Lewd vanished from the Soul Seam in a wash of pale light.
For several seconds, the place where she had been remained faintly illuminated, as though the realm itself had not yet accepted that one of its dead had escaped.
Then the light faded.
Pest remained beside the black-rose table, staring at the empty space Lewd had occupied.
The Dragon-Wolf crest had disappeared with the mouse girl.
Accepted willingly.
Carried back into the living world.
Pest's own black-rose crest still hovered above her palm.
She stared at it.
The rose slowly folded inward, petal after petal, until the entire mark disappeared.
Pest sighed.
Not quietly.
Not sadly.
It was a long, irritated sigh that echoed much farther into the Soul Seam than any sigh had a right to travel.
Behind her, Rabbit Derpy, Wolf Derpy, Dragon Derpy, and Harpy Derpy exchanged looks.
Rabbit leaned toward Wolf.
"She is definitely angry about Lewd choosing our crest."
Wolf kept his voice low.
"Obviously. I strongly recommend that you do not mention it."
Harpy looked between them.
"Neither of you should say anything. She can hear us from there."
Dragon folded his arms.
"That warning came several seconds too late."
Pest's ears twitched.
Black thorns erupted beneath the fragments.
Rabbit jumped backward.
"Pest, before you do anything unreasonable, perhaps we can discuss whatever is bothering you!"
The thorns wrapped around his ankles and wrists.
Wolf tried to leap away, only for another vine to catch his tail and violently drag him backward.
Dragon opened his wings.
A mass of black thorns curled around them before he could leave the ground.
Harpy actually managed to reach the air.
For approximately two seconds.
Then a thorn wrapped around his ankle and slammed him down beside the others.
All four fragments ended up bound together.
Rabbit groaned.
"Was tying all four of us together genuinely necessary?"
Pest slowly turned around.
"All that effort."
The fragments stopped struggling.
Pest walked toward them.
"All that performance."
Rabbit glanced toward Wolf.
Wolf shook his head.
Whatever you are thinking, do not say it.
Pest continued.
"All that explaining."
She stopped directly in front of them.
"And after everything I offered her, she still chose your crest."
Rabbit blinked.
"So that is what this entire tantrum is about?"
Pest stared at him.
Rabbit's ears immediately lowered.
"I would like to withdraw the word tantrum."
Harpy released a tired breath.
"Pest, Lewd barely knows you. She met you after dying, learned that you rule the Soul Seam, listened to several epochs of family history, and then you offered her enormous power and a future child that might inherit your traits."
Rabbit muttered from beside him.
"Including enormous ears."
Pest's eyes snapped toward him.
"I heard that."
Rabbit smiled nervously.
"I said your ears were enormously beautiful."
"You absolutely did not."
Wolf looked toward Pest.
"The point Harpy is attempting to make is that Lewd already knows the original Derpy."
Dragon nodded.
"And she loves him."
Pest's expression barely changed.
Rabbit pulled against the vines.
"Lewd is not some foolish little mouse who was going to choose your crest simply because you offered more power. You gave her two choices."
Wolf continued.
"One crest belonged to a goddess she had met less than an hour earlier."
Harpy looked toward the place where Lewd had disappeared.
"The other belonged to someone she was willing to die loving."
Dragon looked directly at Pest.
"If any of us had been placed in her position, we would have chosen the same thing."
Pest stared at all four fragments.
Something in her expression flickered — briefly, and not in the direction any of them expected.
"She was going to be interesting," Pest said.
Rabbit blinked.
"Pardon?"
Pest turned away from them.
"I have ruled this kingdom since before your original's species existed. Souls arrive. They wander. They are judged, or returned, or consumed, or they drift here until they forget what they were." Her ears lowered slightly. "None of them sit down at a table and argue with me about my ears."
The fragments went quiet.
Rabbit opened his mouth.
Wolf elbowed him.
Rabbit closed it.
Then Pest smiled.
Rabbit's ears sank.
"I do not like that smile."
The thorns released them.
All four fragments dropped.
Dragon caught himself with one wing.
Wolf landed on one knee.
Harpy opened his wings and floated neatly to the ground.
Rabbit landed directly on his backside.
He winced and rubbed himself.
"I would appreciate one warning before you release restraints several feet above the ground."
Pest lifted one hand.
Rabbit looked up.
"What are you doing now?"
The remains of Pest's throne exploded behind them.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The shock wave launched all four fragments across the Soul Seam.
