VII. Shin

Curious, Gwynn climbed out of his bedroom window. So long as he wasn't under order to be somewhere specific, he could wander the grounds of the main house. Gwynn followed the path of the fox through the thick fog. He called out to the wild beast. "Wait! Did you hear me?" Gwynn asked. The fox re-emerged from the fog before disappearing again. A voice spoke to Gwynn from behind. "I might have. But I do not think I can help you, Fairy." Gwynn turned around. A man appeared before him. His hair was white like Gwynn's own, but Gwynn sensed the color was from age rather than from birth. The man's eyes were black as night, stars reflecting in them despite the time of day and clouded sky. The man dressed in white and red. His feet were not visible. The bottom of his clothes were transparent. His fingertips were also see-through. A faint outline of what should've been there remained. The man's face was young, but Gwynn sensed from his energy he was quite old. "Are you the fox?" Gwynn asked. The fox smiled. "My name is Shin." 'He gave me his name right away. How strange.' Gwynn thought to himself. "It is not wise to say your name so freely in this place." "Do not worry. I am aware. Such shackles are nearly impossible to remove once bound, but it would be an extraordinary feat for any to capture me in the first place." Shin said. "I fear none here." "What are you doing here, if I may ask?" Gwynn thought it strange for someone who was so powerful to come near the house. Those of the other realm typically avoided humans, regardless of how powerful they were. To willingly go to a place where humans are known to capture, torture, enslave, and kill magical beings was especially strange. "I am looking for someone. I heard I have a great-grandson still alive, one born through a human line who managed to gain immortality. But I don't know where he lives beyond somewhere in the west. I sensed faint traces of the blood of the human woman I loved long ago in this place, but it is too diluted to belong to my great-grandson. The magic within this place is nearly entirely crafted from tools and contracts rather than natural talent." The fox man smiled. "Well, it was interesting to see the forests here. I am sorry, Fairy, but I cannot help you. You need not worry about me though." Gwynn thought on what the fox man said. "You sensed the diluted blood here...I believe I might know your great-grandson. Do you know anything else about him?" "Oh? Is that so?" Shin put his hand to his chin. "Well, I have heard he is a warrior and a master of the bow, a fearsome hunter. He lives somewhere in the west. He was once a prince. When my grand-daughter left, she married a prince who became a king, from what I've heard." "You've gone too far west, I'm afraid." Gwynn said. He pointed to the east. "Go back across the sea. His home is not far from the former Lady of Life's dwelling by the old river that connects all realms. He is married to a human sorcerer. He lives by a steady river a short distance from the sea." The fox man laughed. "Well, that narrows it down slightly. But that's alright. I too enjoy a good hunt." "I would lead you there, if I could." Gwynn said, staring down at the shackles on his wrists. The fox put his hand to Gwynn's face. "You are dying. Do you wish for death, or do you still wish to survive?" Gwynn's eyes widened. He looked away from the fox man. "I don't know." The fox pulled several threads from his sleeve. "Let me see your arm." Gwynn offered him his left arm. Shin turned the arm so the palm of his hand faced the sky. From the palm, he traced down the hand, across the wrist, and to the elbow. The threads between his fingers slowly sunk beneath Gwynn's skin until none were left. A cold sensation ran down Gwynn's arm. "What did you do?" "I've pushed it back some. As you are now, it will kill you in five years. However, those elves he's captured might be able to push that back further. The lady is skilled at opening and repairing both machine and flesh. The disease within you cannot be fully healed so long as you are enslaved, but they can fight it back enough for you to survive as it tries to creep through your body. It is like kudzu. It must be eradicated entirely and it buries too deep for a successful extraction. But I believe you are already aware of what it is, aren't you?" The fox let go of Gwynn's arm. "Yes." Gwynn said. He looked down. "I've never seen it in another person, but I've been told it buries so deep that even removing the bones it grows out of is not enough. That it is deep within the body, in the blood itself. If I were free, I could heal someone from it. But I do not have the power to heal myself from this disease. Those who could will not come here." "Not here. No, they likely would not to this place." Shin turned away from him. Fog rose heavy between them. "But you are not always here, are you? I'd suggest you don't give in to death yet. No matter how long you are here, if you manage to free yourself, this time will eventually become a faded memory in one who can live as long as you." Gwynn called out to the fox man again. When the fog cleared, there was no one. He went back inside. Gwynn searched for the fox the following morning, but he did not see the fox man again. When he returned to the house, Jen was waiting for him. "Where have you been at?" "I went on a walk." "What for?" Jen asked. "My magical strength replenishes faster when I am outside." Gwynn answered him with a truthful statement irrelevant to why he was outside. "Really? Do all fairies work that way?" "Many do, but not all." Gwynn said. Jen seemed to be satisfied with his answer. "Hmm. I'll need to add that to our records later. Let's go to the lab. I want you to see what I've got the elves up to." Jen lead him into the hallway. "They didn't want to cooperate with me at first, but it wasn't hard to find ways to get them to behave. Human, fairy, elf, you can put most in their place with rape and threats of death." Gwynn did not say anything in response. He felt over the cold invisible lines just beneath his skin. Jen held up two bracelets and two tiny pieces of metal. "Do you know what these are? Both of the elves had them on them. The little ones were under their skin." Gwynn looked at the metal. "I don't know. I've never seen anything like that before." "The female one said it protects and hides their identity. She said theirs were set to make them younger, but they looked the same after I ripped them out. She screamed when I took the bracelet off, but I couldn't get out of her why." Jen said. He put the metal away. "Even when I was fucking her, she just kept screaming. She was hysterical. I couldn't get much out of the male either. He tried to kill himself." "Where's Jennifer?" Gwynn asked, changing the subject. "Oh, she's not talking to me right now." Jen rolled his eyes. "I'll deal with her later. She's been getting too uppity lately, reading those damn pamphlets people sneak around." "Pamphlets?" "More of that women's liberation nonsense. I thought that would've died out by now." Jen ranted. "Yesterday, she was going on about how we worship a goddess, why can't she be equal to me and whatnot. And I told her we don't worship a goddess. The fools do. You are supposed to worship me. She hasn't talked to me since. I'll fix her right