“That’s right Colden. I used to have Mother’s eyes.” Lotus brought a hand up and pointed to her gold one. “This is just a replacement made by Aunt Angela. Mother had a bad day one afternoon… Do you remember? She took her finger and pushed it into my eye.” She could sense Colden’s hesitation towards their mother now. This was good.

Eldora watched as Xunatar came now. Cyprus was being choked and none of the siblings had any remorse about it. Lotus had put the whip on her belt so she could go tend to Colden. If anything he needed this the most. She cradled their baby brother against her. “It’s alright Colden, we’re not gonna let her hurt you anymore.” He would probably be the most messed up out of all of them. “Eldora you do the deed.”

The oracle tilted her head and held out the jar of dirt to Steele. “Hold please.” She was stalking Cyprus now.

“STAY AWAY,” the woman tried to lash out with fire towards Eldora in utter fear.

“No,” the bones in Eldora’s hair began to glow a terrifying midnight color as they floated out and gained sharp edges. The room was suddenly darker and colder than before. “You have wronged all of us. I bared witness and felt all of it. The way you hurt Colden… The way you hurt Lotus. All of us. You deserve no mercy from us.”

“Then what are you waiting for. DO IT!” The woman shrieked but Eldora smiled.

“I will make you feel all the pain you’ve ever given out before I let you die. But first… this will simply not do.” She waved her hand at Cyprus form and the knives shot at her pinning her to the wall. However, something wasn’t right just like Eldora had said.

Lotus noticed that the knives were pinning things she couldn’t see. “I’ve been wondering since you got that jar… how does she have her body?”

“She doesn’t. It was a ruse to get Colden to trust her.” Eldora waved her hand and the truly grotesque nature under the glamor came out. There were demon parts sewed together. She was truly ugly. “I figured this was the case long ago when I first felt her.” Tilting her head she began the slow and steady torture of her mother. The screams, the blood, and the pain filled the room. One by one Eldora listed the crimes and what she did. There was even some vengeance for what she did to Colden.

It felt like hours went by but Eldora was thorough not to forget anything that her mother had done. “Finally, you dismembered a five-year-old boy because you were angry you couldn’t have Kirika. I’ve saved what you did to Raven, our cousin, for last.” She took out the ceremonial dagger again. “Angela has already paid you ten fold for that so I will end on that note.” She looked at Steele. “Can you pour the ashes on the scroll that is in my bag please?”

She waited for this to be done before she started to carve multiple hearts out of her mother’s body. The screams were even more horrific than the torture she had endured. One by one Eldora placed the hearts onto the scroll with the ashes.

“My child, you are so strong. Think of what we could do together,” Cyprus gasped at her daughter.

“I don’t need you nor do I want you. I am strong because of Bryony, my mother.” Eldora was cool and calm as she plunged the dagger one final time into Cyprus. The corpse began to fall apart after that. The magic that had kept it together gone. She placed the heart on the ash.

“Colden?” Eldora looked up and held out her hand. “You should be part of this too. She wronged you greatly. Can I have your hand?”

Xunatar wasn’t playing around with her, it was as written in his eyes as clear as rain. Cyprus had not only struck every last nerve he had, but she did so without a single thought. Like always. Colden had never, ever through any of their encounters seen his father filled with wrath like this. Hell, even Steele could feel himself trembling in fear at the awe of the power and anger surging from him. It felt like he would suffocate from it. Even Dante was astonished, but Cyprus brought all of this and then some on herself. It was him who moved behind Lotus and their brother as she retrieved him. Colden felt confused and was reverting back to a childish behavior that mirrored his younger years. He felt like that very little boy that wanted his mother’s attention, but she didn’t care. He was coming to terms to know that she never did and only sought to use him for her own achievement and discord him afterwards. He loved her, despite the abuse and now it was all wasted effort on his part. HIs whole life was a big fat lie and he just looked on with glossy eyes as the scene unfolded.

The god was finished with her and he did as he said; he merely watched on as Eldora came over and handed Steele the jar. Colden had no idea of what she was planning or what was in that container. Then he recalled what was said earlier. “Her…bones?” He knew not what that meant, and Lotus was puzzled herself about their mother having a form despite her physical remains weren’t with her. Their sister informed them while she prepared for the torture that the form she held was an illusion. Once it was gone, he could see that she was as horrid looking on the outside as she had been in the inside. Xunatar looked away in disgusted, “I had thought so after I rose. She had me fooled as well, but I had my suspicions recently.” Dante looked like he was going to gag at the sight of her, and Colden felt sick to his stomach. Steele looked undeterred; he still wanted to see her dead regardless of her appearance.

The youngest male wanted to look away from the heinous punishment, but he was too far into it to stop watching. As the list of crimes were spoken, Colden just stared in disbelief over all the pain and death she surrounded herself with, particularly of his own siblings, cousins and more. How could she? He had sought for vengeance, albeit one that wasn’t warranted, but she just did it out of spite. Out of jealously. Out of envy. Almost as if he could read his child's mind, Xunatar turned and faced him. “She fell prey to envy, boy. Make sure that you don’t fall too deep into your own, else you may become like her.” He looked at him with wide eyes before slowly nodding. He could feel Colden’s mind ravaged by these turn of events. But he was no coddler, the boy would have to fix himself, or his siblings would do so.

