The Moon's Fangs | 1

Reks Arlen

The bridge of her nose turned pink after he proposed the idea to her. “Um, I don’t know…” she said shyly, like how he noticed she’d do when his attitude turned more playful towards her. She pulled her light blonde hair out of his loose grip and hopped off the counter, walking away a few steps. “Would it hurt?”

He observed as Nox’s projection form seemingly melted back into her skin, leaving the conversation from a visible standpoint. A curious thing. A unique skill, even compared to his own unique Guide.

“Perhaps for an unwilling participant.” He said, catching himself studying the long curve of her back, tan and exposed. The Earth’s sun left its mark even there as well, with a delicate smattering of freckles along the inviting dip of her spine.

She crossed her arms, turning partly to look at him again, chewing on that ample bottom lip. “How would it work exactly?”

“I’d connect my Guide to Nox before you fell asleep, then attempt to join you in your mindscape. If I succeed, I might be able to find a way to stop Sio from puppeting you around, or confront it at the very least.” He shrugged, slipping a thumb in one of his pockets. “If all else fails, you’ll at least wake up in the same place you fall asleep this time. A win in itself.”

He wouldn’t allow her to slip away again so easily. How she managed to cover so much ground on him was still amiss.

Strangely, her face only reddened further, even burning down her neck. “N-no. Nope. No can do. Just… just handcuff me to the bed or something!” she whipped her face away, turning towards the hall to evacuate from the conversation entirely.

The reaction was so unexpected, he fell short of words for a moment. He caught up to her, catching her arm at the corner before she could disappear down the hall leading to the bedroom. “Amelia.” He said, testing. “One of your conditions is to not be restrained. You would be willing to revoke it so quickly at the thought of me visiting your mindscape?”

Embarrassing the girl came surprisingly easy for him, even when not trying to do so, and it began to turn into a favorite hobby.

The rosy blush of her cheeks brightened her blue eyes, standing out like two rodasia planets during a meteor shower. Reluctance filled them when meeting his waiting stare. Her free hand covered her eyes in response. “I’m… Gods…” she leaned her covered face against the wall, as if to hide. “Both times this has happened, I’ve been… naked. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t conjure up something to cover myself with.”

“And?” A rogue smirk returned to his face. He’d assumed she wanted to hide something sinister from him, something that would show her true colors behind the seemingly pure and sweet façade she’d shown him up until this point.

This was better.

“And?” she blanched, shooting him a wide-eyed glare. “You can’t be serious. You can’t just flounce yourself in my mindscape or whatever when I’m not wearing any clothes. It’s inappropriate.”

“Is it?” his brows climbed in quiet challenge.

“Yes. It is.”

“What if I make a vow not to look?”

Amelia gave him a hard, deadpan scowl. “I’d call you a liar.”

He smiled, pulling her wrist up for a closer inspection. “The way I see it, it could go two ways once I enter your mindscape.” He said, distracting her by tracing the little veins along her wrist. “My presence will be a big enough disruption to the scape, making it to where you would gain more control of it and what you may conjure. Or, we’ll both fall victim to the scape’s laws of nudity.”

Her eyes fell down his body, causing her to flush further.

She pressed her lips together, considering. “I’ll agree on one condition.”

“You and your conditions.” He sighed, letting her hand slide out of his grip.

She held her hand against her chest, turning serious. “If I’m… naked and you aren’t, you have to give me your clothes. That’s the only way I’ll agree to participate in this experiment of yours.”

He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. She made a simple request, reasonable for what the situation called for. He had no reason to argue against it. “You drive a hard bargain, Outlander. But for the sake of my insatiable curiosity, I’ll agree to your terms.”

She started to turn, then stopped, throwing a single finger in the air. “Oh. One more thing. There’s zero comfy clothes in that closet.” Her hand curved into the shape of an accusatory zero. “I’d like to put something soft and cozy on before going to sleep. Not trying to attend a ball in bed.”