tonight." Gwynn was surprised to hear that about Jennifer, though he had noticed her growing agitation with Jen lately. If she somehow managed to break through the cult's teachings and leave, he could forgive her for everything else. Gwynn didn't see the people of the cult as evil. They were disturbed and twisted, but they were hurting, ordinary people underneath the wickedness. Even Jen he refused to believe was a monster. Gwynn hoped there was some way to reach him and change the course of his life. But his desire to save Jen was weakening. He could not wish ill will upon the man. He didn't have it within him to do so. Having seen the horrors Jen, Jennifer, and so many others had experienced as children by the cult, he couldn't stop seeing them as those same shivering children crying in his arms. After those long sessions of torment, Gwynn alone would be left to tend to their injuries. As much as it enraged him what Jen did to Nev, he could not overlook Jen had intentionally kept the one child Jen had called his own away from those sessions. Jen only attacked her once he saw her as betraying him. There was some bit of humanity left within Jen, however small. The sexual torture sessions from Jen's childhood were also likely why he didn't understand exactly how horrid using that as a punishment was. That didn't excuse Jen's actions to Gwynn, but he could see how Jen came to be how he was and how any ordinary human could easily be warped to become the exact same way. How to pull Jen out of that mindset, Gwynn didn't know. He wasn't sure he ever could. If he ever got his freedom, Gwynn thought, Jen would have to be left on his own to self-destruct or be destroyed by another. When they reached the lab, the elves were busy building a tank in the middle of the room. Gwynn looked over them to see if he could tell any differences about them. Outwardly, they did look the same as before. Their energy though, had shifted entirely. These were not young elves barely into adulthood. They were at least as old as he was. 'So, the metal piece hid their ages from others who can sense energy.' Jen had no natural abilities nor did any of the contracts he held within him or the spells cast upon him grant him the ability to sense such things. The cult never thought to consider it worth gathering as a skill for their people. Gwynn noticed other things he couldn't tell before. The twin elves looked nearly identical, too identical for fraternal twins. He could also sense that a portion of the woman's reproductive organs had been replaced early in her life. Humans didn't have the ability to repair things like that, but elves had mastered growing organs a millennia ago. He knew little of elves, but he did know there was one particularly interesting thing about them. Twins, identical and fraternal, were much more common than in other magical beings. What would be especially rare in other magical species, semi-identical twins, were more common than fraternal twins. They were common enough an entire field of research was dedicated to studying them. Among elves, reproductive issues were common with these types of twins, especially among the females of the species. He suspected these two were this kind of twin and the woman had an operation early on in life to fix her reproductive organs with better functioning ones. He also senses she was soon to start her cycle. When he saw her before, he sensed she had used something to stop her cycle entirely. Gwynn wondered if the bracelet she had been screaming about was some form of contraceptive elves used and her fear wasn't exclusively about the sexual assault, but what could result from it. He felt it was wrong to think because of how it happened, but he was glad Jen was infertile. The elf twins looked worse than the previous day he saw them. The orange-red shimmer their golden hair had, an attribute unseeable to human eyes, was duller than before in much the same way the blue shimmer had completely faded from his own hair and the darker blue visible to human eyes on the ends of his hair had also faded entirely to snow white. He suspected in time, their hair would become like his, drab and human-like. Their eyes changed too. Yesterday, their eyes had a gem-like luster to them. Today, it was less noticeable. His own eyes, like most fairy eyes, used to have eyes that looked like pools of color, full of rippling light. His too now appeared quite human, all the light having gone and leaving only the dark shades behind. No light remained in his eyes and had not for decades. The elves' skin had also changed. There was a glowing warmth to them, a golden hue faintly about them. The glow was much dimmer now. Long ago, before Gwynn had been captured, his skin had a sparkling frost on it here and there, though his body itself was always warm to touch. Wherever he walked, the air around him was visible as if it were freezing out. When it was winter or when he used his magic, small snowflakes would fall from his body. Like the frost on his skin, they were warm instead of cold. The snowflakes were visible to humans, but the frost only to those with magical abilities and the pure of heart. His skin had no such qualities anymore. The humans who captured him did not notice any of the changes about him except the slight color change in his wings, hair they could see with their eyes, and the disappearance of the snowflakes. His eyes had changed so quickly after his capture that no one noticed at all. To human sight, he did not look much different. The elves would be the same. Gwynn could already see their bodies were declining from being captured, but they would appear no different to Jen or any other human in the house. Humans rarely entertained the idea that other beings could experience senses at a level beyond their own limited range. For some strange reason, Gwynn had come to understand, most humans thought themselves the most perfect and advanced animal ever to exist despite many simple birds having better vision than them and being much better at not destroying the land their own homes were in. Gwynn mentally spoke to the female elf. 'I can shut it back off, if you want. He won't know.' The woman avoided eye contact when telepathically communicating with him. 'Can you really do that, Fairy?' 'Yes, I can do it right now, if you want. But I will also let you know he is infertile. He can't get you pregnant.' Gwynn informed her. Without hesitation, she answered. 'Do it. Stop it all. If I bleed, I'll be fighting infections constantly with the conditions of that cage he's been keeping us in.' Gwynn performed magic on her without uttering a word or making any motions. Ironically, his weakened state made it so it was not obvious when he was performing magic. The other twin had his own message for Gwynn. It was not a request, but a question. 'Are you single?' Gwynn blushed. 'I'm surprised you're thinking about such things right now.' 'Well, I've got to find some way to distract myself from the nightmare I'm in, right?' The male elf looked over at him. 'If you're not interested, forget I said it.' 'I don't know if it's safe. I don't know what Jen would do to either of us if we pursued that.' Gwynn answered him. He added. 