Overwhelmed, she muttered, "My Core..."
The green-haired fairy couldn't process what was happening. The sole idea she had been within her dungeon the whole time was absurd. Yet, her entire being knew without the slightest doubt it was her own core that had just spoken to her.
In hysteria, Tyra summoned her magic and followed the incomplete connection. However, the result was the same as it had been the whole month: the link was lost within the void.
"H-How? I should sense you, but I cannot feel anything!" she said pleadingly. The fairy watched around with wide brown eyes, already doubting herself.
Maybe she was in a dream. Maybe, after being stuck in the same place for so long without any real progress, she was so desperate and hallucinated its voice. Maybe something else was playing a trick on her. "H-Hello?! Are you there? You are a dungeon, right? Please, answer me!"
No one answered, and her insecurities only grew as minutes went by.
The fairy finally noticed the ethereal consciousness whirling around her, almost trying to hug her and declaring, 'Life! Life! Swarm! Us!'
"Life?" She repeated, confused.
After a second, Tyra's eyes widened, the memory of the first time she moved toward the nest's opening coming back to her. That day, while climbing down the cells, the consciousness had projected the same thing, but she had thought nothing of it. She had believed it was the pleading of a newborn creature that couldn't really understand what it was saying. Yet, if she had been within her own dungeon the whole time, everything would make much more sense. Of course, a dungeon creature would see its core as 'Life' itself, and, in a way, she was indeed part of its swarm. "Oh...Oh! You are a monster of my own dungeon!" she said in a daze, still shocked by the revelation.
The creature had known the whole time, and it even kept trying to tell her, but she had been so focused on her goal so far ahead that she missed the easy answer next to her. This was why the flying beasts didn't try to eat her the first time and even fed and gave her shelter: they knew she was their dungeon fairy.
'I do not belong to anyone. Talk, mortal. How do you know I am a core?'
The voice brought Tyra back, and the fairy felt tears dripping down her eyes. Hearing its voice for the second time was the last proof she needed. "I-It's real...You are real. I've found you." She tried to smile, but the emotions were too much. Her legs lost their strength, and she fell down on her knees, sobbing quietly. "I've found it, Lily. I've found it. I can save you all." she whispered.
Every waking moment she spent trying to not think about the future, worrying about the likely possibility she could never find her core came back to her. The heavy responsibilities on her shoulders melted away a bit, and every doubt and insecurity she pushed down seemed to bubble up on the surface. Tyra couldn't stop herself from crying, and the fairy could finally allow herself to think about Lily and the desperate situation of her entire species again.
She had a chance now, and the world itself seemed to spin around her body, reassuring her everything would be fine.
"Are you still there?" she asked, just to hear its voice once again, to be sure she wasn't dreaming.
'Yes.' The voice was calm and ancient.
"Really?" Her whole body was so tired, and her eyes were so heavy.
'Yes.'
"Really, really?" She murmured, already half-asleep.
'Yes.'
It was real. She had found her dungeon core.
"That's good..." she heard herself say before falling asleep.
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For once, Tyra knew she was dreaming, but did nothing to escape from it. The dream was everything she wished for and even more.
In the vivid fantasy, the fairy saw emerald green sprouts breaking out the rich brown soil and aiming for the sky. With Lily on her side, she flew among old and large trees giving nourishment and shelter to every kind of creature. She explored a giant globe of green and blue, of brown and white, where every kind of being could struggle and adapt, where every species had a place and chance.
Tyra lost herself in the dream of hope and life, but the pain of the real world soon called to her again, and the fairy woke up inside the cold nest's cell.
Recalling what happened before she fell asleep, she sprang upward, calling to her magic and following the link. The feeling of loss gripped her heart tightly, and she muttered in disappointment, "Fat chance, huh."
Of course, everything couldn't be so easy.
Tyra noticed the stone knife on the ground and picked it up in search of support.
'Wake up. We have to talk.' The voice was deep and peaceful, but it was thunder in her ears.
The stone knife fell from her hands at the shock, her heart fluttering in joy and hope in her chest. "It wasn't a dream!" she said while watching around with wonder in her eyes.
'Why are you here? How did you know what I am?' Her own dungeon asked her.
Tyra blinked, still immersed within the newfound fervor. In all this time, she never thought the day she could introduce herself to her own core would truly ever come.
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"H-Hi. I am your dungeon fairy," suddenly, her breath froze into her lungs as she recalled how much time her own core spent alone. "The connection!" she shouted, rushing down toward the opening. "We have to bond before you become insane!"
While skipping down as fast as she could, and almost missing her step a few times, Tyra realized she didn't even know where to go. "Where is your core?!?"
The fairy avoided a few hungry grubs' mandibles while the ethereal mana flow whirled around her body.
'Stop.' The rustlings and creaking of its voice were suddenly much deeper and intense, and Tyra blinked her eyes stupidly when she caught a hint of how ancient and powerful her own dungeon had been before the Evolution. It was only a whisper of something that was no more, but made the fairy freeze in wonder. She didn't even realize when the flying dark blue creature took her in its hind legs and deposited her body inside an empty cell.
'Talk. How do you know what I am? Why are you here?' An undercurrent of annoyance and wariness was in its voice, and Tyra sobered up, realizing her precarious situation.
She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry, and she took a few deep breaths through her nose to calm her jumpy heart. She had to tread the next few minutes very carefully. "I am your fairy! My magic recognizes you. I...Every time a core forms or a creature becomes one, a fairy is born to help it."
