The Wolf’s Daughter

“Do you believe your cousin is truly gone?” Yroth asked.

“I don’t know,” Phaedra said. “If she isn’t back and hasn’t sent a message by nightfall? I’d say yes. She looked pretty panicked when she left. She’s really good at pretending to be other people. But when she’s herself? She doesn’t hide so well. And if Uncle Obby is mad at her? There’s good reason for her to be scared.”

“Why would he be angry at her?” Yroth asked.

“She stole Lilith from Circe, then lost her to me,” Phaedra said with a shrug. “There’s plenty of reason to be mad there. Might be something else, of course. She might not even be in trouble, but she said she wouldn’t be back for a day or so. Tonight… could be the night.”

“A bat demon will be more alert at night,” Yroth said.

“A bat demon that has been up all day,” Phaedra said. “And I know plenty of sleep magic. You might want to keep an eye on things, of course.”

“Having me nearby could cause problems,” Yroth said.

“A hall or two away should be fine,” Phaedra said. “If you’re in your smaller, more manageable form. So long as you alert me, well… it’ll just look like the guard fell asleep on duty. If I get caught… it’ll… just look like I’m being sneaky. Dixxy will forgive me, I’m sure.”

“This will be dangerous,” Yroth said.

“I know,” Phaedra said. “Do you think it’s a bad idea? Should I try another time?”

“No,” Yroth said. “The longer you delay, the harder it will be for Lilith to believe you. The more she fights against it, the more likely it is she will expose you. And if that happens…”

“We’re all in trouble,” Phaedra said. “I know. Trust me… I know.”

“What will you do if she refuses to believe you?” Yroth asked.

“I’ll make her believe me, somehow,” Phaedra said. “I know… I know a lot about her. I know things that only Medon could know. She knows about what happened, now. But… if she’ll believe me… then… I’ll work with her and Dixxy.”

“Just be careful,” Yroth said. “If your cousin manages to get the truth from her…”

“I know,” Phaedra said. “But, who knows? Maybe Dixxy will be home before we know it. I might not even get the chance. Maybe…”

Phaedra wondered what it said about her that she both hoped she would, and was terrified that she would get the chance.

------

Phaedra just smiled to the bat demon as she approached. It was cute, he really was determined to do a good job. Well, if she did this right, nobody would ever know he failed. As she approached, she gave him a small wave and he nodded. Then he started to drop and she leaped forward, catching him before he hit the ground. Gently, she pushed his back against the wall and laid his metal claws on the ground besides him, so he wouldn’t accidentally cut himself. “Sleep now,” Phaedra whispered.

Then she got to her hooves again and moved to the door.

She idly wondered if she should try and get locks for the doors in the future, it couldn’t feel the most secure, having your door always available to anyone who wanted in.

Then again, locks weren’t really the biggest priority when you were still getting everything situated. She didn’t really want a dungeon, but perhaps she’d need one eventually. That or learning the spell to lock creatures away, to freeze them in time.

Phaedra pushed the door open and stepped inside, closing it behind herself. The room itself was dark, which she supposed made sense. The main source of light would be the thin window, but since the sun had long gone down, it wasn’t like it would provide much. After a moment a small orb of light appeared, cast by Lilith, who was sitting up on the cot, staring at her.

“Lilith,” Phaedra said.

“What do you want?” Lilith asked, her eyes glancing towards the door.

Phaedra sighed. She then waved a hand and there was a small flicker of light over the window and door, blocking out sounds from escaping the room. “You and I need to talk.”

“What about?” Lilith asked before she slowly slid the blanket off herself. Phaedra shifted around, making sure she was as close to the wall opposite Lilith as possible.

“Dixxy isn’t here,” Phaedra said. “Err, Paradox, I mean.”

“And so you’ve decided to try and make a move on me? Is this an attack, or…?”

“No!” Phaedra said, shaking her head rapidly. “This isn’t. It’s just… there’s some things she hasn’t told you. A lot, actually. Some of which because she doesn’t know, some because… she’s… trying to trick you.”

“So… you’re… betraying her?” Lilith asked.

“NO!” Phaedra said, unable to keep the hurt out of her voice. “I… I mean… I guess… in a way, yes? But… I don’t want to. I just kind of don’t have a choice. She’ll…” Phaedra sighed and face palmed, shaking her head. “No, let’s start over. What she said before, about Medon being reborn, is true. But… she’s not his ally. In fact, she hates him. Would likely do anything to kill him, if she knew who he was.”

“But you’re different?” Lilith asked.

“More than Dixxy knows,” Phaedra said. She put her hands together and took a slow, calming breath. “The Ascended Dragon is here. The one who knew Medon, who… helped Medon.”