Steele nodded and did as he was told, pouring the ashes to the scroll before she started to wrap this up. Dante placed a hand onto Lotus’ shoulder and cast his eyes down to Colden with a frown. The sight of her operating and retrieving organ after organ was sickening as were the screams and pleads from the monster called Cyprus. If he was still on the fence of whether she was an evil creature or not, then when she pleaded with Eldora, he could see that she truly was. A sad look was painted across his face when he was called over and he slowly rose with his head hung down low as he shuffled over to her. He felt more numb by the time he reached her and held out his hand. Steele let out a sigh, “Shouldn’t you warn him at first?”

He didn’t know what he was referring to, nor at this point did he really care.        

Eldora looked up at Colden as she took his hand. “When have I ever given anyone a warning,” she took the dagger and nicked him good on his palm. She pressed onto the wound and let the blood hit the hearts, ashes, and finally the locking mechanism. She healed up Colden wound and Lotus came over and got her youngest brother.

“It’s true she’s never really warned. The first time she did it to me… She outright stabbed my hand.” She shook her hand as she tried to make Colden feel… not so alone. She was sure that he was feeling the worst out of all of them.

There was a flashing glow of magic as the stored spell within the paper began to show itself. There were four small locking mechanisms and a larger more sophisticated one on the top. Eldora got up and circled the locks to look at them. They were spinning and creating combinations. “Five locks so that no one can ever figure it out. At least not in our lifetimes. Five locks are done by five different people. Each lock could take hundreds of years to crack without divine intervention.” Eldora informed.

“And the large one?” Lotus asked.

“You are familiar with Toya’s daughter Rose? She bit the silver apple of Wisdom and survived. She is quite possibly stronger than I am. Her lock itself would take.. five thousand years to crack?” Eldora mused a bit. “She did the top lock. It’s the last lock you have to crack in order for Cyprus’s cage to be broke. Even if you could manage to get through the other four… her’s are more sophisticated. I heard when she went to see Drae that Knowledge itself was so scared of her that the temple dissolved with her touch. Drae had to put a void storm on her just so she could walk around his temple.” Eldora smirked just a bit. “I would love to see Rose in her later years.”

She was only talking to keep the room from going silent as the locks finished up. She thought Rose’s would take longer but… it was better designed. It was fast, powerful, and was finished before the other four. “Remind me not to piss Rose off then,” Lotus laughed.

“Rose doesn’t fight… though if you do manage to make her upset I bet Toya would kill you first.” Eldora mused as she pushed herself up and once the locking was done she held out her hand and hellfire broke out over the map, hearts, and ashes. There would be no trace of Cyprus left. Even her old body parts were on fire.

Eldora dusted herself off and looked at the stains of blood and sighed. “We should get Colden to see Angela. I bet she is already waiting for us in Arri.” Eldora’s eyes moved to Xunatar. “If Bryony was here… then she would have known ahead of time anyways. She could take the time to look at Lotus too I bet.” Lotus was red in the face not from anger but Eldora peering into her thoughts.

“Shut it. Let’s just go.” Lotus hugged Colden tighter. “We’re going to go home now okay?”

He felt the sting of the dagger’s blade puncturing his palm, and the pool of blood coming out. The pain in his hand couldn’t compare with how he was feeling on the inside. Perhaps he should have died with the woman, at least then he wouldn’t have found out about the painful truth that he was nothing to her. That none of them meant anything to her than a means to an end. Colden saw the blood falling onto the contents of the jar. He still didn’t know why she was doing this, but at this point he couldn’t bring himself to care about his mother’s state anymore. Why bother?

He turned slightly to look at Lotus, kicking himself mentally as he was aware of her the most. For what he had remembered, she was kind to him unlike their mother had been. He thought of her as weird for doing so but now it was because she was looking out for him, even when she didn’t have to. And he wanted her dead, he wanted them all to die. And it would have all been for nothing. There was a storm brewing in his mind, darkness enveloping it tightly as his mood sank deeper.

“That’s some trap you have for her”, Dante was quick to note as he peeked over and watch the locks at work. Around and around they spun until they locked and he was starting to feel dizzy from trying to keep up with them. “As long as she doesn’t come back, I’m perfectly fine with it, to be honest.”

Steele came up beside Eldora and sheathed his blade. He was rather pleased that they wouldn’t have to deal with that witch again, or ever as far as he was concerned. Xunatar kept his eye on the boy, feeling his mind caving into itself before his eyes latched onto his and within moments he passed out. “I would have brought him to the Cradle, but not for too long. His mind is chaotic and dark right now, and imagine what would come should his thoughts manifest there? No, Arri may be better suited for him." A portal was conjured to the Cradle and from there another surged there, leading to Arri. Xunatar approached the portal but stopped to look at the girls for a moment. “Make sure that she doesn’t come back.” His crimson gaze hadn’t averted back to blue just yet before he crossed over. Steele took Colden onto his back and followed behind. Dante snaked his waist around Lotus; their job was done, and he couldn’t wait to run away, but…something felt wrong about abandoning the little pain even if he was already in good hands. No doubt that she would want to oversee Colden and with a small groan, he smiled and booped her nose with his finger before he followed along.