5. Willow
Willow
I’m snuggling in bed with my mates when there’s a familiar knock on the door.
Tucked between them with my head on Rhune's chest, and Nyx's arm slung heavy across my waist, I’m so comfortable that for a moment, I consider ignoring it so we can waste the day like this.
The knock comes again, followed by a distinctly female voice. “Is everyone decent?” she asks.
With a lot of effort, I manage to disentangle myself from my mate's limbs. Sitting upright in bed, I shove the hair back off my face and clear my throat. “We’re decent! Come in!”
A moment later, the door swings open, and Dagny steps inside, all smiles and comforting energy. She's got her long hair pulled back in a braid today, and the style shows off her striking features and highlights her strange, silver-ringed eyes.
“Feeling better?” she asks, giving me a once-over. “You look better.”
“I feel great.” I nod, not having to fake the smile I give her.
After a good meal and a long dip in the healing pools, my legs are fully functioning, and my body aches are practically nonexistent.
Even the tiredness plaguing me since I came to this land seems to have been chased away with the extra TLC.
“Perfect,” she says. “Can I steal her away for a few minutes to give Willow a little tour?”
“I suppose.” Rhune sounds unsure. “You will be okay, pup?”
Nyx snorts from his side of the bed, not bothering to open his eyes. "She survived an ice wyrm attack, an arachnyx horde, and fought off the bloodthirsty entity parasitizing her soul. I think she can manage a house tour."
Rhune's wings droop slightly as a familiar whine builds in his throat. I squeeze his hand, offering him a reassuring smile. “I’ll be fine, Rhune. You and Nyx get some rest.”
“You promise?”
“I promise, promise. I will call you if I need anything.” I squeeze his hand again, give him and Nyx a quick kiss, then crawl off the bed.
“Ready?” she asks.
“Ready.”
Kevin rises from where he was resting on the floor, blinking sleepily and letting out a soft bleat, as if asking if he can come with.
“You can come, Kevin.” I laugh. “You never have to ask.”
I walk beside Dagny as we traverse the mazelike tunnel system, trying and failing to gain my bearings as she points out different rooms and landmarks.
Once she’s shown me the main layout, she leads me to a room at the back of the tunnels. It’s small and cozy, filled with books and trinkets, and it makes me feel at home.
I sit in the fur-covered armchair across from Dagny, marveling at how soft it is.
“My mates made that for me,” she says. “Anything I want, they somehow find a way to make it.”
Reminds me of my own mates. I wonder if acts of service is a demon thing…
Kevin trots over, stretches, and curls up at my feet.
Dagny watches his little dance, grinning. “I think it’s so cool that you have a pet baby antethorpe. I had a kleptak years ago, but he was not nearly as adorable as Kevin.”
“Kleptak?” I try to remember if any of my mates have mentioned that creature. “It sounds… creepy.”
Dagny chuckles. “I suppose they are a bit creepy. They’re wild creatures, and I have a soft spot for those kinds.
” She gazes down at Kevin fondly while I glance around the room, homesickness settling in my chest as I take in the carefully selected furnishings and the trinkets lining the shelves, each carrying its own significance and memory.
"This place is really nice," I say. "Very comfy.” My smile falls slightly as I remember the home my mates and I shared. It wasn’t as put together as this place, but if we had time to grow together, we would have made a home of our very own.
All of that is gone now.
“What’s wrong, Willow?” Dagny asks, leaning forward to give me her full attention.
“Nothing.” I glance down at my hands, noticing that my knuckles have gone white from how tight I’m clenching them. “It’s just… being here reminds me of everything I lost. Everything we lost.”
Dagny doesn’t say anything. She just waits, listening intently.
“We lost our home in an ice wyrm attack not too long ago,” I explain.
“I hadn’t lived there for very long, but it really started to feel like home.
I’ve never had one of those, not really.
I was engaged before, but the way I felt with my ex doesn’t come close to how I am with Rhune, Nyx, Dravik, and Cin. And now… I’m just sad that we lost it.”
"I'm very sorry to hear that." Dagny is quiet for a moment. “All is not lost, though. You can make a new home, with new memories. I know it doesn’t make anything better, and it doesn’t give you back what you lost, but it is a way to look forward.” She stops, placing her hand gently on my arm.
"My mates and I lost our home a long time ago too. We used to live in a castle, if you can believe it. The tunnels aren’t quite the same, but they’re safe, and we have each other. As long as you have each other, the rest can be endured.”
