Book 3: Chapter 15 (1/2)

The cavern was dark and steamy. It was so hot that my lungs felt burnt just breathing in and out the acrid air. This path went on for what felt like ages. It was just me alone with the boiling sea, a lone path just barely above the water. I saw more bodies tossed along the path. Whoever those women were, they were now toast.

There faces were so burnt so badly that they were unrecognizable. There were also skeletons who had been boiled clean, their bones sitting for who knows how long. Were they past explorers? I didn’t know. The only thing I could do was keep heading forward. For some strange reason, I felt like my answers lay with whatever artifact they were trying to find.

When I first saw it, I thought I was looking at a mirage. In the distance, the cavern grew to an enormous height. I couldn’t see the ceiling anymore. Deep in the steamy fog was a massive structure. The closer I got, the more I realized it was actually a castle. I could only see the front of it. The rest of it was hidden behind the walls of the cave. Giant stalactites and stalagmites in front of the castle gave it a more menacing aura as if I was walking into the jowls of some great beast.

I pressed forward, having already made it this far. If Brooke was in there, I had to help her. If those two women had hurt Brooke, I didn’t know what I would do. I shoved my way through the front door, opening up into a massive entryway. It was much cooler on the inside than it was away from the boiling lake. There was a massive stairway that proceeded up to the second floor. There were also doors on either side.

Looking down at my feet, I could see scattered footsteps in the dust. It was definitely clear there had been more than a couple of people here recently. Going just by the bodies I had seen, there had to be at least a few dozen of the pit miners left alive. The steps seemed to scatter. Whoever the two mysterious women were, this castle wasn’t what they were looking for, it seemed. Rather, they were looking for something inside the castle.

“Clyburn? How are you here?” A voice came out of the darkness.

I spun, squinting as a figure came out slowly. It was a pregnant woman wearing a veil. In fact, she was probably the veiled woman whom I had met in that room with Angela. Wait? What did she call me?

I looked down at my hands and gasped. They were shorter and pudgier than the long and slender ones that I had before. In fact, they looked like my own hands. They look like Clyburn!

“How in the…” I shook my head. “Who do I look like to you?”

“…” The girl kept her distance. “I’ve been looking for you.”

My sudden surge of happiness drained as I remembered that these women were searching for me. “I know…”

Her eyes widened for a second but then narrowed suspiciously. “What do you know?”

“I know that baby is mine…” I couldn’t think of any other reason a woman would be hunting me down.

What I didn’t understand, was how they had found me here. There was some mention of scrying. They used some kind of magical spell to track me here. If that was the case, then wasn’t it possible that my family from Amaryllis could do the same? They could also be coming or already be here too, wondering where I am!

The girl grabbed her stomach, seeming very shocked by my words. “So… it really is you? Master?”

“M-master?” I laughed, scratching my neck awkwardly. “Actually, I’m a lord right now.”

The girl’s eyes flickered, and then she bowed down as low as her stomach allowed. In fact, it looked like she was about to teeter over.

“Of course… I didn’t mean any offense. My lord… you truly have been resurrected. Our sister feared failure. However, I knew the truth. I knew you transmigrated to this world properly.”

“Transmigration!” I shook. “You know I come from another world?”

“O-of course… my lord.” She nodded excitedly. “I come from the same world. I am yours. My body, my soul. Please… command me, my great lord.”

I shook my head, trying to get a grasp on this development. I had thought she was someone I knew, but it turned out to be something different. She was looking at me with reverence. She also seemed to know about my transmigration. That’s something I had never told anyone other than Hannah.

“Why did my body change?” I asked, looking back down at my body and making sure I was really Clyburn again.

“Eh? My lord?”

“I swear, I had a different face when I entered the castle,” I said, half to myself.

“Ah… the castle distorts illusions, remember my lord?” the woman finally righted herself with some difficulty. “So, you were hiding behind an illusion? No wonder we couldn’t find you. It was also genius faking your own death. We tried to stop that wretched woman from getting her hands on you, but that night went belly up for us all.”

Most of what she said was difficult to understand. Who was the wretched woman? Was she talking about Angela’s delivery? Just who had hired Angela to kidnap me anyway? They had hired a crazy person who had tried to rape me and even killed innocent people. There was no way they were good.

