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Eretria was drowning and she loved every second. The black tar wrapped around her limbs in the way strings curl around a puppet. But puppets were unwilling props to a grand master. Eretria was anything but. She was acting alongside the darkness, as the darkness, no matter what light Cogline wanted to believe was left.
From the depths of the pit, she heard something muffled from above the surface.
She tried to ignore it, but she couldn't keep her heart from lurching at the sound of that voice: "Eretria!"
No.
She saw the light before she saw Amberle, almost unrecognizable in the heavenly glow. She'd parted the darkness, her darkness, to interrupt her life all over again.
"What are you doing here?" Eretria asked coldly.
"Eretria," she said for what might've been the millionth time. "I know this isn't you."
Eretria rolled her eyes. "Think again, Princess."
"Eretria--"
"You don't get to say my name, Amberle." As her anger rose, she noticed Amberle trembling. Her glow had become dimmer, shrinking away as the tar seethed. "You left me!"
She stabilized enough to move closer, masquerading the calmness of a leader with her level voice. Nothing had changed since their days together. She still thought she knew what was best. "I'm here now."
A small part of Eretria ached to believe her, but the memory of abandonment drowned hope in its infancy. "Are you? Last time I checked you became a tree."
"I didn't have a choice."
"I still had to lose you."
"You don't have to lose me again." She floated closer, but she was still so far away. Too far away. "I'm right here."
"No." Eretria was shaking. She'd already lost Amberle once. She couldn't do it again. "You're not. And you know, I should thank you for it. You caused this. It's why you're here, isn't it? To fix your mistake?"
"I'm trying to help you."
"No, you're trying to smother me, but I'm not a mistake. I'm finally me, and I won't let you ruin it like you ruined everything else. It was always, always about you."
"That's not true--"
"And now that I finally found myself, found power, you want to take it away from me. I'm not letting that happen."
"Eretria, please!" she begged, trying to get closer, trying to fight the black tendrils pulsing between them. "This isn't you!"
"It is now."
Her cocoon wove itself shut, leaving Amberle's light behind.