Elaina stared at the heap of a beaten woman in confused shock. For a moment, all she could do was let herself be tossed about in the riptide of conflicting emotions, unable to form the words to express what was happening inside her.

“Father died of illness, you said. He got sick,” Elaina stammered, looking at Kaethe.

“That was what I believed at the time,” Kaethe said, continuing to unlace her bodice, “But we had someone examine him, just in case. It turns out that he was poisoned.”

A groan of protest from the woman on the floor paused Kaethe’s unlacing, earning her a swift kick to the ribs. The woman let out a cry of pain as she rolled over, her once beautiful blonde hair splayed out on the floor. The look of rage in Kaethe’s eyes could have burned a hole clean through Aoife. Elaina could tell from experience that her sister was trying to decide whether or not she could keep going. All she ever wanted when she got like this was to hurt people, but something else seemed to restrain her.

Elaina was tempted to say something to her but thought better of it. She didn’t want the unbridled rage of her sister turned against her. So instead, she let things simmer for a long silent moment as Kaethe regained her composure. Once she did, she sighed and sat down in the chair to start unlacing her boots.

“Mother has decided to give you a chance to rejoin this family, to make yourself useful,” Kaethe said without looking away from her task. She pulled off one boot and then the other, setting them next to each other on the floor near the empty fireplace.

“She has?” Elaina couldn’t help but let some of the surprise slip into her voice. Something about this seemed familiar, but she wasn’t sure how or why.

“Indeed. Father’s passing has caused her to re-evaluate things, particularly your standing with us and the future of our House, our legacy.”

“That’s awfully kind of her,” Elaina commented, her mind swimming with the possibilities of where she could go once she was allowed to walk freely on the grounds. She glanced at the narrow window nearest Kaethe that she had often spent hours gazing out of. It looked down onto a courtyard with a large beautiful oak tree that had kept her company in complete silence for years.

“In order to rejoin us, you will have to prove yourself.” Kaethe reprimanded, “You must prove that you can do as you’re told and do what’s best for the family, no matter the cost. We have many enemies, and we will only survive if we come together and work as one.”

Elaina nodded, the statement made complete sense to her despite how awful the people in her family generally were. She could nod and smile at Kaethe and her mother if it meant her freedom. She could do whatever petty tasks they assigned her and fend off any assassins. It seemed like a more than fair exchange. Kaethe’s expression was impassive, but she nodded slightly at Elaina’s understanding. She was still furious, but for once, it wasn’t directed at her. Elaina could count on one hand how many times she had seen that expression directed at someone else in her presence.

“What do I need to do?” Elaina asked, moving closer to the edge of the bed now that her interest was piqued. Kaethe smirked a bit, which rarely meant anything good.

“Her,” Kaethe said with a motion of her hand toward the woman, “again and again until she’s pregnant.”

It felt like an ice-cold slap across her face, “What!?”

Kaethe stood up again, tilting her head to the side, “Weren’t you listening? Father had no sons. The future of the House is at stake, and I don’t have the equipment to breed the bitch myself. But you do. Your curse can finally be a blessing to us.”

Her sister unfastened her belt from around her waist before holding it at her side. The dagger, still in its sheath, hung heavily from the end of it, “Your chance to prove yourself. You impregnate her, and you’re out of this hole you’ve been living in. As far as anyone will have to know, it’s father’s child he conceived with his mistress before he died.”

Elaina’s head shook quickly, “This is... insane.”

Kaethe’s eyes darkened. This was all beginning to seem quite familiar to Elaina as the danger grew. Her sister stepped over the woman as she drew the dagger slowly, leveling it with Elaina’s chin.

“What the hell did you just say to me, you fucking ingrate?”

Elaina’s eyes flicked down to the dagger, gleaming in the little light she had in the room. It was a dagger given to her by their father, something that she had bragged about on multiple occasions when she’d used it on her. The redhead had become intimately familiar with every part of the blade, including the inscription near the hilt. An inscription now that looked like a chaotic jumble of scribbles instead of Kaethe’s name. Something lit up in Elaina’s mind as she began to remember. Slowly she brought a hand up to the blade to ease it to one side.

