Lili screamed and ran. As soon as the stones dissolved, Authority would lose its power source, and she knew better than to be there when it did.

As the stones hit the surface of the Muckpool, several things happened all at once. The room filled with a pink and green light, as, after a century, the Goddess Fountain was purified. The malforms suddenly moved freely, saved from Authority. Some chased Lili, some tended to their respective packs. Thyssa felt her body writhe, as she became a malform once more. Her tainted veins burned with the venom of Spiteful Kreit, now left unchecked.

With the last of her strength, she crawled to the Goddess Fountain and drunk from its sparkling waters. The burning finally stopped. The Fountain had its healing powers again. She picked up a chalice, filled it and poured it over Merryway’s wound. It hissed, bubbled, closed completely. Merryway stirred. Their eyes opened. They gasped, bolted up, staggered back. Then they stopped.

“Thyssa?” said Merryway. “Is that you?”

Their face was full of an unbearable concern, just like when the Ogre Queen saw her as a human.

“Don’t look at me!” Thyssa shrieked, and she ran off, away from those sad eyes, out of the fountain chamber, into a shadowed part of the temple, away from the glorious light of the stained glass window. There, she removed her human clothing and wept poisonous tears.

Massive footfalls approached.

“I told the pack that human of yours is off limits,” said the Ogre Queen. “They agreed. Reluctantly. The Stormwatch will be more than enough meat and scrap for a while.”

She placed down her massive palm, and Thyssa stepped onto it, lifted up to her mother’s face, which blazed with a pride Thyssa couldn’t share.

“You did it,” said the Ogre Queen.

Thyssa looked down. “I almost didn’t. Those things she said…about wanting to run, or kill…she was right about me.”

“And yet, you did neither,” said the Ogre Queen. “She was right about a small part of you. But she thought that part ruled you. She did not see your strength, as I did. And that strength let you prevail.”

“I don’t feel like I won,” said Thyssa.

“Victory is not always a triumphant thing. I know how much being human meant to you.”

Thyssa looked at her arms, twisted, wrapped in nerve cables. “It feels like I had a lovely dream, and now I’ve woken up.”

“You are hurt. But the same strength that overcame Lili can overcome this. I’ll be by your side. As I always wanted to be.”

“I’ve gained back what I lost. But I lost what I gained.”

The Ogre Queen nodded. “You speak of that human.”

“Merryway.”

“You lost them?”

“Well…look at me! You saw how they were scared of me.”

“And yet it was you who ran.”

“I can’t deal with feelings like that in this body.”

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“Feelings like what?”

“Rejection.”

“You never gave them a chance to reject you. A strong armour to keep away their touch.”

“But I want their touch!”

“Then go back to them. Either they leave, or they stay. Either way, you won’t be weakened by regret.”

“I can’t believe you’re telling me to open up to a human.”

“I couldn’t believe you’d want to be one. They’re so…fragile.”

Thyssa laughed weakly. “I liked being fragile. It was fun.”

“And I couldn’t believe Cerberus Pack and Widow Mantis Pack would fight by our side.” The Ogre Queen sighed. “But the world is changing. Adapt or die.”

Thyssa nodded slowly. “Let me down, please. I need to go adapt.”

The Ogre Queen grinned a fearsome grin. She lowered her palm and Thyssa jumped down. She ran back to the fountain chamber, only to find Merryway running to her.

“Merryway, I…”

“Thyssa, I…”

They both spoke at once.

“I love you!”

“I think I might have figured out a way to make you human again!”

Merryway blushed. Thyssa would have blushed, if her face wasn’t covered in exoskeleton.

“What?”

“If…if that’s what you want!”

“It is! Show me.”

Merryway reached for Thyssa’s hand, then stopped. “Wait, is it…alright to touch?”

Thyssa nodded. “It’s just my spit that’s poison.”

“And it wouldn’t hurt you?”

“My hands? Hardly any sensation at all there.”

Merryway took Thyssa’s hand, and they ran into the fountain chamber. The malforms had already left the chamber, taking the delicious, delicious corpses with them. (When not in their nests, malforms preferred to eat outside).

“Watchful said the stones were just concentrated power from the Goddess Fountain.”

“They were more powerful. The Fountain can only heal disease.”

“The Fountain heals disease because that’s what health means to us. And, when they defiled the Fountain, they got rid of all their imperfections, because that’s what health meant to them.”

“And we are those imperfections.”

“But you’re all different! And the perfect humans, they’re all different too. Watchful is nothing like the ones I’ve met.”

“They got rid of different things.”

“Exactly! The Scission gave them all their idea of perfect health!”

Thyssa looked down. “Then why didn’t the Fountain fix me?”

“Faith. That’s what the trials were testing for. Imagination, faith and self-reflection. That’s what you need to control the Fountain’s power. A twisted imagination would give a twisted idea of health, so they put up barriers to stop people doing the kind of thing Watchful did.”

“And kept out us malforms in the process.”

“Until now. You have proven yourself worthy.”

“I was always worthy. No matter what anyone else said. I shouldn’t have had to prove anything just to be healed.”

“I didn’t mean…you’re right.” Merryway stared into the sparkling water. “The same barriers that let in the blasphemers nearly killed you. That cannot be the will of the Goddess.” They sighed. “I have…much to learn.”

“We all do. We’ve made a new world, with new rules.”

Merryway tightened their grasp on Thyssa’s hand. “Then take your faith in yourself, and in me, and bathe in the Goddess Fountain.”

Thyssa let go of Merryway’s hand and leapt into the Goddess Fountain, submerging herself completely in the water’s warm embrace.

The water was clear enough for her to look down. It went deep, deep, underground. She couldn’t see a bottom. She could see pores in the rock wall here and there, where the Muckpool once poured out into caves. One of those holes was her birthplace. She didn’t know which.

She thought she’d feel sad for the Muckpool…but it was still the same body of water. The Goddess Fountain was the Muckpool, and always was. And it still gave life, in another form. Thyssa fancied it liked this form better – that it was grateful to her for changing it back. That gratitude flowed into her, changing her. Her figure softened, curves instead of spikes, hair instead of nerve cables.

Lungs that could only breathe air.

She swam up to the surface, climbed out and took a deep breath.

“It worked!” she shouted, in her wonderful human voice. “You were right!”

Merryway’s eyes widened and then darted away. “The Goddess be praised,” they said, voice cracking.

Thyssa realized she was naked. Well. She knew that. But she forgot the significance. Malforms are always naked, or, if you like, they wore their own armour. A naked malform, that’s completely normal. A big naked girl right in front of you, that’s a very different sight. Thyssa jumped back in the water before poor Merryway fainted.

“Sorry!”

“You have…nothing to apologize for,” croaked Merryway, scratching the back of their head.

“Could you please get my clothes?”

“Yeah. Uh, yeah. Where’d you leave them?”