Chapter 14: Fish in Boiling Silver

It was as if Na-Ri was drowning. Not in water, but in the emotions and thoughts of others. Her own mind threatened to be washed away and she would be absorbed into the convolute of demons trapped with her. But she had created a floodgate. As she mentally retreated, she closed the gates again a little, and the flood ebbed, became a stream, then a steady river. With difficulty, she leveled out these emotions until she could just about manage it. In her imagination, she saw the reflecting pool she had created filling up. It was impossible to estimate how long it would take. Time ran differently here, and to be honest, Na-Ri had other things to do than worry about time. If she had possessed a human body here, it would have been heavily exhausted and covered in sweat.

For some time, she feared that she had underestimated the number of prisoners and created the pool too small. But finally, when the tank seemed almost full, the influx of new emotions ebbed away. In her mind, the reflecting pool was full of red and gold fish in boiling silver.

And they all snapped at each other, bit each other, fought with each other.

Na-Ri gathered herself and drew on her last reserves of energy.

Then she smashed the mirror dam.

What followed is difficult to explain in words. It was like thunder, a shockwave that went through Na-Ri and almost paralyzed her, even though she had been prepared for it.

And a silence followed that came so suddenly that it seemed as if Na-Ri was now the only being in the entire universe.

She began to revel in the silence. It was so wonderful, so peaceful, so relaxing. Once again, she threatened to lose herself. With difficulty, she forced herself to continue what she had started.

She tore down her barrier and sent out her thoughts, now flooding all her fellow prisoners with her instructions and ideas. At the same time, she assigned each of them a number in which they had to answer.

It didn’t quite work. Some of them, especially the weaker demons, were stunned and lost. The strongest ones, however, refused to be assigned a rank by Na-Ri and started babbling wildly again. But in this case, the emotions were manageable and understandable. At last, something like conversation could take place.

She spoke and listened, gathered ideas, gave instructions and assigned tasks. In the end, she had gathered an army behind her, ready to strike. Now all she needed was the promised energy.

She used the connection created by the goddess to make contact with Yun.

But the big eater had realized that something was happening inside him that was literally making his stomach ache. And he reacted.

Yun had not realized that Shu had been watching her. In fact, Yun was completely defenceless at this point because she couldn’t concentrate on anything else. If the samurai had attacked at that moment, they would have had an easy game. The Kumiho was completely focused on the union with De-Yong, as she had to synchronize both her and De-Yong’s desire to transfer the maximum amount of energy.

Only when the sun had long since risen did they let go of each other.

De-Yong was physically exhausted, Yun more mentally. Only now did she think of Shu again. She caught his scent, and as she carefully scanned the surroundings, she also saw tracks in the grass a short distance away. Shu must have been watching her.

Annoyed, Yun realized her mistake of not having drugged him. She had the appropriate potions, but had not taken them with her to their rendezvous. Instead, she had fully trusted that he would sleep for a long time from exhaustion. However, she had not taken into account how young and full of energy Shu still was. But now she wondered what he had seen. Had he recognized her true nature?

A conversation with him was absolutely necessary, in which she had to both intimidate him with threats and bind him to her with promises. Yun was annoyed that it had to happen at this time, but otherwise saw no difficulties ahead. She had had such conversations countless times in the past and had always succeeded in binding her victims to her. She had also made him a man. That was something that created a deep connection. No man forgot something like that, no matter how many women he later united with and how old he became.