Summary

In “Misery,” El fell into Orion’s arms and burst into tears. He asked her what was wrong, but she did not want to talk about the horrible experience of being eaten by the same sort of monster that had killed her father. She had felt humans inside the monster’s stomach, half-dead and screaming, because the maw-mouth never killed its victims. They existed inside it, perpetually in torture, forever. Her father had sacrificed himself to a maw-mouth when it had wrapped a tentacle around her mother, who had already been pregnant, in order to save both women.

Orion took El back to her room and stayed with her while she napped. At dinner, she was nearly comatose. Orion grabbed a mop and hit the ceiling until monsters fell down. He killed them all and injected all the mana straight into El’s...