GREY

Pearl

Grey howled as his body snapped and twisted. His transformation was as painful as it was unnatural. His stature shrunk, his bones cracked and snapped as they reshaped. The dark lycan fur shed off his skin, and what was left was his tall and lean form. Grey panted. His muscles felt more lighter, his joints much easier to move. His coordination was more fluid, and he realized he had shifted back to his younger self, that being the form that had been tied to the lycan's transformation.

After facing Ryssera, he had witnessed her horrible strength. He could not have defeated her without transforming, much less without using death essence. In the end his transformation had done more harm than good, and Ryssera had escaped. He did not know whether she could weaponize his power if she succumbed to her wounds, but he needed to prepare for the next time he faced her.

What he needed was the power to extract the emissary's, as she had done to Liara. He had not earned that power as a harbinger, which made sense. The Sentient did not want the trouble of chasing a power-hungry harbinger who breached his contract to go on an essence-hunting rampage. Which, Grey assumed, was what Ryssera had done.

According to Grey's knowledge, the only beings who specialized in absorbing essence were the succuba of the damned plane. Grey remembered all too well how he had dismissed his former succubus servant on their last encounter. Unlike him, she had positive emotions. She would likely refuse if he asked for her help, but he had offer that she could never resist. Grey was going to offer the succubus the very thing that she had sought from the beginning.

***

Pearl bit into the tasteless slab of bread that the prison guard had tossed to her out of mercy. Death row prisoners were not supposed to be given anything at all. The texture of the bread was almost hard enough to c***k her fragile teeth, but she chewed through, desperate to live another day.

The ruler of Eisel, the city where Pearl and her family resided, had been alerted of the powerful entity that Pearl had lured into their realm. Being a succubus and naturally greedy, Lady Selena had planted spies over the years to track Pearl's progress, and all the spy reports had concluded on the same thing: Pearl had no intention of harvesting her retainer's power. Rather, she was smuggling portions on his behalf, transferring them to him whenever she was summoned.

Consorting with people from other planes was not prohibited. If anything, it was encouraged, since it was the basis of their livelihood. However, there was a universal rule that needed to be strictly obeyed: no product of the damned plane was to be used in another plane under any circumstances.

Leaving traces of their products in other planes would prompt curiosity from the outside, and it would only be a matter of time before someone curious decided to track the products to their source. Unlike earth, hell or the celestial plane, the damned plane was just a temporary fabrication of reality. And while the beings of this world boasted of their power and cunning, they possessed no military might and if another plane launched a full scale attack on them — particularly the holy kingdoms of the human world — they would likely perish.

Lady Selena had sent men to apprehend Pearl and her family. Pearl had seen this coming, eventually, but her only way of escaping execution had been Grey's intervention. Things had not gone as anticipated after the last summon, thus she had ended up here.

After passing through the hands of Inquisitors, those ruthless demons who used any means necessary to extract information from their victims, Pearl's family had been released once the Inquisitors found no evidence of their direct association with the otherworlder. Pearl hoped they had been released in one piece, and that their minds were still intact. Poor Prissy, she had probably experienced unnecessary horrors because of her greed.

What awaited Pearl was either public execution or torture at the anatomical research facilities, or medical experiments as the evil doctors fancied to call it. Selena had promised to release her if she summoned Grey, but these people did not know him yet. They would never live to regret it, but fortunately for them, Pearl could not summon Grey; her glyph worked the other way round.

Her ordeal came sooner than expected. Two guards came and dragged her out of the small cell, and judging by their rashness, she was going to be executed. The guards led her to Selena's courtyard, where a lot of nobles and a few commoners had gathered. The sun was already setting, casting a foreboding crimson hue that painted the perfect portrait of Pearl's fate.

A pyre had been piled up around the gibbet, which meant she was going to be burnt alive rather than being hanged. If there was anything the inhabitants of the damned plane loved more than power, it was watching others suffer. Her execution through fire would not only serve to entertain the people, it would also reinforce Lady Selena's authority over Eisel.

Pearl was tied to the post despite her desperate efforts to resist. The people watched her struggle with zeal, their eyes aglow with anticipation. A tall woman in a crisp white attire emerged on the lord's pedestal. Her skin was stark white, contrasting deeply with her lustrous black hair which was tied back in a conical bun. She swept her gaze across the multitude, knowing fully well that very few could resist the charm of her purple succuba eyes.

"My faithful subjects," Lady Selena started. Most of the crowd were already nodding before they even heard what she had to say. Selena had to restrain her smile. "I summoned you to witness the punishment I bestowed on this woman, who breached the law by smuggling the stoneheart portion to the realm of humans. She did not do it once, nor twice." Selena paused, giving her subjects sufficient time to guess how much Pearl had strayed.

"She did this for over six decades, behind our backs," Selena went on, and the crowd gasped and whispered. Stirring their ire only increased the succubus' pleasure. "Death is too kind for her, but I shall grant it nonetheless. Let her execution be a warning to anyone who has or had the intention to commit the same crimes as this woman."

Selena signaled a guard, who dropped a torch on the pyre. Tall flames erupted to life instantly, licking at Pearl's unclothed skin from her feet to her face. The smoke that rose from the pyre made it almost impossible to breathe, and the futile attempt to escape was almost as painful as the heat that seared her flesh.

Amidst the crowd, Pearl noticed Prissy. She was quite easy to spot, being one of the very few succuba who had not yet earned the right to wear any form of clothing. She held her hands together on her chest, her eyes glazed with tears. Pearl's parents had not bothered coming. Over the years they had made it clear that she was a disgrace after her failure to harvest Grey's power. They probably blamed her for everything and they were content with believing that Pearl was getting exactly what she deserved.

Pearl had a sickening feeling in her stomach when she realized that her parents could have gladly paid a good sum to make this happen sooner. That broke her. It tore her apart, for while she lived by the laws of their world, she also wanted freedom, and happiness. She had survived this long without any power, and she needed none. She just wanted to live, but that option was no longer available to her.

Some guards restrained Prissy as she attempted to rush forward to free her suffering sister. She cried as Pearl's long hair singed and burnt to smoke, exposing her nakedness. The flames molt Pearl's smooth skin, her ears, and her eyelids. She tried to scream but she inhaled the toxic fume of her burning body instead. She coughed until the fire welded her facial muscles into a permanent scowl. As she lost her vision, she could see the people jeering and laughing at her. A few shook their heads. Then, as if she was witnessing a dream, a tall being appeared amongst the people.

The being was a young man, tall and lean, clad in outlandish black clothes that made him stick out. He had cold hazel eyes that seemed to be fixated on only one thing: Pearl's burning body. Had he come for her? No. No one but Prissy found her presence valuable. He had dismissed her like a rabid dog even after serving him faithfully for so long a time. Pearl felt a strong emotion brew within her as her pain ebbed, along with her consciousness. She had felt pain, anger, regret and sorrow as she burned, but more than any of those, Pearl hated Grey.