“What I mean is my good fortune; it’s absolutely insane,” Elaina said with a smile up at Kaethe, “It’s an incredible gift. I promise I won’t squander it, sister.”

Kaethe took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, chuckling slightly, “Oh. Shit. I thought you meant something else. I guess I’m more high-strung than I thought. I’ll definitely benefit from this, I think.”

As Kaethe stepped back, she placed the dagger back in its sheath. This wasn’t the response that Elaina had originally given. She’d stood her ground and paid for it. Things had gone very differently. This time, Elaina needed to keep Kaethe satisfied until she had an opening. If she could get the dagger from her, she’d be in excellent shape.

“Benefit from what?” Elaina asked as Kaethe returned to the chair.

“I’m going to watch,” Kaethe said as she set her belt aside and continued to unlace her bodice, “After you’ve seeded her, I’ll have my way with her too.”

Elaina vaguely remembered Kaethe having done so in reality as well, but it had come after the beating Elaina had received for not complying. This time, she simply nodded in agreement, “Sounds like a plan. Is it alright if I take my time with her?”

Kaethe pulled the last lace from the bodice and paused, looking at Elaina in surprise. The stunned silence between them lingered as Kaethe considered, a wicked smirk crossing her face.

“You know, if you can make a good show for me, you can have all the time you need. How’s that sound?”

Elaina did her best to feign being overjoyed to mask the disgust that rose like bile in the back of her throat. She had often wondered what it would have been like if she’d gone along with more of Kaethe’s sadism. It would have undoubtedly endeared her to her sister, just like this. But the cost to herself would have been far too high. Luckily, the chances she had been given to indulge in these dark desires had been exceedingly few. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure if she would have eventually broken or not.

The woman on the floor moved slightly to look over at Elaina. The look of abject fear in her eyes nearly broke Elaina. She remembered seeing it back then as well, what it was like to see someone robbed of their very soul. However, Elaina picked herself up before the moment’s despair got its hooks in her and went over to Aoife on her hands and knees.

“Shhh, it’s going to be okay,” Elaina assured her, “We’re going to have fun together.”

Kaethe looked on with approval, unable to take her eyes off the two of them for a moment. The perversity of it was precisely the sort of thing that got her wet. Elaina leaned closer to the blonde, pushing her hair back away from her face and whispering to her gently.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Just hold on.”

As Elaina pulled back, Aoife’s eyes remained on her, terrified and confused. She took a moment to pull the shift over her head, exposing her battered, naked body. Aoife’s brows knit together as she looked the redhead over, seeing the distinctly male cock hanging between her legs. Things were beginning to make sense to her now, and she began to push at the floor with her legs to get away from Elaina.

Kaethe looked as though she were ready to kick the woman again, but Elaina sprung on Aoife, pushing her onto her back and pinning her shoulders with both hands. A cry of protest was immediately silenced as Elaina seized the woman’s lips with her own, arresting any protest from her with the surprising tenderness she found in it.

Elaina’s sister eased back down into her chair, discarding the bodice to one side as she watched. Elaina’s mouth ventured from Aoife’s lips to her chin, then down to her neck. Satisfied that things were going to move along briskly now, Kaethe pulled her dress up over her head to ready herself for the show. Though she was in the memory of a weakened state, Elaina remembered all of her training and skills and used them to seize the moment she’d always wished for. Leaping off the blonde, she snatched the dagger from its sheath beside her sister as the dress obscured her vision.

Once again the swordmage she knew herself to be, she infused the weapon with a charge of magic as she flipped it around and drove it up into her sister’s chest. The blade sunk into the flesh between Kaethe’s round, perfect breasts, the magic in it allowing it to pass through her like a hot knife through butter. Elaina drove it to the hilt, blood pouring out over her hand as Kaethe slowly dropped the dress. Her eyes face was one of utter shock and horror. A trickle of blood escaped her mouth as she tried to speak. Both hands rose to push Elaina away, but she could not fight through the shock.

Elaina bit her lip as she adjusted her grip on the weapon, her eyes locked with Kaethe’s, “Say hello to father for me.”

