Klaire was weak, her hands trembled and she was unable to focus on anything as Levi conjured water and manipulated it safely down her throat.
Neither of them knew how long they had been in that place, whilst she was able to, Levi didn't actually need to sleep and only grew tired from exertion.
She had asked Faylorna once, but all she said was "Asking one who hasn't felt time since before gates existed, is folly at best." earning nothing but a glare from the increasingly contemptful leviathan.
"Mum, we're nearly done, just a little more, okay?" Levi said as she finished nursing her.
"Indeed, it should have been over long ago. Her soul is truly a marvel, enough of a challenge to see even my needle-work tested. Be proud Little One, your mother has more potential than any who came before."
"I know that!" Levi barked, unable to balance the hate that seeing her mother in such a state inspired. "I don't need you to tell me."
Faylorna chuckled, she was a creature born of a broken heart, the only thing she respected is the ferocity one shows in protecting theirs, and over the course of the Howling she had come to respect them both more than she had thought possible.
'I have seen almost the entirety of her life since the day she howled at her love, why is it so strong? Lillim refused to speak of what saved them, but I must know what caused such a change.' Faylorna's curiosity, had become an obsession. "Brace her Levi, it's time to resume."
Once more she howled and ripped the stubborn remnants of Klaire's soul from their vessel. The scraps that were coming loose now were more akin to flakes, small enough to rest on Faylorna's fingertips.
She observed each one, scanning it for the memories it contained. She saw a cave, Carl and Squidge were there with her. 'Ah, so this is when he levelled up.' The memory was so fixed and dense she could feel Klaire's excited anticipation, which was not something she had ever experienced before.
In the next she saw him tell her he loved her properly, the words filled Klaire with enough joy, it even threatened to make Faylorna fall for him as she was affected by Klaire's emotions...
In the next she heard the wyvern's roar, felt the heartbreak of knowing she was about to die, even after Carl had wounded the beast so gravely and finally the wyvern's breath, a feeling that made her most angry...
Levi was confused when the portal opened and the army of spectating banshee departed. "Don't worry Little One, merely getting vengeance for my kin." She mused, trying to offer Levi some comfort.
She then returned her attention to the flakes of the soul...
In the next she saw the black gates, felt the warmth of Carl's hand in hers as she, him and the creature she called her baby waited for them to open and reveal Nergal's city. Thankfully though, they didn't open...
In the last, her question was answered. The moment she looked into it, she felt true fear, fear so intense it overpowered even the endless grief of loss that she embodied. She saw the gates, then felt a power she would have rather never seen again.
Finally she saw Klaire's eyes flicker open and heard a voice that made her teeth itch and shadows undulate in revulsion as her bones wished to shatter and disintegrate...
"Ah, yes forgot about that bit, never fear, I'll go from here. HAHAHA! I done it again, I am on a roll today. See you later Carl, no, boy-chick is better."
Then a portal opened up in the ground a short ways from her and through it stepped a figure that left her and Levi paralysed.
"What have we here!? That was a very private moment you just intruded upon! A moment between me and my boy-chick, wait... was it boy-chick or was it our chick? I can't remember what we decided upon... Regardless it was private...." His trailing voice was a threat that left Faylorna stitching furiously to try and reassemble Klaire's soul before anything happened.
"Wait a minute.... Is that our chick, the boy-chick's chick? I swear I just met the dear, how is she here? MY WORD! Is this a Howling, little Lorna? Look at the boy chick's chick, I am so sorry! Look at her, her souls out, out and all over the place."
"Y-y-y-yes it is... P-p-punish my intrusion... Bu-"
"Nonsense! But let's get the wee lass all apart for ye... No reason to drag this out, that kid's probably pulling his burnt carcass all the way here as we speak... Did you see that bit, truly! A display of love for the ages! A marvel! A scene of pure poetry!" The strange man moved towards Klaire's soul and Levi swallowed her fear.
She had seen her mother harmed enough and no one would harm her further. "LEAVE MUM ALONE!"
Faylorna watched in awful horror as Levi grew in an instant and bared her fangs and fury. All her power and anger was meaningless however. "Mum? Another weird baby, I just can't even begin to express how much I don't want, but really want to know how the chicks made you." As he spoke he raised a hand and Levi was frozen, her eyes snapped open to try to paralyse him, then one-by-one they burst.
"Levi!" Faylorna howled wildly, trying to rip the man's soul apart but she simply coughed up blood.
"Sweet little Lorny, you should know better, even a singer of souls shouldn't deign to touch mine. You though weird baby number two, well you're just astonishing. The boy-chick's little hatchling is a wonder indeed, moving when her own papi couldn't, let alone the mourning maiden here..." The man spoke as he restored them, further amazed when Levi instantly continued her ineffectual assault and he had to bat her away with a hand which never even physically touched her.
"Ahhhh, alas it seems the weird baby loves her mother dearly. Look alive lamenting Lorny, time for you to silence this howling less the little boy-chick's chick chirps her last chirp and croaks instead." With that he shredded the last stubborn dregs of Klaire's soul, then disappeared as she gathered the pieces.
Faylorna returned to her seat with the neatly shredded soul and set to work on the patchwork soul she had been gradually restoring. "Levi, are you okay?" She asked as the gate crackled shut.
"No! I couldn't protect Mum, please help her!"
"Calm yourself, I hate to admit it, but he helped greatly. I only attacked in your defence and wished I knew why he cared enough to appear... Now. Stop talking. You mustn't speak of him."
