Emony

“Tiphaine? Are you cold?”

The lamia’s tail was curled up twice around the small, gently crackling campfire they had made atop the grassy hill about an hour prior, but he could still see that she looked uncomfortable. The human part of her body was trembling slightly, and he had goosebumps all over her arms. Her long scaly tail, which he was leaning on, shifted on the ground.

She shook her head. Her mask was fastened to it slightly poorly. “No, I’m not cold, Emony. The fire is nice. And later, I’m sure you’ll be warm, too,” she said.

He glanced away from the glowing embers towards her and gave her a little smile. “Are you planning on strangling me while we sleep again tonight?”

“No, but it’s going to happen anyway. It always does.”

For a moment, he wondered if she might only value him for his body heat, but he dismissed the thought in an instant.

“You can take your mask off,” he said. “I won’t look.”

At that, she stirred slightly, throwing another couple of sticks into the small flames herself. “It’s been a while… Are you sure? Do you have any ravenwood, just in case?”

He nodded. A minute later, he could hear her removing the straps, her hair-vipers hissing.

“Ah, it’s been forever since I’ve taken it off. The air feels so nice…”

“I’m glad,” he replied. He continued gazing into the flames.

“Emony?” she asked.

“Hm?”

“My eyes are closed. Look at me.”

He turned and gazed towards her, seeing her face again for the first time in far too long. He couldn’t help but smile weakly and notice a vibration trickle down the skin below one of his eyes. He wiped away the tear before he’d be forced to transform.

“How do I look?” she asked after a while, her eyes still held tightly shut.

“Dirty and ugly.”

“I’m serious!” she laughed.

“You also smell. When’s the last time you bathed?”

She tried to blindly hit him a couple of times, but she was too far away and she didn’t get close to reaching him. The vipers on her head hissed, drowsily complaining.

“You’re beautiful,” he said.

“Really? Am I pretty enough to die for?”

“Yes.”

“I’m glad… If you really think so. I’ve been a little worried, since... Never mind. Hm… You know, Lenah’s going to see this memory in your head later.”

He gave Tiphaine a tight smile that she couldn’t see. “She might, yeah.”

“And she’ll tease you again if you waste this opportunity.”

“What opportunity?” he asked, noticing the slight tremble on her face.

Tiphaine moved herself closer towards him. “This one. The one to kiss me, before I die.”

His eyes widened. She knew. She knew... but how much? Everything? In a panic, Emony tried thinking about what to do. He didn’t know anything. What could he—

“Emony?” she asked. “Please do it.” Her voice had suddenly changed. She was pleading with him.

“I… I don’t know—”

“I don’t want to die without knowing what it’s like. I’ve been waiting for so long.”

“Tiphaine… You’re not yourself right now. I did something to your head. I can’t. I’ll do it in the morning, okay?”

“You’re lying again. I always know when you are, Emony, and I already know what you did. I don’t care. Please, just do me this one kindness. I know I’m annoying, but I’ll never ask for anything else.”

There were tears streaming out of her closed eyes, streaming down her cheeks.

“You’ll be rid of me soon enough,” she said. “So maybe just this once?”

“Tiphaine…”

He couldn’t stop himself any longer.

What felt like centuries later, they finally parted lips. Tiphaine fell silent. She’d stopped shaking a while ago, opting instead to remove her tail from around the fire and wrap it around him instead.

“It’s your turn to close your eyes,” she said quietly, a while later. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you clearly.”

“The crystals aren’t clear enough?”

“Be quiet. No. Just… keep your eyes closed and stay with me tonight. You’re so warm, and… I do feel cold.”

In the distance, thunder and lightning boomed across the cloudy sky.

2

Lenah

She awoke from her suffering in a pool of vomit, seeing Aylard’s worried face staring at her.

Her stomach churned and swayed, making her feel like she was going to throw up again, while her bowels rebelled against her and her head felt like it had tiny ants crawling inside of it.

Her eyes flitted open and closed in the sunlight shining through the shack, her nose trying to keep away the horrid smell. In her mind, she began chanting magic.

“You’re awake!” exclaimed Aylard. “I got the ring out, you’ll be alright! I’m sorry, I guess it was my turn to drug you. But Lenah, by the divines, how is this supposed to be a love potion?”

Because if someone sees you after you drink it and stays, you’ll know for sure that it’s true love.

Sparks of magic sizzled along her insides as she chanted, clearing her head before making their way down her body all the way to her toes. She’d gotten far better at healing magic than she’d earlier let on.

