CW:

Possessive and abusive touching. LYRA POV. Talk of children being hurt. threats of murder. Lots of abusive words and ways. And a little Fae finding a little fury for a certain big cunt.

That’s why you aren’t going to stop me from leaving here with them. Be… because our manor isn’t really like… in the Dream. At least… at least not to the Fae.

“Beloved…” My Watcher murmurs. Amwella twisting and thrashing in horror at what her brilliance is already realizing.

[You really shouldn’t be doing this. Not here. Not without a few good Wards between you and her.] Furthonois murmurs while wrapping about the smallest of my clutch. Slowly growing more worried as she feels the weight of my Dark Goddess’ gaze on all within me. Like… like some big storm prowling over my Sea-Bed of a Soul.

Thendra only stares, though. Jade eye’s shining so bright.

Why not just… Like… Tell them. Us. Now? Tell us more about our children. How to keep them the safest possible? And if you led them here why not help when the others attacked before!?!

“Was I needed?” My Dark Goddess replies, tilting her head.

I… No but… But I only barely escaped! And only because they… our Jellyfish grew big teeth and… and…

“What?” Raska stammers from behind. Supportive hand on my shoulder not wavering as her voice cracks. “What the fuck is happening?”

You wanted them to learn how to hunt? How to kill?

Jade eyes only glimmer in answer. Filling with… annoyance. At me. For asking a stupid question.

Fuzzy Fae growls and bristles at the Storm and the shard within that links us to her but… just like a real storm Thendra doesn’t care about the protective fury of even the most scary fox born Fae.

Squeeze my eyes shut to try and… and focus past all the distractions.

And… those Fae would have hurt them too? Wouldn’t they? Our Jellyfish. If they could find the manors to pair them with. Burn them all away just… just to get more stupid Fae Woods? Or unweave them because of how they're from the Blighted ocean?

“Had they survived.” My Dark Goddess chuckles.

“Lyra.” Awnya moves forward to stand between us, facing me.

Open my eyes, knowing the expression will match her soul's sheer terror and pain and anxiety. But… find only the softest look in the Dream for me. Amber gaze only amplifying the love bubbling hot in her soul.

“This isn’t okay.” She speaks softly but… words are like a mix between a growl and a plea. “You know that. Tell this cunt to leave and let’s go home.”

Huff and look away. “S– sorry. F– f– fa f– fff– fast– ter Th– th– then St– stu– stupee…” Growl at the word and skip over it. “T– to– to– tongue.”

A pause as our Fae’s expression tears even more at the unspoken things. But then Tretion’s hand slips around to pull me to face her. Head noodles all a wiggle with pain and anger that’s sparking through her perfect crimson eyes. But…

Not at me.

“What did she do to you?” Our Watcher growls in a way that makes all the trembles I’d been keeping inside start to leak out.

For me.

“J– just… I– it’s n– not… W– w– we…” I stammer as I feel locked in place by those eyes. Trying to… to explain.

But failing. Because there's nothing to say. I… I gave Thendra my everything. And didn’t say a word as these amazing souls pulled me into their manor. Just… too stupid and terrified they might try and pull this gift free from my Amwella.

Tretion’s stave burps as our Watcher’s fury dribbles to light it with even more of her Amwella. Eye’s slowly drift to glare at my Dark Goddess as her tendrils tilt to wrap about me protectively.

Raska spits fury and steps up to my side, her own glare on Thendra as eyes and spark hiss such anger.

What?!? No they… they should be mad at me! I went to her! Asked her for… for this! Adored being… being so seen and not needing stupid words to be understood!

“St–” I try to force out.

But the words are too raspy and scared and quiet. Too broken.

Like me.

“We’ll find our own way out.” Awnya growls, rounding on Thendra and seeming only not to try and lunge do to the hand still gripped in mine. “Leave.”

“N– no.” I force out but… Still not loud enough! Barely a whisper. So I scream through our bond.

Stay. Please! I… I have more to ask! And… and more to say and…

“Then this Oath is settled.” Thendra purrs past and over my soul-shouted words. “I trust you all to escape this place now that it’s softened edges and tilts all within to leave.”

