"Ah, glad to see that you decided to join us." Sia almost managed to sound unfazed, for a moment. "I see now that Netta's not bluffing about that ace up her sleeve. My, but they seemed to have made you big - oh, and horny."

Netta felt her hands clenching under the table at the sound of her sister's pun. When Beryl giggled at Sia's joke, Netta looked up at the two of them, tried to quell her murderous rage.

Sia continued, saying, "Maybe you can tell me this - out of all of the truly delectable choices that you had before you, why did you pick the runt of the litter?"

Ash cocked his head to the side as he gazed at Sia. When he spoke, Ash's rasping voice sounded smoother, almost genial. "You know," Ash said, laughing. "that sort of talk is precisely why Netta's the only decent one out of all of you. Not this Coven. I mean, out of all of Witch kind. You, on the other hand -" Ash sighed. "you must think this world is odd, without someone throwing a stick for you to chase."

Beryl gasped, dropping her fork onto the table with a loud clatter.

Sia stared at Ash, silently and without moving a muscle in her face. Finally, she said, softly, "I see now why Netta and you work so well together. Sister, I am glad that you've found a creature as vile as this to warm your bed - truly, if not for Its remarkable power, It would be in the possession of someone with more sense than you, who would have corrected It by now. Corrected It into bleeding submission."

"Tell me," Ash asked, quickly. "I never got a chance to speak to you before, and I've been dying to ask."

"Yes," Sia answered immediately. "I am ready and willing to show you how a proper Witch takes care and consideration in correcting a rebellious Monster."

"I was going to ask how many guys it took to suck off before you could afford that dress."

Dead silence.

Finally, Sia turned a smile up at his words, ghostly and cruel looking. "I will take great pleasure in telling you that, unlike my sister next to you, I have never felt the need to pleasure a Monster for any reason."

Ash settled back in his seat and stared a hole into her sister's face. Sia blinked in return. Finally, the smile that seemed to have been threatening to spread on her face broke.

She laughed. "I'm only joking, King - what was your name again, if the rumors are to be believed - King Traitor? Or was it King Nothing?"

Netta felt the ripple of his muscles tensing in the arm that wound over her shoulder. Ashwood chuckled, and if not for the ripple of indignation that she felt from his mind, Netta would have thought that it was sincere. "Sure. let's go with that."

Sia threw a leg over her knee and seemed to be examining them like they were an exhibit in a zoo. "Inter-species love, here for us to bear witness to. One as old as Chronos, the other an ineffectual, flapping wreck. I have to be frank with you, Nettles," Sia shook her head, reaching over for a sip from her wine glass before she continued. "when we learned who It - "he" - was - oh, far before you did, certainly," she flashed another smile at Netta. "we all thought that that thing would have devoured you long before this point. That alone accounts for how you've gotten this far, for who would have thought that a proud, mighty, and rabid barbarian King of his kind would have been content with petting the rabbit we had placed in his cage to consume?"

Netta turned, caught sight of Ash's wide grin, exposing his pointed teeth. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that with absolute certainty. That I haven't devoured her at least a handful of times."

Beryl made a disgusted sound. "Eww. Consensual sex is so gross with creatures."

Netta snapped her attention back to Sia, said, "Enough of this. What game are you trying to play with me?"

"Oh," Sia sighed, running her hand down the length of her wineglass' stem. "tired of our games already, little sister? Would you perhaps prefer something more untamed, like how we used to practice doctor on each other -"

Netta slammed her fist down on the table, anger and outrage shaking her. "Enough! I'm not going to tolerate any more of this. I came here for answers, I thought you were owed at least enough to understand why you did it."

Beryl piped up. "Why we did what? It wasn't obvious enough to you already?"

Before Netta could ask the child-like Witch what it was that she meant, Sia said, "Now, now, we all know that Netta is far from the sharpest of the little orphans that Mother took in, let alone the smartest of her own brood."

Netta stared at Sia's smiling, seemingly benevolent face. She felt a rage breaking through her that was unlike nearly anything that she had ever experienced. "Shut up."

One of Sia's eyebrows raised. "What's the matter? You're looking a little tense for someone who just wants answers, no?"

Netta's hands clenched, taut, into fists. "I didn't say that I just came for answers, sister."

Beryl said, "Ooh, was that supposed to sound threatening?"

Sia tapped her finger against her chin, a wry smirk on her lips. "I'd say that if you came, expecting answers, then you're simply better off trying whatever useless stunt you think you came here to pull."

Inside of her mind, all Netta thought that she could feel was red. Red as fire, red as blood, red as anger, baiting her. Netta took the bait for the first time in her life, feeling the support of Ash's power as it flowed through her. She hardly needed to express that rage - her choice in letting it go - before she heard Ash's voice echoing in her mind. I'll end this quick for you.

In one moment, Ash was sitting next to her. In the next, he was standing behind Beryl, one arm raised at the ready.

Before he could swing down, Sia's voice rang out. "Stop."

Netta's voice caught in her throat, and Ash stilled, as though he had become stuck.

Sia turned, slowly, gazed at Netta calmly. Her expression changed as she burst into wild laughter. "Oh, Nettles, the look on your face right now. I wish you could see it."