She sat up quickly before shaking in disgust one more time and running out of the shack. There, in the field, she began coughing up muck into the ground.

Aylard came running after her. She heard the startled neighing of a horse.

“Are you okay? Dammit, not so fast, witch, you’re as pale as a ghost! Here, I brought some bread. Oh, divines… Was that from the silver or the love potion?”

“The love potion,” she gasped, after hurling.

She took the bread from his hand before gulping it down in one go. She was so light, she felt like she was empty. Her stomach was. Of course it was the love potion, what else? That amazing invention of hers could even help a girl lose weight. Silver only hurt and killed the magic.

“Stand back,” she mumbled, taking more bread from Aylard’s hands and stuffing it in her mouth. Aylard did so, and she sent another surge of magic along her body.

Suddenly, with a flash of blue, the disgustingness clinging to her flew off in all directions, showering the surrounding grass and coloring it brown. She pinched her nose, still unable to endure the smell, and made her robes fly off too just in case before conjuring new ones.

She skipped gingerly past the mess on her tippy toes and made her way to Aylard, who was looking stunned in front of the hut and his horse. Still pinching her nose, she motioned to him.

“Come here. Smell me,” she ordered him.

“What? No!”

“Come on! Please! I don’t want to do it first! This was your doing, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, but I had no choice! I had to get the silver out of you!”

“Well, I’m very grateful,” she said, grabbing the air with her free hand and altering gravity for him so that he flew towards her, before turning it back. “Now smell me.”

“Are you aware of how evil you are?” he muttered, making another disgusted face before he took a whiff. The next moment, his expression turned to surprise.

“You… You smell good,” he said.

“Oh, thank the divines,” she sighed, unpinching her nose. “And you, Aylard. Hurray for magic. Oh… I am going to kill that mutt!”

“He did this to you? Emony?”

“He did this to me while I slept, that damned dog! I was in the middle of something! Urgh! Thank the divines I protected Tiphaine in time! I just know that he must have tried singing to her!”

“He tried to mess with her mind somehow, she told me. I thought only you could do that. But she’s the one that sent me to you and told me what to do.”

“Really? Good girl… I’ll definitely have to return the favor.”

That was when she noticed how dark the magic in the air was. A creeping blackness was steadily getting stronger all around, invisible to most living beings, but felt, regardless, by all of them.

Not bothering to finish her thought, she looked, stunned, at the dark horizon. “Ready the horse, Aylard. He’s coming.”

“Emony? No, is it them? The men of the lake? I knew something was wrong, I’ve been feeling it in my bones for hours! What the… Is this… snow? So close to Terrena?!”

“The men of the lake cannot go on dry land. Snow is water – they’re coming. Do you know where the kingdom’s army is gathered? Good. Then let’s move!”

“What are we going to do?!” Aylard screamed merely minutes later, running his horse so fast it’d break its bones if not for her stream of magic.

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Chasing them from almost every direction, thousands of gurgling corpses threw themselves towards them across the snow, their limbs clawing the ground and falling off while they stormed the white fields.

“Just keep going! Look ahead! I’ll slow them down!”

Lenah breathed in magic from the air, disgusted by the taste of darkness, and hurled a blue ball of fire behind them, in the path of the corpses.

“Hahaha, take that, monsters!”

“Lenah?! What’s going on, what was that light?!”

“Dark-ish magic! But if you want me executed for my crimes, you’ll have to get me to Terrena! They’re still coming!”

“Then do it again!”

She focused her mind and breathed in more magic, letting it fill up her lungs and unleashing it at the corpses again. The corpses running in front were blown apart by the fire, while the ones following made their way around the searing heat, following the snow, still charging madly towards them. The snowstorm was getting stronger and stronger up ahead. The king of the lake must have already made it into the city.

“I can see the walls! Lenah, Terrena is right there, but they’ve already reached it! What the – Another earthquake?! What is going on?!”

The ground shook under the horse’s feet, nearly throwing Lenah off it, but she grabbed onto Aylard for a moment and stabilized herself.

“Where is the army?! We need to get to Tiphaine!” she shouted.

“They’re – they’re right ahead! What the – duck, they’re shooting at us! Lenah! They can’t see us through this blizzard! They’re already fighting! What is that noise?! Divines, the city wall has been destroyed up ahead! It must be the king! He’s here!”

“What?! We can’t be too late! Go faster!”