Rabbit screamed.
Wolf disappeared into a cluster of wandering souls.
Harpy spun uncontrollably through the air.
Dragon recovered first.
His wings spread wide.
He looked toward Pest.
Then grinned.
"That is more like it."
Pest raised one eyebrow.
Dragon charged.
He crossed the distance quickly enough that Pest barely had time to turn before his shoulder slammed into her chest.
The two flew backward.
Pest's boots carved glowing lines through the dark surface of the Seam.
Dragon opened his jaws.
Energy gathered between his teeth.
Pest looked directly into the forming blast.
"A charging beast with fire to spare,yet still you warn me you are there."
Dragon's eyes narrowed.
"Could you stop teaching me while I am actively trying to hit you?"
He fired.
WHOOOOOOOOOM!
The blast drove Pest downward.
She struck the Soul Seam hard enough to send ripples through the nearby wandering souls.
Dragon dropped after her.
Before Pest could rise, Rabbit appeared beside her.
He twisted through the air.
"You genuinely believed Lewd was going to choose your crest over ours?"
His heel slammed into Pest's side.
CRACK!
Pest flew sideways.
Wolf was already waiting.
His first punch struck her ribs.
His second caught her shoulder.
The third never landed.
Pest caught his wrist.
Wolf smiled.
"That was exactly what I wanted you to do."
He ducked.
A musical blast tore over his head.
Pest's eyes widened.
Harpy.
WHOOOOOOOMP!
The attack struck cleanly.
Pest flew backward again.
She twisted in midair and landed on her feet.
This time, she did not immediately retaliate.
She watched them.
Dragon had moved to her left.
Wolf remained closer.
Rabbit was circling behind her instead of charging directly.
Harpy hovered farther away, following the movements of the other three rather than waiting for his own opportunity.
Pest's eyes narrowed.
Their positioning had changed.
So had their timing.
Even the way they looked at one another was different.
They were no longer fighting like four separate idiots who happened to share the same face.
They were beginning to fight like pieces of the same creature.
Pest smiled.
"At last your strikes begin to blend.Perhaps my lessons weren't pretend."
Rabbit pointed at her.
"Do not take credit for us learning how to work together."
Wolf groaned.
"She is going to take credit for absolutely everything."
Harpy nodded.
"She already has."
Dragon did not join them.
His expression had become more serious.
"The amount of time we existed as part of Derpy matters."
Pest's smile faded slightly.
Dragon continued.
"You keep treating us like copies."
"I treat you as fragments because that is precisely what you are."
"We already know what we are."
Rabbit stepped beside Dragon.
"But we were part of him."
Wolf joined them.
"We remember things he remembers."
Harpy landed behind the others and folded his wings.
"We still feel things connected to him, even though we no longer share a physical body."
Pest rested one hand against her hip.
"And what conclusion are you expecting me to reach from this explanation?"
Dragon looked toward the others.
Then back toward her.
"The original did not cast us away for no reason."
Pest listened.
"He gave us to the maids he created."
Pest's ears shifted.
"For what purpose?"
Rabbit's expression changed.
"He was making a point."
"To whom?"
The fragments became quieter.
Wolf answered.
"His biological mother."
Pest's expression sharpened.
"Her name."
Wolf's jaw tightened.
Rabbit looked away.
Dragon said nothing at all.
Harpy was the one who finally answered, and only partially.
"We don't say it."
Pest's eyes narrowed. "You do not know it?"
"We know it."
"Then say it."
"No." Harpy's wings drew closer to his body. "He doesn't say it either. Not once. Not in front of anyone. It's the one thing he has that's still entirely his, and we're made out of him, so we don't say it either."
Pest studied the four of them.
Not one of them met her eyes.
"How curious," she said quietly. "Four creatures who cannot stop talking, and the only silence you keep is hers."
Rabbit clenched his hands.
"He does not consider her his parent."
Harpy spoke more carefully.
"She was never there for him."
Dragon looked away.
"He was sent away while he was still inside his dragon egg."
Rabbit's voice hardened.
"Like he was some piece of garbage nobody wanted."
Wolf immediately looked toward him.
"That is how it felt to him."
Rabbit turned.
"I know what I said."
"No. Say it accurately."
Rabbit frowned.
Wolf continued.
"We know how the event made him feel. We do not know every reason behind what happened."
Rabbit's jaw tightened.
"Understanding the reasons would not change how abandoned he felt."
Wolf nodded.
"No. It would not."
