Chapter Text
“What the fuck are you?!” A fervent voice hissed, drawing Rumi from her thoughts.
There was a demon in her hotel room, pacing with agitation in front of the window overlooking the San Francico Bay. There was a demon waiting for her at her most vulnerable, fresh out of the admittedly luxurious shower after their latest set of their world tour. A demon that had caught her alone, patterns bared to the world in such a way that to call for help was to risk discovery. Mira and Zoey, could absolutely not see her like this, and the demon before her must of known that. Even calling upon her Saingeom would spell her doom. The ripples of its appearance would call to them as surely as a tear would have.
The demon must have known this somehow, why else would it have set this ambush?
Yet, the demon did not strike at her. As easy as it would be for it to begin the unraveling of Rumi’s carefully crafted life of secrets and half-truths, it instead just paced. Frustration radiating from it as it waited. For what Rumi could only guess. It’s black patterns drinking in the light as they pulsed in that way that demon patterns did?
Rumi had always wondered what that meant when the demons she and her girls fought glowed in that sickly way as they faced the celestial weapons of the Honmoon. What it meant when her own patterns danced with light after a show? It was almost as nagging to her as the different colors.
Demons in Korea and much of the East Asia region had purple patterns of one shade or another. But further west? Green patterns began to emerge as the demons forms subtly shifted. With every other color of the rainbow eventually being represented in some sickly fashion as the demon’s body sometimes shifted.
Black was one of the rarer patterns she and her girls had seen. But all of them had been strong, all of them had been mostly human, all of them took their first chance to slip away rather than face their blades of starlight.
None of them looked like hers.
“Well? Come on then, I asked you a question Hunter.” The demon finally stopped it’s pacing, drawing Rumi from her thoughts as their black markings intensity seemed to cast them in shadows.
“What do you want demon?” Rumi growled out, frustrated at this entire situation as her own patterns began to pulse in time to her pounding heart. Casting her unique color back at the encroaching shadows of the enemy. She wanted to feel comforted by that, but knew that anything related to that side of herself couldn’t mean comfort. Only shame.
“What do I want?! I want my freedom, something I actually have thank you very much! I want to stay away from all the soul crushing weight of you Lordly assholes! So why the fuck are you trying to get in my head?! What kind of sick game are you playing!?” The Demon hissed as it drew close to Rumi, letting Rumi take them in more fully.
The demon had taken the form of a young woman, one who seemed to like the punk acetic as well. Worn cargo pants and dirty boots, a black tank top with a cartoon demon waving a three toned flag of blue, pink, and white. Green reptilian eyes in sharp face set in a scowl Mira would actually be impressed by. Hair a vibrant shade of crimson styled into a crown, obscuring the small horns that Rumi only now noticed. She was tall, as well, towering over Rumi as the black intensity of hers pulsed against Rumi’s own light.
The demons words almost stumbled Rumi, the proximity almost made her flinch. Almost.
Her fist connected with the demons face with barely any resistance. Forcing the darkness back as Rumi glowed all the brighter. The demoness fell to the floor, human features stubbornly still affixed. But the patterns upon her cheek?
They started to glow with Rumi’s color.
The demoness crumpled on the floor, and in a moment that Rumi would swear came from a fever dream, curled in on itself and started to weep,
“No, no, no. I will not serve anyone. Never again!” She whispered desperately, in a tone Rumi knew all too well.
“No, no, no. Why have they spread again?”
It was madness that drove her next action. Why else would she crouch down before the enemy? Offer sympathy for what had to be an act?
“What is happening?” she gently met the frightened gaze of the panicking demon, like she had seen Mira do countless times for Zoey when the world had become too much.
She almost wished she had followed her Hunters training when the demonesses eyes managed to focus on her. Eyes now more wide and expressive than they had been a moment before.
“You don’t know? You’re the Demon Lord trying to claim my soul here. How could you not know?”
Golden patterns continued to overtake the black lines, pulsing in a way that almost seemed happy if that were possible.
