The Villianess story: A 100 ways to kill your husband
Chapter 468: Elysia becomes Ariel

Chapter 468: Elysia becomes Ariel

Elysia’s thumb started to rub his calloused hands. She heard Cedric was a great warrior, stories of how Eleanor forced him to war at a tender age of 13.

"Sometimes I still dream about that forest..."

Elysia’s hand trembled slightly as she held his hand. The flickering candlelight in Cedric’s chamber cast warm shadows across the room, but she couldn’t shake the chill in her bones. Her eyes strayed to her son’s eerily similar face.

He wasn’t a baby anymore but she remembered when she carried him in her womb. She never got to hold him as a newborn or saw him grow into the man he was now.

"As I said it started years before you were born on a night I almost died after a confrontation with another goddess." She muttered her gaze getting distant.

The memory hit her like a wave crashing over fragile stone. Old memories she long buried, she never knew she would face that part of her life again. But she had to open the old wounds because of him.

******

The forest was screaming.

Not literally, but that’s how it felt, wind thrashing through twisted trees, leaves tearing off like flesh. Elysia stumbled forward, each breath shallow, ragged.

Her once-immaculate armour was shattered, chestplate cracked open, dark red blood dripping from her side where the other goddess had struck her. Treachery. Ambush. A blade laced with a hex meant to drain divinity. They wanted her dead because of a dumb prophecy.

She’d barely escaped with her life. "Raziel," she whispered, trying to call out her husband. She was too weak to communicate with him. How did she end up in the human realm?

Her heart felt heavy thinking of her family. That goddess has been chasing her for days now. They all must be worried about being unable to locate her. She stared up, and the trees blocked the night sky completely.

Her vision blurred. Trees bled into one another. Her foot caught on a root, and she hit the ground with a hard grunt, breaking through brush and damp soil. Her palms scraped against the ground as she tried to crawl.

She couldn’t remember where she was anymore, only that she couldn’t stop. Couldn’t die here.

Pain stabbed through her ribs. She clenched her teeth, tried to stand and collapsed again. Her hand reached forward once more, dragging herself like a wounded beast, nails digging into the earth struggling to move

She had to get back to them, "Raziel," she whispered before the darkness pulled her in and everything went dark.

*****

The smell of smoke and herbs pulled her back. The fire crackled lightly. Her brows furrowed, with her nose scrunching up when a sharp pain struck her abdomen.

Elysia’s eyes fluttered open. A roof made of patched straw loomed above her. It felt foreign to her, like she had never been here..

Where was she? She wondered. The walls were stone and aged wood. It was warm and homely.

The fire continued to crackle softly in the hearth nearby.

She blinked again, her body too heavy to move. Someone was humming. A low, slow tune that didn’t match the urgency she felt crawling in her chest.

"Ah, you’re awake," a soft, weathered voice said.

She turned her head, her attention drawn to the source of the soft voice. A wrinkled woman was crouched beside a bubbling pot, stirring slowly.

Her hair was a mix of grey and some dark strands, knotted at the nape. Her clothes weren’t of the finest garments. They were simple and clean.

Her back was slightly hunched, but her eyes were sharp with curiosity and something that looked like relief.

Elysia tried to speak. Her lips cracked. "Where am....?" her voice broke, her throat was too hoarse to speak.

The woman rose, then fetched some water in a small bowl from a nearby pot before she slowly came closer. "Here have some water." She offered. Elysia tried to reach out for it, and her bandaged wounds tore and started to bleed again. Blood stained the clean bandages. She hissed, then withdrew her hand.

The old woman frowned but a smile slowly crept up. "Sorry, don’t move much, it will only reopen your wounds." She said then brought the bowl to Elysia’s lips to sip.

Elysia was hesitant at first to drink. The old woman’s soft smile seemed harmless. "It is safe to drink. I won’t hurt you." She assured Elysia before Elysia hesitantly parted her lips to sip

She took a slow sip, easing the ache in her throat. A cough rose up her throat. The old lady dropped the bowl and started to rub her back to ease the discomfort. "Take it gently dear. " She said gently

Elysia’s cough died down and she finally relaxed. Her eyes had so many eyes written in it the old lady understood.

"You’ve been asleep for three days. I found you near the riverbank. It looked like death itself dropped you there," the old lady said. Elysia’s eyes went wide. She could not remember anything associated with that.

Elysia’s eyes darted around the room, mind racing trying to find anything that could jog her memories. She didn’t know this place. Didn’t even know her name? Her heart raced, panicked, fleeting through her eyes. Why couldn’t she remember? No matter how she tried she remembered nothing.

"Who... who am I?" she whispered hoarsely. Her hands were tugging her hair. Her behaviour turned erratic.

The old woman froze, her gaze flickering with several emotions crossing her face at once. Just for a second.

Then she smiled a slow, almost sad smile. She took a seat at the edge of the creaky wooden bed.

"You really don’t remember?"

Elysia’s heart pounded. "No. I don’t. I can’t, why don’t I remember?.."

The woman reached forward, gently brushing a strand of dark hair from Elysia’s forehead, her eyes glassy now. " It’s fine, Ariel you are safe."

Elysia flinched from her touch. "Ariel?" she blurted.

"Yes, you are my daughter. Ariel." The woman’s voice didn’t waver. "My precious girl. You were lost in the woods for days, I thought I would, but now you’re home again." Her voice broke and she cried

She said it with so much confidence, her shoulders shook as she cried.

Elysia didn’t question her even for a second but then. Elysia’s head throbbed, her body screamed, as if telling her something she didn’t understand. She chose to hold on to what she was told.

"...Home," she whispered, the word foreign on her tongue.

The fire crackled louder. The storm outside had passed, but the one inside her had just begun.

Elysia closed her eyes again, unknowingly burying a part of herself in that small cottage in the forest. The Queen of Hell is forgotten. Ariel reborn.