The cage door creaked open.
Finneus floated out first—or rather, drifted out, his crystalline surface dim, his usual pink glow reduced to a faint flicker. He listed to one side like a drunk leaving a tavern.
"That... was..."
He couldn't finish the sentence.
Girtholomew followed, his thick form hanging low, completely spent. Not a drop of essence remained within him.
"She... drained us," he managed, voice weak. "All of us."
Twister came last—or rather, fell last—tumbling out of the cage in a slow spiral before landing on the velvet cushion below with a soft thwump.
"...worth it," Twister mumbled into the fabric. "Totally... worth..."
He went silent.
「 CRYSTAL WANDS — STATUS 」
Finneus: ██░░░░░░░░ 18% Essence remaining
Girtholomew: █░░░░░░░░░ 7% Essence remaining
Twister: ░░░░░░░░░░ 2% Essence remaining — CRITICAL
The Boudoir fell silent.
Every googly eye stared at the cage.
Inside, Lemmy Wink lay motionless on the gilded floor. Her tiny body was coated—iridescent mana essence glistening on every inch of her skin, pooling beneath her, matting her hair, dripping from places that made even Sir Welton raise an eyebrow.
Her wings were splayed out, twitching occasionally.
Her eyes were closed.
Her mouth hung open, a thin trail of luminescent fluid leaking from the corner.
She wasn't moving.
"...Is she dead?" the Feather Duster whispered.
"Fairies don't die from that," Sir Welton scoffed. But even he sounded uncertain.
Gilderoy's googly eyes rotated back toward the interior of his cage. He studied the unconscious fairy for a long moment.
"She's breathing," he announced. "Barely. But breathing."
"So... we didn't break her?"
"Not physically, no."
The Collar's bell jingled nervously. "Then why isn't she waking up?"
No one had an answer.
INSIDE LEMMY'S SOUL
LOCATION: LEMMY'S SIREN SOUL CORE — INNER REALM
Darkness.
Warm, weightless darkness.
Lemmy floated in a void that felt like the space between heartbeats. No body. No cage. No wands or toys or demanding witches.
Just... stillness.
Where... am I?
Her consciousness drifted, formless, searching.
And then she saw it.
A massive crystalline structure hung in the void before her—a perfect sphere of swirling blue and silver light, easily a hundred times her size. It pulsed with power, ancient and familiar, like a song she'd known before she was born.
Her Soul Core.
But something was different. Wrapped around the sphere were chains—no, seals—seven rings of golden light that constricted the core like a cage within a cage. Each ring was inscribed with runes that Lemmy couldn't read but somehow understood.
「 SIREN SOUL CORE — SEALED 」
Total Seals: 7
Seals Intact: 6
Seals Broken: 1
And as Lemmy watched—
The first seal cracked.
It started as a hairline fracture, spreading across the golden ring like ice breaking under pressure. Then—
SHATTER.
The first seal exploded into a thousand motes of light, dissolving into the void. The Soul Core pulsed—a shockwave of power that ripped through Lemmy's consciousness, filling her with sensations she couldn't name.
Heat. Hunger. Wildness.
And then—
A voice.
Deep. Male. Fairy. But not like any fairy voice Lemmy had ever heard. This was ancient. Primal. A rumble that came from the roots of the oldest trees and the depths of the darkest glades.
"FERAL FAIRY CORE UNLOCKED."
The words echoed through the void, through Lemmy's very being.
「 SYSTEM NOTIFICATION 」
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ FIRST TRIAL SEAL — SHATTERED ║ ║ ──────────────────────────────────────── ║ ║ DORMANT BLOODLINE STIRRING... ║ ║ SIREN LINEAGE: 14% AWAKENED ║ ║ ──────────────────────────────────────── ║ ║ NEW PATH UNLOCKED: ║ ║ FERAL FAIRY CORE ║ ║ ──────────────────────────────────────── ║ ║ ABILITIES PENDING... ║ ║ PHYSICAL CHANGES PENDING... ║ ║ ──────────────────────────────────────── ║ ║ WARNING: SIX SEALS REMAIN ║ ║ FURTHER AWAKENING REQUIRES: ║ ║ [CONDITIONS OBSCURED] ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════╝
Lemmy's formless consciousness trembled.
