Lydia the Siren's Arc

Chapter 18 of 37

When the wound was wrapped, Bastion did not rest. He gathered his notes on Lydia's beast form and spread them across the table. She watched him from the bed, still weak, still unsure why he studied her instead of running. He lit a lamp and pulled down every book from his shelf. He worked through the night. Vials clinked against each other. He crushed dried leaves, mixed powders into water, and read passages aloud under his breath. He measured a feather he had pulled from her wing earlier and dropped it into a bowl. Steam rose. He frowned, poured it out, and began again. Lydia did not understand any of it. The stars he had painted on the ceiling watched them both. She only knew that he read faster than any man should, and that he kept glancing at his drawing of her wings, her crest, her scars. Near dawn he stood up straight. "Aha," he said. He held a small vial. The liquid inside was clear and still. "What is it?" she asked. "For you." He crossed to the bed. "Drink it and the beast is gone. Not quieted. Gone. Only the woman stays." Lydia sat up. "Gone how?" "For good. There is no going back once you drink." He set the vial in her palm. His hand did not shake. "No more shift. No more hunger to feed. No more scream. You would be a woman and nothing else." She stared at the clear liquid. Her whole life sat inside that glass. The cave that called her. The song that pulled men to their end. The wings that carried her from the arrows. She had never once thought of losing them. "Why would I want that?" she whispered. Bastion knelt to meet her eyes. "Because you have to choose now. Tonight." He pointed at the notes. "I worked under a man before. Gregorio. I know where he lives. He knows where I live too." Her fingers closed around the vial. "He hunts your kind," Bastion said. "He will not stop. When he finds you a beast, he kills you. When he finds you a woman, he has no monster to slay." He paused. "It is the only way I can keep you safe." Lydia thought of the knight she had wanted for a year. The ocarina. The dragon. The song she had saved only for him. She had crossed a kingdom to make Gregorio hers. And now the beast that let her chase him was the very thing that would get her killed. She looked at Bastion. She looked at the clear vial. "I need until morning," she said. He nodded and rose. "Then decide by morning. He does not wait." Lydia held the potion against her chest and did not drink. Outside, the first gray light touched the trees. Somewhere down the western road, Gregorio was already moving.