Page 4 of Joy Guardian
I couldn’t say any words of comfort to her, maintaining the chants for the spell to continue. But I softened my voice in an attempt to convey the calm through my intonations to soothe her.
As the spell progressed, she moved from the devastatingly horrible emotions to the highly unpleasant ones, to the more manageable and neutral, and finally to the pleasant ones.
Now, her features relaxed, as did her body. She breathed deeply and easily. Her eyes remained closed, but her lips parted a little. I wondered what emotions she might be experiencing now.
Everything higher than content was known to me only through the Source of Joy in the temple. I tried to guess by her expression which one of those divine emotions she might be feeling, but it wasn’t easy for me to identify them all. From the Source of Joy, they all came as a wondrous blend of different pleasures, barely distinguishable.
The Joy Vessel moaned softly. Bending her knees, she parted her thighs, then pressed them together with a long exhale.
Was it sexual pleasure that she was feeling right now?
Unlike humans or the fae from the Above, shadow fae were never meant to experience it. Sex for my kind was purely for procreation with a burning, painful need to be fulfilled and not a hint ofpleasure in it.
The woman moaned again. Her breathing changed from long and languid to short and halting, like the pleasure she was experiencing proved too intense to even breathe through it. Rolling her head on the table, she inhaled a shaky breath. Her thighs shook, with tremors resonating through her entire body.
She cried out in pleasure. The muscles in her belly flexed rhythmically. Then her tense expression relaxed, and now, I knew exactly how she felt because I’d seen this expression of bliss many times on the faces of Joy Guardians during their prayer time at the Source of Joy.
I knew she felt elated. It was a powerful feeling that made one believe there was no obstacle one couldn’t overcome, no battle one couldn’t win, and no evil in the world one couldn’t defeat. That was the highest of the bliss that could only be experienced in the afterlife or through our sacred Source of Joy.
But this human felt it all on her own. The spell brought it out in her, but the emotion itself was all of her own making.
How could a weak mortal human create the feeling that came from magic of the Divine? It wasn’t right. It couldn’t be. It made humans an abomination and their existence in our world a crime that had to be stopped.
“…even if we need to resort to murder,”the words from the Watchers’ vow echoed in my mind.
Not everyone could see the threat that humans represented to the purity of our Joy. But several of us did, including the Master Guardian.
Shortly after the temple received the order from the queen to open the portal to the human realm, Master Arter raised concerns about the dangers he foresaw with the humans arriving to our world. For as long as they remained in the kingdom, our Source of Joy risked being diluted with theirs. If that happened, what if the ancient magic of our Joy, collected over many millennia exclusively from the fae of the Above, weakened or even disappeared completely?
Despair gripped my heart at the prospect of such a disaster.The Source of Joy was literally the only happiness we had. It seemed so fragile in the face of any threat.
We couldn’t disobey the queen’s order and stop the humans’ arrival, but we could find a way to cleanse the kingdom of them now.
Master Guardian Arter had always been like a father to me. He had looked after me since I was a child. I felt no hesitation in my heart when asked to join the group he called the Watchers. Along with Master Arter, Oria, and three others, I vowed to keep our Joy safe in the face of this new danger.
With a long sigh, the Joy Vessel opened her eyes. She stared at the ceiling, ignoring everyone present, but her expression was no longer vacant. She didn’t look broken or indifferent anymore. Instead, she appeared to be focused on something inside her.
The smile on her lips lingered, but it was no longer a timid one. Her expression shone with new confidence, as if she knew something that none of us did.
Master Arter placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “It’s over, Sweet One.”
She slowly turned her head toward him.
“Donottouch me.” Her voice was low and firm, packed with enough strength to make the Master Guardian jerk his hand away as if he’d touched a hot iron.
“I’m afraid you will need help getting off the altar,” he cautioned her.
She sat up slowly, dropping her legs down. Her arms shook as she tried to support herself with them.
The harness fitting might’ve strengthened her spirit, but it also took a toll on her body. She tested her legs by trying to stand up on her own. Her knees wobbled, and she gripped on to the altar for support.
“Can I get a hand, please?” She held out her hand.
But no one moved, looking stunned in disbelief that she survived the fitting. Even the Joy Vessel Keepers, whosejob was to take care of her, just stared at her as if expecting her to either grow a pair of horns now or to drop dead in convulsions.
I stepped forward with my arm outstretched. “May I help?”
She gave me a brief glance, then took my hand. “Thanks.”
