Vivienne staggered back, her form buckling under the strain, roiling like a storm of darkness, her vision flickering like the dying embers of a fire. The moment the lynx’s neck snapped with a sickening crack, its body went limp in her arms, but the Dawn aether that had been so deeply woven into its form didn’t release its grip on her. No, it only intensified. It surged through her veins, like molten fire coursing through her very soul, igniting every inch of her body in a searing heat that left her gasping for breath.

She screamed, but it was barely a sound—just a guttural noise as her whole body seized. She felt like she was being torn open, as if the very essence of the aether were burrowing into her, trying to overwrite her. It burned, not just on the surface, but deep within, a relentless pressure that threatened to rip her apart. Her jaw clenched, her mouth snapping open and shut as she struggled to hold herself together. Her monstrous teeth dug into the soft flesh of her shadowy tongue as she fought not to scream again.

But then, through the haze of pain, there was something. A gnawing, gnashing hunger that took root, deeper than anything she’d felt before. The same hunger she had for the revenant, but stronger, sharper, more primal. It was the aether, calling to her, begging to be consumed. It didn’t matter that it was poisonous. It didn’t matter that it hurt. It was food.

It was food.

Vivienne’s mind twisted, her body jerking against the pain, driven by the singular desire to eat. She reached for it, for the Dawn aether that swirled around her like a suffocating mist, and forced herself to bite down, to consume it—knowing that each bite would only make it worse, but needing it anyway.

As the aether passed through her, it didn’t soothe. It didn’t heal. Instead, it twisted and expanded, flowing through her like a torrent of burning light, warping her insides with a ferocity that made her vision explode into blinding colour. The agony was unbearable. Every inch of her screamed in protest, her very bones felt like they were shattering, each joint locked in an unbearable vice of heat and cold, of light and darkness.

But still, she ate.

She consumed it greedily, as if it were a part of her, as if this insidious poison was the very thing that would nourish her now. Her body burned, her insides twisted into knots, but she pushed through it. The hunger—it was ravenous.

The burn inside her stretched, suffocating her, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop.

Her vision was beginning to waver, the world spinning in and out of focus. And then, it happened. The first signs of what the aether was doing to her began to surface—lumps, bulging, sickly growths appeared on her skin, where the aether touched. They spread, rapidly, expanding like tumours, glowing with a sickening radiance that pulsed in time with her frantic heartbeat. She felt her skin stretching, tearing in some places, as the malignant growths began to form beneath the surface.

Her body was a battlefield, her mind a war zone. The hunger for the aether fought against the blinding pain, while the light inside her clashed with the shadows that had always been her nature. She could feel herself breaking, the raw edges of her existence beginning to splinter under the pressure.

I’m losing control.

It was an impossible thing to hold onto. The desire to consume was so overpowering, but the pain was becoming unbearable. Her body—her very self—was revolting against the very thing she was trying to make part of her.

Her breath came in ragged gasps as she stumbled forward, her body trembling with the weight of the struggle. Her tendrils curled and spasmed involuntarily, writhing like serpents, trying to pull more of the Dawn aether into her, but each second it filled her, the more it consumed her. It wasn’t just a poison anymore. It was taking root in her.

And then, suddenly, Rava was there.

The wolf-woman’s hand gripped a tendril, her claws finding purchase and digging in as she pulled Vivienne back from the abyss. Vivienne’s mind was so far gone by that point, the agony clouding her thoughts, that she didn’t even know if she had the strength to fight anymore.

“Vivienne, stop!” Rava’s voice broke through the haze, though it felt like it came from a distant dream.

But Vivienne could barely hear her, barely understand her. All she knew was that the aether—the burning, poisonous dawn aether—was still inside her, and it needed to be fed. Her tendrils lashed out, wild, desperate, as if they could find a way to feed herself from the very air around her.

Rava’s grip tightened, and with a roar of frustration, she released a surge of Tempest aether, her fists crackling with raw power. She slammed them into the ground between them, causing a shockwave that threw Vivienne backward, the shock of the impact rattling her enough to break the hold the aether had on her for a moment.

Vivienne’s form collapsed to the floor, gasping and writhing. Her entire form trembling as bright, sickly growths pulsed across her body, glowing with the same noxious light as the lynx’s fur.

I’m broken.

The pain was relentless, twisting her insides and pulling at her very core, but she had no choice. She had to fight it, or let the Dawn aether consume her entirely. She dimly registered Rava’s shadow at the edge of her vision, but there was no helping hand extended, no warmth. Rava stood a few paces back, her gaze wary, almost assessing, but her face held no sympathy, just a grim caution that Vivienne understood all too well.

