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“He is the reason I have called to you,” Weldir said, just as she turned to the horse and was readying herself to climb atop it.

She gasped when she got the impression she was falling feet-first through the ground and scrambled to cling to the saddle, to no avail.

This was how it felt every time Weldir stole her from Earth.

Her heart would leap and squeeze with the stomach flip of inertia, and her hair would lift around her as if she fell from a high place.

In the blink of an eye, she went from bright morning to pitch darkness.

“I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” she grumbled with the lightest echo as if she was in a vast room, and she slowly threw her arms around to get her bearings in the weightlessness.

“Why not? How else am I to bring you here?” he asked, his voice stronger and louder, and she turned her face in the direction of its owner.

“At least give someone warning before you make them disappear from the realm they were standing in,” she answered, turning incorporeal – which made her tangible to him, as per his preference – while taking in his ethereal form. “I also wanted to keep that horse, by the way.”

There’s less of him than usual, she noted.

His physical form was barely a strip of chalk and glittering black sand.

It swirled around his legs, his waist, his torso, and arms. Only his nose and cheeks were visible, below a small amount of two-inch-long hair coming from the crown of his head.

He wasn’t this powerless the last time I saw him.

How long ago had that been? Four years ago, maybe a little longer? It’d been a while since she’d died, as she’d grown more adept with his magic. Lindi was able to better fend off Demons now, and she’d never had any issues enacting justice against the occultists.

“I will try to give you warning, then, if it pleases you,” he said, mouthless and without eyes to offer an expression.

White flames pulled from the satchel at her side and floated towards the part of his hand she could see.

“You have collected four souls. It hasn’t been that long since you returned to my mist.”

“Some Demons are reaching towns.” With spite, not aimed at him but at the changing state of the world, her jaw muscles knotted when she ground her molars. “It means there are more people – more Ghosts – for me to find.”

His face tilted back, as if to look at some non-existent sky. “So... that time has come, no matter how much I have tried to prevent it.”

The outer corners of her eyes bowed with discontent and worry. She knew what he spoke of.

“I know you opened portals to bring wildlife from other lands here,” Lindi stated, remembering how he’d told her of such details. She’d even seen them – an abundance of prey animals and predators that shouldn’t exist here. “Can’t you just... do it again?”

A sigh flittered around her. “No. That was not my power, but another deity’s. It was only ever meant to be a temporary solution.”

A few years ago, Weldir had informed Lindi that he’d opened a portal and moved it across the world at will.

With it, he’d brought all manner of creatures here to Austrális, as it didn’t have many to begin with.

A wide range of prey and predators were introduced, although mostly the latter, in the hope they’d whittle down the number of Demons naturally.

He’d also done it to give the Demons things to hunt and eat other than humans.

In those few years, and currently, those animals had grown in numbers at a startling rate.

The expanding forests of Austrális gave them plenty of life to fuel them, although there were a few hiccups regarding predators harming some humans who hadn’t yet moved to walled villages.

Brown and black bears were a new thing, and they were rather large and frightful beasts, especially during mating and offspring season.

New species of deer, antelope, and hares had been introduced, giving everything something to chase – although they were easily startled and fast. Wolves, large cats, and even foxes had begun making their homes across the land as well.

So, so much has changed. From the fauna to the flora, and Lindi was witnessing it all, ever stuck with the knowledge but unable to do a damn thing to help.

She still felt so human, despite all her new abilities.

Learning Weldir was trying, pointlessly, to help, eased how she felt about him. Did she like him? No. But she couldn’t dislike a stranger when she could see he was attempting to help in his own way.

He wasn’t as evil as she’d thought him to be.

Turning to him, since she’d been staring at him from the side, she pushed her fur hood back and let her hair wave around her. “You mentioned something about Nathair. Is he okay?”

“He will always be okay. He is immortal, just like his sire,” Weldir stated plainly.

The spray of his chalky mist spread out, but as he consumed the souls she’d given him, each one whole, the ribbons of his body revealed a little more.

