Lydia the Siren's Arc

Chapter 35 of 37

Lydia walked out of the dead grove and back toward the cabin. She wanted Bastion's home again, the painted stars, the warm bed.But when she pushed through the last trees, she stopped. The cabin was gone. In its place slumped a rotting hovel. Broken planks leaned against a sagging roof. Moss ate the walls. It looked as if a clean, bright house had only ever been a picture laid over this ruin, and now the picture had peeled away. Lydia touched the doorframe. The wood crumbled under her fingers. "You." She turned. A man in iron stood at the edge of the clearing, sword loose in his hand. Gregorio. He had hunter. he only watched her, his sharp face tired. "I saw something in the sky moments ago," he said. "A beast with wings. It looked like you." His eyes moved over her human face, her crystal armor. "But it wasn't you. Its shape was wrong. Male." "It wasn't me," she said. "I can't fly anymore." "No. I see that." He lowered the sword fully. "I gave up on ending you… I keep my word. You're no beast now." His voice flattened. "But if you ever act as one again, I'll finish it." Gregorio looked at the hovel. "I found a body this morning. Under those boards." He pointed with his chin. "Long dead. Months of rot on it, maybe more. The gear was his. It was Bastion." Lydia's mouth went dry. "That can't be…." She stopped. The winged shape in the sky. The stolen hunger. The thing that wore her old form. "That thing isn’t Bastion, Bastion is dead” Gregario hissed He walked. Lydia stood frozen between the ruin and the rotting truth. The man who healed her had been a corpse for months. The thing in his cabin had never been Bastion. And it now carried her wings across the sky. She ran after Gregorio. "Wait." She caught his arm. He stopped and looked down at her. "You've hunted this thing your whole life. I can't fly. I can't fight it alone. Let me come with you." Gregorio studied her a long moment. The crystal armor. The vines. The woman who was no longer a monster. "You'll slow me," he said. "I'll keep up." He pulled his arm free and started walking again. He waved his arm for her to follow