The Invisible Planet

Part 14: Devil

"Fuck it. Just go, then."

Shay hesitated for a few seconds. With a flick of his wrist, a red bubble encased her. "What am I supposed to do?" he asked, knowing full well she could neither hear nor respond. "You're terrified of what I look like. And I don't fault you for that; most are. But if I show you what I am and you can't stand to look at me anymore, I can never undo that."

He pulled his hood back, staring at her with his face revealed. "I don't know why it matters so much," he said. "I only just met you, but— I haven't met anyone else in so long. You're the only one out of all those passengers who wasn't instantly scared of me. Even now, you're braver than all of them combined. I am... livid at you for what you did. But at the same time, how can I be? You were brave enough to risk your life because you wanted to see a glimpse of my face."

He took a breath, pacing away and then back. "When I found you on the beach, I wasn't going to put the hood back on, but... that look in your eyes. That fear I felt from you, I couldn't stand it. The one new person in all these years to not immediately be terrified of me, but now I know for a fact that if you saw me, you would be. And I can't even tell you that without you figuring it out. I—" he shook his head, staring at her deep brown eyes.

She was quite beautiful, a fact that certainly wasn't lost on him — but he found himself reluctant to admit it. Her curly black hair framed her oval face, skin the color of fresh cinnamon. She had full lips beneath a perfectly cute nose that seemed begging for a poke, and a light dusting of freckles on her cheeks.

"I wish you hadn't seen," he said. "I wish I could undo it. Maybe then I'd be brave enough to show you." He lowered his head. "You look like an angel, and I'm the devil. You were always going to find out, anyway. I just wish I had more time with you, first. I wanted to hear so much more about you. How you got away from Kespan, why your first instinct is to lie about your age, what drove you to kill that man. You're fascinating to me. I'm sorry it had to be this way."

He looked over her face one last time, committing her features to memory. "Goodbye, Angel." He turned from the cave and shimmied out of the little cove, putting just enough distance between them that he could no longer feel her before he released her from the bubble.

"Shay, wait!" she cried.

He strode quickly through the woods, back toward the shipwreck. The pain in his arm was deep enough to draw his mind away from her.

"What happened?" Mira asked as he arrived.

"The stubborn humans have upset me again. I'm starting to remember why we agreed to an eternity without them."

She touched his arm sympathetically, and he flinched. "Are you hurt?"

"It's nothing."

"Dekita!" she called.

The woman came toward them from around the ship, hood lowered at her shoulders to reveal her bronze colored skin. Her green eyes glowed brighter in the dark, and her thin emerald braids fell over her shoulders to her waist. "Shay. What happened?" she asked.

"Got into a scrap with the LightWalkers, trying to protect one of the humans."

"Let me see."

He swung his cloak off his shoulders, hanging it over his left arm as he held out his right.

"You did this for a human?" she asked in an amused tone.

"It wasn't intentional. I told her to run, but she didn't listen," he explained. "I had to turn my back on two of them to keep her from getting killed. One of them took the opportunity to tear a chunk out of me."

"Shay's getting soft," Mira teased.

"There were three of them, and I— I'm not explaining myself to you."

"Don't get tetchy. I'm only goading you." She poked his left arm playfully.

"I think his feelings are hurt more than his arm," Dekita mused, giving him a sly grin as her magic healed his wounds.

"I'm not—"

A shrill scream came from the direction of the ship, and they turned to see one of the passengers. "Demon! Demon!" she cried, fleeing back around the side.

Shay rolled his eyes. "Fine, maybe I'm a bit miffed that the rest of you are called beautiful and ethereal, maybe unsettling at most, and I'm always just 'demon' or 'monster' or 'stuff of nightmares.' Why can't I ever be seen as normal?"

"Because you look like the devil of old," Mira answered.

He shot her a glare. "Thank you, I hadn't noticed all these years. I'd rip these damned eyes out of my skull if I could."

"But then you wouldn't be able to sit on the mountain and watch the sunsets," she said.

"Or look at that pretty human girl he ran off after," Dekita added.

"It's not like that," he defended. "Her thought patterns were different than the others, and I was curious about her. That's all. Anyway, she told me to fuck off, so here I am. How's the project coming along?"

"Thalia's working on it. We were thinking of bringing Takka to help, but..."

"He'll frighten them worse than I would. At least I don't do it intentionally."

"It's only a matter of time before he finds out, anyway," said Mira.

"Yes, but maybe they'll be less frightened if we can at least get them used to us, first."

"So, it is true," said a deep voice from behind them. The three of them turned slowly to face Marius, clad in a shimmering golden robe that dragged behind him on the ground. Wavy golden locks covered his head. His eyes shone with yellow light, and even his dark skin had a golden hue. "There are humans on Serenia again."

"It was an accident," said Shay. "They didn't mean to find us."

"You know what happened last time."

"This is different. These people are innocent, and they're here by mistake. It's not like they can ever leave. They can't tell anyone about this place, even if they wanted to."

"You want to let them live? Let them destroy our home?"

"They won't! We'll see to it that they're taken care of and teach them the ways of Serenia."

"These creatures know nothing but waste and destruction. They kill for pleasure, they pluck flowers to watch them die and cut whole forests just to burn them for fun."

"They can learn," Shay reasoned. "We can teach them to be better, to respect the land."

Marius chuckled. "You still think their kind are capable of learning? Have you forgotten what they did to their own planets?"

"Please," Shay begged. "At very least, they're entertaining. We could use the enrichment. It'll be a good reminder of why we love Serenia so much."

Marius sighed. "Very well. I will give them a year. You may have your fun, but do not meddle in their lives or think of getting attached. If I find at the end of that time that they are still wreaking havoc on everything around them, I shall put an end to them. Is that understood?"

Shay nodded. "Yes. Thank you."

"I will see you at home." He turned around and disappeared back into the trees, heading west.

"And they all think I'm the devil," Shay grumbled under his breath.

"I— I'd best help Thalia," said Dekita, and she headed north into the forest.

"A year," Mira repeated. "A year to teach all of them to stop being wasteful and cruel."

"We've got to try," said Shay. "It's their only hope."