the Horrors of a New Life

[Deva Raven]

Whimpers from deep within her chest rise unbidden to escape her lips into the night. An occasional word of refusal is cried out as tears push through long interlaced lashes. Curled tightly on the couch where she lays her head down each night, sleep will not relieve her of the images from days past. With jaw set and nails pressed into the flesh of each palm in small furious fists... Deva's dreams force her to relive the memories too fresh to retire with the setting sun.

Fae, that is what her lord and master had called her. He made note of the lightening tone of her skin and spoke of the strangeness found in her eyes. It is true even with her long hours beneath the sun her skin had done the opposite of what was expected. As for her eyes... had those not been the star's reflections in the river at night when she bathed? He reassured Deva, this was nothing to fear. To be a child of the forest was a great honor for she was not human.

Deva was not human. This is not so hard to believe! Though Deva's thoughts would not have been spoken with as great a reverence and esteem as her lord had. A Fae! She wasn't human afterall. Had not her parents been human? The Green Flames occupied her thoughts when nothing else did for several days until a greater distraction took hold.

Arie the Daemon soul mate to her twin and sister Aries the Drow. Their shared dark form was the empty sky, a canvas for the Sun and Moon to play upon. The Sun was not the goodness. It was the passion of violence fueled by hatred. The Moon was not darkness and instead the kiss, a lure away from the embrace of a Spider. Deva's surprise at watching the woman transform gave her a moment of joy. A spider! The woman could become one of nature's creatures! Had it not been for Rei... Deva shuddered to imagine what fate would have lain in store. The spiderwebs that drip from the trees like silvery curtains are enjoyed because they are harmless! What that spider could weave would have been far more lethal. Rei stood valiantly between the two urging Deva to face what stood before them. His faith and courage lent her a breadth of strength, but not for a moment did the fear leave her until the Sun was eclipsed by the Moon and the fiery eyes died to a azure blue.

Deva wasn't so very scarred by this. She had been safe hidden behind Rei. She trusted him to protect her. It was only another scratch along the surface of her skin. One that would have healed along with learning she was not a Human after all if only... if only...

ShadowStone. Deva cared for her friends at the square. They had been in a long battle together and more than earned their rest and food. She could always worry about her own meal later. A man approached as she tended them and after greeting she returned to their care, but a chill rose through her. Emotions unfamiliar filled her and caused an uneasiness besides. Slowly Deva turned from the unicorn to look what she had mistaken for a man in the eye. A dark grimace of a smile on his lips with eyes that could pull a soul from it's vessel. Deva was face to face with the first true Daemon she had ever seen and still she knew him. She could not say how but she did. Under her questioning gaze his form changed so that her mind could only deny all it's senses to refuse his existence and still it tried. Shock stilled her trembling and words of... was it disgust? that came in quiet docile tones made passive by her ever-present fear spoke calmly from the same whose cries of torment would continue many a night after.

Taken from the meadow that day... the bargain made to spare her beloved friends was a steep price on Deva's heart. In that place of darkness, she could not begin to understand what could drive a man to become a monster.