My mother looks at me. I smile at her. I had just told her who my system voice was. It's bizarre really. I just had this conversation with her in my dream as well. My previous Lark. It went much the same: a smile, a pat on my head and congratulations. It soured me on it a bit. She looks at me with a curious look.

  “What's wrong, Arccor?”

  -----

  I train my brother Lincor, I watch him fight another Elf. They go round and round. They don't take it seriously. They will when I enter their spar. They try their best. But they are slow. A tier below me. By the end, even together they never land a hit. They are on the ground breathing hard. One on his hands and knees, Lincor on his butt propping himself up with his arms behind him.

  “Seriously Arccor, why the beating today?”

  I give him an annoyed look. “You look like you were slacking, it's best to be always ready.”

  “You say that, but [Princes] aren't allowed to leave the castle anymore.”

  My fault. Well I shouldn't say it was my fault. It's the over reaction of Cea to my petulantance that caused this. Last night was when she had caught me in my previous Lark. I had been on a hundred year tear. A hundred years of debauchery in various countries. I was aiming specifically to impregnate every non-elf I could find. My rebellion to Cea usurpation of Elf sovereignty and her callous rule. She has made us uncaring for the lives of others. My previous Lark hated her. I was starting to see why. Any chance I had to beat her failed that day. The gap between us now was insurmountable. I'll need to resort to other measures.

  -----

  The dinner we had was immense. The cooks clearly pulled out all the stops. I nibble at the roasted land raptor. My antidote is already ingested. It will be a rough night for me. A deadly one for Cea. We all ate in silence. Yancea, Lincor, Cea and myself. Yancea, being the youngest, already slumped over, unable to breathe. It wasn't long before Lincor joined her. I smile and turn to Cea. She was looking at me.

  “You waste your time Arccor, but more importantly you have wasted mine.”

  She was unaffected. How? I spring up and attack her. Futile but perhaps I can have a few years where I don't hate her, when I don't remember why I hate her. Instead of death I am simply unarmed. The left one specifically, it is still in her hand. The rest of me is across the room fighting both my daze and blood lost. She walks slowly towards me as I lose consciousness.

  -----

  She left me in this cell for months…years? I stopped counting…lost count. Escape is not possible, even when it's time to feed or clean my cell they just compel my manaless body. My arm is reattached. Her puppet is better to be whole. I sit back and remember the last night of my first Lark.

  -----

  “Cea, surely you can not suggest the eradication of all hybrids. You're in mourning. This can not be good for you or the child you bear.”

  Her house always struggled with children. She herself was plagued by miscarriages, one out of ten surviving. A flaw in her bloodline. Any attempt to breed it out seems to cause it to return with a vengeance.

  “With all due respect my [King], we should not allow even one more soul to escape our collective Tapestry.” She speaks to the floor, her body prostrate even as it seethes rage.

  I give her a sad look. The soul of her first son is forever lost. Died to a plague as a hybrid and a rather callous doctor. I have always strove to push for leniency and easing of suffering. That it has sometimes warped to ending lives early to start again. A faction has even begun calling them Larks.

  “No Cea, this can not be. We must grieve and move on. Not add to the grieving. We would be hated by all the other nations and our brethren.”

  I walk to my wayward subject. She continues to shudder. I reached her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Willing calmness into her. Perhaps cruel to rob her of her grief but I must get her to see reason. She can not—

  “Then I will be hated.”

  The dagger is in my heart, her hand on my shoulder. My heart stops as my eyes widen. I watch as she kills my guards. Watch as her fury is never spent.

  -----

  I look up from my cell at the [Empress]. There was more than one Elf court that she slew. It took me four hundred years to remember the first Lark that was over ten thousand soul days old. Lark…damn the word has become common now. The go to word for all Elves. All under her.

  The barrier comes down. Seems I am to be paroled.

  “I'll just try again.”

  She looks disinterested, “You remember fully now. Surely you see my rule was better. We no longer lose souls.”

