“It's a lot farther away than I remember.” Aileen complained with her arms hanging down and her back arched forward, tiredly putting one foot in front of the other.

Stella and Luna who were several feet in front of her stopped and gave her an apologetic look. “We've only been walking for about half an hour or so my dear.” Stella told her somewhat sarcastically.

Aileen fell on her knees when she caught up to them and pouted. With her eyes squeezed shut and her arms flailing around her, she wailed, “You two got to sleep in a bed before we came out here. I attempted to sleep unsuccessfully with my head on a nightstand.”

Stella tilted her head slightly, her lips forming half a smile. She shrugged and lowered her head, silencing a giggle. “Oh fine. It's not that far away now anyway.” She turned her back to Aileen and lowered herself onto one knee. Aileen cheered and jumped on Stella's back without a moment's hesitation. She placed her head on Stella's shoulder with her eyes closed and her body completely relaxed. Before Stella even stood back up, Luna could already here light snoring coming from Aileen.

“That was fast.” Luna commented, a hint of surprise in her voice.

“She's not used to moving around a lot.” Stella explained delicately, her soft smile unbroken. As they continued their journey, Luna put her hands in her pockets and turned her head so that she could still see Stella despite her own hood as Stella carried on with her thoughts. “I can only imagine how fatigued she must be between working all day at the hospital, being exposed to the beast bane, healing our broken bones, nursing us back to health as we slept and then finally going on what for her would be a long hike.”

Luna raised her shoulders slightly and gave Stella's right wrist a short glance. Luna couldn't remember it well, but she was sure it had been broken as well. Now there was only a faint trace of a stretch mark that seemed to fade away more and more as time passed. “How did Aileen cure our breaks?” She asked and gingerly rubbed her elbow.

Stella lifted Aileen higher up on her back gently and gave Luna a knowing look. “Surely you've figured that one out by now after watching a man freeze the moisture in the air, a skeleton pop out of the ground and shadows behave like bindings.”

“Well, more or less. Clarity would still be nice.”

“Magic. Aileen was probably the second most powerful healer in our home country. The only thing she couldn't cure was a handful of curses.”

“Eh?” Luna muttered silently, put her hands back in her pockets and looked at her feet. She couldn't really say she was in disbelief after having seen Styx emerge from a clump of shadows and the roof around her freezing as he approached her. She still wasn't entirely sure how to process the concept of magic though. In the end, she chose not to think too hard about it and simply accepted it like it was a science. She instead chose to think more about actions that could potentially be explained through some logical methods. “And the pale cunt? What was all that about?”

“Styx?” Stella clarified. A shadow was cast over her eyes and her lips curled into a mischievous grin like she was already starting to plot her revenge. “Don't take his actions too personally. I've got an idea of why he attacked us. His intentions were good even if his methodology was quite extreme.”

Luna wasn't sure if it was because of the dim moonlight or not, but Stella's expression made her look wickedly sinister. “You're not being very convincing.” Luna told her nervously.

“Ah, my bad.” She responded and altered her expression to appear more innocent. Luna could still see the wheels in Stella's head turning though even as she explained her hypothesis. “He wanted to test whether you, or at least between the three of us, could control the Ríastrad or not. So I think he purposefully backed us into a corner and tried to make you angry in order to force it to show itself. When you calmed down, if you remember doing so, he got his answer. There's no guarantee it was everything he was looking for so he may try something else, but I don't think we need to worry about him breaking any limbs again. I think he avoided hurting Aileen so that she could heal us after his experiment was over.”

“Now I have even more questions...” Luna mumbled with her eyes crossed and eyebrows furrowed.

“We'll explain everything once we get to where we're going. Just hold out a little while longer.”

Luna fell silent and looked at her feet again.

“What's wrong?” Stella asked her.

They stopped in place. Aileen, still asleep, pressed her head into Stella's cheek. Luna kicked a rock on the path in frustration and with a scowl denounced, “He overpowered us so easily. That black-haired Rapunzel didn't even join in and he still got both of us.”

“Is that all? We were weakened considerably from the beast bane. It's no surprise he walked all over us.”

“I felt fine though.” Luna stated and clenched her fists.

“Feeling fine and being fine are two completely different things. If you hadn't of been affected by that bloody flower, you could've broken out of that skeleton's grip easily. Don't be so hard on yourself. I know you hate losing but there are some fights that can't be won.”

Luna still looked dissatisfied. Stella tapped Luna's leg with one foot and winked at her. “We'll just have to break both of his arms the next time we see him.”

