Lydia the Siren's Arc

Chapter 33 of 37

Lydia knelt in the wreck of the grove. The great crystal lay split and dark. She had watched it shatter. She was sure it was dead, its light gone with the beast that stole her power. She pressed her hand to a cold facet and waited for nothing. Then the roots under her fingers stirred. A thin blue thread of light crawled up the broken jewel. The crack sealed itself, edge to edge, like ice knitting over water. The crystal woke. It had not died. It was healing, fast, the forest pouring itself back into the stone. Roots wound up her arms before she could pull away. They lifted her, wrapped her, drew her against the humming crystal. She fought until she had no strength left. The light closed over her eyes. She stood in a place with no floor. Before her rose a figure of blue crystal, taller than a man, with jagged limbs and offshoots for arms. Its great faceted head glowed. This was the will of the forest, the thing behind the guardian she had watched fall. It looked at her, and she felt every death she had caused laid out plain. "You have killed," the crystal being said. Its voice was many tones at once. Faces flickered in its light. A knight with silver hair. A trader. Travelers on a road she had baited with song. Lydia's throat closed. She had never asked forgiveness in her life. "I killed them," she said. "I lured them and I fed. I made the road a trap." She thought of the bone horn, the men who never went home. "I am sorry. I know it changes nothing for them." The crystal held her in its light and weighed her. "A beast cannot repent," it said. "You are no longer a beast. You are a woman now. To such a one, a second chance may be given, if she wants it." "I want it," Lydia said. The words came out fast and true. "Then hear the price," the crystal being said. "You took life. You will repay it by saving life. Every soul you saved shall stand against every soul you took. And you must give up your hunger for what you were. Reclaim your siren power and this bargain breaks." Lydia thought of the beast flying over the ridge, carrying her song, her wings, her old strength. "I accept," she said.