As if in agreement, Luk quietly snickered in the back of his mind.

He glanced down the hall towards the room. “What’s wrong with what’s available?”

“Everything.”

Her expression alone said it all. It was a look Cyra would occasionally get when actively prepping to prove her point to whoever opposed her. After falling victim to one of her rather aggressive lectures, Reks never tried her again when that very specific look crossed her determined face.

“Well, by all means,” he side-stepped around the corner with a sweeping gesture of his arm, towards the opposite hall leading to his master bedroom. “Find something more suitable to your needs. We’ll meet in your room in a short while.”

He found no problem with the Outlander borrowing his clothes if that was what she preferred. He held reservations against his vitiate uniform, but he doubted she'd find those pieces to be comfortable for sleep.

Her only response was a small, triumphant smile before walking past him, toward the master bedroom.

The light sway of her hips captured his eye, holding him prisoner until she disappeared around the corner, where his gaze could no longer follow.

~I quite like that one. Your encounters with her thus far have been stimulating.~ Luk commented.

It wasn’t until then when he found it oddly peculiar how open their conversation had been with each other. He had been furious when he realized she escaped. Furious, and taken aback Luk hadn’t been notified of the breach in security. With everything else to come to grips with, he hadn’t thoroughly considered the experimental Guide to have inherited access during its development.

Yet despite the negatives, an unexpected positive did make itself known in the mayhem. Just as Nox had access to some things his Guide does, it also appeared to work the other way around.

No matter where she ran, Luk had Amelia’s location.

He would have found her much sooner had he figured it out in a timely manner. Nevertheless, the revelation led him directly to her in the end.

No sense dwelling on it now. He found her before that that Rhosyn boy could cause any true harm. Having the Rhosyn family now involved didn’t change anything necessarily, but it made it all the more interesting. If this boy was clever enough like his ancestors and snooped in the right places, it could cause trouble for Reks down the road.

A long shot, sure, but attainable. All Nolan would have to do is have a reason to search the colosseum’s archives of vitiates to learn his identity and blow his cover. A potential loss of an advantage. He was certain the General kept records of such things in his office. At least the General he knew had done so.

He had Luk project a log of recent news within the oasis to get a better understanding of Orlaith today. He skimmed through articles highlighting prestigious members of The Circle, which from his observation, were extremely edited to what the council wanted the readers to follow. He noted how a Circle member named Varkin attracted the spotlight with most of the articles pertaining to The Circle, always painting the man as some imperial maestro loved by the people, destined to be the one to bring change to their world… blah-blah-blah.

Nothing more than a political poster man-child.

The faint pattering of feet on marble caught his ear. He turned to see Amelia power-walking back down the hall, clutching a couple different fabrics to her chest.

She gave him a fleeting glance as she walked past him towards the opposite hall. “I just need a minute to change.”

He didn’t offer a response, but his eyes trailed after the Outlander before disappearing down the other hall.

The lingering wonders of what awaited him in that girl’s mindscape remained at the forefront of his mind, even while finishing the articles and reports of notorious raid attacks executed by the Adamant Horde outside of the oasis. Each report he read about it remained vague and nonconclusive - strategically drowned out by other media provided to Asylum.

The more he investigated it, the more in the dark Asylum seemed to be. Both in a literal and figurative stance. Blind and brainwashed, forced to live a life in oblivion.

Tired of reading the same nonsense again and again, he retired the research for now and made his way toward the Outlander’s room. He paused at the entrance to casually lean against the door’s frame to quietly watch the curious spectacle before him.

She wore one of his old tunics he hadn’t worn since being a rookie at the beginning of his vitiate training. The faded brown shirt complimented her tanned skin, resting nicely around mid-thigh. Her bare feet absently swayed back and forth in the air as she laid on the bed, head resting in one hand while twirling her Guide’s tail in the other. Nox had curled up in front of her on the pillow in its projection form.

