Farina would have gone all the way back to her city. She still would, most likely, for a time: but for now, Artio was with her. So, she'd remain here.

Ahh-... and there was one other little reason to come to Eridanus.

A very little reason.

Nemean squealed, thrashing in the bonds of thorny vines, constricted around her body, that carried her along behind Artio. Artio mostly ignored her, sweeping along with straight back and raised head, her hands pressed lightly together as she spoke to Farina. She was regal, contained, beautiful--and gave no sign whatsoever that she heard the lion-fairy complaining and whining behind her. "So you will repay this one, and then-?" Artio asked, glancing back at Imp, who followed blindly--but eagerly--along like a grinning dog.

"THEN... WE BEGIN AGAIN." Farina's voice was furious, but firm.

The faintest tick of a smile pulled at one corner of Artio's mouth. "Then we begin again." She sounded... satisfied. Serene.

When they came to a halt at the edge of the Eyes, Nemean stopped struggling. Her yellow eyes were wide, and Artio knew--without looking, without feeling--that any tiny heart she might still have must have been hammering in her chest. The thought made her smile faintly again. Nemean deserved this. Nemean deserved far worse.

"You wouldn't," said the fairy, not wanting to believe. Artio shook her head, rolling her eyes ever-so-faintly at the cliche. At the challenge.

"The question, of course, is how to keep you there. Once the stone shatters again..."

"Artio-"

"ENOUGH," snarled Farina, and suddenly she was there, looming over Nemean with mouth-parts gnashing. Great, savage claws danged over her little head. "YOU LEFT ME TO BOIL. YOU LEFT ME TO BURN. YEAR AFTER YEAR OF AGONY! ALL THAT WAS LEFT WAS PAIN!" Had her beloved not retrieved her... had Artio not been there to calm her... nothing would have been left at all. "NOW YOU WILL ENDURE THE SAME. COME, NEMEAN," she added, with a sneer, and parroted the little fool's oft-repeated phrase: "IT WILL BE FUNNY."

Nemean's eyes widened again, at last, as she realized this wasn't a threat. Wasn't a joke. No, they were serious; and for once, maybe she realized that she'd overstepped her bounds. "Guys," she started to protest, and then Farina had seized her clot of tangled vines--Nemean stuck at their center--and, before she could speak further, the great crab Master had turned.

Had punched her way with sharp thrusts of pointed feet down into the mud, into the pool; Nemean managed a single, sharp scream before Farina descended.

It was all she would know, as it was all Farina had known, for so long. At least Nemean had the mercy of drowning. Farina could not drown. Farina had been stuck down there, where the heat vents boiled up, burning. Boiling. Nemean would drown, instead, burn and drown, drown and burn, over and over and over-...

Great claws held the snipped-away foliage as Nemean thrashed, burned; as she drowned. Bubbling protests and frantic thrashing turned to... nothing, and then her gemstone took her; and Farina, furiously pleased, jammed her chrysalis as low as she could get it in the Eyes.

The Light Master would awaken... and burn, and drown. And awaken--perhaps a little higher in the tunnel, or maybe her stone would take her even lower--and burn... and drown.

And it still wouldn't be enough. It never would be.

---

Artio waited patiently, and when Farina emerged again--steaming water coursing down her pitted carapace--she stepped forward to embrace her. Great crab's claws wrapped ever-so-gently around her.

"Oh," said Farina, eye-stalks swivelling to Imp. "Let me deal with this one, first. YOU," she bellowed. "You kept your end! Now I will keep mine. I think fins will do. And yes--the eyes. Give me your neck," she demanded.

It would be a quick snip, a great deal of blood, and then she'd go to work. And when she was done, she'd turn her attention to Artio... and they'd begin again.

Imp may reply to this thread to satisfy his plot requirements; otherwise, this is just an epilogue to, and occurs just after, [TCS] A New Leaf: Part III.

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

strong language

gore

Oh, this was good.

This was really good. Imp could hear Nemean's panicked breathing, her fruitless struggles. He almost--almost--even felt bad for her, until he remembered how she'd had him pinned down, equally unable to escape. How she'd ordered her lapdog to fuck him up. How Vargas had broken his fucking tail, and ripped out his eyes, all while Imp fought and screamed.

Nah, fuck Nemean; she deserved everything that was coming to her.

"Nice," he murmured to himself.

Otherwise, he didn't speak; it was hard enough focusing on movement. He couldn't see; Farina had been trampling a path most of the way, and the sounds of her passage were impossible to lose, so it wasn't that he didn't know where to go. But without being able to see the little divots in the mud, the roots still in his path, the branches about to smack him in the face, it was hard going. He stumbled a lot more than he'd might otherwise have. If he'd realized how big Farina was, he might've just asked to ride on her.

She'd probably have told him no, but he'd have asked, at least.

Now that they were here? He listened, eager and grinning, at Nemean's last scream. And then he waited, anxious. He worried he'd been forgotten; he might have gotten angry if he couldn't hear Artio still standing there, likewise waiting. So he'd fidgeted, and waited too.

Now-... Farina was saying 'give me your neck.' Which... was terrifying, really, but he'd already steeled himself to this. He'd been through worse already--right?

So Imp scrambled forward, choking down his fear, and bared his throat to Farina.

The pain was brief, at least--but it was intense: a slight touch of massive claws braced around one side of his neck turned into a vice-like grip that punched down through his flesh, shearing through tendon, muscle and artery. She pulled away and he stumbled, choking, feeling the hot rush of blood down his shoulder and chest, hearing it pouring down in splattering sheets across the leaves below, and feeling the sudden spike of agony that roared through him. There was no time for thought--his mind swam, faded, the blood loss ending it quickly.

He collapsed, the Tiger's Eye taking him, unaware of anything more.

exit Imp