//=time() ?>
“What Lyra did... it can’t have been easy for you. She took your chance to be part of your human world, didn’t she? To live a human life."
"What if…
I could undo that for you?”
Astraea slides her hand across the bed, stopping an inch or two away from him.
“I can, you know."
"Did..." Lloyd stops, looking nervously up at her as he gathers his panicked thoughts. "...did you dress me like this?"
“Just like we always did. I loved picking out your outfits.” Astraea murmurs, her eyes half-closing. “This was one of our favorites...
don’t you remember?”
Before he knows what’s happening, she’s aggressively pushed him against a pillar. Her hands are everywhere, on his face, inside his jacket, leaving pinpricks of warmth. Glowing silver-gold motes dance in his vision.
It’s overwhelming.
No... It’s 𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜
LAST DAY for the annual membership 15% discount and promo item!! Click the link for details 😄https://t.co/EOGoZHsAnZ
Ahead there is a quiet splash and a faint, musical hum as Neith wades up to her hips in the pool. Astraea’s foot brushes the surface and the water’s hum shifts into flowing music, and it emits a brilliant burst of golden-white light.
"You daft little fool." Neith huffs
"My, you are observant.
Does this feel like a fairytale to you?"
The elevator doors slide open. Neith steps out onto a gleaming walkway with Lloyd following a few steps behind.
"So… you must have drugged me, or… "
Even as he says it, it sounds like a hollow explanation.
"Are you… alrig..ht?" The woman asks.
Lloyd's wings shiver as he looks around.
"Where are... why is...
What am I?" He finally stammers
The smile that spreads across her face is so warm and bright that it brings tears to his eyes.
"...you’re mine..." She whispers
"Finally! What took you so long?" Neith mutters.
The newcomer takes a step forward. "... is this... her?"
Luminous white-blonde hair peeks out of the edges of the hood, framing her soft pink eyes. She's Familiar. Soothing.
Like someone he’s always known.
She grins at him like she knows what he’s thinking and flips a small blue-green sucker out of her pocket. He can see that it’s shot through with reddish-brown swirls, coalescing at the center.
“Care for a refresher?” She asks, amused.
Lloyd fixes her with an incredulous stare.
The creature's hand runs gently along the edge of his trapped wing, picking out delicate traceries of veins. Then it withdraws, fingers glistening with green and brown dusty moth-scales.
It licks the scales off its fingers, croaking
"Mmmdon't have a purchaser, nnnndo you?"