"Very well. What shall we start with? Maybe something easy like, why is a kind type of man like Jali locked up for more than a decade? Or should we go straight to the difficult question? Why the fuck couldn't you wait for your mate? Was it really that difficult that you had to go out and get a rent-a-mate? I mean, I'm definitely no saint but no matter how much I slept around I never took a mate."
Was it that hard to understand why I was enraged right now? Did I expect him to be celibate his entire life? No. Did I expect him to go out and get a mate? Absolutely not!
"We can start easy since that's a simpler subject to discuss." Jelani sighed. "When we were younger Jali, Asha, and I were quite close. That was until my parents saw something in him that they didn't see in us. They begun the experimentation on him once we got older, trying to force the dark magic of their priests into him. In an effort to create a creature or hybrid of sorts that was strong enough to please them. All of their constant experimentation began to change him. He was no longer the sweet older brother that we once knew.
He became malicious, cruel and cold. Nothing moved him and it made him the perfect creature in my parent's eyes; especially my father. The new Jali broke slaves in no time. Everyone wanted to send their misbehaving slaves to my father and Jali. That was until something in him snapped.
On average there could be anywhere between one hundred and five hundred slaves being moved about my parent's compound, not to mention all of the employees that helped to train them and overall run the entire program. One day Jali walked into the compound and brutally murdered every single person that was there. One hundred and seventy-six lives, taken."
"Wh-What? Why is he still alive?" I questioned interrupting his story. Men had been sentenced to death for far less.
"His original judgment was death however once it came to light what my parents were doing to him he was sentenced here with me. My parents also had a punishment of their own that they somehow managed to weasel their way out of it."
"Why would anyone do that to their child?" I questioned, thinking back to the cruel people that Jelani.
"We never quite figured that out. As my mother has already told you, she herself has undergone a few transformations as well. That's why I wasn't able to take away that magic that she had. If I had, it would have killed her. The same thing happened with Asha, except she chose the life as well. Jali, almost has two separate identities; there's the Jali that we grew up with and then there's the murderous Jali that would kill anything in his path."
"And you said he's getting better?" I questioned looking up at him in disbelief. Was it that simple for someone like him who had done something so atrocious to get better?
"He is. For the longest he wasn't able to control the murderous rage when it appeared but now he's able to keep it under control for longer periods of time. His main problem is the rest of our family trying to get him to go back to his old life. My father believes that he can now control him but Jali doesn't want to go back to that life."
"I just don't understand how they have allowed him to live even after all of that." As one of the major gods of my Pantheon I have been privileged to sit in on many trials of creatures and beings that have caused mayhem across our realm and while fair our judgments could end up on the cruel side if we saw fit.
"I am not proud to say that our ruling body did not always hold the same morals that our current one does. They were corrupt and viewed him as more of a weapon to keep around just in case rather than a human that has done something so vile. Even many members of the new council see him as a weapon to keep. Not to mention there were many that believed as my father does, that slaves do not count for much in their economy, so it was not that great a loss for them."
"Why do you have slaves though? Many pantheons have outlawed such horrid and barbaric practices." I questioned.
"And we are working on it in this pantheon as well but there are many who oppose the change; including very high ranking members of the pantheon." Jelani explained and I nodded my head in understanding. It was terrible in nature but there was nothing that I, alone, could do. Once back home it would have to be a topic that I brought up at the next meeting but that all depended on when I would be leaving this place.
"Well now that Jali's story has been explained can we move on to the more important topic here?" I questioned.
"I'll allow Marin to explain that one. All that I ask is that you hear him out before completely dismissing him, or I." He requested and the short, quick nod I gave to him was enough to have him move out of the way.
Marin sat at the bottom of the bed, his large gray eyes were looking in every direction except for mine. The nerves were rolling off him in waves and I waited almost impatiently as his mouth opened and closed a few times before he turned his body fully towards me and began to speak. His voice was light and airy, as usual, almost distracting in nature but I had to keep my mind focused as I listened to him.
"So, when I first got here I was completely out of control. Before that though, I was the only one of my kind in my small village. My mother was a fairy, already married to a male fairy and my father, an incubus. He seduced her, visiting her many nights as she slept, until he finally got what he wanted from her, an heir. Once that happened he was done with her, apparently never to visit again. She was devastated once she realized what had actually happened and she withdrew from everyone, including myself.