  I just glare at the woman. We no longer strive for more either. The birth of new souls is nonexistent. Only rebirth. She turns and walks away. Her belly showing she bore a new Elf. Would it be a prince or princess this time?

  -----

  Leacea is running laps. She was a rather new soul. Apparently she had a few Larks before she was captured by bandits. Her stint as a sow for a gaggle of hybrids earned her a new name. Cea didn't give a damn about whether she had any agency. It wasn't her fault but she was punished all the same.

  The girl hated my training. And me in particular. She rather spent her time learning from Lincor. I suspect Lincor's distaste for me may also have amplified the girl's feelings. I sit back and recall my apology to him.

  -----

  “As if I care that you poisoned me and Yancea. Failing to kill her was your graver crime by far.”

  He was already thirty soul days old. I wince.

  “But the gravest crime of all.”

  I looked at him not understanding what I had done that was worse than failing to end Cea.

  “She now only eats salads. I had to eat with her for fifteen years…of just salad. Not even a good salad. No, just plain leafy greens. Yancea hates you for that too.”

  I chuckle a bit at that. It did not assuage his rage at me. I gave another apology and offered to cook for him. He took me up on that but after the meal he was rather more incensed. I better work on my cooking skill.

  -----

  “Leacea, how bout a meal before you are to be mated?”

  The girl looks at me sourly.

  “I promise it will be more than a salad.”

  She huffs, “What are you on about Arccor? There is only salad.”

  I smile, “Not at my table.”

  -----

  I watch Lancea leave the gates. She had a nice meal of roasted axen resting in her belly. Hopefully her next Lark will see her to one of the other families and not this castle. Her three children are already grown. I turn back. I'll never be allowed to leave like the princesses. I can only hope that there aren't any new children for Cea for a century.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  -----

  The girl is walking with her head bowed. There is a manacle around her neck. She is impossibly tier four verging on five. And she has cat ears. Pale beyond all. She had no heart beat. She did not breathe.

  I led her to Cea's throne room. She says nothing and her flying pixie also says nothing. I look at this Vampire. She is young, her Tapestry vast. A devourer who has old princesses in her threads. I know them, Cea first victims. And Yancea as well. I do not know how Cea will approach this new insult to her rule. I can only pity the child. The child has a rather angry look in her eye.

  -----

  She has assigned me to train this girl. Sarcea. A new princess, in more than one way. Cea has broken her own taboos by making this girl an Elf. She remembers nothing of who she is. A standing order was given to the princes to not reveal to her anything.

  I consider my charge. If she had hit tier four, she must have the second wind skill. I smile. I start her on laps. My smile fads. She moves as if she is a sheltered tier one.

  I direct a thought to Cea.

  “Her stats are crippled due to what I had to do to make her an Elf.”

  What am I supposed to do with that?

  “What is necessary, if she can have her stats raised to twenty across the board I will be satisfied.”

  I frown. It took multiple weeks to gain one agility.

  -----

  Cea is in a room with Sarcea and some goblin skeletons and a human skeleton. The scribes next to me take notes while one manipulates the human skeleton in the room with Cea and the girl. Apparently the girl gained a new presence boon. She had shit physical stats but her presence was apparently still a tier four, well now tier five stat.

  Not that she understood or saw the boon. Cea filtered all her messages at this point. Apparently her second presence major boon was different. It affected the undead. The girl pushed out her mana aura over the human skeleton. It began to writhe under the pressure, in truth it was the necromancer who was writhing. The scribes next to him were panicking. His aura became the girls and he started laughing. He pulled a knife and began to stab himself. The aura spread to the others. They too started to laugh.

  “What is going on?” Cea demanded to know.

  Damn, I was slightly hoping they would die before she noticed. Free for a while. I direct a thought as I expand my own aura.

  Scribes started injuring themselves. Seems the necromancer aura became a beacon for the girls. I am pushing it back down.

  “Is it under control?”

  It is now.

  This girl is frightening. If she were let loose into a populated area she could decimate the entire populace just through her aura.

