Imago Ch24: The Obsidian Door (Patreon)

<- previous"...I've put out the pilot! Fili will be here soon. N-not to rush you!"  Astraea calls, her voice drifting through the gauzy bedroom curtain. "Take your time, I'll hunt down Neith II!""Won't be a moment!" L calls back, wrestling herself into an equally-gauzy top. Thankfully, it's sturdier than it looks. Everything she's expected to wear here seems like it should tear in a stiff breeze, much less survive the act of actually putting it on. Unfortunately, it's not warmer than it looks. She wraps her arms around herself, silently cursing the weaver. She can picture some spider-nymph tucked away at a loom, busily working away. Probably without much choice in the matter, now that she thinks on it. She’s too chilly not to be a little angry with them anyway.  She glances to the closet."Just grabbing a cloak! You haven't packed them all, have you?"  There’s no answer through the curtain, just a sudden, mock-offended gasp followed by muffled squeaks and the rattle of crockery. L grins crookedly, poking her head into the open closet. "Sounds like she found the nibblemonster." She murmurs, glancing through the clothes. There's a number of garments hanging from a wooden lattice stretched across the ceiling. L fumbles through them until she finds one of Astraea’s traveling cloaks. Light and warm. Of course. "...could have made them for nymphs too..." She says, throwing it around her shoulders. "They can do literal magic. Can't tell me they can't - " L stops, her brow furrowing. The back of the closet, where Astraea stored her more controversial outfits, has been completely emptied out. The Keeper nymphwear, the Kept dryad garments, all the risque masks - gone. Nothing but empty space. She frowns, drifting through the clothes. So much for travelling light. Maybe it was all just too sentimental for her to leave behind?A metallic gleam catches her eye, and she kneels down, picking up a fragment of a chain. The broken ends are smooth to the touch. It’s as if the metal has been partially melted. L's frown deepens, and she hurries out, pushing the bedroom curtain aside.Astraea’s in the kitchen, her feet braced firmly on the floor, gripping one end of a canvas satchel full of shelled nuts with both hands. Neith II has her jaws around the bottom of the bag. The alp-luachra’s sliding slowly across the floor as Astraea pulls, but she’s putting up a spirited enough fight to leave a trail of nuts behind her.  “L…!” Astraea calls over her shoulder. “H-help!”L drops down and scoops up a handful of scattered nuts. She rattles them in her cupped hands just long enough to catch Neith II’s attention, then tosses them across the living room. Neith II’s mad orange gaze flicks back and forth between her canvas prize and the bouncing morsels. She twitches back and forth, as if she can’t decide whether to hold on or go wriggling after them. Astraea seizes on the moment of indecision and wrestles the satchel free, quickly holding it up out of reach. Neith II puffs up like an angry balloon, clearly aware that she’s been tricked but not entirely sure how. She lets out an offended squeak and goes snaking after the loose nuts. L snickers, watching her go.“Here. I’ve got these, just keep the bag away from her. She’ll be back in an instant if you set it down.” She starts scooping up scattered fragments. Astraea kneels down beside her, holding the bag open. "You've got your things packed?"“Yes! Not that I brought much to begin with. Here.” L pours the nuts back into the container. “Are we really going to need snacks - ”As she withdraws, the side of her hand brushes against Astraea’s. It’s like touching an icicle. L yelps, recoiling in surprise. Astraea jumps."L?!"“I’m alright.” L apologizes, looking ruefully at her hand. The edge of her palm is frosted over, like a pane of glass on a winter morning. "Are you?"“Y... yes? Of course?"L holds her hand up, letting her see the slowly melting frost. She quirks her antennae. Astraea flinches, then pulls her own hand close, tucking it back behind the satchel. "M-maybe I just…”  She trails off, then gives her head a shake. “C-can we go over the plan again?" L watches her, uncertain. Maybe it's just nerves. She doesn’t really know what that would do to a dryad. "Sure." She clears her throat. “While everyone else is at Final Dusk, I'm going to enter through the window and follow Fili's directions to Evander's historic office. You'll be at the festival with Cordelia. She’ll be disguised as me, just to hold off suspicion. Cordelia's dryad will wait outside. Once I have the reliquary, I'll signal.  