New Allies

[Oriena]

He ignored the question, which only deepened her smirk into something suitably unimpressed; oh, he was all talk. The barbs of his insult tore across the surface, she was not immune, but they were still only words -- and he was wrong to think her afraid of pain in any case. The queen had pulled her into the dark of the underground for an ambush, and if the memories of that time were slick and unfathomable in detail, they still provoked a visceral reaction. It was a torment she had given herself to willingly, and new power spun in those dark webs. She had been remade. 

But it had a price. Power usually did.

“I think you know full well the opportunity to be found in adversity. For those with enough nerve, at least.” A brow rose, but her smile had flattened. Distraction plucked at the corners of her mind like clawing hands reaching for the bank of shore. Hunger clenched her stomach. There were words, dozens of them, all strung together in desperate need. The only phrase she could pick out clearly anoathwasmade anoathwasmade anoathwasmade, building like a crescendo.

It still hurt. And she didn’t need to be alone to feel it.

He was wrong about who ought to be afraid. She was but a filmy barrier between the creatures and the freedom they craved, and then whatever had cost him his face might seem like a children’s lullaby in comparison. 

“Would you like a taste, Ryker? Because I’m happy to share.”