Luna smirked. “I like the sounds of that.”

Stella returned the smirk with a spark in her eye. “I might break his guitar collection as well...” She whispered to herself and Luna chuckled. Stella jumped as she remembered why they came out there in the first place. “Let's keep going for now. If I recall, it should be just around the next bend in the path.”

Luna followed behind Stella as she rounded a patch of thick brush and wandered into a large, open clearing with a hefty pond in the middle. The moonlight glistened off of the midnight-blue water's surface which was like a mirror. The grass was as green as could be with no signs that anyone else had even been there recently. The only sounds present in the area were the crickets and rustling of leaves from wild animals wandering the forest. The trio approaching the pond didn't even seem to give rise to any degree of panic amidst the animals which sounded like they were just on the other side of the tree line.

Aileen started to wake up, raising her head slightly. She looked as though she was high on laughing gas but managed to get on her feet without any problems. She wasn't moving around too much, but she didn't require any assistance.

Luna approached the mirror-like surface of the pond and in the moonlight, she could fairly easily make out her reflection in the water. “How are you liking the new look?” Aileen asked, her speech slightly groggy. Luna inspected her reflection, eyeing the long strands of hair which had been combed over to hide a little less than half her face. It covered her left eye and to just below her left cheekbone. She pushed it aside to look at her eye, seeing that the pupil still hadn't returned.

“I've done shy eye type hairstyles before, but nothing that actually blocked my own vision this much.” Luna responded and let her hair fall back in front of her eye again.

“We don't mean to dictate your style but this is a special case. You'll understand more before the night is done.” Aileen sobered up slightly and apologized. She gave Stella a curious glance who had rolled up her pant legs and taken off her shirt. Luna noticed that Aileen looked uncomfortable and that she wanted to tell Stella to reconsider whatever she was thinking.

Luna turned her attention to Stella as she tried to determine what Stella's intentions were. She was distracted though by what Stella was left wearing. Blue jeans rolled up and bare feet seemed fine but under her shirt looked like a bra but also didn't look like a bra. A funky sports bra? Luna continued to eye it, noting that it was black as coal and covered her breast like she would expect it too. It did not wrap around her back though. Rather a strap tied around her neck from the top of the bra-thing and at the bottom of it, it simply stuck to her skin and only wrapped around as far as the edge of her pecks.

Stella now just over half-dressed, wandered into the pond where the water came up just to the top of her ankles. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Luna thought she could see sweat forming in Stella's palms. She clenched her fists for a moment then opened them again and started drawing circles in the water with one foot, followed by the other. Then she turned in place and started bowing slightly like she was testing her individual movements. After almost a minute of rigid, robotic movements, Stella became increasingly graceful. Her body flowed like the water below her as she started skating across the pond's floor and her arms alternated between making bow-like shapes and swinging out wide. “Ballet?” Luna thought aloud.

“Close,” Aileen told her and sat down at her feet. “You'll probably want to sit down before long too.” She recommended but didn't elaborate.

Luna then gave Aileen another curious once over. Aileen's expression of being uncomfortable had changed into a painful smile like she was forcing herself to be supportive of her partner in a difficult time despite her own troubles. Luna sat down beside her with her legs crossed and put both of her hands on her knees. “What's the matter?”

Aileen, without taking her watering eyes off of Stella as she danced, whimpered slightly. “Stella used to love dancing.”

“Used too?” Luna echoed and watched Stella again. Now that she mentions it, her movements look rusty but there's no doubt she's danced before. I've never seen it though. She's never even mentioned it to me.

Aileen grew quiet and her eyes grew dark, as though she was remembering something dire. “It's not my place to get into details. All I can tell you is that Stella hasn't danced since she was a child. The only exception to that was at your parents' wedding, for the sake of tradition.” Luna continued to watch Stella as her movements, though still graceful, were picking up speed and becoming more and more aggressive.

“Then why do it now?”

Aileen went silent and Luna noticed for the first time ever, Aileen cracked her knuckles when she clenched her fists, “She's forcing herself to remember.” Aileen muttered unpleasantly.

Luna opened her mouth but didn't say anything. Instead, she continued to watch Stella as the water splashed up all around her, soaking her jeans despite her having rolled them up. The reflection of the moonlight off the water surface created a beautiful silhouette about Stella. Luna gasped and squeezed her knees when Stella's dance turned her to face them. She's crying? Luna thought to herself and watched tears fall from Stella's eyes, down her cheeks and drip onto her torso.

