CW:

Soul snuggles. A little trauma flashes. Well deserved affections.

But soon I am just… too exhausted and sagging to care if my next words are a bad idea. If she wants to hurt me she…

I… Well I deserve it anyway.

“You may Ignore any and all of my previous commands.” I huff as we get far enough away from the blighted temple.

A beat passes, and I feel her slow. Then stop. I glance back to find her just… staring. Eyes wide with wonder and… and growing wet. Tendrils stiff but quivering.

Looking away, I move to pull free of her. But… while she can’t stop my Naranggas she does grip my talon very very tightly. So I murmur. “You can go home, Tretion.”

A pause, I try to pull my hand free, but still… she doesn’t let go.

“I… I’m sorry about… about the curse. And… and what this could mean for you. And… about Lenelope.” I whisper, fighting my own tears as I clasp the big blade in my blighted talon. “She… she seemed kind. And… and you–”

But a swirl of green and a flash of vertigo cut off my words. I barely have time to understand the riftwalk she’s drug me into before we’re back in the damp chamber outside her manor.

My instincts aren’t screaming of danger for some reason, so when I turn to her she’s already pulled me into an embrace. Just… just a big tight hug against her cold scaly skin. It’s… it’s so Dreamer blighted nice after the scorching heat of Theradas.

“Thank you.” I hear her murmur as she mushes her face down into me, head tendrils wiggling and curling down and into my messy hair. “For… for risking so much for me.”

That stuns me more than the hug. I barely hear the sword clatter to the floor after it slips from the maimed talon’s fingers. The… the easiness of her words. No shrouded hatred or fear or… or anything! Just…

“B– But.” I stammer into her. Unable to pull away as my Naranggas curl forward.

I feel a flash of fear as they… but… no.

No teeth. No claws. No hunger. They just… return her hug. And through the touch I feel…

Oh.

“How?” I blubber. “You… you can’t… You can’t feel this about me. I cursed you and hurt you and killed your friend and–”

She squeezes me tighter, her own heart and Amwella fluttering at this new contact between our souls. “Don’t worry about… about Lenelope. She… She’s not… Lyra she wasn’t really… I can fix her.”

“Fix? Wh– what?”

She sighs. “It’s… It’s one of the things I coaxed from the manor. When I lost my... My previous lovers I… I wanted a companion who could suffer the old hag’s wroth. She’s… well honestly eating her soul was the least terrible thing you could do to her. The body broken would be a pain, the mind would be a nightmare! That might have finished her off for good! But I can bring her back if the manor will listen.”

“B– But…” I feel my own tears start to fall now. “I still cursed you! Almost… almost got you snatched away and sold to monsters! H– How can you...”

Like me? Care about me? L… No. No she can’t.

This… no. No no no no no…

“Lyra, I… I never got to tell you why I… I wanted you.” She murmurs into my hair, “May I?”

I’m shaking now. Terrified and breaking and so so tired. But… I can only nod and give a murmur of acknowledgement.

“You… When I received word that my grandmother was dead, I got very worried. As all members of her family probably did.” She explains while holding me together. “Terrified they would come for me next, or… or that scavengers or rivals would begin to swarm the moment I stepped from the manor. So, I started researching and collecting information on everything I could about that blighted city, the woman that killed her, and if I needed to worry about a hunt for our remaining kin.”

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I don’t interrupt, just… just try and listen as my mind spirals. Try to use the little songs her soul is singing to… to ground myself.

“Most of what I found out in those first weeks is… well… useless. But what enthralled me was the fact that in the month prior, my grandmother put out a silent bounty on any Fae women in her city. And soon after, Thendra visited the temple to claim you as her’s.”

“I… there wasn’t much else to it. But… but as I found out more and more about Thendra and her Reavers, one thing tormented me.”

“What?” I ask quietly, finally let my left talon wander up to return a little more of her hug.

“I’ve wanted to meet or visit the Fae since… well… since I was very little!” She laughs as embarrassment flitters from her soul. “And… I’ve read so much about them! I used to spend days searching for even the smallest hints of information on your kind! On… On a people of such love and life and… and they just… sounded so impossible to me! Kind and gentle instead of... of monstrous and horrid. Yet… there they were! A fact of the rifts. That amidst all us terrible souls, something kind and gentle could thrive.”

Her words sting. Cause the shaking to roll through me. Of how I’m just so much different from my own kind. How my soul is such a blighted thing that even they hate to gaze at it.

“I could never visit them though. So few can! Their song wards deflect riftwalks done by anyone without their Fae spark.” She huffs.

“What does this have to do with me?” I whisper. Knowing she’s rambling now to avoid the answer. “I… I’m barely Fae.”

That causes her to sort of… pause. “How can someone be barely Fae?”

I shudder. Horrid words and bitter memories begin to drown my thoughts. “I…”

Born wrong. Lost my songs, and gave away my soul. Cursed myself and others. Stirring the dream. Betrayed my family. Betrayed Awnya. Ravaged by monsters. Killed and consumed and birthed wonderous little rot maggots to spread blight and–

“Lyra? Lyra it’s… it’s okay.” She pulls me closer as my mind dips into the muck at the bottom of my soul.