He'll get you, and we'll make our way to the gate."Astraea's eyes find their way back to L, looking her up and down. Her ears, just at the very end, warm to pink. "... and you're still dressed like you're attending Final Dusk, because…""In case anyone sees me. I'll just be a lost nymph that got separated and turned around." L pulls the cloak a little tighter around herself. Astraea scoots closer, helping her to adjust it. Her hands aren’t so cold through the cloth. "Should we try and get your things to the portal first?” L asks. “Thiar can keep them safe for us.” "Mmmm." Astraea says, drawing away."Do you not want to chance it? It’s just that all those books…they might be heavy if we have to run." L glances around the room. There's nothing except L’s green backpack, set near the door."I didn’t pack my books.” Astraea says, distantly. “I gave them back to Fili."Her tone sets L's antennae jangling. She forces a smile, softening her voice. "... why?"Astraea turns her head away. L shifts closer, moving to keep her in view. "Hey. Talk to me. We have to be here right now, and you’re somewhere else. Where have you gone?"Astraea’s response comes out in a trembling breath of frost.  "Please… L… don’t. I don’t want to talk about it.” Slowly, as if she’s approaching a frightened animal, L reaches out. Brushing Astraea's hair aside. "Astraea - " She says, her palm cradling the side of the dryad’s face. Her cheek is cold and clammy, but the touch sparks something in her eyes, bringing them back into focus. L can feel the skin beneath her hand begin to warm. "L...?" Astraea asks, softly. A tremble runs through her.  "L… what are…" L knows she should let go. She shouldn’t be inching closer, following the flickering light in the dryad’s eyes. It’s drawing them both in, pulling them somewhere deep. An unstoppable current. Her antennae twitch, picking up the warm scent of Astraea’s breath. Blossoms and new leaves. And she’s breathing faster, and that light is warming, beckoning, and L’s so close to her face, letting that breath wash over her like a heartbeat - There's a steady rap at the door.L jolts, nearly falling backward as Astraea stumbles away.  She hastily undoes the cloak, letting it fall from her shoulders. "I-I-I'll get it- "She scrambles upright, off to welcome Fili and Cordelia and her attendant spriggans. Astraea remains where she is, one hand pressed against her own cheek. Keeping the warmth against her face. Cherishing it, holding it close.Until it fades away. The true size of the Great Tree has always been difficult for L to grasp. She dwarfs the other structures of the city, grand as they are. She even towers over the ancient trees of the Wilds, looming like broken monuments at the edges of the city's light. And, of course, the dryads have honeycombed the living wood with halls and passages, none of which has harmed Xylia in the slightest. It's incredible to think about, given the scale the corridors and chambers have been built to - enough for even Evander’s massive frame. And today, at the end of Her long year and in preparation for Her rest, Xylia’s gathering halls blaze with light and life. But not along the bridge. No spriggans patrol the balconies or the crevices, no watchful eyes peer from the high windows. There’s no one to stop L from slipping through the fissures in Her skin. A winged fragment of night, climbing through a window into the heart of the Grove. Her antennae throb with the heady sensation of living aether as she lands on the soft carpet.  L swiftly stands, taking in the abandoned hall she’s found herself in. Glowing orbs of hardened sap illuminate glittering engravings - geometric patterns and gilded portraits of dryads long past, worked into the living wood, all gazing upon her with condemnation. None of those faces would blink at taking her arms, or eyes, or sending her bound and screaming into the dark for what she’s about to do. L breathes in to slow her racing heart, her jangled nerves. She averts her eyes and snakes into the darkness, beyond their gaze.Down, Fili had told her. The office is down, nestled among the roots. Where Xylia draws Her lifeblood. Where, one way or the other, L will meet her fate.  She moves through golden corridors and down spiraling stairs, away from the distant hum of revelry. Always down. Always descending.Searching for a door of polished night.She pauses on a landing, her antennae twisting to catch something. The distant sound of footfalls, ringing below and fast approaching. L glances about. Nothing but twisted friezes of entwined branches.  She hesitates an instant, then throws herself into the air and spirals up beneath a winding stairwell, clinging tight and drawing her wings about her. The act is so familiar it’s soothing - the careful hunter, waiting for predators to pass.  