~~~Trigger Warning~~~

Elena woke in bed, alone, heart racing. Vaguely, memories of having been this terrified started to filter in--the door had opened, and in had come...strangers? Some men she had once loved honorably?

It was that monster with a riding crop that scared her--a naked woman with flyaway hair, incanting in a tongue she didn't know well but was horrifyingly familiar.

That was the only sane part of the whole dream. That voice and that whip had...had...

In stormed a crowd. Elena sat up. In walked that monster. It was going to happen all over again.

Elena grabbed her own head, muttered, "wake up!" and then broke her neck.

~~~

Elena woke up alone...except her pillow moved to grab her hands. "Not this time. You're not ending what I have in store for you. I can smell him on your skin, so since you want him so bad, let's have him take care of you as you beg for his dick."

In walked Leoric...walked wasn't the right word. None of these men were real, not even what felt real enough. Nude, erect, but none of the reaching for rest she loved or desire for her she craved crossed that dead face, as he slowly shambled across the floor and crawled on top of her, leaving her world the view of his dead face and the chest of the monster who kept her from being in control of her own hands.

If only he'd take her--that would have just made the nightmare repetitive. Instead, he pulled a knife out of nowhere and started slowly peeling the skin off her ribs.

"You can't run this time, without hands! I'll bring you within an inch of dying before letting you re-live what you keep running from!"

Nothing was real. It hurt like hell. She killed herself with hands that weren't real last time. It was that woman's bastard hand reaching out to run a cold finger over her while this dead Leoric grunted like an animal over fileting her side that pushed her to realize that since none of it was real, she didn't need her own hands or that woman's command.

This time, without hands, the neck she snapped was that bitch's, then her own.

~~~

Elena sat up with a yelp next to Perch who was clutching her baby to her chest, nursing him.

"She got you too?" Perch asked softly.

"At first, yeah." Elena barely heard her own voice over her heartbeat.

"How did you protect yourself?"

"I didn't at first--had no clue I was dreaming and could stop it. Took several times for me to see that they were nightmares."

"I knew from the beginning. I can tell by what happened to give me my son--it's different. What's in there is nothing." Perch was a bit inarticulate, but then what those dreams were, was unbelievable. "So, How did you get out?"

"The first time I fought back, I broke my neck with my bare hands. So she pinned my hands, and I broke her neck with my mind before breaking mine again...then I woke up."

"I never thought to do that. My baby was my shield. They couldn't get through him to get to me."

That explained why she held her son every time she met someone new. That baby would soon be too old for how she used him to save herself.

~~~End Trigger~~~

Elena found herself falling asleep again--and of course, the monster came back, but each time she showed up--or anyone, really, she just broke their neck and sat in that bed, alone, while the corpse pile grew. The rage of this invader didn't cease, but Elena never forgot who she was, no matter how desperately different this dream started. The Priestess of Wren didn't know how to quit, but her mind was pathetically weak and Elena was tempted to give her a true taste of her own medicine but that was the result Wren herself would want. It was safest to just keep ending her.

~~~

Finally, Elena woke at dawn, then went through her morning absolutions, first in the Garderobe, then at this room's Laver Stand--one of the many furnished detritus that cluttered up any fancy home. She was tired and sore from a night of tensing up against nightmares and not truly resting. This win didn't feel like I won a damn thing. Even getting Wren out of her life wouldn't save her from having bits of this night infiltrate her dreams for the rest of her life--hopefully, it would be rare.

Perch had gone down before her, leaving her wondering if this world was real or not. The dining hall was filled with people breaking the fast, leaving her a bit claustrophobic. Belatedly, Elena realized that this was the first time she ever slept in later than the cook--she used to be the cook. Early mornings were a daily part of life. And here she was, making it down this late. If only she felt well rested. One of Leoric's daughters passed her by, singing. Instinctively on edge, Elena snapped that child's neck in her mind.

The child turned and looked at her with a slight grimace before giving her a knowing stare. Agni spoke quietly, "You will be safer if you leave."

Then she went back into her childish morning's play.

Elena couldn't stop the shudder that went down her spine as she made her way to sit by Ven.

He looked every bit as off as she felt.

"How bad was it?" Elena asked softly.

"I intended to go to my grave a Virgin. I might marry just to cover up this memory."

"So you were forced to?"

"No, no more than having long-buried desires used against me. I am too old for this." Venmaeus changed the subject abruptly. "I wound up drying your beets out and grinding them this morning--sealed it all in a waxed cloth bag."

They dropped the subject as food was placed in front of them. It was as quiet a meal as supper was--with three small children, it was quite eerie. Little Beth glared at her the whole meal--there was no doubt who the woman had been. Whatever monster lived in that child's body needed to die, and set that poor baby free.

It was her glare that decided her fate. Elena wouldn't play victim with this witch.

The only people who seemed normal were their knights. If they had salacious dreams, well, they must not have been much different than their normal ones.

~~~

There wasn't a real good time to get together that morning, so Elena beat the snot out of bedding for a couple of hours in what should have been the nursery before going to see Venmaeus.

She stopped back by the bedroom to grab the bottle of Deadrott and place it back against her waist.

The first thing Ven did was shove the wax pouch at her, which she stuffed in the same space. "He's maybe a few hours from the crossing, where they set up camp until we call them in. It's going to be better if you flee to him. I will call the men together for a short conversation in the courtyard. Saddle up, ride out, and I'll send one knight to back you. It needs to look like you ran out on us, in case Wren is watching.

An hour later, she could hear the men in the courtyard as Ven barked orders at them--it looked like a regular training session back in the army. Bless that old buzzard for trying to keep things normal.

Inside, her horse was already saddled--she checked everything over, not trusting this gift, but it was all sound. She walked her horse through the stable door then mounted her in the courtyard before breaking into a run through the gate and back towards the man she had married, and whom she was about to push into sacrificing everything.