“I guess leg day is celled—permaly,” Vivienne quipped, sprawled on the dirt like a toppled marioe.

  “Leg day?” Rava asked, raising an eyebrow as she tried to catch her breath.

  “It’s funny to me, and that’s all that matters,” Vivienne mumbled, the bitterness in her voidercutting the joke. She rolled her shoulders experimentally, her shadowy form flickering weakly. “Anyway, I’m a bit… stuck here. Whatever that oversized clock was, it did something to me. Like my body’s fallen asleep, but, you know, also not there anymore. Like it made my body more structured.”

  Rava groaned, dragging herself into a sitting position. “Great. So, not only do I have to deal with the fallout of saving both our hides, but I’ve also got to figure out how to carry yless arse through a forest crawling with who knows what. Fabulous.”

  Vivienne smirked, sharp and crooked. “You’re wele, by the way. For the eai.”

  Rava muttered something under her breath, but her focus quickly shifted as her eyes roved over the battlefield. Sparks still sputtered from the Arbiter’s remains, its fractured core flickering weakly amidst the debris.

  “What do you mean it’s ‘structuring’ your body?” Rava asked after a moment, her tone more serious.

  Vivienne frowned, her dark eyes narrowing. “It’s hard to expin. My form—whatever it is now—it’s supposed to be malleable. Like cy. But after that thing hacked me apart, it feels like I’m stu this… shape. Like someone’s gone and locked all the doors and thrown away the key.”

  “Wonderful. That sounds very… fixable,” Rava deadpanned.

  “Actually, I think it is,” Vivienne said, her tone almost casual despite the grim situation. She flexed her fingers experimentally, watg as faint wisps of shadow began to stitch along the edges of her severed limbs. “My body’s slowly pushing back against whatever that thing did to me. That being said…” Her eyes glinted hungrily as she goward the Arbiter’s shattered remains. “I didn’t finish off those spiders earlier. Maybe abs them would help.”

  Rava’s ears twitched, her tone half-exasperated as she folded her arms. “Are you saying that because it would actually help, or because you’re hungry?”

  Vivienne smirked, baring her sharp teeth as she leaned back against the dirt with exaggerated ease. “It be both. I did lose a lot in that fight, after all. Legs, an arm... a perfectly good outfit.” She let out a dramatic sigh, shaking her head. “Holy, the universe owes me a snack.”

  “Well,” Rava muttered, her shoulders sagging as she slumped onto the ground, “be my guest. I ’t exactly mht now.”

  Vivienne snapped her head toward the lekine, her predatrin fading. “What? What do you mean you ’t move?”

  Rava winced, resting her head back against the charred grass. “Used an empowerment that’s more of a st resort. Every muscle in my body feels like it’s bee on fire and pounded with hammers. The aether’s still surging through me—I’m trying to discharge the excess, but it’s slow going.”

  “You mean to tell me,” Vivienne said, her voice dry with disbelief, “that my backup pn, my unshakable knight g in armour, is pletely out of issiht now?”

  “Yes,” Rava replied simply, her to but unapologetic.

  “Right. Fair enough.” Vivienne exhaled sharply, then began dragging herself through the grass and dirt, her cwed hands digging into the soil as she pulled her half-formed body toward the forest.

  “Where are you even going?” Rava called after her.

  “To refuel,” Vivienne shot back without looking. “Unless you’ve got a better idea, Lady Lightning?”

  Rava muttered something under her breath but didn’t argue.

  Whearted crawling toward the half-ed pile of corpses she’d left behind, Vivienne’s ears twitched at the sound of a high-pitched yelp. Her head soward the noise, her glowing eyes narrowing.

  The boy—Taron—eeking out from behind a tree, his eyes wide with fear as he stared at her. His face ale, his body trembling, and he clutched a crude wooden staff like it might somehow protect him.

  Vivienne froze, her cw sinking into the dirt. “Well, hello there,” she said, her voice low and soothie the monstrous grin spreading across her face. “Didn’t expect to see you wandering around here, little mb.”

