Lyra sat down on the cushion a few days later as she waited for Mommy to cook breakfast. Her mind was still spacey and full of holes after her ritual of sniffing the dryad flower and saying her mantras, and she stared blankly out a window, looking at some plants outside. Whatever confusing feelings she had when Thea had visited seemingly had left, as Lyra looked very content sitting on the cushion. Demeter walked into the room with a couple of plates, but before she sat down with Lyra, she put the plates up on a small table, walked over to a door on the far side of the large room where they spent most of their time, and opened it.

“I was thinking lately that you haven’t really gotten to explore what makes this space so special. I don’t want to simply have you stay in your room and come out every once in a while, although that’s been a very easy life for you. There’s so much more for you to do here, so why don’t we eat our breakfast in the greenhouse. It’s the room in this space where I grow all of the plants I’ve come to love on this Earth.” Demeter smiled as she walked back to grab the plates, and Lyra stood up, nodding.

“I don’t think that I’ve seen the greenhouse, Mommy. I imagine it must be quite beautiful given your status as a goddess.” Lyra walked over to the door with Demeter, smiling as Demeter patted her on the head and ran her hand along the length of her hair. It had grown to about waist length from the shoulder length it was when she arrived here, although Lyra didn’t notice the difference nor did she really care. She also didn’t notice the change in the color of her roots as they started to shift from her raven black hair color to a deep purple color. After seeing Thea, Lyra started to quickly not question things anymore.

‘Mommy really is nice to me. The free food, the outfits, and now a greenhouse to explore. I’m starting to think I had her wrong from the beginning…and that I should just be an obedient daughter.’ The thought passed through Lyra without any alarm. It simply made sense to her now. ‘Following the agreement is the only path I have, I think. There’s no reason to fight it anymore, since Mommy is doing her part too.’

The two walked into the greenhouse, and Lyra gasped as she took the sights in. It wasn’t quite like anything she had ever seen before. The room was absolutely massive, tall enough to have full grown trees inside of it, and the ceiling was transparent, allowing for sunlight to pour in, almost as if Lyra were just standing outside. Lyra spun around as she looked at plants all around, plants that she had never before in her life seen. Flowers blooming in an array of different shapes and colors surrounded her; she could hardly stop at any one flower to look at it for too long. Tall yellow flowers with dark centers, bizarre purple flowers with a triangular white section in the middle, large bright purple and white flowers that attracted the lazy buzzing of bumblebees to them and more that Lyra both recognized and didn’t. She sniffed a flower whose petals reminded her of little people before smelling some lavender and sighing at the familiar and pleasant smell.

“Dear, over here!” Demeter yelled out as Lyra looked for her. She was sitting underneath one of the massive trees in the room, one that was much taller than any of the other trees in the room. Lyra walked down the path to the tree, straining her head as she looked up to see just how high the tree rose. She couldn’t get a good look through all of the branches, but even if she was able to see, it was likely she wasn’t going to spot the top of the tree very easily. Demeter was sitting beside the tree, whose bark was a reddish brown color. There was a cloth laid out on the ground, with that day’s breakfast lying on top of it.

“It’s a beautiful tree, isn’t it? These trees are some of the tallest trees in the entire world, and this one still has a lot to grow. But we can discuss all the different kinds of plants later. Come, let’s eat breakfast.” Lyra walked over to the cloth and sat down on it, looking at a glazed pastry sitting on a small plate for her. She grabbed it and slowly took a bite out of it, her eyes suddenly widening as she could taste what was on it. The glaze was sweet, outstandingly sweet, and instantly Lyra took another bite and chewed as slowly as she could, savoring the incredible saccharine flavor in her mouth.

