12. Rukh

“Ithought you said security had lightened up here?”

I look back at Annette, who pants, trying to keep up with me. I told her that I wouldn’t slow down for her, which was a lie. She couldn’t dream of matching my speed.

But her porcelain skin is covered in sweat, which only glistens in the torchlight. Her hair burns with the radiance of the open flame on the sconce next to the vacant guard tower.

I want to thank the gods for creating her, but they’re still not responsive.

“I didn’t think it would be a big deal,” she says through heaving gasps. “You made it seem so easy for you.”

“True, but I didn’t have a human as a liability.”

On the precipice, the town of Mellara sits at the base of the hill, lit by torchlight.

“I think all the security’s bogus anyway, at least up to the city gates,” she says. “Last time I looked, it was all an illusion.”

“And how did you find that out?”

She chuckles. “Oh… I sort of just went for it.”

“You went for it?”

“Yeah, the illusion was flickering, and they disappeared for a full second.”

I stare her dead in the eyes, looking for clarification.

“So, as you’ve explained countless times, if you’re caught in Mellara, they will put you to death.”

“Right.”

“And yet you felt it safe to chance walking in front of the guards, just following your inferior human instincts?”

She crosses her arms now. I’m not sure whether it’s in defiance, or whether she’s simply cold from the night’s chill.

“I’ll tell you what. How about I lead the way, and you follow?”

She looks out at the distant town, no doubt consumed by her thoughts, before nodding reluctantly.

“Perfect,” I say. “I’m going ahead then.”

I wish I could leave her back at my cave, providing for her on my returns. I tell her it’s because I don’t want her jeopardizing my missions, but the reality is that I can never guarantee her safety.

It’s a wonder these fragile humans stay alive at all. They break and crush so easily, and their fates are entirely up to the whims of nature.

But I have to regain her trust, because sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who can protect her.

I creep ahead, blending cleanly into the shadows as I glide up the wall. I condense my form, finding a perfect bushel to hide behind as I observe.

I see the two guards standing watch next to the town entrance, looking vacantly into the distance. Their tired faces are paved by the orange glow of the sconces, deep shadows cast over the bags underlining their eyes.

Thinking quickly, I pick up a rock, throwing it just in front of them.

“What in all of –”

One of them looks at the rock, then toward the bushes.

The other, more grizzled looking, guard sighs, reaching over to pat his partner on the shoulder.

“It’s your first week, Denela,” he says. “Why don’t you let me check it out?”

He takes his guard spear and grabs it tightly as he confidently sifts through the shrubbery.

But I’m several feet away already, blending in with the walls.

As long as the sun isn’t shining on me, if I don’t want to be seen, I don’t have to be. The shadows are my loyal ally.

I double back to Annette, who’s leaning against the wall of the guard tower impatiently.

I’m partially tempted to remain a shadow as I look upon her beauty, observing her when she thinks nobody’s watching.

The way she purses her lips as she gets lost in thought, or in boredom, is incredible to me. I’d love to live inside her mind, seeing the world as she perceives it on a daily basis.

When I’ve finished observing, I burst free from the wall.

Her eyes widen in surprise.

“Where did you – How did you –?”

“Your intel was bad, Annette. I’m very disappointed.”

“I saw you walk to the city walls. How are you bursting free from the guard tower?”

“They were not illusions, Annette,” I tell her.

She tries to find her bearings, pausing for a second to look down at the ground in exasperation.

“Clearly, they’ve tightened security since the last time.”

Her eyes turn back up to me. “That was you, right? It had to be.”

“How am I supposed to answer that? I don’t read minds.”

“Sorry. Just thinking aloud.”

I look back up at Mellara, seeing how far off-track we’ve gotten. I can sense the darkness of souls gathering within the walls, thriving because I haven’t dealt with them.

And I struggle to understand why I care, why I now wish to snuff them all out, when I only need a few to satisfy my hunger.

“Are you so insistent on tagging along? I could do my work much better if you waited here.”

The response from her is intense.

“Absolutely not. If I can’t watch you do this, how can I trust you?”

I shake my head. “Okay.”

My mind strategizes. My work is normally so easy at night. Adding Annette to the formula creates so many hurdles for me.

For a time, we try to plan our approach. It would be simple if she could merely make herself disappear like I do, hiding in the shadows, but her magic apparently comes with risks and costs, and she’s not well-practiced in the art of illusions.