Need warmth. Need pleasure. Neeeeeeee–

“Lyra?”

Twitch twitch goes the talon clutching the ring. Anxious to birth more–

A long and terrible rumbling growl echoes through the little room. A warning from me to the blighted talon and my quivering Naranggas from the bottom of my throat.

I will not hurt her again! I snarl.

Everything goes very still.

Tretion doesn’t release me. Just… lowers herself. But when I don’t tilt to meet her gaze, she takes my face in her hands and pulls me up. Stares with such worry and fear.

Not… not of me.

But for me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize talking about your kind would hurt you so much.” She whispers as a single tendril dips forward to… to wipe a tear before it falls.

“That… I wasn’t… the growl wasn’t for you.” I murmur, try to move back. But… but there is only a cold wall.

Hands let me pull away, but she remains close. “Who…”

“For my…” I glare down at the Naranggas, “They… Can you feel them?”

She giggles, and her pretty head tendrils bob with the motion of it. “Yes, Lyra. I can feel your… What was that name? For your cute little soul tails?”

C– Cute?

“Naranggas. It… But they are Not cute!” I try to convey annoyance, but… it just sounds grumpy as my face begins to flush hot.

She laughs, “Everything about you is cute.”

I glare away and growl, but it’s such a little thing. Her smile makes it very hard to… to think. But… the muck is gone. Leaving me with just… her feelings and my own emotional nonsense...

No. No no no. Can’t… can’t betray anyone else. No matter how they feel about me. She… I can’t let her get–

“Lyra…” She murmurs, hands still fluttering close. “Can I convince you to stay here? With me? For at least one more night? Get some rest before deciding where to go next?”

Through my Naranggas I feel the things she wants to give me. The… the grateful desires and longing and admirations… and…

I shake my head. “I need to get back to Theradas. To… To Thendra and…”

Awnya and Beloved Sibling.

She huffs, reaches out carefully and slowly to gently touch my cheek. Tries one more time to pull my face up to hers. I can’t fight the cool gentle touch. Almost… almost just lean into her affections.

“Please?” She whispers softly. “I… I can lend you some clothes? That way you don’t need to walk through the streets with your tits out.”

I blush, hard.

“I… I’ll take the shirt. But… I can’t. My… My Fae family needs me.”

That… confuses her. Sparks something else inside her. Wonder and a blaze of longing.

“I thought you were going back to Thendra?”

“I am.” I raise up the ring. “This and… and the brand I got. She’ll give me two days to go help them. I wanted three but…” I glance at the manor’s gateway. “I couldn’t get the third.”

“Oh.” Her face twists into a confused annoyed mess, tendrils writhe but… still kinda reach for me. “That’s… How can she force you to come back?”

I glance over, give her a… a confused smile. “I’m her Reaver. This is… it’s payment or plunder or whatever. I’m earning this trip.”

Her face just… looks sad now. “I…”

I don’t like where her soul’s muse is heading so… I try to offer her something to… to pull her from those thoughts and feelings.

Can’t let her try something stupid like the others.

“Would you like to visit the Fae Wood with me? You seemed to understand the curse quicker than most and… and you could probably stay for a while to help. Awnya would probably like you and–”

Her eyes go wide, and I feel such a wash of overwhelming things from her soul and thrum through me. I try to pull my Naranggas free but…

But they just… won’t stop snuggling her soul!

“Lyra…” She’s almost begging as she whispers the words. “May I kiss you?”

My heart thunders, and my legs wibble a bit. And while I try to get out a denial. Work to… to drive these feelings out of her...

Out of me! But my stupid Naranggas keep trying to pull her closer!

“I… I… don’t…” I murmur. “Tretion I… I can’t.”

She smiles, releases my face, and gently pulls back. Eyes close as she shakes her head. Eyeless tendrils bob about in a sort of frustrated wiggle.

“I’m not sorry for asking. But…” She whispers. “I am sorry to overwhelm you.”

A deep breath, then. “Yes, Lyra. Yes please. Please take me to the Fae wood with you. An eternity of yesses.”

I can’t help but smile. “Okay. I… I’ll… um… Could you meet me outside Thendra’s manor at about sunrise? That’s where I’ll open the rift from.”

Her face scrunches. But… even as I focus to force my Naranggas to stop hugging her soul, I feel the worry and conflict and–

“She’s going to give you permission to go.” She murmurs. “Lift the curse so you can sing the riftwalk easier.”

I nod. “Yeah, otherwise… Look It’ll probably take me a few tries anyway, even without the curse biting. Riftwalking is hard.”

She nods, “Will Thendra have a problem with me being there? With me going with you?”

I pause, considering. “I don’t see why she would? I did what she wanted. And it’s not like your manor resists my curses because of you. Just… Don’t be rude or get her mad. Okay? Take… take this trip as more apologies from me?”

She gives me a… well it’s a look. With a lot of things that are very hard to read now that my tendrils aren't squeezing answers from her soul.

“I’ll trade anything for this chance.” She finally nods. “Even risk that monster’s wroth. I’ll be there.”

I let out a great sigh of relief. “Okay.”

A pause.

“Um…” I murmur. “Can… Can you take me back? Then get yourself out safely? I really don’t feel like trying to push through the curse right now.”