'It's best not to find any obvious joy within his view.' Jen was entirely unaware of the three's secret communications. This was another ability the family had never bothered with attempting to acquire. Telepathy involved a mutual exchange of thoughts. The cult did not work on anything that involved such equal cooperation. They sought instead the ability to read minds without their own minds being accessible. Jen could not do either, protect his mind nor peek into another's. The family's solution to this type of acquisition was to capture selkie, especially males, whenever they could. Both sexes could read others minds without communicating to the person, but males could read minds at a greater distance than females. The females would promptly commit suicide by injecting their own venom directly into their hearts before slashing their hearts up with their claws. The males would lose their minds from reading the thoughts of the cult members and be unable to commit suicide. They would become comatose within an hour or so of being captured and become useless for the task. The males would then be used for experiments on immortal bodies until they were eventually killed. The corpses of both were used for feeding some of their few carnivorous captured creatures. Jen himself had failed twenty times to find a way to use a selkie for spying on members of the cult. While the top within the family were aware many magical beings could communicate telepathically, as they did not possess the ability themselves and could not utilize it in a way they desired, they had collectively decided the ability was not something to worry over. If they couldn't have it, it couldn't possibly be useful. Their continued on and off attempts at gaining some power of this was not contradictory to them. It was simply ignored that these ideas did not mesh together. Because of this ignoring of the obvious, this was one type of rebellion Gwynn did not need to worry about Jen discovering. Jen was already actively ignoring Gwynn even possessed such an ability. Gwynn hadn't had many chances in a long time to utilize this ability. He intended on using it as much as possible to help the elves in any way he could. He knew very well what monstrosities Jen would inflict on them. Whatever help, no matter how small, Gwynn could gift them, he would give to ease the pain. Over the next several weeks, the twins completed two tanks and created a special solution to be used inside them. Gwynn got to know the elves a little more. The brother was named Lapis and the sister was Lazuli, named after the stone. He presumed it was because of their blue eyes. Both had made contracts with young dragons, which gave them the ability to manipulate metal. Most elves had contracts with dragons before their fiftieth birthdays. To the dragons, they saw the contracted elves as being dragons too. The elves did not share this sentiment, he found out. They could not contact their dragons without the small metal pieces Jen had removed from their wrists. Lazuli had called the metal pieces their Dragon stones. Even elves without dragon contracts used them for a number of purposes, from long distance communication and magical energy amplification to identity concealment. The bracelets were officially called "Bands of the Body" by their government's health division, but generally referred to as "Adult Bands". As Gwynn suspected, they were for sexual health. The bands were used as a contraceptive tool by males and females, and a means to regulate and adjust menstrual cycles in females. He found this interesting, as fairies could manipulate any part of their cycle with simply a thought. He had assumed elves could do the same, but realized in some ways elf bodies were in ways half fairy-like, half human-like. Lazuli preferred not to have a menstrual cycle, due to her workaholic and competitive nature. To her, any moment resting and recovering was a moment that could be spent on working to out-compete her colleagues and fill her bank account. While she was working, she had her blood bound contracted dragon search for precious gems for them to split and hoard. What Gwynn learned about Lazuli made it clear to him elves were indeed very similar to humans in a way other magical beings were not. While dragons also collected many things in big piles that humans and elves saw as having monetary value, dragons themselves did not care about those items in that way. They simply liked sparkling objects and organizing large groups of things into complex systems. Sharing a blood pact with a dragon gave the other person some dragon qualities, like fixating on and collecting specific things. So many elves had these pacts with dragons that these traits were seen as being elf traits as well. Upon sharing her blood with her dragon, Lazuli became even more obsessed with working. She enjoyed collecting work related awards. Lapis's reaction to having dragon blood enter his body was different. He became obsessed with books. At home, he had thousands of books. He hadn't read half of them. He didn't collect them for their stories. The covers were what actually interested him. Lapis had worked in a library for half of the week and a bookstore the other half of the week. Elves didn't like to be seen as lazy, so most worked five hours a day, seven days a week, three weeks straight at a time and then would have a week off. This schedule was called the Five-Seven-Three. Lapis having two jobs was expected. Lazuli had three jobs and was very proud of it. Both siblings mourned their inability to return to work. Gwynn found this baffling. In the time when they were allowed to rest from fulfilling Jen's desires, Gwynn often saw Lazuli writing. She had asked Jennifer for a small notebook and a pen, as she was too terrified to ask Jen. Jennifer had given her a few of her own when they were in the lab and Jen was out of the room. "It's not like Jen cares for anything I write down anyway." Jennifer commented as she handed the stack of blank notebooks to Lazuli. While the elves worked on the cloning project, Jennifer fell into a deeper depression. Jen complained to Gwynn frequently that his violations of Jennifer were not, as Jen expected, returning her to her previous submissive nature. He asked Gwynn a question that disturbed him. "Can you rearrange her thoughts and memories? I'd love to at least make her unable to read." "I cannot do anything like that." Gwynn said. "But why would you wish that? Jennifer has assisted you in so many experiments. You'd be losing very specialized talent." "When I have Thomas and Virgil back, I won't need her for that. She can be a proper woman then." Jen said. "That doesn't seem to align with your own family's values. Doesn't your group's teachings encourage men and women to work and better themselves academically?" Gwynn asked. Jen didn't have any problem with women working until recently. He wondered if, as Jennifer was being influenced by women's voices outside the cult, Jen was likewise being influences by voices beyond their own propaganda. "It wasn't like that when things began. That's very clear in the old records. It's why Delilah Blackwell never married. We needed to keep the name, but the people then wouldn't have accepted her marrying and keeping her name or having power over her husband. To be powerful, she needed to be unwed and virginal. My thoughts are merely in alignment with the original views of the family