"Sonera."
"Sonera."
She hadn't yet realized her ears were ringing. It was as if the girl's entire body had been on fire. Only the embrace of a soft, fragrant touch could pluck Sonera from her stupor, coaxing her into a sudden jolt.
"L-Lunae," she finally came to, staring at the princess with dead eyes.
Sonera may have felt one way. But her appearance conveyed little more than a ruthless killer. All but her closest partner had been noticeably keeping their distance.
"My starlight," Lunae murmured. "Look at me."
She was the only one who understood the extent of Sonera's spell. For behind her cool demeanor, the assassin was breaking at the seams. Though the manner in which she threatened to implode was not what Lunae had expected.
She made sure to choose her words carefully. "Can you feel me?"
"Like...water," Sonera muttered. "I'm trying."
Lunae cradled her partner's face, guiding Sonera into the gap between her chin and bosom as she began to hum a lullaby from her mother. She reckoned it was the only hope against Neirophen's influence. But more importantly, Lunae couldn't stand the way her family was looking at them.
"Hey." Lila's voice could be heard from behind.
She was comforting Mina, of all people, with every reservation one would expect given the situation.
"I'm...sorry."
Mina might as well have been alone. Nothing existed to her beyond that moment of terrible grief. She didn't expect pity, remorse, nor certainly any compensation. She had taken a gambit. And her sister was the cost.
"Sorry, my ass!" Rena stepped forward, only to be blocked by Lila's hand. "You were totally fine with-."
A pleading look from the Earthling calmed her down.
"We're fine," Alia sighed as she lurked in the distance. "She's not the real enemy, right?"
A slender figure took the stage, demanding attention with her looming presence. "Of course not," Yrix chided. "I am."
Lila shrank beneath Ivy's protective wings. The rest of the girls simply stared with ruthless intent as the Arch-Flayer approached her most talented student.
"Losing control, are we?" Yrix stared down at Sonera.
The assassin remained still. Part of her wanted to rage against Yrix, as she always had. But the true extent of her condition remained unreconciled.
She couldn't even muster a glare.
"That is the fickle nature of a Psion. The stronger you get. The more you risk."
Lunae shielded Sonera from Yrix's gaze, growling as she spoke. "Can you at least give her the decency of a moment's rest?"
The Arch-Flayer squinted with agitation. "There is no rest," she barked. "From here on, you must contend with the madness that stirs within you. All of you."
Lila gasped, "What?"
She had felt it by then, the frightening madness that kept her from comforting Sonera. Yet Ivy was hardly surprised. The space she had provided the assassin came more out of respect than hesitation.
"Now then." Yrix ignored Lila, though she had wished to praise the little Earthling for her performance. "The final trial."
"Can you at least give us a minute?!" Rena coughed. "We just fought!"
"Indeed, and for those of you weak enough to succumb to exhaustion, your fight is over. Congratulations."
That was perhaps the most terrifying thing Yrix could have said. She was done playing the game of selection. The final bid to extract her prodigy had truly begun.
"Yrix, please don't," Lila whimpered. She was the only one who could predict what came next. "Take me."
She was the favorite. Not the most talented. There was a difference, and Lila had hoped to leverage it.
"Wait," Ivy stammered. "You don't-."
Lunae was too afraid to speak.
"The final trial will be a simple affair. Two of you will fight. To the death." Yrix spoke more slowly than usual, ensuring her tone was cold and serious. "Every trial you've ever faced has led to this moment. And now, I will announce the two contenders."
Sonera snapped out of her trance, the guilt racking her heart proving stronger than even Neirophen's grip.
"Ivy." The Arch-Flayer's words rained down like hellfire. "Sonera."
Silence and dread permeated the air. The end of the world had come. And in that moment, it was as if everything the girls had been through proved vapid, useless as the day they washed up at the Aerie.
Yrix's words continued to harrow the students like a nail on the cross. "You will fight to the death. Or I will kill you both. And then your partners." To prove her point, the Arch-Flayer conjured a black longbow, its gnarly appearance grinning with destructive potential that ran along its jagged length. "Is this understood? Good. You fight at noon."
