A series of cloudy visions followed.

Lilith's hands around Ajo's throat.

Lilith's whip across Ajo's back.

Many of these memories were more like ideas and feelings, and Ajo had tried hard to forget them by burying this era of torment deep in his mind.

But there were a few scenes that remained vivid spectacles of horror.

Ajo was on the ground, curled into a ball and wailing as Lilith took a strap to his skin.

"Pathetic!" Lilith roared over his quivering body.

There were chains around his wrists, and though they did not connect to any discernible grounding place, it was clear that Ajo remained incapable of fleeing or defending himself, either physically or with magic.

"The great hero of the woods," Lilith snarked and struck again. "Tales of your bravery used to echo through the world. Now, those tales have been forgotten. You're the pathetic boy that no one could love—not even his bride!"

He had been stripped of his princely clothing and wore tattered pants and a shirt, barely distinguishable from rags. The shirt was covered in dirt and blood, and it matched Ajo's skin, which hadn't seen a bath in any memorable amount of time.

The next lick of the strap split a gash on his shoulder.

"You deserve to suffer," Lilith said. "Because you are not a man or a king. You are a beast and nothing more."

When Ajo opened his mouth to cry, Lilith took the sound and squeezed the air from his lungs. Ajo choked in complete silence for as long as his tormentor found it entertaining.

Lilith's rage came and went as she pleased. If Ajo desired to know why she tortured him, Lilith offered a vague reason just once:

"You will suffer to be reborn."

***

There was a quiet moment, a rare thing under Lilith's care, when Ajo found himself alone in a room that had nothing but a pair of empty shackles anchored to the wall. He was fresh from Lilith's attention and covered in bruises and reopened wounds. When he moved, it was with a slight limp.

The second the door closed behind him Ajo fell to the floor, a broken thing, and began to weep. He was thankful, though silently so, that Lilith had allowed him the use of his voice, so that he could hear his cries. She must have believed the sound would humiliate him, but it was a comfort. A reminder that he was alive.

When he calmed, he pulled himself into sitting and flicked his wrist towards the wall, conjuring a vision of Galeia. As much as he wanted to hate her, he found he couldn't maintain his anger at all times. The vision smiled, giving him a momentary respite from the agony of his life, and making him forget, if for a second, where he was and what had become of him.

This was his last succor in the world, more precious to him than anything else.

"Do you think mother is looking for me?" His voice was hoarse and could not reach above a whisper.

The vision moved to him, and though he knew he could not touch her, Ajo threw his arms around her waist and sobbed into the cold air of her body. The vision mimicked running her fingers through his hair as his tears fell through her and onto the floor.

The door swung open and the vision disappeared—but not quickly enough.

Lilith dragged him out of the house by his ear. Clean air brushed against his face, and it seemed a lifetime had passed since Ajo last felt its kiss. 

"You dare keep things from me," she snarled. "You need a lesson."

"I didn't know it was wrong!"

It never did him any good to explain, for Lilith had no interest in excuses. She pulled him into the woods and slammed him against a tree before conjuring a rope. With almost no energy left in his weak body, Ajo could do nothing when Lilith bound him to the trunk.

"This is where you will stay, all night and all day, until I remember you are here." Her lips brushed against his ear. "No one will save you. No one cares for you. Deep down, you know this."

"Why?" Ajo croaked. "We were friends...why are you treating me like this?"

"Because you deserve it. Say it. Say it so I can hear." Ajo struggled against the rope. "Say it or I'll take something from you."

"I...I deserve this."

Lilith struck him. "Say it again."

"I deserve this!"

She left the woods and Ajo remained tethered to the tree for several days and nights. As the last bit of strength drained from his body, Ajo's spirit began to dim. He wallowed in thoughts of being a useless, empty thing.

He didn't dare move a finger to save himself.

He wondered why his mother had not come to him—or if she was even concerned by his disappearance.

Lilith was right. No one would come, for no one cared. He was a monster, though he could not remember what made him one.

"I deserve this," he said to himself.

The silence of the trees confirmed it.

Slowly, Ajo's shame and despair began to change, and something new took hold of him.

Transforming into anger.

It grew until Ajo could not bear it, and with a terrible, raspy scream his body tightened and the rope that bound him burst into flames, landing on the ground as ash.

