"Could you say sothing, please..?"
Lailah pretended she couldn’t see Eris. She pretended that she couldn’t hear her either.
Eris made no more moves to get closer to her loved one. Her heart couldn’t take being rejected again.
The two of them had been sitting in silence for so long now. It didn’t seem to bother Lailah like it did her.
"Would it... help if I changed my face back?"
"That’s the very least of our issues here, Eris!" Lailah yelled back. "Or should I even call you that?"
"M-My love, I am still-"
"Yes, yes. A very old power inside a very new soul. I don’t really want to hear any more."
Lailah’s hurt in having been lied to was only further compounded by a feeling of embarrassnt.
She was supposed to be the smartest goddess to have ever existed.
And yet, she still couldn’t figure out that a woman she’d been married to was keeping a massive secret this entire ti.
And Eris of all people? She never would have thought she would tell a lie, much less keep a secret.
Her sweet, lovable nature goddess who had never said a an thing to anyone.
She had always thought that Eris was as gentle as a flower. But what if that was all part of her weird mojo to make people drop their guard?
What if the connection they had- their whole relationship, even- was just one big lie?
Her mind was spiraling in an attempt to protect herself. She wanted to vomit. It was a pity she hadn’t eaten in gods knew how long.
"...I want my husband. Bring him here."
After so long, Eris didn’t expect that would be the first thing Lailah would say to her.
It was like rubbing salt in the wound.
"Are you going to tell him...?"
"I figured one of us should. And you’ve certainly had enough ti to do so..."
Eris bit her lip to stop it from quivering.
"...That hurts, Lailah. It really hurts."
Lailah wouldn’t be swayed by that gentle tone. Not again.
"Yeah, well... there’s a lot of that going around here."
Eris finally let the tears fall as she used the very last spark of her power.
No matter how much she didn’t want to...
-
Thundering footsteps traveled through the nightmare realm.
A large dragon walked over miles of sand and ash.
It bore only a single head. And it’s size was relatively diminutive compared to prior incarnations.
In the dragon’s hand, it carried two won.
One, orange-skinned and with a lower body made of tentacles. The other... was wearing a space suit that didn’t quite fit.
"You’re so cute, dear."
"L-Lillian... I know you an no harm, but I cannot feel as if my allure as a woman has been compromised in so way."
"Aww, I wouldn’t say that. It’s just that hamsters are one of my favorite creations, and I can’t help but feel as though you resemble them. You’re so small and cute, and now it’s like you’re in a hamster ball!"
Izanami swore she was losing more and more of her sex appeal by the mont. No one was ever going to touch her inappropriately again at this point.
"Oh, you’re just so cute..."
Lillian wrapped her arms around Izanami’s body and rubbed her cheek against the glass.
"I’m going to call you Cheeky-eky."
"L-Lillian!"
"Yes, my dear Cheeky?"
For so reason, Lillian felt a little bit of the life slip from Izanami’s form. She also developed a bit of a dead look in her eyes.
"My love, I think you’ve broken her."
Lillian looked up at Abaddon with a gaze of confusion.
"Why? I have pet nas for all of you."
"Yes, but have you forgotten that our relationship with Izanami is new? I doubt she wants to be given embarrassing pet nas at this mont."
"I can confirm I do not." Izanami said lifelessly.
Lillian’s eyes beca sad.
"...But if it makes you happy, then I can put up with any amount of embarrassnt." Izanami finished.
Lillian made a happy squeal and tightened her grip on Izanami. "Awww, I knew you loved , Cheeky my dear!"
Izanami felt a hand slip onto her butt, and a tentacle wrapped around her leg.
"You just wait till we get ho." Lillian purred. "I’ll be sure to take special care of you."
A faint smile crept onto Izanami’s lips, and her eyes beca a little less lifeless. Perhaps she hadn’t lost all of her sex appeal just yet.
"How... strange."
With more of a grip on his power than before, Abaddon was much more attuned to the realm he was currently standing on.
He could feel it changing before him. The differing pathways that this realm seed to be comprised of were being converged into just one way forward.
