Hesi stared at the ceiling, running her gaze at the mural painted into it. For uncivilized creatures such as the Mayaware, it was certainly interesting. Yellow and orange blended in a colorful mirage depicting a demon warrior aboard a golden chariot pulled by growling spotted cats. The warrior's face was frozen mid-scream, his arm pointing forward as if leading the charge towards a battle that never happened.

Around the warrior sat the other personas each bearing different animal heads to represent the gods the Mayaware had concocted for themselves. There was Haqtep, with his snake head rearing back with his frills wide open. The god of nature and the divine representation of the reptilian race of the Mayaware. Feretu, the goddess of the moon and death, spread her wings and soared above the battlefield, her long beak opened wide as if issuing a war cry. Then, for some reason, Opkher, the sun god, sped through the scene as a giant ball of puru.

She could have rolled her eyes at the sight of such a tacky imitation of a better mural in the temples of Ser-Djare before the city was razed to the ground when the Mayaware were still on their non-sentient days. She could have called the demons out for trying to replace the holy gods with beings who only reminded her of the carnage they brought upon her kind but judging from the pointed look the lecturer in the front was giving her, it's not the time for her sentiments to show on her face.

Instead, she leveled her chin to the ground and smiled as sweetly as she could. "I was just admiring the ceiling," she said, swallowing every bit of acid from her tone. "The artists did a good job."

The Mayaware lecturer nodded and waved its hand at the mural. "Ah yes," he said in perfect Birejyet, which shocked Hesi the first time she heard it. Now, she was just annoyed at his reedy and unnecessarily shrill voice. "The humans have outdone themselves and even succeeded in making an excellent dinner for the Demon King that night."

A painful twinge rolled inside Hesi's gut. If it was a normal banquet, "making an excellent dinner" would have meant a wholly harmless experience of cooking and serving the host. But with the Mayaware involved...

She didn't even get to finish that thought when the lecturer clapped its hands, the loud sound making her flinch as it echoed across the hall's empty stone walls. Then, the whole afternoon was spent learning about the nature of the Mayaware and why they needed human cradles in the first place.

"Your kind has the most powerful puru we have ever seen and we want that quality to pass on to our future generations," the lecturer said. "And we will keep doing so until the end of time."

Hesi bit down against her lip but not enough to draw blood since the lecturer could get triggered with the smell. The lecturer swept its eyes across the room, past the passive glances from the older women and the terrified expressions of the younger ones. It continued. "Of course, that is also why the Mayaware prefer your kind for nourishment. Humans are just too...delicious."

Then, the lecturer crossed its muscular arms. "Now, on to the trading customs among the Mayaware—" it stopped when it came across a woman who had her hand raised. "Yes?"

"Why do we need to know that if we're just going to bear the prince's offspring?" she asked. Hesi nodded along to show her support to the girl she had come to know as Asrate. She was also the girl Hesi had talked to before she was casted inside the fortress. "We should be learning how to take care of our children."

The lecturer, to its credit, didn't explode in anger. Instead, it smoothed the cloth wrapped around its lower half and rubbed the golden bracelets around its wrists. "We teach you these things so you would be prepared in ruling over Berheqt when one of you succeeds in bearing a healthy offspring to the Prince," it said. "As for taking care of your children, you'll learn that when you live through the birth."

A wave of silence passed among the women. Hesi clenched her fist. She didn't even bother hiding it from under the table. Before Asrate could end up with the target on her back, Hesi raised her hand and the lecturer nodded at her. "You have something to say?" it said.

"Yes, actually," Hesi paused to preserve some of the tension and control over the room. "How can you say that our puru is more powerful? How did you know that whatever offspring we bear for the Prince would be more powerful?"

"Good question," the lecturer's lips spread into a dry smile, its long fangs glinting against the sunlight pouring from the square holes drilled straight through the stone walls. "We expect stronger generations from a union between Mayaware and humans because we have observed that the union between the reptilian race and the mammalian race produced beings who are more durable, more feral, and more..." it stopped to roll its hand as if it's searching for the right word. "Demonic."

Hesi bit back her laugh. That word was rich coming out from the demon's own mouth. "So, just with the strong puru we have, we could produce such traits, who's to say that a union between us and humans wouldn't produce good, if not, better generations who could carry our legacy into the bright future?" the lecturer asked no one in particular.

Bright future, her ass. All these demons were good for was the eternal darkness and suffering promised to all deviant souls in Ristep's domain. That was, assuming they even have souls. Hesi gritted her teeth but later had to school her face back to neutrality as the lecturer considered her question answered and Hesi satisfied with it. As the class moved on to talk about how the Mayaware hunt and trade human bowels as well as the value placed by the market on eyeballs with different colors apart from black and brown, Hesi's thoughts roiled and recoiled at the thought of letting these women or any more after these demons had dealt with this batch bear the creature who would be their next oppressor.

She just couldn't.

So, she needed to be swift with her plan. If she was to save herself and the other humans trapped in this wicked and violent system, she had to start collecting her cards while she could. And she didn't have time to lose.

Within the next few hours, all Hesi did was stare at the sun, watching it comb the sky for something it wasn't looking for but must find. By the time the silhouette of the palaces kissed the fiery ball of light, Hesi was the first one out of the room.

