Free Demon's Promise: a high fantasy femdom novella by Em Shimizu

once.
    “Nairee!” he exclaimed. “You’re safe – where have you
been?”
    But she shook her head and burst into tears.
    Ruen rushed to her side and knelt, placing a hand on
her shoulder.
    It was a long time before she calmed down enough to
speak again.
    “Amma’s dead. They killed her!”
    His heart thudded. “What?”
    “They took her, they took us both. They said we knew
too much. That if you found out the truth, it would be all over
–”
    He found himself less surprised than he should have
been.
    Some part of him must have already known,
suspected.
    “What truth, Nairee? What do you know?”
    “I don’t know, milord. That night we snuck out, when
your powers awoke. They seemed to think I’d seen something. But I
don’t know. I just don’t know. And Amma – she’d nothing to do with
it – oh gods, why did they have to –”
    She burst into a new bout of tears. Ruen, incapable
of offering her comfort, could only watch on.
    “How did you get away?” he said quietly.
    “The demon came back. She’s the one who, who – I
thought ‘twas surely the end for me too. But she freed me, brought
me back here. I was – I was so scared!”
    His heart pounded painfully against his ribs.
    “Where is she?”
    “I don’t know, milord! She only said that she
expected no forgiveness. From me, or from you. But that there was
something she had to do, that only she could do –”
    “Bullshit!”
    Before he knew it, he was clattering down the stairs,
out into the icy darkness.
     
    * * *
     
    He found her, of all places, at the lake.
    He’d known somehow that he would not locate her
anywhere on manor grounds. Had looked anyway. And, when his search
proved unfruitful, had ventured into the woods, the memory of their
outings still fresh on his mind.
    And sure enough, there she was. Standing on the bank,
her back turned to him, her tall figure silhouetted against the
lightening sky.
    As if she were waiting.
    For him?
    Or someone, something else?
    He stopped paces away, certain that she must have
sensed his arrival, and yet unable to bring himself to draw
closer.
    “Ash?” he called out. And when she said nothing in
return, he continued, the words tumbling one after another from his
lips, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I just want to talk to
you. Please. What’s this all about?”
    But still she did not respond, did not even turn to
face him.
    Determined to drag a reaction from her, he
said, “Is it true? That you were the one who killed
Cook?”
    “Foolish child. Once you began to investigate, it was
only a matter of time before you learned the truth.”
    Her voice startled him into silence.
    Only then did her words register meaning in his
mind.
    “But – why?”
    She did turn around, then.
    “I’m leaving. Do not follow me.”
    “But –” He choked on his words. Clenched his hands
into fists, digging his nails into his palms. “But what about
us?”
    She looked at him, her gaze distant, impassive, her
expression betraying nothing.
    “Us?”
    “My studies,” he whispered. “I am not ready yet. Did
you not come here to teach me?”
    “I have nothing left to teach you.”
    “But we…”
    “I am a demon, and you are a mortal, and my contract
is not with you. What more is there to be said?”
    “I –”
    “I have seen nations rise and fall. I have seen the
humblest of maids become the greatest of queens, the most powerful
of chiefs felled by the slightest of fevers. I have seen the rivers
change course, and forests grow in their place, and mountains that
once towered into the heavens crumble into dust. So too shall your
feelings pass someday, like a drop of rain in the vast and endless
sea.”
    What was she talking about? What did any of this
matter?
    “So you will go, and you will forget all about me. Is
that what you’re saying?”
    Her eyes flickered briefly. Or was it just his
imagination, just his wishful thinking?
    “Is that all I am to you, Ash? Some pet, some toy to
while away