“… What?”
tr/x
Rumi was not aware of much as she and the confused demon started at each other. Time passed as they stared at each other. As Rumi’s gold crawled across her skin, overtaking the woman’s black. Steadily with an inescapable surety as every pulse of not-light was pushed back.
As Rumi took ownership of a demon.
The sudden thought shocked her back to some form of awareness as she took in the demon, still crying as gold now covered her patterns more than the black. Whispering to herself as she tried in vain to stop the unstoppable.
“How do I stop this?” Rumi demanded, hoping that this woman would know something. Anything to make this night end so that she could wake up in a world that still made sense. One where she could greet her girls with a smile and pretend she wasn’t broken.
Even as another part of herself, one that Rumi kept deeply locked away, seemed to purr with satisfaction.
“Baby Lord doesn’t know she’s a Lord. What the fuck, I should have just gone to see my girlfriend.” The broken demon cried.
“I’m not a Demon Lord.” Rumi tried.
“The fuck you’re not! You think any old demon could just do what you’re doing?” The distraught demon growled.
“Okay. So what does that mean?” Rumi tried again.
“It means you’re one of the great flames of the demon realm, how in the dusk could you have ignited and not known that? Especially while playing those hunter girls for fools?” the demon was gathering steam, focusing on outrage to drive away the terror. A Mira tactic that Rumi could work around. Humans lost their filters like this, perhaps a demon would be the same. Provided the emotions she was seeing really weren’t an Oscar winning performance.
All it would require was for Rumi to trust that what she was seeing was real.
“…I’ve never been to the demon realm.” Rumi offered, a truth that didn’t really matter to her, but might get the demon before her to spill something. The Demoness’s eyes widened further at that. Drinking her in rapidly as some of the fury seemed to leave her as quickly as it had buoyed her.
“Never been to the- You’re still in your human body. How in the- what kind of deal did you make? Which lord did you fleece?” The demoness asked, her tone now more hysterical.
“Never made a deal either, was just born.” Rumi offered, almost surprised at how easily she admitted it. But honestly she felt more detached as she watched her colors fill the room. She and the demon were both glowing with what Rumi was starting to realize were their emotions.
The Demoness was glowing with fear. She was so very terribly afraid, and the light of her patterns reflected that in a sickly way, the gold smoldered in a way that almost looked tarnished.
Rumi’s light was trepidation, blinking in and out in a sputtering that could quickly become tarnish, but with a brightness that was trying to keep the fear at bay. She wasn’t sure she liked finally being able to make sense of that aspect of Demon patterns.
“… you’re a halfa?!” the Demon asked incredulously as the fear tarnish blinked into a warbling surprise. She looked at Rumi now with something that Rumi had seen countless times.
Wonder. Childlike and hopeful. Like the colors her fans souls seemed to glow when she sang as they slowly turned the Honmoon gold. Reverent in a way that should have been intimate considering that Rumi still had not properly clothed herself.
And a Demon was the one who looked at her like that.
“A Half-demon lord… you really don’t have any idea, do you? About what you are, about what you’re doing?” she asked.
“About anything really, just the hunter side of things.” She offered voice level as she tried to keep herself centered.
“… A Half-Demon Hunter Lord? You mean you’re actually one of the Honmoon’s chosen, not just faking it with pure style?” The demon asked, almost at ease somehow now.
“Yes?”
“… well. I guess there is a god, cause there’s no way you aren’t some kind of divine joke on reality.” The demoness laugh was bitter, yet genuine as the gold finally settled.
“It’s not that funny.” Rumi glared without any real heat.
“No, it’s a horrible joke played by a cruel bastard.” The demon agreed easily. “but the alternative is messy tears, and your voice doesn’t really make me want to do that.”
“My voice?” Rumi asked in confusion.
“Right, you know nothing. Okay your highness, I guess I’m going to have to play the part of your royal advisor. Let’s start with introductions. I’m Kayleigh. Formerly a free demon who sold her soul without a second thought to get into the proper body. Now in your service until you eat my soul.” The now named demoness offered in a way that her patterns indicated was forced cheer.