For a long while no one knew of my origins other than my mother, fairy father, and my older brother and so the other fairies didn't understand where my mother's depression came from and why she never wanted to see me. For the longest I didn't even know what I was.The village raised me as one of their own, teaching me all about my heritage and my people. I was mischievous but no more than the rest of the fairies my age, however once I hit the age where we were considered adults things begun to happen to me that didn't happen to my peers.
In my village, growing up we were only taught very basics when it came to the outside world as we were well hidden and didn't really interact very much with other creatures. I had heard stories of older fairies going out and causing mischief in the outside world but us younger ones weren't allowed outside of the village limits.
I began to crave something that I didn't understand. I associated it with hunger and that's what it felt like except no matter how much I ate I was always hungry. I questioned my older brother and he didn't know or understand the change that was happening inside me. I wished to ask my fairy father but he treated me almost like I didn't exist when we were within the confines of our home.
He was ashamed of my very existence and no matter what I did and now matter how well I behaved I would never be good enough for him. Over the years he tried to convince Malin, my brother to do the same; especially when I began to dress more feminine. I loved the pastel colors and frills." He smiled the last part, finally looking up at me and I couldn't help the small smirk I flashed back.
"I can see that..." I agreed, picturing him younger and in a light pink dress parading around their village happily.
"Well it took some time and some experimentation but I finally realized what it was that I was craving. And once I understood that I desired the sexual energy of those around me there was nothing I could do to stop myself from taking it. At first I was subtle about it, sneaking in a taste here or there but then my hunger got the best of me and soon I was taking so much from those around me that it was becoming noticeable. What happened to you began to happen to so many others that they were able to trace it back to me.
That's when things took a turn for the worse. There were moments when I would completely black out and awaken somewhere outside of our village with no memory of how I got there or what I had done up until that point. Soon, my friends no longer wanted to hang with me and everyone in the village started to give me weird looks.
One day, my mother and fairy father sat me down and explained what was happening. I was draining those around me of their energy. They told me of my real father and what I was but I didn't believe them. I would never hurt someone like that, let alone my friends and those close to me. My fairy father wanted to send me away immediately but I begged my mother not to do it.
She convinced him not to do so and so I stayed home for a while. It was kind of lonely but I had Malin to keep me company. He would make me so happy that I almost forgot that I was practically a shut in. He...He also allowed me to feed off of him when the hunger pains became too much. My parents told him it wasn't a good idea, begged him not to but he didn't listen at all.
It turned out that they were right.
I fooled myself into believing I had control over my incubus half. Like the naive creature I was I thought that I was strong enough to control the cravings. That I could last off a little taste at a time. I underestimated the sheer force that my hunger would come at me once I let down my guard."
Staring into his eyes I watched as the cool, calm gray slowly began to flicker between the purple I associated with the feedings and the gray that assured me he was safe to approach. Both looked less vivid and more haunted the deeper into the story he got. Jelani moved closer to the edge of the bed where he was standing. With no mate bond in place between us I didn't expect the rush of emotion.
Was he moving closer to comfort his chosen mate? Did he not care for me at all? Was he not concerned about my well being? However, the look in his eyes when ours connected told me otherwise. He was very concerned about the reaction this trip down memory lane was having on Marin but also concerned on what might happen if the fairy lost control of himself.
"The day it happened it felt like I was split in two. It was as if there were two different beings fighting for control within me. The incubus inside of me wanted control, no longer content with the measly offerings I gave it. It didn't notice familial bonds, all it knew was an insatiable hunger.
When Malin came to offer himself to me as he usually did, chest bare, hair pulled back into a singular braid, bright silver eyes, happy to see me, and a smile that warmed my aching heart, the demon attacked. He took everything Malin could offer him and for a split second I wondered if my brother knew that this would happen one day. He didn't fight me off, he just allowed it with that same smile gracing his features.
Had it not been for my fairy father in that moment I would have drained him of all his life force. He managed to separate me from my brother but the creature was still unsatisfied, in an attempt to gain more he turned to the man who had never seen me as more than a hindrance and tried to drain him as well.
