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Yien

A coldness settled over my chest as I looked out into the sea of darkness weaving through the forest surrounding my estate.

The fog I’d been accustomed to had grown weaker in the last few days as the souls moved on. I could feel them moving in the shadows. The weakening fog once scared me, but just like nature, the souls were on a cycle.

They would come and go, sometimes so many that the fog would be overflowing with them. Other times, it would lessen, the weight of the souls dissipating with each hour that passed.

It was a celebratory thing, the souls moving on. They had done their time, their cycle had ended. They could start over.

Something I’d never be able to do.

I had forgotten how many years had gone by since I was forced into this shell. The memories of my soul wandering through the very same darkness I overlooked were nothing but muddled thoughts that only visited me when I was sleeping.

I could feel the souls when they left, like a tugging at my chest before a wave of relief passed over me. A reminder that the fog—and I—had completed yet another one of our duties.

I didn’t quite understand why the souls attached themselves to me and not to any of my siblings born from the same fog. They were just as capable, if not more so.

I was unfeeling, apathetic, but they… they had room in their hearts for these souls.

Sometimes I wished I could be like them, carefree and wandering the realms however I chose. Playing and frolicking without the weight of the realm on my shoulders.

I could hear them, floors below me, where they chatted.

They didn’t often all come home for a reunion, but for some reason, they all chose that day to show up on my doorstep.

I was procrastinating. Trying to hide from them so I wouldn’t have those foreign emotions inside my chest. Just like the souls, they tugged at my chest, making me feel things I didn’t understand.

“Yien!” Allura yelled from the floors below, knowing I would hear her.

My time is up.

I called my shadows to me, becoming one with them, and slipped from the third floor to the first.

“Is there something you need?” I asked, pushing out of the shadows and into the dining area.

Allura and Xira sat around the newly polished marble table, demon meat piled high between them. They had been down there for a while, catching up for what seemed like hours as they snacked.

We were siblings in name only, all of us birthed from the fog. We had no mother, no father. Just the knowledge that we came for the very thing that protected this realm.

Allura was the last to join us three years prior, showing up dazed on the edge of my property. Xira and Uldria had come before, but Uldria had been torn apart in another realm years back for trespassing. It was too common of an occurrence for it to affect me like it had.

As soon as I took in their blackened eyes, the same as mine, and their grayed skin, something attacked my heart. I felt a sense of… responsibility for them. To them. To keep this place safe for them.

Allura had brilliant white hair, while Xira’s was deep red. They had become closest, mostly because they had no other choice. I wasn’t one for bonding, so it only left the two of them.

“Finally! Good of you to join us,” Xira said with a huff.

“I don’t see anything good about it,” I commented and sat down on the same bench as Allura.

Something about the way Xira’s eyes narrowed at me made me want to disappear. Allura moved closer to me, her arm brushing across mine.

“I was just telling Xira that there has been an influx of humans coming to the realms!” Allura said, her excitement plain as day on her face.

“She’s trespassing onto royal grounds,” Xira accused, her voice dropping. “She’s going to get killed one of these days.”

“Just the outskirts!” Allura complained with a pout. “They don’t even have guards there! Plus, I saw the humans, several of them, and guess what they were doing?”

“I don’t care,” I admitted, taking a piece of demon meat between my claws before popping it into my mouth.

It was tasty but hard, not as soft or satisfying as human flesh was rumored to be. It had been years since I had my first and only taste. So long that I barely remembered it.

But the consequent killing of the poor thing combined with their soul floating out of their body to join the fog was something that stuck with me.

“They were pleasuring Beau! The prince! All three of them!”

Her words caused me to pause.

“They were what?” I asked. Someone in the royal family? Doing that with a human? Multiple? It was unheard of.

“They call them companions, Allura,” Xira said on a huff. “Instead of eating them, they occupy themselves in… other ways.”

“Keep that to yourself, Allura,” I spat, my eyes washing over her. “We don’t need you disappearing because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.”

Her smile didn’t waver. She had no sense of danger. Just like Uldria.

“You should get one!” Allura said, sending the table into silence.

Me?

Xira burst out laughing.

“Yien can’t even stand our presence! What would make you think she’ll want a human companion?”

“You’ve seen how the souls chose her!” Allura reasoned. “Maybe she needs to be around more humans instead of being forced into the presence of other demons!”

Rationally, I didn’t agree with her. I didn’t see the need. But something inside me liked the idea of bringing a human here. More out of curiosity than anything else.

I had seen them in their wraith forms, in the in-between phase where they joined the fog, but I had never had the pleasure to just watch as one lived around me.

An image of women pleasuring the demon named Beau flashed across my mind, even though I hadn’t seen it myself.

Would the human need that? Would she want it? Would I want it?

Yes. The answer was immediate. Or at least I would like to try.

“Oh no,” Xira said with a groan. “You’ve gone and done it. She’s interested.”

“I’m not,” I lied and plucked another piece of meat before standing. I turned on my feet, ignoring their calls as they tried to pull me back.

It was too late; my mind had already started to think about having a human here. Imagining her as she walked through the halls. Imagining that maybe she would be able to see my shadows and understand me in a way no one else could.

Yes, I need one.

But if I wanted it to happen, I needed to do some research. After all, there was only one place I could acquire a human.