Whatever banter happening between them occurred through thoughts alone. For an Outlander who only learned of Guides a short time ago, it was impressive to see how quickly the two bonded.

Nox saw him first. Upon sight, the serpent withdrew its projection, finding quick refuge back into Amelia’s body. Her head whipped over in his direction, eyes flashing with surprise.

“You could’ve knocked.” She said, yanking a blanket over her bare legs, then over her hips as she sat up straight against the bed frame.

One of his brows lifted. “Why? You knew I would be in here soon.”

“Because it isn’t polite to sneak up on someone like that.”

He gave her a cheeky look, holding her gaze as he moved towards the armchair next to the bed. “If I wanted to sneak up on you, Outlander, you wouldn’t have known until it was too late.”

A stubborn look crossed her face, like a sassy thought she dared not say aloud taunted him from out of his reach.

For now.

He pulled the chair closer to the bed, leaving barely enough space for his knees between.

She shifted in her spot. “You know, up until recently, it seemed like you intentionally kept your Guide’s… ability away from me. When you interrogated me, I thought you tied me up with weirdly colored rope up until your fight with Nolan. And when you saved me from falling to my death with it, I thought, er, was scared of spontaneously combusting like Nolan’s handgun did.” She clasped her hands together in her lap as sincere eyes met his. “I’m sorry for reacting the way I did.”

He pushed his hair back and away from his face before resting his elbow on one of the arms of the chair. Where had this come all of the sudden? Because of his condition telling her not to look at him like some monster?

“Do you think I’d hurt you, Amelia?” He asked instead. It was a quiet question, but it felt heavy leaving his tongue.

She considered it, then smiled to herself before answering. “If I did, I wouldn't have gone along with your crazy rooftop plan. Don’t get me wrong, you’re dangerous. But I also know that if you were going to hurt me, you would have done so when you had me tied in a chair, at the mercy of you and your Guide.”

His brows rose. Not a bad answer. A part of him wanted to soothe any lingering worries she may still harbor of Luk doing her any real harm, to reveal it could only perform that specific electrifying ability once a day at most. But secrets like that needed to be held close, and he didn’t know the Outlander enough to garner the amount of trust something like that required.

“Lucky for you, Luk leans in your favor. You’re more in danger of a love-bite from it than anything else.” He thoroughly enjoyed her look of relief and uncertainty. Her hair fell off a shoulder as she tilted her head to the side, as if trying to decide if he jested. He did not.

He lifted his hand in a slow gesture, a silent request for hers.

“Um, how long is it going to last?”

“That depends entirely on Sio.”

She looked down at his hand for a short second before complying. A silent resolution crossed her features as she placed her hand in his, palm up.

Luk trailed down the length of his arm before slipping out through his wrist. They watched as his Guide looped around her arm, producing two slender fangs before gently sinking its teeth into her wrist.

Amelia inhaled sharply through her nose, but didn’t move as Luk visibly sought out Nox, stopping midway up her forearm as the Guides connected with one another. Luk’s cyan blue intermingled with Nox’s similar shade, like two serpents coercing in a dance only known to their kind.

~Requesting access to her subconscious.~

Amelia leaned back to lay down in the bed, pulling the blanket up past her chest. Her blue eyes locked onto his, soft with consideration, before closing. He sent a quick command for the lights in the room to shut off.

As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he noticed how peaceful she looked. Her blonde hair splayed across her pillow as she turned to lay on her stomach. A quiet sigh parted her pink lips.

~Access granted. Sending you in now.~

Reks closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the cushion as the abrupt heaviness of sleep took over his body. An odd sensation of a foreign dream tugged at his psyche, coaxing him into its embrace.

When he opened his eyes again, the dreamscape materialized around him.

He took in the space around him, the scent of rosewater and eucalyptus offered a pleasant feeling to stir within.

