Page 26 of Somber Prince
That made a lot of sense. Still, unease pricked the skin on my arms and along my spine. I kept my eyes on the black, flexible appendages that curled around his arms and snaked from behind his back.
“What happens to the unwilling Vessels?”
“Why resist?” he murmured. “Most humans from your group have accepted their purpose already.”
“Have they?” I squinted at him suspiciously.
“Why would they not? As my Joy Vessels, they are taken care of, provided with food, shelter, and clothing. Their senses will be stimulated to experience joy and pleasure. All they have to do is let us experience it with them.”
I hugged my arms, covering the golden stars on the ribbons with my hands. “Why can’t you feel it yourselves?”
Probably in response to my defensive stance, his tendrils calmed down a bit. They were no longer reaching for me, which calmed my nerves a little.
“Shadow fae weren’t created the same way as other dwellers of Nerifir,” he explained.
“What makes you so special?”
“We were never meant to be people. At the beginning, the World of Under wasn’t even supposed to be another plane of existence. It was a dark, isolated place where the souls of the undeserving landed after death before earning their passage to the afterlife. The World of Under was guarded by shadows—chaotic, tumultuous, and wild. Until the First Priestess of Joy arrived, born of night. She brought us together, let us experience pleasure, and built the kingdom with us.”
“The Alveari Kingdom.” I remembered the name.
“Yes. Today, it is governed by Queen Abeille, my mother. We have come a long way from the shadows of the past. We’ve gained physical bodies, skills, and the ability to reproduce. But the highest emotions of joy and pleasure are still unavailable to us.”
“Why is that?”
“Because euphoria, joy, and pleasure all come from the divine. But my people are not meant to come close to the gods. The World of Under is the farthest from them.”
I pondered his words. Whether the story of the shadow fae’s origin was true or simply a myth, their lot in life didn’t seem fair.
“So, you’re saying that humans are closer to your gods than you are?”
“You’re allowed to experience the highest of joy, my dear. Joy is a blessing bestowed by the divine. So yes, you are closer to the gods than we are.”
I eyed his tendrils that undulated slightly, hanging from his arms like tight, flexible ropes.
“What exactly do you want with me, Rha? Do you want to find out what joy is?”
To my surprise, he shook his head. “I know what joy is. I’ve felt it before.”
“But you just said you’re incapable of that.”
“On our own, we can’t experience it. We can only feel such emotions through someone else or through the Joy Source in the temple where the Guardians have been collecting it for many millennia.”
“They collect joy?” My brain was swelling with so much to absorb. “How is that even possible?” Then, I answered my own question, “Let me guess. Magic?”
Why not? In the kingdom where people dissolved into shadows, why not have joy collected and stored in a jar somewhere?
“Yes, magic,” he confirmed. “Joy used to be collected from the fae from Above ever since our kingdom first came into existence.”
“Have you been kidnapping sirens, werewolves, and such?”
“Well, no one would come to the World of Under willingly. So…” He shrugged, an uncharacteristically casual gesture for his royal persona.
“So, you’ve been stealing people for ages.”
He didn’t fight the accusation. Neither did he try to justify or excuse it.
“Yes,” he admitted simply.