“… Rumi, Hunter and Half-Demon, I am not going to eat your soul.” Rumi returned indignant at the barb.
“No, you’re just going to accidentally enslave me with your music. Least it’s a pleasant background noise.” The demon returned, relaxing now even as Rumi felt the tension inside herself grow. Despite this demon claiming that Rumi was in charge she felt anything but, and the demon seemed to sense that. Yet instead of pouncing on that weakness as every other demon had before, she raised her hands in a gesture of reassurance.
“Okay, so most basic of basics, demons, those with Patterns that aren’t black. We hear the voice of the demon Lord who controls us in our head. You’re Korean, so you should be familiar with Gwi-ma Lord of Shame.”
“Lord of Shame?” Rumi asked, having never heard Gwi-ma referred to with that epithet.
“The emotion he uses to control his subject. Every demon lord has one, and it’s reflected in their subjects’ patterns. Yours is… weird.” Kayleigh offered. Rumi didn’t know how to respond to that, and her uninvited guest took it as permission to continue. “Black patterns mean that we have managed to escape the whispers, usually by putting a great distance from ourselves and the Lord we made a deal with. Of course since your just a halfa I guess you didn’t have to deal with any of those whispers since your predecessors sealed the demon realm away.”
That explained why the demon had at first been so very frightened by the change in her patterns, Rumi realized. Kayleigh had been as free as a demon could manage, and Rumi had somehow managed to take that freedom away. Become the voice in her head whispering all the cruel truths of the world. Her patterns almost instantly tarnished and dulled.
“Hey none of that!” The suddenly sharp voice of the woman she’d just enslaved, rang in her ears. Rumi looked at her with new eyes as she realized her sin, even as she once more got into her space. Looming over her, and boring down on her with intense green eyes. “You’re spiraling, which is going to make me spiral.”
“Because my voice is in your head?” Rumi whispered weakly.
“No, because I’m a giant softy who doesn’t do well in crisis. It’s why I’m a runaway.” The demon offered meekly. It was such a strange thing for a demon to say that Rumi’s brain actually rebooted to take the woman in.
Her patterns were flickering in a rhythm that Rumi inferred meant panic. Her eyes, which had every right to scowl, were soft and pleading. Her position over Rumi was more akin to someone trying to offer shelter.
Which was so very wrong for a demon to offer, let alone someone Rumi had just-
The demon smacked her.
Lightly, with an open palm that lacked the claws that should have raked her. But still firm enough that Rumi lost her spiral of shame to look upon the demon with a gob smacked expression.
“Sorry, I panicked. I told you I’m not good at this!” The demoness exclaimed as she retreated.
Rumi found that she could not contain herself anymore. This entire situation was ridiculous.
A demon had broken into her hotel and was now trying to keep her from having a panic attack.
She was tired from the events of the day. From training to sharpen her edge against any threats to the honmoon. From singing her heart out to Huntr/x’s millions of fans. From being on tour and not in her own bed.
From lying to her girls, over and over again.
She was so very tired and did not have the strength to keep it going anymore. Not after the sudden rollercoaster of emotions this demon had just put her through. So, she did not even try anymore.
Rumi broke down.
A demon caught her.
Tr/x
Kayleigh had been a demon for roughly two hundred and fifty years, give or take a few years. Despite a lot of awful things that would haunt her forever, she did not regret becoming a demon. Her other choice was to remain in her shell and die in a body that was not hers. Maybe she could have found a place to be herself somewhere in the world that was. But it was more likely that she would be killed simply for existing.
That was how the Lord of Desire had found her, tempted her with scarlet patterns that would show her true self to the world.
It was also why the Lord of Desire lost her. Because once she was herself, what more did she need? But then that was the Lord of Desire’s way. Trading with mortals and knowing that eventually the new demon’s desires would eventually overpower their hold. They either burnt out and rejoined the Scarlet Flame or became charred and outcast. Free until their actions drove them into the arms of another Lord.