He sat on a made-up bed next to a nightstand with a picture of Amelia and her friend, Blaire on a porch swing. He remembered looking at that picture when running the search for Blaire. Luk had yet to find anything on her. Disappearances like that were never a good sign.

Reks picked up the bracelet next to it, examining the various charms attached. Even though he had no connection to the bracelet, he felt the significance it held. It was something important to Amelia. A symbol.

It must be an effect the dreamscape dispelled since he was a temporary passenger here. He can feel what she feels, at least to a certain degree.

A long rectangular window stretched across a few feet of the back wall, providing a spectacular view of the night sky from Earth’s point of view. Blankets draped across a pillow-infested nook next to the window. On its ledge sat a small stack of well-loved books with heavy creases in their bindings. He browsed through the stack, reading the titles before setting them back in their place. A book about star constellations, a romance novel, another about adventure, and a page-heavy fantasy. He noticed her romance novel had a flower petal marking where she last read. A faint smile touched his lips in interest.

He flipped through it, impressed by how well the dream captured the memory of the pages. Likely thanks to her new Guide sharpening her senses.

Something slipped free from the back pages, fluttering down to rest on the windowsill. He stared down at the card in strange wonder. It depicted a tower looming in the dark night sky. Fire blazed on its ruptured roof while ocean waves crashed against its breaking foundation. The tail of a dragon wrapped around one end while a comet closed in on impact against the other side. In one of the open windows, a couple blood-drenched from battle were embraced in a lover’s kiss.

He stared down at the utter chaos of a card, wondering how to decipher such a complex thing of work.

“Blaire, are you seriously making pancakes? That doesn’t exactly scream stargazing snack.” Amelia’s laugh flowed through the open door.

Reks set the book back down where he found it, temporarily abandoning the curiosity the card brought, then moved across the room to peer through the doorway.

“What? You literally love pancakes.” Blaire lifted the iron pan and attempted to flip the pancake. It landed in a crooked mess.

Amelia gave her a wry smile, setting her hand on her hip. “Did you forget about syrup and butter? Bringing all that outside is going to end up being more trouble than it needs to be.”

Blaire blanched and hesitated at the same time. “Omigod, you’re so right! You would so totally freak if your telescope ended up getting all sticky. I’d be like forever banned from spot.” then she turned to look at him and giggled, somehow acknowledging his presence. “Oh… you didn’t tell me you were bringing a date on our little stargazing trip.”

“W-what?” Amelia’s cheeks turned red, and her blue eyes danced when meeting his own. “Oh… Reks? I-it’s not like that. He’s in love with another girl.” she traced the rim of her shirt collar, looking away.

He crossed his arms, curious. He’d never tried this before, so he hadn’t expected his presence would affect or alter the dreamscape. Also, he found it vastly interesting how she came to that conclusion. What gave this Outlander that impression?

~Several things could have led her to that conclusion, such as: being the empress’s former champion and protector, preparing a gift to save the empress’s soul, getting so worked up when speaking about the empress… oh, and there is the matter of Amelia being made to wear Ellison’s clothing… which there is quite the abundance of at the lab.~

He grimaced at Luk’s readily equipped answer to a question he now wished would have been taken rhetorically.

“But… wasn’t that over like, eight hundred years ago?” Blaire slid the deformed pancake on top of the finished stack. “You can’t hold him to the past, Aims! It’s just not fair.”

“It doesn’t feel that way for him.” Amelia said distantly.

His shoulders tensed. In this state, her dream self wasn’t aware of his direct presence. He felt like an intruder in Amelia’s deep, personal thoughts. He shouldn’t be here, hearing this conversation.

Not only that, but he wasn’t sure how much of an effect his own subconscious could affect their surroundings. With the topic hinting towards Ellison Lucil, was there a chance of the empress herself materializing from his own memory? He didn’t want to find out. The last thing he wanted was for his memories to collide with Amelia’s. It’d be chaos.

He turned and walked out of the front door.