A column of spriggans fill the hall with the staccato strike of their hobnailed boots. Thirty in all, she counts, each armoured from head to foot and armed with gilded spears flashing in choreographed synchronicity, more mechanical than Thiar. They cross underneath her, and then circle up the stairs above, the vibrations of their footfalls like cracking ice. L holds her breath, waiting to see if she’ll be given away. Anything could do it. A ripple of her wings, a twitch of her antennae. But the guards keep their eyes forward, keep their march in perfect time. They only look where they’ve been told to look. And, eventually, they pass by. L waits until the echoes of their patrol fade before drifting back to the steps, coasting on silent wings.Continuing her journey down.The stairs soon give out, smoothing into ramps; curved wood and worn bark, with rivulets of aether seeping through the gaps. Glowing globes and flickering lanterns have been replaced by pools and channels of the golden liquid.  She can feel Xylia’s pulse, a low thrum, drawing up life from the depths. Feel the full weight of time pressing down on her, pinning her in place, as fixed and still as a tomb.  And then, ahead of her, she sees them.  Framed by two brilliant pillars pulsing with aether-flow are two obsidian doors. Ready and waiting. Capturing her beneath their surface and reflecting her back in perfect clarity.She walks forward, and places her hand on the door.Her wrist flares with sudden pain, and she gasps, grabbing at the letters beneath the glamour. Daphne, Kept of SpencerShe’s been here before. For an instant, the smooth wood and glowing aether blurs into shadow. Monstrous displays of pinned insect husks rising to take their place, neatly labeled with the date and location of their death. She’s walked this road before. Something terrible waits on the other side. She knows it. Deep in her heart, she knows it. What game does she think she’s playing? Ian’s life can’t be worth this risk. She’d said she loved him. And here she is, risking all of them. If she never makes it home - even if she's just late - the King will kill both Ian and Neith without a second thought. And Astraea, left alone in the dark - how long would she last? Something’s already tearing at her heart. What does L owe her? What does L owe all of them? After all their support, and love, and trust, isn’t this reckless beyond words? This door in front of her. Doesn’t it open to tragedy for all four of them?If only she could ask Ian. If only he were here.”L.”Ian’s voice cuts through her mind, clear as the day she heard him say it.  Her cheeks warm at the memory of his hand tracing her tears in a dark room. "Whatever you face there, whatever nightmare… in those quiet moments, I’ll be there. Believing in you.” With Spencer she hadn't known. She’d crossed the threshold ignorant of the choice she was making. The consequences.  The faces of those affected.  And then he frightfully, gleefully, plunged her into his own twisted fantasy.But this time she knows all those things. The only thing she has to decide is whether she wants to see her story through, or not.  Whether she believes her story is a tragedy, or something more.“I’ll be there. Believing in you.” L steps forward.Slipping Puck’s key out of her garments, she holds it in both hands. Feels the weight of it, lets it ground her.  L raises the key to meet its reflected twin in the lock.   It slides in easily, turning with a silk-smooth click.  Gripping the handle, she pulls, and the door swings open.There's no sound beyond Xylia’s heartbeat. No light except the slice through the open door. From the dim outlines of the room, it seems sized for someone of Astraea’s stature. Someone small like her. Not the titan that Evander has grown to become. “... hello?”  She whispers to the open room. No response.L slithers inside, her heart in her mouth.  As her eyes adjust to the gloom, shapes take on defined edges. Four walls. Floor and ceiling.  A ponderous desk at the center.  Beyond that, as best as she can see, there is nothing else.  Silently, she creeps to the desk. It waits for her, patient as death. The second drawer on the left, the only one large enough to hold the reliquary, draws her attention. She pulls it open with a soft rattle.To see a blocky package wrapped in blue velvet.Hardly daring to breathe, L reaches in with both hands and pulls it free, heart hammering in her chest. It’s the right size. The right weight. She carefully unwraps the velvet, revealing the blood-red cover.  Just like Puck said.L lets out a breath and clutches it to her chest. Xylia's thrum fills her ears, her head, her heart. She's done it.  For better or worse she’s done it.  No flash of memory this time. No screams.All she has to do is escape back to the portal and leave this world for good -The walls shimmer, wavering like water. The doors slam shut. The room plunges into darkness. L twitches upright, eyes wide in alarm.“Not even a week.”Blinding, scorching light explodes around her. Spots swallow up her vision, and she lurches in the direction of the door, but arms grab her, dragging her back. Hands, many hands grasping at  her neck, her wings, her hair, forcing her to the ground, tearing the book from her grasp and pinning her arms behind her back.