back at Athena. “Nope! I think we’ll just leave it as guy stuff.”
Athena’s brow furrowed.
Meanwhile, Western Luvelles
Shade Hollow
“Payne! ... Payne! The moments have come,” the Mischievous One announced after appearing inside a large cave filled with bats. Icy-blue stalactites hung from the ceiling above a deep pool of fresh water. Despite this particular spot being hidden deep within the ground, light had managed to find its way to the pool. It reflected off its surface and shimmered against the walls of the cave.
Payne, on the other hand, was not a bat. He was a fairy-demon—the only fairy-demon in existence. Each moment a bat approached his meal, the demon snatched it up, bit its head off, and then he spit it to the ground.
“Go away! Eating,” Payne growled, not knowing the being standing in front of him was a “so-called” god.
The Mischievous One ignored the fairy-demon’s dismissal. “Payne, the human I told you about is on Luvelles. Are you ready to find new friends? I know how important this is to you. You do want to have friends, right?”
Payne’s red face lifted with his mouth full of shredded throat that had been ripped from a female elf he had found lying face down in the woods and brought to his cave. “You want Payne go now?” The fairy-demon’s bottom lip curled. “I want eat ... because … because … um … it took forever.”
“What took forever, Payne?”
“For her to be ... uh ... uh, the right heat. Yeah, the right heat. Payne eat now. She gooder now. Won’t taste gooder again. Gotta eat.”
“Are you saying that her temperature is just right, and she won’t taste as good if you eat her later?”
“Yeah. You leave. Payne eat.”
Lasidious smiled inside and took a deep breath. Payne was important, and he was too young to argue with. He needed to be patient with the fairy-demon. “By all means, continue. I would hate to ruin your meal. I can wait a while longer.”
“Don’t watch. Payne don’t like that.”
Lasidious moved to stand next to the pool. “I’ll just wait over here.”
Now, fellow soul ... let me tell you a little about Payne. The birth of Payne was a successful manipulation, or better yet, a suggestion planted by Lasidious into the mind of Payne’s father just over four seasons ago.
The fairy-demon was solid red from head to toe. His mother, Sharvesa, a carver demon, was the Queen of Demons on the world of Dragonia. For the most part, Payne took after his mother when it came to his looks. Tiny horns rested on his forehead. Claw-like hands, both razor-sharp, served him well when hunting, and he had a whip-like tail that ended in a fine point.
The fairy-demon also had many of Sharvesa’s natural abilities, yet Payne was an outcast. He was unable to live amongst the other demons of pure blood—thanks to his father. Payne’s white wings served as a constant reminder to Sharvesa’s subjects that he was an abomination.
To satisfy a desire placed in his mind by Lasidious, Defondel, the Fairy King of Western Luvelles, set out on a quest to create a new race of fairies. After arriving on the demon queen’s world, Defondel sought out Sharvesa. He used his magic to cast a powerful spell on the Demon Queen, and while Payne’s mother lay in slumber, Defondel took advantage of her. The fairy’s four-inch frame disappeared as he crawled inside her. It did not take long, but when the fairy king slid out into the open and landed on the cave floor, Payne’s mother was pregnant.
The demon world would have killed Payne if it had not been for his mother’s decision to send him to Western Luvelles to be raised by his father—a decision she made only after the queen’s request to visit Luvelles was denied. Sharvesa’s anger toward Defondel was evident when she spoke with the Head Master. Brayson had turned her down because he believed vengeance was her sole reason for her presence on his world.
In order to cause the fairy king discomfort and spare herself the agony of ending a shunned child, Sharvesa sent Payne with the Merchant Angels to live with his father. This decision—one also manipulated by Lasidious—was a welcomed suggestion, and it was acted upon immediately by the Head Master. The choice avoided Payne’s sure destruction, but Sharvesa never stopped wishing that her subjects would one Peak allow her to bring him home. Though Sharvesa’s subjects were loyal, they could not handle the constant reminder of the rape