The wind hissed across the obsidian dunes, carrying the bite of a thousand tiny razors. The sand was less like earth and more like crushed glass; every gust that caught a sliver of exposed skin left behind a stinging red welt. This was Daniela's first time encountering a windstorm, and the abrasive gale made the hellish trek across the desert more grueling than she had ever imagined.
Daniela kept her head ducked, her dark green hair bound tightly beneath a thick wrap to protect it from the scouring air. Beside her, Jasper moved with a steady, eerie ease, completely unaffected by the currents whipping around them. Despite the lethal wind, his black sleeves were rolled to the elbows, exposing forearms that seemed indifferent to the stinging granules. His skin remained flawless, unmarked by the conditions, while Daniela suffered micro-tears across every inch of her exposed face. Their boots sank deep into the black grit with every heavy step, leaving a trail that the wind began to erase almost immediately.
Behind them, the castle loomed like a colossal entity, its open-air colonnades and marble arches standing stark against the eternal dark. From the high balconies, royal figures watched them depart with hard, assessing stares that tracked their every movement.
Following at a distance, shrouded by the crest of a massive dune, was Opal. He did not travel alone. Behind him moved his "pets"—four shades drifting like smoke and two wendigos slinking on elongated, clicking limbs. All six were bound by shackles that were masterpieces of the jeweler's art: intricate, swirling gold and silver filigree that hugged their necks and wrists. They were prisoners, curated for the aesthetic of their suffering as much as for their utility.
As the dunes finally swallowed the travelers and the King's spy, the royal eyes stalking them shifted toward the suffocating stillness of the palace interior.
Inside, the air was thick with the scent of ozone and ancient stone. Celestine looked around the council chamber, her eyes scanning the cousins and siblings gathered beneath the vaulted ceiling. The room was grand yet claustrophobic, lined with jagged obsidian pillars that seemed to absorb the dim light. She wondered what could be so important that the King would summon them all at once.
Quasi pushed himself off the pillar he had been leaning against, his boots clicking rhythmically against the polished floor. He crossed the room and flopped onto a navy chaise lounge, letting his weight rest on his bent elbows. "Why are we here?" he asked, his voice flat and uncaring.
Queen Jade looked at her son, Umbay, with a calculating gaze. Unlike the others, she already knew what had been discovered. Beside the King, Yumna hovered like a gnat, leaning in too close. Celestine's eyes hardened as she watched Yumna's sycophantic behavior, the woman practically draping herself over the throne.
"This must have something to do with Jasper and Daniela," Celestine said, getting straight to the point. Daniela's slight sat heavy in her mind; her father would be the best way to rectify it.
King Umbay sat in a chair of towering sandstone and velvet, his posture radiating a forced authority. Though Umbay wore the crown, Jade's presence remained the gravitational center of the room. The way she clung to power was a constant irritation to those around her.
"There's been a change," King Umbay announced, finally drawing the full attention of the royals. He shifted his weight, his withered hand hidden beneath the heavy silk of his robe sleeve. It was beginning to regenerate, but it would take time before the flesh looked whole once more. With the idea of mortality no longer established, he wasn't inclined to risk reincarnation should something go wrong.
"We have discovered a dead demon."
The words were like a bomb. Instantly, the room erupted. The royals surged forward, their voices overlapping in a frantic cacophony.
"How?"
"Are you sure?"
"This can't be!"
"How were they killed?"
"In which realm?"
Every royal had a stake in the news, knowing their inherent immortality was no longer an assured thing.
"This is Jasper's doing!" Celestine's voice rose over the others. She turned her gaze back toward the windows facing the sand dunes, as if she could see them through the stone walls. The flurry of questions died away as her words seeped into the group, replaced by a sudden, chilling calm.
"What makes you believe such a thing?" Queen Jade asked her granddaughter. She had noticed Celestine paying a surprising amount of attention to Jasper's human wife.
"I had an interesting conversation with the human yesterday. She said something quite memorable," Celestine said, shoving Quasi's arm away so she could sit properly on the edge of the lounge. "I mentioned that we were immortals. She told me, with absolute certainty, that everything bleeds and everything dies."
"Normal human thoughts," Yumna dismissed, resting her palm possessively on King Umbay's shoulder.
"She isn't normal!" Quasi snapped, coming to his cousin's defense. He sat forward, his brow furrowed. "Either Jasper's powers are far beyond our imagining, or she is not normal. It was unnerving... meeting a human who radiates no emotion. No sadness, no anger. Just an empty shell."
"Both can be true," Molina spoke up from a dark corner of the room. She hated her family—all of them. The idea that demons could be killed was an unforeseen pleasure. She secretly hoped her cousin would burn the castle to the ground.
The silence that followed was deafening. The thought of Jasper's power exceeding their understanding—and the idea that he had found an equally dangerous partner—haunted them. They were no longer the untouchable elite.
"We should banish them from the realm!" Queen Jade announced, her rings clicking as she gripped the arms of her chair. Better to have the wolf outside the walls than in the heart of the home.
"It would be better to dissect them. Both of them," Quasi countered, leaning forward until his elbows rested on his knees, his eyes searching the room for allies.
"We must have patience," Yumna interjected, her voice smooth. "Jasper is a great ally. It is why his royal status is higher than his lineage provides." She hadn't spent years leaching off the King without learning the strategic value of a weapon like Jasper.
"Silence!" King Umbay commanded. The family halted their bickering instantly. "I have sent Opal to watch them. We will do nothing until he reports back." His eyes raked over each family member, pausing on Celestine with added pressure. "What we speak of in this room remains between us."
A chorus of "Yes, Your Majesty" rang through the chamber. The royals bowed their heads in a synchronized show of respect. Using his good hand, Umbay pushed himself up from the sandstone throne and left the room with regal purpose, sauntering off toward his private quarters.