“N– no!” I growl and snap and nearly scream with lips and soul.

Everyone stops to turn and look at me with expressions of pain and worry and… and all the stuff I don’t understand or want to think about.

“Beloved. We need to get home.” Tretion replies, pulling me ever closer. “We… This is worse than I imagined it could be.”

Except Thendra. My Dark Goddess ignores my demands and… and just turns to leave!?!

I growl and try to shove past to… to stop her! Chase her if I have to! But my Beloveds grip me tight and don’t let me go. Even Raska kinda wraps an arm about my hips and pulls me back.

“Pl– pl– pleeee” I growl and hiss and spit. “M– m– mo– move.”

Let me just… talk! Please! I need to… to see your eyes. At least for this last bit.

“Nope. Not a chance. This was a horrible idea and that was before I knew about this. Dreamer’s Tits.” Our Fae whispers while wrapping herself all about me. “I’m so sorry. Gonna get you home. Figure out what’s letting her do this and like… get it out.”

Don’t go still but… pull my tendrils close to try and nudge these wonderful souls away.

“Gr— B– bu– N– not…”

Not like this. I can feel her leaving. Walking away. Not stopping or hesitating in body or Stormy soul or… or anything!

“It’s okay.” Our Watcher murmurs into the embrace, tendrils and soul all about our little ones and Raska and even the Fuzzy Fae she can’t tell apart from me. “It’s okay. Beloved. We’re taking you home. We’ll… we can get this out there. I’m so sorry I… I didn’t see it before.”

She’s… You’re leaving me? My… but… Did… What did… But I kept my promise! I’m here! Didn’t… didn’t even tell my Beloveds about the Shard! Never have done anything but what you told me to do and… and even kept my little ones safe! YOUR little ones! O– OUR little ones that you just… let me think were just odd little friends I found and adopted in the Blighted ocean or Curses and Fae words coming to grow from my Soul!!!

Growling and hissing and spitting and tearing the Dream apart before I even understand the thought. Singing my Reaver’s Riftwalk through the curses bite to pull away and land in front of my Dark Goddess.

Naranggas flaring out to block all paths around us as I glare up at her. My Beloveds and Raska dashing after us but unable to shove past my solid wall of tendrils soul tendrils.

“Lyra, girl this… Don’t do this!” Our Fae calls past it all.

Not alone. Have Jellyfish and Furthonois and Fuzzy Fae Spirit close.

“Wh– wh– whhh– why?” I try to spit my first question back up at her. But… but the stupid words won’t work! Keep tripping over this stupid tongue and… and… but I…

Raska starts to shout something but… Tretion holds up a hand. Stopping her words.

Eyes lock with mine.

And my Beloved's soul still sings with… with all the terror and anxieties and hope and trust in the Dream for the stupid broken girl who stares back at her.

For me. She hates this but… Can’t stop me. Even seems to… to support my anger and demands? At least a little? Maybe even wants me so much more furious?

Want so much to wrap tendrils about their souls to bask in their endless love but… can’t. Can’t let my Dark Goddess feel them any more than she already does through me.

Turn back to find Thendra smiling as she looks down at me. Her… her everything brimming with enjoyment at my fury.

Just like every other time I threatened her.

I’m about to consider actually doing something stupid when she commands, “Sing your questions for all to hear, My Lyra.”

All my fury is about to crack like ice at winter’s end in terror at the idea of that. Horrified of the curse's bite that’ll strike when I can’t obey and sing out the words clearly but…

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“Why didn’t you tell me about them? Our children!?!” I reply without any struggle or hesitation or… or brokenness!?! Words whole and woven perfectly beneath her purred demand. Even as my everything inside cracks and breaks at… at this.

How completely she still holds my songs in her grip. My broken and stupid tongue unable to keep what is promised as hers from my Dark Goddess' grip.

“Because, my Lyra, you’d have shattered before the time was perfect.” She purrs, stepping even closer to loom above. Not… not even a hint of fear in her soul at my endless fury.

“Shattered? What are you talking about?” I spit my emotions and words and thoughts and everything between into the melody she demands. “Just… Tell me about them. I’ll be fine. Love them no matter what.”