“And with only the slightest bit of pressure…”Her sight takes time to return, but she doesn’t need it.  She knows the voice, turning her resolve of moments ago to ash in her heart. Everything’s falling apart. Spinning away.Helios stands over her, Thisbe fluttering nervously at his side. His surviving spriggan at his left and the troll from the hunt locking shackles around her wrists. They'd been waiting.He'd been waiting."Mere days after our last pleasurable encounter and here you are, proving me right once again." Helios waves the reliquary at her, smug satisfaction dripping from every word. "I must say, I thought you'd at least find Puck's offer... a little too convenient. But what can one expect from a nymph? You simply. Couldn't. Resist." He reaches out with the book, tapping her nose to punctuate each word. The horrified need to grasp at any understanding pulls a few breathless words out of her.“Puck... betrayed me?”Neith, dead.Ian, dead.Astraea - Helios kneels down, so they’re face to face. Savoring every aspect of her expression in exquisite detail before he answers. “No.”“Then - ““Shh, shh, shhhh.” He puts a finger to her lips, silencing her. L’s stomach roils. She thought she was ready.She thought she could see this.She was so, so wrong.“I simply… discussed the idea of moving the reliquary with Brother Evander when Puck was within earshot. He’s just as predictable as a nymph, isn’t he? The first thing he would do… the very first thing he would do, is go straight.  To.  You.” He grins. “And would you look at that.”“What have you done with him?”  She asks, her voice pitchy and strangled. Helios’ eyes widen in mock-innocence, making the shadows dance. “Done with? Why, nothing at all! He’s at the festival, isn’t he? I could have sworn I saw him in the assembly hall. Oh, but then again…”  He smiles wickedly. “I could have sworn I saw you, there, too. What a little mystery that is. Two Lyras? One for me and one for Sister Astraea. How generous.”“It wasn’t - “ L starts, her heart freezing at the thought of bringing this down on Cordelia.“ - really you attending your dryad? Or is it not you now? Quite a puzzle. Do you know, I think I have a solution.” Helios leans closer, dropping his voice to a hoarse, predatory whisper. “I understand you have a gift from Sister Astraea that you’re very protective over, Lyra. Let’s have a closer look.” His hand closes around the glamour. L's breath catches."Don't - !"Light courses over the lock, forcing it open with a creak of protest. A sudden blast of wind roars through the room, tousling hair, disarranging clothes. L’s skin prickles, boils…and then settles. Back into her own shape. Her own arms. Her own skin. Her own eyes.L, once again.Helios stares at her, his mouth working soundlessly for a moment."S-stand her up!"  He demands, finally finding his voice. The troll gingerly hoists her upright - afraid to touch her. Helios circles her, taking in every detail. L stands up straight, trying to control her breathing as he sniffs at her neck. The dryad withdraws with the sudden grace of a wary cat. "What... are you?" Helios twitches her garments, searching for hidden talons. L tries to twist away, but the troll lifts her bodily, holding her on the desk. "Are you... human?”L tries to swallow her hysteria.  Empathy might be out of Helios' reach, but if she can pique his interest, maybe she still has moves to play."Partially.”“Partially? What’s the other part?”L sputters out a laugh that sounds more like a sob. “...Lyra.”"Mmmm…”  He starts, looking her over again, tugging out her wing to examine it before bending closer to her face. “You... do bear her colours. But you lack her countenance."“P-please. I've made a deal. People will die.""What deal? Who will die?"L twitches her head away, the ghostly after-images of his eyes dancing in her peripheral vision. If she gives him everything, she loses her leverage.  "Someone I care for.  And I’ll tell you everything if you let me save him -  "“One moment.” Helios settles the reliquary on her head, balancing it carefully. A glassy smile dances across his face. “You have as long as you can keep this balanced to convince me, false Lyra.”"W-what?" L stammers. Helios wags a finger."Careful, it's already slipping."She shifts, breaking out in a cold sweat. The weight of the book is already crushing her antennae. "Helios, I know you're not stupid, i-if you keep me f-from doing this you'll never KNOW - "“You truly don’t know how to play, do you?” Helios shakes his head.  "Let me help. What's your real name?""...L." She rasps. "I...sold the r-rest."His smile sharpens. "Now that does sound like an interesting story…but for another time. What is the name of this... person you wish to save.""Ian." She can feel the sting in her eyes. "Ian Evans.""Good, L. You're doing very well.  