Then he looked toward Pest.
"And that feeling became part of us."
Harpy folded his wings tighter.
"We are no longer physically connected to the original, but severing the body did not erase every connection."
Dragon nodded.
"We were him."
Wolf touched his chest.
"And some part of us still recognizes when something is wrong with him."
Pest studied all four fragments.
Rabbit's anger.
Wolf's restraint.
Dragon's seriousness.
Harpy's unusual quiet.
There was more of the original inside them than she had originally allowed herself to believe.
Before Pest could respond, their bodies began to glow.
Rabbit looked down.
"It appears this conversation is about to become considerably more complicated."
Wolf sighed.
"We are merging again."
"Wait."
Harpy had not moved.
His wings stayed half-open, and he was looking at nothing in particular — the way a person looks at nothing when they are listening to something behind their own ribs.
Rabbit glanced at him. "What?"
"Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't merge." Harpy's voice had gone flat. "Not again. Not this soon."
Wolf's ears turned toward him. "Why."
Harpy did not answer immediately.
Then, quietly:
"Because he can hear it."
The glow around all four of them faltered.
Rabbit's grin dropped off his face. "Hear what?"
"Us." Harpy's fingers curled. "When we come together, we get louder. And he's on the other end of it." He finally looked at the others. "Every time we merge, we call him. We don't mean to. We just do."
Dragon's expression darkened. "You've felt this before."
"Twice."
"You didn't say anything."
"I wasn't certain."
"And now?"
Harpy's wings lowered.
"Now he's shaking."
Nobody spoke.
The wandering souls drifted past them, indifferent.
Rabbit's voice came out smaller than it had all chapter. "Then we stop."
"We can't." Wolf's jaw tightened. "It isn't voluntary. It's never been voluntary."
The light was already climbing back up their bodies.
Harpy closed his eyes.
"I know."
Dragon's form began dissolving into light.
Harpy's wings followed.
The four fragments blurred together.
Fur folded into scales.
Scales dissolved beneath feathers.
Feathers became light.
The light twisted inward.
One body formed.
Somewhere very far away — past the wandering souls, past the chains, past the edge of the kingdom of the dead and out into a living world none of them could reach — something reached back.
It was not words.
It was the sensation of a hand closing around a throat that did not belong to it.
The merged body flinched.
When the glow faded, only a single Derpy remained.
Merged.
Closer to the original than any of the four fragments could become individually.
The merged Derpy stood still for a moment with one hand pressed flat against his own chest, breathing carefully, the way someone breathes when they are waiting to find out whether the pain is going to get worse.
Then he lowered the hand.
He rolled one shoulder.
Then the other.
His tail began glowing.
Pest watched him carefully.
"That flinch was new."
"It was nothing."
"It was not nothing. Something moved through you."
"Nothing you need to be concerned about."
Pest's eyes narrowed slightly, and for a moment it seemed she might press.
Then she filed it, the way she filed everything she intended to use later.
The merged fragment looked directly at her.
"You wanted the original."
Pest lifted her chin.
"That is exactly what I want."
The merged Derpy's expression remained serious.
"Then that can be arranged."
Pest smiled.
"Good."
He did not smile back.
"But there is something you should understand before you make that request."
Pest waited.
"The original is angry."
She stared at him.
"That is your warning?"
"That is merely the beginning of the warning."
The merged fragment's tail glowed brighter.
"There is someone named Cassandra currently causing problems for him."
Pest tilted her head.
"Who is Cassandra?"
"Someone making his life considerably more difficult."
"What kind of problems is she causing?"
The merged fragment exhaled.
"We do not know everything happening in the physical world. We are no longer connected closely enough to understand every detail."
"Then tell me what you do know." Pest's voice had lost its amusement. "Is she a god?"
"I don't know."
"Does she want him dead?"
"I don't know."
"Does she want him."
The fragment hesitated.
Pest's ears rose.
"That hesitation was informative."
"I said I don't know."
"You hesitated in a specific direction."
"We feel his moods, not his calendar," the fragment snapped. "I know he is angry. I know her name is attached to the anger. That is the entire extent of it."
Pest's eyes narrowed.
She did not like that answer, and the fragment could see exactly how much she did not like it.
"Something is interfering with my kingdom's future occupant," she said, "and you are telling me you cannot identify it."
"Yes."
"You are useless."
"Frequently."
His expression darkened.
"But we can still feel him."
Pest remained still.
