In the morning, Illie pulled Charity from her sleeping hammock. She was still securely wrapped in a web of soft ropes. Illie placed her on the ground and pulled at the web, sending Charity rolling through the dirt. When she looked up, Illie was already busy unpacking some food for breakfast, while Hope knelt obediently with her hands crossed behind her back.

Fedea’s lion was sitting nearby, licking its paws, occasionally batting Fedea’s tiny body back and forth where it dangled from the collar’s ring. Fedea did not seem bothered by the lion’s activity.

Charity walked over and knelt next to Hope, smiling. She placed her hands behind her back and opened her mouth when Illie offered a bite for breakfast. Charity looked at Hope and nodded her head, still smiling. Hope held up her hands which were stained green from her work the night before.

Charity leant over and kissed Hope’s hand.

“Es (click) oo-ah (click)!” Illie shouted. Hope quickly placed her hands behind her back again and opened her mouth to receive another bite for breakfast.

“Green paste?” Charity whispered to Hope.

“Shh!” Illie admonished.

Charity looked at Hope, nodding her head, smiling.

Hope looked at Charity, then up at Illie, who was scowling back. Her lips began to move, but she never formed any words.

“Oh! For fuck’s sake!” Fedea yelled, who had been watching the morning’s proceedings. “Tonight! Chain-Head wants to wait until tonight to use the green paste!”

Illie turned toward the lion and kicked some dirt at it, mumbling something in the native language…

Charity frowned and ate the rest of her breakfast in silence.

<>--+-

All day Charity was so filled with anticipation that she could not keep still. Illie and Hope had gone off to do whatever it was that they did during the days. Fedea and her lion made themselves scarce as well. Charity ended up eating fruit with the local deer herd in the meadow. She was able to recognize individuals and was learning their pecking order. The deer accepted her. They mostly ignored her. Sometimes though, one would actually nudge her if she had fruit in her hands.

One of the deer snorted a warning and they all started to run for the cover of the forest. Charity didn’t realize that she was running along with them in the middle of the herd until she made the treeline. She looked back towards the meadow and saw Fedea’s lion ambling across the field. She rolled her eyes and made her own snorting sound at the deer, then walked back out to meet Fedea.

“My apologies to your deer friends,” Fedea said as Charity approached. “I’ll advise my escort to refrain from eating any more of them while we are visiting.”

“Wha…?” Charity glanced back toward the treeline, then back to Fedea’s lion, which had sat in the tall grass and begun to lick its paws.

“Hope and Chain-Head are almost home,” Fedea said. “So, come now and we’ll see if you can cum now.”

“Huh?” Charity said, confused.

“That’s what I thought,” Fedea replied.

Of course, Illie wanted to take care of dinner first. So, Charity knelt next to Hope, with her hands and ankles tied behind her back, eating from Illie’s hand. After dinner Hope and Illie went into the forest while Charity knelt impatiently. She heard the sound of wood chopping and rocks being thrown about.

The sun had dipped below the horizon by the time Illie returned. She spent a bit of time slowly circling around Charity, looking intently at her. She knelt in front of Charity and grabbed a handful of her hair - forcing her head from side to side, front to back - examining Charity from various angles. Then Illie stood up and began pulling at some of the chains from her head. A single link popped out and bounced off Charity’s knee and into the dirt. Charity looked down at the link. It was a perfect circular ring, with a single gap. Illie picked up the ring, letting it dangle from a finger as she slowly raised it to her lips. Illie cupped Charity’s chin in her hand and forced her to look up at her as she slipped her tongue through the metal ring and sucked it into her mouth.

Next, Illie started unwrapping Charity’s leash from around her torso. After the entire leash was in a pile on the ground, Illie grabbed it about two feet from where the leash was anchored on Charity’s chest and pulled up sharply. She slipped the metal ring that she had been sucking on from her mouth. Illie held the ring in front of Charity’s eyes for a moment before slipping the ring’s gap over a nearby link of Charity’s leash. She then picked Charity up, still bound by hand and foot, and slung her over her shoulder. Charity watched her chain leash slither along the forest floor as Illie carried her. She noticed that the ring that Illie had slipped onto the leash had a particularly sharp point on one side of the open gap.