At that moment, Luna's eye flared without a pulse. She heard a sound like electricity crackling in her ear and the area around her eye started to turn numb, then tingly like it had fallen asleep. She started to cover it with her hand but Aileen stopped her. “If you want answers, you'll have to endure it.” She said, her tone unusually serious. Luna hesitated then brushed her hair away from her eye, watching Stella intensively with both.

Luna contemplated backing away as she saw a red light, or an aura rather, engulf Stella as she danced in its middle. She turned to Aileen, hoping for an answer and saw that Aileen was covered by the same light, though not as large or as intense. The light was wavy, like watching the surface of a lake ripple after a stone was thrown into it. Stella's however, could only be described as a wave pool. Like a barrage of rocks were thrown into the water nonstop. The waves clashed together, increasing their size and growing more ferocious or splitting up and dispersing in all directions. The red light shone its brightest at Stella's scars. In some cases, the red water-like aura streamed from her scars like a jet in a pool. Luna couldn't even make out the colour of Stella's skin beyond it.

As she continued to watch, as Stella's tears grew larger, her movements more aggressive and the water from the pond splashed higher, Luna's body began to throb. She felt like she was chained up at the wrists, hanging from a ceiling and being whipped on all sides. Every second felt like another lash, like a sharp stinging that resonated through her body regardless of where she got hit. She got a splitting headache and she felt like all of her energy was sapped out of her. She didn't even have the strength to cover her wounds or defend herself from the invisible whips that left no marks on her body. Despite it all though, she continued to watch.

Then her heart sank. She felt like she had just received word that a dear friend of hers, like the butcher, Stella or Aileen had passed away. Worse than that, she felt like she was forced to watch it, unable to do anything to save them. She felt useless and hopeless, like a complete and utter failure with no purpose but to take up space. Worse still, she suddenly felt angry as though she could tear the city apart looking for someone even if she didn't yet know who.

The crackling in her ear grew louder and she started to hallucinate. She thought she saw crimson lightning cover everything within her field of view. Her vision grew fuzzy and she started to hear sounds in her head that she was certain weren't around her. She heard a sound of applause at first, then cheering. She heard a series of voices, as though a chain of people were congratulating somebody. Her vision was quickly replaced by what she could only describe as a static image of a young girl, her face blacked out, standing in the middle of a crowd where no one had a face and they all watched her. The faceless group was clapping, the closer people had their hands up towards her like they were trying to show her off and she was smiling excitedly. They all stood against a threatening crimson background that leaked into the sky, and some trees could be made out in the distance as well as a hut to the right. Every person present seemed to have a thick black border around them like they were characters in a painting.

What is this? Luna thought to herself.

The red lightning crackled again and everything disappeared behind a white flash. When sight returned, the static image in her head changed but retained all background characteristics of the previous one. The crimson sky, the red horizon and the black outlines on people. The crowd was in a panic this time though. They were running away from something. The little girl who had been at their centre was now on her knees behind them, crying profusely. She was staring at a group of newcomers who stood in front of the cabin. They also had black outlines, but theirs looked like they were hurriedly scribbled onto a canvas using a black fountain pen. Unlike the crowd from before, they had faces but their eyes were black and hollow. Each one of them grinned ear to ear and they stared at the little girl with excitement. Below their feet were some of the faceless individuals and a voice started to cry in Luna's head again. “Mom? Dad? Why won't you wake up? There are bad people here, they keep taking people!”

Crackle! Flash!

“Brat lasted quite a while.” A sinister voice howled with laughter. “Won't get another one like him for a while yet.” A man was with those black hollow eyes was standing in front of less than half of a faceless corpse that had splotches of blood where its eyes should have been. The torso, including the head, was attached via a black strap around the neck to some kind of inclined table that looked to be made of a series of rotating logs instead of a flat surface. Around it at each inter-cardinal direction, were other tables built in the same way. Each one with a thick leather strap and a limb mounted on them. Two held an arm each and the other two held a leg each, all separated from the main body. The muscle around the ends was ripped and torn like they had been pulled off the body instead of cut off. At the base of the table was a large wooden dial, much like a cog. Behind the table was two relatively massive spans of flesh kind of shaped like boards and were scratched up and bloody. Beside them, there was a pile of black feathers. Cheering echoed in Luna's ears again and further back, a fence appeared with people behind it. They had their hands in the air and were watching the spectacle with extreme interest. The man in front of the table faded out of the image and appeared again a moment later, putting what looked like white balls into a glass jar full of a yellow liquid and he yelled, “This will fetch us a nice price!”