My mother would later describe to me, in great detail, how, in that moment, she couldn't see me as her son. I was too dirty a creature, to ugly in her eyes to be the sweet Marin she had envisioned as I grew up. I didn't have it in me to tell her that she hadn't seen me at all growing up.
With help of other fairies that heard the commotion I was finally restrained until I was able to gain control of myself once again. However, this time my secret was completely out. No longer was it a rumor hastily whispered as I passed. It was now a fact that I was not a pure fairy. I was a hybrid of the worse sort in their eyes.
After what felt like years caged up in small hole with no light, and no way to tell how long I was being held away for, I was finally granted a hearing. Not that it mattered because my fate was already sealed. No longer could I hide behind my mother as I was not only cast out but sent here to be punished. They didn't know that the Master of this place had changed and no longer was it a prison where I would rot and die.
In their minds they were finally rid of me and not once did they try to reach out to me. Shortly after arriving here I was unbalanced, the demon within me finally awakened and with enough energy was able to take over my body for long periods of time, blocking me out of my own mind and body. But at this point I didn't care. I let him have control because what did it matter? My own family didn't want me and in my mind there wasn't much more to live for.
I almost killed my brother, the most precious person to me, and that's all I could think of for hours on end as I drifted further and further away from the real world. in the years that I spent there, wallowing in my own self pity there would be brief moments when there was a lull in the demon's madness. Those moments were caused by Jelani, he somehow managed to control it.
It was if the creature would become just a small pussy cat in his presence instead of the roaring beast I knew it to be. Now, fairies don't have destined mates like some supernatural creatures do. We are able to decide our own mates and then claim them. I was at least privy to that teaching before I left, however, I was unaware of the type of mating an incubus had.
Did they simply sleep around for sustenance? Were they able to claim a mate? Did they choose like we did? I knew none of this information since I didn't know any other incubus. Soon my thoughts were consumed by the kindness that Jelani had been showing me. The first time in a while that I was treated kindly by someone who wasn't Malin.
Jelani had even managed to go back to my village and coerce information out of my parents, in the guise of understanding my case better in order to have a proper punishment for me. In the process he not only managed to steal me a picture of my brother and I but also managed to find out that Malin was in fact still alive and worried over my safety, although it took him forever to recover.
I had come to associate Jelani with a sort of happiness that I wasn't used to. He made me feel like I was slowly becoming myself again. Actually, it was more of a feeling that I was becoming who I really was. I felt more whole than I had ever felt since first understanding what I was. Often, I would find myself agreeing with the demon's feelings and realizing that they were indeed my own and not just a separate entity's thoughts and actions.
I had hope that I would finally be allowed to leave this place if I was rehabilitated but even that thought brought a sour taste to my mouth. Jelani had treated me so well, understanding that all I needed was a firm hand, a bit of kindness, understanding and some patience. The thought of leaving him begun to weigh heavily on my heart." He sighed, taking a breaking from the retelling of the story.
I had to admit that hearing his background and his life I could understand a bit of what he was feeling. I knew the feeling of being ostracized by your own family quite well. I understood what it meant to feel all alone in the world, the hopelessness of it all when it comes crushing down on you.
"I can remember that night quite well." His tone had become more somber, almost lifeless as he glanced up at me. Our eyes connected and in an instant I knew we had reached the moment in his backstory that I was anticipating.
"Go on..." I urged him, needing to hear it.
"It was a night designated for my feedings. Jelani had set up a schedule and it helped to keep me more stable. Usually Jelani tried to make sure things didn't get too heated during these feedings as he was very mindful of our positions. He was simply helping me out as the Master of this place. There were a few times when we slipped up but he was quick to explain that those sort of things were not appropriate and as much as I wanted to agree with him I would often allow my more demonic side to slip out to encourage such events.
Which proved to be a very dangerous mistake.
One night, I wanted more attention from Jelani than he was willing to give me. I allowed my incubus to have complete control while I was feeding from him. It began as normal but some time before the end of our session something snapped inside me and I could feel the intentions of the incubus. He craved Jelani and wanted him, like some sort of possession. Before I could gain control of him again he marked him.
Apparently, an incubus is able to take a mate and by injecting a sort of venom inside his chosen mate he can claim them for himself. It is mainly a way to stake claim to a creature that they intend to keep feeding from however since I am not solely a incubus this action created a mating bond between Jelani and I."