before we changed ways to attract more people. In time, I'll reverse all that. I simply can't do it yet." Gwynn didn't believe Jen's reasons. He was even more certain Jen was being influenced by someone else to have these opinions. Gwynn presumed the mindset was quite attractive to Jen. After all, Jen was already fond of believing nonsense like racial superiority. Adding in more beliefs that he was deserving of more power than others for arbitrary qualities about him that he possessed from birth wouldn't be surprising for Jen. But he was also certain Jen would never admit to being affected in any way by anyone else. The husband and wife pair remained at odds with one another as the elves completed the technical set-up necessary to begin the cloning processes. The next phase of the project required collecting biological material from the remains. Virgil and Thomas has been so badly burned after their deaths that there was little left to collect. "I didn't expect they'd be in this bad of a condition." Lazuli muttered under her breath. She spoke to Jen. "We will definitely need to collect samples from you as well to aid in the process." "Take whatever you need. What about Thomas?" Jen asked. "That one has even less to collect. Does Thomas have any close living relatives or deceased ones with bones in better condition?" Lazuli asked. "Thomas's family's bloodline died out in both the new and old world. Most of his relatives left for the old world about a decade before the Civil War...I may have to dig up some graves on both sides of the pond." Jen looked over at Gwynn. "Fairy, can you transport those bones here?" "As a being of healing and the force of life, I cannot manipulate anything related to the dead." Gwynn answered. "Damn." Jen sighed. "Well, things are mostly running fine here. I suppose it's been a while since I've returned to the old home. It might be nice to get away from Jennifer for a while anyway." "Do you need me to travel with you?" Gwynn asked. Jen shook his head, grinning. "None within the family may kill while I travel within our ancestral land, and I fear none who do not share the blood surging through my veins." Gwynn considered warning him of other dangers in the world, but chose to keep quiet. Jen would not head his warnings, and he was looking forward to Jen being away for a while. Jen having tricked the rest of the family out of knowing Gwynn's name meant he didn't need to follow orders from anyone once Jen was gone. He might rest a little easier for a while. "As for you two, continue whatever work you can. I want Virgil completed by the time I return. Once we work out the issues with him, then we can make Thomas truly perfect." The following morning, Jen left for Europe. Jennifer did not follow him. Rather than instruct Jennifer to keep tabs on things as he usually did, he gave this instruction to Gwynn instead. Jen had not bothered to use Gwynn's name for this. Gwynn, thus, did not treat it as an order and spent his time avoiding most of the humans in the house. He tended to Jennifer, who in turn fed him his meals. Jennifer did not seem interested in keeping up with what was going on in the family and the company either. She spent most of her time in her and Jen's bedroom by the window. She spoke few words to Gwynn. Within her body, he sensed her spirit fading. Her energy carried a particularly deep sorrow within it, the kind that usually attracted the attention of the Lord of Death and his underlings. Jennifer did not care to lock the twins back into a cage at the end of the day. They were free to roam the house and the yard, but could not go farther. The twins slept in Gwynn's room, feeling safer with him than near the cage. Lazuli wrote plans late into the night for a future she desperately wished would come to be. Lapis distracted himself in another way. He flirted with Gwynn frequently and begged for physical affection. From what Gwynn knew of elves, this behavior was odd. Elves did not marry easily and had very long courtships before considering the idea at all. To even invite another elf to a first date was a decision that required at least a month's worth of time to think on. Lapis's very forward behavior, Gwynn presumed, was the result of disordered thinking from his sudden horrid circumstances. He wasn't sure if he should return the man's affections or not. Fairies married easily, with little thought, and were not the monogamous type. They loved deeply, but rarely to only one. Their spouse would be best described as their closest friend and most frequently desired partner for intimate encounters. Gwynn went to many orgies with his wife. This sort of relationship did not exist among elves at all. Once married, they were exclusively attached to that person until death. Lapis likely wouldn't approach him like this under normal circumstances. But they likely also weren't getting out of this alive, or at least, not any time soon. Gwynn was quite lonely himself. All the physical touch he had endured since his capture was all against his will. It might be nice, he thought, to be touched by someone who would stop if he asked. Gwynn put the decision off for the time being. While they were settling down for sleep one night, Lazuli asked Gwynn a question. "You are sick, aren't you? You know, don't you?" Gwynn nodded. "It's been moving slowly up until now." "I can cut some of it back." She said. "If we don't do something about it, it's going to kill you. Or was that what you were hoping for?" "I don't know. I don't think I want to die yet." Gwynn said. "What is it? I didn't know fairies could get sick." Lapis sat up in the bed. "Because you didn't pay attention much at school. It's well known, the only disease a fairy can get. A fatal illness, if left untreated. The Withering." Lazuli pointed to the black fuzz growing out of where Gwynn's wings connected to his body. "A fairy's immune system and immortality is directly tied to the bones of their wings buried underneath their skin. The Withering causes the body to attack itself. The only two cures are an especially talented healer removing it from them, or removing the wing bones. Doing the latter will make the fairy mortal and give them a human lifespan. We can't do the former and I will not do the latter. But we can cut back some of this from spreading. If we do it regularly, we can maintain his body at least to this without further decay." "You know how to do it?" Lapis asked. Lazuli smiled. "I am one of the most talented surgeons in our region. All I need is some metal and I can get most of it out." "When could we do it though?" Lapis asked. Lazuli got out of bed. "Let's do it tonight, while everyone else is sleeping. I can have it done in under an hour. We'll need to go back to that lab. I'll use the tools there." She turned to Gwynn. "Can you grow plants?" "Of course. What did you want me to grow?" Gwynn asked. "Wormwood. For you." She said. "I read in my medical textbooks that it works as an anesthetic for fairies when consumed in a large enough amount. Grow some, liquefy enough to fill a big glass, and then drink it. It should knock you out. You won't feel a thing." "Is that true? I never knew that. Whenever I've been injured, I simply healed myself." Gwynn started to grow the plant. "A fairy healer who doesn't know how to free himself from