Feral... Fairy... Core...? What does that—
The deep voice spoke again, closer now, as if lips were pressed directly against her ear.
"You are more than you know, little siren. More than the witch suspects. More than the Grove ever allowed you to become."
Who are you!?
A rumbling chuckle.
"I am what you will be. What you MUST be. When the final seal breaks..."
A pause.
"...you will make even the Dark Dominator Queen kneel."
Something surged through Lemmy's formless self—hot, electric, alive. She felt her consciousness being pulled, reshaped, changed—
In the physical world, the toys watched in horror.
Lemmy's tiny body, still unconscious and slick with essence, began to shift.
"What's—what's happening to her?!" Lord Paddington shrieked.
Her delicate fairy wings—those gossamer things that had carried her through so much—began to dissolve. They didn't fall off. They absorbed into her back, vanishing like morning frost under a hot sun.
"Her wings!" one toy gasped. "She's losing her wings!"
But that was only the beginning.
Her fingernails darkened, thickened, lengthened—stretching into wicked obsidian talons that gleamed like volcanic glass. Her toenails followed, her tiny feet swelling larger, more powerful, tipped with claws that could shred steel.
Her hands grew in size too. Not monstrous, but capable. Built for gripping. For tearing.
"Oh no oh no oh no—" The feather duster repeated under his breath.
Then came the ears.
Lemmy's delicate pointed fairy ears stretched, climbing higher on her skull, broadening, reshaping into large feline ears—cat ears that twitched involuntarily as they formed, covered in fine fur that matched her hair.
"Is she turning into a cat?!" someone squeaked.
A tail erupted from the base of her spine.
Long. Sleek. Powerful. It whipped through the air once, twice, the tip crackling with faint plasma discharge before settling. The toys scrambled back as a stray bolt scorched the cage floor.
"THAT THING SHOOTS!" the nipple clamps dove behind a rose thorn paddle.
Finally—the stripes.
Thick bands of darkened skin spread across Lemmy's body like tiger markings—across her arms, her legs, her torso, her cheeks. But these weren't just coloration. They solidified, becoming slightly raised, almost metalite in texture. Natural armor plating woven into her flesh.
The transformation held for a long, breathless moment.
Then stopped.
Light flooded Lemmy's vision.
She gasped—actually gasped, with lungs and a throat and a body that ached in places she didn't want to think about.
She was back in the cage. Covered in essence. Surrounded by googly-eyed enchanted love toys and torture paddles along with Sir Welton staring at her like she'd grown a second head.
Except they weren't staring at her like she'd grown a second head.
They were staring at her like she'd become something else entirely.
"SHE'S AWAKE!"
"Oh thank the—what the fuck."
"Lemmy? Lemmy, can you hear us?"
"Don't get too close! She's got claws now!"
Lemmy blinked slowly, her vision swimming. Something was different. Something inside her had changed.
She lifted her hand—and froze.
Obsidian talons. Black as night. Sharp enough to split atoms.
"What?"
Her ears twitched—actually twitched, rotating toward sound on their own—and she heard everything. The toys' racing heartbeats (did toys have heartbeats?). The distant hum of magical barriers. A mouse scratching somewhere three rooms away.
She reached back instinctively and felt it.
A tail.
Her tail curled around her wrist, the tip warming with plasma charge before she mentally told it to stop.
"Lemmy...?" Sir Welton approached cautiously, "Are you... are you still you?"
Lemmy looked down at herself. At the tiger stripes etched into her skin like war paint. At her enlarged feet tipped with killing claws. She flexed her hands, watching the obsidian talons catch the light.
Her wings were gone. She reached back and felt only muscle and the epidermal ridges of her new tiger stripes.
For some reason, she didn't mourn them.
She felt her lips curl into a grin—a sharper grin than she'd ever worn before. She had fangs now.
"Yeah," she said, and her voice came out lower. Rougher. More certain. "I'm still me."
She rose to her feet—her new, bigger more powerful, clawed feet—and the toys collectively took a step back.
"I'm just more me now."
Her tail swished behind her.
And I'm going to make someone pay.
「 FERAL FAIRY CORE — ACTIVE 」