  -----

  The three enter the tree trunk without thinking. They hadn't touched the interface. I followed behind but found the way blocked by vines. I can hear their voices. They plan to proceed. Fools. But dying in here is just some mental scars. But these vines…the dungeon itself bars my way. She wants one of them. Pretty sure it's our newest princess. I take my time snapping the vines. Curious on where it will lead.

  -----

  I find Sarcea and Hectonal fighting a desperate battle. I moved to Hectonal first. My slash cuts down the monkeys. Another slash returns the boy. It was too fast for him to see. I feel it was too fast for me as well. Sarcea still lives. I sigh and walk towards the remaining monkeys. They curiously are not engaging her. Are they waiting for her to get into a better position? I suspect the dungeon is controlling these directly.

  I cut one down. I then relieve the heads of the other two. The dungeon shudders, displeased that I have denied it. I can feel a rumbling from deeper within. The dungeon aims to send more. I notice the girl looking over the edge. This is all a bother. Better to give the dryad what she wants. I push the girl. She looks at me in shock as she falls. I just smile.

  -----

  I waited outside the dungeon, even after Cea sprinted past me. Hectonal and Randinrin are outside looking worried. I sat with them.

  “Why hasn't Sar been kicked out yet?”

  I look to Randinrin, “I suspect she holds court with the dryad.”

  The girl clutches her necklace and shudders. Ah that lie. The dryad grew bored of that centuries ago. So long as we bring new plants every so many years she gives a quick death to any who fail against her. Then again Sarcea has yet to exit. Cea was rather in a rush to engage as well. Most peculiar. Has she developed feelings for her walking apocalypse? The tree wilts, the dungeon has entered lockdown.

  Cea emerges with the girl. Her gaze was cold. The girl was in a daze. Black veins bulged on her skin. She wasn't breathing, her heart not beating. Her eyes rapidly moved. An undead? It reminded me of when I first met her. I am broken out of my contemplation by Cea.

  “Return to your cell.”

  -----

  I hadn't lost count yet. Only twelve days. Cea lowers the barrier.

  “You are to head south, to the plains beyond Kargnia of Atlas.”

  I look at her incredulously. Is she serious about letting a prince leave the castle? She sees my look.

  “You are to retrieve the corpse of one Sara Maxwell Magdeline from underneath the citadel fountain.” Cea continues.

  “You court war by sending a tier seven to another country, and now you wish me to break an Atlas citadel. Do treaties mean nothing to you.”

  “I wrote those treaties, Arccor. The citadel is a ruin. Over run by the undead.”

  I look at her suspiciously. She doesn't leave me much time to postulate, “It is tied to Sarcea.”

  “You should end her. She is a disaster waiting to happen.”

  Cea grows angry, “She holds three princesses hostage, I will not consider that until she has freed them. Then I will see her Tapestry reborn myself. As many times as it takes until her soul is cleansed.”

  My eyes widened. She never could let go. Seems not even those she forces to be Elves. But why does she need this corpse?

  “Is it really a corpse?”

  “She is the other half of Sarcea. She doesn't die, simply vacillates between living and undead. Something you made more complicated when the dryad fed her an undeath core.”

  I wince. I look at the floor.

  She continues, “As you said, she is a disaster waiting to occur. If we secure her body we can at least have full control over her.”

  “How?”

  Cea glares at me, I glare back. She gives in first, “I have bound her to myself. So long as I do not personally harm her or forget to feed her, she must obey my commands.”

  I ponder that, but it's futile, "I can't enter Atlas without starting a war.”

  She throws a metal triangle at my feet, “That will mask your presence while others carry you over the border.”

  I picked up the bizarre thing. Its runes make no sense. A cover spell…based on my own senses?

  -----

  I finished counting out five days. I had not existed for that long. I release the spell. I see the walls of the carriage I saw when I started the spell. I open the door. I found the tier twos who brought me here. There is a large plain before us. And a citadel built into a plateau. I begin walking.