pain..." She shook her head. "Well, when I was learning magic from my father, most of my lessons were about healing others. I didn't think I'd need to care for myself like this back then." Gwynn did as she instructed him and liquified the plant matter. He levitated the liquid and poured it into the glass he kept by the bed for water. He hastily drank it all. "Huh. I don't really feel any..." Gwynn passed out within seconds. Lapis caught him as he fell. "Is he alright?" "He drank it too fast. He'll be fine." Lazuli said. "Come, let's go. We need to get this done before anyone notices us." In the dead of night, the elves worked tirelessly. They were finished within forty minutes. Lazuli was impressed with her time. A little color returned to Gwynn's wings and the ends of his hair. The twins carried Gwynn back to bed. He slept soundly, unconsciously cuddling against Lapis. Lapis cuddled back. He played with Gwynn's hair. "He's quite handsome." Lapis said. "He's a fairy. Their ways are not like our ways. They aren't loyal to one person. He'll sleep around on you once we're free." Lazuli said back. Lapis cuddled closer. "It's alright. If we get out of here, I won't mind." "You don't know him. You know better than to act like this." She kept her back to Gwynn, but stayed close. Though she was not interested in him, she felt a sense of protection from being near him. She sensed this was magically induced, though not something Gwynn was consciously doing. She thought, 'You really were made for nothing but healing others, weren't you? What a sad, beautiful gift.' Lapis put his hand to Gwynn's face. "Do you think he'd marry me?" "Lapis, what are you talking about? You've just met him." Lazuli looked back at her brother. "Marriage is till death. You can't marry..." Lapis wiped away a stray tear. "But that probably won't be too far in the future, will it?" "We don't know that. We'll get out of this...somehow." "Sister, please, may I have permission...if I can get him to love me..." Lapis couldn't hold back his tears. "I don't want to die without getting married. I don't want to die alone..." "We're going to get out of this. We have to." Lazuli tried to comfort him. Her words calmed nothing. She turned back over. "You have my permission. For marriage and the blood exchange. You want to give him your magic too, don't you?" "He doesn't have it. It's the only thing I can offer him." He said. "I don't think fairies ask anything of the ones they wed." "I know, but I am an elf. I must give him a gift." He wiped his face off. "It's all I have on me that monster human cannot take." The twins did not speak after that, both of them struggling to fall asleep for the next hour. Lapis fell asleep first, then Lazuli. The next morning, Lazuli got up early and went on a walk outside. She made a map of the area, hoping it might serve her one day for something. She thought up idea after idea of how they might be able to escape, but she doubted she could pull off any of them. To calm her mind, she cataloged information about the plants on the property into a notebook. Lapis woke next. He was hungry, but too frightened to leave the room. He waited for Gwynn to wake. When Gwynn awoke, Lapis cuddled up against him once more. Gwynn did not reject the physical affection. He looked around for Lazuli. "Where's your sister?" "I think she said something about exploring outside. She woke me before she left, but I went back to sleep. Can't remember exactly what she said." Lapis said. He caressed Gwynn's face. "She probably won't be back for a while." Gwynn put his hand over Lapis's, then pulled it to his lips. He kissed the hand before taking two of the fingers into his mouth. Lapis's face flushed. It was impossible, due to his abilities, for Gwynn to not hear the pounding of the man's heart through his skin. 'This isn't like you at all, is it?' He thought, but did not let Lapis hear him. He kept his thoughts shielded. 'Will this cause us both more pain in the end?' Gwynn knew if Jen found out, he would use this to hurt both of them. The family had a way of turning happiness into horror. His clothes were discarded nonetheless. His body had endured countless violations over the years, but it had been more than a century since he was last able to initiate sex out of his own desires. His loneliness and want overflowed. He knew elves could outlast human men, but Lapis was unable to meet Gwynn's body's limits. Only a fairy could, as fairies had nothing inhibiting them beyond their own physical exhaustion. He needed only seconds to be ready for another round. Lapis was unable to go on after the third time. Gwynn touched himself a fourth time when he realized Lapis couldn't keep going. Lapis caught his breath. "So...it is true...fairies...even the men can keep going many times in a row...how many...how many more before you'd have to stop?" "I don't know. The longest session I've ever had was ten hours straight. I was getting bored and hungry at that point, but I think I could have kept going if I really wanted to." Gwynn admitted. "Ten...ten hours?! How?! The other person must have been a fairy too..." Lapis's eyes went wide. He was still breathing heavily. "About eight fairies. We were trading partners. I was at an orgy." He said. "I think someone stayed for another five or six hours after my wife and I left." "Five or six...hours...I can't...I can't..." "That's alright. I enjoyed myself. I don't need to keep going on for that long. I'm simply stating that I can." Lapis wiped the sweat off his face. "You said...you have a wife. I didn't see a fairy woman around here. Did they only catch you?" Gwynn's demeanor changed. He looked away. "They caught us both. They killed her and my older daughter." Lapis went quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry." Gwynn rested beside the elf. "We must be careful. These people will kill us if they want to. Whatever they want, do it. Do not hold my hand in front of humans. Do not kiss me. Do not show any sign you love me." Lapis nodded. "I understand...We're not...we're not getting out of this, are we?" "I don't want to give up hope just yet." Gwynn held Lapis close. "They're quite destructive, including to themselves. We may escape by outlasting their inward violence." Lapis lightly touched one of Gwynn's wings. Gwynn felt a shiver down his spine. "They're bluer than before. Some more of the color has come back in. It's more vibrant than when we cut out most of the sickness in you." "Hmm...perhaps this was healing for me." Gwynn laughed. "How can sex be healing? You're joking, right?" Lapis asked. "I don't know. It always was my favorite hobby after growing flowers." "How can sex be a hobby?" Gwynn laughed again. "I am a fairy." Lapis caressed Gwynn's face. "Your face is rosier too. And your wings...they lit up earlier...I heard most fairies' wings lit up when they feel intense emotions of any sort, but I was starting to think it wasn't true. With how Jen treats you, I thought I would've seen it by now." "I am numb to Jen's behavior. I let my mind take me somewhere else when he hurts me, so I don't feel much at all then." Gwynn glanced over his shoulder at this wings. "I don't think they've let off any light since they killed my family." "Earlier, you said older daughter...do you have children somewhere else?" Lapis asked. "Jen