“Is she now?” Lilith asked. “Are you saying she’ll vouch for you?”

“For me? Yes,” Phaedra said before leaning back against the wall. “Okay. Sorry, I’m beating around the bush a bit. I just need you to hear me out and please, please don’t destroy everything or make a huge mess. But most importantly of all? DON’T tell Dixxy about this.”

“Tell her what?” Lilith asked, looking a lot less worried now and more just confused.

“I’m Medon,” Phaedra said.

For a moment, Lilith just stared at her. Then she began to laugh, both hands reaching up to cover her mouth.

Phaedra’s fleece went a little limp as she gave a dejected bleat. She’d heard a lot of laughs of Lilith’s, but she’d never heard this one. It made her feel oddly small and weak. Like Lilith was mocking her. “It’s true! I am Medon!”

“Oh, of course you are,” Lilith said, shaking her head. “So, what, you want to just talk about old times?”

“No,” Phaedra said. “I know you were lying.”

The laughter died then and the smile slowly fell off her face. “What?”

“About the things you knew about Medon,” Phaedra said. “For example, saying I hated oranges. Which, admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of anymore. But since it was one of the few foods that translated correctly, it was one I used to get a lot when it was available. I hated drinking, whenever we got wine it was for Eve. I struggled with shopping because of the issues I had with talking, but I tried to carry most things. You were lying. You were… trying to protect me, weren’t you?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lilith said with a shrug. “You just obviously don’t know Medon like I do, that’s all. He—”

“Lilith,” Phaedra said before looking back up at her. “I need you to, please, listen to me. When… we last saw each other? Before I died? You told me to go on ahead. When I looked back, you were smiling. Just like you always told me you would. ‘If I die, I’ll die with a smile on my lips’. Of all my friends, you were the most inquisitive, you’d always ask me question after question. But I’d never answer. Because I was always afraid. Because when I was summoned here, well… There’s more that the demons aren’t aware of. More I need to tell you. I just… I need you to keep an open mind.”

“Fine,” Lilith said.

So she did, telling Lilith the same story she’d told Yroth not that long ago. More, she told her about her life before coming to this world, when she had been a human.

The longer the story went, the more horrified Lilith looked. Which wasn’t surprising, she supposed. Yroth had been horrified by it as well. She at least didn’t keep trying to interrupt her.

“Then… I was… reborn as this, I guess,” Yroth said softly. “I didn’t know how, or why. But apparently… well… I guess it was Rendel’s plot all along. I don’t know why. But… there’s one more thing I need to tell you. Probably the most important part. When I was reborn here I was… reborn as the Wolf’s daughter. And Dixxy… she’s not an elf. She’s… a demon. Like me. She’s my cousin.”

“I… see,” Lilith said softly. “So… you intend to kill her?”

“WHAT? No!” Phaedra said before rapidly shaking her head. “Why would you even think that?!”

“You were summoned here to kill the demons,” Lilith said. “What else would you do here?”

“I was summoned here for the wrong reasons,” Phaedra said. “There was no big world ending problem, no great threat. I… didn’t belong here. I was never supposed to be here. I destroyed all of your lives because… I was too stupid to realize something was wrong.”

Lilith just stared at her, her mouth falling open. She really expected that she, of all people, would have had some snappy comeback, something dramatic to say in response. But then… she supposed it was a pretty major thing to learn.

Finally, Lilith nodded. “If… if what you say is true…”

“It is,” Phaedra said softly.

“Tell me, what was your world like?” Lilith asked.

“Humans,” Phaedra said softly. Her wool expanded slightly around herself again. “It was a world of humans. We had conquered our world, in a way. Were destroying it. And when that happened, well… we were… conquering ourselves. There, I really was powerless. I was used to having to… do things. Having things set out in front of me and just doing them. Before I’d come here, I’d spent most of my life in a… drift, I guess. Barely paying attention to the reality around me, focusing primarily on just survival. But then I’d started fighting to become myself, and kind of… felt like I was experiencing… good things?”

“And then you came here?” Lilith asked.

“No,” Phaedra said softly. “I’d… had to fight a lot to get when I needed. Constantly. It felt, at times, like I was fighting a war. Every time I tried, it felt like I was getting slapped back down again for just… wanting to be myself. There was… probably good in my world, somewhere. I know there was, I’d seen some of it. But… there was a lot of evil there, too. And it was powerful. It so often felt like I was fighting an impossible fight just to have the rules changed against me and… I didn’t see a way out. But I fought and… eventually… I made headway. And then I was brought here. And told I had to live a lie all over again,” Phaedra said, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice. “And that if I didn’t, so many people would die. I thought… I tried to. And I made friends. I found people I cared about. Then, I failed. I let all of you down. So… now? I’m going to try to make up for it. I’m going to at least try and fix what I ruined.”

