Eight days had passed.
Hecuba finally devoured the last of Dahlia's memory which was the fourteenth year and the final identity to the life she had lived before being brought into the dark space. The gaping maw that Hecuba's mouth had become snapped shut, grinding the final glowing fragment of memory between the shark-like teeth. The once-radiant orb of memories dimmed, darkened, and pulsed with a shadowy glow as only memories from the six years being here under Hecuba's care, spread like ink through the entire orb.
To Dahlia now, it was as if she had never existed before waking up in Hecuba's lair those years ago. Her sense of origin had been totally consumed, with no remembrance of birth, no childhood but only seeming to have materialized from nothing, where the first face she ever saw was her master's. To her, it was as if she had not been born, but conjured. If she were ever to understand this truth, she would know that it was the cruelest fate imaginable.
She remained unconscious throughout the ordeal. But upon closer inspection, tears from the corners of her eyes appeared to streamed down ceaselessly.
Inside her mind though, Hecuba's spirit body, having consumed every memory successfully, was starting to flicker and shimmer, becoming translucent silver, as she faded in and out of reality like a dying flame.
This is it, the spirit body thought, watching her spectral hands dissolve. Despite the disintegration, she felt triumph. The other half of her soul was still intact. Her plan was nearly complete.
She quickly withdrew from Dahlia's mind. Returning into her own physical body, she quickly severs her consciousness link from the decaying half of her soul, which drifted away like fireflies into the nothingness.
Her consciousness returned to the cell where the other half of her soul was still imprisoned. Before entering, she unfurled the black pouch like she had done before and blew its dark powder into the air between the gaps of the cell. Like earlier before, her soul fell silent again, admitting an obedient stance ready to be controlled, the eyes went blank like it had no life in them.
Her consciousness approached without sparing any sympathy. She was feeling agitated at the prospect of her success that she had no time to dawdle. She removed the chains and merged with the remaining half of her soul with no resistance. She felt whole like she had before, as a spirit body of herself reformed once again and emerged from her physical body.
She stepped out, eager to examine Dahlia's body compatibility with her soul—only to find the stone table where the body had been empty.
Her heart skipped.
Then out of the corner of her eyes she spotted a figure fleeing toward the exit of her lair, with Dahlia's body cradled in arms.
Fury detonated in her chest.
"RAVENNA!" recognizing the figure, she shrieked. Her voice tore through the air, rippling with raw, invisible force, as the walls of the lair cracked and shattered under the pressure. Obviously, Hecuba hadn't anticipated this. It seemed Ravenna also had found a way to repel her will and rebelled.
Her spirit body, moments ago that was tiny enough to be squashed, instantly transformed to a perfect height. Claws erupted from her fingertips as they spread before her like spider legs. In an instant, she vanished, only to reappear before Ravenna, who immediately tried to skid to a stop in her track, being already caught in her attempt and the exit before her barred by Hecuba.
Just then, Ravenna's eyes widened as she could feel Hecuba's seething power gathering. The momentum she had pulled to her speed to escape had been so fast that she could not stop in time to avoid the incoming impending doom.
Hecuba let out another shriek cry. This time, the wave of energy from the shriek exploded outward, slamming into Ravenna, hurling her across a distance and ripping Dahlia from her arms. While the residue energy blew apart the lair into debris.
Hecuba caught Dahlia mid-fall, laying her gently beyond the reach of scattered debris of the lair. The interior of the torn lair now laid bare in the open hollow. Amid the ruin, only the stone table and the bubbling cauldron still steaming on fire stood undisturbed.
Ravenna hit the floor hard, a sharp pain cracking up her spine as though it was fractured. She groaned, struggling to rise, when Hecuba appeared again, standing above her with claws poised.
Terror took her. Death stared down at her with glowing eyes and a snarl.
"You must have a death wish," Hecuba hissed. "Then die."
Hecuba's claws descended like a scythe.
Ravenna scrambled back in desperate fright, crawling her body backwards in agitation, before her cold sweat back brushed against a wall-like resistance that impeded her retreat with no escape.
Hecuba's claws closed in.
