Red hot poker to the face

It swings through the door at your eyes. Throwing yourself back you feel the heat on the bridge of your nose. "You can't have her! She's perfect now, just as her Grandmother wanted!" The familiar voice of Phile echos through the door was glowing tip of the poker raises up, illuminate her face, her face contorted into a manic smirk. She slides through the door with only her face illuminated you aren't even sure if she has feet to walk on.

She lunges at you with a scream, the poker aiming for you chest. You jump out of the way but what should have been an easy dodge ends with the poker skidding off your shoulder leaving a trail of burned skin behind. You cry out at the pain and scramble away. Without magic you are so much slower than normal you don't even know how fast you can move much less how slowly you actually are. "EVE!" You shout hoping for some help. Phile spins to face you bringing the poker up to her face again.

"No, no it's ok Thetia, I'm here, you can't have anyone else." The manic smirk on her face doesn't fade as she launches at you again.

Learning from last time you turn sideways and move back. The poker missing you entirely this time, only for it to stop dead and swing at your stomach. The sizzle and smell as you crumple and scuttle back haunt your nose and ears. You aren't dodging anything in your condition.

Getting back up Phile swings at you but you were ready for it. If nothing else actually having spared with someone made predicting attack so much easier. Only the tip of the poker was hot the rest was fine, so you grabbed it. You were weaker than Phile without magic but if you can get her to stop for a moment maybe you'll be able to think of how to stop this.

You hand passes through the metal rod as it wasn't there and you feel the tip slam down on your shoulder. You collapse but have enough sense to roll away. You only have one working hand and are still putting your internal organs back together you clearly aren't fighting anyone.

"See, he can't help you. You deserve this, you don't deserve being free." Phile's words seem at odds with the memory, in Eve's memory Phile seemed more include to want her freed even is she made it impossible. "Would I have out you through all this if you didn't, I love you, why would I smile at while I burned your eyes, broke your body and had man after man mount you?"

This was Eve's mental projection of Phile not Phile herself. You put not figuring not that out sooner down to the massive bodily trauma. "EVE HELP."

"Oh she can help, can't you my love," You feel yourself spinning and suddenly you are tied to a stone slab. "She deserves this, and so does anyone who loves her." Phile's eyes burn out of her head. "She'll do this to everyone." The manic smile spread naturally, the corner of her mouth lifting up her hollowed eye sockets. "Because this," the poker is raised to you eye, "is how we show out love."

The poker sinks towards your eye and you and an intense sense of, "Fuck all the way off." You are so incensed by the idea that harming someone against their will shows love you reach up and grab the poker, not even noting it was solid anymore. "You didn't love Eve, you used her." You get off the slab and wrench the poker free. "For some stupid made up bullshit because you were too stupid too see that Thetia was more than you would ever need." The face of Phile looked human once more.

"Her -"

You head butt the woman. "Fuck off with grandmother, you did this to her because you were a weak small minded cunt."

"She deserves to suffer." Phile's voice was smaller. Staring up at you was not the nightmare that had bust through the door it was just a woman.

"No she fucking doesn't." You hand squeezes around the poker in your hand, flashes of red from it sinking into Eve's eyes fill your mind. You glare at the woman now, kneeling down with a bloody nose looking up at you with rage and bloodlust. "And you don't either. No one does." You relax, not letting go of the poker but accepting that this woman just wasn't a threat, she was just an image in Eve's mind. "Delilah wouldn't do this to anyone, neither would I." You turn and look at the door you'd opened. "Come on Eve lets go," you look at Phile, "it's just bad memories here." You walk through the door with poker still in hand.

There is a blinding light and the sound of birds around you. Groaning you cover your eyes and look around. It's morning and you are on a beach. You worry for a second you are back in the bay but you are both wet and feel something in your hand. You look at your left hand and see the poker the tip still glowing. "Huh?" There is a glow from your chest and you blink, and the poker is gone.