No demon could run forever from the pull of their emotions. And one of the Lords always managed to find a grip on something.
She supposed that that is exactly what had happened to her.
It had started with random tunes from speakers. An upbeat ripple that lit up the human souls around her, and reminded her that she hadn’t really eaten for a while. Kayleigh had thought she knew what that had meant. The next generation of Hunters had formed. The peace she knew was going to be eroded as demonic instincts reacted to their antithesis.
It was the cruelest irony that a Soul ignited to fuel the barrier was also one that shined to her eyes like the juiciest fruit. It made it so very hard to not take a bite. To not gorge herself on the feast that the Hunters prepared.
She’d had to go into hiding again the last time the Hunters had sung. Had to retreat into a cabin in the woods away from any broadcasting signal for fear of what all of those ripe souls might do to her control. And even that hadn’t been enough. The crazy nature loving mortals had brought the music with them. Playing the songs around campfires, singing them as they hiked, filling the silence of the woods with their oh so tempting melodies.
She hadn’t always been able to resist.
And then they had just disappeared. Kayleigh had cried in relief when she learned about their tragedy. Then wallowed in a period of self-directed hate for the joy she found in others suffering. Truly being a demon was suffering.
She had left the woods, slightly more haunted than when she arrived. Intent to enjoy the next few decades of background hunger. Keeping herself in check as the world progressed. Freedom was still hers as long as she did not draw attention to herself.
Sure there was the occasional other demon that tried to either take her territory, or drag her back to their lords lands. But that had been manageable. She’d been in San Francisco for over a decade, and she had actually grown attached to her life here.
She had only settled there so she could be on the lookout for the next time she had to run. Better to know when the next trio ignited the world in starlight then to be blindsided by the tempting allure. It was only supposed to be temporary.
But It is where she met Sarah.
Kayleigh had not meant to get attached to a human. Had not meant to latch onto the safety and warmth offered by another person without being a corrupting influence. She should have been feeding the girl’s desires to the point of excess. Garnishing a meal in the colors of Kayleigh’s rebirth.
Instead, she had fallen hopelessly in love. Tricked herself into thinking she had found something that she would not lose.
Then Huntr/x had debuted and Sarah’s soul had ignited with a harmonious gold that was the most beautifully tempting thing Kayleigh had ever seen. She had wanted oh so badly to reach out and touch that golden soul-fire her love had ignited with.
She hadn’t seen Sarah for over a year. It was better that way, safer for her. Even if it tore Kayleigh to pieces with every message of love and hurt questions Sarah sent her. Her patterns had almost bled into the magenta light of shame. Except, the songs that had stolen her happiness from her pushed away the sickening color.
Every time their songs washed over her, she felt it. A new color, a new Lord speaking in her head. Not the familiar Scarlet of Desire, or the Magenta of Shame, nor the Jade of Greed. It was Golden.
Golden and Hopeful.
No Hunter could sing a song like that and affect a demon in such a way. Only another demon could do that. It was such a startling revelation that Kayleigh had gone a little crazy.
A new Demon Lord had been born, one that fed on Hope? It was not possible. It was a trick, like the Lord of Desire. No demon would just offer hope. Hope wasn’t something a demon could actually feed on, only use to create the emotions they wanted to feed on. Yet somehow, impossibly her patterns kept sparking with golden light whenever another song played near her.
She couldn’t keep up under the unrelenting pressure that seemed to always find her. Songs worming into her head and whispering to her about a life with Sarah, one where she didn’t have to hide her demonic side or her birth gender. A life where she could be seen and accepted, despite everything she had done.
So, Kayleigh had done something incredibly stupid. She had bought a ticket and attended one of Huntr/x’s shows. She had too, to find the New Lord and get them to stop! To maintain her freedom! It was easy to identify which one was the Lord as soon as they stepped on stage. She might have been able to fool the mortals around her. Had even managed to pull the wool over the eyes of demonkinds natural predators. She might have even fooled Kayleigh if not for one thing.
