Syndrome

Pearls are sacred to Pearlcatchers, and despite being a member of Clan Nekros, Syndrome had been no different from other Pearlcatchers in how jealously, how carefully, she guarded her pearl. It was made of her own essence, her own memories and soul. To lose it would be to lose part of herself.

She didn’t lose her pearl. In the end, it was taken from her.

Grimm chose to sacrifice his daughter’s pearl to his cauldron; he’d put in bits of bodies before so why not part of a soul? Surely the Plague Mother would find that a fitting sacrifice. She’d screamed and clawed at him, attacking him with all the fierce fervor in her, until he had held her still-small body over the cauldron and threatened to drop her in as well. Weeping and wounded, as lost as a new hatchling still in the process of digesting their eggshell, she had crawled away from her father to curl up and cry.

It might’ve ended there, as it did for so many other Pearlcatchers who lost their pearls (what price life, what joy was there left?), if it hadn’t been for Zombetty ambling over and pushing a brain into Syndrome’s hands. Maybe she thought that all Syndrome needed was something to hold onto. Maybe she thought an extra brain would help Syndrome find a solution. Maybe she understood that pearls contained memories just like brains did.

Whatever her reasoning was, the gift snapped Syndrome out of her despair and she stopped sobbing to try to reason out what she should do next.

A Pearlcatcher’s first pearl was made from eggshell, chewed and regurgitated. So she needed to find eggs. And eggs were full of slime! Like the substance she spit up onto her pearl to harden it and make it grow. So maybe at the core of the egg was a pearl. Her pearl. She just needed to find it...

At first, Syndrome started to hunt eggs, lurking near empty nests to wait until they were filled and then stealing them. She soon graduated to destroying her own brood, believing perhaps her pearl must come from within her own body.

She crushes the eggs, searching through the sticky mess inside for the pearl but is always disappointed. There’s never anything but embryos, which she gives to Zombetty to eat. For her part, Syndrome consumes the eggshell and tries to spit up another pearl.

It never works. The eggshell tears up her insides and leaves her dribbling blood from her gums but she continues searching anyway. One day she’ll find her pearl. And then maybe she’ll shove her father into his precious cauldron.