Cymiriel's heels clicked rhythmically as she walked through the halls of her estate. The veils carried softly in the wind as she walked into the clearing where a huge, shirtless figure sat in the middle.
He was deep in meditation, but even with his eyes closed, Cymiriel knew that he was aware of her presence.
"Have you mastered the weave of light yet?" She questioned, and his eyes opened as he stared at her with his dual colored gaze.
One eye burned with a deep, blood-red intensity, and the other glinted cold and blue, like a shard of a frozen star.
"No, mother. I almost have, though." He spoke with a voice so heavy it seemed nature quieted at the sound of his voice.
"Hmm… 'Nearly' doesn't kill a bird, though." Cymiriel replied as she began to move around him. Slowly, as she spoke.
"I have a mission for you. There is a situation on Earth that you need to handle." She spoke, and the huge figure listened carefully.
"As you know, some of the demons escaped five years ago as we destroyed the demon realm. We've been capturing them and bringing them to book. But one particular demon has become a thorn in our side." She began explaining before returning to face him.
"The last Succubus. So far, she has gotten an army of 500 humans. No, they are unharmed for now… But they experience occasional severe need for sexual intimacy, and whenever she is ready, they would be at her beck and call to do whatever she demands. Nothing we have done has been able to set the humans free of her mark. The only solution is to kill her." She added, as she held out a scroll.
"We are trusting you with this mission, Ishamiel. You have thirty days to bring her to us. The council wants her dead, but I want her alive. I have a few things to ask her." She concluded, and finally, he stood.
His face, chiselled and grim, with no warmth. His form was a massive promise that when he moved, worlds would shatter. Even standing at ease, Ishamiel looked less like an angel and more like a punishment waiting to happen.
His massive grey wings, folded neatly behind him, looked like they were carved from storm clouds, waiting to rain chaos on any sky he opened them against.
He took the scroll from Cymiriel and bowed.
"I will not fail you, mother."
"You better not. Remember, only I know where your life core is. I can snuff it out if you ever dare to bring me shame." She replied as she turned her back on him and walked away.
Leaving him in silence to understand the severity of the situation. She just threatened him. He had to get Selnora to her in thirty days, or she would kill him.
His gaze hardened as she walked away. This is how it had always been. His life at her mercy and no will of his own. He was her lap dog. And once again, he had been called to run her biddings.
He had no choice but to deliver, or an abrupt end would be put to him.
♢♢♢♢♢♢♢
"Lord Malrion, Selora's energy has been detected. She has reawakened amongst the humans again."
A high pitched male voice with serpentine under tone spoke and a man looking down at a city front the top floor of a luxurious building smiled.
But it wasn't a kind smile. It was predatory. Calculating…. Wicked. A smile that was carved from cruelty itself.
"It's about time." He replied as he turned around to look at the short, hunched over, green creature which seemed to tremble nervously under his gaze.
The man walked over to the crystal globe in the middle of the room, and as he approached it, darkness swirled within its core.
With a flick of his blood-red fingers over the ball, Selora's image appeared in her true succubus form.
He stared at her mesmerising green eyes, flawless crimson skin. Fangs and tongue long enough to implant unholy ideas in any mind.
"Isn't she a vision?" He slurred, voice dripping with dangerous admiration.
However, the small creature didn't dare to look.
"Y-Yes, she is, sire." He replied nervously, and the man smirked. His black eyes, decorated with strips of red ,whispering the pure darkness of his soul.
"Have you been able to find her?" He then demanded, and the creature moved back. Cowering at the dread of delivering the news.
"No, my Lord. But we are still looking. We… We have been following the trail of humans who carry her mark. It would lead us to her. But… but the marks are so hidden, it's difficult to find all of them, so we…" He began rambling with his voice climbing another octave, and the Malrion's eyes darkened.
He turned fully to his little minion.
"Tell me, worm… Every day that passes with your constant failure… Do you not feel the noose tightening around your scrawny neck?" He demanded as he began to walk over to the trembling, creature, and the little being looked everywhere else but Malrion's eyes as his towering form approached him.
"Do you not feel the rope of my patience pressing against your airways?!" He roared, and the creature jumped in fright as Malrion's voice bounced off every wall and pillar in the room.
"If I don't get my hands on Selora, my plans to destroy the human realm would be ruined. And then all that I have worked on for years will be lost. All lost. Is that what you want, worm?" He demanded as he finally closed in on the creature.
He grabbed it by its face, and the little creatures' terrified eyes were forced to Malrion's night black ones.
"Selora is the last pure succubus. Only she has the ability to link masses of humans together through magic. None of the other demons can do that!" He roared, and the terrified creature could only watch in shivering, silent fear.
"I need that magic. I need her army. Once she is under my control, I will be able to control her army. Then I will get my revenge against heaven for ruining my home by destroying this world of pets that they cherish so much. That is the plan. It has always been the plan, or have you forgotten?!" Malrion yelled as he threw the creature aside in blinding anger.
"Find me that succubus! We need to get to her before the heavens do. If they beat us to her, you all better end your lives yourselves, cause death would become a luxury you would crave at my hands!" He roared, and his petrified minion scrambled to its feet.
"Pardon our incompetence, Sire. We'll intensify our…"
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!"
Another creature. Small, floating in the air with bat-like wings and a scroll in his hands, came in.
"Lord Malrion. Selora has been found. We sensed her mark close to a school in the Crimean district. Should we capture her?" The creature reported, and Malrion's dead eyes lit up with excitement.
"Capture her? No. No that…That's too crass." He spoke in mock politeness as he walked over to the glorified throne at the head of the room.
"Escort our dear guest. Handle her with care... unless she resists. Then remind her whose hands she's about to fall into." He grinned as he sat, and the creatures before him bowed before rushing out.
Malrion smirked as he thought about all the endless possibilities he could achieve with Selora's powers at his fingertips. After four years of searching, he had finally caught up with her.
"My precious Selora… You have no idea how long I have waited for this…" He whispered as he ran his fingers along the black, cold neck collar resting on the arm of his throne.
His thumb brushed over the part of it that was branded with a name.
A name that had taunted him for the past four infuriating years… selora