Illie dropped Charity unceremoniously on the ground and gathered her leash into a pile. She reached up and tied a thick rope through the last link of Charity’s leash. The rope extended up into the shadows of the tree limbs. Illie walked off to the side and began pulling down on a rope. It must have been the opposite end of the length tied to Charity’s chain, because, soon, the links began to lift off the ground.

Charity looked up into the shadows and decided that she would certainly follow the links. She scrambled to her feet. Moments later the leash became taut. Soon Charity was on her toes - another strong pull, and Charity left the ground with a surprised little yelp. Charity was not too high before Illie tied the rope off. Still, she was unable to touch the ground and her back was arched, facing up towards the night sky.

Hope appeared at her feet. She untied them and then began to secure each ankle with separate ropes. She pulled each rope around trees and began to apply some tension, until Charity’s legs were pulled down and away, her legs held open wide. Charity began to groan and tremble as Hope made sure that the ropes were secure enough to act as anchors.

Illie, meanwhile, was untying Charity’s hands from behind her back. She moved Charity’s arms in front of her face and tied them together again, but with a heavier rope and a stronger knot. This rope led up a fair distance behind Charity.

Charity watched Hope walk over to a large pile of rocks, each about the size to two fists. She hefted up two of the rocks and disappeared behind Charity for a moment. The rope tied around Charity’s wrists jerked suddenly and she felt a slight amount of tension. Soon, Hope returned to the pile of rocks and grabbed two more. Somehow, the rocks acted as a counter weight to her arms. After four trips, Charity’s body was pulled fairly taut, suspended in the air at a 45 degree angle.

Illie stood behind Charity, wrapping her hair into a ponytail. She pulled down on Charity’s hair, sharply forcing her head back. Charity could see the ropes tied tightly around her wrists, then leading up to a horizontal branch and back down on the far side to a large bag. Hope slipped two more rocks in the bag and Charity felt their weight pull a little more on her arms. She looked to the side. There were a lot of rocks still sitting in the pile waiting to be added to the bag.

Illie jerked on Charity’s head again, forcing her to look straight back. Her face was upside-down from Charity’s perspective. Illie leaned forward and kissed her, slipping her tongue into Charity’s mouth. She felt her nipples harden and shortly after Hope dropped two more stones into the bag.

Illie stepped away, leaving Charity to hang in her bondage. Charity pulled on her arms. She was strong enough to lift the bag a little, but as soon as she stopped pulling, she felt the bag lower again. She could hear Illie and Hope talking quietly some distance away. Fedea was there too. They seemed content to let Charity simply hang for a little while, stretched out in the night air.

Soon, Hope stood up next to Charity. She had a glob of green paste on her finger which she started to gently pat around the middle of Charity’s chest where the leash was embedded. It kind of tickled, and Charity smiled.

There was a jerking on the rope, and Charity felt a bit more tension in her arms. Illie had dropped a few more rocks in the bag. Illie then walked over to Charity. She leaned over - a collection of cold metal strands of chain from Illie’s head pooling on Chastity’s chest. Illie delicately poked at Charity’s nipples with her tongue.

Hope stood between Charity’s legs and poured a huge glob of the paste on her abdomen. She began using two hands to massage it into Charity’s skin, which began to tingle sharply with sensations. Charity pulled her head up to see, looking between her breasts and around the tensioned leash chain as her abdomen was painted green. Hope, meanwhile, seemed to be blue as she was bathed in the glow of light from Charity’s chastity belt.

Illie had stepped away for a moment. Charity felt the tension in her arms increase again, causing her to moan. Illie returned and dumped some of the green paste on Charity’s chest, working it up to her neck and across her breasts, pinching Charity’s nipples in a most delicious manner. Charity let her head fall back as Illie ran her hands up around Charity’s neck, kissing her lips. Her skin was tingling - every caress amplified - sending shocks of arousal through Charity’s body - causing her muscles to occasionally spasm and her body to bounce in the tensioning ropes.

