Anna wasn't entirely sure how she made it back to her dorm; she definitely didn't make it to the school office, and the proof of exam that Rengath had given her fluttered to the ground as soon as she slammed her door behind her. Shuddering, eyes squinted against light and nausea both, the witchling slumped, both hands clapped over her mouth. She felt dizzy, feverish... she felt raw, used.

Her foundation was gone.

The ghoul moaned behind her fingertips, a sound of pain and loss. Rengath's words danced behind her half-closed eyelids. You have skill, Miss Walpurgis - that much is clear... And, far away, in a small storage room, a slightly younger Anna opened a cloth bag, her mouse Erasmus balanced on her shoulder.

A promise of power...

Anna closed her eyes tightly, trying not to see herself, gritting her teeth against the urge to cry out. No matter what she did, nothing was going to stop her from opening that bag - from taking the gem inside it in one hand, rolling its cool, glassy surface over her skin. She could still remember it, could practically feel the weight of it in her palm. The way it lit up with a soft glow when she touched it...

... and the way the gem's inhabitant appeared before her, so white and pure.

She could have had anything. Everything.

Her parents would have been so proud...

Shibey, in the past, nodded. Took a step forward. Opened his mouth.

Erasmus didn't even have time to scream before he was gone.

Bile rose thickly in Anna's throat, and she swallowed frantically, losing the last bit of balance she had left and crashing against the door. Her stomach roiled, but she didn't have anything to throw up, not really. Trembling, the witchling pressed her hands against her eyes, hard. What was wrong with her?

And then Shibey was in front of her, putting one paw on her knee. < At last. >

His touch felt like a hammer blow; she wrenched her leg away from him, willing him to crash to the ground, but he did not do so. She felt that if she opened her mouth, she would be doomed. < Finally, that wretched binding to the earth is gone... I thought it might be months yet before you managed to purge it. >

Anna's eyes flew open; she stared at him, standing poised with that same paw raised.

< You heard me, > Shibey said, his tone somehow absolutely infuriating even though it was the same carefully neutral one he always used. < Don't continue to play the fool. If we are to be powerful, you need to accept that we are changing. >

If your magic is changing I personally would think it something to be celebrated... Rengath's words seared her again, reminding her of the empty places inside of her, where her roots had once been. There was nothing in them now, nothing but darkness. The pale vines were the last touch of the earth she would ever know... "N-no. No. I don't accept it," she said, thickly, her mouth dry. "I-I refuse, I... I don't want this any more... I don't want it!"

The faintest sound of disdain escaped the Incubator. < The contract has been made. Your wish is in the process of being granted. What you want is immaterial. We have been sealed. >

"N-no..." Nausea swelled, and Anna stopped to gag, nothing coming up even though she felt bloated, heavy and full, something seething just below the surface... whatever it was, it wasn't in her stomach. "I-I can b-break it, I have to... you have to let me..."

< We have been sealed, > Shibey repeated, taking a step closer; his face loomed huge in her distorted vision. The room around them was shimmering now, and Anna was dimly aware of something crackling along - under - her skin. < We are changing. We are one. And you are mine. >

"No," Anna moaned, her hands sliding off of her cheeks to thud into her lap. "No... no! I'm not... not yours, was never yours... never..." But his face was there and huge and that expression and the place where her magic had been was roiling like a storm-tossed sea and she had no foundation.

She was lost.

Her lips twitched up in a smile as she reached for her familiar, fingers outstretched; when she touched his fur, she jerked back as if shocked for a moment. "I will never... never be yours," she breathed, brushing one finger behind his ears, taking up the fall of his long ear for a moment before cupping his face in her hands. "Never... never..."

Her hands ghosted down to settle around his neck.

She smiled.

She squeezed.

Shibey made no sound as her hands shuddered, joints popping up obscenely as flesh began to bruise, bones began to crack. Blue eyes bulged outwards even as Shibey's face held, that same face - that same expression - unchanging, unflinching.

Crack.

His head lolled to one side, in a way no living head should ever turn, heavy and slow. All tension left his body, paws and tail falling limp. Anna stared, then shook him, his head flopping around with the faint sound of grinding bone. "N-not... not... not... notyours," she gasped.

His eyes blinked, just once.

< Well... done... >

"What-"

And then she threw her head back, shrieking as that darkness rose from within her and engulfed her, those small tainted places on her body coruscating across her skin like lightning, filling in the cracks as soon as they formed. Her mind shattered, was knit together again, and re-shattered in a moment, her vision crazing into madness. That blackness, that curse - no, no, it wasn't a curse, it was...

... it was salvation.

Shibey's body faded with a sound like a sigh, and something new clattered into her grasp, something small and hard, pointed; the tip dug into her palm, drawing blood tinged with black. The thing-that-had-been-Anna made a distorted cry and grabbed it, hard.

< We are sealed. We are joined. We are... >

"One-"

The grief seed unfolded like a flower, opening up even as it set roots into her flesh. Strong ebony, cool to the touch and yet alight with an inner fire, stretched upwards in graceful curves, studded with thorns. It was her power given form, given solidity. It was her voice and Shibey's blended into one, even as finally Anna's FEAR subsumed Shibey's own, parasite no longer but host in full.

It was... her weapon.

"Mine," Anna choked out, and her hand spasmed as the thornbow tore free of its roots, a seed no longer. The power in it was staggering. Stunning. Greater than anything she had ever touched or managed before this. It was silent, and strong...

... and this, this is what Shibey had wanted, she understood through the haze. To bring her to this point...

"J-jack y... you..." the witchling gasped, hugging her bow to her breast before collapsing, insensate.