“It appears I was wrong. I have use for you, after all, in the terms of our original agreement.”

Lindi’s brows twitched, confused, before they drew together. “But you said that there was no need to... to do that . That he wouldn’t be useful as a servant.”

“And by all regards, he isn’t. He is ill-tempered and uncontrollable.” He lifted a hand, appeared to look down at it, and then closed it. “However, he recently visited the Veil of his own volition. With it, he brought many souls – enough to stir me from slumber.”

“He collected souls for you?” she asked, pushing a few of her floating strands of hair away from her eyes. “Why? How?”

“It appears my offspring is a soul eater, much like me, after all. Except that he is naturally able to heal the souls of humans that have been consumed by Demons.”

“How do you know they were eaten by Demons? What if he ate them?”

Just thinking about a child she brought into the world consuming humans made a shiver ripple down her spine until the fine hairs on her arms and legs stood on end. Lindi pushed the disgust and fear down, especially as she’d been trying for a long time to just accept it.

He was what he was. A serpent monster, destructive and magnificent at the same time. Something mighty, strong, and... beautiful.

“I have been inspecting the memories of all the humans that I have eaten. I bore witness to their final moments, and they were not at the claws of Nathair – although he brought me a few that were.”

“And you want to create more of him in the hope that they’ll bring you more souls?” Unease churned her stomach, and she placed her hands over it in an attempt to soothe it. “They may just attack humans, like the Demons. We could be adding to the problem.”

Weldir turned, his visible body leaving his mist before it swiftly followed to encase him again. “That is a small price to pay. A few offspring hunting an unwitting human when they have shown they can massacre many Demons, in turn preserving human life, outweighs their cons.”

“I don’t think I can agree to this,” Lindi rejected, chewing at her bottom lip until it swelled and stung. “And as much as I care for Nathair... knowing he’s harmed humans makes me feel sick.”

“And yet it is that very thing that is making him intelligent.”

“What do you mean? Nathair isn’t intelligent. He’s a wild beast.” She hated talking about him that way, but that was what he was. A mindless, bloodthirsty beast, chasing after anything that moved in his radius.

Not even Lindi could get close to him without being struck at by his venomous fangs.

If he bites them, he paralyses. She’d avoided such a fate, but Weldir had kept her informed of the properties of his magical venom.

It kept his victim alive but incapable of moving, just so he could eat them at his whim – well.

.. in theory, if he didn’t consume anything that bled within seconds.

It meant he could fend off multiple opponents, rendering each one immobile until he was done. Then he could take his time. Nothing escaping, nothing safe.

“Actually,” Weldir started, his tone uplifted even if his face was stiff as stone as he spoke, “his mannerisms have been changing. It took me a while to notice the difference, but I can see thought behind his actions now. There is... change. I believe each human he consumes aids his mind.”

“Like he is gaining humanity?” she asked with a hopeful tone.

She pushed her hands back through the air, and she propelled herself forward slightly – a new ability she had in his realm that developed a few years ago. It apparently had something to do with some Rokul person.

Reducing some of the distance between them, she came close enough to better see his partial features. Which was very little. It just meant she could see minor lip or brow twitches whenever his coalesced self moved to reveal them.

“Does that mean he may one day stop hurting humans?”

Weldir shrugged. She’d never seen him do that before, but Lindi figured he attempted to mimic human actions for her sake.

“That would remain to be seen, but possibly. Either way, if he grows more intelligent, and continues to consume and heal the souls of humans that have been eaten by Demons, by in turn eating them, then our offspring may passively assist me. They are too mindless to not have their own free will. I doubt I can acquire loyalty from such beings, but if they pass through my mist, I can take the souls that have clung to them. They will be servants without knowing it.”

Lindi’s mouth open and closed, one moment wanting to refuse, the next wanting to agree.

The fact that they would destroy Demons, aiding their plight, was so beneficial she wanted to say yes. They were immortal, and if the others were like Nathair, they would be formidable and fierce.