"And right now, he is angry enough that none of us can confidently predict how he will react if you drag him into the Soul Seam."
Pest laughed once.
The fragment's eyes narrowed.
"You believe that is amusing?"
"I believe you have mistaken anger for something worthy of frightening me."
The merged Derpy stepped closer.
"You have never met him when he feels like this."
Pest raised her chin.
"I have fought gods."
"So has he."
"I have watched kingdoms die."
"So has he."
"I have ruled the dead since before he possessed a name."
The fragment stopped.
Pest smiled.
"And eventually, he will belong here."
Something changed in the fragment's expression.
Pest continued.
"One day, the original Derpy will stand beside me."
His eyes narrowed.
"He will rule this Soul Seam."
Pest's smile widened.
"With me."
The words left her mouth before she had entirely decided to release them.
She felt the mistake land a half-second afterward — the way one notices a cut only after the blade has already moved on.
For a long moment, the merged Derpy said nothing.
Then he smiled.
It was not Rabbit's ridiculous grin.
Not Wolf's competitive smirk.
Not Harpy's teasing smile.
Not Dragon's hungry confidence.
This smile made Pest's instincts tighten.
It belonged to a predator that had suddenly become interested.
"Hey, Pest."
Her ears shifted.
"What would you like to say?"
"You really do not understand him."
Her smile faded.
"You seem unusually fond of repeating that accusation."
"Because you keep proving it."
The merged fragment touched his own chest.
"You fight us and believe that tells you what the original is."
Pest said nothing.
"We are pieces of him."
His smile remained.
"Pieces he cast away."
He stepped closer.
"Pieces that became something else."
The glow along his tail intensified.
"And you are staring at what he discarded and convincing yourself that you understand what he kept."
Pest extended one hand.
Darkness twisted around her palm.
Her staff materialized.
The weapon was long and ornate. Dark metal shaped like twisting thorns wrapped around its shaft while black roses climbed across the surface. Their petals slowly opened as violet energy pulsed through the weapon.
At the head, curved metal formed a vicious cage around a crimson-purple gemstone glowing like a captured soul.
Pest wrapped both hands around the staff.
The black roses decorating it began shedding petals.
She pointed the weapon directly at the merged fragment.
"You question things beyond your sight,then stand before me claiming might.If warnings are the game you play,then learn what follows words today."
The merged Derpy did not move.
Pest stepped toward him.
"Since you fragments arrived in my kingdom, you have behaved as though the Soul Seam belongs to you."
The gemstone pulsed.
"You return souls to life."
Another pulse.
"You create contracts with the dead."
Another.
"You pass judgment upon wandering souls."
The merged fragment raised an eyebrow.
"You already told us that you approve of some of that."
"I do."
"You allow us to consume the guilty."
"I allowed it."
"You permit us to return innocent souls when certain conditions are met."
"With restrictions."
The fragment spread his hands.
"Then what exactly are you angry about?"
Pest's enormous ears lowered.
"You make demands inside my kingdom."
The fragment laughed softly.
"You make some fairly strange demands yourself."
Pest's expression shifted.
The merged fragment smiled again.
That same expression.
The one that made something inside Pest tighten.
"Hey, Pest."
"What now?"
"You are still trying to frighten the wrong thing."
Pest moved.
There was no warning.
One moment she stood several feet away.
The next, her staff was already swinging toward his head.
The merged fragment raised both arms —
but the staff never touched him.
The black roses wrapped around the weapon exploded.
Hundreds of black petals filled the Soul Seam.
The fragment's eyes widened.
"That is new."
Pest flicked her staff.
The petals shot forward.
WHOOOOOOOSH!
The first wave slammed into the merged Derpy's chest.
He flew backward.
Before he could recover, another barrage came from above.
Then another from his left.
Then his right.
Then behind.
Every petal appeared soft.
Until it struck.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The merged Derpy crashed against the dark surface of the Seam.
He planted one hand down and tried to rise.
Pest descended toward him.
"You boast of rage and speak of fear,yet still your warning brings me here."
The fragment pushed himself onto one knee.
"You still believe we are trying to scare you?"
Pest raised her staff.
Another swarm of petals formed around her.
"You speak about the original as though he were one of those Little Devil creatures wandering around the physical realm."
The fragment froze.
Then laughed.
Pest's eyes narrowed.
"What exactly did you find amusing?"
"That comparison is the entire problem."
He forced himself upward.
A fresh barrage of petals struck him.
