Tayo’s words struck Lily with the force of a physical blow. Her eyes widened.
Her calm facade cracked to reveal pure shock. A beat of silence hung in the cool garden air. Then she spoke again her voice low and seething with a rage that made the air feel cold.
"Where is Sona?"
Tayo could feel the fury radiating from her creator. She flinched. She kept her head bowed low.
"My Lord" she stammered her voice trembling.
"They... they were using Sona... to find out about you. I... I killed her with my own hands to protect your identity Lily-Sama."
The moment the words left Tayo’s mouth Lily’s shock morphed into unrestrained fury.
She did not respond with words. She acted. In a single fluid motion she leaped from the open doorway of her room.
She cleared the distance to the garden floor in a silent predatory arc.
Seeing the movement Tayo reacted instinctively. She tried to push off the ground.
She wanted to fly backward and gain distance. But Lily was impossibly fast.
Before Tayo’s wings could even fully extend Lily was there. She was a blur of motion that resolved into a solid form directly in front of her.
Lily’s hand shot out and clamped around Tayo’s neck. Her grip was like iron.
It lifted the clone partially off the ground and cut off her breath. Tayo flailed in the air unable to free herself from Lily’s grasp. Her powers were useless against her creator.
"Who gave you the order to kill my favorite Sona?" Lily snarled her face inches from Tayo’s. Her eyes held a hatred Tayo had never seen before.
Gasping Tayo clawed uselessly at Lily’s wrist. "My Lord... they... they would have known your secret..." she choked out her words strangled and weak. She had to fight for every word.
Lily’s expression was unmoved by the plea. She paid no attention to the desperate explanation.
Her grip tightened. A crimson energy vibrant and malevolent began to seep from her hand. It snaked around Tayo’s body like a living vine. It coiled tighter and tighter crushing the clone with an immense and visible pressure.
The sound of Tayo’s bones breaking filled the air. Her eyes widened in terror. But she could not even scream.
Then the red energy burst into flame.
The fire consumed Tayo. But it was a strange fire that did not radiate heat outward. It burned the clone from the inside out while Lily’s hand still gripping the clone’s neck remained completely untouched.
After a few agonizing seconds Tayo’s struggling ceased. Her body disintegrated within the flames. Only a small pile of fine gray ash was left. It drifted down to settle on the pristine grass of the garden.
Lily released her grip letting the last of the ashes fall.
She looked at her clean hand then brushed it off as if dusting away a minor inconvenience. She walked back to her room stepping gracefully over the threshold.
Taking a deep breath she spoke to the empty room her voice flat and devoid of emotion.
"I did not like your action at all."
Almost immediately after speaking she extended her hand toward the far wall of the room. There was no anger in her eyes now. Only a cold emptiness.
"Create Copy" she commanded.
The air in front of her shimmered. Particles of light converged swirling and solidifying.
They rapidly took on a familiar humanoid shape. Within seconds a new Sona stood before her. Her wings glowed faintly. The new Sona blinked. Her eyes opened to a world she did not recognize.
"My name is Sona" she said her voice soft and confused. "But I don’t know what I’m doing... or how I got here. I don’t remember anything but my name."
Lily stepped forward and gently took the new Sona into her arms. She pressed her cheek against the clone’s. "I created you" Lily whispered her tone now warm and affectionate.
"My name is Lily and I am your creator. You will obey my every word." She held Sona close. "I missed you so much Sona."
Despite having existed for less than a minute the clone responded to the affection. A look of attachment formed on her face as she leaned into the embrace. The indoctrination coded within her was working.
Lily held her for another moment. Then she gently pushed her back releasing her from the hug. The Sona clone hovered in the air. "I made a mistake" Lily said her voice now cool and calculating.
"I created only one of you. I will correct that mistake now."
She extended both of her hands.
"Create Copies."
The air in the room warped again. Beside the first Sona another materialized. Then another and another. One by one identical copies of Sona formed until more than ten of them hovered in the room.
Their wings beat silently as they circled their creator.
Lily addressed them all repeating the same words. She told them she was their creator and that they would exist only to obey her.
After a few moments of receiving their instructions the Sonas moved back forming a silent flying phalanx. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ n0velfire.net
Lily watched them then paused.
Tayo was a failure but she was also a useful asset. She could not be discarded so easily. Lily decided to replace her but the warmth she held for Sona was absent from the thought.
She raised her hand once more.
"Create Copies."
A new set of clones materialized.
This time over fifteen identical Tayos filled the remaining space in the room.
There was no embrace no words of affection. Lily looked at them with a cold appraising gaze. She now saw them as inferior to Sona.
She gave them their indoctrination a simple statement of fact: she was their creator. Then without any further ceremony she sent them on their assigned missions.
Dozens of Tayos dissolved into the air.
Each one was assigned a new task—to gather information on The Union to find Adam to monitor his every move. They were all Lily’s eyes and ears. An extension of her wrath and her will.
The room was now empty except for the Sona clones who waited silently. Lily looked at them and smiled faintly. It was not a smile of victory but the smile of a creator looking at her favorite creation.
Her anger was gone now replaced by a cold determination. Adam had taken one Sona from her. Lily would now send her entire army after him.