She could feel her eyes start to dim down as she continued to eat. It was so unbelievably sweet it was shutting down parts of her brain trying to process it, replacing them with pockets of sticky, almost stiff syrup instead. The taste almost felt familiar to Lyra but that feeling soon dissolved in the syrup that was taking over her brain. The pastry fell out of her hand onto the cloth below as she lost her balance, flopping down on the ground and giggling vacantly. Her head was almost completely full now, and any thought she was attempting to have was instantly getting stuck and fading away. She didn’t notice Demeter coming over and laying next to her, throwing an arm around her and grabbing her waist. She laughed as Lyra went completely blank, not responding to any of Demeter’s touches as she felt Lyra up between her legs.

“You did such a good job remembering my sweet girl. Going right into trance for me. You mortals are just so weak to this kind of manipulation. It would be almost pitiful if it wasn’t so convenient for my ends.” Demeter gloated as Lyra couldn’t really understand what she was saying. Something about being weak? That made sense, she certainly didn’t feel strong. There was a bit of reflex movement as Demeter pressed her hand against Lyra’s slit, but Lyra wasn’t reacting as much as her body was. Demeter slowly and gently stimulated her lips and her clit through the soft fabric of her nightgown, causing it to become a little damp as Lyra became wet.

“You haven’t even noticed the naughty place where I’m touching you. It might be indecent for a mother to do this to her own daughter but nothing about this is decent, and you’re so beautiful I just can’t help myself. I think that should be something we share together. But first, we have to do a little progress update. I think you’ve been making wonderful progress so far, but I want to hear it from your own mouth. Tell me which parts of your mantra you believe as truth.”

Mommy’s words had such a way of penetrating the syrup in Lyra’s head, and remaining so solid even when the syrup surrounded them again. It made them so easy to latch onto, so easy to obey as the only anchor in Lyra’s head that existed.

“My name is not Lyra. I am my Mommy’s daughter. It is good to be obedient.” Lyra said blankly, without a hint of emotion to it. Emotion was a hard feeling to manifest with her brain in such a condition.

“Three out of the four is very good. The fourth one is going to take more time I imagine. It might be that the name just has some strong connotations still left in your brain. But that is certainly very fixable. So, my dear Persephone, I am going to give you a new mantra to say to yourself every day, just like you were before. The mantra is

My name is Persephone.

I am a Goddess made mortal

I want to reclaim my divinity.

My old life no longer matters

Every time you say that it is going to become a little bit more true. Lyra, the mortal girl is no longer going to matter, and no longer going to exist. She’s not needed anymore. All that is needed is my beautiful daughter, Persephone.”

Lyra (Persephone?) soaked in the commands, quietly repeating the mantra out loud a couple of times unconsciously to make it set in. Persephone (Lyra?) felt the words stick to the side of her brain, safe from all the sticky syrup that could threaten to wash it away. The daughter (Lyra? Persephone?) didn’t want those words to go away. It was important that she remember them.

“One last thing before I deal with waking you up. As my daughter, Persephone, I am going to make sure you never feel the desire to become married to anyone else. So every night, right before you go to sleep, I want you to feel very turned on. So turned on you can’t help but start touching yourself. You’re going to masturbate to thoughts of me: my naked body, me telling you what to do, and me being in charge in bed. They’re going to arouse you, and you’re only going to be able to cum when thinking of me. As you continue to do this, you’re going to realize something very obvious: you’re sexually attracted to me, and that is very good. Do you understand?”

Lyra nodded slowly. The words were burning themselves in. It was a lot to remember but Mommy’s words were so powerful that it was almost effortless the way they were creeping in and settling in her mind.

“I’m going to count from one to ten, Persephone. When I reach ten, your trance will break, but you will become very sleepy and quickly fall asleep without realizing anything has happened. Your trance will not be a memory. Mommy needs some time for herself.”

Lyra curled up on the cloth as Mommy hit the number ten on her count. The greenhouse was really safe and tranquil, and not to mention just the right amount of warmness to be extra cozy. There was no way Persephone was going to be able to open her eyes, not that she wanted to. It was just too hard when she could just sleep. Soon, her sleep was deep and Demeter laughed as she stroked her face.