Hope was working between Charity’s inner thighs, spreading the paste, using her fingernails to incite waves of shivers to splash their way across Charity’s body.

Two more rocks, and Charity flexed her arms, but was unable to lift the bag anymore. She was fully stretched, anchored by her feet and hands. Her breathing became limited to short gasps.

“Ooooh!” she groaned and lifted her head to see Hope with something that looked like a flogger made of many supple strands of leather. When Hope dragged it across Charity’s breast and abdomen, it felt like a thousand gentle fingers. Hope did more than drag the flogger though. After a pass, she lifted it and gently slapped it down on Charity’s chastity belt. The impregnable shield took the brunt of the strike, but tiny sparks of pleasure popped all along its periphery.

Two more rocks, and Charity could no longer bend and buck her hips when the sensations made her muscles spasm. Even when Illie pushed the green paste deep into Charity’s sensitive armpits, she could hardly do more than groan. Illie returned with another handful of paste and slathered it across Charity’s face. She slipped her coated fingers around Charity’s lips and pulled at her tongue ring. She pushed her fingers along Charity’s nose and even briefly stuffed a finger up each nostril, twisting the paste inside until it began to sting and burn.

Meanwhile Hope continued to alternate caresses with increasingly powerful strikes across Charity’s abdomen and upper thighs. Every second Charity could feel her skin becoming more sensitive. Her panting became more labored as more rocks were piled on. She lost track of who was touching her. Sensations popped from place to place - a pinch, a needle grazing her skin, a slap, a kiss, a large, wet rough rag. Her eyes were rolling back in her head.

Charity felt her hair being pulled. She opened her eyes to see Illie and Hope looking intently at her face. She saw Illie’s hand grab the open ring she had left to dangle from Charity’s leash. Illie slipped the ring free and slowly lowered it, touching it lightly against Charity’s cheek. It was cold and metallic. Illie held the ring directly in front of Charity’s eye for a moment. The metal looked thick. Illie moved the ring down over Charity’s mouth briefly, then began to shove the open ends of the ring up Charity’s nose.

Hope’s voice somehow rose above Charity’s moans. “I luh you, Chai-ree.” And she smiled.

Charity felt a sharp pain in her nose, and that somehow finally pushed her over. Her entire body seized up for what felt like an eternity. She couldn’t even force herself to breathe. Finally, her muscles relaxed and Charity screamed until she seized up again. Her vision dissolved into gray noise and she slipped away into an orgasmic dream.

<>--+-

“I feel great,” Charity said. “It’s like I have awoken from a dream. I mean, not a bad dream, just… different…” She reached up and touched her nose. “But… um… does this come out?”

Charity was referring to the large, thick steel ring that was now embedded in her septum. The diameter of the ring was big enough that the lower extent of the piercing settled perfectly in the crease between her lips. Every time she spoke the ring would flop up and down, which made Charity flinch a little, because the piercing was still tender.

Fedea translated Charity’s question into the native language. Hope and Illie passed guilty looks back and forth for a moment. “Nope,” Fedea said. “Chain-Head wanted to mark you as her pet.”

Charity rolled her eyes. “Well… It’s worth it, I suppose. It’s kind of a… a pain when I try to talk.”

“Chain-Head can not conceive of any language other than hers,” Fedea explained. “She doesn’t consider you to be human anymore. To her, you can’t speak. You just make annoying noises.”

“Great,” Charity said. “Where are they going?” Having finished cleaning up from breakfast, Hope and Illie set off into the forest as they did most every day.

“They are nature witches. They provide services to a number of small villages that are nearby… mostly healing medicines,” Fedea explained.

“While you are lucid, I have some questions for you,” Fedea said. “Did Empusa use a lot of metal when she stuck that chain leash inside your body?”

