Thanks once again for waiting for my latest chapter. This one I am really proud of and I hope you enjoy it. I know it's long, but I think you'll like it. Please read and review.
Iyami
For the first time in what seemed like forever, Kara dreamt.
She dreamed of the night that she had almost forgotten; the night when she first discovered her prince. Her dream-self walked through mist, a white nightgown, lighter than reality could ever permit, hanging from her slender shoulders. Her bare feet touched the ground lightly, and, despite the cold look of the place, she felt nothing. Before her loomed a cloud that sparkled with half formed images that shifted and swirled before taking any distinct shape, and around the cloud lay sleeping forms, both demon and human alike.
Kara made her way gracefully through the sleeping forms, careful not to disturb them. Ice had formed on many of their forms, but they did not seem to notice, their sleep was so deep. Kara raised her gaze to the cloud and reached out a hand to explore its composition when the image that lay within it changed, and a thousand faces screamed out at her to run.
So surprised was she that Kara fell backward onto the frost covered corpses that lingered around her. She covered her mouth to prevent a scream as the cloud fluctuated toward her. Kara scrambled backward, the ground suddenly more cold than anything she had ever felt or even dreamt. But she could not get away. The cloud engulfed her, and Kara felt her very essence being pulled out of her physical body. She tried to scream, but the gas of the cloud filled her lungs and only pulled at the very fabric of her being until it snapped and her core was stripped from her.
The cloud passed on, leaving her body behind to cover over with ice. Kara saw through her spirit all that lay within the cloud; rows and rows of souls. And in the center, sitting upon a throne of black and twisted ice, was a creature unlike any Kara had beheld. It was a thin man with bottomless pits for eyes and no hands, only razor sharp, gnarled, blades of ices. His head drifted into nothingness just above his eyes and below his lips, giving the distinct feeling that the creature was not really there at all, but just passing between realms. His legs draped elegantly over the seat of his throne and his very outline wavered and split into a thousand oscillations, filling the air with his very being.
Gently, he lifted his arm to point his icy fingers at the next globe of light in the long line of those souls unfortunate enough to cross his path. His fingers would twist and bend and wiggle with a sudden movement that cascaded over the essence of his victim and be absorbed into him. He was the most horrifying thing that Kara had ever seen, and was dubbed Seele esser. Kara felt it with horror and tried to run away, only to find she had no body with which to run.
Seele esser felt her struggle and turned to his newest victim. The older dinners-to-be had learned early on that escaping was impossible, but she was new. This insolence could be forgiven. His mouth full of black ice twisted into a grim smile and he tossed her essence to the side where the cloud grabbed her and threw her into a circular tomb made of the cloud that kept anything it pleased inside. Kara tried to scream but was rewarded with silence because of her lack of vocal cords.
She was not alone, however. In the corner, another victim's essence lay. Kara tried to beat her soul against her cage, but her efforts proved futile. Turning, resigned to her fate, Kara discovered her companion. Using all of her will, she forced herself over to him and his immense spirit energy. He was too strong! Kara felt herself being pulled into the light that was his soul and enter his being. Together their two souls mingled, finding a sort of serenity in each others company. They had become one, Kara and this nameless stranger. She could see the dark deeds he had done, and didn't mind. He felt in her a light that had never been revealed to him before, and was comforted that there was some hope left in the world beyond death and destruction.
The two were ripped apart and thrown into their own beings with the most unimaginable agony that could be devised. They had known peace, and it had been taken away, leaving the bleak, stained world about them. Seele esser stood above them, quivering with rage, for their souls had been tainted by one another. He hated giving back a good meal, and it was very rare that two souls actually had the ability to join one another into one entity. Relaxing slightly, Seele esser looked about. He had enough spirits to last him the hundred years he would be banished from this world. These two were just to make him more comfortable, not necessarily needed for survival.