The action caused the scape to warp around him. The house burned away, ashes to the wind, as a forest swelled in its place, rich with shades of greens and browns. A clearing formed in front of him, where a hammock hung between two trees, close to a telescope. Amelia was there. She sat against a tree, studying the night sky. A look of longing filled her blue eyes. Longing… and something else. Something troubled her. But here, she looked at peace.

He took a step forward, and even though he hadn’t made a sound, her eyes found his. They were much clearer than moments ago in the house. As though the veil of dreams didn’t hold all the power in this place in particular.

Strong memories hold a great amount of power, after all.

He moved to approach her, but something in the atmosphere shifted. The forest and everything in the clearing dissolved, leaving only the shadows to stretch out around them, choking them off from anything and everything.

For a long moment, he couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Darkness drowned him. Instinct demanded him not to fight it, not to yell out his presence. Not yet.

When the shadows loosened their hold, she was the first thing his eyes found. Amelia stood several feet in front of him. Every curve and every freckle laid bare, head to toe, hiding nothing from him. Her back faced him as she folded her arms tight across her chest, pale golden hair sweeping past her shoulder blades and inviting arch of her spine.

Curiosity tugged at a corner of his lips at the sight of her curvy, bite-worthy ass and those seductively thin tan lines. Oh, the questions he had for her once back on the flipside.

He drew closer, tugging off his shirt. But before he could give it to her and honor their deal, the strangest thing happened. The moment his hand came into contact with her shoulder, his clothes blinked out of existence. He glanced down at his new, exposed state in mock interest. Every scar line stood out against his golden-toned skin, which paled in comparison to her lines, another gift bestowed upon her by Earth’s generous sun.

A sly little smirk lifted one side of his mouth, expecting the Outlander to squeal her protest of this… one-sided favorable outcome. But it never came.

Her eyes glazed over in a heavy trance, bright eyes turned hazy. Her arms fell away from her chest to sway at her sides.

He tilted his head down to her eye level, studying her blank expression and vacant stare. He snapped his fingers once in front of her face, getting no response. “Hey. Amelia. Snap out of it. Can you hear me?” his thumb and forefinger settled around her chin.

Luk, can you determine what’s causing this? He mentally reached out to his Guide, but something about it felt wrong. Severed.

A terrible feeling piggybacked on exhilaration. This was it. Sio must be here.

“Amelia, you need to take back the control.” He squeezed her shoulder, noticing how cold her skin felt. He swept a lock of hair behind her opposite ear. “Sio must—”

Whatever he wanted to say left him as his eyes landed on the deep bite marring the side of her delicate neck. Tiny rivulets of blood trickled down from the open wound, which sprouted sinister-looking white veins, like the signs of a festering poison taking root.

Amelia had mentioned this to him. She said a cobra had bitten her, yet reality bore no remnants of the infliction. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her. But truly seeing it made him realize this bite was far more serious than he initially gave it credit for.

What in Shayd’s Name did Sio do to her?

A chill pricked at the back of his neck. Something neared. Like a monster who felt its constructed trap had captured its prey in the abyssal pit, it came to reap its rewards.

His hands fell away from her, and he backed away, letting the shadows engulf him in their chilling, dark embrace, leaving Amelia in her defenseless state.

She wasn’t truly alone. He’d step in, but only after Sio revealed itself, lest risk it withdrawing before he could find anything out. Years of living a vitiate life taught him the shadows witness the deepest hidden secrets. Especially the kind worth killing over.

Another shift in the atmosphere warped the shadows into something far more alive than before. Tendrils of umbrage coiled up his limbs, but he dared not move, dared not allow the nightmare sense his presence.

A gasp from Amelia yanked his attention back to her.

“Hello?” Amelia called out, clenching a shivering fist against her bare chest.

Reks remained utterly still, waiting for Sio to respond. He didn’t have to wait long.

Silvery white wisps raced across the ground like hungry serpents. They slithered towards one focal point a few feet in front of Amelia, then rose from the shadows to erect the illusion of a woman.