“Yeah! There were four horizontal plates. Two, front and back. You know, over and under my breasts. Then another plate that connected the two. Plus some bars over the shoulder.” Charity rolled her shoulders a bit. “It’s hard to believe that all that metal is inside me, but I guess that’s the magic…”

“Mmm hmm,” Fedea said.

“Now, I have a question for you,” Charity said, looking down at her body. “Why is your uh… lion’s tongue green?”

“Hey! We had to pull out all the stops to get you to cum,” Fedea said.

“Ooo!” Charity frowned. She swore that the lion smiled at her.

“I have a theory that your chastity belt, the Zoic amplifier, works by sending filaments into your nervous system and up to your brain. Those filaments are made of metal that is extracted from your diet.”

“What’s a fila... men…?”

“Like tiny roots growing through your body,” Fedea said.

“Is that bad?” Charity asked.

“No. But if Empusa placed all that metal inside you,” Fedea explained, “then the amplifier will have a vast source of metal to perform its job. But, you know, the chastity belt is around your crotch and the metal plates are at your ribcage, so… one would think it would take a while for metal pathways to link between the two.”

“Ok,” Charity said. “I think I understand what you are saying, but it doesn’t matter now that I am with Hope and able to orgasm. See how much better I can speak now?”

“Oh, yeah much better,” Fedea said.

“Test me!” Charity said, smiling.

“Uh… Ok… so, um… you say that you are feeling much less somnambulant now after the orgasm?”

“No fair!” Charity said. “Stick to English words only. You can’t expect me to remember Spanish. Stick to common English words that everyone knows.”

“Alright. Um… ‘television’,” Fedea said.

“Tele…?” Charity looked confused. “We should probably stick to shorter words. Long ones might take a while to remember.”

“How about ‘tampon’?” Fedea asked.

“Now you’re just making up words. Don’t fuck with me!” Charity said. “That’s just cruel.”

“Sorry, you’re right,” Fedea said. “How about ‘clit piercing’?”

“Ha!” Charity said standing up. “I know what that is. I actually have one!”

“You have one?” Fedea asked.

“Yes! That woman who put the belt on me… um…”

“You’re girlfriend?”

“Hmm?”

“Blue? The woman you lived with?” Fedea asked.

“Yes! She wanted me to wear the piercing under the belt,” Charity explained. “It was like an extra little tease, because the weight of the piercing would shake things around, when I jumped up and down. Like this.” Charity started jumping up and down, the links of her leash jingling all around her. A confused look crossed her face for a moment, then she jumped more vigorously.

“Well, after all this time, I’m sure things have shifted a bit probably. Maybe I gained weight…”

“Uh uh…” Fedea said. “I think that the belt had probably fused with the piercing.”

“Fused?” Charity asked.

“Yes!” Fedea said. “The belt and the piercing are now part of the same thing most likely.”

“You will need to speak slower,” Charity replied.

“Over time, most likely,  the belt has used the metal in your clit piercing to send its roots into your body. The belt has probably grown… you know… around your clitoris. It’s probably anchored to you now. Even if you had the key and unlocked the belt, I bet it’s, like, physically attached to you now. And by using your clit piercing, there is by far enough material to burrow through you to the metal plates that make up your leash.” Fedea seemed to be getting excited. “There’s so much metal inside you that I bet the amplifier will just discard whatever unneeded excess there may be.”

“This is crazy,” Charity said, anxiously. “I’m going to go to Paradise and find this Dammasch bitch and get her to take the belt off.”

“Not if it is growing through your body,” Fedea said.

“You are just making shit up,” Charity said. She started jumping up and down again, tapping on the faceplate of the chastity belt as she did.

“Whatever… Maybe…” Fedea said. “But it would explain that strange lump you have on the left side of your lower back.”

“What?!” Charity said, pushing her leash chain to the side, pressing her fingers into the skin on her back. Suddenly, she felt something hard and smooth, narrow, but about two inches long, under her skin. She felt around on her right side. Something was there too, smaller, but definitely solid.

“What do I do?” Charity screamed.

“Relax! You’ll be fine,” Fedea said. “The amplifier will make sure you are as healthy as possible. This is actually kind of exciting.”