And what is your relation to this... Ian Evans?""I..." L's throat closes in on itself. She can hear the fireworks, somewhere in her head. Distant crackle separated by glass and distance."I-I love him.""Aaah..."  Helios’ expression softens, although the glassy look never leaves his eyes. He nods.  "And how will you save him?”"I just have to go home." L whispers. It’s a game. It’s such an obvious game, but she can’t see any way out of it. "I have to go home now.""Now? Oh. Of course. Before Brother Evander enacts the Passage.""Yes."Helios touches her lips again, running his thumb over her mouth. "... I am... surprised... you answered truly. Virtuous, my little human. That should be rewarded.    Let us save your Ian Evans together, then.  You and I." L's breath catches. Has she found it? The right combination of intrigue and flattery?"Thisbe, come here."  Helios beckons, calling the little firefly-nymph closer. She approaches warily, watching L with mingled fear and cold detachment. Carefully, Helios lifts the reliquary from L's head and sets it on the desk next to her. "You know, I had a plan of my own.” He muses, picking up the glamour. “It’s a rarity to see my own designs interlock so perfectly with the one they’re woven around."He clasps it around Thisbe’s neck and snaps his fingers. A fat spark of aether leaps from his hand, sealing the lock tight once more. She shudders as the wind whirls around her, her face blurring and changing. Subsumed into a perfect replica of Lyra’s. "So, then. Let’s send Lyra home."L goes very still."As for you..."  Helios reaches into his pocket, withdrawing a small bracelet."...no." L starts to breathe faster. "No. No no no. They'll know. The King will know it’s not me! She’ll still kill him! She’ll kill Thisbe too!”"Now, now..."  He clasps the bracelet around her arm. Now the wind whips around L, stealing her breath, flowing over her body. She can feel her wings shifting, edges folding away into nothingness to take on the firefly’s narrow outline.  "Let us have a little more faith in Lady Astraea’s ability to protect her Lyra than that, Thisbe.""Th-thisbe, please!” L croaks. Her glamour flashes alarmed patterns of light as she turns to the predatory moth across from her. It’s surreal. She could be looking at her reflection of moments ago. “Help me make him listen!""Lyra..."  Thisbe says, and the image is broken as she twists her talons awkwardly in a way utterly out of place for Lyra. "... you know that Helios is my Keeper."“This is the deal.  This is my offer. The alternative is that no one returns for your ‘Ian Evans’.” Helios smiles at her, lighting up the room. "So what's it going to be?" Something turns to ice in her chest. Frozen. Heavy.Cracking."Tell him to run." L says, staring into the sharp predator's eyes where Thisbe's should be. Knowing Ian will never listen. "Tell him I said run.""I will."  Thisbe says, earnestly. She smiles, eager to please.  "I’ll get him to safety.” Helios claps his hands together. "I do love it when my nymphs get along!” He nods to the spriggan, who carefully lifts a red-bound book exactly the same shape as the reliquary out of a bag at his shoulder and hands it to Thisbe. “Now…what say we escort Lyra back to her Keeper?" L says nothing. She can feel her wings wilting behind her. The room feels so much bigger than it had before, towering over her. The shadows rise to engulf the office as she’s led away, laughing in her wake. As they close in to swallow the room, she glances back.In the instant before the door shuts behind her, L could swear she sees a wicked, glittering grin. 'Final Dusk', the end of the Termina Festival, stands opposite to the ritual and ceremony of the Gleaning. In theory a sober reflection of accomplishments since the last Passage, in practice it is an opportunity for celebration and display without the weight of manoeuvre and politics. Nymphs flutter about overhead, performances carry on, dryads dance and feast and laugh.  Astraea stands in the midst of it all, feeling none of it. Her foot taps the ground, and every few moments she glances to the entrance, waiting for the signal of L’s success. But no word yet. All she can do is wait and pray. Cordelia stays attentive at her side. It’s strange, the way time plays tricks on her. She went nearly twenty years without seeing Lyra. And now, the passing of only a few minutes feels like a lifetime.  And seeing this pale reflection next to her, it…“Lyra…”  She signals to Cordelia. “Could you get me a goblet of aether?”Cordelia curtsies to her, so unlike anything L would do,  but then she’s gone in the crowd. Astraea can’t help but feel a pang of guilty relief. They shouldn’t separate, she knows, but she just needs a moment to herself.  It’s already doing her good. She can feel the room coming back to her, the music in her ears, the pulse beneath her feet.A movement catches her eye.  A wave of grey.  