Vivienne’s eyes fluttered open and closed, her vision fading in and out as darkness and light fought for dominance. Everything hurt, every pulse of the Dawn aether like a serrated blade cutting through her essence. She was barely aware of Rava anymore, her thoughts clouded by the agony, yet she knew no help was coming. She was on her own.

It took every ounce of will she had, but she forced her disjointed jaw shut, trying to pull herself together, to claw her way back from the brink. The Dawn aether was a poison within her, and she could feel it writhing, resisting her every attempt to contain it. It wanted to consume her, to fill her until there was nothing left but that burning light.

She clenched her teeth and focused, forcing her mind through the fog of pain. She couldn’t let this be her end—not here, not like this. The Dawn aether fought back, clawing at her from within, but she held on, tightening her grip on herself, forcing the light to subside.

It would consume her.

Her body was at war with itself, the Dawn aether clawing at her insides, forcing her shadowy form to shift uncontrollably. She needed to resist it, but the sheer intensity of the aether was overwhelming, seeping through every corner of her being. The will to survive began slipping, feeling almost pointless against the strength of the aether that wanted to devour her whole.

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Rava’s voice broke through the haze, but it felt hollow, detached. “You have to fight it, Vivienne.” The words felt perfunctory, lacking urgency, as if Rava herself was torn between helping or watching from a distance.

Die.

The word drifted through her mind, and Vivienne almost laughed bitterly. Could she even die like this? She didn’t feel like herself anymore—she was a mass of shifting shadows, eyes, and teeth, barely holding any solid form. Rava’s face flickered into view, but it seemed distant, like a spectre belonging to someone else. She didn’t need Rava, not really. She needed her own strength.

Fight it

She told herself, her resolve wavering. It would be so easy to surrender, to let the Dawn aether consume her entirely, to dissolve into the light. But no. She wasn’t helpless prey, wasn’t meant to be devoured by aether like some mindless creature.

Vivienne forced her jagged teeth shut, the sound a jarring, sickening snap. She locked down on the urge to surrender, each tendril of her body convulsing as she tried to pull her form back together. The Dawn aether thrashed within her, burning, writhing, a living poison she couldn’t expel. Her form trembled violently as she forced herself to focus, grounding herself inch by inch, piece by piece.

Her tendrils clawed at the ground, their movement frantic and jagged—not in defence but in sheer agony. The Dawn aether twisted beneath her shadowed skin, a relentless force eating away at her from within. She roared, a primal, guttural sound that echoed through the halls, shaking her entire being as she dragged herself back from the edge of dissolution. Bit by bit, the sickly growths began to recede, their toxic glow dimming slowly, painfully, as she wrestled them into submission.

But it wasn’t over. The aether still churned within her, its poison coiling deep in her core. She was holding it at bay, but just barely. Her entire form trembled, each shadowy tendril quivering as she fought to maintain control.

Rava’s voice drifted through the fog again, distant and indifferent, as if she were merely observing. There was no warmth, no encouragement—just a reminder, perhaps, of the danger Vivienne had narrowly escaped. But Vivienne barely heard it. She didn’t need words. She needed survival, pure and simple.

Gradually, agonisingly, the light within her dimmed to a faint flicker, until the sickly growths withered away. Vivienne’s tendrils curled tightly around herself, shadow pulling inward as she rose unsteadily from the ground. Her form was still flickering, barely cohesive, but she was alive.

For now, she’d held her own. She’d survived, and that was enough.

Her gaze slid to Rava, her expression dark and unreadable, shadows rippling across her flickering form as if she were barely holding herself together. There was no thanks in her look, only a grim acknowledgment of survival, a mutual understanding that whatever ordeal they’d just gone through had nearly broken her.

Rava’s eyes narrowed, watching her with a wary caution. She didn’t speak, didn’t step forward; instead, she seemed to measure the shifting, restless darkness that still clung to Vivienne. It was hard to tell what was running through her mind, but her stance, her silence, suggested she was keeping her distance—not from fear, but from an instinct to observe, to understand this creature who seemed capable of tearing herself apart only to claw her way back.

Vivienne took a shallow, shuddering breath, feeling the ragged edges of her form settle just enough to let her stand without collapsing again. Every inch of her felt raw, still pulsing with effects the Dawn aether did to her.

Somehow she had incorporated the radiant aether into herself, despite the desperate struggle from moments before. Behind Rava was the body of the other sunwake lynx, lying motionlessly while egregious amounts of aether radiated from it like the smoke of a dying flame. She was sure she could eat that one too, but after the first one, she didn’t want to try her luck.