"What happened?" I ask. “To your castle.”
Dagny leans back, considering how much to say.
"It’s a long story. The short version is that there was a war between the two kingdoms in the north of The Far Place.
There was a demon named Slaine—powerful, cruel, and the kind of creature you don't forget once you've crossed him.
He tried to kill my mates, but we fought back.
We killed him for it. Reduced him to ash.
" Her jaw tightens. "We thought that was the end of it. When Malice saw your Cin, my mates were certain Slaine had somehow survived. Thankfully, that’s not the case. "
Dagny's voice is calm as she continues. "I knew as soon as I got close enough to feel their energies that they are nothing like him. But… I still don't understand how they're alive. I saw Slaine turned to ash and blood myself. There was nothing left of him to save."
I take a deep breath. “Well, you see…”
Trying not to leave out any details, I reiterate what Nyx told me about the mystery surrounding their resurrection. All the while, Dagny listens without interrupting, her frown deepening with every new piece of information.
“So… they just awoke one day, as separate pieces? No one used magic to bring them back or bond them to their familiars?”
“Not as far as they know. The way Nyx tells it, they just… woke up, and that was the end of it. They have some memories of their past life—Slaine’s life—but it’s in pieces.”
"Fascinating," she says. "I swear, the more I learn about this world, the less I understand..."
"How long have you lived here?" I ask. "In The Far Place?"
She takes a moment before answering. "Honestly, I couldn't tell you exactly. Time works differently here. If I had to guess, though… probably somewhere around a quarter century, in human years."
“Jesus… Don’t you miss anything about Earth?”
Dagny shrugs. "Honestly, not really. This world has grown on me immensely. I wouldn’t choose to be anywhere else. I can fly anytime I want, wherever I want, and now that we’re settled here, we always have someplace warm and safe to rest.”
Her eyes darken as she mumbles, “At least, it used to be safe…”
I don’t like the way she says that. “What do you mean, used to be?”
She lets out a long sigh and stands from her chair, gesturing for me to follow. “It’s better if I show you.”
I trail her out of the cozy room and down the long stretch of tunnel, the comforting light and fur rugs giving way to cold, bare ice-rock.
Dagny turns down a passage she neglected to show me during the tour, and I follow at her heels, careful not to slip as the floor slopes downward, taking us deep into the ice.
As we descend, the walls close in and the light changes as the gaps between the lanterns widen. Dagny stays eerily silent as we walk, one hand trailing along the wall while her cunning eyes scan the shadows ahead.
Finally, the tunnel opens, and we step into a darkened room. My footsteps echo through the air, sounding smaller and farther away than they really are as they bounce off the walls of the massive cavern.
I blink against the shadows, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dim light. But as soon as they do, I wish I hadn’t.
“H-holy shit.” I stumble backward, my eyes widening in horror as I stare at the massive pit sitting in the center of the room. It’s wide enough that the far side is barely visible from the doorway, and the bottom is nowhere to be seen.
Roots crawl out of the darkened mouth, some thick as my arm, others as thin as thread, all tangled together in impossible knots that cling to the walls and spread across the floor in every direction.
All the while, they pulse. The light crawls through them in slow, uneven surges, coloring the surrounding air an ominous, deep shade of red.
"Dagny." My voice comes out smaller than I want it to. "What is this place?"
“It used to be a healing pool.” She doesn't look away from the pit. “Now… Now, it’s this.”
A shudder runs through me as a high-pitched whine comes to life, filling my head. I press my fingers to my temples, but it doesn't help, and the sound grows louder, drowning out everything else.
Underneath it, voices start layering in. Hundreds of them, all garbled and shouting, but none of the words are clear enough to understand. From somewhere far away, I think I hear Dagny calling my name, but it is too muffled, and my head hurts too much.
When I think I’m going mad from the pain and confusion, a single voice rises above the noise, clearer than all the others. And it frightens me.
Willow, it whispers. Come to us, Willow.
My feet are moving before I’ve made a conscious effort to do so. My vision tunnels with each step, narrowing in on that horrible chasm. I can't feel the cold anymore, can't feel Dagny's hand that was on my arm a second ago.
The roots along the floor twitch as I close the distance, sliding across the ice toward my ankles. They’re moving slowly enough that I could turn and break their hold if I had control of my body. But I don’t, and I can’t.