  Taron flinched, pressing himself tighter against the tree. “D-Don’t e any closer!” he stammered, his voice shaky but defiant.

  Vivieilted her head, the grin softening into something almost bemused. “I’m not going to hurt you, kid.” She gnced down at her mangled, shadow-wreathed body, then gave a hollow ugh. “Okay, maybe I look like I might, but trust me—I’ve got bigger problems right now.”

  “Like dragging your sorry self back here when you're done so you carry me home,” Rava’s voice cut through the clearing, sharp but strained. “What’s going ohere?”

  “Found the missing boy,” Vivienne called back, her tone bright with mock cheer. “And he’s ag adorably—if a bit skittish.”

  Taron’s grip on his staff tightened. “Stay away! You’re one of them, aren’t you? One of the monsters!”

  “Monsters?” Vivienne scoffed, pg a hand over what might once have been her heart. “That’s hurtful, truly. I helped to save your life, you know.”

  “You… you ate them!” Taron accused, pointing toward the pile of half-devoured spider corpses.

  Vivienne blinked, gng back at the remains, then at him. “Oh. That.” She shrugged, an ulingly casual gesture. “Well, I he energy. It’s a survival thing. You eat bread, I eat monsters—it’s all very banced if you think about it.”

  “You’re not normal,” Taron whispered, his voice barely audible.

  “Kid,” Vivienne replied, her smirk returning. “I think we passed ‘not normal’ a long time ago.”

  Behind her, Rava groaned and forced herself to sit up slightly. “Viv, maybe tone dowerrifying predator act? He’s a kid, not a spider.”

  “Fine, fine,” Vivietered, raising her remaining mock surrender. She dragged herself a little closer to the boy, her tone dropping into something almost gentle—almost. “Listen, Taron, is it? You don’t have to be afraid of me. My friend back there would be very upset if I so much as scratched you, and I prefer to stay on her good side. Trust me, it’s better for everyone.”

  Taron blinked, his grip oaff still white-knuckled, but the terror in his eyes shifted into wary fusion.

  “Now,” Vivienne tinued, her cw gesturing zily toward the pile of corpses nearby, “if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some moo eat. Once I’ve dohat, I’ll be very happy to escort you back to your mum.”

  Her sharp-toothed griurhough she quickly turned away, sparing the boy her full predatory stare. The whimpering that escaped him as she dragged herself toward the pile made her wiernally, but she ig. There were priorities, and right now, hers involved rec enough strength to stand.

  Am I really going to resort to eating half-eaten corpses? she thought, pausing briefly before letting out a resigned sigh. Yes. The other half was eaten by me, so that makes it okay… right?

  With a deliberate motion, Vivieended her cw toward the rgest of the spider-like creatures, ing her elongated fingers around its mangled remains. Her cw closed around the corpse like a vice, and with a flick of her wrist, she brought it to her mouth.

  In one fluid motion, she dropped the creature intged maw, biting down with a siing ch that echoed iherwise quiet forest.

  Her form vulsed again, shivering as aetheriergy surged through her, igniting sparks along the jagged edges of her shadowy body. Strength returned in waves, her severed limbs rippling as though something uraio rebuild them. The faint glow in her eyes brightened with every pulse of energy, even as fractured memories—fn lives and alien instincts—poured into her mind like a deluge.

  But she was learning. She pushed the memories aside, banishing them to the periphery of her sciousness. Not now. She needed focus, not someone else’s dying screams or fractured remnants of who they’d been.

  The chaos was ing back.

  Every corpse she ed broke the Arbiter’s hold over her body a little more. The rigidity, the unnatural structuring that locked her form in pce, was loosening, disiing. Her amorphous body twisted and reasserted itself with every bite. Her cws flexed, her frame expanding and trag with the liquid ease of something primordial.

  The fvour was an ued bonus. She tilted her head, her sharp teeth tearing through the thorax of a particurly bulbous spider, sav the bizarrely pleasant bination of surf and turf.

