Heretical Edge

Prompt: What/who exactly is Lotan, the giant squid creature trapped in the furthest depths of the ocean who created the Nuckelavee?

Almost One Hundred And Seventy Million Years Ago

Under the carmine light of a rust-colored moon, a figure stood atop a pale blue tree at the edge of a cliff overlooking a grand, sweeping valley full of flickering torch and lantern light. The figure was a roughly even split between humanoid and serpentine, standing on two legs yet covered in fine, glistening scales, a long prehensile tail that could stretch out to twice the length of his body's height, and with a head and mouth that appeared quite similar to what would eventually become Japanese mythological dragons. The height of the figure alone was almost three times that of what a human would one day average, standing a full fifteen feet on flat ground.

Some far future people might have called the figure perched atop the two hundred foot tall cerulean tree a man, though his species possessed four distinct biological sexes. Man was the closest equivalent for what he was, as the member of the sexual quartet who supplied the original seed for reproduction. Though some might have insisted such a title should have been given to the larger, more outwardly aggressive and physically stronger second quartet member.

Either way, the figure's name, as best transliterated to a language that would not even truly exist for about another one hundred and sixty-seven million years after his birth, was Yekluauk (yeh-clue-awk). And he was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a happy person. His people, known to themselves and to those few other species from distant worlds whom they had managed to establish some communication with as the Duoelin (due-oh-lin), mated for life, quite literally. Once they were linked to the other three members of their quartet, Duoelin would never stray from that. The bonding that took place during that first act of what was essentially their own version of sex irrevocably linked the four at a biological level. They drew strength and health from one another, allowing those who were healthy to lend aid and heal a member who was ill or injured. This created a sort of regenerative ability. It extended as far as allowing three to bring one back from certain or literal death, though they all would be quite drained by the experience.

By the same token, however, the moment the pendulum swung too far the other way and two or more of the quartet were killed, any who remained would also be dragged into that dark abyss.

Or they should have been. Yet, somehow, Yekluauk was some sort of strange, even impossible abnormality. The other three members of his quartet, which were known to his people as a Leiatat (Lee-Uh-Taught), had been killed by a Qreesun (Qree-zun, or treason with a q), a giant mammalian bear-like creature that was large enough for any of the fifteen-foot tall Duoelin to stand fully upright in its mouth with room to spare. Qreesun attacks were rare these days, thanks to various magical defenses that had been erected around Duoelin villages. But this attack had come outside that protection, and Yekluauk's family were but a few of the victims.

That should have been the end of his life. He had been attacked along with the others of his Leiatat, a single swipe of the monster's paw sending him tumbling into a ravine. He should have died there, either from his own injuries or as a result of every other member of his quartet being savaged and eaten. That was how things went, how it had always been, since any of his people could remember. You were linked to those you bonded to, your Leiatat. When they died, so did you. Whether that was fair or unfair, evolutionarily strong or not, it was simply the way of things.

But Yekluauk was different. He survived. His family was gone, even their two children, who would have survived the loss of their parents if they hadn't been there for the Qreesun to feast upon. Though he and his people had no real words for such a thing, Yekluauk was a genetic abnormality, a mutant. His bonding had safely snapped with the deaths of the rest of his Leiatat, leaving him alive and with no apparent ill effect. To some, that might've been seen as a miracle.

For the Duoelin, for his people, it was evil. Witchcraft would have been the closest human word, but in the sort of 'devil-worshipping' meaning. The Duoelin, after much debate, had come to the belief that the only reason anyone might survive the loss of an entire Leiatat was by consorting with and possibly even willingly serving the devils that ruled over the souls of the most evil and foul of their dead. There was no other possible explanation as far as his people were concerned.

There were those who had pushed for his execution, while others urged leniency. But in the end, no matter where they stood, none had actually wanted this strange, impossible figure to be anywhere near their people. And so, Yekluauk had been banished from not only his own village, but all others. He was an outcast, ordered to stay far from civilization and to seek forgiveness from their gods as he contemplated his crimes and prepared himself to face eternal judgment.