He fell to his knees and choked on long gulps of air until he calmed himself enough to stumble to his feet. He flicked his wrist and a length of thorns appeared in his hand. A storm was born in his eyes, and fury chased its way through his blood as Ajo set against the tree he'd been bound to, splitting its bark with long, deep gouges. To amplify the destruction he sent fire through the whip, and stood back with grim satisfaction as the tree burned black.

He turned to the purple house on the hill.

Before he ventured into the woods, there was a score to settle with the witch.

Lilith was waiting in the yard, sitting on a stump and drinking tea. When he approached she gave a nod, unconcerned by his appearance or the weapon he wielded. 

"About damn time," Lilith growled. "I was beginning to wonder if you had any sense at all, or if you were too stupid to save yourself." She looked at the thorns in Ajo's hand. "That meant for me?"

He raised the weapon.

"Come now," Lilith said with a cluck of her tongue. "There's better people to use it on."

Ajo hesitated and Lilith snorted.

"What's her meaning, you're asking yourself."

"Revenge," Ajo rasped.

"Ah, but the lesson here was about taking."

"What lesson?"

"You're spoiled, and it's made you dim! Everything in life was served to you on a silver platter, wasn't it? You're not royalty anymore, so you must learn the way of the world. Life does not serve. You will never be given what you want—you must take it." She motioned to the thorns. "You wanted freedom. Was I going to give it to you? No. Was anyone else? Obviously not. You would have stayed against that tree for eternity, until your body grew into it, before anyone helped you. So how did you earn your freedom, eh? You took it."

Ajo lowered the thorns.

"There's your lesson. Took you long enough, but you learned it all the same. Take, take, take. Or stay tethered and powerless." She sipped her tea without concern. "Say it, beast. Say what you had to do."

"I had to take my freedom."

"There's no power in being served, is there? Where's true power come from?"

"From taking."

"What will you do the next time you want something?"

"Take it."

"I believe you're beginning to understand," Lilith said with a cackle. "We can start your real education."

***

His body was covered in scars. Lilith made sure his wounds were never cleaned, so they healed slow and ugly.

Ajo's real education, as he came to know it, was torture of a different kind.

"I don't want to look," Ajo pleaded.

They were sitting in Lilith's kitchen.

"Open your eyes," Lilith snapped, "or I'll cut them open!"

Ajo's eyes fluttered open. An image of Galeia in the arms of her husband floated before him.

"What do we think of that?" Lilith asked.

Galeia kissed her husband.

"Thief," Ajo seethed.

"That is what she chose. That is what she thought was better than you." Ajo's jaw clenched. "What would you do to that thief?"

"Kill him."

"How?"

"Take his tongue. Choke the life from him. Hurt him."

"And Galeia? What would you do to the one who crushed your heart? Who made you the unworthy creature that sits before me?"

Ajo looked at Lilith with a bewildered expression.

"Oh yes," Lilith said. "She made you this way, never doubt that. She knew what would happen when she lured you here. What revenge would you have in store for her?"

"I...I would..."

He could not find the words. The hate was there, but it was not strong enough. Lilith slammed her fist onto the table, scattering the image away.

"I will not tolerate weakness. Another scar will help you remember that."

Of all her merciless tricks, the most despicable was Lilith's talent for using dreams and memories as weapons. She would peer into Ajo's mind to find the most lovely remembrances he had, then twist them into hideous fantasies to play before him, making them feel as real as if he had lived them.

She often threatened to take his memories away completely, and turn him into a shell with no recollection of his life.

"I've dreamed of attempting that magic," she would cackle when she promised such torture, "and who better than the Prince of the Wood as my first test?"

She never went through with it, as she was more keen on keeping him intact so she could use his mind to torment him.

***

"What would you do if I brought Galeia to you now...?"

Lilith's voice echoed through the grand dining hall, but Ajo could not see her. 

He was home, at the Queen's castle, and before him was an extravagant feast.

"Dinner," Ajo remembered. "This used to be dinner." He shook his head. "This is not real—is it?"

"Why did you write this?" 

Galeia's voice. She was sitting before him. He was on his knees. 

There were tears in her eyes, and Ajo wanted to reach up and wipe them away.

"I remember this," Ajo said.

Galeia looked at him blankly.