Everything went black and Luna heard a quiet sobbing. When colour returned, Luna saw a bunch of children sitting in a mass together. Some of them had wolf ears and tails like her, some had fox ears, some didn't have any noticeable animal-like features at all. Every one of them, still without faces, sat with their knees pressed into their chests, arms folded around them and heads in between their knees. There was a loud clang, like a heavy metal door bouncing off a stone wall and three black-eyed men faded into the image. All but one of the children avoided looking at them but the one who did showed no fear at all despite the two vertical bloodstains that went the length of her back. Much more, though half of her face was blacked out, she stared at them menacingly. “How much do you think we could get for this one?” One of the men asked.

“She's still pretty young. We go to the right guys, we could probably get a hundred or more easily.”

“Lucky for us, I think the boss is the right guy.”

The image faded to black once more.

“A pleasure doing business with you.” A deep, hoarse voice echoed in Luna's ears. The next image that appeared in front of her eyes was an obese, black-eyed man carrying a whip in one hand and stroking the little girl's cheek with the other. Another annoyed man watched from a distance but didn't say anything. The first man curled his lips unnaturally high, the tips stopping above the base of his nose. The rags the little girl had been wearing before were replaced with some kind of incomplete maid uniform and the black of her face seemed to have gotten even darker. Her hands hung by her side, open but tense. “Just be a good girl and do what you're told.” The hoarse voice spoke again. “All you have to do is endure it.”

Black. There was screaming. Cries of terror and pain filled the void in front of Luna's eyes. Some unknown people barked orders and warnings.

“She's coming up the front staircase!”

“Cut her off on the next right!”

“Don't let her get behind you!”

“Don't fight alone!”

“Protect the boss!”

Everything became quiet. “It's you...” a weak voice sobbed.

A woman appeared, walking away from a burning mansion. She had a sword in one hand while the other fixed a mask covering the bottom of her face. The only thing that could be seen in the blackness around her eyes were large, red dots. It was difficult to tell amidst the red background, but Luna guessed that the woman was covered in blood.

“Finally.” A familiar voice mumbled then started to laugh, and laugh and laugh.

Luna blinked. In front of her now was Stella, dancing in the pond. Aileen still sitting beside Luna, now also with tears dripping off her chin. “Welcome back.” She muttered.

Luna tried to breathe in and sniffled instead. She reached up towards her face and noticed that she herself had also been crying. Stella stopped dancing abruptly and fell on her butt in the water. No one said anything for several minutes as the clouds drifted in front of the moon, temporarily carpeting them in darkness. Each lady sniffled and sobbed. Occasionally Stella could be heard lifting a hand up to wipe her eyes or nose, creating a splash in the process.

When the moonlight broke through the clouds again, Luna had calmed herself down considerably though her eyes were still bloodshot and they burned. Aileen was now standing, watching Stella from a respectable distance. Stella was still sitting in the water but was now hugging herself and shivering as she traced each scar on her body with her hands.

After so long, Luna broke the silence. “What was that?” She asked, her voice cracking slightly.

Stella buried her head in her knees for a moment longer then with one more sniffle, she stood up, water dripping off of her, and faced Luna. She wiped her eyes and nose again, took a deep breath and out of her back emerged two large, black wings. She shrugged her shoulders, shook her head and tried to speak but her voice got caught in her throat. She paused for a moment and tried once more. “Pain, sorrow, rage, hatred, apathy, jealousy, despair... Your left eye, the Ríastrad... you are an embodiment of it all. What you just saw is one of the critical drawbacks of being so.”

“I don't quite follow.”

“The Ríastrad is the curse of wrath.” Aileen started to explain without looking at Luna. “You bear or will bear once you fully awaken to it, the entire world's burdens. Their pain, their rage, their sorrow, all of it comes back to the wielder of the Ríastrad in exchange for power. This is one of the major drawbacks from it is experiencing the pain others have felt and are feeling as your own. It forces you to live through and relive every nightmare that anyone has ever had.”

“As of now, since you haven't fully awakened to it yet, you can only see and experience the pain and hatred of the people within your field of view and you have to focus on it for the time being.” Stella continued, her composure gradually coming back to her.

“Then what I just saw wasn't a hallucination? It was-”

“My fragmented memories.” Stella finished Luna's thought for her. Stella then flapped her wings and started hovering just over the water's surface. She raised one hand in the air like she was about to gesture to something but kept it static as she started to reveal everything. “I was nine when it happened. It was my birthday and my parents had let me dance in a recital. It was the same dance I did just now. Everyone seemed to love it. They were applauding and cheering, people kept telling me I was talented and that one day I may have been able to shape a career around dance if I so desired. Even my older brother who usually seemed so uninterested in me was showering me with praise that day.”