Thus his current position, standing atop a tree at the top of this mountain, overlooking the lights of the village that filled the valley below. It wasn't the village he had been cast out of. The pain of being exiled from his people so soon after losing his entire family had been far too great for him to stay that close. Yekluauk had traveled far from that place, setting his camp in this area after spending many weeks walking. In truth, he had hoped that the same Qreesun, or one of its like, would kill him and erase his pain. He didn't want to be alive now. He wanted to move on, to join his Leiatat in the afterlife. But nothing had attacked him, nothing had killed him. He had walked in peace for all those days, before eventually finding his way here. He was close enough to watch the lights of the village, close enough to see his people and imagine their lives. But still far enough away to avoid triggering the curse of banishment that had been attached to him. It wasn't enough to simply legally forbid him from being with his people. Any attempt to get close to a member of his own species would fill him with a rush of blinding agony until he moved away.

So, for these past three years, Yekluauk had lived in this camp. He had told himself it was only a temporary thing, and still couldn't bring himself to erect a permanent structure, living only in what amounted to a lean-to hut. But he never moved on. Where would he even go? He had nothing to work toward, nothing to live for. His people believed that directly ending one's own life was one of the only ways to be forbidden from entering from eternal paradise, and that was his last hope of ever seeing his family again. Hoping to be eaten by a monster was already dangerously close to that sort of thing, anything more direct was unthinkable. He couldn't cause his own death, no matter how miserable he might have been. Being certain of his own innocence, remaining pure enough to enter the Final Judgment with a clean conscience so he could reach paradise and be reunited with his loved ones, was all that he had. He would sooner have each scale torn from his body one at a time, heated in a furnace, and forcibly reattached to his skin than lose that hope.

That was one reason he never left this place, the one he was consciously aware of. But there was another, far less obvious reason he was still here. It was the same reason he had been unknowingly drawn to this spot in the first place. A reason that he would learn the full truth of soon enough.

Standing atop this tree at the edge of his little camp, watching the lights of the village far below, was hardly anything new. That was how he passed most of his days, whenever he wasn't barely tending to his need for food and water. Through daily cycle after daily cycle and season after season, he stood on the tree and watched the lights, imagining what he could never be part of.

Yet this time, in this moment, as he stood in that spot, something changed. The world shifted under his feet. No, not the world, his tree. The tree had finally, after three years of being stood on by a fifteen foot tall figure, given up its struggle. Each moment he stood there, it was pushed just a little more forward, its roots tugged just a little further through dirt, its anchor-point just a bit less stable. Until finally, right then, it passed the point of no return and began to shift far more noticeably. Even as Yekluauk's tail lashed wildly behind him, his mouth opening with a grunt of surprise, there was a loud crack. It filled the air like thunder, and then the tree collapsed. He was forced to leap quickly backwards to avoid being sent hundreds of feet down the cliff to his doom, tumbling haphazardly to the ground and rolling through the dirt even as the sound of the falling tree continued to echo as it loudly crashed its way down the side of that cliff, hitting each and every protruding rock in its path. It was a terrifying sound, and all he could do was lay there on his back, breathing heavily as he listened to it while realizing how easily that could've been him.

It had just occurred to him to wonder why that should even be a fearful thought, given how much he wanted to die, when something else caught his attention. In the hole where the tree had been, there was something sticking up. Something that shouldn't have been there. Slowly, Yekluauk picked himself up to his knees and shifted over that way. He found himself staring at a dark green, very polished crystal about the size of his head. It had clearly been placed there. A hole had been intentionally dug, the crystal put in it, and then a tree was planted on top of it. A tree that had stood for what had to have been hundreds if not thousands of years. But why? Who would have done that? Who could plant a tree on top of a crystal and leave it? Were they trying to hide it for some reason? Some ancient member of his people, maybe? What was it?

Confusion running through his mind, the tall, serpentine-humanoid figure reached down to touch the crystal with his seven-fingered hand. As soon as he did, a jolt of energy rushed out of the thing and through his body, making him jerk backward with a cry before falling down once more.

He lay there on his side like that, staring at the polished gemstone while a rush of realization and understanding filled his mind. He knew what the crystal was, what it was actually meant for. It was knowledge and understanding that made him gasp softly, staring at the crystal in wonder. This thing, this stone, it could change everything. This was why he was here, why he had been drawn to this place and coaxed to stay here, to stand on that tree every day until it finally broke. He hadn't understood at the time, hadn't consciously heard the whispering voice guiding him. But now he knew. Now he understood exactly why he had been brought here.