Ravenna's desperation heightened, she didn't have time to think as she reached out to grab the only thing within her grasp, which was the cauldron. Despite its heat and weight, she lifted it, the steaming concoction still swirling inside, and hurled it toward Hecuba. Not expecting that it could deter her, Revanna turned her face away, shielding her body into a cradle bracing for the claws to slice her apart.
Hecuba scoffed, unimpressed. She slashed the cauldron aside, shattering it instantly. The contents exploded into the air, thick vapors clouding the space of her direction.
"Die!" she howled—
—and then abruptly stopped, Hecuba froze.
The splattered concoction itself had passed harmlessly through her spirit body and wetted the other side of the ground but the fumes…the steam oozing from the concoction spilled in the air had unwittingly snaked into her nostrils. Hecuba had unknowingly inhaled it and the next instant her eyes widened.
"Wha—?" she gasped. Her claws stopped an inch from Ravenna's head. Her body locked, motionless before her.
Realization dawned too late.
She had inhaled her own potion.
Her body seized instantly, as vision was dimming.
So this… is what it means to have a taste of your own medicine, she cursed internally, her fury powerless now.
What a lousy day. She thought.
Ravenna opened her eyes slowly, bracing for those claws that never struck. However, she saw them hovering just inches above her, frozen along with Hecuba's spirit body like a statue in a display. Her breath caught in her throat. She had been lucky, truly had. One heartbeat slower, and she would have been torn apart. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she scrambled to her feet, narrowly avoiding the poised claws as she didn't doubt for a second that they could be laced with some vile poison. Understanding very well that Hecuba was perverse in every sense, and cruelty was second nature.
Now that fate had granted her a sliver of opportunity, Ravenna wasn't going to waste it. Unexpectedly, before she had come, fragments of her old memories, past years before Hecuba, had flickered back, maybe faint but undeniable. She realized that the contradictions her mind had gone through during her isolated time on Dahlia's mountain ridge must have fractured the binding essence Hecuba had used to subdue her will. It was as if a veil had lifted, and with it came a sliver of her former self. She no longer saw this dark space as truth but a false that contradicts the world above these overcasts. She remembered the world above, the sun, the moon, the stars—things she once knew and had forgotten. She had once lived in light.
And then when her memory further struck, it did with a bitter sting. She had unexpectedly been sold to Hecuba as a child. She remembered her mother had said to her, you have the chance to be useful, go and be of service. Then her father had also said, we don't need a burden, your younger brother is enough for the family. Rage welled up within her after her sorrow, hot and furious, but also hollow. She had suddenly felt that recovering such memories was not worth it and had sort of appreciated that Hecuba had once taken them away. She realized that she had no one in her life, no family, her master Hecuba had never been considered as such. But only Dahlia had left small lingering ripples in her heart that were still growing and she wasn't going to lose her.
Her only choice is to find a way to save Dahlia. Although she knew how powerful Hecuba was, and how her attempts would be like flinging water into a chasm.
Still, she had decided firmly not to abandon Dahlia. No matter how the odds were stacked against her.
She came by herself into Hecuba's lair and had acted—slipping in while Hecuba was distracted. She'd hidden in the shadows, waiting. And when the moment came, she'd moved—but even then, she'd been caught.
Now, with Hecuba rooted and unmoving, Ravenna knew her window wouldn't last forever. Hecuba was madness herself and wouldn't be kept paralyzed forever. Ravenna's thinking accelerated and her fingers shook in haste as she scanned the debris. She had just thought of an attack that might work.
She also somewhat appreciated that she had recovered her memory fragments, if she had not, she might not have known this seemingly simple method of attack. Her eyes locked on a handful of vials scattered in the rubble. Without hesitation, she grabbed them and poured their contents as fast as she could over Hecuba's physical body, which still sat cross-legged and eerily still on the stone table. One vial. Then another. And another.
Once done, she snatched up two jagged pebbles and began to strike them together, trying to spark a flame. Her aim is to ignite and set ablaze the body. Fire was her only weapon now—something in line with what Hecuba loathed, something she couldn't hide from if it consumed her physical body.
