Lewd didn’t go back to sleep.
She couldn’t.
Not with that hollow image burned into her head—Riven’s mouth unhinging, the inside of her body opening like a cabinet, and Phantasm sitting there like it belonged.
So she did the only thing she knew how to do when she was scared.
She found Lenora.
1) “She’s Up There. Above Our Room.”
Lenora was already halfway dressed for violence.
Sword within reach. Armor straps half-fastened. Eyes sharp even in the dim inn light.
Lewd hovered in the doorway, hugging Blight Vein like a lifeline.
“Lenora… she’s still here,” Lewd whispered.
Lenora’s ears twitched. “Where.”
“On the roof. Right above our room. She—she has a book inside her. She said she wants friends.”
Lenora’s mouth tightened like she didn’t believe in the word friends anymore.
“Show me.”
Lewd nodded fast.
They climbed.
2) The Doll on the Roof
Riven waited where Lewd had left her.
Still. Patient.
Moonlight caught the stitches along her neck and shoulders, the way her joints didn’t line up right, the way her smile sat a little too wide—like it was sewn on and never adjusted.
Lenora stepped onto the shingles and stopped.
Her face didn’t change much.
But her voice did.
“…That’s disgusting.”
The words came out blunt. Honest. Like a reflex.
Lewd flinched.
Riven blinked.
Her smile twitched.
The air around her shifted—subtle, hungry.
Not her hunger.
Phantasm’s.
Eat, it whispered under her ribs, like a reflex trying to become a choice.
Riven’s jaw flexed like it wanted to open again.
Lenora’s hand went to her sword.
Lewd’s paws tightened around Blight Vein.
Riven swallowed like swallowing hurt.
“No… eat,” she said, each syllable placed carefully. Like she was pinning something down inside herself.
Then, quieter—almost pleading:
“Want… friends.”
Lenora stared at her. “You don’t look like you want friends.”
Riven’s eyes flicked to Lewd.
Then back.
Her shoulders rose and fell like she was practicing breathing.
“Compromise,” she said—one of the longer words, pronounced like she’d stolen it from someone else.
Lenora’s brows knit. “What.”
Riven touched the stitches at her collarbone.
And then—
Her body shifted.
Not like flesh.
Like fabric being re-cut.
Like seams being unpicked and re-stitched in real time.
Phantasm didn’t heal her.
It rearranged her.
Her stitched doll form softened, reassembled—still wrong, still unnatural, but… less.
Less corpse-doll.
More… human.
The stitches didn’t vanish.
They migrated—into places that looked intentional. Decorative. Controlled.
Her posture changed.
Her face smoothed into something closer to Lewd’s and Lenora’s proportions.
A stitched human form.
The same eyes.
The same smile.
But now she looked like someone you might pass in a crowd—if you didn’t stare too long.
Lenora exhaled through her nose.
“Better,” she said.
Then, after a beat, “Still creepy.”
Riven’s smile brightened like she’d been praised.
“Better,” she repeated, as if storing the word.
Lenora kept her stance guarded. “What do you want from us.”
Riven’s gaze flicked between them.
“Companions,” she said.
Then, correcting herself: “Allies. Friends.”
Lewd swallowed. “Why.”
Riven looked past them, toward the inn window where Derpy slept.
“Magic,” she admitted.
Lewd’s fur stood up.
Riven’s hands lifted quickly—palms out.
“No take,” she said. “Not… food.”
Lenora’s eyes narrowed. “Then talk.”
Riven nodded—small, eager.
And for the first time, she spoke more than scraps.
3) Centuries of Quiet
“I wandered,” Riven said.
Her voice didn’t carry emotion the way a normal voice did.
It carried facts.
“Long time. Centuries.”
Lenora’s ears perked despite herself.
Riven continued, staring at her own hands like she was remembering how they worked.
“Eat when hungry. Sleep when tired. Walk. Watch. Listen.”
Lewd hugged Blight Vein tighter.
Lenora didn’t interrupt.
Riven’s smile dimmed.
“I had artifact,” she said.
Lenora’s ears twitched hard. “What kind of artifact.”
Riven tilted her head, searching for the right shape of words.
“Book,” she said. “Not calamity. Not like these.”
Lewd’s breath caught.
Riven’s gaze went distant.
“Show where calamity books are,” she said. “Find them. Smell them. Point.”
Lenora froze.
Lewd went cold.
Lenora’s voice dropped. “The Book of Echo.”
Riven blinked once, slow. “Echo,” she repeated, like the name was a label she’d peeled off something stolen.
Lenora’s jaw tightened. “It was taken.”
Riven nodded. “Stolen.”
“By who,” Lenora said.
Riven’s eyes unfocused, searching memory like a drawer that didn’t want to open.
“Heavy guy,” she said slowly. “Huge weapon.”
Lewd leaned forward. “What kind of weapon.”
Riven’s hands mimed something too big to hold.
