The fae dragged the prison cart through the dungeon-room to the center of a magic circle right in front of the corpse tree. The elf girl could feel an immense amount of energy radiating from the tree, an energy that made the elf want to run away. She could feel the wails of the souls trapped in the tree of corpses screaming out; it was unlike anything she had ever seen or felt before.

"Brie," the elf girl whispered, "what should we do?"

Brie stared blankly at the corpse tree, stuck in her own world.

The other children in the cart with them began to panic, rattling the bars of their cage, but their attempts were futile. The fae in black cloaks each took up a position at the corner of the star that touched the rim of the magic circle and began to chanting. The fae in the purple cloak stood by the tree and raised his hands:

"Clear your minds," he instructed. "You have the honor of carrying out the will of our god, fulfilling the sacred duty bestowed upon the blessed. Clear your minds and open your souls."

The chanting of the black cloaked fae became louder and louder, and the other children were screaming and crying. Brie continued to stare blankly, and the elf girl looked around for a way out. She banged on the bars of the cage, until a blinding light filled the room, and her mind was whisked away.

----------------------------------------

The elf girl gasped and opened her eyes. Everything around her was white. Her body felt weightless, and her head was spinning.

"MY CHILD," a booming voice said, coming from nowhere, or everywhere, maybe inside her head?

"Where am I?"

"YOU ARE IN MY DOMAIN. REJOICE! I, VALISH, GOD OF CREATION, HAVE COME TO BESTOW THE BLESSING OF ETERNITY UPON YOU."

The elf girl felt something inside of her telling her to be happy, reassuring her that it was a good thing.

"Eternity?"

"YES, MY CHILD. YOU WILL BECOME ONE WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE LAND ITSELF. IT IS AN HONOR THAT FEW MORTALS ARE GIVEN."

She began to feel excited, but then stopped her heart from racing. This is scary, she thought, why am I not scared? She thought of her mother, and what Brie had told her, Don't give up.

"What does that mean?"

She felt the presence sour, sending a shiver up her spine. She couldn't move, it was like she was suspended in the air, in the middle of nowhere.

"WORRY NOT. YOU WILL UNDERSTAND. CLEAR YOUR MIND AND OPEN YOUR SOUL, MY CHILD. YOU WILL BECOME PART OF THE FORCE THAT PURGES EVIL FROM THE LAND."

The elf girl felt her legs ripped clean from her body. A second ago, they were there, and now, just gone -- no blood, no tear, just... gone. Pain shot through her, more pain than she knew existed, the kind of pain written about in fairytales to punish fiends.

"GOOD, MY CHILD, KEEP YOUR MIND CLEAR."

The elf girl felt her arms disappear, the same as her legs, the same hellish pain electrifying her body. But it didn't stop, this time. She could feel it, whatever it was, tearing away at skin, her flesh and muscles, inching towards her head. She was terrified and wanted to scream at it and make it stop, but she was paralyzed in terror.

You can't give up, no matter how bad it seems. No matter how much it hurts, a voice in the back of her head whispered. The thing breaking down her body jolted to a stop, and the elf girl was able to think again. The pain was still there, her flesh boiling, but it wasn't invading any further.

The presence loomed over her like a wolf stalking its prey.

"I DO NOT WISH TO CAUSE YOU AGONY OR HARM. SUBMIT, CLEAR YOUR MIND, OPEN YOUR SOUL, AND YOU WILL BE FREE."

She could feel the thing shredding her body willing itself to continue, but she used all her might to think, no, and she held it back. The presence let out a low, pained groan.

"IT IS YOUR CHOICE TO MAKE."

----------------------------------------

The elf girl felt her chest tense up, and she was back in the dungeon-room, but her body felt wrong. She tried to look around, but her neck wouldn't move. She couldn't feel her legs or arms, but she could feel something connected to her. Facing her, she saw the cart she was in, now empty, and the group of fae in black cloaks gathering around it, all staring at her.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Oh, gods," Andoran spit out. "What happened!?"

A silence fell over the room, but the elf girl became keenly aware of a sensation of agony filling her bones. It didn't feel like her own agony, but as if it were seeping into her from someone else...

The fae in the purple cloak entered her vision from the left side, "Come," he said, "let us take out leave, this happens when a soul with excessive power joins the fray. It simply takes more time."

The fae turned to leave, Andoran taking more time than the rest.

"Wait," the elf girl croaked out, her voice sounding wrong.

Andoran froze, turned around, and the elf girl saw the horror in his eyes. He stared at her as if he was looking at a monster, than scarpered without another word.