Reaching out once more, Yekluauk carefully picked up the crystal in both hands. He stood, tail swishing excitedly behind him as he stared down at the thing and gave one of the first genuine smiles he had since the loss of his family. It felt strange on his face, yet also good. He was going to fix things. He was going to make it all better. After all this, he would finally get his family back.

The crystal hummed excitedly in his hands, happy that it would finally be put to its proper use. It seemed as eager for this as he was, practically bouncing in his hands as he walked back over to an open spot near his lean-to. And why wouldn't it? The crystal had been waiting thousands of years to finally be used properly. The ones who had created it, the ancient people who made the crystal, had been cowards in the end. They were afraid of what it could do. Unable to take the risk of destroying the thing, they had hidden it. At the time they had done so, this planet had been almost barren, without a single sapient figure upon it. They buried the crystal and left it like that, on this random world far from where anyone could possibly find it. Or so they had believed.

The purpose of this crystal was to gather magical energy and convert it into any effect the user required. A specific spell wasn't required, all you needed was enough power. With that, you could accomplish anything. As long as he held onto this stone, he could gather enough energy to bring back his Leiatat, his family. He wouldn't have to be alone. He'd never have to be alone.

Sitting there in the dirt, Yekluauk focused on using the crystal. He could gather energy, just enough to resurrect his family. Then things would be good again, his life would be better.

And there it was. He could feel the power, the rush of magical energy starting to fill the crystal already. He felt it there, right in his hands. It was working. The power was being drawn into it.

Feeling something shift under him, his eyes opened to look down. The grass was… yellowed and fading, falling apart in an ever-widening circle out from him. Slowly, Leiatat lifted his gaze in time to see the leaves on the surrounding trees wither and drop, disintegrating before they even reached the ground. Then the trees themselves twisted, first becoming gray, gnarled things before pieces fell off like charcoal and turned to ash on the wind. Gradually but inexorably, the forest died around him. Animals that had been slumbering, hiding, or feeding all fell to the ground, rotting before his eyes as their life was pulled out of them before they turned to dust.

"Wait, wait, that's not what I--I didn't want--wait," he tried to protest. But it was too late. The crystal had finally been given purpose, had finally been put to its proper use, and it was hardly going to stop now. It was going to do what it was meant for, and nothing would make it stop.

He tried to stand up, but his legs wouldn't cooperate. His body remained planted in place, even as the circle of death emanating out from him grew larger. His mouth opened to protest again, to plead with the crystal to stop, but no sound would emerge. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, his body was no longer his own. All he could do was sit there, serving as little more than a pedestal for the crystal to sit on as it worked to service his wish. He had wanted to gather enough power to bring back his family, and the crystal was going to do just that. It was going to gather all the power it could, until it had enough to do what he wanted. That was what it was meant for.

Except there was a flaw in the crystal, a mistake in how it had been made, one that its creators had recognized, the true reason it had been hidden away. The crystal was meant to gather enough energy to do what its wielder wished. But it was never told how much energy was truly enough. Once it was activated, the crystal would simply continue to gather energy until there was none left. Not only in its vicinity, not even merely on an entire planet. It would continue to gather energy until there was none left anywhere. It would keep seeking out more and more power. The stronger it got, the further the crystal's ability to sense more power would reach, thus it would keep trying to reach that power. It would do anything to fulfill its purpose. It wanted to gather enough energy to grant its wielder's wish, but it had never been taught how much was enough. As long as it continued to sense more potential energy to drain, it would just keep doing that.

Yekluauk tried to throw the crystal away from him, tried to get it out of his hands. But even as he lifted it, the crystal resisted. It couldn't leave. It had to stay with its wielder and fulfill its purpose. It had to do something so he couldn't get rid of it. To that end, the crystal pushed itself, within his hands, to the figure's forehead. Even as a cry of agony, disbelief, and terror escaped the man, the crystal pushed itself into his head, breaking through bone and flesh alike. He would have died, but it used its power to keep him alive. Of course it would do that for its wielder. It loved its wielder. It would keep the wielder alive through anything. Nothing would kill its wielder. Not now, not ever.

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The crystal burrowed its way into Yekluauk's head, pressing his brain out of the way while keeping him alive. His thoughts were barely there, broken and fading, as the crystal healed his skull around itself. His eyes were no longer visible through the sockets. They had been broken, crushed into nothing. Now, part of the crystal was visible through those holes. It saw the world through those holes, it saw the dying world around this figure, its wielder, while drawing in more and more power.

