"The Palecoil were once feared across the Abyssal Depths for our ability to turn entire regions into uninhabitable wastelands. Our breath could strip the life from forests, our gaze could cloud the minds of even the most disciplined warriors." Erin explained.
Damon listened in silence, eyes on her massive coils shifting languidly through the venomous waters.
"Wow, you are very powerful indeed," he nodded. "I enjoyed learning about your bloodline and your background. Can you also tell more about this world and why you are here?"
Her head dipped, but no words followed. After a pause, she finally hissed, "My lord, please forgive . I am unable to answer that."
Damon exhaled softly. Another dead end? "Can you tell why you can’t answer?"
"My lord... I would if I could. I simply do not rember."
His eyes narrowed. "Wait. What do you an you don’t rember?"
Her movents below the surface were silent, yet he could feel the ripple of power each ti she shifted. "Not forgotten in the way mortals do," she murmured. "It is as if the mories are locked away... sealed. I know there are pieces missing, but I cannot reach them."
"I rember many things," she continued, voice low and asured. "I rember our God, the Venom King. My great ancestors, my lineage, the aning of my powers, and how to evolve. These truths live in my blood."
"But I do not rember my childhood. I do not rember my parents, nor where I was born. All I know is that I awoke here, in this mountain, and it beca my prison. Beyond its borders, I grow weaker... until even dire wolves could end ."
Damon studied her, the horns atop her head catching the sickly glow of the pool’s light. "So you have the mories of your bloodline... but not of yourself. And this mountain isn’t just your ho, it’s your chain."
"Yes," she said, coils sliding beneath the surface. "Out there, I am prey. In here... I am queen. And I do not know why."
"Wait. Does this change now that you are my bound follower?"
"I do not know yet, my lord."
Damon’s lips curved faintly. "So the leash the mountain has on you might not be as tight now."
"Perhaps. When you accepted , I felt it, faint, but real. The borders no longer claw at as they once did. Still, I cannot say if it is true freedom... or rely a longer chain. If you wish, my lord, we could test this."
"Go ahead."
She vanished in a curl of miasma, leaving only the sound of bubbling venom and distant dripping stone. A full minute passed before she returned, water hissing off her erald scales.
"My lord!" she hissed, eyes bright with triumph. "I was not wrong. I can retain much of my strength no matter how far I go. I am not a prisoner of this mountain any longer. Thanks to you, I am already saved."
"That’s great news," Damon grinned. "Looks like binding you to really did change things." He leaned back, letting the venomous sting bite into his skin. "From now on, you’re not just a queen in your mountain, you can be my Queen anywhere."
Her hiss this ti was pure happiness.
Damon told her about the system ssage he had received. There was a good chance that more of her restrictions, even her missing pieces of mory, could return. The more he grows in power, the more her restrictions could be lifted.
The two of them continued talking when suddenly Erin sprang up, her coils sloshing around the miasmic waters. "My Lord, I know of a faster way!"
"Faster way for what?"
"To break the seals on my mind." Her coils tightened in the water, sending dark waves lapping against the stone. "If the bond we share truly erodes my chains, then there are ways that could tear away the rest. But they require... particular conditions."
"What conditions?" Dexter quickly asked. At this point, he was willing to try pretty much anything.
Erin then, out of nowhere, bowed deeply, deep enough that her voice was now a gurgled ss.
"I cannot understand you."
Erin then bobbed her head out and spoke hesitantly. "My Lord... please... would you please grant the honor of planting your seed in ?"
"My lord, if you grant this boon, then the bond we share will deepen, pushing against the deals inside my mind until they fracture. With each break, I will rember more, who I was, where I ca from, and why I was imprisoned. And, my lord... I will grow stronger than I have ever been."
Damon now fully understood what she ant after giving himself a couple of seconds to let her words sink in. "Ah... so that’s what you ant," he mumbled. "Wait. What? You an you want to actually beco pregnant? Knocked up by ?"
"Yes, my lord. It would be my greatest honor and privilege to beco a carrier of your lineage." Erin did not flinch beneath his directness. If anything, her eyes burned hotter, the slitted pupils narrowing with conviction. "For years to co, we could serve you and your family, protectors bound by both oath and blood."
Damon’s head was spinning. What the hell was she talking about?
"What are you talking about? If you beco pregnant, then wouldn’t you be my family?"
"My lord?" Erin froze as though he had just uttered blasphemy. Her head reared back slightly, and for a mont, the coils beneath the surface stilled entirely. "My lord?" she whispered, as if unsure she’d heard him right.
Then, after a heartbeat, a hiss escaped her that was both startled and flustered. "My lord, I dare not presu such a thing. A lowly being like could never dream of becoming your concubine."
"To share blood with you would not make your equal," she said slowly, as though explaining sothing obvious. "It would make your vessel, the bearer of a duty... nothing more. My loyalty, my strength, and any life born from would belong wholly to you, not as kin, but as your property to command."
***
Mass release sponsored by Syphatrol
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