The Demon’s Bride

When the next morning came, Ian was quick to wake up and prepared himself for the new day with the help of Maroon. The little girl was still sleeping under the quilt, traveling on her dreamland on the fluffy bed which made her slumber even deeper. Light snorings filled the room and Maroon brought a box wrapped in a red ribbon to Ian.

"My lord, this is the shoes that you mentioned." Ian glanced at the box and fixed black leather gloves on his hand to nod. "I should have ordered you to buy a suitable dress for her too. That rag she is wearing can't even count as a fabric."

Maroon stepped back and took another set of boxes, "I have prepared it in advance, my lord."

Ian glanced down at the box and praised it openly. "Good job." his legs brought him back to the little girl who was hiding under the blanket and pulled it down. His eyes checked the girl's tinted cheeks which had turned scarlet and layers of sweat drenching her hair. "Maroon."

Maroon walked toward him and followed Ian's line of sight to see the girl wheezing heavily. He reached out his hand, placing his palm to take the temperature of the little girl which had risen up like a burning pan. "She's burning with fever, my lord." he retracted his hand to turn his face at his master who was currently frowning.

"I know." Ian replied with a sigh and raised his hand on his hair to make a good ruffle. Although healing magic can heal wounds and scar, it couldn't heal poison or illness, and thus the only person who could help his puppy currently was the so-called human doctors which on his eyes look shadier than the other beings. "Call a doctor, we will be making a stay here a bit longer."

"Right away." Maroon exited the room to bring back a doctor with thick round glasses. He was huffing greatly and seemed to be coming to the place in a hurry because Maroon told him it was an order from the Lord of Warine. Glancing restlessly at the lord, he wiped his temple from non-existent sweat and asked. "May I see the patient, my lord?"

Ian stood from the beside and replied by glancing his eyes on the girl who was still sleeping on the bed. "Excuse me." Even though he was feeling uneasy with the lord's eyes staying on each of its movements as though he was judging whether his work was competent enough he worked efficiently, taking less than 10 minutes to prescribe the medicine needed for the little girl.

"She had been greatly malnourished and for her age, she is very small. For now, she should take this medicine after a meal and have plenty of good rest." Ian replied with a long hum and hint Maroon to show the doctor his way out. Bringing the girl out of the inn in a new set of clothes, he entered the carriage and let the girl continue her sleep until she has her fill of rest.

Noticing something, Ian placed his hand on the handle of the window and slid it yo to open. Suddenly loud sounds of flapping winds came nearer and entered the carriage to stop at Ian's right arm. The small beings snapped its head a few times, staring back at his master with the exact same blood-colored eyes. It was a raven with a splendid black feathers, Ian's pet who work to transfer message. This time, a woman's voice transmitted to him through the raven's beak. "My lord, have you come back?" The woman who called him was Cyhnthia, one of Ian's most loyal subordinate. Her voice was clear like a drop of water to the still sea, giving a resonating beautiful echo.

"I'm still on the way, what is it Cynthia?" He asked in a low tone out of consideration that the girl was sleeping.

"The business on the South had been finished, the humans have been hiding things according to the faeries. They said the faceless has been kidnapping children in the South village. But strangely, the faeries claimed that the faceless to have been killed by the villagers instead."

"The faceless?" the faceless is the being in a human body who had never have a face, they possessed the ability to physically change their face, shapeshifting into an entirely different person. They lived in a group and worked for themself. However, they rarely show themself and hid in the dark as though they had been acting under the order of a certain someone. For the villagers, the normal humans to kill the faceless was almost impossible.

"Yes, the people and villagers in the South had been acting very odd. What should I do about this, my lord?"

"Send the report back to the church, it is not our work to deal with humans unless they dare to show their nose to our land. But find more about the faceless, their movement is getting very intriguing." Ian replied briefly, looked down to notice Elise's eyes under the eyelids moving lively. He wondered for a moment what kind of dream she was having as her lips sounded she was munching unto something.

"I understand," She paused for a moment. "Also, my lord the mermaids in the Mirror Sea said that the lord of the vampires had been making a move." Cynthia continued her report when suddenly another voice chided in.

"They told me that The Vampires' Lord was searching for something that the oracle told them to find." Austin pushed Cynthia aside, making her frowned in distaste before pushing his head again to the side.

"The oracle that was passed to the lord of vampires? I have heard it once but for years they've never resurfaced again. From where did they get ahold of such an oracle?" Ian asked again and heard Austin giving a long hum to force his memories out. "They didn't tell me about that, but I guess it's from their kind who have clairvoyant powers. We also don't know the oracle that they passed but it must be telling them to search for a certain thing. The current Lord is very secretive, so we couldn't search for more information in this matter."

The vampires are fickle and secretive than other beings in the world, although humans mostly do not know their existence, they loved living with mingling with humans. Although they don't usually make their own troubles, whenever they make a single move, the other beings including the church would immediately be on their guard. This was because in the past they were the strongest beings than the rest.

"Leave that one then. Cynthia, Austin you two should come back by the time I arrived at the mansion. I have someone important for you two to guard on." Ian spoke looking down at Elise who seemed to be waking up a little sooner.

"What? Who?" The two asked in sequence but the lord had ended their communication magic by snapping his fingers crisply. The two subordinates looked at each other in questioning eyes. "Someone? Is it even a human?"

Elise rubbed her large blue eyes in a drowsy state and saw a blurry face of amber-eyed man. "Have you woken up?" Elise didn't reply as she thought that she was still on her dream until the man took out a sandwich from the wooden box beside him. Beckoning the girl to sit properly by raising the sandwich to the level of her head.

Elise sat up half-awake taking the sandwich from his hand and made a small circle shape from each bite. Feeling the taste of the sauce, lettuce, and ham, her eyes brightly widened from the delicacy. She woke up from her drowsy state and saw Ian staring at her in silence.

"Are you thirsty?" Ian asked but his hand had passed her water in a leather bottle. Taking a few sips out of it she placed it back on his hand which he placed aside.

Finishing a full slice of sandwich, Ian gave her the medicine she prescribed from the doctor. The little girl obediently took it without asking the content and felt bitter taste spreading on her lips, making tears on the rim of her eyes. "Is it bitter?" Ian asked for her opinion and replied with a vigorous nod from Elise. She wondered why Ian would give her such a bitter thing, but on the opposite side of her mind, she guessed that he gave it for her sake.

"You are ill, burning with a fever so you should take the medicine. Even if it tastes bitter bear with it for your recovery." Ian explained thoroughly and pulled something from his pocket, which in Elise's eyes now acted as a full of wonder pocket. In her eyes, Ian could pull anything from her pocket and this time he took out a round candy wrapped in a thin parchment paper that was twisted in both edges.

Placing it for her to eat, Elise's blue eyes lit up from the sweetness that overcoat the bitterness. The scene made Ian laughed softly again, it had never been boring to watch the little girl making various expression from the little thing she had just experienced.

With that in thought, he wondered if the girl could help him to learn the human's feelings that he could never get a finger to it.

"Puppy, if there is anything wrong, you should tell me." Ian saw the girl staring back at his eyes with a clueless look. "My body temperature is lower than a normal human and so every human felt warm to me. I can not know whether your body is burning or not and healing magic couldn't be used to heal someone from illness." Realizing his words sounded long and hard to understand for the girl, he spoke shortly. "If you feel hurt or unwell, tell me or Maroon first."

To this, the girl nodded in understanding. "Good." He praised with a pat on her head.