  -----

  The gates are blown out. Whatever occurred was from the inside. I walk in. The aura is frigid. A citadel of the dead. I see them scurry out of the way. Before I reach the inner wall I find a ghost. It stares at me. An ethereal match to the girl who became Sarcea. There is a green black orb floating in her chest. So the other half is aware. What purpose does it serve for her to appear here? The ground below me shifts. Mud…and skeletons. I lift my feet out as I freeze the ground. The ghost is gone. Where?

  I feel undeath inside me. Ah she wishes to rot me from the inside. My soul clamps down. Locking down the intruder. She writhes but her existence is not nearly strong enough to best me. The job is not done though. I need her body. I proceed forward.

  The fountain lies ahead of me, its waters red. There is a woman in front of it.

  “Funny, she sent her oldest [Prince]. Hi Arccor, you could turn around before being devoured.”

  I quirk an eye to the new Leacea. She is deathly pale with four bushy tails behind her. She has red horns sprouting from her forehead. I identify her. Hearing the voice of Cea. Leacea identifies as a Kitsune. How? Any attempt to change should have triggered the geas. It doesn't matter. She is tier three. A far cry from my seven

  My sword is in my hand. A shield at the ready. This shouldn't take long. It will make for good sport. I sprint forward. Leacea shouts out a compel. It washed over me like nothing. Failing that she swings her glaive. I raise my shield at just the right angle that will leave her vulnerable upon hitting it. She is too slow, far too slow. The shield vanishes, the blade cuts into my arm even as I pull back. The wound is just a scratch. But the insult. To be marred by a tier three. I was careless.

  The wound is cold. I glance down. It festers. Black. Like the veins on Sarcea. I burn the wound. Cauterizing it. I raise my sword towards the former Elf.

  “Ah we haven't seen each other in forever and I finally landed a hit. Do you truly have nothing to say to me?”

  I narrowed my eyes to her provocation. She aims to delay me. I wince again. Another glance. Black veins. More alike than I thought. This aura of undeath aims to infect me. I glance behind myself. The gate out now has an army of undead blocking me. There are Elves in there.

  “What have you done…”

  “Oh them? They were your scouts. They arrived every so many weeks, in greater numbers. They all died. Their blood became that much sweeter as they climbed in level.”

  She takes that moment to lick the blade she cut me with. Her eyes roll back as she shudders. What sort of monster is she? I am next to her before she stops. My blade aimed for her neck. The blade disappears but I follow through with my fist. The former Elf neck twists with a breaking of bones and she falls to the ground. Done. I need to be quick. I move to the fountain. A swift kick shatters the thing. I move the dirt with my magic to reveal a coffin pierced by a javelin-like weapon.

  A blade enters my back. I whip around to see a Leacea. I stagger back. How? She is not breathing. The smile she gave me was rather cruel. Then my back was wrenched. Some sort of rune activation on the blade?

  “Ah Arccor, you fucked up adventurer basics. Never take your eyes off a monster until you receive a system notice. Guess it shouldn't be a surprise, not like you gave a damn about doing dungeons.”

  I pull the glaive out. The muscles release. I start feeling the necrosis. Damn it.

  “I guess that isn't fair. You weren't allowed. She wouldn't let you. Not after your temper tantrum, just her puppet.”

  “What would you know of it? Are you not the same?” A bray. I need time. If she wants to talk.

  “Nothing, but I ain't here to bully a child.”

  “That child could slaughter everyone.”

  “I hope she manages to slaughter her.”

  I stop at that. Are they serious? Do they truly aim to kill Cea?

  “Heh…I failed at killing her. More than once. You're…heh…a millenia too soon…heh…to even plot such.”

  It's just hilarious. The laughs start falling out. I can't stop. My breathing grows harder as they escape. I look at my arm. The black veins are pushing up to my shoulder. I laugh. I'm like the scribes. I fell to the ground. Laughing. The black veins reach my heart. Hilarious. I feel the aura lessening. It's too late.