Near Mint Mill

Later, long after today, he would realise it was the greatest sleep and smoothest awakening he had ever experienced. In the moment, however, he was questioning why he was waking up. The room was pleasant, the night easing the humidity from yesterday and the sun had not yet reached a point that brought that stickiness back.

He pushed his face into the pillow, wanting to go back to that resting oblivion but movement on the bed brought his attention back to the here and now. The brutally depressed male turned his head to the side and the brown haired and eared cenzo opened his eyes to an absolutely stunning sight. The scarlet skinned succubus was seated on the edge of the bed, hands up gathering her hair, exposing her immaculate bare back to him.

Rori interlocked her fingers together and reached up for the ceiling, pushing her palms as much as she could towards it. He watched the roll of her shoulders, into the squeezing of her shoulders blades, through the arch of her back, the movement highlighting that slim waist and right into the top curves of her delectable bum. There was not a single blemish he could see on her flawless skin and he had explored quite a lot of it last night. He grunted in annoyance, pushing his face even harder into the pillow not wanting those hot blooded male thoughts given his current deeply depressive state of being.

“Alright. Out with it.” Her sensuous voice tugged at the most desperate part of him that yearned for emotional support. “Who are you and what’s got you wishing for death?”

The soulfully sad cenzo let out a defeated sigh and sunk into the bed as he just gave up. “Why didn’t you take me?” He asked.

The reccubus finished her stretch and looked back over her shoulder at her overnight companion. “Bad for business.” Rori shrugged. “And does nothing for your guilt.”

“Puts me out of my misery.” He lifted the pillow and put it over the back of his head

She gave him a longer look this time. “I feed upon your soul to the point it kills you. Your guilt remains.” Rori told him, before she reached into her nightstand for a hairbrush. “It drifts around, you either become a nightmare monster wandering the mortal realm or it falls down into the Abyss and over the millenia you are tormented into a demon. Forever stuck torturing and being tortured in that primitive state with just your overwhelming guilt remaining as a reminder of what you once were.”

He grunted at not being able to hide anything from her, pulled his head out from under the pillow and turned over to stare up at the slanted ceiling. “So? What? I am just supposed to accept what happened and live a normal life?”

“I gave you a night of pleasure. To remind you what is still available in life should you choose to embrace it.” Rori told him.

The cenzo grunted. “Booze and sex?”
“Not the worst kind of life.” She approved.

“As long as I forget everything else, sounds like the perfect dream.” He closed his eyes in an attempt to relax some. After a few moments of silence with Rori just brushing her luxurious hair, he asked. “Is this a dream?”

Rori arched an eyebrow. “What makes you ask that?”

The lupine eared cenzo looked around. “You reds can dreamwalk and everything feels…comfortable. The bed, the air, you…too perfect?”

She let out an amused breath. “Well I am always comfortable. Dressed or naked, it makes no difference to me. And Avador weather, more often than not, is marvellous.”

The male cenzo propped himself up on his elbow to watch her. “That confidence of yours feels like it could cure all that ails me. I could just keep coming back to you day after day to keep my ‘spirits’ up.” He tried to deflect the conversation away from his gnawing hopelesness.

Rori gave him yet another noncommittal glance. “After you leave here today, I do not want to see your face again.” The shock was clearly written on his face. “It is for your own safety.” She informed him. “Once I ‘feed’ upon someone a single time, should I feed on them again I cannot restrain myself. I will consume their soul completely.”

He regarded her for a long moment. “That just provides me with even more incentive to bed you again.” He told her.

“If that is all you got out of this conversation there is something far more wrong with you than whatever caused this oppressive guilt.” Rori stated.

The cenzo flopped onto his back and draped his arm across his eyes. “How much do you actually care? What do you get out of sharing the burdens of others?”

Rori continued brushing her hair for a moment. “The obvious answer as a sneaky seductive reccubus is ‘show someone some kindness and they are more likely to return it and you get what you want from them’. The other option is that people go through enough hardships as it is and I would much rather make your body hard, not your life.”

He looked sideways at her. “Not going to get a real answer out of you?”

Rori shrugged an alluringly bare shoulder. “Maybe you did, maybe you won’t.”

He let out a huff. “Maybe if I decipher the words between all the sexual connotations.”

“Joke and deflect all you want.” She said. “Until you actually address the turmoil within you, everything you do will feel hollow.”

“It’s annoying how hot and right you are.” Even the way she snorted at his comment was crazily attractive. He took a shuddering breath, preparing himself. “I’m Chase Adamson. My best friends were Alexander Evans, Kathryn Evans.”

Rori arched another delicate eyebrow. “Quiet the company to keep.”

“And Ryly Ryder. And I lost all three of them last week.” Chase finished. Rori paused and kept her eyes on him as he struggled internally with what to say. “Alex was on a personal mission, a library…” He fell silent, lost in those memories before he shook it off. “We were out in the Terian forest. But, we were followed by an army whose leaders wanted Alex and Kate dead no matter the cost…they got Alex and Ryly.” Chase’s voice cracked at finally saying his worst fear outloud. “And in her grief Kate consumed everything and everyone until she expended all that she was in a vain attempt to bring Alex back…” He brought his hands up and pushed the heels of his palms into his eyes. “I felt it…felt that tug as she pulled all life to her…I was scared…so I ran.” Chase took a deep breath. “I got as far away as I could as fast as I could, but still the devastation…I got to Cinka before I found any form of life. Kate…she…”

Rori put a hand on his chest in an attempt to provide some form of comfort. “Wait…” Realization struck Rori. “All those people talking about that sudden wasteland near Rawlesca, that was because of this?”

He lifted his arm away from his eyes to look at her. “Yes.”

She had an astonished look on her face. “What the hells was so important that caused all that?”

Finally having that emotional break and letting it all out, Chase did not pause to think about what he was sharing at this point. “I don’t know exactly, but Alex referred to it as a library of somesort.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “No idea if it survived the devastation. If it did, I’m hoping it’s lost and buried.” His sigh was so heavy, but had a hint of relief towards the end that indicated he was started on the path of mending himself.

Rori gave him a pat. “You’re safe here. Rest. Recuperate. No rush.”

Chase gave her a single nod, already lost in those hopefully recovering thoughts.