The elf girl was left alone in the chamber, but she didn't feel alone. She couldn't move, and she could feel other presences with her, like they were almost a part of her. Dread set in when she realized what had happened: she had been fused with the tree. She couldn't hear any of the others she had been with, but she could feel them, she could feel Brie, crying out in frustration and anger. She could feel something dangerous inside of her, or inside of it, something that was hurting other creatures. The other souls trapped inside were fueling that dangerous thing, and the elf girl could tell they didn't want to, and so their souls cried.

Something had gone awry in the fae's plan, though, the elf girl hadn't been swallowed like the rest of them. And she could still feel it, the thing that had broken down her body and made her part of this abomination, trying to chew her up. No, she told herself, don't give up, no matter how bad it seems.

She kept telling herself that. She also didn't sleep anymore. She tried to keep track of time, but minutes turned into hours, hours to days, days to weeks, weeks to months... constantly forcing herself to fight the urge to give in. Slowly, she began to feel herself fading away, it deformed her body, but she never gave up. She cried, enduring the pain.

And then one day, the doors finally opened. A group of creatures came through of varying sizes, not the fae that had brought her here. A creature with animal horns approached her.

"Why do you cry, child?" the horned creature asked, his voice as gentle as her mother's had been.

She hadn't spoken in months, so it took time to make the words.

"I -- I don't want to -- to hurt anyone," the elf girl got out between sobs. "I'm sorry."

The creature put his hand on the her head, and his hand began to melt. The smell of burning flesh filled the room.

"Please, please get away from me!" The elf girl cried out.

The horned creature began chanting a spell, and a magic circle made of pure light encased the elf girl and the corpse tree. He continued chanting, and then, poof. She was in the arms of the horned creature, being cradled.

"What is your name, child?" The creature asked her.

"I don't have one," the elf girl said.

The horned creature turned toward his companions and began talking to them, but the elf girl didn't hear them. She closed her eyes as if asleep, and heard the voices of the other kids in the corpse tree, still inside of her mind. She could feel their presence -- she felt Brie. It seemed like they were happy to be free from the corpse tree, but they were still trapped in her head, their souls still mushed together. In that moment, the elf girl felt her sense of self change, no longer just herself attached to the tree, but, someone, something, different. Monstrous. New.

The elf child -- no longer thinking herself as just a girl, felt a hand bring liquid to their mouth. They heard chanting, and their body began to glow. They could feel the stubs surrounding their torso began to shift, then extend, and shaped into limbs. It didn't hurt, it felt gentle, and as a natural as the blooming of a flower in spring.

"Syla," the horned man said softly. "You shall be Syla."

----------------------------------------

"And ever since then," Syla continued, "I've been with His Majesty. He helped me try to find my mother, but she was gone by the time the palace was secured, and we haven't found her since. So he took me in as his own, and I've been trying to find a way to free them..."

Syla looked down at their body as Taka stared at them, seeing the elf child in a new light. Since meeting the elf, he had never thought of Syla as her or a girl, and he didn't know why until now. Everyone else referred to Syla as she, but he'd always thought of the elf as a they, which meant on some level, he was able to sense the other souls dwelling within them. And although they looked like a child to him, they had been through so much, and in relation to his years, were much older than he was.

"Sir Filo," Syla said, their eyes meeting Taka's, "do you think you can help me? Find my mother and... and free them?"

Taka took a moment. Taking on this task would not lead to the the chill life he had wanted, but... maybe some things were worth putting in the effort for. Some people worth fighting for. But maybe, he thought, maybe living my best life is about more then me... Taka realized it no longer mattered if Valish was trying to kill him before, because he would most certainly be on the god's hit list now. But it didn't have to be a one-way street, Taka would do everything he could to make sure it wasn't.

Alright, Syla, Taka sent to the elf, I swear to you to do everything within in my power to find your mother, and to free their souls.

Taka made a new list of questions.

The immediate questions:

- How would one go about learning magic? How can I flip pages?

- Are the defined skills I have common, or is that part of the system unique to me?

_- What's the history between the retired demon lord and the god that summoned me?

-Which god blessed me?

The big questions:

- What was happening in that dream? How do I make sure that doesn't happen?

- Why am I a High Worm and not just a normal worm? / did some god bless me?

-How do I find Syla's mother?

-How do I free the souls trapped within Syla's body?

- Is the god who summoned me going to try to kill me?

-How do I kill Valish, the god of creation?