A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

A few minutes later, Emily was sitting in a black dome, much like the ones used during training, except this one couldn't be opened from the inside. A measure they had taken to protect everyone.

Emily had her eyes closed and trembled a little as she knew what would soon be coming.

Suddenly, she felt it. The shackles that had kept her soul simultaneously locked in servitude to Erik, and protected from the corrupting influence of darkness affinity, had started to loosen.

Then, the shackles broke.

Emily gasped, as her eyes widened in fear. All the negative emotions she had felt back in Muonio came flooding back.

Her obsessive desire to have Erik all to herself.

Her twisted wish to protect Emma, no matter the cost.

Her blood lust began to rise exponentially.

All these feelings and desires blended together to abruptly, that the corrupted Emily was suddenly and instantly consumed with a single thought.

Kill Emma.

After all, killing her meant she could never be hurt again, while also satisfying her blood lust, and keeping Erik all to herself.

Of course, only after she also killed all the others, but her mind didn't even get that far.

The thought of killing Emma was so horrifying, that she screeched and grabbed her head, "Nooooo! I— I won't!"

Just when she was about to smash her head against the floor in a desperate attempt to keep the dark thoughts out, a bright light started filling the dome.

Outside the dome, a familiar scene was taking place, as Elora had her hands placed against the dome, while Emma held a hand on each side of Elora's small body, and channeled a sphere of light around the fairy.

Back inside the sphere, Emily started screeching again as soon as the light touched her. Only this time, it wasn't out of horror, but a strange combination of pain and relief.

She had never 'felt' her soul before, but she could feel something inside her was burning; something she couldn't directly touch.

It was extremely painful, but there was also relief. Her corrupted emotions where settling down, and she could feel a sliver of sanity was starting to break through again.

A tear streamed down her cheeks, and her lips curved into a mildly crazy smile. 'It— It's working!' she screamed inwardly.

Suddenly, the sigil underneath her flashed, and the world around her changed.

The pain she felt before was dimmed to a dull aching, and her mind was far clearer again.

She looked around her in bewilderment and wondered what was going on, before she suddenly remembered the Heartfire sigil. 'Right… this is the test. Something that also seems to reduce my pain and discomfort… but surely that wasn't Elora's goal?' she thought wryly to herself.

"Well, whatever," she sighed, and tried to ignore the dull aching and resist the corrupting influence on her mind. "I wonder what my test looks like."

The moment she thought that, several mirrors appeared all around her, with every mirror depicting a different scene.

Emily looked at the mirrors and felt a little more dread with every scene they depicted.

One showed her being imprisoned by the council. At first she was entirely alone in a dark cell. Erik and Emma had both abandoned her and saved themselves.

Then, the scene transitioned to her being strapped to a table, as someone with a sigil inscription tool approached her. She struggled and screamed, but nothing saved her from a sigil appearing on her forehead, and soon after, the scene changed again, this time to an enslaved Emily, happily doing the council's bidding.

Emily closed her eyes and shuddered as tears rolled down her cheeks. Her mind was becoming lost in the mirror's scene, until she suddenly remembered that day in Frostvik, where Erik had refused any and all possibilities of handing Emily over to save themselves.

She shook her head and cried out. "No! I— I was afraid of that once, but not anymore! Neither of them would abandon me!"

With her categorical denial of the scene in the mirror, it shattered, and Emily felt herself freed from its influence. "Fuck's sake… that's terrifying," she mumbled to herself. Simultaneously, she also felt a little lighter, as another piece of corruption had broken off from her soul, and was burned away by the light.

A little hesitantly, she moved on to the next mirror. Once again, she felt her mind being sucked into its surface as it showed her a scene in which she was free, but going entirely ignored by both Erik and Emma, who lived their happily ever after. She watched them have kids and be happy, all while she could do nothing but watch and shed tears of jealous rage.

Yet, she found this scene to be easier to break than the previous one. "That lecherous bastard would never give up on a possible wife…" she mumbled with a strange kind of annoyed fondness.

Finally, she moved on to the last mirror, and it showed her worst fear. Once again, she was sucked into the scene. In this one, her eyes had turned fully red like they were back in London. Her lips were curved up into a wicked smile and she cackled madly as she looked with glee at Erik and Emma, kneeling beneath her feet.

Their eyes were dull, and their bodies were wrapped in chains, as they robotically kissed her feet.

The scene continued with the fully corrupted Emma torturing her two slaves in many different ways, even as tears of horror streamed down the real Emily's face.

Since it depicted her biggest fear, this scene was harder to break that the others, but surprisingly, it was her memories of Erik's punishments that eventually did the trick. With her mind still reeling from the experience, she barely realized what she said next as she grabbed her head and shook it wildly. "No!" she exclaimed with conviction. "D— Daddy won't let that happen!

He'll teach me discipline!"

After the mirror broke and Emily's mind was fully her own again, she suddenly realized what she'd just said, and groaned. "Goddammit… that bastard really knows how to worm his way into a girl's brain…"

With the last mirror broken, her surroundings changed, and she suddenly found herself at the start of a short hallway, at the end of which were three doors.

"What now…" she sighed to herself, before approaching the end of the hallway.

When she came close enough, the three doors became mirrors as well, and once against showed her some scenes. All of which involved Emily having sex with Erik, although the setting was vastly different in each scene.

The first one showed Emily, grinning sadistically and lustfully, as she rode on top of Erik's face, while whipping his balls with a riding crop

Emily's eyebrows twitched a little when she saw that, and remembered her young self would often imagine herself in this kind of scenario. Although now, she couldn't imagine herself enjoying doing this to Erik.

The second scene was of Erik and Emily making passionate, but otherwise vanilla, love to each other. She nodded appreciatively and felt that, one an intellectual level, this felt like what she wanted most right now.

The third scene, however, caused her to groan, "Should have expected this…"

It showed Erik ruthlessly railing Emily from behind while pulled her hair, slapping her ass, and generally treating her in a humiliating and painful way.

Emily palmed her face, and cursed at her own body as she could feel her pussy drooling from a mere glance at the third door.

Her gaze panned between doors two and three, but she knew there was only one choice.

This was a test, and whichever door she went through wouldn't actually change anything about her, it would just show that she was either hiding her true self, or accepting it.

She had her eyes closed for a moment, but then opened them again. Clarity and determination shining inside them. "What's the point in denying it anymore? Emma is right. I should just choose what makes me happy. What else matters at this point?"

Thus, she stepped up the door of her choice, and went through it. There wasn't any sign she chose correctly, but Emily was confident she did.

Now on the other side, she was presented with another hallway, except this one had only a single door at the end.

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Emily approached the door, and attempted to open it, but found it impossible.

Looking around, she finally noticed a plaque above the door. It had only a single word: Why?

"Why what?" she grumbled, a little annoyed at being presented with a riddle.

But she quickly calmed down and started thinking. 'Why am I here? Technically just to cure my corruption, but I know that's not the main point of the Heartfire sigil. Instead, the point is to see if I truly love Erik, but that doesn't really track with a why…'

She wrecked her brain on this a little longer, until she got an idea. "Unless… that question was already answered earlier, by being able to break the mirrors and choosing the right door? Which would mean that this door is asking me… why I love Erik?"

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