Page 115 of An Invocation of Monsters

He reached out and stroked her cheek. “Already you glow with health. Your biology is adapting to this environment.”

She reached up and touched the spot where he had touched her. “When you say ‘forever’, you mean…”

“I mean eternity.” Toth cupped her hand. “You will stop aging in your world. If you were to forsake the human realm, time would halt for your body.”

She gazed off into the distance, her jaw set.

“It is a gift,” he said softly, almost pleadingly. “You see, we do not perish of old age as your kind on Earth do. We merely evolve and move on. It would be beyond cruelty to give us a mate, only to have her die. Instead, the Void allows you to remain as you are, with us, for all of time.”

After a thousand years of solitude, I did not take a mate only to have her torn from me within a century, Drazan added.

Finally Elle sighed. She rubbed her face, pressing on her closed eyes.

“It’s really not that bad, is it?” she asked. “Being half a monster. I’m just overwhelmed by it all. And I wish… I wish I knew who my real father was. Have any of you met him?”

We all shook our heads.

I slept through his stewardship of these lands, Drazan said, stroking her with his tentacles. It was not yet my time to rise.

“I arrived only within…” Toth counted silently. “The last ten human years. And Kiraxis, I believe, only two years ago.”

I nodded. “I have traveled long and far, and this was my first rest.”

“But I believe I am correct when I say that we were called.” Toth met my eyes over Elle’s head. “There was something in this place that bid me to stay.”

“Yes. I had not needed rest, but something whispered into my mind. It told me to come here, to wait.” I patted Elle’s hip. “We were supposed to be here for your arrival.”

She let out a sound that I realized was a spurt of laughter.

That was good. It meant her mind was not fractured, that she would get through this.

“You know what’s funny? My cousin Juno said that this could all be providence.” Elle’s face was still tear-stained, but her eyes were dry and bright now. “And I actually argued with her about it.”

“The hand of fate provides.” Toth squeezed her fingers. “It is for us to decide whether to take it.”

Elle took a deep breath and let out a gusting sigh.

“Okay. I haven’t gone crazy.” She rubbed her temples. “I’m the child of a V’uthli. I’ll probably never meet him. I can heal, thanks to him, and as long as I’m visiting the Void, I’ll stop aging. Forever. I suppose when I put it that way, it seems so much less… insane.”

It sounds perfectly sane to me, Drazan said serenely. Do you believe my thousand-year sleep coincidentally ended just before your arrival? Or is it providence? This kin of yours sounds wise.

“Oh, she is.” Elle smiled. “When I met you all, I asked myself, what would Juno do? And the answer, of course, was to reach out.”

She did reach out then, lacing her fingers through Toth’s.

“You’re right. This was not a mistake. This had to have been years in the making, but I arrived right when I was supposed to. I’ve struggled to deal with a lot of things, but…” She looked down at the claws and tentacles surrounding her. “I don’t think I’m just dealing with this. I’m accepting it. I’m one of you, and you’re mine, and in the end that’s really all that matters.”

Agreed. The Void has provided, and we will not turn our backs on what it desires. Drazan’s colors were pulsating shades of violet and blue, interspersed with pink. She smiled as the pink grew brighter. Everything that was meant to be has come to pass.

“You are half a monster, but you are still my little human,” I told her. “And with strong blood of the Void in their veins, our offspring will be powerful and formidable. We will raise a horde the likes of which no others will compete with.”

That made Elle laugh. “I’m going to take my time on raising a horde, okay? They’re a lot of work.”

“Ahh, yes, but our young will be human like you. They will not have venomous milking teeth, so they will be much easier to raise than Mlul’dra young.”

Elle raised an eyebrow. “And thank god for that.”

Toth took her face in his hands, and kissed her gently. “You can choose young whenever you desire. We are yours to command.”

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