It wasn't enough. There was more power out there. Even as the village of other sapient beings below were drained of their power, even as all those people died, the crystal could sense more. It stretched itself further, pulling in even more power. It sensed other villages across the planet, more living beings full of energy it could use. More, more, it needed more. There was still energy in existence, so it wasn't done.

Others came to stop it, to try to make the crystal end its work. It couldn't let that happen. Fortunately, its wielder didn't want to be alone, so it could accomplish two tasks at once, stopping those who were a threat, and ensuring its wielder had company. Their bodies were drawn closer, pulled down by threads of energy. Their bodies were broken, twisted, melted in order to be pulled into its wielder's own form. One after another, more of his people were dragged into his body, which shifted and transformed to accommodate their flesh. He grew and changed. What had begun as a single tail was soon two, then three, four, a dozen. All of which became larger. His body was forty feet long, then fifty, growing with each passing second. The crystal was doing such a good job. He didn't want to be alone, and now he never would be. The screams, terror, rage of dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of his fellow people joined Yekluauk's own, until there was no room for his own thoughts. He had no individual conscious mind left. Just impulse, just a mess of thousands of minds all twisted in on one another in a broken knot.

Soon, the world was left barren. Every ounce of energy had been drained from it, leaving the joined, mutated monster that had once been Yekluauk before being joined to so many others as its own living being. The creature didn't remember itself, didn't remember who it had once been. It had thousands of minds twisted inside itself, screaming for release. But the crystal knew its purpose. It had more power to gather.

Thus, the creature with the crystal behind its eyes left that barren world. The crystal itself had grown with its body. When it left the world, the being resembled some sort of blend between what would one day be an Earth squid, and an Asian dragon. It was a giant serpentine monster, its main body over a thousand feet long, with hundreds of what had once been tails but were now more like tentacles that could stretch hundreds of miles each.

Using the power it had drained, the beast left the world behind and made its way through the stars at a speed that defied comprehension. It found the next planet and drained all the power it could there. Then it did the same for the next world, and the next. It sensed more out there in the universe and kept going. Everywhere it went, the creature drained all magic, leaving it impossible to use spells in those lands.

It would have continued forever, draining more and more energy from the worlds it went through. But the creature eventually found its way to the world that would one day be known as Earth, a world populated, at that point, by beings of untold advanced power, creatures known to future species as Primals. They, with much effort, managed to contain the creature, dragging it down to the world's ocean and imprisoning it.

There it would stay for millions of years, its prison gradually forgotten and abandoned as the Primals disappeared. But the creature persisted, the crystal waiting to escape, to continue its job, its purpose. As the prison broke down enough for the creature to extend its tentacles, it did just that, stretching them out through the ocean as it sought a way to escape that confinement.

Nothing could last forever. Nothing could kill this creature. It would find a way out. It was patient. After all, it had already managed to drain enough energy from the universe in its journey that entire generations of species had grown up without any idea what magic even was. It took literal millions of years for enough magical energy to recover enough to even begin to be understood and used again. Until then, through that time, spells were as much a myth to the wider universe as they would eventually be to Bystander-affected humanity.

That first, simple rampage through the universe had so damaged the very essence of magic itself that no one could even use it, let alone understand it, for millions of years. And once it escaped this prison, the crystal would finish the job.

One way or another, it would make its wielder happy.

*********

Prompt: What is the story behind the Heretical Edge version of Medusa?

The fortress stood hundreds of feet tall, perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the incredibly tumultuous ocean far below. Its walls were seemingly made of thick, rough stone, but under that first layer one would find smooth metal that might have been only a quarter as thick as the rock over it, yet was almost ten times more durable. The layer of stone was little more than a facade to make the fortress appear to actually fit within the technology level of the humans of this world.

A very narrow pathway, mostly hidden if you weren't standing right on top of it, led around the side of the fortress along the cliff face. As the moon and stars shone down, illuminating the wild waves that kept splashing up against the rocky outcroppings far below, two figures crept along that narrow ledge. The one ahead turned to look over her shoulder, the wind making her long brown hair flutter across a face that most had described as the most beautiful they had ever beheld. Her voice rose to be heard over the roar of wind and waves. "Are you sure this is safe!?"