"Why did you write this?" she repeated.

There was a green book in her lap. His book. She had finished reading a poem from it.

"Because it's the truth," he answered as his present mind connected with the memory.

"I do not deserve this."

"I thought the same of this."

He did not lift his hand to present the string and cracked white shell, but Galeia gasped as if she could see it.

"I've fought to be worthy of you," Ajo continued numbly. "And now I know I am."

"Ajo."

He pulled her into a kiss. Their first.

Galeia did not push him away. She did not tell him she couldn't love him. She did not run from him.

This time, she allowed the kiss.

Ajo put his hand in her hair. He moved from the floor and pushed her onto the table, then crawled atop her, planting kiss after kiss on her face and neck. His hand traveled to her bosom—

"That's not how it happened," Lilith's voice interrupted.

Ajo looked up and was horrified to discover Lilith had taken Galeia's place. The witch cackled when Ajo jumped back, and the dining hall dissolved into Lilith's kitchen.

Ajo grabbed the table to steady himself.

"She rejected you," Lilith said with a snicker. "Galeia told you she would rather marry the trees!"

The hag found it so humorous that she laughed the whole time she beat him.

***

It was Lilith's favorite trick, using Galeia's image to torment him.

Sometimes she wore it while she tore at his skin.

The worst was when she used it to soothe or entice him.

Less and less Ajo trusted what he saw.

More and more he learned to hate Galeia's face.

Lilith was quick to remind him that it was a face he was unworthy of loving. A face that hated him. A face that wanted him to suffer, and had seen to trapping him under Lilith's thumb.

Every moment of his agony was that face's fault.

There were moments when Lilith reminisced about their friendship as adolescents, when he knew her as the Gretch. She went as far as to don the fur and feathers so he would never forget that his friend had been a lie.

"It was Galeia's scheme," Lilith revealed about the costume. "Until she split her soul with that human, it was her greatest—and cruelest—trick."

She scratched a long line down Ajo's back with her fingernail.

Another scar for some unknown disobedience.

"How did she find you?" Ajo asked weakly.

He was growing accustomed to pain and could speak through most of it. Lilith did not mind when he did, for he still shed plenty of tears for her to gather in her vials.

And more than enough blood.

"She barely remembered our mother or her time here—but I remembered my sister, so I watched and waited for the perfect moment to present myself. When she almost killed a mortal I knew it was time. I helped her discover her true self. Oh, we reveled in the mischief and chaos we made together! She felt the powerful pull of darkness, and she knew there was only one other who could understand it. And I fed that darkness, oh yes, I did."

Ajo gaped at her. Galeia should have known better—she did know better.

All his effort to guide her towards light had been for nothing.

"She loved the game of the Gretch," Lilith continued, "though she refused to wear it, despite my urging."

"Why...why would you do this?"

"Because Galeia was right. It was fun."

Lilith lifted her nail from Ajo's skin and replaced it with a bottle to catch the drops of red that fell.

"Even thought for a moment you might fall in love with the costume—oh, what a treat that would have been! But alas, the little prince's eye would not look elsewhere, no matter how hard I tried. Galeia never cared for one game in particular—'Bodies', I think it was called." Lilith cackled. "Believed you were touching your precious princess, but it was me. Almost had you, too! Almost got the kiss of a prince."

She spat on the floor.

" 'Course as she grew, Galeia became less fun. One day she announced I was unworthy of her companionship. Can you believe that? Pathetic. She tried to tell herself that she had outgrown our fun—that she was above it! Hah! Your presence here proves otherwise." Lilith pushed on his fresh wound to spill more blood. "But until then...she savored your gullibility. She called you a great fool and giggled behind your back. She hated you. Your entire life."

"That's not true."

"Then I'll strike you until it is!"

Lilith raised the bottle and Ajo braced himself to be hit.

"Galeia was never so unkind," he dared to whisper.

Lilith's hand lowered and a grin cut across her lips.

"Let me tell you about the real Galeia. She was not a princess, and no amount of primping or posturing would have changed that. She knew what was within her, all those urges that came to the front of her desire—and when I told her darkness was not something to be shielded from, but a power to wield...Galeia listened. She knew I was right. You can't turn your back on what you are. The seed of evil will grow until it blooms, even without me to water it."