forced me to have a child with his wife. I didn't let him enslave her. I've sent her far from here where he can't reach her." Gwynn said. "Nor can I." "He forced his wife...to have a child with you. For what reason...?" Lapis's disgust of Jen only grew deeper. "He was hoping to replace me, I suspect." Gwynn said. He had a few questions of his own. "Few venture into human lands anymore, especially not elves. What were the two of you doing out here?" "My sister's husband was a researcher. He studied humans and human culture. He was actually an advocate for re-establishing connections between humans and elves." Lapis explained. He sighed. "He was a kind and trusting person. Too much so. He was killed by humans, who called him a demon. We came here for revenge, only to get caught by surprise and enslaved." "I am sorry. I know it may be hard to believe, but not all humans are like this. It is more...there is a certain amount of them that are...deeply, deeply disturbed. They harm other humans too. Most of them are too kind and meek to do anything. They are as afraid as we are of those kinds of humans." Gwynn said. "It is hard for me to believe. I saw...we both saw what had become of him. A unicorn told us the rest. She trampled the humans to death, until they were nothing more than a pool of blood and broken bones...because that's what was left of him. Red running over shattered white. I can never forget that image." Lapis shook with rage and fear. "They tried to kill her too...the unicorn. They wanted her horn." "Humans have only three reactions to unicorns; in awe of them, in fear of them, or in pursuit of them. Those who pursue them to take their lives are the same kind who torment other humans. They see beauty and wish to break it into parts and mount the corpse for private viewing." Gwynn said. He kissed Lapis on the forehead. "We are surrounded by that sort. But I agree with your brother-in-law's judgement. Most humans are good and would be kind to us. The trouble is...there's no way of knowing which human is which until it is too late." "I don't know how you can say that, given all you have endured." Lapis said. "Before I was captured, I wandered the lands across the sea, in the north. I healed many humans. Nearly all were grateful for my care." Gwynn looked out the window. Another storm was rolling in. He thought of Jen and how he was when he was a child. "All humans are born kind. Every single one of the monsters inside these walls was born innocent and fragile. Jen didn't become how he is because he is evil. He was broken into more pieces than he has ever managed to cut me into, just as his father was, and his father before him. When the human mind breaks, how it tries to put itself back together is unpredictable. Jen's brother, Virgil, ran away from this when he got the chance. Jen has convinced himself this is normal to avoid facing his own victimhood." "What a bizarre way to live." Lapis couldn't understand what Gwynn was telling him. "If they all have this potential to become this way, I don't see how I could trust even a single one." "You would need to meet more humans to understand, but this is not the place for that. This is a den of monsters. Watch them. Watch how they treat their own children. And remember, what you see in this place is nothing like how most humans are." Gwynn warned him. "You haven't even seen the worst of what they do yet." With Jen away, Gwynn and Lapis did not hide their new relationship. Lapis excitedly told his sister about it. She was concerned about his behavior, but congratulated him anyway. Jennifer paid little attention to them. One morning, when Gwynn was treating her severe menstrual cramps, she asked him about Lapis. "Are you sleeping with the male elf?" She asked, resting on the bed she shared with Jen. Gwynn bowed his head and nodded. "I will stop, if you think Jen will be angry." "How would he hear about it from me? He doesn't listen to me anymore." She looked up at him. "Sometimes, I wish you'd get me pregnant again. Jen was nice to me then." Gwynn didn't know how to respond to that. "Do you wish for another child?" "No." Jennifer spoke, her eyes empty. "The baby would only make him happy if the child were his. And he can give me none." Gwynn let a little of his inner thoughts slip out. "Would it really be any different if the child was his?" A deep sorrow caught in her throat. Only laughter could escape her lungs. "He'd rape that one too. And then me after, for the child misbehaving. Looking back, I'm surprised he only violated Jenny once. And I did nothing. I've always done nothing." "You could leave him." Gwynn said. "You're not bound here the way I am." "Oh, but I am bound even more so. I am his wife. He'd go to the ends of the earth to tie me back down. He'd use you to do it too. All he needs is to say your name." She laughed again, louder than before. "So long as I am his wife, you cannot spirit me away to anywhere he cannot reach. You sent Jenny where none of us can follow. You cannot do the same for me. It'd kill me. Anywhere but where he cannot be, he will always find me and lock me up here again. You know what he's making those elves do. Even Virgil and Thomas will not escape him by death itself. If you destroyed my soul, he would make another woman in my image and break her just the same. Again and again. What point is there in running? I wouldn't put it past him to find a way to capture a ghost solely for the purpose of haunting it. He will be my death and he will be my hell until he draws his last breath. If I killed him, he would torment my dreams." "Dreams end at dawn." Gwynn whispered. "Oh? I thought you were incapable of wishing ill on another." She sat up. "I am merely saying a fact. Nightmares cannot chase you when you're awake." Gwynn walked over to the window. "The second you are no longer his wife, I can send you anywhere. Places they can never reach. Human marriages do not have to end by death either. A piece of paper is enough. I cannot harm him, but I can control anyone here on order if the order does not harm the person. I know you know my name. He uses it carelessly enough now you couldn't possibly not know." Jennifer smiled as a tear slid down her face. "For what...after all the things I've done...I am not worth saving." "You are to me." Gwynn said. "Gwynn." Jennifer said. Gwynn's consciousness faded. Jennifer broke down in tears. "I cannot even get myself to order you. I am no woman. I am a monster. I am exactly where I belong." Jennifer opened one of her nightstand's drawers. She gathered up the small pamphlets and magazines, and carried them over to the window. She placed them in a bowl and burned them all with a lighter from Jen's night stand. With both hands, she held the bowl out the window and let the pouring rain extinguish the flames. All that remained was water and ash. "He'll be the death of us both. Of every single one of us here. And he will not be satisfied. Fairy, why did I come to love such a man? I kept waiting by his side, hoping that boy would return to me. I did everything he asked. I sacrificed everything for him. And it is not enough. It will never be enough. You know, I think it makes him happier that I continue to fail him. Because that means he can berate me again and I am certain now that nothing brings him greater joy