Blackfeather Woods you've got to ste[m] the evil tide

She ate and ate, teeth catching on stone and scoring earth, trying her very best to ease the vitriolic rage that spewed from Maegi. Little by little the vomit was crushed between her molars, forced back, swallowed. Parvati wasn't in her right mind any more than Maegi; she didn't taste the bitterness of her own bile, nor take notice of the dirt collecting between the gaps in her teeth, becoming mud. She didn't hear the words Maegi screamed; did not smell the saline of her tears. Parvati was present for all of it and none of it simultaneously; she merely wished to satiate that rage, yet even in trying to ease Maegi's evident pain, her actions stoked that fire instead.

The woman tried. She tried so hard to get every last piece of the rabbit, inching across the dirt even after Maegi had pulled back from her. The grip of teeth on her nape faded but Parvati continued, frenzied, gathering and swallowing until the only thing she could taste was the mineral-rich soil in her throat. The mud slicking her insides. You left me empty and rotting,] came Maegi's voice, and some part of it caught in Parvati's ears. Empty and rotting, it echoed.

You'll rot, too.Like the rabbit.

You'll rot, The grit of dirt in her teeth.

I trusted you, Familiarity - a flickering connection, urging Parvati to lift her eyes to the mania corrupting Maegi's expression; for a glimpse she was herself again

and ---

The gods will punish you — then, Mmmm, she tried to speak up for herself, to say the name as it danced on the tip of her tongue, but her tongue wouldn't obey.