The Mayaware's reign has to end.
In a world of demonic beings with a hunger for human flesh, and thirst for blood, Hesi Renen knows it well. When her siblings are taken to the harvesting farms, she must do everything she can to get them out, even if...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Hesi craned her neck at the shelf in front of her. All of them were filled with something called books. In its essence, they are sheets of parchment bound together and they're supposed to tell a story. The ones in Mezo's collection were something he referred to as "fiction". As in, "Not real stories but entertaining, nonetheless," according to the demon prince.
All of that talk stemmed from when she entered Mezo's quarters and found the prince slumped forward, slitted eyes glued to the pages. Every once in a while, his forked tongue would flit between his lips in a quiet hiss. The only time he looked up and sensed Hesi's presence was when she laid a fist to her lips and cleared her throat.
"What are you doing?" she asked, dropping into the single cushion in front of the prince without waiting for his invitation. Like how she barged into Kharta's life, it seemed like she was prone to doing it to Mezo too.
The prince shut the tome with a heavy thud. "Reading," he said.
Hesi snorted. "What are you learning this time around?" she tapped a finger on the low table's surface. It's the only thing separating them but somehow, she wasn't feeling the need to run or cower from him. "It can't be fun."
At that, a bewildered look passed across Mezo's face. "Don't tell me that's only how you see reading as," he set the book aside, removing the finger he had hooked in between the pages. Was that the one he used to mark where he was? "Reading is...fun."
It's a word he recently learned after mulling about the feeling of happiness a little to much. Hesi crossed her arms over her gossamer dress and pulled the corners of her lips down. "Can't be that much fun," she said. "You only read to learn, right? Those medical and information tomes bored me out of my mind. I do not like reading. Don't have the focus for that, anyway."
It's true. When she entered Berheqt, she couldn't recognize a letter even when it was going to claw her eyes out. It's only thanks to Kharta and Tagara that she was able to at least read a few printed sentences at a time. But imagine reading a pages after pages. Wouldn't that damage one's eyes, especially in this meager light?
"You can try one," Mezo said. "I know a great story you'd really like."
Hesi scrunched her nose. "Story? Like the myths?"
The demon prince stuck a lip out. "Close, but not quite," he said. "These are fiction. Tales of adventure and wonder. They do not exist in our world but they are written by our people."
"By 'our' you mean the Mayaware?" she clarified.
Mezo chuckled. "There might be some works from human authors in my collection."
She blinked. "You have a collection?"
"Why else do you think I've a large room?" he stood up and headed towards the walls. In the dark, Hesi could only glimpse of the niches and rungs of the shelves. Was that why there were tons of them inside? "Let me just look for it."