than that." Gwynn said nothing. She put her hands on Gwynn's face. "You cannot harm me, but you can make things that harm. Gwynn, I do have one order for you. Make me a poison, one that kills painlessly and quickly." The fairy put his hands together. A ball of light surrounded his hands. When he pulled them apart, the light vanished. A red flower floated in the air. It contorted onto itself until it was as small as a pill. The fairy spoke. "Swallow one, and death will come in six seconds. A painless end." "What is this? It looked like a poppy flower." She took the small plant. "It is a type of poppy that does not grow anywhere humans can reach. We call it the Goddess of Night. When one wishes to end it all, whether mortal or immortal, this flower will take any to Death himself. It will not grow for you. Only a being of life with immortality may create such a death." Gwynn explained to her. "Why would one who exists to bring life be the only one capable of bringing such a death upon another?" She asked. "All that is must end and begin again as another force. I exist on a longer scale of time than humans, but inevitably, an immortal being will be done with their life. This is the only nonviolent way for us to leave our bodies behind. It is not for harm. It is for shifting form." The fairy said. "I don't understand." She held the plant close, then brought it to her mouth. She fell to her knees and cried, the plant still in her hand. "Begone, Fairy. Leave me alone for the day." Gwynn left the room for his own. He regained consciousness an hour later, confused and afraid. He knew someone must have given him an order. He was afraid Jen had returned early, but he soon recalled he was last speaking to Jennifer and assumed she must have given the order. 'What could she have wanted me to do?' Gwynn wondered. He looked out the window. His thoughts turned to Jen, contemplating what that man might be getting up to at the moment. He hoped, whatever it was, kept Jen away for as long as possible. Across the sea, in the old lands of the Blackwell family, Jen was busy digging up a grave. He added bones to a half full burlap sack. Jen worked quickly. He was always good at grave-digging. When he was done with that one, he moved on to the next tombstone with "Wolfe" engraved on it. "What are you doing?" A man shouted, running up to him. "I need these for medical research." He answered. "I'll pay you handsomely if you overlook this." "No money you could give me will be enough. I will not have you defile these graves any further. My family has been guarding this land, those who rest above and below it, for generations. Put back what you have stolen, demon." The man pulled out a gun. Jen smiled, digging deeper. "Oh, you are part of the Ó Rinn family, are you? You can put the gun away. I am more entitled to be here than you." "Who are you?" The man asked. "Jensen Blackwell." Jen answered with his birth name. "I've come to collect the bones of the Wolfe family in hopes of reviving their bloodline." "Blackwell..." The man lowered his gun. "What do you mean? A ritual?" "Something like that. I've acquired the aid of a pair of elves in my task, but I need these. If we are successful, the Wolfe family may not be lost after all." Jen put his shovel into the ground and leaned on it. "Do you still intend to stop me?" "Take what you need. You may stay in the old castle. I will let the others know a Blackwell is visiting us." The man turned to walk away. Jen stopped him. "I have another request. I need the records on Wren Blackwell's older brother, that archer and and his loyal knight, the Hellhound. Bring them to the king's bedroom. That's where I'll be staying." "I will have the room prepared for you, Master." The man said. Jen smirked. He liked how submissive the man was to him. He liked when people submitted to him without him needing to use threats. Jen continued on with the grave before him. As he worked, an uneasy sensation crept up on him. He felt someone's eyes on his back. Jen turned around. A disheveled man stood behind him, eyes full of sorrow. Despite the man's sad appearance, Jen sensed malice and aggression within him. He reached for his gun. Before he could draw it, the man stood before him. The sad looking man looked up at with those strange, mournful eyes and spoke with a kind, quiet voice as he grabbed Jen's coat. "You're a bad person. So guilty. So disgusting. I want to eat you." 'A fairy monster.' Jen tried to get away. 'Wait...why can't I see his real form? I have my glasses on...What is this?' The being touched the glasses on Jen's face. Tears slid down its false face. "How wicked...impressive...to kill a unicorn. They scare me. But you don't. Come home with me." The creature wrapped its human arms around Jen's neck and pulled him through itself to some other place. As Jen fell through it, he felt his body being ripped apart and severed from his soul. The pain was worse than anything he had ever experienced before. He didn't know how he was feeling anything at all, or what was happening to him. Colors vanished, then re-emerged in impossible hues. The colorless void and the too colorful view shared the same space, overlapping and disconnecting from one another. Jen saw himself in many forms, in many pieces, whole and in various states of brokenness. He felt all of them, as if somehow he was in many places at once. Wherever he was, it was freezing. He watched his other selves break apart into smaller and smaller pieces as the one version of himself watching it all floated beneath them as a pure white figure within the vast darkness. Then, color returned to him. He shifted between red and blue, flickering like a dying candle. He could not move, nor could he scream. Sound did not exist in this space. There was no up or down. He saw nothing physical existing either. But there was something there with him. Many, many beings were floating there with him. He couldn't count how many. They were as numerous as the stars in a night sky. All around him, he saw beings made of two big, connected orbs with tendrils extending down from them. Most of the beings around him had these tendrils sunk deep into what looked like humans. The human and the being existed in two places at once. There was the being floating in the dark space draining the disembodied human soul. Overlapping that was a large sphere containing a scene with objects and landscapes. Inside that sphere the human appeared normal. What stayed within that orb with the human shifted. Most of the time, it was another human, though one with strange features. The eyes were unusually large and full of sorrow. They spoke little and when they did, the voice was sad or kind. When they were not in this human form, they were in the form of a dog or wolf. They were violent in this form, ripping the human apart piece by piece and putting them back together again. Some of the orbs even showed an in-between form, one that was half human, half canine. This form was sexually violent to the captured humans, so violent the body of the humans would rip apart. The beings would put the humans back together every time they broke them down. The beings tormented the humans with isolation, loneliness, sadness, guilt, and violence. As the humans stared into the forms with sad eyes, they would scream or mumble something