Anna slipped back into the hut, her black hair brushing against her shoulders like a dark cloak of night. The air was thick with dread; Elise's face was a mask of terror, and Theo stood aloof, his eyes glazed as if they were still entranced by the corpse of their grandmother. Anna's own gaze glittered with a cruel delight—an unsettling hunger that seemed to feed on the very darkness around her.
The silence broke with slow, metallic drops, each one a deep crimson that trailed from an unseen source. In Anna's hand floated an oval object—a head, slick and cold to the touch. It was brown‑haired, its azure eyes unmistakably those of Elise's father. Scorch marks, the size of a handprint, marred the face, erasing all but his essence, but, Elise could tell with her special eyes, she could indeed tell who it was whose head was in Anna's hand. Elise recognized the familiar shape instantly.
Her heart hammered against her ribs as she stared at the severed head, tears streaming down her cheeks until they turned to blood. The shock was palpable; even Anna's voice trembled when she spoke: "That can't be good. I can't have you overexerting yourself—if you die, what's the fun in that?" She waved a hand, and a dark wave of energy surged into Elise's bones, stabbing her like needles across her entire body.
Elise convulsed, her eyes burning brighter with each flash of pain. New revenants that formed around her, their translucent bodies flickering against the dim light. Anna sighed, "This girl… feisty." She pressed a middle finger to Elise's forehead. Black mist coalesced at the tip of her finger and seeped into Elise's skin, searing through her skull as she screamed.
Anna placed middle finger on a struggling Elise's forehead. Black misty goo formed at her fingertip as her finger slowly went into her head, Elise continued to scream in pain as tears started streaking down her cheeks. Flashes of Images seemed to appear with her sight. They seemed to be memories…. Foreign memories..... no, her father's memories. These were her fathers memories before he died. "You should know now" Anna said with a smile as Elise's yes rolled over, gurgling sound emitting from her throat, drool falling down her lips She had fainted falling unconscious, but her soul still exited the very foundation of ones being. The memories were being transmitted to her soul. So she was still experiencing it all. From the pain her father felt after the death of her mother, to loosing hope, and then him regaining hope to find her and at least ensure her survival, Elise saw it all. The unwavering love her father had for her and her mother to his regrets for being weak even as his head got torn off.
"Garrick, help me defeat her and..." She saw her father get stabbed in the back of Garrick the Alchemist. Rage, Hatred, Thirst for vengeance surged within her heart. She raged shaking her head continuously as if she was trying to shake the memories of her mind. But Alas she knew Garrick was already dead. Her eyes could faintly see it. Beneath that smooth old skin of his was a layer of pulsing root that had grown throughout his inner body piercing his heart and mind. --No Alchemist could have possibly survived that-- she thought. With no target for her rage she turned her face towards Anna. A loud shriek echoed from her mouth that seemed to chill the bones. Anna's eyes narrowed. --She seems to be getting stronger.--- Anna thought ---Those eyes are simply absurd.--- Anna's finger continued to go deeper into Elise's forehead until she seemed to have touched a faint membrane, Elise's brain. Anna decisively struck the brain with the finger, "Forgive…. Me..... Sera-phina. I …. Couldn't…. Protect… our" The last thought of her father echoed with her mind. Completely setting her on edge.
Elise's eyes dulled; she stopped resisting. Anna whispered, "The Eyes of Time." She stepped closer, watching the blue irises turn a dull gold as the golden thread that had been drawn from Elise's mouth returned to Anna in a wave of black energy. The Eyes of Time were elusive—captured only by those who lost hope for their past, present, or future.
"The eyes of Time" Anna said as she stepped closer to Elise observing her." They can't be absorbed or transplanted. Always elusive." She watched Elise's glowing blue eyes suddenly turn Gold. Anna's eyes glowed dark purple as the faint golden thread that seemed to come out of Elise's mouth was sent back into her with a faint wave of black energy.
Anna smiled eerily. "You're preparing to run, aren't you?" Her voice was calm, yet the tendrils that shot from her belly curled like serpents, wrapping Elise in a suffocating grip. The eyes of Time would have escaped anyone who was in her shoes even forbidden mages and the imperium couldn't ever capture the eyes of time. It was an elusive entity with many speculations about it. But when Anna had first seen Elise she used her fae abilities to recreate a possible future in which the eyes of time would have a weakness. And that weakness was that if the holder were to lose hope of what they knew the future to be, Past, Present or future, the eye of time would be trapped in that despair of the holder. Anna hadn't originally known she would encounter the eye of time here. But thanks to her decisiveness, she had come to a conclusion. Instead of instantly killing the villagers and harvesting their life force to revive the draconic creature, she would play a game and create enough despair to devour the eyes of time for herself. "… That's right Elise. All this was prepared for you. To harvest your specialties, You are the real delicacy." She smiled eerily as black tendrils shot out from her belly, slowly dragging the bound Elise into Anna. Elise turned towards Anna, her eyes still dull as Elise touched Anna, a rippled surge through Anna's body as if she was liquid. Elise slowly merged with Anna as if being dipped completely in water, merging them into one.
She turned to Theo, pity flickering across her face. Black tendrils coiled around him, pulling him from the corpse of their grandmother. He resisted, but the bond was unbreakable; Anna's body swelled with the dark energy as she absorbed his essence too.
A long, guttural burp escaped Anna as she stalked toward the hut's exit. Tears welled in her eyes—a fleeting sign of humanity amid the chaos. "So much happened here," she murmured to herself, turning toward the swamp beyond the village. A white light burst upward, slicing through the sky like a razor.
"Now it's time to clear the mission," she whispered, then dissolved into mist, leaving behind only a faint, sinister smile and the echo of her own laughter. The hut fell silent, its walls still resonant with the remnants of death and despair—an eldritch nightmare that would haunt the village for generations. "That would be the case, but there are no survivors" She chuckled.