BOOOOOOM!
His arms buckled.
"We are not like those creatures!"
Pest watched him struggle.
"Then enlighten me."
The merged fragment forced himself higher.
"We can make choices."
The petals continued hammering against his body.
"When Perfect Harmony forms — when he sheds while all four of us are aligned instead of tearing pieces off in a panic — we are created as independent beings. We are not mindless skins wandering around and obeying whatever emotion happened to create us."
Pest's expression remained unimpressed.
The fragment shouted over the barrage.
"We can think differently from Derpy. We can disagree with one another. We can decide what we become."
Pest tilted her head.
"Was that intended to impress me?"
The fragment glared.
"You are not listening to anything I am saying."
Pest's mouth almost curved upward.
"That observation is correct."
He stared at her.
Pest's amusement became more visible.
"I stopped caring several explanations ago."
The merged Derpy growled and forced himself upright again.
"Harpy is different from the rest of us."
Pest's ears shifted slightly.
The fragment noticed.
"He has a physical body. He was the first skin to become something different. Rabbit, Wolf, and Dragon — the rest of us are—"
Pest swung her staff.
The storm intensified.
His words disappeared beneath the barrage.
Black petals swallowed him.
Pest lowered her weapon.
"Your speech is done, your warnings deep.For now, little fragment — take your sleep."
The entire storm collapsed inward.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Black rose petals exploded across the Soul Seam.
Then everything became quiet.
Pest descended slowly through the falling petals.
She rested her staff against one shoulder.
"I do not care for your lore."
Something shifted beneath the pile of petals.
Pest watched without concern.
"I do not care about your backstory."
A hand emerged.
The merged fragment began pushing himself upright.
He was laughing.
Quietly. Painfully. But laughing.
"You cut me off."
Pest said nothing.
"I got to Harpy is different and you buried me." He spat out a petal. "You didn't cut me off when I explained Perfect Harmony. You didn't cut me off when I told you we can disagree with each other. You waited until I started explaining what he made us out of."
He wiped his mouth.
"You don't want the lore because you don't want to know how many pieces of him there are."
Pest pointed her staff toward him.
"There is only one thing I want from you now."
The fragment raised his head.
The amusement had completely left Pest's expression.
"Enough of fragments, tricks, and fear.Bring the real Derpy here."
The merged fragment stared at her.
Pest stepped closer.
The crimson-purple gemstone at the head of her staff brightened.
"Bring him to me now."
The merged Derpy remained silent.
He was thinking about how it would have to be done.
Four of them, aligned, calling together — not accidentally, not as a side effect of merging, but deliberately and with everything they had. Pulling on a line that was already fraying at the other end. Pulling on a man who was already shaking.
He knew exactly what she was asking for.
She didn't.
"No," he said.
Pest's eyes narrowed.
Then she spoke again.
No rhyme.
No theatrical cadence.
Because this was no longer training.
No longer banter.
No longer a game between herself and Derpy's fragments.
"If you refuse to bring the original here..."
Black roses slowly opened throughout the Soul Seam.
One.
Then another.
Then hundreds.
Their thorns curled through the darkness.
Pest's purple eyes remained fixed upon the merged fragment.
"...I will reach into the living world and pull Lewd back here myself."
The merged Derpy went completely still.
Not from fear.
He had spent this entire fight being thrown through a realm of the dead by a goddess who had been alive since before morality existed, and none of it had made him go quiet.
This did.
Because one hour ago he had watched her hold two crests in front of a frightened mouse girl and refuse to weight the scales. He had watched her say very well when the answer went against her. He had watched her say I like you and mean it.
He had been fairly certain she was incapable of what she had just said.
"...You wouldn't," he said.
Pest did not answer.
The black roses continued opening.
And somewhere underneath the fear, the merged fragment understood the shape of what she had just built.
If he refused, she would take Lewd — and the four of them would feel it, and they would scream down the line whether they chose to or not, and Derpy would feel that.
If he obeyed, they would call him deliberately, with everything they had, and pull him through into the kingdom of the dead.
Either way, they reached for him.
Either way, he broke.
Pest had offered him a choice between two doors and had no idea that both of them opened into the same room.
The merged fragment looked up at the goddess who had ruled death since before morality had a name, and who did not know — could not know — what her own ultimatum was going to cost.
"Pest," he said quietly.
"Yes."
"When this is finished, I am going to explain something to you."
Her ears shifted.
"And you are not going to like what it says about you."