A whirlwind of emotion struck the girls all at once. Even their opponents, who had shown anything but admiration for Ivy and Sonera, felt betrayed.
Where to even begin?
"Wait!" Lila pursued the Arch-Flayer as she departed the sandy chamber. "Yrix!"
Lunae had begun to sob uncontrollably. Ivy held it together only briefly before dropping her staff in a panicked frenzy. Even Sonera had fallen to her knees, begging with a silent grimace.
"I'm so sorry," Rena winced alongside her partner. "I'm so, so sorry."
Another moment of silence followed. It felt like years before someone dared to voice their anguish.
"M-maybe we don't have to," Lunae stumbled over her words.
She was hopeless.
"She'll kill you. And Lila." It was Ivy who mustered the strength to speak in a clear voice. "There's no choice."
Sonera never imagined she'd hesitate so terribly. How odd it must have felt to witness Ivy be the one to herald logic over emotion. But that was who she had become.
"I won't." Sonera's voice quivered. "I'm sorry, Ivy."
"Now you listen here."
The heiress looked as if she was about to hurl. Only through her protective instinct could she manage the next few words.
"If you love her. If you love Lila. If you love me-."
"Please don't," Sonera pleaded.
She begged. For the first time in her life, she was begging on her knees.
"You will kill me."
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
"What the fuck!"
"My decision is made."
"I thought-!"
"Thought what." Yrix stared at her office bookshelf. "Exactly."
Lila screamed with a passion not yet seen before. "That you had changed!"
"Terribly naïve of you."
"You can't do this to them!"
"Can't I?"
"Is this why you couldn't settle down with Serix?" Lila panted, her freckles distorted by the tears streaming down her cheeks. "Is this all you can do? Cruelty?"
Yrix was offended enough to turn and face the Earthling. But she kept her composure.
"I never deserved him. Not for my actions, but because of what I am. A Psion," she explained calmly.
"Who gives a shit?!"
"Only the entire universe, little girl. Do you really think I brought you here for something as minute as the Consortium?"
"I-I'm not stupid!" Lila wiped her eyes with a trembling hand. "I know there's more out there. I saw that thing in Rena's dream. The Mimic. Lunae's family. But how could killing us possibly help?!"
Yrix shrugged. "Perhaps Ivy will win. But the victory will be ready."
"Ready for what?! You said it's got nothing to do with your stupid alien spec-ops or whatever!"
"Ready for the powers at be. My time," Yrix hesitated. "Has long since passed. Only a Psion can free our people. And that Psion, whomever she may be, must possess the heart of a beast. Not something to be tamed and devoured, like your Rena. But something to claim dominance. It is eat or be eaten, Lila. And us Psions? We have always been on the table."
Lila sniffled. "But what if they break? What if you just get a ruined survivor?"
"I have," Yrix sighed. "Considered this possibility."
"And?!" The Earthling's voice caved in.
"It is worth the risk." Yrix didn't want to live through what came next. Lila could see it in her eye.
"B-but I...I love her."
"I know."
"Don't you love me?"
Yrix didn't answer. She couldn't. There was no possibility of changing her course. But to save Lila, she avoided the truth behind Neirophen and the great game she spoke of. That was Sonera's burden.
Two daughters.
One favored and one loved.
Perhaps even that was a lie she was telling herself. Ivy and Lunae were close to the Arch-Flayer's heart as well. She had watched as a Harrow and an Infestare found love, despite their sinister nature. There was even a shred of sympathy for the twins, the dancer, and the child whose mother she had abducted.
But it wasn't enough to change her mind. Lila finally understood that.
"Fuck you." Lila had enough time to swallow her spit and speak those words. "Yrix."
The Earthling darted away faster than ever before.
"Love you too." Yrix waited for the room to be empty.
That was the one time she sent an empty message. A Psionic voice for no one at all.