“Remember? Should I know this place?” I asked, looking around blankly.

“This place is your birthright, my lord. Your inheritance.” The woman explained. “When we tracked you here, I figured this must be where you were planning to head. We even had the Prince poisoned, and offered a cure to get permission from this city’s Royalty. That stupid mother would have burned down the city for her precious Caleb.”

I could only stare blankly as she filled in blanks one after another. So, Caleb was cured of poison? If that was true, then who was I? Was I just an illusion made to look like Caleb? Who put me in Caleb’s place? Where was the devil prince? Every time I had a question answered, it just led to more questions.

“It was… this Lilith person?” I asked.

“Let us not speak her name. She was only an imposter. Many in this world think she is you. She is a blasphemer who must be taken care of. Her and that associate of hers.”

“Associate? Is that the other… um… pregnant woman?”

“My lord does not need to worry about her!” The woman cried out, “She is just some harlot who should have died. I cursed her, so her baby will remain unborn!”

“Hah…” I shook my head, still, nothing was making sense. “In that case, I want to see who you are, pull off your veil.”

“Of course, my lord, this body is yours to do with as you please.” She pulled up her veil.

Immediately, my eyes grew distorted. I took a step back and hissed slowly. It was exactly who I expected it to be, and exactly who I knew it was impossible to be. The girl standing before me had short hair, a pretty complexion, and a pregnant body. Without makeup, she might have looked more like a boy. This was Ashley, the girl that haunted my dreams. The girl who had died. The entire reason I was in this mine was because I thought I had seen her. It hadn’t been a vision after all. It really was Ashley.

“Ash… I saw you die…” I spoke weakly.

The girl cocked her head. “She did die? But death is a minor thing.”

“Minor…” I couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. “How can it be minor?”

I took three steps forward and then embraced her. The girl let out a cry of surprise, but then she didn’t fight as I hugged her, allowing just enough room for the baby. I kissed her lips. They were soft and warm, and they felt similar. Then, the fact she was pregnant hit me like a brick.

“The baby… It’s mine. You were pregnant?” I said.

She smiled and nodded. “Yes, my lord. He is male. Our baby is growing strong.”

“Shouldn’t he have been born already?”

“Of course not!” Ash laughed as I touched her stomach. “My lord knows that demon women have a much longer incubation period. It will take at least twice as long before the baby is born. I still have many months to go.”

“Right… a… a… demon?” My eyes dilated as I started to get a strange sinking feeling.

Ash smiled at me, but suddenly I could see a bit of sinisterness in her eyes. She was calling me lord as if it was natural. More than that, if she was the veiled woman, they had casually poisoned a prince, blackmailed a Royal family, started an illegal slave trade, and ultimately murdered dozens of women. This wasn’t the Ashley I knew. She even said it herself. Ashley died. Sulfur… I thought it was the boiling lake outside, but there was a faint scent of sulfur on her.

This couldn’t be Ashley. If that was the case, then that meant the demon summoning ceremony worked. That had been Diba Monic’s goal form the beginning. She had wanted to summon demons into our world. It was supposed to enter me, but it ended up inside Ashley instead! Demons were only supposed to be able to take over men! I had remembered reading something about that in this world’s bible.

That was right, Ashley was half male! Numerous body parts had been swapped out with her brother’s during an unfortunate accident. Although she was technically a woman where it counted, a demon could still get inside her. Ashley was a demon, and that would make the baby in her stomach a demon’s baby!

I didn’t know why the summoning had failed all that time ago. I took it up to Diba’s entire story being superstition, except that I felt the Demons. When I jumped across the portal to save Lyra, I felt them trying to enter my soul. However, it also felt like they couldn’t. So, what happened? They entered whoever they could. They had a whole tree of recently killed boys who could have been possessed. Why Ashley? Because she was pregnant? How many others are there?

“Demons… how many?” I asked, pulling away from her stomach like it burned me.

Ash didn’t seem to notice my change in expression. “Ah? My lord, it is just Rebecca and myself. When my baby is born in nine months, we’ll finally begin to spread the demon seed over the whole realm. Although, that won’t matter. You should be the one to do it. Once you regain your power, we’ll bring you as many women as you need. Spread your seed and create an army of offspring.”