Just as Amelia described her the first time, there was no making out the woman’s face. But Reks knew the sway of moonlight hair all too well, and the elegant yet too-proud posture he had been sworn to protect and serve.

Ellison.

“It’s you again,” Amelia said. Her eyes were filled with fear yet determined all the same. “Where were you trying to take me before?”

Strange, unintelligible whispers wove through the thick shadows. Reks winced, feeling the weight of it pressing down on him. The language was archaic, and without Luk here, he couldn’t decipher the strange whispers. The shadows he hid within reacted to the woven words, tightening and curling in a disorganized pattern.

The woman took Amelia’s hand in a rush, causing Amelia to gasp out. The contact caused the illusion to momentarily wane, revealing the tangle of iridescent serpents under the guise before regaining its illusion. Amelia’s eyes glazed over once again, turning into a blank haze of blue.

This thing… it brainwashed her into submission.

The action caused Reks to feel a sudden mental tug. Had Luk sensed the danger, and now attempted to pull him back into his own body? Or was it something else pulling at him?

Instinct took over.

He pressed through the thick shadows, ripping free of the undulating binds, and moved towards them in a direct charge. “Let go of her.” His growl sounded sharp and inhuman as he snatched the illusion by the neck and flung it toward the slithering ground.

Grip lost on Amelia, it crashed to the ground with an ear-splitting hiss. He followed the illusion down, pinning it there.

“R-Reks?” Amelia fell back on her ass, the haze lifting from her irises. Her eyes slowly widened for a few different reasons. Her legs curled up against herself, hiding exposed areas while at the same time, ogling at him in all his skin and glory. Too bad there wasn’t time to tease her. He’d have to hold on to that for a later time.

He turned his attention back to the intruder under him.

“Long time no see, Sio.” Reks gritted his teeth into a sneer. “Do you enjoy hiding behind Ellison’s figure?”

~Reks Arlen… what a surprise encountering you here, of all places. I expected our reunion to come soon, but not this soon.~ the faceless illusion spoke, and the familiar lilt of the honeyed voice set fire in his gut. A perfect impersonation of her voice.

His fist wrapped menacingly around its throat, vision turning deathly red. “Tell me.” Betrayal seeped through his blood like poison mixed in lava. The fresh memory of the day he lost everything roared through his bones. “Tell me!”

The wispy illusion congealed under his weight, converting into a giant version of its true form, reaching over twenty feet of intimidation.

Reks pushed back from its long scaly neck, getting between it and Amelia. The opalesce cobra loomed over their heads, flicking its forked tongue. It slithered around the two of them in a wide circle.

“I-It’s bigger than last time.” he heard Amelia whisper, noticing her fold her arms around her knees to cover what her legs couldn’t alone.

He tensed, putting an instinctive arm over her shoulders. As a mere passenger in this dreamscape, he held no power here, but he needed to do something. He couldn’t allow Sio to brainwash her again. But it had done it so quickly. He steeled himself. Without Luk here as his trump card, it would be difficult to keep something as powerful as Sio away from what it wanted.

~You take the fun out of everything, vitiate.~ Sio made a second loop, caging them in.

He helped Amelia to her feet, feeling her trembles vibrate through his hands. He met Sio’s probing stare, slashed iridescent pupils boring into him. The longer it studied him, the more irritated it became. Its scales took on a sharper look, and the end of its tail resembled something closer to a sword, sharpened to a dangerous point.

“Fun? You call this fun? You screwed up my life!" Amelia’s cheeks went red with anger. She glared up at the looming cobra while her hands, equally determined, protect her modesty. The mere sight of her in this state managed to douse the larger part of fury simmering within him as she continued to yell up at the superior Guide. “Is this a game? I thought you needed help! Have you been toying with me this whole time? Monsters are after me because of you. I lost my best friend because of you!”

