Vivid | Lee Minho

•Scene 3•

"Have you found him yet?"

Your eyes snapped open to be met with a gaze of depthless blue, an entity most otherworldly.

'What—who are you?'

No sound left your throat when you asked on impulse, but the ethereal being that looked down on you smiled, their voice a cacophony of sweet melodies, "I recall the humans calling me Renée. I am the essence of rebirth and sustenance, but you may better know me as the demon of rebirth and sustenance."

They had your head resting in their lap, one delicate hand caressing your hair with something akin to motherly affection. They seemed to hear your inaudible voice when you echoed, 'Demon?'

"That seems to be the popular name," the demon—Renée—mused and explained so tenderly, "We are beings that manifest from the world's phenomena. Sights such as love and grief, war and wisdom—we are born from their reoccurrence. Humans have chosen to call us demons. Though, we are not forces of evil, but representations of nature."

Demon. You had heard that word thrown at you countless times. It was an insult. It was a curse. It was a terrible, horrible thing.

Yet, this being was a demon?

Renée...they seemed to be made out of snow and starlight.

Their unmarred skin was a blue so pale it almost glowed, peeking out of flowing, luminescent robes that pooled around the two of you. A cascade of hair like woven ivory disappeared within the light of those robes, long and very precious.

It was their eyes that enchanted you the most. Wide and dark and infinite, they seemed to be ripped out of the very fabric of this dreamlike space you had awoken to. You feared they might swallow you whole if you stared for too long. Downturned, they seemed to hold such an immense sadness, yet their gaze was vast, and vastly kind.

They had the form of a human, but no mortal could compare to them. Such a delicate, yet powerful presence.

Renée was beautiful, so much so that it felt almost monstrous.

You did not feel the urge to move, lying still where you could gaze up at them. Comforted, for some reason. As though you had reunited with an old friend.

'Are you... Are you the one who cursed me?'

"Cursed you?" Renée chuckled and it was a sound that came from everywhere and nowhere at once. "No, never."

'Oh,' somehow you felt disheartened, like you had lost your only lead. 'Then...'

Then why were you here?

The radiant demon smiled, sympathetic, almost melancholy. "I suppose you would not remember."

'Remember what?'

"Your first life."

You felt a pang in your chest. Your first life. The life that must have started it all. You did not remember it, even though you recalled a certain, first death.

Still stroking your hair, Renée sighed softly. "Let me tell you a story, then.

"Once upon a time, four hundred and twenty-one years ago, a demon was called forth by greedy humans to become a sacrifice in their forbidden ritual. They sought to slaughter it and acquire its essence to secure a throne for a hungry yet lacking king."

'The Renocault Order,' you provided, almost wonderstruck, 'and the House of Rowonne.'

"Yes, indeed. It was them," Renée nodded their approval, continuing, "Knowing their wicked intentions, the demon did not wish to die. So, before the ritual was completed, they escaped into the vast human world.