Page 51 of To Free a Soul
She hopped away as fast as her bird legs could carry her before she thought better of it and shifted into a human. Lindiwe bolted through the Veil’s forest until she could no longer hear anything unseemly.
It was only when her toes caught on an unnoticed arching root and tripped her that she stopped running, her knees scraping against the dirt.
My eyes!her mind screamed as she scratched at her face.They’ve been sullied!
Her following cry was an echo of the horror that twisted her stomach.
“What’s wrong?”Weldir asked, as if nothing indecent was happening.
“He has a penis!” she yelled, uncaring for one minute that she was on the Veil’s forest floor, about to hyperventilate.
“Well, yes. He is a male, after all.”
Her eyes widened, her horrified expression wasted on the empty forest, when really she wanted to cast it upon him. “Youknew? How?!”
“It’s evident in their souls. All our offspring have genitalia that’s hidden away. Have you never noticed their slits?”
“Why would I have noticed that?!”
Not once had Lindiwe thought to golookingat their privates! Between their thighs was smooth, or so she’d thought... Well, she’d assumed they couldn’t reproduce!
“Lindiwe... I don’t understand why this would bother you. Humans have penises.”
“Yes, butIsawhispenis!” And it had been hard! She’d seen him inserting it!
No mother should see that!
And why... is it... purple?And why did it look like it had tentacles around it?!
Heat bled from her face and her jaw fell. “Did you know they’d been doing that?”
“Sex? No. You know I’m unable to penetrate his ward with my mana. This appears to be a new development regardless,”Weldir answered, and relief shot through her that he hadn’twithheld that information about their intimacy. Although... the wordpenetratemade her throat swell with repulsion.“Isn’t this what you wanted? For them to have a relationship?”
Lindiwe’s lips pulled back into a cringe, yet she sucked in a calming breath and then heavily released it.
“Sure. I want them to enjoy each other’s company, but this wasn’t something I was expecting, and I definitely don’t want toseeit, Weldir.”
On her knees, she covered her eyes and shook her head, only to start scrubbing her face as if that would help her remove what she saw from her memories.
At least I can be at ease that it’s consensual.Because had it not been... well, Lindiwe would have immediately stepped in, packed Katerina’s bags for her, and dropped her off at the nearest town. She would have intervened, because no woman should have to suffer that kind of torment.
Oh god, wassexthe fucking reward?!Lindiwe scrubbed at her face harder, now believing herearswere tainted with that knowledge.
Something else crossed her mind. She started to rise to her feet so she could go back there and stop them.
“Oh no. What if she gets pregnant?”
Lindiwe didn’t quite see her being the mostlovingmother, especially to a monstrous child. Let alone all the struggles that would come from it, just as she had experienced.
“You needn’t worry about that. Katerina is infertile.”
Lindiwe mentally threw her hands up because how thefuckdid he know that? She figured it had something to do with her soul, but Lindiwe didn’t care. All she registered was that she didn’t need to worry about it, and she fell back to her knees to pray to whatever gods – not Weldir – had the forethought to protect them from that outcome.
I can’t come back here.Weldir was going to have to keep an eye on them because she absolutely never wanted to see that again.I’ll make sure the garden is healthy when I can, but Weldir will need to watch over them from now on.He didn’t seem to be bothered at all bywitnessingthat, so he could deal with it!
Then something horrible entered her mind, and this time, bile rose in her throat.
Oh god. My children can have sex.