“What do you mean?! Horses can’t go any faster! Where do I go?!”

“Left! Go left! Get us away from the fight!”

“That’s impossible!” he shouted.

“Damn it all!” she cried suddenly.

“What is it?! Did the archers hit you?!”

“No! Just keep riding! I can feel Tiphaine! We’re running out of time! We’re not close enough! Aylard, do you trust me? I need you, right now, if we’re going to give those two that small chance!”

“Lenah, something’s happening! I can feel something is wrong! Something is really wrong!”

“Do you trust me, Aylard?! Do you agree to this?! Tell me now! This will only work if you do!”

“Yes! I do! Why?! Divines, it’s getting stronger! Lenah! Is that… wait, is that you?! I feel like… I’m dying! What are you doing, Lenah?! What is that?!”

The earth trembled once more. More of the walls of Terrena roared and collapsed up ahead. Her eyes shifted from blue to black as the sparks of dark magic hissed through the air all around them.

“Black magic,” she hissed.

3

Emony

“You said we were going to fight!” Tiphaine screamed, kicking and screaming as he dragged her forward. “You promised me and the knight commander!”

“Well, I lied, damn it!” Emony shouted back. “That was just a backup plan! The first one was always running!”

His whole body was vibrating, demanding change, the snow finding its way onto his face and hands and melting into water. He couldn’t afford to stop moving for a second, he’d lose his concentration instantly. He was resisting it with all his might.

“Tiphaine, the whole kingdom is fighting him! If they can’t beat him, then we won’t make a difference! Come on, let’s go! We have to get south! To the desert!”

“We had a plan! We can still go through with it!”

“It’s not worth the risk!”

“Yes, it is! Urgh! This is my life it’s all about, Emony, it’s my choice! You’ll have to sing if you want to take it from me! Go on, do it again! See if it’ll work this time!”

“So it really didn’t, back then?! I thought you were kidding!”

“Lenah protected me! She told me everything! And Emony, we have a plan!”

Emony clenched his teeth, struggling even harder to resist the change, trying desperately to move forward with Tiphaine resisting him. A carriage was waiting for them at the gate, the horses blinded so they wouldn’t fear her. But Emony had the strength of a human, he could barely move her at all.

“You should have told me!” he shouted.

“That’s my line! Emony, stop trying to leave me in the dark all the time! It’s my choice! Nobody else has to die!”

“You damned, stupid snake! This is precisely why I leave you in the dark! I’m making the decisions this time! You’re going to live!”

“Just you try it! I’ll plug my ears! I won’t hear a thing!”

“Now isn’t the time, Tiphaine! Please, just go! Listen to me! We can still get out of here!”

“No! Too many people have already been hurt! Emony, even if we fail, as soon as I’m gone, all of this will end! And thousands more people will come back, you know how many people I’ve turned to stone over the years!”

“I don’t care! They can stay stones! You’re coming with me!”

Suddenly, an earthquake shook the city, the trembling ground knocking him off his feet into the snow. Instantly far more wet, he abruptly lost his fight with the transformation and found himself a mermaid again.

“Damn it, damn it!” Emony shrieked, her suddenly high-pitched voice breaking hundreds of windows in the surrounding houses. “Tiphaine, please!”

Only a mile behind them, scores of corpses were already falling from the top of the city walls onto the streets and charging toward them in a deranged and broken horde.

“Tiphaine, go! Leave me and go!” she begged. Finally, she tried to lace her voice with magic again, to force her to comply. She had no other options. She had to make it to the carriage, to the witch.

But Emony couldn’t speak a word. She couldn’t move her tongue or her mouth. Tiphaine was shaking her head at her, her mask lying on the ground beside her.

Ever so slowly, wasting so much precious time, Tiphaine lowered herself toward Emony, her soft green eyes exposed to his stone ones.

“I’m taking my choice back, Emony,” she said quietly. “I wanted to kiss you one more time for real before I left, but… I just want you to know, I really cherished every moment I’ve ever spent with you.”

Please run, Emony thought, unable to move a muscle. The mass of corpses was so close. They were almost upon them. The dark sky was swirling so close to the ground. The king was coming.

As she could only watch, horrified, Tiphaine didn’t try at all to get away. She just wrapped herself around Emony one more time, embracing her tightly in the snowstorm and laying a long kiss on her stone lips.

And then, the king was there.

