces ahead of us, then turns and drops this pretense. All façade of calm control emptying away so she can glare openly at Thendra, eyes dancing as they play over the cursed mark and the soul within our Hr̥daya.

Because just like when she first arrived back here with me, it isn’t stinging. No drain. Not even a hint of weeping from that old curse. It just… sits inert.

“Why?” Undreka hisses.

Thendra raises an eyebrow and lets a smirk touch her lips. “Why what?”

Undreka growls and rolls a step forward in such a warning of fury.

Thendra spreads her arms in answer, and purrs gently. “Test me then.”

A heartbeat, and I’m leaping away as hard and fast as I can. Even… even letting odd shapes rip and pierce through my flesh to give it the speed needed to avoid being caught in this.

Because by the time I feel safe to turn and watch at least a dozen shockwaves of force have rolled over my form. My bow is already strung and half drawn but… Thendra wouldn’t want me to help, even if it seemed she might lose.

Undreka let herself shift too. Naranggas bathed in fury and soulflame and as real to the sands around as the souls within. All tooth and claw and edges sharper than anything forged in the Rifts bearing down and trying so hard to Reave while her flesh twists and writhe into monstrous shapes.

But… Thendra doesn’t need to match that. Doesn’t shed the flesh she wears or even spark a single Naranggas with flame to answer her old Reaver’s snarls.

The sand that erupts from around them blocks my view for a time. Dirt so smothering in the spiced blight that only my Naranggas can track the conflict.

It doesn’t take long though. A few cracks of thunder and wroth, more snarls, and such… such bellowing laughter, and what was a storm settles into more muted growling sounds. Soon I see Thendra wrapped around Undreka’s back. Huge arms binding throat and a limbs while legs pin her prey, and all around them blazing Naranggas are bound by the Hr̥daya’s invisible ones.

And still… that old curse doesn’t even prick at Thendra’s soul.

“End it!” Undreka hisses.

Only a soft chuckle is her answer.

More struggles but… even like this. Ten years of engorging herself on warm Hearthflame and cultivated fury, Undreka is held completely in our Hr̥daya’s grasp and will.

Thendra purrs, solidifying her grip and touching teeth to an ear.

Undreka freezes, Blazing Naranggas fading back into invisible death as she glares ahead. “Why!?! Why am… am I not dead!?! How is that curse more real than before but not stinging you!?!”

Thendra chuckles. “Have I ever wanted you anything but what you choose to be?”

Undreka snarls again, struggles but… but its such a weak thing. More a reflection of the conflict in her soul than a real desire to break free.

By the time she stills, her reply is barely a whisper. “Is that what you told the others? Right before you fed them to that thing?”

“Aaaah… That’s what makes you so wrothful. Filled to bursting even.” Thendra murmurs. “Since when have you cared to see our brood recall our oldest Oaths?”

“You never let them.” Undreka hisses.

Thendra sighs then, seeming to bear real melancholy even. “I have… and they always grow into what you’ve seen. Stupid, regardless of years. Ravenous, despite the endless feasts. And aimlessly cruel, no matter how much some try to teach them otherwise.”

“I… I can’t believe that.”

Our Hr̥daya leans closer to whisper. “Only you and Bulderii burn with anything else.”

The look that crosses Undreka’s face is such a ravaged thing, an expression of pain and hope and fury and such deep and riven sadness. Only torn away when Thendra quickly and suddenly releases her. Deftly nudging her to slump forward into the sand as Our Hr̥daya rises.

Undreka jerks to stare as Thendra walks away. “You… Just like that? You’re going to let me go?”

Thendra pauses, spares Undreka barely a glance over her shoulder. “I can do nothing else.”

“What!?!” Undreka hisses.

“Follow me if you will, and I’ll make use of you.” She purrs so gently while continuing toward the city. “Or… Wander the Sapana alone.”

Undreka doesn’t answer. Refuses to move. Just… stares at Our Hr̥daya as I shift myself back into a Reaver and catch up.

We walk a long while, and only ask after I’ve glanced back to see Undreka gone. “Was this wise?”

Thendra’s expression has lost all good humor and turned to a quiet thing of unreadable contemplation. Her only reply is a rumble from the pit of her gut.

“This number of loose threats will cause many unforeseen consequences… barely predictable souls gnashing at your heels.” I murmur. “Why set another rival into the Rifts?”

She doesn’t answer at first, walks another few hundred paces before murmuring. “Old memories, many unseen, rise to the surface. Always.”

That’s… more of an answer than I was expecting, and I can’t help but slow as I take that all in.

“And…?”

She sighs, “There is a reason you’ve always been my Dead-claw, Bulderii.”

“I… you meant what you said then?” I press, feeling emboldened by her leaving Undreka alive. “We never change? That wasn’t some lie to twist her.” I halt. Insisting we stop. “To twist me.”

She only slows after ten long paces, doesn’t even turn back when she silently murmurs. “Sometimes… The unexpected strikes and I thought one of you would. But… in ways both small and large you only and always become more of yourself.”

I just… stare at her still back. Mind and flesh and Naranggas writhing in… in her words.

“Then… Why keep me alive?” I hiss. “Why not let that wretched thing eat me too?”

She glances back at me then. “You always ponder over questions you know the answer to.”

I growl. “Answers mean different things when spat from different lips.”

She shrugs. “I’ve given it, now… either walk with me or wander alone.”

I consider heading back to track Undreka. To… to find her and ask questions and… And what? Wander alone till something kills us and we’re returned to the pit to forget again? Try to slay Thendra and take control of her and the others?

All that feels so… pointless.

An old promise bubbles at the edge of my mind. Formless and without words. Something beyond even my longbow’s great reach.

“Tell me you…” I stammer, fighting to grasp at the fleeting thing. “That… That you…”

Can… What?

Something cracks, and I jerk up to find her looming. Jade eyes and soul are boring into me.

“I keep my Oaths, Bulderii.” Thendra purrs. “Always.”

And I know then, like always and forever, I can do nothing but follow my Hr̥daya.