they were ashamed about. Jen watched the torment all around him, coming to understand this was likely his coming fate. The one that pulled him there, he saw it as another pair of orbs staring own. The being looked nothing like before, but Jen still recognized the sadness as the same. It stuck its tendrils into Jen's chest. He felt a sucking sensation. Red light left him as the being sucked. As it left his body, the being's own form became more red. The being stopped and spoke to him somehow. Jen knew it was not by sound, but the words were all around him in a way the other beings understood it. "Brother?" The being asked. Jen didn't understand what it meant. He couldn't respond himself. The being sucked the red light again. It stopped and spoke excitedly. "Brother! Soon..." At that announcement, another orb being came over to him. Some asked, "A brother?" "Family! Family!" Others chanted. "Brother! Brother!" The orb beings moved closer, flashing red brightly. Jen noticed all the beings were draining something red from their victims. The victims all shifted between red and blue, with a few he saw fading into nothingness. "Not ready yet. Come home soon, Brother. Go back now and grow. Don't fear the scythe. It means freedom." One of the orbs said. Another came over. "No, no. Brother is too early, so Brother is not a brother. More will come. Let's all eat. This one will taste better if he doesn't become family." "No, family. I want a brother." The one who had brought him there said. "I send back, he becomes Brother. Joyous." "Hungry! EAT!" The other orb grew more aggressive. It stuck its tendrils into the orb that had captured Jen and began to eat it. The one that was holding him cried out in pain. The cry, though not audible, pierced Jen deeply. He could feel its pain creating tears into his soul. The other orb creatures that had been moving closer all moved away quickly with their captured humans. The one being devoured cried out until it vanished into nothing. The more aggressive being turned its gaze to Jen and stuck its tendrils into him. Jen wanted to fight back, to scream, to do anything at all, but he was left with only his thoughts. There, in the one space Jen had any control over, he begged and prayed for any magical being that would have mercy on him to save him. He tried calling for Gwynn, but Gwynn did not come. A voice answered him inside his thoughts. 'I will take you home if you free my soul.' 'I promise...though I don't know who you are. How would I free you?' Jen asked in his mind. 'You don't know? I suppose you were innocent to that part of your crime. How do you think you are retaining any of my magic, child?' Jen's glasses glowed a rainbow light. A horn grew from that light, growing greater and greater in size. From the horn, ripples of colorful light expanded out across the darkness. The horn of light came down across the beings, slicing through their very existence and destroying them. The horn ripped through the darkness itself. Beyond it, Jen saw stars and planets. The rainbow light enveloped him and the other humans near him. They all moved in the current of the light, pouring out through the tear and falling back to earth in reassembled pieces scattered across the globe. Jen's body and soul slammed back into each other violently, in a pain nearly as awful as the one he felt when the two had separated. As Jen fell to earth, he did not land in the grave he started at. He fell into a familiar bed in an old castle he hadn't seen in years. The glasses fell beside him. They shimmered and glowed. Jen heard a voice in his head. 'Break them and I will be free to walk toward Death. I have summoned help for you. If you do not make good on your end of the bargain, my children will send you back to where you belong.' Jen's body froze at the thought. 'I will find a way, somehow. Who have you called to help me?' 'Your nearest family, of course.' The spirit said. 'Nearest?' Jen looked around. "My, my. Where have you gone to?" A man with raven hair and black eyes stood beside Jen. He sat on the bed and touched Jen's forehead. His hand moved down to the glasses. The man took them off Jen's face. His expression turned to disgust. "What the hell have you done?" "I don't know..." Jen managed to say. He recalled the vision he saw of the archer in red shooting him. He begged the man. "Please, please don't kill me." The man broke the glasses in half. He strung a bow, then threw the glasses into the air. He shot an arrow at them, shattering both lenses. The man lowered his bow. "What you've done is an offense worth killing over, but I am not one to take the life of my own blood. You should thank that poor unicorn for your survival. I've fulfilled your end of the deal on your behalf." "Help me..." Jen couldn't lift any part of his body. He coughed. Black sludge dripped from his mouth. He saw his veins at his wrist had shifted from blue to black in appearance. Jen couldn't see the black marks on his neck and face. The tears that fell from his face were filled with the same substance. "Poor thing. This won't be easy to get out of you. I will do my best, but I may need to call my husband for this." The raven haired man picked up Jen's left wrist. He gently placed it back down, then put his hands together. A light formed between them. As he pulled his hands apart, a crescent moon appeared between them. To Jen's eyes, he only saw a scythe. "Don't send me back to them...please, don't kill me...I beg you..." "I am not sending you anywhere. Don't be afraid. The moon heals as much as it takes." The black haired man said. He held the light of the crescent moon over Jen's head. "Sadly, this is the only healing magic I can do right now. To protect my descendants and those they have loved before Death can lay his cold hands upon them. But I cannot delay Death forever." Jen found the man very beautiful. He thought the man might be the most beautiful person he had ever seen in his life. This disgusted him, as the man was clearly mixed race. He understood very clearly who this person was. Rowan Blackwell, the brother of his ancestor, Wren Blackwell. Though they were related by blood, he did not care that he found this man attractive. He rationalized away the incestuous implications by telling himself so many generations separated them that it did not matter that they were technically related and he had been forced to sleep with many much closer relatives. Jen understood from looking at him that this man was the one from the vision, the one who would shoot him. As far as he was concerned, he was already in the arms of a beautiful grim reaper. His mind conjured strange and horrid fantasies while he lay there terrified for his life. Rowan did not share Jen's disturbances of the mind. Much as he was disgusted with this relative before him, he did his best to pull out the black sludge from the void space Jen had come from and to heal the open wounds all over Jen's body. That task was easier than he expected, but he found there was much more work to be done. Rowan sensed beings inside of Jen's body, some fused to him, some consuming him slowly. He hummed a melody. Jen suddenly felt sleepy. Jen tried to stay awake, but he quickly fell asleep. "Oh, this won't be easy. What have you done?" Rowan asked. "I'm going to have to look inside." VIII. Rowan