Levi roared, it wasn't speech, but a true roar of bestial rage.
[ LEVI REQUESTS PERMISSION TO MUTATE ]
[ LEVI REQUESTS PERMISSION TO EVOLVE ]
[ LEVI HAS CHOSEN A PURPOSE ]
[ NEO PRIMORDIA HAS GRANTED PERMISSION ]
[ NEO PRIMORDIA HAS SEEDED AUTHORITY, LEVI CAN CHOOSE HER OWN PATH ]
Suddenly, a howl resounded through the realm.
[ SYSTEM ERROR PROCESS INTERRUPTED]
"Cease your tantrum child!" Faylorna's voice was angry, but not aggressive, it was anger born from loving concern. "You betray your mother and father with this. Did you even tell your father what purpose you chose? He gave permission regardless because he has faith in you, don't break their hearts by proving them fools."
"I want them safe, I don't care what happens to me!"
"I know, but why don't you tell me why your father made you as you are?"
"To keep Mum safe!"
"How can you do that if you run off to die by his hand? You were brave little one, the first in memory to move in his presence, you may not be her real daughter, but you are most certainly a Bashe."
"What should I do then?"
"I would recommend you change your purpose from avenging a slight that never happened to protecting all you hold dear... Do that and I will grant you the blessing of your kin before you begin your metamorphosis."
"I still hate you for hurting Mum, but fine, if it makes me stronger I'll promise to make it my purpose to protect them... You were right about that much."
[ LEVI HAS SELECTED A NEW PURPOSE, CONTRACT WILL BE BINDING ON RECEIVAL OF BLESSING ]
As Faylorna tied-off the final stitch she walked over with the patchwork soul and gestured for Levi to join her at her mother's side.
"I shall baptize you as I restore your mother, hold her close now child this will be painful for you both."
Levi did as instructed, coiling around Klaire's rigid corpse and then Faylorna reintroduced her soul one final time, stitching it into place.
Klaire gasped back to life, scrambling in fear and writhing in pain as the first banshee howled one last time.
This howl was different to the others, excruciating and vicious, designed to test the strength of her work whilst obliterating Levi's soul in the baptismal-Howling.
The threads not only held strong, but resisted and resonated so strongly even their creator was silenced in shock.
Levi's immature soul was torn out and dangled like ribbons in the air, all of which Faylorna plucked from the air one at a time, feeding them back into Levi's lifeless vessel.
[ GRAND BLESSING OF FAYLORN RECEIVED ]
[ TITLE RECEIVED: TRUE KIN OF FAYLORN ]
When she finished with the blessing, Levi writhed back to life, then Faylorna pushed Klaire's soul back into her vessel as well and she did the same.
Klaire howled at the woman who had reforged her the moment she was complete. The ferocity left Faylorna's soul dislocated, not completely removed, but misaligned.
"Bring harm to my family for any reason again and I will not hold back..." She spoke as she stroked Levi, treating the origin of her kind as a mere after thought.
Faylorna chuckled with amusement, then approached as each footfall resounded through the realm. She then did something she had never done in the company of half-kin and revealed her true and unimaginable power.
"Do not let your unquestionable talent rack you with overconfidence because Bec..." She then embraced the pair in her monstrous form with a mother's tenderness. "I hereby name you heir to clan Bashe, full-kin and half. The first howl to bring me harm and her daughter, the first of her kind for the second time, the all-seeing Bashe leviathan."
She stopped and looked at Levi, her pure marine scales now tarnished with the black of the mist.
"Will you not change now? Your father permitted it."
"I will when I understand this new me." Her words were spoken with the return of her usual level-headed character.
"Consider that permission rescinded Levi, you're grounded for being so reckless, my stupid, brave little girl. Do you know how scared I was for you?" Klaire said as she inspected ever inch of her child for injury.
"Are you saying you were conscious?" Faylorna's distraught tone caught them massively unexpected and it was emphasised further as she returned to human form and rushed to inspect her.
"Yes, why? Is that not normal?" Klaire asked the question in the middle of a chain of panicked inspection.
"Of course not! I'd have stopped immediately I'd known, as I did for that adoptive mother of the boy. It is absurd to think you endured that, you stupid girl. How did you even tolerate it without my knowing?"
"I don't know, it just didn't feel that bad compared to the wyvern fire."
"Oh, that reminds me." Faylorna waved a hand and a gate reopened and the banshee flooded back through, many of whom were feasting on the still writhing souls of various dragon-kin.
"The lizards will know better than to attack our clan again. Still though, no, there must be something else. No lizard's breath, no matter how foul, is worse than my howl. I'm offended you'd suggest it... I need to speak with Lillim, Kyubi, Maeb and that husband of yours, in that order."
"First you ask me to leave him, then you wish to meet him? Sorry, I need to know why before I allow that."
Faylorna cackled once more. "I am not foolish enough to harm Lillim's kin wee bec, I simply have many unanswered questions, besides I was merely testing your worth and punishing you for that howl. I will leave the punishment of those humans to you, it can be your first duty as heir of Faylorn."
"Carl wouldn't like that, he wouldn't even let me throw a comet at Matthew." Klaire sighed, not hiding the fact that she would be quite happy to fulfill that particular duty.
"Well we will see soon enough, I already summoned them. It seems I will be returning to the misty village for the first time in a century..." As she finished speaking, a portal opened behind her and Lillim and Kyubi stepped through.