The massive soul is coming straight here. Not much to do but wait. I bury some of my undead at the second gate. A pit trap. It's pretty dumb. The Elf comes barging in. I keep my undead away from him. I let him see me. Not like he can do anything to this form. I think he recognizes me. Huh.

  He steps over my pit. I make the dirt into mud. The better to mire. And now to be the spooky ghost. Out of sight. Wooooooo. It annoys him as I jump into his body. Time to spread the undeath in him. Let him rot. I feel myself become isolated in his body. Damn it. I can see and sense through him but I can't flood his body with my core.

  Well he's moving forward with me as a passenger now. I need to do something. Anything. But I'm useless. Fuck. He exchanges words with Lea. They fight. Smug bastard got his shield all ready to parry. Woop, no shield now. It's in my soul space. The cut is not deep but I move the aura from my fountain straight into it. It festers. He tries to burn it but it's still an open wound. I just need to reach his heart.

  More words are exchanged. He sees the undead. He sees the Elves. I feel his rage boil over. He moves fast. Too fast. I take his sword before he can decapitate Lea. He breaks her neck instead. I wince but she goes with the flow. I think it's the only thing that kept her head attached. That and the awkward angle of the blow. He turns to the fountain and kicks.

  I scream a scream so loud that the entire dungeon shakes. My soul is shattered. Lea called it a phylactry. I feel myself begin to drift apart. I push my aura into his wound. He needs to die. Lea helps. Another wound to flood. He is buying me time. I know it is over when he started to laugh. He collapses on my coffin and dies.

  My soul devours his. It is desperate to continue on. It does nothing to forestall my fading. My aura diminishes. Tragic. Cea sent this Elf to steal my body and instead she lost her three princesses. Will Sarcea survive this? What will the [Empress] do when she finds out there are no princesses to birth? I fade more.

  “Damn it, Sara. Don't you fucking die.”

  Lea is panicked. Sorry. I feel her aura subsume mine. A soul tether snaps to her from the coffin. All the undead now look to her. My mind blanks.

  -----

  The black scale Drakenoid walks by the gates. The mistress wills him safe passage. He greets the mistress.

  “What happened, [Priestess]? The dungeon door disappeared and the shop collapsed. ”

  The mistress responds, “Arccor happened. He was too much. He … he injured Sara. I need to stay here, Ujan. Until Violet returns.”

  “You're back to being a monster…”

  “Undead, yes. I can't shake it off with blood this time. Sorry.”

  He hugs the mistress. She takes comfort in it. There are black lesions that begin to form on him but if it hurts him, he doesn't show it. “Lea.” Is all he said.

  “So what happened to the money?” The mistress asks.

  The Drakenoid barks a laugh, “It's currently in my office.”

  The mistress gives him a smile, “Have it deposited at the adventurer guild under ‘She who Mourns’. It's Sara's adventurer name.”

  “Didn't want it under your own.”

  She shakes her head. He nods and starts to leave. The mistress tosses a metal triangle behind him. He turns curious and picks it up. He has a brow raised to her.

  “Arccor had it. Channeling magic into it makes you not exist. Well you exist but no one can tell. It's a unique cover spell. I think you might be able to beat it with mirrors though. It's Sara's spell, if I recall when we were one. Sara has bullshit logic when it comes to mirrors.” The mistress pauses, “We can't have any more Elves come here Ujan. She is not able to defend herself any more.”

  The Drakenoid winces at my mistress' words. He nods.

  “I'll see it done…Lea.” He pauses, “The land is dying around here.”

  “She can't control her aura either.” The mistress says morosely.

  The Drakenoid leaves.

  “Goodbye, Ujan.”

  She gets up and begins hitting the corpse of an Elf. Her rage, her fury, unable to be quenched on the dead. She spies something that rolls out of its side. It is a green black orb. She picks it up and studies it.

  -----

  I watch from atop the walls as the land withers. The wild life flees. Not all of them make it. A bit of memory flows into my soul.

  -----

  I grin at my mother. She had just praised me for learning my first spell from Lincor.

  “Leacea, do you know what magic you like to focus on?” She asks.

  “Life magic mother. I wish to make sure I have smooth pregnancies."

  “You're not trying to escape the castle by fulfilling your duties as fast as possible are you?” She says with a bit of mirth.

  I shake my head, “No, mother.” I draw out the word to better admonish her. “I just want to ensure you have grandchildren to dote on as soon as possible.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  She smiles at me. I return it as I pick at my salad.

  -----

  A bit of snow falls. It dissolves on the barren ground. The mistress sits on the coffin in front of the shattered fountain. She stares at the orb in her hands. Waiting. Her soul breaks another piece off to maintain the dead.

  -----

  I woke with a start. I just finished my previous Lark. My crime. I look to the side and see my children's empty crib. They already had left the castle but I never removed the crib from my room. Ready to birth more for mother. I feel a large amount of rage. I turned eighty soul days a month ago. Earn tier two the day after. And now I know my crime. Having seen my previous Lark. I rushed out of my room, down the corridor to her room. I don't bother knocking.

  “Sleep well, Leacea?” She said as if I hadn't barged into her room.