“Mommy needs some time alright, because she has something to attend to. Sleep tight my Persephone. You mean so much to me that nothing I could do to make your life better is wrong.” Demeter smiled a wide and crazed grin as she walked down the path to leave the greenhouse. Her outfit, a simple white robe that covered her modestly, replaced itself with a dark green dress that prominently displayed her cleavage, thighs, and with cutouts right above her hips. She had gone from benevolent Goddess to evil queen in the way she looked and carried herself almost immediately.

“It’s always wonderful to dress into your role. Everyone always misses the dark side of nature…” Demeter laughed as she stepped through the portal, and teleported herself back into the temple where she had found Lyra.

---

The temple was completely devoid of any visitors. While there were some new offerings at the altar, nothing looked particularly fresh. Demeter didn’t seem to care or notice, walking past the altar and her statue to the back end of the temple. Normally this would be the living quarters for the priests and priestesses who maintained the temple and the worship of Demeter. Her religious servants had long since abandoned this temple, however, when Demeter’s grief had caused the world to start to die. This left the various rooms unoccupied and empty.

Opening the door to one of the rooms, Demeter walked in and looked to the far wall, where Thea was bound up against the wall by a number of thick vines binding her legs and arms. Thea lifted her head and glared at Demeter, unable to talk thanks to a thick vine that was inserted into her mouth and throat. Demeter grinned sadistically, chuckling to herself.

“How are you enjoying yourself, Thea? I hope your accommodations are acceptable.” Demeter’s grin only grew wider as Thea struggled to get out of her bonds unfruitfully.

“Right. You’re all tied up. I can come back later if you need some time to work it out.” Demeter flicked her hand up, causing the vine to come out of Thea’s throat and mouth, making her have a coughing fit. Thea shuddered as she got used to having that part of her body not stuffed with a vine.

“You’re a really terrible woman, don’t you know that?” Thea spat out, trying to inject as much venom into her words as possible. Demeter chuckled, completely unfazed by Thea.

“I’d watch your words if I were you. You don’t want to be caught blaspheming the gods.” Thea tried to thrash a bit, but the vines merely tightened more in response to her struggling. “Terrible is a state of mind anyways. I’m terrible to you, sure, but to my darling Persephone I’m the sweetest mother she’ll ever have.”

“What are you doing to Lyra!? I knew something was off about her.” Thea tried to struggle one more time before giving up. There wasn’t any getting out of the vines, not without Demeter releasing her. She panted as she continued to glare at Demeter, not wanting to budge a mental inch against her.

“Lyra? I’m sure you must be mistaken. The only one with me is my darling daughter, Persephone, or at the very least, she soon will be.” Thea’s jaw grew slack as she started to realize what Demeter’s plan was. She didn’t know how she was doing it, but she was…

“You’re making her your daughter, somehow. She’s not going to be Lyra anymore. That’s what you’re telling me.”

“You got it. I had a feeling you were a smart young woman. There will soon simply no longer be a human, mortal woman named Lyra. Soon there will be the divine Persephone. Her origins do not matter. My Persephone will come back to me.” Demeter’s eyes grew almost unfocused as she talked about it. Thea wasn’t sure if Demeter was talking to her anymore or not.

“Then why are you keeping me here? What could you possibly get out of doing this!?” That got Demeter’s attention back to Thea.

“It would have been inconvenient if you had gone back to the village, for several reasons. The most important being that I actually took a liking to you. Persephone isn’t going to be much of a goddess if she has no one to worship her, is she? I don’t know who would be a better fit for that than a former friend. Although…” Demeter looked Thea up and down, examining her in a more direct way than Thea had been anticipating.

“You probably need some adjustments. My daughter is very beautiful, it would only make sense that her attendants be just as beautiful. I won’t do anything particularly drastic to you, I do have taste. Something that is lost on some other members of my family. You’ll just fill out a little bit here and there, your face and skin will smooth out, small changes really.” Demeter motioned to a couple of places on her body, like her thighs and breasts as she did so.

