*****Author's note: Thanks once again to everyone who read and commented on previous chapters. This chapter is a bit longer, and there's a lot more "story" - hopefully you'll still find it enjoyable. As always, do let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions for improvement, feel free to make them! Feedback is much appreciated.*****
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Jacob was on his knees, his eyes tightly shut. There was a sudden heat in the air: sweat streaked his face and droplets ran down his naked chest. The low rumbling grew louder, the air warmer. He could feel vibrations in the ground, tremors running up his legs at periodic intervals. Footfalls, he thought with a shudder - Mbrogia must be enormous. Closer and closer, with each passing moment the tremors became heavier, shaking his whole body.
"Don't look," hissed Beluriel, beside him. Jacob jerked his head in a frightened nod.
Then Mbrogia entered the room.
It felt like an explosion had gone off. There was a roar, and a rush of hot air that nearly threw Jacob flat on his back. The temptation to look was strong, but he resisted, and kept his head bowed. A stench of sulphur filled the cavern, a taste like hot ash in his mouth. In his mind's eye he pictured a towering beast wreathed in flame; an awesome, majestic creature glowing with a terrible fire.
Maybe just a small peek
.
Just for a second. Just to see... No!
He squeezed his eyelids together.
A loud grating sound, a harsh crackle like breaking rock. The demon lord was speaking, and the sound of it was like a mountain crumbling to dust.
Then another voice, softer, subordinate. Beluriel, he realised. The conversation was beyond him, he could only kneel, and tremble. The succubus' earlier words echoed in his thoughts:
His form is not something your imagination could withstand
...
There was a sudden surge of heat, and a wash of sulphurous air over his face. He could feel the demon lord's presence, terrifyingly close, as though Mbrogia's face was only inches from his - the urge to open his eyes was overwhelming, he had to look, he had to see -
His eyelids cracked open -
***
For the second time in recent memory, Jacob awoke to find himself lying naked on a bed, with Beluriel looking down at him. He blinked, focusing, and only then noticed the longer, lighter hair. Zephara! Eyes suddenly wide, he scrambled backward.
Zephara laughed. "Bit jittery, isn't he? I really don't know what you see in him, Bel."
Beluriel walked over to stand beside Zephara, and Jacob looked back and forth between the two succubi.
"What happened?"
"You should be dead twice over now." Zephara jerked a thumb in Beluriel's direction. "But you're not, thanks to her."
"What do you mean?"
Zephara looked at Beluriel, who remained silent, and then back at Jacob. "I think I'll leave you two alone. Stay out of trouble, little Jacob. Come find me if you get lonely, and we can pick up where we left off." She shot him a teasing wink, and sauntered out of the room.
"What did she mean? What's happening?"
For a long moment Beluriel said nothing. Finally, she sighed. "When Zephara... when she tried to drain you, you were barely alive. I should have let you die, but I..."
"What?" Jacob sat up on the bed.
"I fed you."
"You... fed me?"
"That place I showed you, I wanted to tell you... that is where the souls are taken, for Mbrogia to feed --"
"Wait a minute! You fed me with that? You fed me... souls?"
In all this time Beluriel had not made eye contact. Now she looked at him, eyes flashing. "I should have let you die," she said fiercely. "I stole from Mbrogia. I stole from him to keep your pathetic body alive. I should have let you die!" Then her shoulders slumped, her voice dropping to a whisper. "He found out you were here. He wanted you dead. And I... I stole from him again."
Jacob shook his head. "I don't understand. In that place... that place with the souls. When you were talking to him..."
"He asked why I brought you here. And then he killed you."
"I don't... wow." Jacob fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. "I don't believe this." A couple of days ago the biggest thing he had to worry about was the rent. A couple of days - it struck him that he didn't even know that for sure. It could well have been much more than two days.
"This is crazy. How is that even possible? Am I still the same person? I still feel the same." But even as he said that a certain doubt began to form. He remembered that feeling of detachment he had felt earlier, when he first awoke in Beluriel's bed.
Beluriel shrugged. "Mother would know."
"Mother?"
"I don't know what to do with you. If you stay here, Mbrogia will surely find out, and that would be the end, for both of us. Mother will know what to do."
A sudden swell of anger drove Jacob to his feet. "Stop talking about me like I'm not here! I never asked for any of this. You got me into this! I'm tired of your games - just tell me what is going on!"
Beluriel grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the wall. His feet dangled several inches from the ground. "Games? You think I wanted this? Do you know what Mbrogia will do to me if he finds out I've stolen from him? You asked me to bring you here. You started this."
Jacob struggled against her grip, his hands wrapped around her forearm, but she didn't budge. As suddenly as it had come, the anger left. "Then... why? Why did you do all this?"
"I'll take you to Mother." She released him, and he fell to the ground with a thud. "Mother will know what to do."
***
"I'm sorry I shouted at you earlier," Jacob said. They were walking down a long, dark tunnel. The ground was uneven, and sloped gently downward. "You saved my life. I should be grateful. I just... I don't know what came over me. I'm not even sure that was me talking. I've been feeling strange ever since the first time you... well. Did you know this was going to happen?"
Beluriel said nothing. Both naked, their bare feet slapped against the rough stone.
"Why won't you talk? Are you angry with me or something?"
"I am not angry with you."
"Oh." The tunnel widened out slightly, and began to level off. "So... who is this Mother, anyway?"
"She used to be a demon lord."
Now a faint spark of light appeared in the distance, growing steadily larger as they approached. "Used to be? What happened?"
"She grew powerful. Too powerful. Mbrogia and the other demon lords banded together and banished her."
The spark of light turned out to be a glowing ball set into the wall, and fastened in place by a mass of tendrils. It marked a point where the tunnel widened out into a cave, with more lighted orbs at regular intervals, all connected by the tendrils. A thin mist blanketed the ground, writhing in gentle swirls.
"Wait here," Beluriel said, and she disappeared into the depths of the cave.
Left alone, Jacob looked around. Everything was dark, except for the islands of light provided by the glowing spheres. As he watched, a sudden pulse of light ran along the network of tendrils from sphere to sphere, traversing the entire perimeter of the cave in a brief instant, revealing curves and turns in the walls where the light vanished and reappeared. Curious, he reached out toward one of the orbs.
A sharp jolt made him draw his hand back with a hiss of pain. Silently berating himself, he backed away from the wall.
"You shouldn't touch them."
Jacob whirled, and a woman stepped into the circle of light. Her skin was pale green, her body wrapped in a loose robe of vines, so that only her legs and head were visible. Her hair was green as well, and thickly braided, framing a round face.
He backed away slowly. "Who are you?"