Where the other two brushed against the barrier of souls. Their lead singer was intertwined with it. The very magic that was supposed to spell the doom of all demons was flowing through her, it breathed with her every movement. Even in stillness it thrummed with the newborn Lord’s heartbeat.
It was the horror story every demon should fear. The golden wall of Soulfire that would spell the eventual extinction of all demon kind. Yet it flowed out of the mouth of a demon, mixing into the world and igniting souls with golden light that should have torn the barrier asunder. Kayleigh had watched the entire show, and had almost given in then and there. It was stubbornness that had seen her through. But it was also what had set her into action.
She had to know what this Lord’s game was. If she knew, then she could stop playing and maintain her freedom
Instead Kayleigh had found a very confused half-demon that had no idea what she was doing and had ended up in her service.
She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
On the one hand, she had a new voice in her head. Another voice that whispered to her about the things she wanted. It was a chain that bound her to the will of someone else.
On the other hand, she wasn’t hungry anymore. At all. The golden flame of hope flowed in her patterns and drove the hunger away.
This had been such a shock that it had broken her resolve.
A demon was always hungry. It was the lack of soul that ensured this. They were empty husks that merely smoldered in the colors left by the ashes of what they once had. Always looking to fill that hole. Lords provided a type of relief, but even in their colors hunger would remain. The hunger that their Lords felt as they tried to feed themselves on the dregs of their servants’ souls.
Every meal she’d had while her patterns had been crimson had been taxed, driving her hunger to new heights. The Jade she’d been colored in briefly had been worse, with only scraps being allowed to nourish her ashes. The black had been manageable, her meals had been for her and her alone. She had allowed herself the bitter satisfaction of a full belly every so often.
But a lack of hunger? A true relief to her empty soul? Kayleigh didn’t think any demon out there could actually resist.
Her new Lord had filled her hollow shell with the golden fire of the barrier, and instead of being burned away, she had been filled in.
It made her want to see Sarah. But she couldn’t. Not right now, not while she had a hysterical Demon Lord breaking down on her.
One who was also a Hunter. Someone who had likely been trained to kill demons on sight, despite being one of them. An existence that hung like a blade over her head. Offering her the freedom of Hope or total destruction. Yet she couldn’t hate her, not if the hope was real. Fragile though it might be.
“Hey, hey. It’s… going to be okay?” Kayleigh offered the naked woman. Flinching at how awkward her voice sounded.
“How is any of this going to be okay?” Her Lord, Rumi cried, wrapping herself in her arms as if they could protect her from the world.
Kayleigh winced, realizing that the woman was shivering. Whether from the temperature or emotions, or a combination of both. So using a trick her Sarah had taught her, she grabbed the hotel provided comforter and wrapped it around her weeping Lord. Securing her against the world in a snug embrace of silky comfort.
Sarah was probably going to kill her for being this intimate with someone else. Her Lord might beat Sarah to it for daring to be so presumptuous. The other two members of her Lord’s Trio would kill them both for the patterns on their skin.
But in that moment. Kayleigh embraced the hope that filled her head with song.
Tr/x
Rumi did not know how long it had been since her night took a surreal turn into a waking nightmare. Didn’t know how long it had been since she had enslaved someone. Someone who should have every right to lash out and rage at her for the golden chain she had wrapped around their soul.
The demon had instead swaddled her in a comforter and sat with her. Humming “How it’s Done” off key in a gesture of comfort that was so very wrong for a demon.
With more effort than it should have taken, Rumi managed to finally uncurl herself and look at the demon in her room. She was softer now than Rumi could have ever dreamed a demon might be. The gold of her patterns, Rumi’s gold, disguised the sharp edges of her features. She was still unmistakably a demon, but she didn’t radiate anything that set Rumi instincts off.
She almost felt human. Real in a way Rumi didn’t even associate with herself.