<>--+-

Sex was the only thing that could distract Charity from what Fedea had explained about the metal. Mainly because every day the hard lump in her back was a little bit longer and a little bit more prominent. Five days later, Fedea and her lion were gone, and though Charity forced Hope to feel the lump on a daily basis, she simply shrugged her shoulders. Charity had no idea what else could be done.

So, Charity invited the opportunity to think about sex. Her greatest discovery was that she could actually use the new nose ring to her advantage when providing oral sex for Illie. Once Illie’s crotch was sufficiently lubricated by Charity’s tongue, she would flip the large ring up. It would then thump up and down over Illie’s clit while Charity worked her nubby tongue to great effect down below.

Charity was so efficient in her ability to pleasure Illie, that she was worried that Hope was becoming jealous. Illie resolved that problem after a few days by making Hope stand behind Charity. She directed Hope to thread her fingers into Charity’s hair and control the positioning of Charity’s head. Meanwhile, Illie would slip her finger into Hope’s thimble and press the smooth, rounded surface through the forest of sharp needles around Hope’s clitoris.

On the sixth night, Charity sensed that Hope was particularly anxious. She drew the outline in the dirt of the safe zone again for Charity - the land between the two creeks and the cliffs.

“I know! I know! I’m staying around home!” Charity said. “I promise. What are you so anx… uh… nervous about?”

Hope pointed at Illie and herself, then pointed at her eyes.

“You and Illie saw something?” Charity asked.

Hope sucked in a big breath then began shuffling along stiffly.

“You saw um… dead people walking around? People who were sleepwalking?”

Hope pointed at some rocks. Then she spit and pointed at the rock again.

“People were spitting on you and throwing rocks? Sleepy people were spitting?”

Hope pointed at Charity, acted big and pointed at her eyes.

“You have been having gas and you don’t want to get me sick? You’re trying to see if I have bad gas?”

Whatever Hope was trying to communicate, never really made sense to Charity. Eventually, Illie and Hope started speaking to one another excitedly. There were a lot of frowns. Finally Illie made a forceful declaration and Hope reluctantly allowed Illie to apply her built-in gag, ending the conversation.

Shortly afterwards Illie pushed Charity, who was still tied up from dinner, onto the second hammock, wrapped her up tightly in the web of ropes, and then shoved her into her sleeping compartment over the nest for the night.

The next morning, after breakfast, Illie fastened Charity’s leash around the leashing tree. They left a bowl of water by the tree and then went off on their day’s errands.

“Such is the life of the family pet,” Charity thought to herself as she slowly sat down in the grass somewhere near the furthest extent that her leash allowed. The hard lump was growing fast. It now wrapped around her waist on her left side. She could feel it growing just below her ribs.

Such was the rhythm of life for some number of days, until one rainy afternoon Charity heard a voice.

“Have you been a bad pet?” Fedea asked.

Charity was startled for a moment, but then crawled on her hands and knees through the mud over to the lion and looked at the tiny woman dangling upside-down, held immobile by coils of wire, from the beast’s collar. “Where… have…?”

“Oh, my! I think you need another orgasm!” Fedea said.

Charity nodded.

<>--+-

Hope made another batch of the green paste. When everything was ready, Charity was bent over a narrow branch. Her ankles were anchored by ropes two feet above the ground. Her arms were tied up and far in front. Her leash was pulled down until Charity’s back was significantly bowed. A fire was burning about ten feet away.

“What… to pierce… this… time?” Charity asked.

“You will not have an orgasm if you know what to expect,” Fedea explained. “There will be no piercings.”

Illie wrapped a blindfold around Charity’s eyes and pulled her head back by pulling on her hair and securing it somehow. A significant amount of green paste was massaged into her back, hands occasionally wrapping around her chest to fondle her breasts. The flogger was employed judiciously upon her back and with much greater force on her well-presented back end.

Soon Charity was screaming and moaning in ecstasy, just shy of the edge of orgasm. She felt the sensation of searing heat near her chest.