Constantly, I present an idea and she invalidates it, explaining her limitations. We can’t disable the guards with distractions because they have more powerful magic. Hiding her is still out of the question.

“I can change my form, though, if that might help?”

I cock my mouth to the side, so used to not finding a solution.

“No.” I shake my head. “That won’t help.”

“Yeah,” she says. “I can’t do it very long, anyway.”

That’s when I start to think about the implications.

“Wait!”

She startles, jumping back a few inches.

“Can you become one of the city guards?”

She hesitates. “Well, I haven’t really tried changing my gender,” she says, clicking her teeth. “But I suppose it’s possible.”

“Then we have a plan.”

I hear the sounds of equu approaching, and I grip her tightly, pushing her into the guard tower with me as a patrol passes by.

“How well do you know the guards in town?” I ask in a hushed whisper.

We re-emerge from out of the guard tower, disguised as two off-shift guards, then freely approach the Mellara wall. I’m impressed by her disguise, but she tells me it’s exhausting to maintain.

“Nelt? Joffri?”

The guards at the front gate acknowledge us, a stiff wind nearly extinguishing the sconces.

“You’re not supposed to be here today,” the elder guard says. “Have you checked the schedule lately?”

I quickly look over, realizing that Annette can’t disguise her voice and is nearly doubled over in pain.

I’m going to have to speak for her, remembering everything she told me.

“Actually, change of plans,” I say. “The elders said we need all the help we can get, so we’re here to help for a couple hours.”

“That doesn’t seem right…”

“Oh, just let them through,” the younger guard, Denela, says.

As we make our way through, shrugging, I can hear the elder guard scolding Denela.

` Walking a bit further into the city, I can see the immense pain this spell is causing Annette. I know I have to hurry.

A shroud of darkness pulsates from within the dwelling.

“Okay. Wait here.”

I consider merely shifting through the door before realizing it defeats the purpose.

She needs to see, too.

So I turn the doorknob, then crack into it with enough force to break the lock.

The living room is dim, but I can hear moaning upstairs.

We step up the stairs, lit by candlelight, to find the dark elf Loren, resting on the edge of the bed with his cock out as three nude human women sit at his feet, clearly there against their will.

He sees me, and his eyes grow tremendous.

I crack a smile as the three women start to scream.

Annette drops her form as my hand reaches into Loren’s chest.

His soul is so deliciously decadent. The darkness is both subtle and rich.

While I work, devouring Loren until a mere shell is left over, Annette calms the three women, telling them that we’ll find a way for them to escape the city and that they just need to keep their heads low in the meantime.

Getting out of the city is so much easier than getting in. In their panic, the city guards become disorganized, leaving their posts to deal with Loren’s death.

“I’d heard rumors about him,” Annette says as we stand in the far distance, near the edge of the forest. “It’s hard to believe they were true.”

“The deepest darkness is usually well-hidden in plain sight,” I tell her as I shift back into my regular, demonic form. I can’t help but wonder if she’d rather I stay a handsome human.

She looks up at me, a questioning expression settling on her features. I notice she doesn’t seem deterred by my changing face, and it pleases me.

“And what does that make you? Because you’re standing plainly in front of me, clearly as dark as they come.”

I sigh. Partly, I pity her, as I see the toll tonight has taken on her, both emotionally and physically.

“I wish you wouldn’t judge me so harshly,” I admit.

“Sometimes, you don’t offer me much choice.”

She shrugs, but as her eyes meet mine, I feel something deeper.

“I’m used to being the monster, and it helps me work,” I say. “People see me, and I’m like a harbinger of their deaths. The way they look at me, it’s like I’m all of their worst nightmares and most terrifying myths rolled into one creature.”

She nods, understanding more than I expected.

“And you want me to see you differently?”

“I do.”

She looks up at the rising sun, drifting on the horizon.

“When they cast me out, it really hurt, but it kind of felt inevitable.”

I sit down beside her on the soil, picking up a rock and fidgeting with it as I listen.

“I wasn’t a hermit by choice,” she says, almost lost in a trance. “Every little allowance they gave me felt like a gift because I didn’t really feel worthy of it. And no matter how much I tried to hide what I was, people still knew.”

We watch the sunrise together, and I feel an unexpected kinship with this fragile human.