Jee-shahn remained perched upon the dead branch, his tattered wings casting a
jagged, dark shadow over the water. He watched the girl—not with the eyes of a
predator, but with the hollow curiosity of a man looking at a broken mirror.
"Are you an adventurer?" Jee-shahn's voice drifted down, dry and detached. "Or
perhaps a bandit? A shadow from a hidden group? You don't look like any race I've
seen in the fourteen skies. It makes me curious... what kind of story does a girl like
you carry?"
The lady spat out a final mouthful of river water, her small frame shaking with a
mixture of cold and fury. "You..." she hissed, looking up at him. "You didn't even
move. You watched me go over the edge! You're a monster! Why do you want to know
about me? Don't you dare act interested in my life after watching me nearly die!"
Jee-shahn let out a low, mirthless chuckle. "I know you are incredibly beautiful, but
my curiosity isn't a compliment. It's a question. What are you? And why were you
floating down a river of death?"
The girl's face flushed a deep crimson at the word beautiful, her anger momentarily
tripped by his bluntness. She quickly steadied her heart, locking her gaze with his. "I
am only telling you this because, for some twisted reason, I'm still breathing. My
name is Seraphina. I am a World-Eater."
She paused, her voice trembling. "We are the demons who chose to stay. The ones
who decided this world was worth living in. That is why they call us that."
Jee-shahn tilted his head. "A demon? Then tell me... how does a demon fare in a
world this brutal?"
The question acted like a physical blow. Seraphina's breath hitched, and the fire in her
eyes was suddenly quenched by a flood of tears. "Just because we are demons... just
because we can be reborn... does it give everyone the right to kill us without a
thought? Does it mean we aren't evil just because we exist?"
She wiped her eyes with a trembling hand, her voice cracking into a sob. "People
think that because a demon can revive after a hundred years, it doesn't matter if they
slaughter us. But they don't understand the cost. When we die, we lose everything.
We lose our memories. We lose the faces of our mothers, the voices of our fathers,
and the warmth of the people we loved. It's not a rebirth... it's an execution of the
soul."
She looked at Jee-shahn, her face a mask of pure, raw agony. "My family... my
people... we came to this world to see its beauty. We wanted to meet the other races.
But instead of a greeting, they gave us holy magic. They slaughtered everyone. My
father stayed behind so I could escape into this river. They are all gone, Jee-shahn. A
hundred years from now, someone with my face will wake up, and they won't even
know I ever existed."
She let out a shaky breath, her gaze dropping to the churned foam of the waterfall. "Is
that all this world is? Monsters killing monsters? Does everyone just live to tear each
other's families apart?"
The "noise" of her weeping was the only sound in the valley. Jee-shahn sat in silence
for a long time, the words "execution of the soul" echoing in the dark embassy of his
own mind.
Without a word, he leaped from the dead tree, landing softly in the water beside her.
Seraphina flinched, but she didn't pull away."I'm leaving this place," Jee-shahn said softly, his voice devoid of its usual mockery.
He looked at her tear-stained face and reached down. "But I have no plans to leave a
beautiful lady alone in a world that only knows how to kill."
Before she could protest, he swept her into his arms. Seraphina froze, her face
turning a vivid red as she felt the immense, terrifying power radiating from his chest.
Jee-shahn didn't wait for her permission. His massive, wounded wings beat once
against the mountain air, and they soared upward, leaving the thundering waterfall
and the ghosts of the World-Eaters behind.