“Big,” she said. “Like… door.”
Lenora’s eyes narrowed.
Riven continued, listing them like pieces on a board.
“Elf,” she said. “On broom.”
Lewd blinked. “On a broom?”
Riven nodded once.
“And knight,” she added. “Blue armor.”
Lenora’s gaze sharpened at that.
Blue armor.
A detail that sounded like a faction.
A uniform.
A problem.
Lewd’s voice trembled. “Why would they steal it.”
Riven’s smile returned, small and unsettling.
“Because it finds books,” she said. “And books find people.”
Lenora stared at her for a long second.
Then she spoke like a leader again.
“Fine,” Lenora said. “If you want allies, you don’t stalk. You don’t threaten. You don’t open your mouth like that again near my people.”
Riven’s eyes widened.
She nodded fast.
“Okay. No stalk. No mouth.”
Lenora didn’t look convinced.
But she looked… willing to delay the kill.
Her gaze flicked toward the inn window again—toward the room where Derpy lay too still.
“I’m not trusting you,” Lenora added, voice flat. “I’m choosing not to deal with you yet. My people come first.”
Riven’s smile faltered.
Then she nodded anyway, like she understood rules more than feelings.
Lewd swallowed. “Lenora… how’s Derpy.”
Lenora’s expression tightened.
“Alive,” she said.
Then, quieter: “Vespera’s with him. You can switch out if you want. But don’t wake him unless he wakes first.”
Lewd nodded quickly.
She didn’t wait for permission.
She just moved—down the shingles, down the ladder, down the hall—because the fear in her chest didn’t care about rank.
4) The Room That Smelled Like Blood
Vespera paced.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Like a caged storm.
Derpy lay on the bed, too still.
Mia and Sphinx sat at his feet—small, tense, eyes locked on his wrists.
The bracelets.
Celica’s Embers.
They weren’t glowing.
They were humming.
A slow, low vibration that made the air feel thick.
Vespera’s rings tightened their orbit.
She could feel the magic moving.
Not outward.
Inward.
Derpy’s wounds—deep cuts, torn skin—were knitting together.
Not like healing.
Like something was rewriting him.
Vespera stepped closer.
Mia’s lip curled.
Sphinx hissed.
Not at Vespera.
At Derpy.
Vespera’s throat went dry.
She leaned in.
And heard it.
A sound under the skin.
Bones shifting.
Cracking.
Reforming.
“Derpy…” Vespera whispered.
His face twitched.
Not awake.
Not asleep.
Something in-between.
The humming grew stronger.
Vespera’s instincts screamed.
She grabbed his shoulder and turned him—carefully—so she could see his back.
The sheet dragged.
And the smell hit.
Blood.
Fresh.
Too much.
The bed was already soaking through.
Vespera’s eyes widened.
Because the blood wasn’t from a new wound.
It was from new tissue splitting open—from adjustment, from something forcing its way into existence.
A ripple moved under Derpy’s shoulder blades.
Like something trying to hatch.
Vespera’s rings flared.
“Stop,” she hissed—at Celica, at Derpy, at the universe.
The ripple split.
Skin stretched.
And then—
Small wings pushed out.
Bluish.
Reddish at the edges.
Not full dragon wings.
Not yet.
But real.
And behind them—
A small tail.
A twitch.
A new shape.
Vespera’s breath hitched.
The bones cracked again.
Derpy’s body jerked.
Mia growled.
Sphinx’s fur puffed like a storm cloud.
The door creaked.
Lewd stepped in.
She saw Vespera bent over Derpy.
Saw the blood.
Saw the movement.
And her brain filled in the worst possible story.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Lewd screamed.
Vespera snapped her head up. “Lewd—relax—”
Lewd’s eyes were huge, wet, terrified.
Vespera’s voice went sharp. “It’s not me. Something’s wrong.”
Lewd took one step closer.
And then she saw it.
The wings.
The tail.
The soaked sheets.
The way Derpy’s body looked like it was being rebuilt.
Lewd’s scream turned into something smaller.
A broken sound.
Vespera’s throat tightened.
They stared.
Both of them.
At the same impossible change.
And then they screamed together.
5) The Door Explodes Open
Boots.
Fast.
Heavy.
Lenora’s voice—sharp as steel.
“DERPY?!”
The door slammed open.
Lenora burst in first.
And behind her—
Riven.
Still smiling.
Still learning.
Still hungry.
She hadn’t followed to stalk this time.
The humming in Derpy’s bracelets vibrated through the inn like a bell only artifacts could hear.
And Phantasm… heard it too.
The room smelled like blood and magic.
The humming hit them like a wave.
Lenora froze.
Riven’s eyes widened.
Lewd sobbed.
Vespera’s rings flared.
And on the bed, Derpy’s new wings twitched.
Bone cracked again—
and Lenora’s breath caught like she’d seen a ghost.