Finally, she looked up to Rava, her expression complicated and unreadable. Something was strange though, Rava seemed shorter than before. Where Vivienne had only been as tall as the warriors mid-thigh, she now came up to her waist. She wasn’t paying too much attention to her surroundings when she’d eat the revenant, but perhaps consuming aether made her grow?

Vivienne’s gaze flickered down, taking in the subtle shift in perspective as she sat taller than before. The change felt foreign, disorienting. She barely recognized the shape she was taking, her form stretched and flickering like smoke caught between solidifying and dispersing. Every movement felt unsteady, her limbs alien in their newfound length.

Rava, standing a cautious distance away, watched Vivienne with an unreadable expression. Without any clothing or gear, she looked bare and raw, but she held herself with an unaffected confidence, as if nothing about her state fazed her in the slightest. Her gaze was intense, assessing, and Vivienne could feel it tracking each minute shift of her form.

“You’re… different,” Rava finally said, the words carrying a weight of curiosity laced with caution.

Vivienne let out a slow, unsteady breath, feeling the edges of herself pulse and ripple. “Different,” she echoed, her voice still rough from the pain, “that’s one word for it.” Her gaze shifted over Rava again, her eyes narrowing slightly. She hadn’t noticed before how exposed Rava was; her lean, powerful frame seemed even more vulnerable in the dim light of the ruins, though Rava’s stance remained unfaltering, a silent defiance that dared the world to try her.

The silence stretched, charged with unspoken tension. Vivienne hesitated, her mind torn between the impulse to pull herself inward and the strange hunger that still lingered in the back of her mind, gnawing, tempting her to reach out toward the radiating body of the lynx nearby. But she resisted, focusing instead on the here and now.

“How… are you feeling?” Rava asked, her tone surprisingly measured. There was no pity in her voice, just a pragmatic sort of curiosity.

Vivienne’s mouth twisted into a grimace. “Like I’ve been dragged through glass,” she chuckled mirthlessly, her tone dry but laced with raw truth. She let out a bitter laugh, though the sound was jagged and hollow. “That lynx… it almost tore me apart.”

Rava’s gaze flicked to the fallen beast, then back to Vivienne. “But it didn’t.”

Vivienne could only nod, her expression darkening. “No… it didn’t.” She didn’t add that it might have, had Rava not intervened. The warrior’s unexpected arrival had steadied her, if only briefly, enough to let her pull herself back from the brink. But she couldn’t quite bring herself to acknowledge that openly.

Rava watched her, her gaze piercing, as if searching for something unspoken. “So… you’re able to take in aether like that?” Her tone was neutral, her stance steady, but there was a flicker of wariness there, one Vivienne didn’t miss.

Vivienne’s form shifted uneasily, her edges blurring. “I don’t know if ‘able’ is the right word. It’s more like… surviving it, enduring it.” Her voice softened, tinged with a frustration she hadn’t realised she was holding. “But yes, somehow, I’ve taken it in.”

“You did it to the revenant too.” Rava seemed to hesitate, as if deliberating on the next words. She clenched her jaw shut and let out a tense sigh. “Come on then, the sooner we get out of here the better.”

Rava turned without another word, her movements efficient and unbothered, already seeming to brush off their strange encounter. She didn’t spare Vivienne a second glance, her focus set forward as she stepped through the fractured shadows and faint glimmers of aether that still lingered in the air.

Vivienne hesitated, the unease of the interaction settling heavy in her body. Something had shifted between them, subtle yet undeniable—a new wariness that hung, unspoken, like mist around them both. Rava’s silence was unsettling, the way her gaze had assessed Vivienne, weighing something she hadn’t voiced.

And yet, Vivienne felt an odd compulsion to follow, as though some part of her tethered to Rava’s presence, if only to keep herself grounded in this new, uncertain form. She swallowed the discomfort, her steps cautious, each movement tentative as she followed Rava’s lead into the depths of the ruin. The further they walked, the more the shadows seemed to deepen, swallowing the remnants of the aether’s glow until they were left in near darkness.

The silence between them stretched, tense and unresolved, but Vivienne couldn’t bring herself to break it, unsure of what words could ease the strange rift that had begun to open. She curled her tendrils, feeling the unfamiliar texture of her own shifting form, still adjusting, still wary of what might come next.

And for now, that was enough.

With a final glance back at the glowing remains of the lynx, she turned fully to follow Rava into the unknown, knowing that whatever lay ahead would test her in ways she hadn’t yet begun to imagine.