Punishment or Retribution
Sonia seemed to wilt within her presence so Elsa started with her.
"Can you explain to me – young lady – how Ardyn decided to sacrifice herself to the Serpent Lord." She smiled broadly. "And yes. I do already know the answer to my own question."
Sonia whimpered and looked to Tomas. Her brother pretended not to see her and even to a step away from her. She looked to Elsa, tears in her eyes.
"I am so sorry my lady. I told her to do this."
Elsa looked at her sweetly, her long lashes fluttering. "You told her. And she… just did as you said."
The girl's face twisted and Elsa knew it was a reflex—something so utterly natural for her it had become instinctual. Sonia, seeing her chance, began to inflate her own importance.
"Ardyn has no choice but to do what we say. She knows better than…" Sonia's voice cracked with a childish petulance that grated on Elsa's ancient nerves. She was about to declare Ardyn her property—her slave—the same way she had bragged in the village streets.
"Sonia!" Michael Stronghood's roar was full of panic, his face twisting into an expression of horror. He stepped forward, putting his large body between his daughter and the silent goddess. Michael looked to Elsa sheepishly and giggled nervously. "My daughter is a little nervous, My Lady. She—she doesn't know what she is saying. We only took Ardyn in out of the goodness of our hearts after her parents tragically passed. She was merely assisting us." He tried to wipe his sweating brow, but his hand trembled too violently.
Rage flared within Elsa, but it was not loud; it was the quiet, implosive power of a god whose trust has been betrayed. The entire structure of the large, ugly house groaned under the pressure. The walls shook, cracked, and some portions blackened as if scorched by invisible heat. The stench of burning paint and polishing oils filled the space.
"I already told you that I know the answers to my questions," Elsa said, her voice now a low, dangerous hum. "Now let me tell you, I understand humans far better than most Beast-Kin. I see your fear and your cheap lies."
She shifted, her ethereal form flickering like candlelight in a storm, trying to regain her full control. "I see it was a mistake to be nice."
As one all of the Stronghoods bent over and wailed in pain. Elsa smiled and closed her eyes. First she listened then she felt and she patiently waited for all she needed to come to her.
One by one the Stronghoods began to pass out, but even unconscious their suffering was not over. They twitched and moaned – even as their eyes were shut tight.
Then Elsa stood, vines moved from her like soft streams across an ancient riverbed. As one, all of the Stronghoods—Michael, Anabel, Angelica, Tomas, and Sonia—bent over and wailed in pain, their suffering purely spiritual. Elsa smiled, closed her eyes, and let her mind listen. First, she listened to their panic, then she felt the truth deep in their souls, patiently waiting for all she needed to come to her.
One by one, the Stronghoods began to pass out, collapsing onto the dusty floor, but even unconscious, their suffering was not over. They twitched and moaned, their eyelids fluttering wildly as their deep consciousness was invaded.
Elsa stood, and vines, thick with flowering blooms, moved from her like soft streams across an ancient riverbed. They moved throughout the entire house, climbing walls, sinking deep into the floors, and clinging to the ceiling. The air grew thick and heavy. Large, fragrant, blood-red flowers bloomed all over the Stronghood home, pulsing with captured spiritual energy.
And then they began dusting pollen throughout and over everything and everybody. Thick mounds of dense, pale-green pollen dusted everything, settling like a toxic snow. Elsa stood in the center of it and waited.
[Soul Spores]: The pale-green pollen drank from the Stronghoods' subconscious minds, feeding all their darkest truths to Elsa. She watched Michael, barely an adult, ruin and destroy everything his father gave him, then beg his honorable older brother, Samuel, for his portion of the inheritance. She saw Samuel, Ardyn's true father, die alongside Angelica (Samuel's wife) and their young son, Marc, in a sudden, violent carriage accident. Michael and Anabel's shock when they found out Ardyn had lived was fleeting; the shock turned to incandescent fury when they discovered everything belonged to Ardyn, and if she died, everything would vanish—nothing would ever go to them. The final truth revealed was the agonizing, systemic pain and labor they inflicted on Ardyn for such selfish greed.
Then the blooms spun and the pollen changed to vibrant pink and began to sink into the sleeping forms.
[Reptilian Mark]
The Stronghoods all shivered as runes appeared, flowed back and forth along their bodies, and then faded from view. There shivering intensified.
The terror radiating from the entire family was a perverse dessert. Elsa nodded in satisfaction. The spiritual wound she had inflicted was deep and permanent. She went to the family's secret room, the one she saw Michael reveal in the soul-read, the wall still swinging open. She looked at the small mound of ill-gotten treasure they had placed above the stolen inheritance of such a precious girl, and her rage tried to boil over again.
It was a pitiful hoard: cheap jewels, forged deeds, and a tiny, dusty portrait of Ardyn's mother—the only thing of true value left. Elsa plucked the portrait from the pile.
The rage was so profound it felt like a physical weight in her hands. The Stronghoods had not just abused Ardyn; they had attempted to steal her entire future and the legacy of her honest family. Elsa turned, clutching the portrait, her eyes gleaming with cold fire. The retribution had only just begun