“Then, with no warning at all, we heard shouting coming from a team of hunters returning for lunch. A group of humans had invaded our home, Síocháin, a place where the majority of demi-humans lived. Some like myself, part raven, some like Aileen who is part dove,” As Stella pointed towards her partner, Aileen removed her shirt showing that she was wearing a similar bra-thing as Stella. Aileen then sprouted equally large, white wings from her back. Luna guessed that the strange articles of clothing were designed to not inhibit their wings. Stella continued and Luna turned her attention back to her. “Some were part wolf like yourself and many other types of sub-species. Pure blooded humans found we were popular on the slave market, so they targeted us rather frequently. On that day, they came to take us. My brother and I were taken and our parents were killed trying to protect us.”

The image of the little girl on her knees crying out to her dead parents flashed into Luna's head for a split second. She listened to Stella's story in utter silence. “The majority of us were deemed valuable as servants. Sometimes they determined that they took too many people, more than they could keep alive well enough to get a pretty penny. Who would want to buy an almost dead slave after all? Avian types like my brother and I were considered to have a lot of value both alive and as pieces. I was kept prisoner to be sold, most likely because I'm a woman, and my brother...” Stella paused and choked back more tears. Both Aileen and Luna waited patiently for her to gather herself. “My brother was tortured to death after they stripped him of anything that they thought they could sell. They strapped him to a group of torture racks. His body on a big one and his limbs, smaller ones set up around it. First, they plucked out his eyes as our species has some of the best eyesight in the world. It was believed that our eyes could be studied in some shape, way or form to one day be able to enhance humankind's eyesight. Next,” she waved towards her back, “They plucked out his feathers one by one to use in decorations of all things before cutting off his wings. After they took all that from him, they used the table to pull his arms and legs off one at a time while the rest of us were forced to watch. A group of humans, just regular people including children, came to watch and cheer as my brother screamed in pain. He...” Stella's voice trailed off again and she looked up at the sky with a painful smile, tears forming in her eyes once more. “Pathetic isn't it? I can't even remember his name or what he looked like, nor my parents.”

“Stella...” Aileen started to say but Stella shook her head in response.

“Next they wanted to make sure none of us could escape. We could grow considerably stronger than humans, especially if we didn't restrict ourselves.” Stella reached down into the mud with both hands and pulled up a rock in each which both looked almost identical to one another. Her wings retracted into her back and with her right hand, she started to squeeze the rock. After a second or so, the stone cracked. After about five seconds, it turned to dust. She dropped what remained of it at her feet then put the other one in the same hand. She released her wings again and crushed the rock instantly like it was a clump of wet sand. “For avian types, we can't fight at full strength unless our wings are out. I guess you could say we're releasing our wild sides. The humans were paranoid though and for good reason. In time, I would probably be capable of breaking whatever bindings they put us in before long if I put in the effort. So, to prevent that from happening,” she turned around so that Luna could see an uneven vertical line on each wing going straight from top to bottom where no feathers grew from. “They cut them off. No wings to release, no dramatic superhuman strength. No dramatic superhuman strength, no breaking my bindings.”

“Confident that I couldn't escape, I was sold to a wealthy set of English brothers who had recently inherited the family business of slave trading. Several human girls had been working there as well only somewhat more willingly. One of the brothers was more duty inclined and treated us as though we were nuisances whereas the other was more carefree and made sure we answered his every beck and call. Every beck and call. Apparently, lucky me, he was very fond of children and not in a good way. At nine years old, my family was killed, I was abducted by slave traffickers and sold to an obese pedophile who had me clean anything and everything during the day and entertain him at night. If I refused,” she put her hand on one of her many scars, “They certainly tried to persuade me. Sometimes they beat me until I was unconscious. I could probably take a guess at what happened during that time.” As she spoke, her eyes stopped watering and her tone grew cold. Her voice sounded like a growl and her body started to tremble as she struggled to contain her emotions. “His brother was obviously disgusted by it but as long as it didn't get in the way of his own work, he was happy to ignore it. As I got older, the pedophile started targeting the other maids who were only partially forced into working there. For them, it was to keep some degree of income and their homes in the town. The obese brother, Nicholas Browne, was extorting them and threatening to take everything from them if they didn't surrender themselves to him. At the end of the day though, after he had his way, they could go home. If I tried, the guards would stop me.”