His brows rose, surprised by the proclamation of a sturdy backbone.

The dreamscape responded to her sudden manifestation of defiance as well. It shook with her rising anger. Tremors vibrated the abyssal floor under their feet, forcing the shadows to peel away like scales breaking loose.

Sio arched its back, hood fanning out wide. The umbrage swirling across the floor grew thicker as Sio hissed. It coated the ground like duplicating serpents, rising above their calves. Like a damn multiplying pit of vipers.

Then the scape went suddenly still. Amelia gasped out and gripped the side of her neck with the fang marks. She fell to her knees, crying out in pain. Blood squeezed through her fingers from the open wound.

“Sio, stop! You’ve proved your point.” Reks gritted his teeth at the monster, attempting to mask the rush of angst drowning his rationality. Damn it. Shayd damn it.

~As you wish.~ Sio reeled back, relaxing its shimmering hood.

Amelia panted breathlessly, arms shaking as Sio released her from the pain.

There it was again. The sickening feeling of helplessness Sio made him feel. How the hell was he supposed to fight something like that? Wouldn’t going up against Sio be the same as opposing the Fates?

“What do you want, Sio?” he said, stiffly. He slipped an arm under Amelia’s arm to lift her from the teeming darkness. It clung to her like leeches. He helped her wipe them off her arms as she frantically swiped them away from her chest and lower.

Sio’s mouth widened into a twisted sneer, exposing a second set of fangs along its bottom jaw. ~What I want, vitiate, is for you to get out of my way.~ both sets of fangs lengthened, like Fate’s divine weapons in the making.

He didn’t fully comprehend Sio’s intentions before it was already upon him. It unfurled its tail like a quick lash of a whip. A curse boiled up his throat as he grabbed ahold of Amelia’s arm and did the only thing he could think of — flinging her as far away as his strength allowed. A yelp escaped her lips as she slid and rolled away from the spot. Her thunderstruck eyes met his the moment Sio’s tail ripped a hole through his side.

Her bloodcurdling scream was drowned out by a pain he’d never experienced before. Needles of ice burrowed into not only where the serpent struck him, but in every bone of his body. Like a million snakes sank their fangs into every piece of him, invading.

He couldn’t move. His lungs — it felt as though venom flooded in.

Sio lowered its head down to eye level. Its forked tongue flicked across his cheek. ~Let this serve as your first and last warning. Repeated interference will result in the forfeit of this life… along with your rite of ascension into Celestia.~ its tail pierced through his side lifted him off the writhing ground. Blood spilled from the wound, and from his slow-rising smile universally known as the implied ‘fuck you.’ A hiss choked off the air between them as Sio’s fangs drew closer to his face. ~Let this mark on your soul serve as a constant remin—~

“No!”

Something collided against him from the side. He slid out of Sio’s hold —its damned tail— pain igniting further from the impact of it, but he could move again – breathe again. He hit the ground, suddenly sandwiched between undulating shadows and Amelia. One of the two, he didn’t mind pressing up against him. But it did hurt like all hell.

Blood spilled like a fountain from his side. Amelia hooked his arm around her neck, never minding his blood coating her bare skin, like paint on a canvas. “We have to get you out of here!” she demanded, teeth gritted and eyes wide.

Behind them, Sio looked almost… paralyzed, to a degree. But whatever force held it prisoner proved to be temporary. The cobra vibrated, its building rage echoing throughout the scape.

Amelia tripped over serpentine shadows, but held him tighter as she led them to the edge of the abyss.

Sio’s imprisonment snapped, and a deafening hiss raced after them, a tornado of archaic whispers. Amelia screamed out in sudden pain, knees buckling under both of their combined weight. Before the cobra could reach them, Reks used the last of his strength to shove them the rest of the way. He wrapped Amelia into his arms as they tipped over the edge.

He prayed they fell to a place where the Key could not follow. Though, he knew if the Fates heard his prayer, they would not answer in kind.