It wasn’t real. None of it was. But Elaina couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction and catharsis as she twisted the blade and dragged it down Kaethe’s torso, opening her up onto the floor between them. Of course, it had gone entirely different in real life, but Elaina had often fantasized about being more intelligent in that moment. Instead, she had been merely defiant to the point of brainlessness. Instead of waiting for an opportunity and playing along, she’d told Kaethe to go fuck herself. Had she been smarter, she would have saved Aoife’s life.

Kaethe fell from the chair, hitting the floor lifelessly as Elaina pulled the dagger from her abdomen. Behind her, she could hear her late father’s mistress moving, “It’s over, Aoife, we’re free.”

Elaina stared at Kaethe’s lifeless body for a few moments before turning to face Aoife, where she was frozen in her tracks. There on the carpet laid Aoife’s corpse in a pool of blood, just as Kaethe had left her all those years ago. Her lifeless eyes stared back at her as the blood from the open wound in her neck flowed freely across her pale, bruised skin.

“Wh-No! NO!” Elaina screamed in horror, taking a step backward, “I killed her! I saved you!”

“No,” Aoife rasped, the blood from her neck bubbling as she did, “You didn’t. You failed me. You let her use me and then watched as she killed me.”

The dagger slipped from Elaina’s hand, clattering to the floor heavily at her feet, “Not this time. This time I killed her! She’s dead!”

Aoife’s body shifted a little, her movements strangely like that of a broken toy, “But that’s not what happened. She used me like a plaything, just like she did with you.”

The blonde’s legs opened, revealing the pink slit of her sex glistening with arousal, “I could be your plaything too. I won’t mind. How much time did we spend together back then?”

Months, Elaina thought. Kaethe had left the woman’s corpse in her room for months as a reminder. Her heart felt like it was going to rip right out of her chest, “No, I would never. I won’t.”

“Just try it,” Aoife coaxed, “While I’m still fresh. I’ll start to rot if you wait too long.”

Elaina’s hands went to her head, and her eyes pressed tightly closed. She’d done everything she was supposed to, and she had still somehow failed. She was trapped in this room with the body of the woman she’d stood by and watched murdered. It hadn’t mattered to her that she’d killed her father. She’d probably done the world a service. Her rage and horror boiled over suddenly, exploding from within her in a white-hot outburst.

“NOOOO!” She shrieked desperately, her voice trailing off into a vast emptiness disproportionate to the size of her room. When she opened her eyes, it was gone. The entire room and its contents were gone. All that remained was the tree from the courtyard and an island of soft green grass that faded into the fog in all directions. Resius was slumped back against the foot of the tree, looking exhausted and hurt as he favored his ribs.

“Bloody Hell,” he coughed, “Was that you? Just now?”

Elaina spun around a few times, looking for any sign of anything else stalking them from the fog. Finally, she looked down at her body to see that she was again clothed, “I think so?”

Resius tried to reposition the way he was sitting, earning him another fit of coughing for his trouble. Elaina moved quickly to kneel beside him, holding him up, so he didn’t over-exert himself, “What happened to you?”

“Dunno. Can barely remember it now,” he admitted, “Think I was reliving a personal hell.”

“So was I,” Elaina said quietly as she opened his long coat. Underneath, there appeared to be deep gouges from claws along his side. His other arm was severely mangled, broken in several places by the looks of it. It hung uselessly at his side.

“Gargozu,” Resius muttered.

“What?”

“That’s what has us. Bloody gargozu. Basically a fiendish Gargoyle, nasty piece of work.” Resius winced in pain with every breath he took. Speaking was only making it worse.

Elaina glanced around for any sign of what they were in for next, only to see endless fog all around them. She remembered the swamp again, fighting the gargoyles in the dark. One of them must have seen fit to attack her through non-physical means when it saw her cutting the others down.

“So, it just keeps us here and tortures us until we wither away in the real world?”

Resius shook his head, “Not quite. It’s feeding on us. Beaut that I am, just didn’t see it coming. Now I’m just too knackered to do shite about it.”

“How does it feed on us, exactly?”

“Emotions. Strong ones like fear, terror, and despair. But it’s really interested in you for your lust.”

Elaina’s face flushed pink, hoping he’d not recall the things he’d seen in her head. The sight of it must have been amusing because he laughed briefly before succumbing to another coughing fit.

