“I must congratulate you on defeating Watchful,” said Lili. “He’s threatened the Walled Garden since its first stones were laid. So have you malforms.”

This was bad. She didn’t stand much of a chance of fighting them all at once. Even if she did, she’d be leaving Merryway to die. She had to stall Lili long enough to heal the wound.

“You knew I’d kill Watchful?”

“I knew one of you would kill one of you. Leaving the other badly weakened.”

“And Merryway is just collateral damage.”

Lili turned solemn. “Your fault, not mine.”

“How did you get past the trials?” Thyssa asked.

“Oh, it was nothing,” said Lili. “A bit of imagination, a bit of faith. It’s all quite easy for a human. Even the Cavern of Yourself would have had nothing to reflect. But an animal lost its temper and smashed it.”

Thyssa grit her teeth, but didn’t show it. Didn’t dare show Lili she was getting under her skin. “That’s all I am to you? After all the talks, all the tests?”

“After the killing.”

“Dr. Goodfellow was hurting me.”

“That lie again?”

“And if you hate killing so much, why work with the Stormwatch? You always hated them.”

“They’re working with me,” said Lili. “We don’t usually see eye-to-eye. Really, this is a testament to the strength of diplomacy and compromise. It’s simply amazing what you can do, with reason and calm.”

Thyssa looked up at Lili, eyes pleading. “You can reason with them, but not me?”

“We are perfect. You are irredeemable.”

“That wasn’t what you told me before.”

Lili sighed. “No, it wasn’t. But that’s what scientists do, Thyssa. No duty but to truth.” She extended a hand. “The Benevolent Heart and Sacred Brain. Give them to me.”

Slowly, too slowly, Merryway’s blood flowed back into them.

“Why do you want them, anyway?”

“We need both stones to perform Scission,” said Lili. “Ever since Watchful stole the Sapient Brain, we couldn’t make any more perfect humans. Our population has stagnated – as have our ideas! More and more, we are isolated, fearful, looking down on the rest of the world. We are a perfect people, but we have an imperfect culture.”

“Is making everyone perfect really worth all this?” asked Thyssa. “What’s wrong with just ordinary people?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“War!” shouted Lili. “Starvation! Pollution! Did you think this was always a wasteland? Did you think food was always so precious? This very temple – where are those who built it?”

“The humans…killed each other?”

“In droves! Hate Dr. Goodfellow’s legacy if you must, but he invented the Scission because he knew what Watchful forgot: Either we remove our sins, or they remove us.”

“But if you remove your sins, you make more of us. You couldn’t even get along with one.”

“I haven’t given up on your kind,” said Lili. “Just you. You said it yourself – you’re not all alike. My monster is not someone else’s. I just need to find more compliant subjects and, through them, I’ll have the malforms all under control.”

“Because you’ll dangle your toys over them. You’ll let them be human, and all they have to do is serve your every whim.”

“Some creatures need to have treats dangled over them, Thyssa. And others don’t comply even with them. Even when it is utterly irrational, utterly futile, they writhe and bite, unable to accept themselves or the world.”

“If I can’t accept this world, it’s because it’s unjust. And if you can, it’s because that injustice benefits you.”

“Poetic. I wonder if you got that from me, or the Sapient Brain. Will you hand over the stones now, or should I treat those beautiful words as your last?”

Merryway’s wound was closing, but still fatal. She couldn’t leave them for a moment.

“One thing I still don’t understand –”

“Your ignorance is deeper than this Muckpool that spawned you. It would take longer to rectify than your natural life. I will wait no longer. Stones or die.”

The circle of Stormwatch closed around Thyssa.

Thyssa turned to them, one blank mask after another. “Merryway is only alive because I’m keeping her alive, with all my strength. With all the stones’ strength. If you take them now, you’ll be killing a human. Not like me. A human-human. You know? Those two-legged things you swore to protect?”

“We swore to protect the Walled Garden from outsiders,” said one of the Stormwatch – judging from his more elaborate armour, this was the Commander. They kept marching forward.

“All I need is more time!”

“We don’t give a damn what you need,” said the Stormwatch Commander. “You killed good people, and we’ll make you suffer for it.”

They pointed their spears at her, which glowed bluish-white as they charged up.

“The righteous protect the weak,” recited the Stormwatch Commander. “They will guard the innocent, and strike down any who would harm them –”

Just then, a great and terrible hand burst through the surface of the Muckpool, grabbing the Stormwatch Commander and hurling him across the room.

“LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE.”

The Stormwatch turned to face the Muckpool, where dozens of malforms were charging out of it. Grendel Pack…and others. Cerberus. Widow Mantis. Every pack, all fighting aside one another, all charging at their ancient enemy.

“YOU TRIED TO TURN US AGAINST EACH OTHER,” said the Ogre Queen. “BUT YOUR CRUELTY HAS UNITED US ALL AGAINST YOU. DESPAIR AT THE SIGHT OF A THOUSAND FANGS, AND SCREAM AS THEY TEAR YOU TO PIECES!”

Lightning struck chitin, fangs pierced armour. Black and red blood soaked the temple grounds.

And then, with the Stormwatch distracted, Thyssa managed to finally stabilize Merryway. She stuffed the stones in her bag. Not perfect, but they would live. And Thyssa could strike.

She drew the mirror shard and stabbed one in the back.

“Don’t turn your back on me, you worms!” she screamed. “You fight my pack, you fight me!”

Some of the Stormwatch turned to fight her, but she was boiling with hope and fury to see her pack. She was fast as the north wind, fearsome as her reflection, and determined as a human whose family threatened. She was everywhere at once, and so was her blade.

She was just pulling her blade out from another soldier when another lunged at her from behind. Just as the fatal spear nearly struck, the Ogre Queen stepped on him, crushing him like a bug.

The Stormwatch was gone. The storm had won.

And then, just when they tasted victory, Thyssa heard a crash as a malform keeled over. Then another, and another. Everywhere she looked, malforms fell to the ground, writhing in agony.