“Hey there, back in the land of the living?” The demon, Kayleigh, asked gently.
Rumi still did not have the energy for words and only managed to nod. Her eyes now focused on the impossibility before her. A demon that was like her. A demon that could explain… everything. What the patterns meant, maybe offer her a way to get the patterns to stop spreading with every song.
Anything other than the shame of merely having them.
Except… her patterns did not mean shame? Shame was Gwi-ma’s color according to Kayleigh. Her patterns had never been the Magenta of the demons she banished in her homeland. Always Gold, like the Honmoon was supposed to become. Celine had said it was a sign. That they were destined to finally win the fight and banish the demons for good. That she, Mira, and Zoey were going to save the world.
Rumi wanted to believe in that, it was so very easy to believe that when every performance lit the souls around her in her colors. Mira and Zoey highlighted her in ripples of silver as her gold shined all the brighter and ignited the souls around her.
Yet here was a demon, also alight with the same golden soul-fire that she had seen countless humans ignite with as they caused the Honmoon to ripple and grow. A demon that was not being banished by the holy light as it should, but instead now seemed to breath it. Be tied to it.
Just like Rumi was.
It defied Celines’s teachings. Violated everything Rumi had known to be true. Her only other choice had been the horrible option the demon had dropped on her. Demon Lord. A twisted inversion of what she was supposed to be. A peer to Gwi-ma, a ruiner of souls.
A mistake.
She needed more information, and right now it was going to be coming from a demon. Rumi did not know how if she could trust what she might hear. But what choice did she have?
“Right, good. So, do you prefer Your Majesty or Dark Queen?” The- Kayleigh asked nonsensically.
“Wh-what?” Rumi snorted, half laughter half outrage.
“Ah not a fan, maybe Queen of Starlight, ooh what about the Huntress in Gold?” The ridiculous person tried again.
“No~!” Rumi moaned in despair as she tried to retreat into the comforter.
“Well, what, you expect me to just call you Rumi then? Not very Demon Lord like.” Kayleigh smiled. Her teeth should have made that threatening, a maw more like a shark. But the gesture and light of her patterns was oh so very warm and human. Hopeful.
“It’s my name.” She replied weakly.
“Well your Rumi-ness, let’s try once more.” The crazy woman nodded.
“You’re awful.” Rumi grumped.
“Demon.” Kayleigh reminded, the joke somehow landing. Earning a snort from Rumi. “Besides, you don’t look half as freaked anymore.”
Rumi glared petulantly at the stranger who had broken into her room. Realizing that she very well could just at this point scream, huddled up in her cocoon she could make such a ruckus and draw all sorts of hell upon this woman. Either Zoey or Mira would banish her back to the demon realm.
Or worse, Bobby would get his hands on her.
Instead she mustered up the wit that allowed her to write songs of hope beside her girls and turned it upon her newest target.
“I revoke your assumed title of Royal Advisor, I hereby dub thee Court Jester” Kayleigh, somehow tripped on nothing and landed on her face. Before turning to look at her with a pout that only marked at .15 on the Zoey scale.
It was glorious to have her on the back foot for once this crazy night.
“I apologize; you’ve totally got this Demon Lord thing in hand.” Her Jester tried to act petulant. But Rumi could tell they were at ease by the glow of her patterns.
“About that.” Rumi interrupted trying to steer things on track.
“Right. So serious talk and try not to spiral. You seriously had no idea about any of this? Didn’t your demon parent teach you any of this stuff?” Kayleigh asked now solemn. Rumi could only shake her head, unsure if she should explain that she only knew that her father had been a demon who had somehow gotten a hunter pregnant.
She did not like, or want, to think about what that might mean.
She was a mistake, and that is all she needed to know. The truth would be far too painful.
“So that means you’re young. Probably not even a century if your dad hasn’t tracked you down.” Kayleigh was right, but off point again, and this time Rumi had to take corrective measures lest more assumptions be made.