I was without words. What was one to say to an explanation like that? Was it his fault? Yes...maybe? I was unsure. Could I really fault him for not being in control of something he, himself, didn't quite understand?
The room was bathed in silence as the two of us sat there. Marin's head was bowed as he played with a piece of frayed fabric on the bed linen. Looking up Jelani's gaze was glued upon me, his eyes holding a questioning look. I suppose he was trying to gauge my reaction to the story.
You and me both. I thought mirthlessly.
"And what of you Jelani?" I questioned, my voice now coming back to me.
"What of me?" He questioned in confusion.
"Did you mark him back?" I questioned because it seemed to have been a completed mating bond.
"No, not at first." He sighed.
"So when?" I asked Jelani but Marin answered in his stead, seeming frantic to defend Jelani's honor.
"It took years of relentless torture on my end. I could feel the bond forming and after he realized what I had done he no longer allowed me to feed from him. He arranged to have people brought in from elsewhere who were accustomed to the needs of an incubus. But I would not allow it. I would visit him in his dreams, my instincts taking over to allow me to do so without training. At first it wasn't obvious to him what I was doing but soon he realized and he fought me off there too.
But it was too much, the venom in his system begged for the bond to be completed. Punished him every time I was sated by another and then punished us both when he took someone else to his bed beside me. In his defense, he fought me off night after night. He would go days without sleeping in order to stop me. But it made no difference because now all of me wanted him. In my mind we were mates, although logically I knew it wasn't right.
I asked him one day why he fought so hard when it was much easier to give in and he told me he was waiting on his intended mate. My heart was shattered. Not because the man I had considered my mate had told me he was waiting for another but because I was so naive to believe that he didn't already have a mate out there. I had ruined two lives in the process and I wasn't sure how to handle that.
I fell into a deep depression not knowing how to fix it. All I knew was that I had messed up. After months of self imposed isolation, where I spent the majority of my time in Jelani's library reading up on the incubus race, I came up with a solution. It was the only way I knew to fix this. When I questioned Jelani about possible solutions he said that he had exhausted the few connections he had with the fairy kind and still could find no clear answer, which I knew would be the case. We were a very secretive group of creatures we told no secrets to outsiders and kept most of our problems in house.
Even if there were other cases of hybrids like me there would be no way he would find out that type of information being a different species. And I had no connections to any fairies outside my own village. I had never ventured further than the designated boundaries. However, the solution I had devised was quite simple in my mind and needed no help from any other fairy but it seemed to be the perfect answer to our problem.
I told Jelani that he could have us both.
There was no way, in all the research I had done, to reverse the claim I had put on him however it was possible for me to claim more than one being as my own. Apparently, it was quite normal for an incubus, or succubus, to have more than one victim and to play favorites, as it would seem. So they were able to claim more than one being as theirs, protected under them from other incubus.
Once he found his mate I would simply claim you as well and create a bond as I had done with Jelani and all would be well. At least, that's what I thought in my mind. Clearly, it hadn't worked out as well as I had hoped. I knew he was tired of fighting the bond that was blossoming even with all the space we had put between us. And even with this solid solution it took him a few more months of hesitation before he gave in.
When I found you on the bridge I was so delighted because we talked about finding you all the time. Once the bond was completed I was able to feel what he felt and what he felt was a sort of emptiness sometimes because he knew that he had an intended mate out there waiting for him. I was finally happy that he would be happy but I never thought that it would have ended this way.
I had hoped that we would have been able to discuss this before hand but you came to us as someone in need of rehabilitation and Jelani thought that it would be best if we fix you before dropping more issues and drama on top of whatever you were working through.But then everything seemed to just fall to pieces and then his family showed up and you know the rest."
Once again, silence took over the space as we sat there. There was so much information to take in and so much to consider. I had expected a simple story of Jelani being impatient and not wanting to wait for me, his mate, but this was so much more. Not only was I supposed to take Jelani as my mate but now Marin as well? How would this work, such an unconventional, forced mating?
"So..." Jelani questioned after what felt like an eternity sitting there with my thoughts. "What now?"
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What now indeed...
What happens next?
What do you think of Marin's past?