With a grunt of disapproval, he released the two spirits from his grasp and their beings flew free of the cloud as if snapped from a taut cord. Kara was pulled back to her body, and the male she had mingled with flew to his, a dimension away.
It was some time before her dream-self awoke and shook the cold from her numb body. Her fingertips were blue from the cold and she quickly brushed them together to return the circulation. Looking up to the sky of the white plain she was currently residing on, Kara thought of the man she had been one with. Who was he, and would they ever meet again under different circumstances? A part of him was still with her. Kara felt an itch in her palm and looked at the small outline under her skin of a crow in what looked like a pale ink.
Gripping her hand tightly, Kara closed her dream eyes and recalled the beauty of the peace they had shared. It was the most wonderful thing she had ever felt.
Darkness consumed her dream as time passed and Kara's dream-self emerged in the city of demons, her two sisters at her side, their arms linked together as always. They laughed together and walked on, their white gowns billowing and flowing around them. Someone looking at the group would think them to be human, for they acted not in the grim manner of the demons, but in the joyful, happy serenity of humanity.
The girls walked on down the street, not noticing the group of dark demons that loomed in the shadows about them and fell instep on both sides and behind the three females. They were stopped abruptly when a tall demon with horns and skin the texture of sandpaper and the color of bog slime stepped into their path.
Kara sized him up, and unlinked her arms with those of her sisters. The demon took a step toward her and looked her up and down. Kara squirmed under his appraising eye, for he judged her as if she were a rare relic instead of a living thing. A smile contorted his horrible face as the groups that had flanked the girls closed in and prevented escape. One to Kara's right reached out a slimy hand to touch Pheare, Kara's twin, and was rewarded by a sharp jolt of electricity from the three girls' shared powers.
It pulled back its hand in pain and the demon that hand blocked the girls' path, the leader it appeared, landed a well planted punch to his gut, knocking the air out of it, and serving as a warning against any further efforts to touch the three. He turned back to the three and his jaws opened with a dry crack.
"The three of you will come to the arena," he wheezed "The Lord Karasu is to be married to the female with the power most adept to his needs."
Confused, the three girls looked at each other, Pheare's eyes holding confusion, and Daermon's, the youngest of the three by a century, holding anger for the intrusion.
"And just why would we do that?" Daermon asked, her musical voice dry with scorn, "We have no intentions of getting married in the near future." Her brown eyes burned into the lead demon, reading his inner soul, as was one of her abilities.
"Daer" Kara said warningly "do not cause mischief where none is needed." She stepped in front of her rash sister and told her telepathically There is no need to create enemies when we are surrounded. Daermon looked furiously at the ground, her hands clenched into tight balls at her side.
"We shall come with you, but with no intention to marry anyone" Pheare offered, trying to defuse the tension between her two sisters that often arose over petty instances.
The demon turned and led them down the street lined with dark windows with hidden eyes that observed the crowd around the girls curiously. They were not fool enough to attack the procession, even with the possibilities three innocent looking girls such as these could dangle in front of their watchful eyes. Their power could easily be felt by all, and the host of demons around them, many of them lower level, were too many in number for a single demon, or even a small group, such as many of the ones the locals ran in, could defeat.
The girls entered the arena minutes later, an impressive building with a misguiding name. The arena stood three stories high and was built of old granite and was decorated by ornate carvings of demons battling to the death or killing helpless groups of human women and children. It was not actually an arena at all, but a training school for the higher class demon children of the demon world. This was one of the few places in the demon world with a sort of society run with order and efficiency. Many of the other settlements were plagued with fighting and distrust.
The demon led them into the building, his band of guards floating off into the rooms that branched off of the main hall. The entry way opened up into a reception area, furnished with the treasures of demons; human skins and heads mounted on the walls as well as the heads of strong beasts, not considered to be of the same race as the demons that trained at the arena, such as centaurs and minotaurs.