She heard Hope and Illie speaking together: “Hee-roo, bee, bah-(tick)...” It was like they were counting down or something.

“Oh, fuck! They’re going to brand me!” This was her final conscious thought until she was revived, untethered in Illie’s arms. Each breast was sore. They both now sported a flat, thin metal strip that had been cauterized into the skin, circling each nipple. When she shook her chest, she could feel the weight of the metal strips.

Hope knelt next to Charity and brushed a tangled mass of necklaces to the side. Charity’s new decorations looked identical to those that circled Hope’s nipples. Charity leaned over and kissed Hope’s breast.

Once again the next day, Charity, dyed green by the paste, felt as though she had awoken back to her old self. She remembered words like “door” and “glass”.

Hope, Illie and Fedea spoke together at length about the lump around Charity’s waist. Indeed, the lump now completely circled Charity at the narrowest point just below her ribcage and above her belly-button. The skin was noticeably raised and somewhat darkened.

That night, Charity felt a painful ripping sensation. Her screams awoke all the others. In the early light of the new morning, they found that a solid, sturdy metal ring now circled Charity’s waist. The metal was about a quarter inch thick. It was no longer embedded in her skin in any way. It could even be raised and lowered by, perhaps, an inch. Its dimensions were far too narrow, though, for it to ever be lifted past her chest or lowered past her hips.

“What is it going to do now?” Charity asked Fedea, pushing at the metal ring.

“It’s not going to do anything, I don’t suppose,” Fedea responded.

Illie was pulling at one of the chains embedded in her head.

“But, is it going to just stop growing?” Charity asked.

“It’s no longer inside you, so there is no longer a source for more metal,” Fedea explained. “Obviously.”

“So… how do I get it off?” Charity asked.

Illie had popped a ring from her head. She tapped it on Charity’s waist ring several times.

“Get it off?” Fedea said. “Yeah! That’s not going to happen.”

“What?!” Charity asked.

Illie was mumbling in the native language. Hope was sitting back watching with a look of concern in her eyes.

“Maybe there is some witch who can remove it with some magic,” Charity suggested. “Please tell Illie to stop tapping me with her ring!”

“Oh! Great idea!” Fedea said. “I know a witch that can do that, too! Her name is Queen Empusa.”

Illie grabbed Charity’s leash and tapped the ring against one of the links. Immediately, she noticed that Illie’s ring had linked with her leash.

Illie grabbed Charity’s arm and dragged her roughly over to a log lying on the ground. She forced Charity onto her stomach over the log, then started tapping on Charity’s new waist ring again.

“Someone tell this bitch to stop pounding on me!” Charity said.

“Shh!” Illie said as she pushed on the skin at Charity’s side attempting to slide a finger under the ring. The gap was so tight, she could only get part of her pinky through.

Illie screamed something at Charity and then walked away. Charity started to get up from the log.

“No!” Hope said, shaking her head. “No!”

Charity let out a huff and laid back down.

Illie returned with a tool that could be used as a hammer. She pushed on Charity’s back. “Ae-(tick)-san (cuh) el-dee!”

Then she struck the ring with the hammer. Since Charity was bent over the log, her waist ring was pressed into the wood. Charity could feel the strikes from the hammer rattle around her waist.

“She’s going to bend it! Tell her to stop!”

Illie was pounded harder and harder on the ring. Charity kicked at Illie to get her to stop hammering. Illie stepped back mumbling and walked off again.

Charity started to get up again.

“Nooo!” Hope warned again.

“Gahhh!” Charity lay down again.

Illie returned with some rope and bound Charity’s ankles together. Then she pushed the rope between Charity’s waist ring and her skin. When she began to pull the rope through, the friction began to burn Charity’s skin and she screamed.

Hope spoke harshly to Illie for a moment. She stepped up, yanking the rope from Illie’s hands, but continued the task of slipping the rope through the gap - just much more gently. Soon, Charity’s legs were pulled backwards and her back began to arch as her ankles approached her waist.