She could have initiated her attack on the spirit body instead while it was still incapable, but Dahlia had thought to herself that an attack against it might not be feasible, as Hecuba's spirit body through her various trick and means could just ignore the illumination from the fire and slither back into the physical body. If that were to happen, then definitely, that might be the end for herself and Dahlia.
She tried, but the pebbles sparked weakly, refusing to catch.
Ravenna's eyes darted around frantically. Then—luck. She saw a shard from the broken cauldron still held a smear of the brewed concoction. She picked it to the stone table, scooped a bit onto the hem of Hecuba's robe and struck again, this time directly over the soaked portion.
Spark.
A tiny ember bloomed.
At the same moment, she heard a sickening crackle behind her as Hecuba's claws slightly twitched. She was waking.
Ravenna struck faster, desperately, even as sweat slicked her palms and slowed her grip. Strike. Strike. The ember grew. Finally, a flame licked the edge of the cloth. The sudden illumination pierced her eyes sharply but she hadn't time to care about it. She blew on it frantically, coaxing it to grow. Fire spread, biting into the robes and creeping toward the skin.
Then came the scream.
"Nooo!"
Hecuba's spirit body completely freed, shrieked in fury and dove for her burning body. Even as she felt the illumination from the fire searing through her soul, she had no choice. Now that the fire was still dim on her physical body, if she were to re-entered now, she might be able to chant a spell to cast the flames off, while her soul quickly hides away inside the cell.
But Ravenna had planned for this.
As Hecuba neared, Ravenna grabbed the rest of the broken cauldron's concoction and hurled it over the body. With that done, she quickly shields herself backward with a few steps, as a big combustion happens.
Whoosh!
The fire exploded to life.
Hecuba's spirit body surging forward—too fast to quickly come to a halt, was in for a harsh impact. She screamed as the blaze surged, searing away part of her soul. Desperately withdrawing, her eyes flicked toward Dahlia's body, lying helpless nearby, where the crumbled debris around was freed from. Hecuba changed course. Since she could no longer access her own body, she was going for the possession now.
Ravenna's heart seized as she saw this.
No.
Without thinking, she flipped the stone table with all her might. Hecuba's burning body tumbled off and landed between Hecuba's rushing spirit body and Dahlia's frame as flames now barricaded the center.
Hecuba recoiled with a hissing growl. The fire's rays pierced through her spirit body into her soul like needles. Her burning eyes met Ravenna's with pure malice, then she screamed—a sound so sharp and terrible it seemed to tear at the very overcast of the dark space. Saying nothing as she vanished from the hollow to where Ravenna did not know.
Ravenna collapsed. Her body trembled uncontrollably as the fear she'd held back finally crashed through her. For a long moment, she sat, shaking, then turned her gaze to Dahlia's body.
She crawled over, every muscle trembling with exhaustion, she pushed away Hecuba's body that was already charred all over beyond recognition and gently inspected the Dahlia's condition.
She is alive.
Her pulse is steady. Her breath faint but it is even.
Ravenna was relieved.
But what startled Ravenna most was the silent, endless stream of tears slipping from the corners of Dahlia's closed eyes. For a moment, Ravenna thought she might be conscious. She shook her, called her name only then did Dahlia stir.
Her eyes flung open.
Ravenna heaved and looked at Dahlia whose eyes were looking back at her expressionlessly and lifeless, with tears still streaming down like an ocean. Ravenna felt sorry. She thought to herself that the tears may be from the shock and fright she might have had.
"It is okay, I'm here now." Ravenna drew Dahlia into a gentle hug and spoke gently into her ear, then she brought her sleeve to Dahlia's face and wiped the tears off but just at the same time more rolled out, making her action pointless.
Ravenna tried conversing too but Dahlia just kept mum to herself.
This worried Ravenna deeply and she thought to herself, In any case, I will just have to look after her till she is better.
But it was ignorance on her part. She hadn't known what had happened before her arrival. How can she know that Hecuba had already consumed the essence of Dahlia's memory? Torn and eaten from the roots, with the aftermath being an endless stream of tears that keeps flowing from her eyes.