The Mayaware's reign must 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 it...
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Hesi stared at the ceiling, studying the mural. For uncivilized creatures such as the Mayaware, it was intriguing. Yellow and orange blended in an explosive mirage depicting a demon warrior aboard a golden chariot pulled by growling, spotted cats. The warrior's face froze mid-scream, his arm pointing forward as though leading an army towards a battle that never happened.
Around the warrior sat the other personas, each bearing different animal heads. They represented the gods the Mayaware concocted. There was Haqtep, with his snake head rearing back and his frills splayed. He was the god of nature and the divine representation of the demon reptilian race. Feretu, the goddess of the moon and death, spread her wings and soared above the battlefield, her long beak propped open as though issuing a war cry. Opkher, the sun god, sped through the dramatic landscape as a giant ball of puru.
She wanted to roll her eyes at the sight. It was a tacky imitation of the grand murals in Ser-Djare's temples before the city flattened to rocky stumps. She could have called them out for replacing the holy gods with beings who reminded her of the carnage brought upon her people, but refrained. The pointed look the lecturer gave her told her it wasn't the time for her face to show such sentiments. Instead, she leveled her chin to the ground and smiled as sweetly as she could. "I was admiring the ceiling," she said, swallowing every drop of acid from her tone. "The artists made excellent work."
The Mayaware lecturer, Yobekh, waved his hand at the mural. "Ah yes," he said in perfect Birejyet, which shocked her the first time she heard it. Now, she was merely annoyed at his reedy voice. "Humans outdid themselves. I hear they made an excellent dinner for the Demon King as well."
A painful twinge roiled inside her gut. If it was a normal banquet, "making an excellent dinner" would have meant a harmless experience of cooking and serving the host. But with the Mayaware involved...
She didn't even get to finish that thought because the lecturer clapped his hands. The loud sound made her flinch as it echoed across the hall's empty stone walls. She stuck her lip out, dropped her chin on her palm, and leaned against the low table she sat behind. The day started early, with her eating from a literary spoon what it meant to be a Mayaware in the empire. The sun wasn't even out in its full glory. Most information passed through her mind, but there were things that stuck out like bleeding stumps.
Such as the time when Uzare raised a hand two hours in and asked, "Why does the Mayaware need human women? What is the need for the trials?"
Yobekh's eyes bulged, as though the question caught him off guard. They talked about Mayawares and how the demons evolved from pits of relentless hunger to people who exercised a degree of control over their desires. Maybe his meager demon brain couldn't understand the connection Uzare made or whether the bride meant for the question to connect.
He cleared his throat and answered. "Your kind has the most powerful puru we know, and we want that quality to pass on to future generations." He strode towards the sheafs of parchment betraying maps of Iren-Washep. "And we want our descendants to flourish more than we do."