“Fine. But what about the rest of the village? They’ll notice. You can’t keep any of this a secret forever.” Demeter blinked before laughing very loudly, grabbing a desk on the side of the room for support.

“What are they going to do then? Storm into the temple and then…do something you suppose? They can’t even get to where Persephone is right now. But maybe you’re right and they might find you.” Demeter walked over to Thea, getting really close to her as she grabbed her chin and forced Thea to look into her eyes.

“But neither one of us are going to need to worry about that.” Demeter walked away as she motioned for the vine to re-enter Thea’s mouth, keeping her from replying. Thea tried to resist the vine from inserting itself, but wasn’t able to stop it from inching its way in and filling her mouth and throat again. A warm sap dripped from the tip of the vine directly into her throat and stomach, which started to make her dizzy.

Thea weakly pulled at the vines again, trying to break free, but found that her strength was rapidly diminishing. Some of the nectar came up when Thea coughed, and it tasted very sweet and caused her head to spin. Thea tried to resist losing consciousness from whatever Demeter was pumping into her.

‘No…don’t let this happen…Lyra…I’m…’

Thea’s body slumped, drained of all of its energy as Thea’s mind lagged behind, still desperately trying to grab onto any foothold to keep herself from passing out. That last bastion of resistance crumbled too, though, as Thea let the blackness swallow her up and passed out, her body suspended on the wall.

---

Demeter walked back into the large room in her temple space, walking over to the door that led to the greenhouse before realizing that she had forgotten to change her outfit. Just as quickly and magically as before, her dress returned back to the robes she had been wearing about Lyra. She didn’t want to let on anything that was going on, not while her plans were still going so smoothly. She opened the door to the greenhouse and stepped in, walking down the path to where the picnic was.

A yawning Lyra waved when she saw her Mommy returning. Demeter sat down next to her, and Lyra slumped over, resting her head on her shoulder. Demeter pet Persephone’s hair, causing her to hum happily.

“Where did you go, Mommy? I’m sorry I fell asleep during breakfast, I didn’t realize how tired I was.” Demeter held Lyra’s head up against her brush, smiling softly as she felt Persephone squirm a bit.

“I’m sorry for leaving you dear, I just had some business I needed to take care of. Now that I’m coming back I’m getting all kinds of requests from the other gods and goddesses. It’s nothing you really need to worry about. You can fall back asleep if you want.” The daughter shook her head.

“I don’t think I want to Mommy. I want to stay here with you.” Demeter smiled widely as she stroked the girl’s hair snuggling her bosom almost wantonly now.

“Of course dearie. You can stay here as long as you like. I can tell you all about the different plants I’m growing here, or we can just stay like this.”

Lyra shifted herself to look at Demeter’s face, and started to smile and glow. A warm, happy feeling permeated through her, something that was almost nostalgic to her.

‘Mommy isn’t bad…she loves me so much…that’s why she’s doing everything she can for me. I clearly wouldn’t have gotten what she would have wanted back at the temple so I can just…forget about that for now. She’s my Mommy. I’m her daughter. It’s so very simple…’ Lyra frowned a bit, before nuzzling up against her Mommy again.

“Mommy…would it be easier for you to call me Persephone? I’m sorry I’ve been resisting it for so long, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal even if I don’t know what my name is anymore.”

Demeter laid back a bit against the tree, allowing for a more intimate cuddle between the two of them than before. She gently stroked Persephone’s hair, closing her eyes as she struggled to contain the excitement of how wonderfully this was all working. She didn’t know if it was something she had installed in the last trance that had caused this shift, but she was very happy that she finally broke down another barrier.

“You’re so sweet and considerate Persephone! Thank you so much. You’re such a good daughter. I know it’s been a little hard for you but you’re really such a kind, obedient girl, aren’t you Persephone?”

If Persephone could literally glow from the praise, she would have been as bright as the sun. Demeter was exactly right. She was a kind, obedient daughter, and that made her so happy.