"She is capable of kindness," he argued softly.

Lilith raised her eyebrow but did not address his remark. 

"I thought her an idiot to return after casting me aside...but she—how did she put it? She needed to find peace, so she presented a wonderful offer. The Prince of the Wood! How could I refuse? You know what she said right before she brought you here? Kill him."

A tear fell from Ajo's eye and Lilith was quick to catch it in a vial.

" 'What of the Queen?' I asked her. 'I will pacify her with a lie,' Galeia answered. 'Just see that Ajo is gone. I don't know if it is possible...but I beseech you to try.' "

Lilith waited for a response. When none came she poked Ajo's wound.

"Want to know what lie Galeia told the Queen?"

"No," Ajo said numbly.

"How's that for your kind princess, eh? What's that make you feel?"

Ajo was trembling. When he spoke, his voice was cold and stoic.

"Nothing."

***

He was in the dining hall at his home. Galeia was before him, leaning back on the table.

Pulling him towards her for a kiss.

"Ajo," she cooed with a seductive smile. "I love you."

His hand rose to pull on a strand of her hair. He drew close until their lips were almost touching.

"Liar," he whispered as his hand wrapped around her neck.

His other hand joined it, and he was pleased by the sound of Galeia choking on her breath.

"Liar," he repeated and squeezed harder.

He pushed her onto the table and pressed down on her neck.

"Liar."

He wanted to watch the life flow from her body.

Galeia and the dining hall disappeared, leaving the very real Lilith and her kitchen in their place. After all this time, the shift still left Ajo dazed. He fell into the chair behind him, trying to steady his dizzied mind.

"You wanted to hurt her," Lilith observed.

"Yes."

"More than that, I think."

"Yes."

Lilith conjured an image of Galeia embracing her husband. Ajo stared at them with hate.

"What would you do to the thief who took her?"

"Kill him."

"And Galeia?"

There was no remorse when he replied, "Kill her."

"Mmm." Lilith waved the image away. "What would you do if I threw her at your feet, right now, bound and unable to wriggle away? Utterly helpless under your revenge? What would you do to her?"

Ajo was silent for a moment. "I would take her eyes first."

"And after?"

"I would take other pieces until there was nothing left."

Lilith cackled and slapped her knee. "My, my! The fool can learn!"

He followed the hag outside, where the moon cast its light over the grass.

"When Galeia brought you to me I was overjoyed," Lilith said. "I held a pawn in my fist that could bring down a kingdom. It would take time, I knew. Patience. I've only ever wanted one thing: Power. I should have had it long ago, should have drank the magic from the witch who bore me, but alas, that was taken from me. I was tasked with your death, but why would I waste such a beast? Why would I destroy the perfect weapon for Galeia's ruin?"

They walked into the woods and Lilith stopped at a tree that had been badly burned.

"You remember the lesson learned here?" she asked.

"I do."

"You have to take what you want."

"And if I intend to take my freedom from you?"

"Don't waste your energy. I mean to free you, and I ask for one thing in return."

"I will give you nothing."

"But it's the very thing you desire. Galeia wanted you dead, but I spared you. She is our enemy, and she must be destroyed. When you see her you may feel a pull towards mercy. This is a weakness, and it can be bested. A fool deals in pity, but a king? A king commands."

She turned to him.

"Are you a king, Ajo, or a fool?"

It was the first time Lilith had ever used his name. It sounded foreign, like it didn't belong to him. 

"I am a king," he answered, though he wasn't sure he believed it. 

"A king has power, doesn't he? If there remains some spot of desire in you...well, there's a way to use power for that."

The shackles fell from his wrists. They had constricted him for so long that he barely remembered what it was like to not bear their weight, and their sudden absence was both a relief and a curiosity. Ajo felt oddly incomplete.

"Nothing in the world is beyond the reach of your power," Lilith said. "You want something? Take it. That goes for anything. That goes for Galeia." She nudged him with her elbow. "Once you've had your revenge...might I suggest bringing what remains to me?"

Ajo did not answer, but left the witch to journey into the forest. 

He was tired, but there was a ferocious glint in his eyes.

"Galeia the wicked," he muttered to himself. "Galeia the cruel."

She ruined his life and brought misery upon his soul.

She had broken his heart.

He would take hers.