The girls followed their guide through the reception hall and into a large banquet hall were hundreds of other female demons sat, all beautiful to their own kinds. The all also looked at one another with mistrust and loathing, but kept from battling one another by the watchful eyes of the matriarchal demonesses that mingled about, whips, morningstars, or other weapons tapping threateningly in their palms.
The three sisters were led to a table at the back of the hall, as most of the other tables were already filled, and were shoved roughly into their seats by their escort, who left them in the capable hands of the armed demonesses. Pheare looked at Daermon and raised a brow, then shared the look with Kara. They all shared the same thoughts of interest in just what was going on in this strange city that they had just come to a month ago.
Out of nowhere, a ball of pure energy engulfed the room, and the screams of the weaker demons that could not stand its power grew to deafening levels. The three sisters found themselves involuntarily covering their ears, trying to stop the horrible screams of the dying. The energy ball dissipated and those that had survived stood after a moment, the ringing from the noise still resounding in their ears.
The demonesses walked through the room, appraising the survivors, and pointing at those that had been seriously wounded by the blast, where upon a burly demon would roughly take her and parade her out of the hall to some indistinguishable fate. Kara looked frantically at her two sisters, making sure they were not dead or wounded. Both Pheare and Daermon had survived with no more than minor scratches, and Kara herself had only a few nicks and a headache.
One of the demonesses, a fat female with only green horns and long nails and teeth revealing her heritage, approached the girls and grabbed first Pheare, and then Kara by the chin and turned their heads this way and that. Satisfied, she moved on the Daermon, who grabbed her approaching hand and bent it back with a meaningful glare. The demonesses returned Daermon's look and broke her hand away. "You're fine" she stated in a husky voice and moved on to the next group of girls.
Kara and Phaere gave Daermon meaningful glares. Kara surveyed the room. Most of the girls had been either destroyed or taken away. Only about twenty were left. An explosion from the front of the room brought the remaining girls attention to what had a moment ago been double doors with elaborate engravings, but were now blacked bits of wood and ash. Out of the smoke came a dark figure, his cape draped about him with its tattered collar and fringe sticking away from his body, and the red collar of his low cut shirt accentuating his intense black eyes, framed by long black hair. The lower half of his face was hidden behind a mask, but it was obvious that he had a handsome face under its protective surface. His tight, black pants showed off his slim, but powerful figure. Over all, he was a figure that would make a girl swoon.
Phaere, Daermon, and Kara were not attracted to him physically, however. Something about him was familiar to Kara though. Out of nowhere, he raised a hand and threw a dark, round, object into a group of five girls, who exploded before any of them could move. The sisters stared at him in shock, not believing what their eyes had just shown them. He turned his gaze to them next and raised his hand again, but stopped when his eyes met Kara's. For a moment that seemed like an eternity, his gazed at her and found a glimpse of serenity that was all too familiar to him.
Gently, he lowered his hand and the explosive disappeared. Karasu advanced slowly toward Kara, his breath escaping his lips in short gasps of disbelief. For countless moments, the engraving of a dove on his palm had tormented him, for those many years ago he had left a part of himself within that strange girl as she had left some of her within him. Now he could feel that this dark haired girl with strength resonating from her eyes was the soul he had shared perfection with.
His slow gate gained speed until it was a run and he was standing in front of her. Kara looked up into his eyes with disbelief. For moments that seemed to stretch on forever, they looked into each others souls and found what they were missing. As if moved by a force beyond their own comprehension, they both raised their left hand and pressed them together. The patterns of the two birds joined together on their palms to form a circle. In that instant, they felt complete again, and knew that they had found the other half that they were missing.
Pheare and Daermon looked from one to the other with disbelief, for Kara had told her siblings of her encounter with Seele esser and the soul she had joined with, but her sisters had passed it off without a second thought. Now they were awestruck.
Kara sat up in a strange place, the bright blue sheets of a strange bed wrapped tightly around her, holding her in their unrelenting grasp. Her breath quickened as she looked at the unfamiliar walls and out the window that was not the portal to her prison, and screamed.