All of a sudden she stopped trembling and Luna felt her left eye grow somewhat warm. Stella shot Luna a genuine smile with a sparkle in her eye. “About nine years later came what would become what was and will probably remain to be, the happiest day of my life. No, actually, scratch that. Second happiest. It was the day after I met your father. He and your mother were working as a pair of mercenaries. The older brother, Geoffrie, hired them to rescue a kidnapped girl named Lasair who had a large monetary value on her. They returned the next night, the girl in tow and requested that the brothers give them lodging until the next morning and that I be nearby at all times in case they needed anything as part of their payment. Nicholas refused but Geoffrie agreed in an attempt to prevent them from discovering why the brothers wanted Lasair, and Geoffrie's word was law. Nicholas tried to break that rule though and even brought in one of his friends to 'show me off'.” Stella then without warning lunged towards Luna, took her in a tight bear hug and lifted her off the ground while spinning in place. “Nicholas was drunk off his ass and left to fetch something, passing out along the way, leaving me with just the friend. Your father realized something was afoot and rescued me!” Stella put Luna down who then coughed as air rushed back into her lungs. Stella put both hands on her shoulders and beamed, “Your father even gave me my wings back! He saved me from the bastards, returned to me my freedom and even let me join the team. Admittedly though at the time they intended for me to take care of Lasair whom they also took with them because they figured out that the brothers just wanted to use her to make money.”

Stella broke away from Luna and though she didn't quite dance around the clearing, she did twirl and skip around in bliss. “They took me home, to Síocháin where I learned your father was a demi-human as well. He was amazing! He had complete mastery over demonic class fire and light magic, he was a more powerful healer than Aileen even. And your mother... she was an absolute beauty! Her specialty at the time was illusion based magic. We hardly had to deal with any guards at all because she made them all fight each other. They didn't stop there either. Cain took Lasair and taught her fire magic and your mother taught me how to fight, and then...” Stella started to trail off and her frolicking stopped. She slowly faced Luna again and apologized, “I didn't mean to get so caught up in memory lane. We're supposed to be teaching you about the Ríastrad but all I've done is tell you about one drawback so far.”

Luna was silent at first then smiled and put her hands in her pockets after lowering her hood. “Don't apologize. It's refreshing to see you so happy. I always thought you held back and forced yourself to be more on the serious side. It was concerning so this is a nice change of pace. Hearing about my parents is nice as well, I have to admit.”

Stella froze for a second and gave Aileen a look as though she had just realized something important. I never noticed. She thought to herself. I was so caught up in what the Ríastrad would do to her, I never noticed that she was worrying about other people despite her own problems. Stella cleared her mind and tightly hugged Luna again, this time without lifting her into the air.

“Stella?” Luna called out, slightly confused.

Stella remained silent for a moment then broke away. “I'm sorry, it just felt like the right thing to do at that moment. Like it was something a mother is supposed to do. I think today is the first time I've ever hugged you...”

Luna didn't know how to respond. In the end, she just smiled at Stella, simply because it also felt like the right thing to do. When Stella broke off to wipe her eyes again though, Luna frowned and thought about the final image that had appeared before. “What happened to Nicholas and Geoffrie?” She asked.

Stella sniffled once more. “Your father killed Geoffrie. Long story short, he came to try and take Lasair back. And...” She paused and smiled. “And I killed Nicholas. The estate caught fire and burned to the ground in the process. That was the happiest day of my life. The day I finally got to kill the slave traders and avenge my family.”

As soon as Stella said avenge, the Risatrad flared up again as though it was satisfied. Luna as well seemed to match Stella's joy at having exacted her revenge. Is this part of what they meant by me sharing in their pain? I desired the same revenge even though I wasn't the victim?

Luna then put a hand on her head as everything around her started to spin slightly.

Stella and Aileen both looked at her and nodded to each other. “Looks like it's time.” Stella stated.

“Time for what?” Luna implored and dropped to the floor unable to stay on her feet.

“Time for you to learn about the Ríastrad from the Ríastrad.” Stella continued. Luna didn't say anything to her, just gave her a puzzled look. “A minor drawback when you first start using it is that it tires you out very quickly but while you're asleep, a personification of sorts will teach you everything there is to know about it."

Luna then flopped onto her side, with her eyelids getting heavy. As she slipped into unconsciousness, she heard Stella say one final thing. “I'll have a nice warm meal and a box full of Popsicles ready for you when you wake up.” Then everything went black.