A flash of red. Has Cordelia returned so soon?And then Astraea’s heart freezes.Just behind the grey moth, his hand on her shoulder, accompanied by a spriggan guard…is Helios.  L moves bloodlessly through the crowds, her mind numb and her eyes distant. She barely remembers ascending from the depths of the tree, and now she feels completely displaced in this throng of brilliance and revelry.  Brilliant flashes of magic light up the cavernous rafters.  The aromas of finely cooked dragon meat fills the air.  Nymphs dance and perform for onlookers, as dryads discuss their plans for the coming year.  For them, the future is bright.Suddenly, she feels a shift in Helios’ grip.  It grows tighter.  Moves her in a new direction.  She looks up and sees what has his attention.Astraea, looking as lost and out of place as she is.  Shock in her eyes and her fear barely-hidden."Sister Astraea!" Helios waves her down as she hurries toward them. "Look who I found wandering the halls!" Astraea glances up at him, her face pale and suspicious, her gaze flicking nervously back to the moth-nymph before her. She casts a quick glance around the crowd, then forces a smile. “That is…most kind of you.” “A trifle.”  He says, spreading his hands magnanimously. "Final Dusk is a time of self-reflection, and after some thought I’ve found our recent games…not to my liking.  So when I found Lyra, well, I felt fate was giving me an opportunity to send us in a new direction.”He gives the grey moth a gentle push towards Astraea.  Thisbe stumbles over to the dryad, who quickly wraps an arm around her, pulling her protectively close. Astraea gives a wary nod, and in return he offers a flourish and a bow.  “I wish you and Lyra both a regenerative passage.”   Helios turns to leave, but L refuses to move. She can’t tear herself away from the sight of Astraea pulling the grey moth close, whispering to her. As though she’s seeing her story continuing without her. As though she were the reflection being left behind. Helios’ grip tightens again - and then he hesitates. The hint of a half smile plays across his face. “.Say, Thisbe, didn’t you have some sentiment you wished to share with sister Astraea?”“...what?” That smile spreads farther. “Yes, you told me just the other day.  Don’t you remember?" L looks up, wooden and wide-eyed, on the verge of refusing to hold her hand out for the knife.  But Astraea’s already looking up, her curiosity piqued. Helios shoves L forward. "No need to be shy.  Go on. Consider it…a farewell before the festival ends."L stiffens, catching herself. She’s so close. Only hours before she’d held Astraea closer still.   They’d almost - "Lady...Astraea...""Y-yes?" "I..."L closes her eyes, trying to control her breathing.  Ian… believes in her.   Even now.   Even still.  She just needs to keep calm, and listen.  Keep calm…And remember the words.…the words.“‘While the storm increased, I expected every wave to swallow us up, and that every time we fell, we should never rise.  But when the sun rose; it shone upon a smooth sea. And I thought it was the most delightful thing I ever saw.’”She opens her eyes. The others are staring at her as though she’s uttered an incantation.  Helios breaks the spell with a bark of laughter."Isn't that an eloquent musing for a nymph?"  He says, his arm around her shoulder, pulling her back.   "I could hardly believe it when I heard her say it!”Astraea nods, her brow knitted. She’s staring at L, now. Peering into her eyes. “That’s - ”“Blessings upon you, sister.” Helios interrupts.“Blessings… upon you, brother.” She responds. Astraea places a hand on  the grey moth-nymph at her side, murmurs briefly in her ear, and withdraws into the crowd. "There,”  Helios purrs, watching as they leave with undisguised satisfaction. “Wasn't that exquisite? And such a speech! So eloquent, my little Thisbe. Who knew?"“What now.”  L says distantly, as the world continues to draw further away. Her motions become other people’s motions. Her words, other people’s words.“Now?”  Helios turns to her, and smiles.  “Now I break you.”L lets out a half-scoffing, half-despairing laugh. “You don’t think so?”  Helios asks, a half smile.  Helios crouches down, pulling her hands onto his knees, the chains dangling about her wrists, and caresses her hair.  “I will.  I will break you with the things I will show you. The delight I can bring.  Ecstasy, and suffering. Do not worry, little offworlder, I can be gentle. I’ll draw out our Keeping, drink deep of your well. I’ll build a monument to your dissolution, luxuriate in every twist of your heart. I’ll pull you right to climax, only to withdraw at the last moment. And all the while, I pray that you will resist me. Fight me to the last, that I might savour every drop of your blood, until your very heart turns to stone.”L stares at him, her wings trembling. He's so bright that it almost hurts to look at. The heat of his skin burns in the hidden marks of her arm.Daphne, Kept of Spencer. "How many nymphs have you told that to?"His sincerity breaks into a smile. The burn on her arm intensifies.