“Of course you will.” She leans down, voice almost… gentle. Not quiet though. Her words bounce about and echo so everyone can hear her too. “Because while I planted them deep into your soul, and filled you to bursting with all the things needed for them to grow… You assume much based on their thoughtless affections.”

I go still and her words, but… not songless. The sounds clawing out from my throat are a melody of pain and spite and fear.

Wait. What? She… You can’t mean that… that I’m not…

“What do you mean?” I hiss as the curse nips at my soul for leaving a part of the question unsung. This working a reflection of the sounds of something breaking within me. Loudly. Even seems to snap and crack against the refractive walls of this place.

“Must I state it so plainly?” She purrs, a large warm hand moving to hover just a whisper from my cheek and face. “Or would you rather I wrap your soul about mine to make sure you understand this Truth entire?”

Fuzzy Fae hisses at that while Furthonois growls wordlessly. Both glaring at the storm above and trying to fill me with their own denials of… of that. But…

I have to look down. Away from those wretchedly perfect Jade eyes as… as another part of me breaks.

“No. That’s… Thendra I raised them! Held them safe within the deepest parts of my Amwella for years and years!” I spit into the song, squeezing my eyes shut in a stupid attempt to close off everything but my words and loving Keshada and Fuzzy Spirit but… only succeed in feeling her storm of a soul scream her truths louder than ever. “They’re MINE. Even more than yours! You… you’ve not even held them or sang to them or even spoken to them at–”

Then her hand is gripping my jaw and neck, forcing me to stare up and into her gaze. My heart a twisting mess, even now, as her glare sings of nothing but amusement at my denials.

Beloved’s souls twist in fury at that, but… I don’t move my wall of tendrils. Don’t struggle or… or fight her. Hands kept at my sides as I glare up into the eyes of this storm.

So they stay back.

Amwella seeming to hope for… something. Anger? My anger?

“Amwella a perfect everlasting wellspring for them to rest within. Dreadsong sung to call the lost forth. A decade of reaved souls their sustenance. Your feast on that Godling a gathering of even more strength.” She purrs. “All provided from me, through you, to them.”

Years and years and even a decade of agony and… purpose. All for them. Not for me. Or even with me.

Just… just a tool. Always a tool. Not… not their moth–

“St– stop.” I plead, feet moving to take a step back but… halted mid-step by her grip. “Just… Thendra you know I’m–”

“Giving them your everything?” She laughs darkly, effortlessly pulling upwards. Causing my feet to dangle as my toes lose the floor. “Tell me… Do you think that is something you chose to do that I did not desire?”

Song falls into a mess of weeping messy growls as I weakly struggle in her grip. “B– but… Then why let me… let us…”

“Do you think my having you rut with this Watcher and Fae and any other creatures in that manor a gift to you?” She mocks, voice cruel and amused as she raises me higher. “Or the Lamentations you’ve laid upon these two some… twisting away from paths within my designs?”

Can so easily see my Beloved’s flinch at that. Souls tilting from fear and fury to cold dread.

“Pl– please.” Is all I can sing through her slowly tightening grip.

My Dark Goddess pauses, then lets out such a long and contented sigh as I’m lowered just a little. “Of course you did. As you thought this a brave action to break away from the lovers I let you keep to face me.”

“I…”

She pulls me close, making those Jade eyes everything I see. Free hand curling up to dance fingers up and down my exposed spine. “But that’s what made you a good slave, and an even better tool. My Lyra. Your thoughts and will and body and soul are a vessel to fill with everything I wanted you to be.”

“Lyra!” My Beloved Fae calls past the barrier of tendrils. “You are not–”

Can’t help but whimper and miss her next words as I realize… how right Thendra is. How I’m really just… just so stupid. How I should have seen all this. Seen what she… what YOU wanted from me. See… see that our attempts to make a safe place from you and the Rifts were… were part of your plan.

Never actually free from my Dark Goddess' gaze or will.

Another part of me shatters at that. Withers so much that my Jellyfish are startled to wake up and join in their mother’s…. No. My melody. Trying to comfort the stupid broken girl shaped slave in a monster’s grip.

