Page 114 of An Invocation of Monsters

It was impossible to ignore the pressure, the way it pushed in on my ears.

“Drazan,” I roared, splashing my feet into the lake. Surely the Klee would be near the surface.

Elle wriggled, and I released her onto the pebbles of the beach. She knelt down and picked one up, turning it in her fingers as she examined its internal luminescence.

“What is it?” Toth asked her, caressing her back.

Elle shook her head.

“I need Drazan here for this.” She looked up at Toth, leaning against him. “It’s just better if you all hear this at once.”

The Klee surface, his tentacles thrashing, sending droplets of water flying at our faces.

I heard you, love, he said softly to Elle as he reached out for her. Speak.

Elle reached out for him, but her hand froze just short. She stood there for a long moment, her mouth open.

Then she buried her face in her hands and burst into tears.

The three of us crowded her so quickly it was a miracle I managed to get a single claw on her before she was stolen away.

Toth cradled her first, wiping her tears away with gentle touches. Then Drazan was there, smoothing her hair and flashing colors meant to soothe her.

I growled low in my throat, and picked Elle up again. I felt her rapid heartbeat against my chest as she wiped her face.

“I don’t usually cry like this, but…” She swiped at her face angrily. “I’m not even human!”

Toth and Drazan exchanged brief glances.

“Oh?” Toth said delicately.

Elle was sniffling. I offered my fur for her to wipe her nose on, but she chose to use the shirt she wore instead.

“Willow gave me Joseph’s journal,” she said. “And it said… a monster was my father. A V’uthli. My mother was only allowed into the Void a few times, and she got pregnant with me, and then it kicked her out after she had me because she just wanted to pillage this whole place, and now I’ve got healing hands and I can’t touch anyone and I ruined her life and it’s all because I’m not human!”

She was shouting by the end, tears flowing silently now.

I wiped them away, cuddling her tightly.

“Elle… you are still human.” Toth’s wings ruffled as he spoke. “You just have a little more to you.”

Drazan shook his head at him. All humans who can enter a door to the Void have a little monster in them, Elle, he said firmly. All of them. You have more than most, it is true. But that is what gives you the ability to venture here, to realms beyond that of mortals.

Her heart rate was calming a little. I kept stroking her back and purring.

At least she was listening to the wisdom of her horde.

“I suspected you may have been fathered by a V’uthli,” Toth said uncomfortably. “Perhaps I should have… shared my suspicions earlier. But I did not think you would believe me.”

Elle stared at him with huge eyes.

“Certain traits are passed to offspring between a human and a monster,” he continued. “Some will heal, some will walk on water. Others will see the souls of the dead—” He gestured to the stars swirling overhead. “And still others will open doors to the Void. Your particular ability was what made me think you may have been the child of the last guardian.”

Elle’s lip quivered, but she didn’t burst into tears again. “Why don’t I have claws, or fangs? Why don’t I look like him?”

The unions between our kinds tend to be between a monstrous father and a human mother, Drazan told her. And the children born of these unions tend to be female, and to take after the mother in appearance. Perhaps this is an evolution designed to continue the interbreeding between species, to strengthen them.

“Likely so,” Toth agreed. “I have been listening. There have been others out there, other women who have found or opened doors to the Void and taken mates of our species. In time, they tend to be stronger and healthier than their human counterparts. They live longer. In some cases, forever. You see, Elle, the more time you spend in the Void, the more it changes you.”

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