Len stared curiously at the girl she’d named Cammie. Everything about her seemed off. It wasn’t the same kind of otherness that she felt when dealing with Pitch. For all it’s terror, that creature had a sort of logic that applied to it. Pinning down exactly what that logic WAS tended to be a challenge, but it was still there. Cammie, though, she didn’t seem to have much logic to her.

For one thing: she was clearly female. Nothing about Pitch indicated any sort of gender or human characteristics whasoever. Cammie, though, she was definitely female. It wasn’t just that she looked female, she felt it. That struck Len as odd in ways she couldn’t quite understand. It wasn’t like she had much frame of reference to go with here, Pitch being the only one of these creatures she’d interacted with, but a part of her just knew that this wasn’t the norm. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out how this information might be useful to her continued battle with the girl, but it was something she picked up on nonetheless.

The specifics of why or why not Cammie was female had to be left by the wayside as another wave of pain lashed at her. Again, it was a flash of agony, but it was also the kind that was gone the instant after it started. Oddly, the comparison that struck her mind was that it was like the burst of heat one got from a heavy dose of wasabi versus biting into a hot pepper. One was painful but quick, the other was a pain that lingered and spread and, depending on how careless one was about rubbing their eyes, could get exponentially worse. It wasn’t that it didn’t hurt, just that she could handle it.

Slowly, gruelingly, she began to advance, taking slow steps in between the assaults. Cammie looked at first confused, then terrified as her sustained assault did little to slow Len’s advance. Before either of them realized it, Len was looming over the girl.

“Are you done?” she asked, letting her tone go a bit cold.

“Not a chance in hell,” Cammie snarled, rising to her feet and punching Len in the stomach before she could react.

It wasn’t like any punch she’d taken before in her life, the actual impact was barely negligible. A moment after that, though, the pain struck again. While the other waves had simply washed over her, this one resounded within her, crossing through her body and rebounding back as it reached her skin. Again and again, the pain echoed across her insides, threatening to tear her apart. At one point, she almost felt her grip on consciousness slipping, but she brutally suppressed the feeling and focused instead on the fact that with each rebound, the pain lessened. Before long, she was herself again, staring down at the now very afraid Cammie.

“What, what are you?” she asked. “Nothing should be able to take a blow like that and still be standing.”

With a casual backhand, Len sent the eldritch creature that was also a young girl flying across the clearing. She then continued her march, smirking as the child sent new waves of agony at her. Not only was she more prepared for them than ever, she could feel the difference. Cammie was wavering.

“I’m curious, Cammie. Has it really been that easy for you up to this point? Weak-willed chumps that you overpower with little games like this? Breaking them before they realize all you’ve got going for you is a couple of simple tricks? I’ll admit that I don’t really get the rules of this game you and Pitch are up to, but you simply can’t be the best that the game has to offer. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Probably best for me to start small.”

“Small?!”

The outrage in that exclamation almost made Len giggle, but that would’ve destroyed the image she was going for here. She could feel the girl’s resolve crumbling, the tatters of a mind that didn’t have all that strong a grip on sanity wavering as it ran into a more dominant force. She realized, almost too late, that if she wasn’t careful, she could be lost to this thrill. There was a sweetness to the feel of overpowering this creature that was intoxicating. Shaking her head, she pushed the urges down and eased back on her approach.

“Would you prefer tiny? Cammie, dear, you’ll have to forgive me for not knowing much about this game, but I am picking things up quick. Hell, you can feel it, can’t you? You’ve already lost. That punch of yours was your last big gambit and it failed. Pitch told me a little about what beating you meant, and I get the feeling that he wasn’t telling me anywhere near the full truth. Big shocker, that. I can do a hell of a lot of damage to you here, can’t I?”

“Don’t get full of yourself, human. Just because my brother isn’t here, doesn’t mean I can’t take you out.”

“Oh yeah, that. Suppose I shouldn’t forget about him. He’ll be next. Would you like to help pick out a name for him? I mean, I’m not gonna say I’m bad at it, but you’re named after a video game character, and the last three guys I named I picked a very on-the-nose TV show.”

“What are you talking about? Is there something wrong with your head?”

“There absolutely is, but let’s focus on that later. Right now, this is about you and me. So tell me, Cammie, why don’t you just call it quits here? There’s more interesting things we could be doing with our time.”

“Will you just SHUT UP?”

Cammie’s voice rose to almost piercing octaves, and everything around her erupted with a continuous pulsing wave of that almost invisible energy she’d been throwing. Each wave pulsed outward, mostly dispersed by the time it reached Len, but still enough to shock her. Unfortunately, that made it fairly obvious what had to be done.