  “IT WASN'T MY FAULT.” I scream at the bitch.

  “I don't care, Leacea. You had your fun, got captured and raped. You know the taboos. You had many options to end your Lark. That you forced me to track down five mongrels is crime enough.” She said calmly, as if telling me the weather.

  I scream at her. She turns and looks at me with those grey shining eyes. They held no pity. I don't think they held any life.

  “You're free to leave the castle. Now that you know your crime.”

  I left that day. Arccor had intercepted me. Told me I should have a meal before I go. For my strength. If only I had the strength to kill her.

  -----

  The orb shudders in the mistress's hands. It begins to channel undeath through her. Her pliant hands begin to wither. Her soul no longer feeds me, the orb of undeath mana sustains me instead.

  -----

  My eyes snap open. I see an older Violet writhing and greying in front of me.

  “Sister.” I hug her as her body grows cold.

  “Is that what I am?” She murmurs as her body steadies. I feel her chest steadily rise and fall. A heartbeat. It's all a lie. Her body is undead.

  “Of course, who else would you be?”

  “I don't remember.” Another murmur.

  I frown at her words. Of course, she only has memories of being Cea's fiction. I grip her tighter, tears fall onto her shoulder. She hugs with only one arm. I pull back to look at what is now my older sister. How strange? She has one cat ear and one Elven. Her right arm is too thin. I frown at that. She sees me looking at it.

  “It got ripped off, it's just mithril bone right now.” She lifts the arm and flexes it.

  “You seem surprised it works.”

  “It had stopped when I had entered this wasteland. My undeath mana fled me the moment I set foot here.”

  Wasteland? I wince at the fragmented memory. Watching over the wall. Watching everything die. I grow a bit melancholy at it all. The other memories…Lea memories. “LEA.”

  “Still here Sara…or is it Sera.” I see her next to Arccor's body. She looks like a prune.

  “You knew the name from before, don't act surprised.” I say cattily.

  She chuckles, “Sure but you never said it. So it wasn't my place to call you by that name.”

  “I still haven't said it.”

  “Your other half did, close enough.” She has a cracked smile.

  “You're rather rude to your protector.” Violet chides me.

  “How else will she know that I am fine?” That got a ha from Lea.

  “Are you?”

  Soul lowered to 520

  I wince. So does Violet.

  “My undeath core is fueling this body. I don't think that happened because of me.”

  “No. Our soul core was shattered. I think my soul pulled together a bit after you put the blood core in my body. But it's leaking. I don't even feel my spirit anymore.”

  “Spirit?”

  “Like me but not as funny.” Said squeaks out next to Lea.

  “How the fuck are you back? I'm quite certain Violet ate you.”

  Violet looks aghast at me for my language. “I ate Said?” Or that.

  “It was before you got babified and gaslighted into thinking you were an Elf.”

  My words only cause her to shudder. “Gaslighted?”

  I frown. She lacks, like, all the context.

  Soul lowered to 519

  Another wince.

  “Are we going to be okay?” Tinged with fear, her one eye searching me for answers. Her Tapestry is solid but mine is chipping away at it.

  I give a sad smile, “I think if I let go…I think you can continue on without me.”

  The searching eye snaps to me fast. There's real anger there. “Fark that, there has to be another way. I didn't rip an eye out, lose an arm, get crippled and uncrippled just end up with no farking idea of who I am and why any of this happened.”

  I couldn't help it, I giggled. “Fark?”

  “Fuck you.”

  I hugged her, "That's better.” She returns it. “I…”

  “Just tell me what we need to do.” She says softly into my ear.

  “I think if we merge…go back to being Sara. We could try to heal our soul. Reform our core. I don't know if we will be able to risk being apart until it's fully healed. I don't know how much either of us will remain.”

  “I see.”

  Soul lowered to 518

  “I'm fine with the risk.”

  “You only say that because we have no time. You should just continue on.”

  “So we disagree.”

  “I don't need your agreement to pass on.” I say with tears in my eyes.

  “Don't you dare.”

  I give her a sad smile, I just need to— “Rock paper scissors.” We both look at Said. I frown, while Violet is confused. “When you disagree, you have to play rock paper scissors to decide who is going to decide.”

  “I don't know how to play.”

  “It's simple, this is rock.” A tiny closed fist, “Paper.” A tiny hand splayed out. “And scissors.” Now the two fingers are doing a cutting motion. “Paper beats rock ‘cause it smothers it, and scissors beat paper ‘cause it cuts and rock bashes scissors to pieces.”

  “That makes no sense.” Violet says with a frown.

  “Just roll with it, idiot. You shake your fists two times like this then on the third you shoot out your choice. If they're the same you just play again until someone wins. First time players always have to throw scissors.”

  I frown at Said explanation.

  “That is idiotic.” Violet deadpans to Said annoyance.

  I hear a laugh from Lea. I simply put my fist up. Violet gives me a single eyed seriously look. I return it with a toothy grin.

  Soul lowered to 517

  Her left fist comes out balled. One, it comes down to this again. Two, what will be will be. Thr—

  Said zips into my chest. That bitch. I see Violet hands form a scissors to counter my own pair. My head pulls back looking to the sky as my body changes.