Tonight.

She had to start tonight.

The courtyard was as empty as it is as quiet at this time of the night. Unlike the Mayaware she had encountered in the desert who were wide awake even in the middle of the night, it looked like the ones inside these walls had taken it easy and retired for the night.

Hesi had tramped out of the bridal palace with ease. All she had to do was to make up an excuse that her jewelry was about to be delivered soon and she wanted to examine them closely. That's all they had to do the moment they were dressed by the Mayaware maids who despite their bald head and slitted pupils were quite docile. The lecturer had also explained it during their first meeting.

The Prince's wives should be treated with utmost honor as the receptacles of the gods' blessings to the entire demonkind. They seemed to think that by showering the women with gems the size of their hand or by braiding their hair with sweet-smelling flowers, they would be able to get them to accept their eventual death in trying to satisfy a ruthless creature. It's like fattening up the rams for the midnight feast. Hesi and the rest of her people were just animals being sent to slaughter, whether it was with shame or with honor.

Well, they could go and choke on their rubies. Hesi didn't have time to be fooling around with gossamer dresses—no matter how soft they felt against her skin—and glinting pearls—even if they did make her feel sophisticated. All of that would lose its worth if she's found dead in the morning and it was a scenario she could easily imagine even with her eyes wide open.

So, now, under the watchful gaze of the stars and the moon's faint rays, she trudged past the wide orchards separating the stone palaces from each other. Trees whose names she couldn't begin to identify and flowers whose colors she couldn't even name followed her every moment as she tore barefoot over the soft grass coating the landscape. Columns, in their ever sturdy perch, flaked her vision, herding her in the way they wished. As much as she hated being directed by anyone, including columns, it was nice knowing where to go and where not to go.

She ducked behind a tree when she heard the clanking of metal and thudding footsteps characteristic of a Mayaware. When she peeked over, true enough, there were two guards walking past the cobbled courtyard which would have bustled with activity had this time been morning. Her breath hitched when the soldiers stopped and sniffed the air. Darpeh, where's her trusty deshet branch when she needed it?

Then, the soldiers stopped and slapped each other on the back. "What doing us?" one said to its companion. "Human scent all over because wives!"

The other soldier gave a hearty laugh—something Hesi didn't know demons could do until now—and continued on their way. Hesi blew the breath she didn't even know she was holding back. When the patrol guards disappeared past the curb leading somewhere west, she narrowed her eyes and trudged after them. Wherever they're going should give her an idea how their security operates.

Keeping her footsteps light and her breathing even, she burst through the trading courtyard and came face-to-face with the huge stone palace they were told not to go to during the daily lectures. Hell, they weren't even allowed to step to the trading courtyard much less beyond it.

She craned her neck at the looming structure, her eyes scanning the Breidye script chiseled in grand fashion over the walls, telling the world of their widespread victory and their right to rule the land. Tch. They even got one letter wrong so now one of the sentences read: we farted through the sky in our glory.

Amateurs.

Hesi shook her head and forced herself to not mull over that mistake forever engraved in the walls. Embers crackled and wood crunched as torches propped at the palace's walls lit the way towards the entrance. More exotic plants Hesi was sure didn't even grow in Ser-Tehra decorated what's supposed to be the palace's front yard. As expected, there were no deshet branches in any of the gardens.

Statues depicting who's supposed to be Azophis, the Mayaware King, stood in their all their menacing might, its demon form losing most of its horror after being cast in the beige shade of the quarry used. She swallowed the growing lump in her throat and forced her heartbeat to calm. It's fine. The demons were asleep. She's just going in to see the servants going in and out. She'd be out in a blink.

Before she could lose the bravado to march inside the forbidden and, no doubt, dangerous palace, she put one foot in front of the other until she crossed the entire front yard, the sweet smell of honey-fruits filling her nose and making her stomach rumble. Then, after looking left and right for any signs of life and finding nothing, she ducked inside.

The light from the torches slotted in metal holders against the walls were faint, as if the darkness beyond the stone walls was devouring it and never spitting it back out. Ominous. Hesi rubbed her arms, forcing the hairs on it to stand down and the goosebumps to subside. There's nothing here...right? Nothing.

She spotted the first corridor peeling off the main hall from the entrance and ducked inside it. This would take a long time and with the palace this big, she'd need to keep coming back until she had the layout memorized. Well, today was the first day. She had to start so she could get somewhere.

Her footsteps scratched against the dusty stone floor, its unpolished edges sure to give her soles a bit of a beating by the time she got back to the bridal palace. Ash from the torches clogged the air and filled the corridor with the smell of burning wood. Where was the incense at this time of day, huh?

Then, voices rang from another corner, chattering in Breidye. Hesi swallowed the gasp building in her throat and scrambled into the first corridor void of torches she could find. She pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle her breathing and flattened her back against the cold wall, the hard stone surface digging against her backbone. What in Larqet's name? Why must they come now?

Perhaps she could ambush them when they come by the corner...but why? What would Hesi gain by pouring her anger on a few fingers and not the head itself? The prince. She needed to find where the prince was so she could sneak in later to kill it for real.

She peeled off the wall but before she could step forward, strong arms gripped her waist and her shoulders. Darpeh. What now?

"Don't move," a familiar voice hissed in her ear.