Setting her jaw grimly, Len resumed her march towards the girl. As she’d figured, each wave hurt more than the last as she got closer. They began ricocheting inside her like the punch from before, intensifying with each strike. As she got even closer, the force of the waves actually began to push her back. Not so much that she lost ground entirely, but enough that each advance took longer and took more out of her.

Fortunately, for all the pain and suffering she was enduring, Len had a stronger feeling rushing through her: anger. She’d given the kid several chances to surrender already, to make this whole process easier for the both of them. Why be so stubborn? No doubt getting shackled to a new wielder would suck, but it couldn’t be bad enough to warrant this kind of struggle. Still, as she drew nearer to her prey, she got a good look at the girl’s face. There was nothing but abject terror left on it. With a final push, Len forced her way inside of the bubble that the girl had protected herself with. The girl collapsed into a sobbing heap.

“Jesus, really? Can you not with this? You’re not gonna get me to let you go just because you act like a blubbering child. I know for a fact that you aren’t a kid. Kinda destroys the illusion, don’t you think?”

“Y-you’re going to destroy me,” the girl managed through sobs.

“No, that’s explicitly NOT what I’m going to do, you dumb creature. I thought I was clear about that.”

“You’ve already forced a name on me, of course you’ll take the chance to rewrite me as you see fit.”

“Beg pardon?” Len asked cautiously, not really liking where this was going.

“Don’t you understand that that’s the entire point of all this? How stupid can you be?”

“Very,” said Len, thumping the girl on the head and eliciting a wince of fear. “Seeings as how I’m so stupid, I’d suggest you get to the point very fucking quickly before I lose my patience. You know how dangerous we stupid people can be.”

“If I really surrender to you, you get to decide what form I take, what personality I have, EVERYTHING.”

“What? That’s insane.”

“It’s the rules. We’re not like you mortals, everything we are is tied to what we desire. If I submit to you, that means leashing my desires to yours. In that instant, you can do whatever you want with me. You could make me a docile little puppy eager to cater to your every whim. ANYTHING.”

“Lovely, another thing Pitch felt the need to leave out. Look, I don’t care about any of that rewriting nonsense, I just want you to not be trying to kill me and my friends. Look, what is it that you even desire?”

“To win the game,” the girl said instantly.

“Okay, what even is this ‘game’? Pitch seems intent on it too, what is the prize?”

“The only prize worth having: power. The power to exist without a shackle, to act on our own will.”

“I’m sorry, don’t you already have that? Isn’t that the whole point of having that poor schmuck in the cocoon back there? Sure seemed like you were doing whatever you pleased.”

“That was our mistake. Hijacking him like we did left him almost useless, slow and stupid. You couldn’t have beaten him back when we three were working together.”

“Look,” Len sighed. “I can't promise that I'll be some sort of ideal partner in whatever you've got going on here. I really don't give too shits about your little game. What I can promise is that I'll keep you safe to the best of my ability. I swear to you that if you sign up with me, I won’t do any ‘rewriting’ nonsense. You’ll be the same you you’ve always been. You’ll just have to do what I say. It’ll be a damn sight better than any of the other offers coming your way, I’d think.”

“You expect me to believe that? You do realize the kind of power you could have at your disposal, a totally subservient tool of as much destructive potential as you can imagine it.”

“Hey, I’m all about gaining more control over my surroundings, and I sure as hell am not one to pass up some more power to keep myself alive. That kind of power though? It does more harm than good. I’ll make do with having you by my side to help out a little. Just… don’t make me regret it.”

The girl stared at her for a moment, as if trying to read more of her actions than was being offered. Len just stared back at her, not going out of her way to hide or share anything. Eventually, the girl seemed satisfied with what she saw and sighed.

“Fine, I guess there’s no point in putting off the inevitable here. You won the minute you got past my last wave. Lenore Wraithwhisper, I… Cammie accept you as my wielder and pledge fealty to you and your primary pactmate.”

“Cool,” said Len. “What now, is there some sort of ceremony that we’ve got to go through?”

“It’s already done. You offered terms, and I accepted them. I’m now bound to you. That mark on your ring is all the confirmation you should need.”

The ring in question was something Len hadn’t even noticed until that moment. The band was on her wedding finger, a pitch-black oval set in the center with many smaller diamonds surrounding it. Except for a single deep azure one at the very top of the circle of diamonds. Len cocked an eyebrow at the girl, but she was gone.