“I’m twenty-three.” Kayleigh whistled at that. Whistled!
“By dusk, you really are a Baby Demon Lord.” Rumi did not like the emphasis on baby. Her pout did not dissuade her Jester.
“So how did you join the Hunters? Did you just seek them out or something?”
“My mother, she was a Hunter.” Rumi offered.
“… and we veer back to cruel cosmic jokes. Forgive me, I really am shit at this.” Kayleigh offered meekly. “So, you probably had no choice in anything, I have no idea how being one of the Barrier’s Chosen works. Or even how being both that and a Demon works.” She continued. “What I do know is somehow, that’s probably why you’re a Demon Lord. It kinda makes sense now that I think about it.” She finally nodded.
“How?” Rumi was sure she sounded desperate at that moment. She didn’t care.
“So, simple unpleasant fact of demon. Even halfa’s can’t escape this… until you that is. But Demons need to eat, and I’m sure you know what it is we eat.” The face she made was deeply uncomfortable, and her patterns blazed briefly with magenta tinged gold before Rumi’s color washed it away.
“Souls.” Rumi hated that she knew. Knew that the woman before her was a killer, with possibly hundreds worse than dead by her hands.
“Yeah. Half-demons usually can go decades without feeding, but they usually feel it. The hunger, to fulfill their half-existance. You ever feel that?” The demon nodded sadly.
“No,” Rumi replied, for once happy that she had never been like anyone else.
“You’re lucky. I became a demon by deal, not getting eaten. So, I technically still had more of my soul than the lesser demons. The monstrous looking one. Plus I tried to restrain myself.” The demon continued.
“That makes it better?!” Rumi knew her tone was harsh as her patterns flashed angrily. She wasn’t prepared for the demon to agree with her.
“Of course it doesn’t!” Magenta was again washing it’s way across the demon, fought at every turn by Rumi’s Gold. Regret was evident in the woman’s every word as she continued. “I was a monster; I killed people to live. I can’t undo that, the best I could do was try and find the really awful people. Make the world just a bit brighter by choking down another piece of the dark. I didn’t always succeed. Being a demon sucked.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Rumi asked, cutting off the stream of confessions. The demon woman inhaled deeply as she continued to look Rumi in the eyes.
“Because it sucked. Past tense. Your song in my head, your color on my skin? I’m not hungry anymore! Somehow you did something that breaks every rule! I came here tonight to fight for my freedom. But if being your slave means not eating souls, then long live Queen Rumi, Demon Lord of Hope!” Kayleigh was yelling now. Proclaiming something that Rumi absolutely did not want to hear.
Worst she wasn’t stopping.
“Your chain is nothing compared to the three other Lords I’ve served! It’s nothing! Nothing but Hope and good feeling and promises of an actually bright world! I can’t go back to what they do to me, and freedom… You have no idea what hunger for a demon is like! Freedom was just another chain, a reminder that demons shouldn’t exist! This, you have no idea what it’s like to have my soul back!” she was crying now, and Rumi found that she was crying with her.
It was a moment that lit the Honmoon around her with gold. The world’s barrier sang in harmony with the tears. As if blessing this horrible, twisted thing that Rumi had done. It bound her and Kayleigh in strand of golden light that acted more like demon patterns. Singing a song of Hope and Love.
Rumi for the first time since she could see the Honmoon, she was not comforted by it, and still Kayliegh continued.
“Somehow, when that Thing the Hunters wove chose a half-souled wretch as one of it’s special stars, you stopped being either! Your hunger was filled by that well that the Hunters have been filling for centuries, and it didn’t just fill you in, it expanded you! You ignited because that’s what happens when a Demon gluts themselves past fullness! But you somehow did it in a fleshy human body! Now here you are Queen of Starlight, filling me with Hope!”
“What the fuck is going on here?!” Of course that was also the moment that the entire house of cards crumbled, as Mira kicked in the door. Gok-do held at the ready.
Kayleigh was right, being a demon sucked.
Tr/x