And at the end of it was... a box?
A bright pink box- dangerously similar to his unbreakable imprisonnt spell.
However, that was the very least of his concerns.
Rather, his focus was on the presences he could feel coming closer to him once again.
"Eris..? Lailah?"
Lillian and Izanami slowly pulled apart from each other.
In the blink of an eye, Abaddon was no longer a large dragon, but a single man with two won sitting on his shoulders.
He lowered himself to the ground and dropped the won gently.
A disbelieving smile showed up on his face.
"I-It really is you, isn’t it...? You both look-"
Lailah bolted into his chest so hard that she nearly knocked him on his back.
Laughter slpped past his lips as he slipped his arms around her.
"Such strength! Have you truly missed so badly that.."
It only took a mont for Abaddon to notice that Lailah was trembling. And her emotions were unusally chaotic for what should have been a sweet reunion.
"My love..?"
He didn’t get a response.
"Is that you, Eris...? What’s the matter?"
Izanami inched closer to a woman she didn’t recognize on the surface.
"You look beautiful... I suppose that the realm is doing wonders for you, isn’t it."
Eris wept silently in response.
When Izanami tried to reach her, she took a step back- shocking her.
"What’s going on..? What is the matter with you two?"
Lillian’s worry was shared with the others. They weren’t used to everyone behaving this strangely for no reason.
As the silhouettes of the others drew closer, Lailah lifted her head and started to open her mouth.
But before she could, Eris beat her to the punch.
"There’s sothing I need to tell you... all of you."
-
Harm is defined as sothing that causes sothing or soone to be hurt, broken, or even made less valuable.
Hurt can be intentional or accidental. Malicious or circumstancial.
It is difficult to differentiate between the two when one has been ’hard’. So experience a knee jerk reaction where they react to their harm with anger, sharing a harm of their own under the guise of getting even.
It may not always be the most correct path, but it is human. And thus it persists.
Harm can also cause one to shut down. This is best explained by pondering a physical trauma.
The mont you hear sothing devastating, your chest feels hot. Your world turns white.
It may beco difficult to stay on one’s feet. In the worst cases, a person might forget how to breathe.
This can also be related to physical trauma, where one gets hit so hard that they lose consciousness and their body seizes up.
But perhaps the worst kind of harm is that which causes the injured to bla themselves.
I got mugged. I shouldn’t have been going out that late at night anyway.
Soone beat up in the street. I probably shouldn’t have bumped into his girlfriend.
She lied to . Did I not make her feel comfortable enough to tell the truth?
It could be said that Eris had ’hard’ her loved ones with her lies and secrecy. Going as far as to implant a fake mory had only added another layer of injury.
And they all responded to the harm in ways that were different, yet the sa.
Quiet was persistent in the wake of Eris’ revelation.
No one was quite as angry as they were shocked. Perhaps that was the only positive thing to co out of this.
Abaddon was the one to make a move first.
He briefly let Lailah go and moved towards Eris.
She couldn’t look up at him. Her gaze was fimly planted at his feet.
Even when he tried to lift her head, she wouldn’t budge.
But Abaddon was a man used to making accomidations.
The dragon got down on one knee in front of her. He straigned his neck to look up at her through the curtains of her hair.
As he suspected, she was crying silently.
Her tears only worsened when their eyes t.
He smiled at her response.
"Gotta say, I’m hurt."
"I am s-so sorry, I..."
"I could have been waking up next to this pretty face for all of these years, and you kept it from ? I find that pretty damned selfish."
Eris’ tears stopped almost at once. For the mont, her disbelief otweighed her grief.
"...But I-"
"I know." Abaddon smiled at her bitterly. "But... we’ll talk about everything else later."
Within the archetypes of reactions to harm, there is a less popular and widely misunderstood reaction that is sparely seen as humanity becos quicker to anger.
It is for those who, despite what they have suffered, choose to forgive and move on.
And those who make that choice with genuine good will in their hearts, are the first who step onto the road of healing.
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