  “This might be the weirdest meal I’ve ever had,” she muttered, lig a smear of ichor from her cw, “but at least it’s... versatile?”

  From behind her, Rava’s voice was sharp but strained. “I think I’d prefer to starve thahose... things.”

  “Good thing it’s not on your menu,” Vivienne quipped, her grin sharpening as she grabbed another spider, this one smaller and charred. “Holy, it tastes better than that meal we had with your dearest mother. No offence.”

  Rava blinked, her ears twitg in modignation. “Wait, you didn’t like it? You ate enough to feed the table twice over!”

  Vivienne swallowed down the spider ie, wiping a smear of ichor from her . “Oh, it was fine, but it cked... depth. Most of the fvour had been cooked out of the meat. Now, the fruit? That still had plenty of aether left, so points for that.”

  Rava’s tail flicked, her tone dry. “Noted. ime, I’ll tell my mother you’d prefer raw and wriggling.”

  “I appreciate it.” Hummed Vivienne.

  Taron, still c behind the tree, watched with a mix of horror and awe as she devoured another creature whole. “You’re really... eating them. Like... all of them?”

  Vivieurhe faint glow in her eyes sharpening as she tilted her head toward him. “Taron, my dear traumatised d, I’ve already itted to this path. It would be rude to stop now.”

  “Rude to... who?” asked the young boy.

  “Why, moiquette of course!”

  Taron blinked, fusion written all over his face. “Moiquette?”

  Vivienne nodded solemnly, a mischievous glint dang in her glowing eyes. “Of course. I’m a very polite monster, you know. All about maintaining a certain... je ne sais quoi while dev one’s enemies.”

  Taron stared at her, his mouth slightly open, clearly uaiher to ugh or cry. “That doesn’t even make sense,” he finally muttered.

  “Perfect,” Vivienne replied with a smirk, finishing off the st spider with an almost casual flick of her cw. The remnants of her monstrous meal disappeared into her maw, and she let out a low, rumbling sigh as the final traces idity melted away. Energy coursed through her like a storm breaking free of its restraints, and her form began to shift once more. The jagged, t nightmare smoothed and shrank into something smaller, softer, and—if one squinted—marginally more human.

  With her dress entirely in tatters, Vivienne’s curvaceous form shimmered uhe pale light of the moons, her shadowy essewisting faintly as if it relished the freedom. She stretched with a tented sigh, her sharp teeth fshing in a rexed smile. “Ah, but I feel so much more fortable like this,” she murmured, her voice dripping with satisfa.

  The moment of indulgence didn’t st. She caught sight of Taron, who was staring at her with a mix of fusion and something perilously close to mortified curiosity. Realisation hit her like a spsh of cold water. ht. The kid.

  Vivienne’s grin faltered, and she grumbled under her breath, “And here I was, finally enjoying myself.” With a relut sigh, her form shimmered and shifted, the alluring lines of her figure fading as her body darkened and coiled. Her monstrous revenant form returned—a shape more jagged, more intimidating, and decidedly less exposed.

  “Better?” she asked, her hollow eyes flig toward Taron.

  The boy blinked rapidly, his face bright red. “Uh... yeah. Definitely better.”

  “Good,” she muttered, her toh annoyed and amused. She gave o g the moonlit clearing, her earlier fort already a fading memory.

  Vivienne approached Rava, her steps purposeful but gentle as she gazed down at the warrior’s exhausted form. “I’ll look around for any clues and anything useful, then I’ll carry you home. No reason for you to limp about when I do the heavy lifting.”

  Rava gave a soft grunt of aowledgement, her chest rising and falling heavily. “Most of them fled when I attacked, but a few are dead. Might be worth searg through their remains.”

  Vivienne surveyed the battlefield, the age scattered across the area. There was a distinct st of aether in the air, mixed with the sharp tang of metal and blood. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the wreckage. Rava had let most of the cloaked figures escape, but the ones who had died here could still hold secrets. The wreckage of armour, the broken ons... they could all tell a story.