A few though… they actually turn to hiss and snarl at my Dark Goddess.

But… She ignores them. Like always.

Just a tool. Always a tool. For… for…

“Always and forever, as you can’t help but promise me over and over.” She finishes my thoughts, free hand moving to wrap about my flank, her claws dancing over the exposed Curse. “Breaking and remade into whatever I will. Smothered in purpose and drowned in pleasure until you couldn’t tell which was which. Always, and completely, Mine.”

Motions of her fingers send spikes and flutters of… of all the things through me. Revulsion and excitement and need and bile and… and shame.

Endless guilt at being reminded through a simple touch how tuned my everything is to her.

A whip-crack of sparks and fury twisted into almost… thundering roiling heat, and then our Everflame is Shifting past my Naranggas and standing just behind Thendra. Eyes and Spark flame glowing brighter than ever and glaring all the hatred in the Dream into the back of my Dark Goddess.

“You’re gonna put her down now.” Raska says flatly. Everything her within starting to bubble over like some really angry pot of stew. “Then you're gonna walk away. Or we’re going to–”

She’s cut off as one of my Naranggas snakes in to wrap about her core of blazing Amwella. This wonderful Everflame gasping in surprise as I use it to tug her back and away. My sea-bed of a soul filling to bursting with all of her five flame’s fury and protective rage at Thendra’s word and touch.

Then I release her. Return to the messy pain bubbling up within me.

Fuzzy Fae growls endlessly at my refusal of help and love. Radiating an almost plea for me to… to end this. Leave. Stop… stop… STOP! STOP! STOP!!!

Have to close my eyes and devote everything to suppressing a whimper that’s tilting this hummed song as my Dark Goddess rumbles such… approval at that. At me. At what she feels through our bond. Amwella slowly starting to curl about my core.

“Would my Lyra rather be anything else?” She purrs, pulling me closer. Hand at my flank adjusting to support more weight as she grips me tight.

The answer cracks me in two.

Everything feels like it’s breaking inside. More so as I have to sense my Beloveds and Raska absorb all her words and my betrayals and… and how stupid I’ve been.

“Pl– please…” I whisper, curse starting to nibble as the song cracks beneath the weight of my terror-drowned soul. “Thendra I… Just let me have this. It’s just a word. Just a stupid word!!! They called me that first and… and I’m still doing everything you want and–”

She growls gently. Talons finally almost digging into flesh. “Answer me.”

Eye’s flash open to blubber out a messy growling reply. “Yes. That’s… that’s why I’m never going back with you! I… I deserve b– better than you. M– my ch– children d– do too!”

I expect her to get angry at my flailing attempts to hurt her. But instead she simply quirks an eyebrow and purrs. “Then take it out.”

I freeze, whisper into the song. “What?”

A single one of her tendrils lifts up to hover close. A few Jellyfish hiss and nip just short of biting her. But I reach out with Naranggas and tug them back.

“Remove that which I gifted you all those years ago.” She presses.

Cut out this… This piece of her? Why would she like… even say that!?!

Offer that!?!

“B– but–”

“Do this, tear that free and cast it to my feet, and you will never see or feel me within this Dream ever again.” My Dark Goddess promises. “Even should you look after doing so.”

Everything is so still and quiet as those words seem to seep into everything. Every Naranggas I can spare while still keeping my Beloved’s and Jellyfish and Raska from Thendra tilting to wrap about my soul.

Protecting the shard of my Dark Goddess.

“I… B– but…”

What if I need you?

What if I… I mess up and lose m– my Beloveds and… and…

Curse bites so hard at the unsung questions.

“There are more deadly things in the Sapana than Fae and Godlings, my Lyra.” She purrs. “Do you think yourself able to keep them all safe the next time you are hunted?”

Can I protect them?

A– alone? Or… or just with my Beloveds?

Her bright jade eyes scream the answer I wish I could deny.

No.

She smiles wickedly at that, and all the Dream seems to tilt at whatever burns behind those eyes.