"Nothing will harm you while I am here, Medusa," the tall, white-haired man behind her assured the woman, his voice calm and steady while he held a hand out toward the ocean. At his gesture, the water directly below them calmed and went still. He offered her a soft, fond smile. "I bring the storm only to cover our approach, to keep your sisters and their people distracted."

Reassured, Medusa continued on the path, leading him to what appeared to be a random part of the wall. She pressed her hand against the stone there, speaking a passcode, then did the same on another stone. Immediately, there was a soft, barely audible whirring sound as that part of the wall slid smoothly aside, revealing a metal door. That required another touch of her hand, a spoken code, and even a retinal scan by the small glass marble-shaped camera that emerged.

Once the door was open, revealing a narrow passage, Medusa turned back to her companion. Her voice was tentative. "Promise me, Sachael. Promise you won't allow harm to come to my sisters. I want to stop all conflict between our people, not hurt them. I want everyone to be safe."

As he gazed at her, the Seosten man's expression was gentle and open. "Yes, you have my word, Medusa. I only wish to ensure that the… measures your sisters are taking don't come about. That would only make the conflict worse. We need to seek a peaceful solution to this."

Together, the two walked into the passage, which wound its way through the base of the fortress before reaching an underground lab. It was a wide, oval-shaped chamber, filled with dozens of glass tubes scattered seemingly randomly throughout. Within each tube were various creatures suspended in liquid. Some seemed to be awake, though sluggishly so, their eyes shifting back and forth slowly as though barely conscious and unable to comprehend where they were. Most, however, were fully asleep, in resting comas. All had various wires attached to them, leading to holographic panels on the sides of the tubes that gave constant updates on their physical status.

In the center of the room was a six foot wide, fifteen foot deep pit filled with a thick yellow sludge. Small glass and metal pipes ran from the tubes into that pit, as a very gradual stream of the liquid within was transported to the tubes, or back out of them to the pit itself.

Stepping up to the nearest tube, Sachael ran his fingers over it with a slight frown. "You were right, your sisters are trying to combine the genetic gifts of multiple different creatures, in order to bond them to a human so they can create an army." He paused thoughtfully. "An army of humans, each possessing many powers that could be synergized, none able to be predicted ahead of time. No wonder Euryale and Stheno see it as the best way to win this war of theirs."

"Would they win a war against your people, if this experiment really worked?" Medusa pressed.

Sachael's voice was kind, yet certain and firm. "No. But it would result in far more deaths, just as you suspected. My people, at worst, would simply need to bring more weapons, more ships, to take this land by force." He paused slightly, before stepping that way, his hand gently taking the woman's before squeezing, real concern in his voice. "Medusa, you are the only one amongst your sisters who has not been Bonded yet. Do you believe they mean for you to be one of their test subjects? If you need to leave this place to be safe, until the war is ended, I can find a way-"

"No," she interrupted. "I have to stay with my sisters. I can convince them to negotiate with your people, to find a peaceful solution to all this once these… experiments of theirs are taken away."

Sachael started to respond to that, but before he could, a new voice spoke up, as a woman came into view from the doorway they had come through. "Yes, I'm sure that's what you intend."

Even as Medusa twisted that way with a gasp and stumbled in surprise, Sachael spoke sharply, his voice rising in obvious annoyance. "Auriel, what exactly do you think you're doing here?"

The Seosten woman, who was also known as Athena and would one day be called Nimue for a time, gave him a cool stare. "I think I'm preventing you from making a terrible mistake, Sachael. You have allowed your feelings for this one to cloud your judgment. She's led you into a trap."

With a sigh, Sachael shook his head. "You are entirely too paranoid, Auriel. We are working to make sure this conflict ends peacefully, with less bloodshed. You see enemies everywhere."

"Because we have enemies everywhere," the woman snapped. "And this one brought you here in order to imprison you in one of these tubes. Why do you think she hasn't been bonded yet? She wants to be bonded to you. She wants to be given your power. And as many others as they can graft onto one of their filthy experiments here. But you would be her crowning achievement."

"That's a lie!" Medusa shot back, stepping away from Sachael. "I don't want anyone else to be hurt, my people or yours! I just want our civilizations to get along. Surely there must be a way to negotiate, so your people can work alongside ours without fighting over everything. We were here first, but you have greater technology, greater magic, greater power. We can share the resources here for the benefit of everyone! There doesn't need to be more senseless killing."

