Elara Greenwood's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

For three nights Elara had not slept. Every shadow in her cottage stretched too long. The debt was real. Shiv could come for her any moment, and she would owe it something she did not understand. She would not wait to be seized. She would go back to the temple and settle the price on her own feet. She packed water and left before dawn. The cave swallowed the daylight. The two carved pillars glowed at the center, their grooves still threaded with rising red. Elara stopped between them. "I've come to pay," she called. "Tell me the debt. All of it." Nyx Sol stepped from the dark. Her mismatched eyes found Elara. The blue one seemed to look past her, at something not yet there. "You came back. Brave. Or foolish." "Both," Elara said. "What does the creature want?" "Ask it." The god raised a hand. From behind the columns Shiv unfolded, taller than a man, faces sliding across its black body. Its mouths opened without sound. Elara's throat went dry, but she held her place. "It hungers for joy," Nyx Sol said. "I made it that way. I fed it a war instead of a life. It cannot take joy from a town that has none." She tilted her head. "Your town has water now. Water makes gladness. The debt is this. Feed it what it lost." Elara understood. The creature did not want her flesh. It wanted the one thing its makers had been robbed of. "Then I bring it to the people," she said. "Not to hurt them. To let it feel them living." "Yes." Nyx Sol did not smile. "But a hungry thing in a full room is still a hungry thing. If you cannot keep it fed, it will take the fastest way." Elara led the shadow across the wastes. Shiv moved behind her without a sound. At the town gate the fountains ran. Music spilled from a roadside tavern, warm light behind its windows. She pushed the door open. The cyborg bartender looked up from the patched glowing bar, cow ears twitching. Duke had built her life in this town first, and stayed loyal to Elara since. Her friendly grin dropped when she saw the creature. Her left arm hissed, plates folding back toward a cannon. "Elara. Step away from that thing." "Wait." Elara raised both hands. "It's the price of the storm. It only wants to feel people happy. Play the music. Pour the drinks. Let it stand in the warmth." Duke's arm stayed half-raised. Then she saw Elara's steady face. Slowly, she lowered the cannon and refilled a mug. The room breathed again. Laughter returned. Shiv stood by the door, faces stilling, its hunger easing in the glad light. The debt was paid, but not closed. Elara had bound a starving thing to her town's joy. Feed it forever, or it feeds itself.