Crystalline Undeath [Closed to Rehtul and Crystal]

[Sugarp1e1]

Crystal had just finished cleaning her thumb as the blue-hair finally stopped laughing. The laughter didn't bother her too much, although it got two of the souls begging for Crystal to just bury her claws into his ribs already.

Fortunately, they quieted down for the blue-hair's answer. Mortals were never ones to understand the minds of the Fae, so his denial of equivalent exchange was nothing to be shocked at. Such a perspective was a product of Crystal's individual mind, after all; unique even by faerie standards.

But there was something else the blue-hair said.

"We take what we can get, take care of who we can..."

Ah, yes. Crystal remembered such a feeling quite fondly, in fact.

"We just make due with what we can and ease each other's suffering along the way."

It's been years since she's really thought about those pleasant days. The days she so desperately wanted back.

Meeting with the others. Singing with them. Training with them. Teasing each other. All of them working towards a shared dream.

Those days...

"After all, it's all we mere mortals can do."

...

What?

"What?!"

"WHAT?!?!"

Before Crystal could truly process what was just said to her, three of the blue-hair's spears came speeding towards her. A crazed wide-eyed grin appeared on Crystal's face as the spears exploded into shards. Instinctively, she became one with the wind again, as the shards whizzed by where her solid form once stood.

"You know nothing, mortal! You hear?! Nothing!"

The souls within Crystal all hollered and screeched as one. The maddening chorus of voices resonated in her skull.

"How dare you! How DARE you!"

The betrayal, the loss, her own sins, every horrible memory she had attempted to bury resurfaced once more. Did this mortal really have the audacity to suggest that only mortals know true strife?! True companionship?!

In the wake of this fury, Crystal had realized something. In spite of her rage, the ground below her had not frozen. Not only that, but the souls seemed to have gone silent again.

No. Even more than that.

They seemed to not even be a presence separate from Crystal herself at all anymore. A twisted sense of calm overcame her.

Unity. True unity.

For the first time in millennia, Crystal and her friends had come to an agreement:

"This mortal must be punished."

Crystal began to materialize once more as they spoke to the blue-hair, their voice a cold monotone.

"Your words touch our heart. Really, they do."

Her skin had changed from a cool pale to a warm tan.

"They remind us of a simpler time. A time before our fight for survival."

Six arms now lined her torso, each one ending in pointed black claws.

"But we advise that you don't speak as if you know the rules of this world more than we do."

Her white hair had been muddied brown.

"Because we guarantee that our life has continued, and will continue, far longer than yours."

Her purple eyes were now blue with an orange center as three more eyes, green with a red center and purple with a yellow center, appeared on her forehead.

"We will gain more days, with the loss of your life."

Her translucent moth-like wings were now membraned, with veins flowing with more of her thick black blood within the cyan and black, and black and white down adorning the edges.

"All we want is to live."

With the flick of her wrists, an ice dagger appeared in each of her six hands.

"Doesn't everyone?"

They had dropped Crystal's Glamour, for there was no more any need to hide. She was a monster, and that was her debt to pay.

Their broken yet radiant smile was painted onto their six souls. Crystal's eyes were wide and bloodshot as they felt a lump forming in her throat.

They couldn’t tell what it was anymore. They only knew they wanted one thing: the mortal's blood on their hands.