EVERDEEN Chapter Two

Demetri - Stay back. Tribecca stay behind me .  

Tribecca - M-maybe we should just leave. There's no one here.

Demetri - Exactly.There's no one here, and there should be.

An unknown voice arose from somewhere in the building, "Put away your sword, I do not know what befell the people of this village, but there is no danger here. I intend you no harm."

That voice! It couldn't be, could it? 

Demetri scans the room for the source of the voice, but there is no one there.

Demetri - You intend me no harm? Our last encounter would suggest otherwise.

She appeared in a flash of light. 

The young lady spoke sternly, "I know that."

Demetri - Lyira. You look... like you.

Lyira - Yes, I am myself again. 

Demetri - No! That light, you're still using their magick.

Lyira - Not their magick, my own.

Demetri - You're human, you don't have your own magick.

Lyira - I do now, yes it's because of what they did to me, but it is still my own. Demetri, you were a great protector to me. It was not your fault that phaeries captured me.

Lyira - And I swear to you that I am no longer under their influence. Look at my face, my eyes. You already said it, I look like me again. Because I am me again.

Lyira was a charge as Tribecca is now. A young human woman of twenty she was a chosen of the phaeries who would often take human females for forced labor, experimentation, and breeding. Lyira was unfortunate enough to be selected for all three. Alas, even under Demetri's protection, she was captured and the magicks experimented on her were different than those done on other women. What they did changed her, gave her her own power for magick, and made her think like one of them. 

Tribecca - Why is that fairy with you?

Lyira - My sprite? It is a protector as well in a way.

Lyira - It's magick is what prevents me from falling back under the influence of the phaeries.