“Fix… how?” Lilith asked.

“Save you and the others,” Phaedra said softly. “Then… I guess… tell… my dad and… everyone… who I really am.”

“You’re going to just tell them?” Lilith asked, a hand covering her mouth. “But then… how… will you kill them? Won’t—”

“I can’t fight them,” Phaedra said before finally sinking down to the ground. “I… I thought I could… I really thought I could. But then… I had to fight Circe. It would have been easy. I could have… so easily… ended her. But… just the thought of it… I… I couldn’t… it hurt.”

“… It hurt? Trying to kill Circe? But isn’t that why you’re here?” Lilith asked.

Phaedra sighed and hugged her knees to her chest, her wool expanding out around her. She didn’t blame Lilith for being confused. She was confused herself. “… It hurt. I didn’t want to hurt her, even then. Even though she wanted to hurt Dixxy. But… I had to fight her. So I did. But it still felt wrong. The people here, daddy… my cousins… I feel… they… they care about me. Or… they… think they do. If they knew the truth, I know they’d never forgive me. I’m everything they hate. But… I love them.”

“Even if we want your name?” Lilith asked.

“The name doesn’t even matter,” Phaedra muttered. “Everyone told me I was supposed to be Medon. I never felt like Medon. I never had any of those powers. The Ascended Dragon says I was supposed to be Morgana, but I don’t know if even that’s right. The Wolf isn’t some terrible, world ending threat. He’s dangerous and will destroy a lot, but no more than all the other wars and destruction this world seems to revel in. These constant fights. If I could undo the whole thing… I would. My only regret is that you, Eve, Atlas and the Ascended Dragon believed in me and got hurt. So I swear, I’ll find a way to… to save you and… and… did you say ‘we’ want my name?” Phaedra asked, looking up.

“No,” Lilith said before sitting up a little straighter.

Phaedra stared at her for a few moments as a new, terrible idea began to occur to her. But that couldn’t be possible. She SAW Dixxy leave. Why would she be here, now? Why would she be Lilith? That didn’t make any sense.

But Lilith had been very quiet. She’d assumed it was just shock, but what if it wasn’t? What if she wasn’t in shock, what if she was just not trying to say the wrong thing? Slowly, Phaedra climbed to her hooves, her fleece pulling a little closer to her body. “Lilith. How do you feel about snakes?”

“They’re fine,” Lilith said quickly. “Tell me more about—”

“Dixxy,” Phaedra said, unable to keep the fear out of her voice. “… Lilith hates snakes.”

“… Oh,” Lilith said, before gulping. “… I… well…”

“How…?”

“She… escaped,” Dixxy said softly before her features melted away into her succubus form. “I thought… if I took her place, while my bats looked for her, you’d never need to know. I didn’t think… well…”

Phaedra felt her panic rising. She knew. She--

The light went out and Phaedra felt a great pressure on her. It took her only a moment to break free from the binding magic, but in that moment the door opened and Dixxy fled out of the door. Phaedra ran after her, skidding on the ground and nearly slamming into the wall. “Dixxy, wait!” she shrieked.

No no no no! Everything was going wrong! She wasn’t ready, if they found out now, then--

Yroth was suddenly blocking Dixxy’s way. Her eyes flickered from Dixxy to Phaedra before grim determination formed in her eyes. One hand lunged forward, grabbing Dixxy around the throat while the other pulled back.

Phaedra’s blood ran cold.

Dixxy was going to die.

It’d solve the problem, wouldn’t it? Letting Yroth--

She couldn’t even allow herself to think that for a second.

Phaedra leaped forward and grabbed Yroth’s arm holding Dixxy, biting down on it while her wool extended and hardened. Yroth let out an angry hiss, letting the demon go and pulling back. Her claw had torn out a chunk of Phaedra’s wool, but hadn’t pierced it.

Phaedra caught her cousin, holding her protectively to her chest. “S-stop it. Don’t—”

“Have you lost your mind?” Yroth asked, her eyes narrowed. “She knows, doesn’t she?”

“I’ll deal with it,” Phaedra said. “There’s no need to—”

“Pathetic lamb,” Yroth said. “Very well. I will do what must be done for your own good.”

Phaedra dropped Dixxy on the ground and pointed away. “Run,” she said.

“W-what?” Dixxy asked.

“I SAID RUN!” Phaedra yelled before reaching up to catch Yroth’s approaching claw, skidding back along the ground but holding her back. She glanced back and saw Dixxy fleeing down the hall, before turning back towards Yroth.

“You fool…” Yroth said, her voice a low snarl. “Do you really think you can defeat me?”

“We’re about to find out, aren’t we?” Phaedra asked.

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