Tsigon escorted Thyssa into the throne room – an immense cavern, encircled by the Lake of Acid. Far above, a pair of acid-yellow eyes glared down at Thyssa. The eyes were as large as Thyssa’s head, and they sat on a bestial horned head as large as Thyssa’s whole body, and the head sat on a body ten times larger than that, and the body sat on a throne of claw and fang and blade and bolt – every weapon that had ever been raised against Grendel Pack.

Tsigon knelt before the throne. “An intruder. She wears the Benevolent Heart.” He pointed an icy finger at Thyssa’s neck.

The Ogre Queen slammed a fist down in rage. “Humans! What have you people done with my daughter?”

Tsigon was already gone – he knew better than to be near her fury. Thyssa was left alone with the Ogre Queen. Hands trembling, she reached into her bag and produced a doll of malform fur and bones. She knelt and placed it before the Ogre Queen, who picked it up. She sniffed it. Her eyes widened, she bared her teeth. She grabbed Thyssa and lifted her into the air.

“Where is she.”

Thyssa took a deep breath. “I’m here.”

“But you’re…”

Thyssa twirled the Benevolent Heart in her hand. “Lili’s latest guinea pig.”

The Ogre Queen placed Thyssa on her other hand so she could stand comfortably. She brought Thyssa up to her terrible, tender face, full of fury, full of love. Now full of cold horror, as she stared upon the one malform that could disturb even her.

“What did she do to you?”

“Nothing I didn’t want.”

“That device smells of rain and blood. It sings a backwards song. There is something very wrong with it.”

“There was something wrong with me. This thing fixed it. Made me what I’m supposed to be.”

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“You were born a malform! That’s what you’re supposed to be! They didn’t heal you, they remade you in their image. And you wanted it. Why?”

“It hurt to be.” Thyssa found her voice flat and hollow, without the gentle lilt Lili had taught her.

“To be one of us?”

“To be…that! You saw what I was, how I suffered! Did you really want that for your daughter, if she could be anything but that thing?”

The Ogre Queen was silent for a while. “A thing. Is that what you name yourself. Did Lili teach you that?” She sighed. “Am I a thing to you?”

Thyssa looked down. “No, that’s not…that isn’t…mom…”

“Then keep their poison out of your mouth. Bite yourself with no fang that wouldn’t pierce my flesh.”

“Yes, mom.”

“Two years. I have lived since the first malforms crawled from the Muck Pool, and the two years you were gone was the longest time in my life.”

“I wanted to go back.”

“They kept you prisoner.”

Thyssa grit her teeth. “I kept myself prisoner. That was the price of being a girl.”

“Then why did you run?”

“That’s not important anymore.”

“Thyssa. What did they do.”

“Lili, she…she wanted me to be her daughter. Tried to teach me to be normal.”

“What she did is not your fault.”

“I let her. I played along. I let her feed me and hug me and tell me what to wear. I gave her everything she asked for.” She sighed. “It…wasn’t enough.”

“She hurt you?”

Thyssa nodded weakly. “At first, just her colleague did. I warned him, but he didn’t listen. I killed him.”

“As is your right. Those who hurt Grendel Pack seduce death.”

“I didn’t even mean to! It was just an accident, but that was the last straw for Lili. She tried to take the Benevolent Heart back. I…I couldn’t let her do that. I fought back. I killed people, mom.”

The Ogre Queen took a deep breath, processing all of this. Thyssa felt a hot tremor in her mighty hand, a volcano of fury barely stoppered by centuries of discipline. She understood why, too. The Ogre Queen was ready to smash everything around her, but Lili wasn’t around her and her daughter was. So there was no room in the cavern for her wrath. When she finally spoke, it was cold was ice.

“Such is the human’s vaunted compassion. So generously given to everything but our kind.”

Thyssa grit her teeth, feeling a surge of her own anger, remembering the humans’ rejection of her.

“I should have known better.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Thyssa knelt on her mother’s hand. “Please. Don’t abandon me, too. I’m sorry I left, I’m sorry I played Lili’s games, just…please. Take me back.”

“You will always be mine. No matter what shape you take, you will always be part of Grendel Pack, and you will always be my daughter.”