Anwyll: Daughter

Anwyll was having a hard time remembering things, lately.

He remembered that Raef came to visit him, and it was good, and wonderful, and sweet. But it was hard to remember the specifics of what he taught Raef, and why, and how things were going.

He began making lists and writing things down, because that made things easier. He wrote, *Raef came by to see me*, and he wrote down all the details of what happened, and he left it in his journal. He wrote down everything that he taught Raef, and he wrote down what his plans were for the day.

##

Raef sent him a message one day, asking him if he'd been anywhere near Goro. And Anwyll said, *Who is Goro? Ah, wait, the one who helped kill Diva. I don't like that one.*

 Raef asked if Goro was becoming a Sin. And Anwyll... didn't think that sounded right. It sounded like Goro was sick, maybe, though it wasn't clear how, or with what.

Anwyll dismissed it. It sounded very interesting, he decided.

##

Goro wanted to talk to him. Anwyll kept having a really hard fucking time remembering who Goro was, for some reason, so he wrote down in his journal: *Goro. The little cleric who frowns. He's Raef's friend, and Raef doesn't want you to hurt him. He's the one who made a deal with Diva. You don't like him.*

 That night, he laid down, and he sent a Dream to Goro.

Anwyll kept having nightmares, for some reason, recently. He had a nightmare that he was sick, and he was lying in bed, and black maggots were crawling out of his mouth and his ears and his eyes. He felt like he'd made a terrible fucking mistake; he was ill, and he wasn't sure why; so when a cleric appeared to talk to him, Anwyll begged the cleric to send a message to his brother, Pride. He felt like Pride might help him, if Pride knew what was going on.

Then he woke up in a cold sweat.

He dragged himself out of his pile of furs and went to wash himself off. He touched his forehead and felt feverish. When he returned, he saw a note lying open on his journal. It said, *Dream at Goro tonight. He wants to talk to you about feeling sick.*

 He couldn't remember if he'd done that or not. He'd certainly intended to, but... that nightmare had been so unclear. He didn't think it had been a proper Dream, and he didn't think he'd spoken to Goro yet.

So he laid down, and he sent a Dream to Goro.

As soon as Goro appeared in his dream, Anwyll smelled something on him.

He could smell his daughter. He could sense the writhing, pulsing infection inside Goro, the black maggots crawling under his skin and crawling through his brain.

Anwyll didn't feel like himself. He felt angry, and greedy, and hungry-- so hungry. He didn't mean to eat Goro; he only wanted to crush Goro in his coils and frighten him, then look closer into Goro so he could see his daughter again-- but once he had Goro coiled up, he couldn't resist. He swallowed Goro whole.

Then Pride came, and ripped him open, and tore Goro out of him, and Anwyll screamed, and screamed, because he was so hungry, and he missed his daughter, his favorite child, and now he was empty again.

##

Then he woke up in a cold sweat. He dragged himself out of his pile of furs and went to wash himself off. He touched his forehead and felt feverish. When he returned, he saw a note lying open on his journal. It said, *Dream at Goro tonight. He wants to talk to you about feeling sick.*

 Huh. He couldn't remember if he'd done that or not. He'd certainly intended to, but... he was pretty sure he'd just had an unusual nightmare instead.

He touched his forehead again. He couldn't remember anything from the nightmare. He just remembered feeling hungry.

He tried to Dream at Goro, but for some reason, it didn't work. Maybe Goro was already in a Dream with someone else, Anwyll decided, or maybe he'd blocked it. It didn't matter. So he settled down, and he tried to sleep again, this time with no magic and no nightmares.

##

Raef stormed into his cave a few days later, pissed. He said he told Anwyll that Goro wanted to talk to him, and he said that Anwyll ate Goro.

"Goro?" Anwyll said after a pause. "Oh. Which one is... oh. The small, angry cleric, isn't he? The one Diva made a deal with." He felt puzzled. "Raef, he hasn't been by. Are you okay?"

Raef wasn't okay.

