Between Scylla and Charybdis

Chapter 22.

Three days. Three fucking days of waiting while the pod put their lives back together. To clear the remaining bodies away from underneath the rubble and clean up the mess of guts from what used to be the Moonsorla cavern.

Each day the hole in Scylla's chest grew larger. Consuming more of her patience and goodwill with every passing minute. Along with mothers insistence to get everything washed away, came a pretense that none of it had really happened. Like it had all been just a fever dream, slipping from memory more and more each day. If only it wasn't for that hole.

Cetus confirmed what she already knew. The hag was being kept in the cistern. The belly of these caverns, a place where no Mer willingly went.

Barging through the crystal filled caverns that led up to her family's personal dens, Scylla came to a halt right outside Midas' nest. A blue and orange scaled female lay lounging right outside of the entrance, Midas' snoozing just beyond. He always did prefer the brightly colored ones... Scylla's dorsal fins raised in annoyance.

'Leave us.' She bit. The female lifted her head, did a double take, but upon realizing exactly who shooed her away, scrambled to get out of the den as fast as possible.

Midas rolled over, wide awake but with a very satisfied grin plastered across his face.

'You didn't tell me you had a mate?' Scylla hissed. Her brother stretched to his full length, the white of his fins in stark contrast to the royal green and gold of his scales. It seemed his fight with Diz had not left much of an impression.

'That is because I do not have a mate, dear sister. If I did, I would not let you scare her away in such a rude manner.'

'Then why do you reek of sex?'

Midas grinned at her query.

'There's other ways to have fun, besides mating, little sister. I hardly think I should be the one to explain this to you though.' Oh, he didn't have to. Scylla could paint a very vivid picture for herself. A flourish of heat settled right above her abdomen at the memory.

Rubbing the back of his head, Midas draped some of his fins across his shoulder and started picking at stray scales on his tail.

'Giving you your freedom really turned you into a debauched piece of work, huh?'

'Only when I visit home. It helps pass the time until I get to leave this place behind me again. I gather there's a reason for your visit, besides you judging my passtime and chasing away my paramour for a night?'

'Tonight.' Scylla hissed. 'We are going down there tonight.'

Halting his grooming, Midas raised an eyebrow.

'Tonight? Did you master the spell then?'

The balancing spell. Despite her eagerness to be rid of Diz, mother was reluctant to teach it, finding excuse upon excuse to delay the lessons.

'No, but I,-'

'Then we are not going.'

'Why offer to help me, if you are going to be difficult every step of the way?' Scylla hissed. Her brother watched her with hooded eyes.

'You need to at least be capable of defending yourself before we go.'

'I can defend myself, Midas. I don't need fancy magic for that. Besides, he's chained up and wounded. Just what do you think he'll do?' Her brother paused, granting her his best 'Do you really want an answer to that question?' face. He was being difficult on purpose.

'I offered you my help, cause this is clearly important to you, little sister. And because mother wants nothing more than to bury the matter completely, leaving you bereft of a resolution.'