“Ah, but you’ll be my first secret. My first lovely little secret.”The flash of the carriage ride back.  Helios gripping her wounded leg. Her hand being forced to drive a knife into Desdemona's hand. And then…“She’ll find out.” The cold feeling hardens to shards, pushing through L’s skin. Working their way out. "Maybe.” Helios shrugs. “But she’s in such an awful hurry, isn’t she? Rushing away with 'Lyra' to save Ian Evans. And after her unsanctioned departure, not a single one of them will be admitted to return again." “You don’t understand.” L’s voice trembles. “She’ll never forgive this. She’ll find a way back if she has to- “ Helios grips her around the cheeks, pulling her face close.“No, you don’t understand. Why do you think I’ve gone to all this trouble? It’s not just breaking something small and fragile. It’s breaking something small and fragile that someone else very much wishes to keep safe.”He leans forward, whispering in her ear.“Imagine her staring at her ceiling, knowing that it’s only the first night for her, and we’ve had so many more than that already. That’s the reason, L. That is the point of the ga- ”A searing burst of golden light slams into Helios, scorching his robes and sending him crashing through the nearest feasting table. Nymphs scream and dryads draw back, the crowd parting to show Astraea shoving a terrified and unglamoured Thisbe aside. She’s already twisting and growing, halfway into her tree-form, fury blazing in her eyes.L, giddy with horror and elation, turns and runs straight for her. Astraea snatches her up halfway there, pulling her into the air.  "It is you!“ She gasps, her voice crackling with power and emotion.“We have to go!”Astraea nods - then gasps and drops to the floor, pushing L beneath her. She throws out a hand and the air shimmers into a golden shield. A roiling blast of light washes over it, charring the tiles in a circle around them. Helios has pulled himself up from the wreckage of the table, forming into a blisteringly white-gold cypress. L pulls Astraea back up, scrambling over a stone bench. More light cracks against it, evaporating intricate carvings like water. As the heat dies away, they’re back on their feet, rushing for the exit.  Another pair of blasts hammer at them, tearing at Astraea’s shields. All around them, other dryads begin to take tree-shape and form barriers around themselves and those they care about."ENOUGH." A voice bellows, loud enough to shake the hall. L is driven to her knees, her hands clapped over her antennae. Evander has risen from his throne to lumber through the crowd, attended by lines of grim-faced spriggans setting up a circle around the battle. They’re hardly needed. The other dryads part without a murmur, ushered aside by the presence of their king. "What is the meaning of this? Sister Astraea? Brother Helios? Explain why you have defiled this day with violence!""LYRA IS HUMAN!" Helios yells, his voice cracking. A shocked silence descends over the crowd. L’s wings buzz to life. She grabs hold of Astraea and they lift off into the air.  Higher, away from the depths and that awful obsidian door. Above the spriggans, darting towards one of the open windows.The world goes dark. Two enormous hands have clapped around them both, catching her in midair.  L cries out, losing her grip on the dryad as they rebound from Evanders’ palm.  They tumble as they’re lifted, carried through midair -Their prison opens, leaving them sprawled across a single splayed hand. Presented not just to Evander, but all of Xylia. The dryad king peers down to examine them. Gasps and mutters rise from the onlookers. "False shapes compounded. You will reveal her true self, sapling." Evander rumbles, his anger building. Defying him is unthinkable, caught in those searchlight eyes. L's hand shakes as Astraea moves to her, touching the glamoured bracelet. She’s trembling so hard she can barely stay upright.“... I’m sorry.”  Astraea says, and undoes the lock, letting it slide free. Watching it tumble across Evander’s palm.Wind whips at Astraea's hair. Tugs at her clothes. Thisbe's face fades and disappears. And then it’s L, just L.  Unmasked, staring up into Evander’s enormous face."... abomination." Evander whispers, the sound loud enough for the entire hall to hear.  He lowers his hand to the ground, delivering them to a knot of guards as the hall erupts in shouts of shock and outrage."Take her to the salt cellars."continue reading ->Hey fam! OH DANG, L's really innit now. Although it was satisfying af to have Astraea blast Helios. Having crossed that threshold, there's no turning back. Time to find out if the rest of L's story is a comedy or a tragedy.Be sure to check back Friday January 24th at 12pm to read Imago Ch25: The Chaff and the FireAnd thanks for stopping by!- Heart