Grip even starts to loosen, like she’s about to let me go. But in a flash of fury and Reaver instincts and stupidity… I grip her back. Dig talons into her wrists. Even jerk Naranggas free from everywhere else to curl close around her.

Around Thendra.

Even my lovers, now freed to dash closer, hesitate at the sudden shift at this.

At how quickly I become a Reaver again.

“I. Am. Their. Mother!” I growl into the song like a threat. Voice clear and Naranggas twisting to be covered with all the sharpest things in the Dream. “And they are MY children. MY JELLYFISH. If you ever hurt them or… or my Beloveds or try to take them from me I won’t just tear out this shard.”

Thendra doesn’t move. Doesn’t blink. Jade eyes are bigger than anything else in the Dream and filled with… nothing.

Empty as the eye of a Storm.

“I. Will. Kill. You!” Is the growl that punctuates the song.

A pause, then she purrs and smiles in answer. "Of course." And her words from years ago cut through my song like a knife. When… When I tried to keep Awnya safe from her. Threatened this Dark Goddess.

“By curse or seduction. I care not which.”

“Oke.” I growl, then… pull bloody talons free from her wrists while folding Naranggas to softer shapes.

And Thendra releases me. Lets my body fall to stand before her. Looms overhead while all my tendrils curl close and all about me.

“Sunrise to Sunrise, Little Godling.” She speaks into the fading song, and without needing to ask I know it's a command to stop my songs.

Then turns and moves to disappear behind a twisted arching pathway as my song fades to nothing.

Gone before I can decide how to respond to her promise.

“Beloved.” Comes a strained word.

Turn to see Raska and Awnya and Tretion staring at me with… with such…

What?

“I… S– sor–”

I’m cut off when they dash forward to pull me into their arms and tendrils and souls.

“I… Lyra You…” Tretion stammers, her words messy and broken. “I’m so proud of you.”

WHAT?

“Wh– b– but…” I try to force out.

Betrayed everyone. All this time and… and didn’t… I ran off and… but…

“Scared us like nothing ever before but… yeah.” Awnya shivers and agrees. “Proud of you, girl.”

“H– how?” I sputter.

Feeling something warm inside thrum at those words. But… also crack and break. Like some weird crabthing of the ocean shedding old shells for new ones.

“You kept your promises.” Tretion murmurs, pulling back to kneel and cup my cheek. Perfect scarlet eyes and cold soul brimming with dribbling tears. “Not perfectly, not without… without allowing that wretched woman to hurt you but… But you did more than… than I f– feared you would.”

Oh. Embrace this Watcher's soul tighter as her unspoken fear bubbles up. That… that I would want to go with her. Leave my Tretion and Awnya for… for Thendra.

“N– never again.” I whisper and fall back into her arms. “W– with m– my B– beloveds. Al– all– always!”

“Always.” Awnya agrees. “We… Need to talk about this hook she laid in you but… later. You did good and it would be silly to expect you to be ready for that spooky goose after the day you just had.”

“Oke. B– but…” I whisper. Take such a deep and terrified breath before I promise. “T– tell… e– e– everyth– th– thing.”

That sparks their souls to more worry but… also love. Melty adorations at me wanting to trust them with this.

As I squeeze them back with everything I can, a tendril reaches out to curl around this looming Everflame who’s glare is still locked on the passage my Dark Goddess took. Give her a gentle tug and pull Raska close as her Amwella sparks in relief at my touch.

Peer past Tretion’s arms and head noodles and whisper. “Th– tha– th– ank.”

She huffs and everything and everyone within relaxes a bit. Thrums with worry but… also such affections for me as eyes tilt to meet mine. “Course. Good work, by the way. Burning Ukalon to cinders and getting free and… and dealing the big cunt. It was…”

Shakes her head as Spark zips and titters about as that blazing soul and all the spirits within dance about in disparate emotions.

So I unwind a hand from my Beloved’s and hold it out to her.

An invitation.

She huffs, steps up to carefully wrap about us.

And we just… sit like that. For at least a few eternities. Before eventually I weave a gentle song of request for this wonderful place to give us an easy passage out. Whisper gently.

“H– ho– home.”