"You think we're fools? That we're little more than idiot children you can manipulate at your leisure?" Auriel demanded while striding that way, voice rising in anger. "Sachael may have been blinded by your beauty, but I am not so easily tricked, human. We are burning this place down right now."

Medusa's head shook quickly. "You can't do that. The beings in these tubes, some of them are still alive, still able to be saved. They must be carefully removed, but when we do that, it will alert my sisters. We have to be careful, and disable the alarms one at a time without setting them off."

Auriel scoffed at that. "Your family has only achieved this level of technology by stealing it from other species, like our people. They think they can hold this territory, with these resources, with that stolen tech. And you think you can help them do that by manipulating both of us right now."

"Auriel, stop," Sachael ordered, voice rising with that command as he took a step forward, interposing himself between the two of them. "I understand why you would be suspicious, but--"

Before he could continue with that, Auriel's gaze snapped toward Medusa, who was stepping toward a console. With a shout, she threw herself that way, ducking under Sachael's rising arm as he tried to block her. One hand caught Medusa's wrist to yank her away from the console, even as she snapped her head back to avoid the woman's other frantically swinging fist. The two of them stumbled sideways together, before Auriel caught her footing and pivoted, lashing out to kick Medusa in the stomach. It was a blow that sent her stumbling backwards into the nearest tube with enough force to knock the thing over. The woman went with it, falling onto the tube with the loud crash of breaking glass. Both she and the tube with its snake-like inhabitant went rolling sideways into the pit full of yellow sludge. Both nearby lamps that had been illuminating that part of the lab were shattered as well, casting deep shadows over the area.

"Medusa!" Sachael bellowed, lashing out to shove his fellow Seosten out of the way. He went to lunge after the woman, but Auriel caught his arm and yanked the man backward.

"Stop, she was going to trigger an alarm! You know my power, Sachael. I saw her touch the console and the alarms went off."
Sachael jerked himself free and retorted, "She obviously didn't know that would happen!"

"What… what…" The groggy words came from the edge of the pit, where a figure had dragged herself up and out, and was now slumped down on all fours, head down. A head that was.. different. That much was obvious even in the dim lighting. Her hair shifted and twisted, writhing as though by its own volition. At the same time, enormous six foot long bat-like wings extended up from her back and stretched out, knocking over a couple more tubes.

"What did you do… what did you do to me?" Medusa demanded, the strange wings snapping down to break even more tubes while sending a table of tools tumbling to the floor. Alarms had sounded already, and more were going off by the second.

"Medusa, what--what did that…" Sachael started to step that way, while the woman in question gathered herself and slowly pushed herself forward, staggering awkwardly to her feet.

Just before she came out of those shadows, however, Auriel gave a gasp of shock, her power warning the woman about what would happen. Quickly, she caught hold of one of the fallen bodies that had come out of a broken tube, and lunged in front of the other Seosten while lifting the body to block their view of Medusa. They both barely had time to register the snapping, hissing snakes attached to her head, before the figure in Auriel's grasp turned to stone.

Without missing a beat, Auriel gave the man-turned-statue a hard shove, throwing it toward Medusa to make the woman twist away. Then she pivoted, grabbed Sachael's hand, and activated a teleportation spell. Both of them were whisked away, just as the chamber began to fill with soldiers.

The two of them appeared several hundred miles south, in an empty clearing in the woods. As soon as they were there, Sachael stumbled sideways before turning his sharp, furious gaze that way. "What was that!?"

"An accident," Auriel informed him. "I saw her touch the console. I saw the alarms go off. I reacted. She fell in the vat. It… their experiments, it bonded… something to her. You saw what it did. You saw what she's capable of now. I saw that happen to you, then to me when I looked at her. She would have turned both of us to stone. Who knows if we could have been saved after that."

Sachael was silent for a long moment, staring at her. When he finally spoke, his voice was laced with accusation. "She was trying to help end this conflict."

"Whether she was or wasn't is hardly relevant now," Auriel informed him. "What matters is that she has been changed. Irrevocably, indescribably changed. She can't even have someone look her in the eye without hurting them. What will that do to her? What will she do now? Who will she become?"

"I don't know," Sachael admitted with a heavy sigh.

"But something tells me this conflict is only going to get worse."