"Christopher?" Delilah voice from your right pulls focus away from, you can't remember what you'd been looking at.

Delilah is laying next to you looking just like their usual self. "Delilah, Eve you both there."

Delilah looks confused for a moment. "How did we get here?" They looks down at their naked wet body. "Eve you and Christopher take us for a naked swim in the ocean?" Delilah waits for a moment the furrows her brow. "Eve?" They sit curling their knees up and resting their chin on them. "I'm here." Delilah lifts their head from their knees and gives you a quizzical look. "What did I miss?"

"Long ..." you look at the two of them. "Don't worry about it." You sit up and wrap them in a hug. As you do you see your right hand, or lack there of. Delilah notices as well pulling back to look at the stump. Very panicked big eyes shine up at you. "Don't worry, Exhausted my magic, grow it back when I recover." You assuage her panic with a dismissive smirk. "But first we need to get back home." You stand up, trying to ignore how unexhausted you are feeling right now. "Any idea where we left the Capital?" You asked them looking back and forth down the beach.

The stand up still looking more than a little worried about the missing limb. "Um." They look back and forth much like you. "That way?" Eve points down the beach so you nod and the two of you start walking.

where the fuck are you?

The question through your aura makes you think for a moment. Closing your eyes and letting out a breath you let your aura out, trying to think of how exactly you can send a message. Maybe should have practiced this before getting lost.

Oh there you are.

You open your eyes and look around, stunned you'd managed to do that so easily. Clare had made it seem way harder than it had been. You hear a hub behind you and turn to see her landing, wings dissolving into light from her back. Well you were still counting it as a win. "Where the fuck have you two been, I've looking all night."

"All night?" You ask. "Just the one?"

"Yeah, last I saw you two," she hesitated, "you were carrying her over the ocean." Being delicate right now was probably the right decision.

"Was anyone hurt?" Eve asked, she sounded as delicate as Clare was being.

"A few light injuries, nothing some time and magic won't fix. Though we are going to have to find a new place to stay." Clare looks at you. "Dibs on Christopher's bed!" She rushed out in less than a second.

"D - mmmm." Delilah mumbled at having not been fast enough, giving you a pout.

"Hey what did I do?" You ask raising your right hand to brush your hair out of the way.

"Um, what the fuck?" Clare asks staring at the stump you just poked the side of your head with.

"Oh yeah," you look at it shrugged. "I'll fix it later I'm exhaust -"

"No you aren't." Clare said grabbing your stump and examining closely. "How did you do that, you cut off the knowledge that you had an arm, your body doesn't even know there is supposed to be a hand there." Clare looked from you to Delilah and back again. "Oh that's where you three were." She let go of your stump.

"What do you mean doesn't know?" You ask looking at your stump. "I can regrow my hand right, I know I had one and I know the biology that makes a hand."

"Let's talk about it back home." Clare said as she sprouted wings. "Can you fly?"

Beside you the dragonic wings of Eve sprouted on their back. "Please don't fly fast." Delilah worriedly said.

You considered pushing Clare for answers now but, you were naked, wet, tired and not in the mood for bad news. Touching your magic proved you weren't exhausted and you produced your own wings. "My room first?" You asked presuming the need for clothes would win.

"Unless you want to try and fuck us mid-air." Clare said with a smirk pulling down her pants and exposing her pussy. She gave you a wink and put an arm around Delilah. "How about first one of us he catches he fucks?" Delilah looked mortified by the idea of mid-air sex and Clare cackled. "That isn't a no." She teased the took off.

Delilah looked at you then down at your crotch and blushed taking off a lot slower than Clare had.

You sigh, you know Clare is just trying to give you a way to defuse your worry, and panic, and fear, and concern, and anxiety, and vexation and at least a dozen other synonyms, but you do wish she'd taken an approach beyond catch me you can fuck me. Maybe it will be good for you, some aerial exercise that doesn't reacquire a hand to enjoy.