“This is humil… this…,” Charity grunted.

“You shouldn’t have tried to kick Chain-Head,” Fedea said.

“Stop laughing!” Charity screamed at Fedea.

When Charity’s ankle ties met the waist ring, Illie pulled up on the rope, lifting Charity into the air. She then started shaking Charity up and down, apparently testing to see how sturdy the ring was.

“Ow. Ow. Ow. Owww! Stop!” Charity said as she was jerked around in the air.

Illie dropped Charity back onto the log and pushed her over onto her side.

“No! No! No, no no no!” Charity screamed as Illie pulled out another tool with a serrated, metal blade, used for cutting tree limbs.

Ten minutes later, Charity was still bound in a strenuous arch, but mostly happy to have not been sawn in half.

Illie was sitting some distance away, sweating from exertion, staring at the ruined blade.

After quietly staring at Charity’s waist ring for a while, Illie built a large fire and dropped her favorite feather into the red hot flames, followed by a link of chain from her own head.

“She thinks your waist ring is the most beautiful, perfect, metal ring that she has ever seen. She’s giving thanks and an offering to the Goddess Dammasch.” Fedea explained.

Charity simply grunted.

<>--+-

Later that day, Charity was sitting in the meadow with Fedea and her escort. Illie seemed to believe that Charity did not need to be leashed to the home tree as long as Fedea’s beast was around.

The skin underneath her new waist ring had been pink and sensitive in the morning, but now it looked and felt completely normal. The metal ring was perfectly oval shaped and fairly tight. She could push a finger between her stomach and the ring if she sucked in her stomach. But, due to its shape, she could not move the ring much.

“When I get home, they should be able to cut it off,” she said, hopefully to Fedea.

“Home?” Fedea responded.

“Back to my universe.”

“Um… You can’t go back there…” Fedea said.

“Why not?” Charity said, looking up from her waist. “You have traveled both ways between the universes.”

“Uh… it’s been decommissioned,” Fedea said.

“I have no idea what decom… whatever… means,” Charity growled.

“It has been turned off,” Fedea said.

“Well, there is a gate, right?” Charity said. “They can turn it back on again, can’t they?”

“No. Your universe is gone-”

“Gone?! What?” Charity stood up. “You can’t just turn off a para… a paral…”

“A parallel universe,” Fedea said. “You are not from a parallel universe.”

“That’s what Empusa said,” Charity said, beginning to pace.

“She lied,” Fedea responded. “You are actually from a simulation. When you went through the gate, you were manifested here based on your specifications in the simulation.”

Charity had dropped to her knees holding her stomach. “I’m going to be sick… It’s gone?”

“It was considered a failed universe, so, yeah, it’s gone,” Fedea said.

“Eight billion people…” Charity’s stomach started to heave and she bent over to vomit.

“Well… Each woman that acted as a host of the simulation has a complete copy of the state when the universe was decommissioned in their brain, but… yeah… Their contract is complete. They’ve gone home.”

“You need to leave me alone for a while…” Charity said.

“Some people came through the gate after you and your sister… looking for you…” Fedea said. “That police detective… some other people… two Aradales.”

“What’s an Aradale?” Charity asked - not so much because she was interested in the answer, rather she needed the subject to change.

“Aradale is the Goddess Dammasch’s sister,” Fedea said. Her voice sounded much more relaxed, and she began to ramble on… “Every universe has a Dammasch and an Aradale and there is always a conflict where one of the sisters takes control. Here, of course, Dammasch is the Goddess and Aradale is permanently confined in the Hollow Well. Magic rules. But, in your universe, Aradale and her technology was supreme and she found the gate and slipped through along with another version of herself. I’m not certain where the second Aradale came from… Was she from a parallel universe’s simulation of your universe? Can a simulation begat parallel simulations? Maybe a simulation host had a previous Aradale imprinted in her repository? I’m not sure anyone knows, but…”

Fedea talked on and on…

Charity’s hands, meanwhile, were worrying at a newly discovered hard lump on the back of her neck.