Anwyll fought to remember, but he couldn't. He definitely remembered talking to Raef about potentially sending Goro a Dream, but he couldn't recall anything beyond that. He was completely certain he had not eaten Goro. That sounded completely out of character for him. "You did," he said slowly. "I'm sorry, I was having a busy night when you spoke to me. I forgot to contact your friend. You said he thinks he met with me?"

Raef calmed down, and he accepted it, which was a relief. He offered to send Goro a Dream, since he'd forgotten to do it the first time, but Raef was insistent Goro wouldn't like that.

So Anwyll shrugged and let it go.

He felt bad for forgetting to talk to Goro, but it was't that important.

##

He slept peacefully when Raef was there. Raef was calming.

But the next night, when Raef was gone, he had another nightmare. He had a dream that he spoke to Diva. She met him in a strange, ruined shop. And she was happy to see him. She hugged him tightly. wrapping her arms greedily around him. "Oh, Daddy," she whispered. "I've missed you so much."

"Diva," he said, faintly puzzled. "My girl."

She kissed him on both cheeks, then dropped her arms.

Diva was always his most terrifying creation, and as such, Anwyll loved her the most. She was the strongest one, too. Sometimes Anwyll thought she was stronger than he was. He thought, perhaps, that this would keep her safe from Pride and prevent Pride from killing her later-- but then some paltry group of adventurers slew her when she was weak.

"I've been working on something," Diva said.

"Have you?" Anwyll was too polite to remind her that she was dead.

"Yes." Diva's eyes glittered, oily and black. "You know that boy? That Goro boy?"

"Goro?" Anwyll said, puzzled. "Who is... oh." He put it together. "That little cleric. Raef's friend. I don't like that one."

"Yes, that one." Diva said it sweetly and patiently. "I left a piece of myself inside him, like a sickness. And I left a piece of myself inside you, too." She touched Anwyll's chest, where his heart was. "And it's been growing."

Anwyll found this mildly alarming. "You-- left a piece of yourself in me?"

"Yes," Diva said. "Like an infection." She sounded very pleased with herself. "And I think it's finally gotten big enough. It's gotten really big, Daddy. Gonna fill you up inside with my hot, oily sickness. See... I was thinking about something. I was thinking about you said Uncle Pride was a demon, and he was a Sin. And you're a fey, and a Sin. But what am I, right? I'm a Sin and what else? And then I think I got it, Daddy. I think I'm a disease, and a Sin."

Anwyll wavered. He felt his chest, trying to find the infection that Diva was talking about. He finally felt it. It was a large lump. When it finally felt it and pressed against it, the lump deflated, as though it were squeezing out goo into his chest cavity.

He felt like there were maggots crawling underneath his skin.

"There was a boy who broke into my shop," Diva said. "A man named Seth Paul Desantigo who found some of my old larvae. I infected him, too. It's the most progressed inside him, I think. He can't remember anything except the buzzing inside his head. Someone met him and tried to kill him, but the infection just brought him back again. I did that. Me. Diva. See, last time, they killed me by killing all my primary hosts, but I fixed that this time. I changed. I adapted, just like real diseases do, Daddy. If you kill my hosts this time they just come back again. They can't die anyone. You can't die anymore. Mister Seth-Paul Desantigo can't die anymore. And little mister Goro can't die anymore."

She was gushing, like she was proud of herself, and she wanted Anwyll to praise her for being so clever, but Anwyll felt... sick. He missed Diva; he loved her; but this was starting to sound... wrong. He wondered, for a moment, if Pride was right, and Anwyll had made a mistake by experimenting and creating all these children.

Diva kissed his mouth with a loud pop. "I'm inside you. And I'm inside Goro. And I'm inside a few others, too. And I'll see you very soon, Daddy. I'm coming to get you."

She was eating him, Anwyll realized. She was eating him, and that little cleric, Goro, and that man, Seth-Paul Desantigo. And if the infection spread to anyone else, it'd start to eat them, too.

##

Anwyll woke up in a cold sweat.

He thought maybe he'd had a nightmare, but-- he couldn't quite remember, oddly enough. He felt like it was something about Diva, maybe.

He went to the bath to wash off the sweat, and he went back to bed. And this time he dreamed with no magic and no nightmares.