  She moved closer to a pile of discarded equipment, kneeling carefully beside it. Almost everything that could be used as identification was either damaged or just entirely absent. Oem caught her eye—an ornate pieetalwork, partially melted, but its craftsmanship still evident. She grabbed it with her lone d floated over to her friend. “Hey Rava, what’s this sigil?”

  Rava turned her head sluggishly, her expression shifting to one of sharp disgust as her eyes focused on the sigil Vivienne held. “That,” she said, voice dripping with disdain, “is the emblem of High Priest Kaelen Varis’ personal sect. Judging by the design, it’s for the lower ranks.”

  Vivieilted her head, her eerie glow dimming slightly as she regarded the object. “Kaelen Varis… He’s the one you were sent after, right?”

  Rava gave a shallow nod. “And failed.” Her jaw tightened briefly before she let out a frustrated breath. “But what are his priests and priestesses doing out here? And how in all the gods’ names did they get past the arm wards?”

  “Arm wards?” Vivienne asked, her cw turning the sigil over thoughtfully.

  “Yeah,” Rava said, her tone ced with irritation. “They’re pced along the borders of territory to alert us to intruders. Those guards we saved were probably iigating you, but since you were with me, they must’ve decided not to act. That also expins why my mother was expeg us.”

  “I see.” Vivieoothy grin spread wide, her sharp features pyful despite the sinister edge they carried. “Well then, shall we return this poor d to his mother and head back to finish the thrilliure I’m sure your mother has prepared?”

  “Please,” Rava muttered, her exhaustion seeping into her voice. “The soohe better.”

  With a hum of aowledgment, Vivieucked the sigil into one of the folds of Rava’s clothing for safekeeping. Then, with surprising tenderness, she slid her d her stump under Rava and hoisted her into her arms. She adjusted her grip, careful not to jostle her too much, though the awkwardness of her missing limb made it less tha.

  Vivienne’s gravelly voice rang out. “Taron!” she called, her sharp toting through the night air. “Time to get you home, darling.”

  The boy hesitated, still wary of Vivienne’s monstrous form, but wheurned her glowing eyes toward him, he quickly scampered to follow.

  As they trudged through the dense forest, the air heavy with the mingled sts of damp earth aheric residue, Taro stealing g Vivienne. His shoulders remaiense, his steps careful, as though expeg her to pou any moment. But as the trees thinned and the warm glow of ntern light spilled into the clearing ahead, his entire posture shifted.

  Taro out a breath of relief, his tension evaporating in an instant. Without another word, he broke into a sprint, feet pounding against the dirt path as he bolted toward the f familiarity of home.

  Vivieched him with an amused smirk, her sharp eyes gleaming in the moonlight. “Well, that’s gratitude for you. Not even a ‘thank you’ for saving him from a pack of nightmare beasts.”

  The warm, golden light spilling from the farmhouse windows flickered in the night, a bea of safety against the encroag darkness. The faint st of hay and livestock mingled with the damp earth, carrying with it a sense of calm that stood in stark trast to the tension of the forest they’d just left behind.

  As Vivienne approached the farmhouse, the door swung open, and Leda stepped out, her face pale and tense. Relief washed over her features as her eyes nded on Rava, though it was quickly overshadowed by . Her gaze shifted to Taron, and without a word, she pulled him into a fierce hug, her hands gripping his shoulders tightly as if to assure herself he was real.

  “You’re alive,” she breathed, her voice trembling with a mix of relief and irritation.

  Taron mumbled something indistinct, burying his fa her shoulder, while Leda’s sharp eyes flicked to Viviehe moment stretched in wary silence as she took i, monstrous figure holding Rava firmly.

  “Thank you,” Leda said at st, her voice careful but genuine. “Fing my boy back.”

  Vivienne’s sharp grin spread wide, a glint of mischief in her glowing eyes. “It was either that or let him keep screaming in the woods. I figured you might appreciate the former.”

  SupernovaSymphony