Netta wanted to speak - or scream. Instead, she stared at her sister, her pulse beating a senseless smashing tempo in her ears. What is this? Why did Ash stop? Why can't I -

"I must offer my apologies now, for I have not been fully truthful with you. And truth is one thing that keeps the world going around."

Beryl, who had turned around to gaze curiously at a fully stopped Ashwood, sat up in her chair to touch his chest. Ash was frozen in place, not reacting to her bold touch.

Sia's voice sounded good-natured, warm with laughter, "Now, what's with the long face, little sister? A little confused, perhaps?" She blinked, then made a mock-impatient face at Netta. "Cat got your tongue? My, but this little situation we have ourselves in has made for an interesting study."

"Aw," Beryl said, standing up in her chair so that she could raise her arm as high as she could manage, turning around, her finger tips grazing the middle of Ash's chest. "even I grow dreadful tired of your little games. Tell the poor thing how you've got her by the short hairs!"

"Ever the impatient one. Netta? You are this creature's Master, but through the laws of proxy, what's yours is mine. As you both stand right now, all I have to do is tell you what to do." She stared at Netta for a moment, as though she were waiting for a response from her.

Netta's mind roared, and yet all she could do was sit there. It was as though she were in strait jacket, only able to gaze.

Sia said, "Some further explanation is in order, no? That is why you were so very complacent in coming here, in sitting among us like we're family all over again. Well, put simply, we've had more than a few fumbling experiments that we've shared, Netta."

Netta closed her eyes, thought for a moment that she was going to hyperventilate. It can't be true - please don't let this be true.

Still Sia's voice penetrated, even with Netta's eyes shut, intruding on her thoughts. "Why, some would even say that we were each other's firsts. I mean, I was tasked with humbling you, and then I got to carry the memory all by my lonesome while you got to walk away from the night without a memory of it having ever occurred. But, me talking about it like this - it sparks a feeling, doesn't it? A cold stone ground in a special place - Mother and Calliope watching us, telling me what to do..."

It was as though Sia's words were like magic, forcing Netta to recall something that she seemed to be conjuring. Yes, there had been a cold ground, and terror. She could hear Hera, recalled what she had said being both horrible and unbelievable.

Clear as anything, Netta remembered her older sister, pinning her down.

"Don't move and don't try to scream," her sister had warned her. "we do this quickly and then you can go back to being ignorant."

Netta snapped her eyes opened, finding that the memories that seemed projected on her eyelids were more horrifying than what she was witnessing.

And that, too, was horrible to behold. Ashwood remained behind Beryl, as though he had been turned into a perfect wax figure of himself, arm poised as though ready to strike down on her.

Sia smiled at her, a horrible grin. "We had to erase the memory from your mind. I didn't appreciate the ceremony when I was young, but you grow into power and an appreciation of control with age. At least I was trusted with keeping the memory with me - unlike you. You could not be trusted with it, otherwise, you would have known more than you should have. And likely would have tried to commit suicide. No, we took great care to keep you from ever actually wanting to do it, kept you dulled and generally unhappy, but never enough to want to go through with killing yourself. You, and the the little foundlings Mother took in for their own good as well as ours, knew nothing of our intent. And you would have never been able to be the dutiful little playmate to the good "King" here, if you had been mentally broken, truly destroyed."

Beryl added, "Of course, we never thought that you would live past, well, whatever age the Monster would decide to devour you. Not that old, that's what Mother always told us."

Sia stood up and walked over to the frozen Ashwood. She raised her hand, ran it along the harsh line of his jaw.

"We had no way of knowing when this creature would appear, but we knew he would come for the filthy offering we had prepared for him. My, but we never thought he would appear in anything less than regalia, some sense of class. Imagine, the forgotten, exiled lord of Monsters appearing in such a way that he could be mistaken for such a bottom level creature as an Incubi."

Netta felt sick, wanted to order the woman to keep her hand from off of Ash. Her mind spun, wanting to ignore everything that Sia told her.

But how to account for Sia's power over her?

Netta tried to move, again horrified to discover that she could not.

Sia turned, gazed at Netta with eyes that haunted her. "And to think. A lion turning down Its offering, then lying with it as though it were one of Its own." She cocked her head to the side, gazed, quizzically, at Netta. "You were never meant to be anything more than bait. And then he would have been ours to command, to rule."

Beryl spoke up, her voice cheery. "He should have gobbled you up."

Sia added, "And now there's only the question of what to do with you. Well," she sighed. "as one of your vile little friends have noted in the past, I have gained a taste for the flesh and will of weaklings. Maybe," Sia began a purposeful, slow walk towards Netta. "you can be my offering, no?"

Netta watched, unable to do anything but feel panic rising in her like a tide, as her sister walked towards her.

And then Sia laid her hand on the back of Netta's chair, leaning in so that her face hovered close to Netta's. "You would like that, wouldn't you?" Sia's voice had lowered and she brought her face close to Netta's. "Make up for lost time-"

The sound of the familiar voice, ringing out from the doorway of the kitchen, made Sia freeze as though it had just cast the same spell on her as she had Netta. "Saorise, there is no need for you to torment that one. She already has so long of a night ahead of her as it is."