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What had attacked her was monstrous and frightful.

She hadn’t done anything more than stand there, and Nathair had tried to.

.. destroy her. She’d heard it in their roar, had seen it in their claw strike.

She opened her eyes to look upon the tree that had been snapped in half, knowing that would have been her – dead within the span of a heartbeat.

She’d never be able to tame or contain Nathair, she knew that. She’d been struggling to do so when they’d been a baby, completely relying on their desire for closeness to control them.

“No. It is best that you don’t,” Weldir answered. “They have found prey, and it appears they are going on a rampage.”

A rampage. Her child was much more violent than she’d ever dreamt. Then again, they’d never gone out of their way to hunt before. Now that they had sight, had grown large and imposing, it seemed the cute creature she’d come to adore was lost.

What changed? How did they suddenly grow horns and eyes, or orbs, or whatever?

Her shoulders turned inwards with her desire to go after Nathair despite the danger. To be by their side and in their presence, hoping to return to the last few months she already missed dearly.

Their weight upon her shoulder or chest was missing, and she realised now that she’d come to rely on the very heat they produced. It’d warmed the broken and absent pieces of her heart.

“This has been a failure.”

Lindi’s brows twitched into a furrow, and she looked up. “What does that mean?”

“This is not what I wanted,” Weldir stated, his deep voice lowering in thought. “I had hoped once they were fully formed, they would become intelligent, but this creature is mindless. I can see that there is no comprehension, no forethought in the way they move. They are...”

“Useless?” she spat, and the word tasted like acid.

“That is one way to put it, but yes.”

Her upper lip curled back in fury. “So, what? They aren’t the servant you were hoping for, so their existence is useless to you?”

What about love for your own child? Then again, what would a demi-god who couldn’t even step foot in the world understand about forming memories? Nor could he even comprehend how much this was all hurting her because Nathair was hers , even if they were weird.

Like always, Weldir was incapable of noticing her grief or supporting it.

She wanted to hug her midsection at the emptiness she felt, but she refused to appear so weak in front of someone who obviously didn’t care.

“I didn’t say that. Only that they will not be suitable to assist me. Their life is not meaningless, and I look forward to what they become in the future.”

“But you needed servants, beings that are intelligent enough to help you gain power.”

All he ever wanted was more power. He didn’t seem to give a damn about anything else, from what Lindi had observed in the almost seven years that she’d been married to him.

He’d rarely asked about her in all that time, to the point that she’d had to force him to inquire about her very name.

Maybe she was just feeling overtly sensitive right then, but she wanted to give him a tongue lashing and sweep up his mist with a broom to throw it away. He was a powerless, useless god, so how dare he judge his own child for not being the perfect creation he so desired?!

“You are angry, female. Why?”

She turned her head to the side with spiteful indignation, unsure if it actually helped to hide her face or not. “What does this mean for me?”

“You will continue to collect souls, as I originally requested.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I mean in terms of children.”

A long silence between them was drowned out by the sounds of nightlife flourishing.

Crickets grew louder, while something small crunched the leaves on the ground not too far from where she stood.

The heat continued to swell around her, making sweat drip down her back and tickle her.

It only made the chill that crept down her very being more prominent when she heard a beastly, monstrous roar in the dark distance.

“I have no need for you regarding this anymore,” Weldir finally answered. “If we cannot produce servants that aid me, I would rather not bring mindless creatures into the world that may harm humans.”

“And what of your promise to me? If I can’t do this, does that mean you will strip me of your magic?”

“No. Our agreement is still in place. This is not your fault, so there is no need to remove your abilities. You will need them to collect untainted souls for me, and to protect yourself as you do so.”

Lindi released her right fist and sighed as all the tension in her body finally bled out.

“At least that’s something,” she muttered, pushing a few stray hairs from her sticky face. Tiredness washed over her, then annoyance snapped her back into alertness when a mosquito bit her forearm.

She turned incorporeal to avoid the pesky insects, and the itchiness that was sure to come.

“I am... disappointed.”

Yeah, me too. This wasn’t how she wanted things to turn out with Nathair, but there was little she could do about it. At least I don’t have to go through this again.

I didn’t even get to say goodbye...