song of the forest ♪ [OLD VERSION]

꓄ꏂꋊ

WARNING: this chapter contains depictions of fantasy violence and moderately graphic descriptions of blood and injury. if you are sensitive to these things, you may want to opt out of this chapter or proceed with caution.

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ꋪ꒐꒦ꏂꋊ

The cocky kidnapper, who never showed more of their silhouette to me as they led (more like marched) me down a passage, was starting to unnerve me with their silence. They simply led me to a narrow entryway lit by a single source surrounded by light so fuzzy I couldn't discern the shape, and closed the door, their footsteps echoing all the way. The room was about three feet by three feet, clean-swept, but still felt grimy and dim. I stood in the center, terrified and anxious. This is my fault. All of it. If I hadn't stopped, if I had useful powers, we might have avoided this altogether. I had been told I was Fai, at least half of me, but where was my sudden glorious transformation? Where were my hidden powers?

A door that hadn't been there before shimmered into existence. Death wafted from whatever was beyond. I pressed myself against the wall, wishing I could take a deeper breath. Gods gods oh my gods I'm gonna die I'm gonna die help oh no- a string of thoughts like this played in a lightning loop in my mind, over and over. It repeated at least ten times in the same amount of seconds, pushing me to the ground. Headache. I can't breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Half-breed. Now." The pompous brat who'd led me here barked.

Was he talking to me? I straightened and stepped off the wall, which put me right in the doorway, as well as the line of sight of... something. My brain just kind of glitched out, so there was a white smudge in the air where the thing was supposed to be. My head was still spinning as I moved as slowly as possible through the doorway into the hall. I didn't even register the soaring ceiling and extravagant columns– not to mention the banners, pennants, tapestries, and plaques that almost covered the walls. All this would come back to me later.

"Very curious," the air hissed. Or that was how I perceived it. The white blur was still marring my vision– I assumed that was where the voice came from. As I focused, the smudge resolved into a terrifyingly clear silhouette. What was now so clearly the Fai Widow was worse than I had imagined. Somehow the Widow who'd wanted a long-lost member of their species back and the version that stood before me were separated in my mind, categorized into two different people by my standards.

Tendrils of dark amethyst smoke– or were they concrete tentacles?– burst from a barely humanoid torso, which stood on vaguely spiderlike pointed legs. Curved fangs protruded from thin lips below narrow, solid brown eyes. The Widow's skin was thin, almost froglike, so every organ and muscle was visible. There were no veins.

This isn't a human you're dealing with, Riven.

"Verdifery... yes, that will make a good addition to my collection." The Widow spoke slowly, almost purring, with an intensity that put me at unease. The Widow crouched on their many legs, bringing forward a tentacle almost delicately to caress my right arm– the one that the terrier had attacked. It felt like ages ago. Asiza had promised the "process", whatever that was, would be finished tonight. It would be normal. I would be fine. Those feelings of reassurance dissolved as the tentacle wrapped around tighter, another violet appendage unwinding the wrappings Asiza had applied. No. No, no, no. Asiza said they had to stay on or it wouldn't work.

"Don't!" I said forcefully, attempting to yank back my arm, but the muscles were weak from days of disuse. The Widow kept their firm grip as they ripped off the wrapping, casting it aside and taking in the state of my wrist with a strange, unsettling curiosity on their face. If their face even showed emotion as human faces did– for all I knew, the Fai Widow was disgusted by my body. I forced myself to look, something I'd been avoiding since the day the terrier had mangled it.