In the distance, the castle walls were blown apart in an instant, massive stones flying through the sky in all directions and showering the snow-covered city with resounding crashes as they demolished roads and houses. The dead finally made it, they crawled up towards them and stopped a little distance away, surrounding them. There were enough of them to fill the entirety of Terrena. And then slowly, ever so slowly, holding his queen in his arms, the king of the lake approached.

The world became quiet as they came closer. The snow stopped, the clouds making their way upwards to reveal a clear blue sky. The dead became as still and silent as the grave. The only sound Emony could hear was Tiphaine’s heart beating against her stone chest.

The king strode toward them, stopping just in front of his legions of corpses.

Tiphaine’s eyes moved for just a moment from his own to glance at the king before, giving up, she laid them upon Emony again.

“You don’t turn to stone?” Tiphaine asked.

“No curse could overpower my love,” the king said.

“I see… Then I guess this is it, Emony,” Tiphaine said, a sad smile across her face. “This is where we part. It’s a shame you won’t be the one to do it, but… I guess that really would be asking too much. I’m glad you’re here with me, at least. How many people get to die beside their friends?”

Emony wanted to shake her head. To scream. To do anything at all, but the stone trapping her was far too strong.

“Tiphaine,” the king breathed, laying his queen on a throne built of corpses. “Yours is a name I will remember.”

“I want you to help him, before you do it,” she interrupted him with a shaky voice. “You promised you would help him. Keep your word. Do it.”

The king slowly nodded, understanding on his face, and lifted a hand towards Emony. Suddenly, Emony could feel an overwhelming dark magic pulsating all throughout her petrified body and changing her to the very core. Her veins and heart shrunk and expanded over and over again. If she weren’t a statue, she would have been screaming in agony.

“It is done,” the king said. “The spell has been lifted. Once she… he is freed from the stone and removed from all water, he will be a werewolf again.”

“Thank you,” Tiphaine said, glancing sadly at Emony again. Emony desperately tried to scream at her to run, but still, no sound rang out of her mouth.

“Have you said your goodbyes?” the king asked Tiphaine.

“I tried. I couldn’t think of anything good enough.”

“I understand. I was the same way myself. Then… Are you ready?”

She looked one more time towards Emony while the king unsheathed his sword. The look on Tiphaine’s face… It was just like that night on the cliff, when they first met. When she was trying to convince herself to jump.

Emony had to get out of the stone. Now. There was no more time. She struggled wildly against the magic.

That was when the second earthquake shook the ground.

“Friends of yours?” the king asked, gazing towards the collapsed city wall. A string of black magic seemed to pulse across Tiphaine’s skin for the briefest of moments.

“Do not fear. They will not be harmed. They will be given whatever in this world that they desire. Thank you for returning my queen to me… Tiphaine.”

Tiphaine looked over into Emony’s eyes and gave her one final smile, which she kept on her beautiful lips even as they were stained with blood. Then, paralyzed in agony behind the stone, Emony saw the sword leave her chest, and the king gently lay her to the ground.

Instantly going mad, Emony moved her eyes as soon as she could, to look more directly at Tiphaine. Then even her head. But it was difficult. So difficult.

She heard terrible coughing somewhere. The king’s blade clattered to the ground as he ran towards his queen.

“Aulduyen,” said a raspy woman’s voice. “Aulduyen, you’ve awakened me.”

Emony struggled, trying to move her arms, but found herself unable to do so. She didn’t understand. Ravenwood always cured her instantly. Unless this was different, something was wrong. She could only move her head, maybe the smallest bit of her neck. But none of that really mattered.

Tiphaine…

“Aulduyen, what have you done?” he heard the queen ask as he gazed at Tiphaine’s dead body. “All these dead…?”

“My queen!” the king exclaimed. “You’re back! You’re finally back. I’ve struggled for ten years…”

Emony slammed her head to the side, trying to move herself. She had to get to Tiphaine. She was right there, lying on the ground with her chest open, her blood staining the snow.

She gasped at the horrible sight, tears streaking down her eyes without restraint, sobs freely escaping her lips.

Only near a minute later, when she was already sick with grief, looking for ways to perish, herself, did a realization break through her sorrow.

I still sound like a girl.

She was still a mermaid. It was impossible, the curse should have been broken, but it was undeniable. She could feel the king’s magic wrapped around her; he’d said it was done. But no… He said it would be once he was freed from the stone and dry. And she wasn’t yet, not dry nor truly free of Tiphaine’s curse. But why not? Unless…

She barely dared to look up towards Tiphaine again. If she was wrong, her false hope would strangle her. But she did. And through her tears, she saw it. That little spark of black magic dancing on her open and bleeding chest. It rose and fell as Tiphaine took a silent breath.