“No judgment here,” he managed to sputter between coughs, a big grin on his face, “Imagine my head would look much the same if I weren’t such a bloody fuck-up.”

The heat faded from Elaina’s face as a gentle breeze moving through the leaves of the tree above drew her attention. It had always been peaceful for her to hear from her window, something to ease her pain. But now it felt like an ill omen, a warning of some kind.

“It’s looking for us,” Resius said, glancing up at the tree, “It’ll find us soon. Where are we?”

“Tree from my childhood. I used to stare at it from my window. Of course, I was never allowed to go down and see it, but I always imagined what it would be like to sit underneath it.”

“Aye, a place like that is powerful. Remains with you as a personal anchor, a place of respite. But it’ll find us soon. It’s really on one now that you gave it the slip.”

“Well, then, how do we get the fuck out of here?” Elaina asked, an anxious edge slipping into her voice.

“That’s the easy part, mate. The hard part’s what to do when we get out,” he answered with a wry smirk.

“You mean in the real world,” Elaina clarified.

Resius nodded, “Aye. We both probably look a sight there in its lair.”

Elaina pursed her lips as she considered their options right after waking up. Unfortunately, it was unlikely that she would have her weapon available, and considering the darkness that countered her when she was still awake, it likely wouldn’t do her much good. Not without getting the drop on the creature, anyway.

“They have a bane to light,” Elaina said aloud.

“Aye, they do.”

“So what about that weapon of yours? The firearm you shot Robin with, if the gargozu has control of the dream, why were you able to use that? It seemed pretty surprised.”

“Didn’t know what it was, I suspect. They’re a bit dim.”

“Alright! So then we use that when we wake up, right?”

Resius shook his head a bit before motioning to his dead arm, “I’d need too long to load and fire with me arm.”

“That’s fine. How do we wake up from this?”

The man’s hand rose slowly and set it on her shoulder, “Turns out you just have to wake up.”

Elaina stared at him dumbly, wanting very much to wake up. She looked from side to side, waiting for the dream to vanish around them, only to see nothing happen. Once again, the wind moved through the leaves above them, this time with what seemed like a more potent force.

“Nothing’s happening,” she said flatly.

“Right. You need to give words to the intent, like the recitare of a spell.”

Elaina nodded slightly, repeating after him, “Like a spell. Right.”

She’d been taught some of the basics of magic, but only as far as it pertained to the power in her blood. She hadn’t had a chance to really train in any proper wizardry or arcanism. As a result, she barely rose to the level of a sorcerer. But with her skill with the sword, she’d managed to perform ably as a Swordmage.

“Fuck’s sake, what do they teach you nowadays?” Resius spat, seeing the blank look on her face, “Imagine the outcome you want, yeah? That’s your Imago. You hold it in your mind firmly. You give meaning and weight to that idea with the words: the recitare. Then you have the motus, the motion that ushers the imago into reality. But this isn’t reality. It’s your dream.”

“So...” Elaina considered, “Just Imago and Recitare?”

“Is right, mate,” he answered with a brief nod as he suppressed another coughing fit, “Get to it.”

Elaina closed her eyes and thought about it for a moment, carefully considering the imago of the spell. Usually, such things were written down to evoke the image, a very specific tried and true image for mages to use when working a spell. This was just waking up, though. So she imagined what it would be like for her and Resius to wake up in the swamp.

Once she had the idea fixed, she considered the words; best to keep it as simple as possible.

“Awaken!” she declared aloud. The leaves of the tree moved once more, this time more violently.

“It’s found us. Try again!”

Elaina took a deep breath, trying to add more detail to the mental image as she spoke with a much firmer intent, “Awaken!” she insisted. Still, there was nothing. Now she could feel the wind through her hair. The branches overhead danced wildly in the rising storm drowning out her words.

“Again!” Resius shouted as best he could over the wind that now howled around them.

Fear and frustration mingled into a tight ball in the bit of her stomach. She was doing exactly what he said, and it wasn’t working! What was she missing? Whenever she used her magic, all she ever used was a sword and her will.

Just her will.

Elaina wrapped the image of them waking up around that emotional ball of stress, crumpling them together in a compact mass before shouting at the top of her lungs, words echoing throughout the vastness of the fog.

“WAKE UP, DAMN IT!”