A few minutes went by in silence, and the faint green light seeping through the dark material looked more and more ominous in the silence.
'Why did you arrive with the Azure Flames?' Was the next question.
Tyra clenched her hands in suppressed rage. Did her own dungeon really think she was allied with those damned things?
Taking a deep breath to not agitate it further than it probably was, she tried to explain, but winced when she couldn't avoid letting her own hate seep within her words. "We are imprisoned! For thousands of years, all dungeon fairies are taken away before we can form near our core."
Tense minutes without a response went by, and Tyra's nervousness grew. Her own dungeon core wasn't saying anything, and she had to do something before it decided she was an enemy. Without any option, she muttered softly, faking thinking aloud and giving it some additional information. "Damn, I don't know how much time it spent sleeping after the Evolution. It clearly doesn't trust me, but it didn't kill me after all this time. It doesn't seem that insane, so it hasn't been much time since it awakened. But it could be already too late. Damn, damn, damn. Cmon, Tyra. Think."
The fairy chewed on her inner cheek, drawing blood and tasting iron. Misleading her own core like this left a bad aftertaste in her mouth, but she knew she had to buy herself enough time to explain everything.
Finally, after ten more minutes, it spoke again. 'Fairy. Tell me everything you know.'
Tyra's eyes widened in surprise as her half-baked plan worked, but she internally flinched at the request. After a few seconds of hesitation, she nodded and took a deep breath. Even if it was painful to think about the past, she would do anything to increase her chances. "Alright. If that's what you need to trust me. Where to start? I was born 3 years, 7 months..."
While telling her story, Tyra slipped in all she knew about the consequences a dungeon core would suffer without a bond, trying to make it understand how dangerous its situation truly was.
Thinking about Lily felt like a dagger being repeatedly stabbed into her own heart, but she pushed through. Her own pain was nothing compared to the still imprisoned redhead fairy, and Tyra would suffer a hundred times more for an opportunity to save her. "...I was Tricked outside by the Elders, but my body was damaged by the flames even more in the process, and you probably know what happened next."
"Can you trust me?" she asked a few seconds after, biting her lips in thought.
If her own core was so gone it was already paranoid about everything, she didn't have the slightest chance to make it accept the bond. The fact it didn't kill her for a month and even allowed her to live within its dungeon told her it couldn't have been so much time, but it was only a question of months before the mana would push it over the edge of madness and paranoia.
The fairy spent five minutes waiting for an answer, and every minute that went by made her hope fade a little more. When it finally spoke, she was almost sure the answer would be her death sentence.
'I believe you are telling the truth.'
Tyra felt her heart miss a beat as she understood its words. It wasn't a yes, but it wasn't a no either. ""Can we complete the bond then?" she blurted out in excitement.
Realizing what she said a second after the words came out of her mouth, the fairy cursed herself for her haste and bit her cheek as hard as she could. 'I have fucked up everything.'
She waited with bated breath as her dungeon took its sweet time to answer again, and she had to stop herself multiple times from pushing it for an answer.
'What will happen if I accept?' It finally said.
Realizing she still had a chance, Tyra sighed in relief. "I will share some of your mana, and I will be able to use my magic to help you and your creatures in defending your heart. You will change, but your instincts will stop trying to compensate for my presence, and your mentality will stabilize. I will change a bit as well. Also, I will gain a version of your Traits, but I will not be one of your creatures." Tyra stopped, knowing she could lie about this. However, she lowered her head and gritted her teeth. "This means your orders will not work on me... I am your partner, an equal."
Tyra waited and waited, expecting all of the dungeon's creatures to collapse on her, but nothing happened. The entire nest remained surprisingly quiet, the only sound the occasional grub grinding on the walls and flying creature skittering around with food in its mouth.
'That is all?'
Tyra blinked her eyes and watched upward, confused. Maybe it didn't understand what she meant? No. Her core seemed rather intelligent, and she had been clear; she could harm it, even if the possibility made her stomach churn. "Ah... I thought...No, nothing..." She stammered, thinking about explaining how dangerous that could be but not wanting to push her luck further.
It would never happen anyway.
Taking a deep breath, she kept going, "No, some of my magic will flow into you as well. You cannot use your mana to generate inorganic matter, right? You can only create the creatures you have the pattern for. However, my magic will give you the ability to generate a fake version of things you have inside the dungeon. The connection will grow as well with time, and the effects change for every different core and fairy. Sorry, but I don't know anything about it."
This was it. The choice was completely out of her hands now. Tyra closed her eyes and thought about Lily. Her brilliant red eyes and deep scarlet hair. The way she blushed and waved her hands around in circles when embarrassed. The way she could always smile even in their awful circumstances.
'I understand.'
She almost cursed her own core for the useless reply but stopped herself at the last second.
'What kind of answer is that?' She thought, annoyed.
The fairy prepared herself for another ten minutes of silence, but it surprised her when it kept going not even after one.
'Why do you Live?'
The voice was solemn, the rustling of leaves was hushed, but the creaking was deep and almost sorrowful. The fairy realized how important the question really was for her core, and decided to answer with her heart open. "I want to survive. I want to save Lily and all the other fairies as well. I want to slaughter the Blue Flames and whoever is behind them. And I want to grow powerful enough to not see the people I love suffer again."
The silence went on for almost half an hour, and every second felt like torture. Her magic couldn't keep up with the damage she was inflicting on her lips and inner cheek, and she cursed having left her knife inside her cell a thousand times.
'Come, fairy. I will accept your link.'