“My queen! I have climbed out of the bottomless abyss to return to you, that you may reign at my side once more! My love… We can be together again!”

Emony, fighting through the agony it took to do so, turned back towards the king and queen. She couldn’t afford to reveal to them in any way what was happening.

“Aulduyen, no… Our lives ended ten years ago. I was at peace in the stone. Why could you not find the same in your death? Why continue our tragic tale?”

“For you, my queen! Only for you!”

Imarah, tightly embraced by the king, silently turned her horrified gaze towards Emony before slowly returning it to her husband.

“But why does your body not return to flesh?” the king suddenly asked, taking a step back. “Your perfect body… I can see the magic is still snaring you, it has merely loosened its grip. Do you require time to break free? What is going on?”

“Aulduyen, look at me. No, no! Don’t turn towards her! Look at me! Look only at me! Please, come back. Just embrace me one more time. Aulduyen… I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry that I did this to you. I didn’t want any of this. I don’t want it now. All of this death, just to continue our sad story…”

“My queen, please, I do not understand—”

As the two held each other one more time, she spoke again, this time with her gaze pointed at Emony. “Death will untie any curse. Kill the caster, break the spell.”

“Yes,” the king murmured into her neck. “You’re right, of course. I’m sorry. But the death I had to seek… It was not easily found. But now that you’re here, it can all be over. Our lives will not be tragedies anymore! We can live in harmony!”

“Aulduyen, please. Every story is the same, if only in a single way. They all end. Aulduyen, please come with me. Reunite with me there, if you really love me. Join me at the end.” The queen looked towards Emony once more, a single tear running down her cheek. She nodded.

“Die,” Emony gasped, as the queen closed her eyes.

Darkness erupted all around the king, shielding his ears from the words.

Only a moment later, however, he began breathing hard. Suddenly, he began screaming.

“No! No! No! Imarah! Imarah, don’t leave me again!”

Suddenly, only a moment later, he grabbed his head with his hands, struggling to stand upright. “Imarah! I cannot hear your song anymore! Imarah! Where did you go?! Please, I need you!”

Emony heard quick footsteps approaching from out of her field of vision. Suddenly, she was lifted off the ground. The human knight commander, Yperian, was standing over her, shoving something into her mouth. Her rigid stone limbs instantly turned to flesh and she was able to move around freely again.

“My love! My love! Why did you leave me?! Why do you continue to run from me?!”

“The lady Lenah sends her regards,” Yperian hissed, standing over Emony. “She and Aylard are keeping the snake alive, but it won’t last. You need to leave!”

“My love! Why?!”

“I can’t move, I need to get dry! Help get me off this snow!”

“We don’t have time! Just get dry and get her out of here!”

“No. Do not,” the king suddenly said darkly, turning towards them. The world reverberated with the sound of his voice.

Emony hadn’t noticed that the king had stopped wailing, but then, in an instant, the silence was deafening.

“My queen is gone,” he said, tears streaming down his face.

He was crying freely onto her chest, cradling her in his arms as he stood facing them, his sorrow so clear it brought down a heavy torrent of rain. Sorrowfully, he gently laid the queen down on the wet ground and walked past her.

“Your friend’s strength is fading. She will be lost soon,” he said, walking over to Tiphaine.

Emony turned quickly towards her. The pool of blood around her had soaked through the snow, and it was still growing. Hers must have been all gone by then, there was so much of it. It was someone else’s that was spilling out of her heart now. Black magic or no, she needed help.

Emony looked around desperately for a bandage, before ripping off her tunic and pushing herself on the ground towards her, her heavy tail slowing her down.

“My love is gone… but I will see her again,” the king said. “I will chase her all the way to the realm of the divines. As she wished, we will reunite in death,” He crouched by Tiphaine while Emony was still desperately trying to pull herself towards her.

“And yours… Yours will join you in life.”

A torrent of black magic suddenly flattened Emony to the ground, crashing from the king’s heart into Tiphaine’s. Darkness instantly covered everything in sight, streaked with a crimson red, cascading into Tiphaine and lifting her off the ground. An earthquake rumbled all around, by far the strongest one yet. The road they were on suddenly split itself apart around them and began falling into a black, bottomless abyss.