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The Mayaware's reign has to end.
When demonic beings who hide scales and insatiable hunger for humans under their skins arose, Hesi watches her family become their victim. To avenge them, Hesi has to get close...
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Berheqt rose from the sand much like how mountains and canyons do in the inaccessible parts of Ser-Ib. Hesi craned her neck to gaze at the gate's smooth precipice, the glint of the overlay of sapphire tiles almost blinding her. From where she stood, the wall spanning as high as fifty humans seemed to go on forever west and eastward. Apart from the dark silhouettes of flat-headed mesas and other mountains, there was nothing quite as tall as the crafted royal capital in the immediate mile or two.
Hesi sidestepped a cart pulled by a grunting mule. The owner gave her a baleful look before whipping the animal's backside. She gritted her teeth at the pained cry the mule gave and watched it continue to pull the cart. All around her, bald demons dressed almost like the human traders with colorful tunics and scarves and fancy sandals walked in and out of the small gates punched in regular intervals along the infinite walls.
Guards dressed in leather plated with metal and jewels stood at each of the gates' entrance, sniffing the air for any sign of humans straying near the fortress. Hesi didn't need to guess what they would do should they capture one.
Her footsteps remained light over the fine layer of sand coating the cobblestones laid a few meters around the fortress. She lowered her shawl from covering her waist-length dark hair, following the advice of the Kuhrean women who were also on the way here. She resisted the urge to break the deshet branch currently clasped in her hand at the thought of human women being victims of the demons' desires.
If she had a choice, if not for the itch for revenge curling at the base of her gut, she wouldn't be here. If she hadn't lost her family, she wouldn't even think about meeting the demons in their own wretched stronghold to infiltrate the demon prince's bridal club. Funny how she wouldn't care firsthand about the Mayaware skewering her kind if not for her family once being at the blunt end of the metaphorical and literal spear.
Hesi gritted her teeth. She's not a saint and that's something she wouldn't deny a thousand times over. She's here because she has a personal grudge to settle. If the humans get freed in the process, she'd treat it as a bonus.
The gates loomed closer now with the sun seemingly noticing her approach by burning hotter and brighter. Hesi swallowed against the scratchy feeling in her throat and tucked her hands under her arms as she trudged towards the first gate with enough crowd she could find. She wrinkled her nose at the faint smell of incense wafting around no doubt from the traders' tents and from inside the palace as well. Those demons loved marshere incense, after all.
