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Hot damn. He deserved this. After all he’d been through, it was time he—
In the blink of an eye, Zack went from semitransparent to barely corporeal—like a ghost with a faintly perceptible, though still solid, outline. Brilliant sparkles gathered beneath Szerain’s hand and swirled like a pool of prismatic stars. Zack’s demahnk essence.
“What’s happening?” Jill asked with understandable worry.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said with a knowing nod, even though I had absolutely zero idea what was happening.
The sparkles began to travel up Szerain’s arm. I gasped in awe as they flowed beneath my hand, each sparkle an unfathomable glimpse into a boundless universe. They swirled in Szerain’s chest before fading as if absorbed. From their brief but profound touch, I understood just enough to . . . understand—though I had a feeling my brain was combing the impressions down to something that would make half-ass sense to a mere human.
The demahnk were Ekiri. Xharbek, Ilana, Helori, and the rest of the ptarls—the whole lot, including Rho. And the Ekiri were freaking aliens. Part of a big collective of telepathic non-corporeals who basically spent their immortal lives going from planet to planet, or dimension to dimension.
Their modus operandi was to take on the form of native species to observe, interact, and expand their awareness as a collective, with some remaining as non-corporeal “overseers” so the rest could roleplay to their heart’s content.
Eventually, the collective would either move on or, if the world met enigmatic-to-me criteria, the overseers would take their corporeal form and “arrive” as otherworldly visitors. At this point, overseers and roleplayers alike would work toward their oh-so-noble mission of uplifting the native inhabitants.
They interfered because, why not? It was what they did and who they were. They made worlds better.
Until they didn’t.
They broke the demon realm, and Earth right along with it. Not on purpose, but eight thousand years later, the end result was the same.
The Ekiri were like potency magnets. Their mere presence in the demon realm drew potency from Earth through the connecting interdimensional umbilicus, changing the balance on both worlds. Unfortunately, the phenomenon was beyond even their vast experience, and they were completely blind to their role in it.
In an early effort to reverse the flow, Zakaar rallied a team of nineteen intrepid Ekiri to explore, investigate, and assess Earth. It was a radical plan, considering the Ekiri had never split their collective between two worlds, but Zakaar sought a solution and would not be swayed.
The nineteen took human form and assimilated into Earth societies, all while actively fighting the outflow of potency. For two thousand years, the Earth team slowed the potency drain, but it was a losing battle, for they hadn’t yet realized the true cause of the problem. Planetary instability of the demon realm increased, and the surface rakkuhr crept toward levels that were toxic to Ekiri.
During this time, Zakaar and the Earth-Ekiri immersed in the role of their chosen form. They interacted, entered into relationships, and even produced offspring who, as for eons past, were wholly of the native species—in this case, human.
Until they weren’t.
To the utter shock of the Ekiri collective, after two millennia of human offspring, eleven true Ekiri-human hybrids were conceived, all of whom carried both human and Ekiri traits. Mzatal was the first, and Kadir the last, still in the womb when Zakaar and Helori discovered that not only were the Ekiri themselves the cause of the planet-disrupting imbalance, but the hybrids were beginning to cause instability on the potency depleted Earth.
Causing harm to worlds was anathema.
The Ekiri collective chose to abandon the demon realm before more damage was done—yet without intervention, both worlds were doomed. Faced with a moral dilemma, and unwilling to leave their sons to die with the planets, Zakaar and the other ten who had sired hybrids made a pact: They would remain behind in order to guide their offspring and stabilize the worlds—once again challenging Ekiri codes, though this time by separating from the collective.
Controlling strictures were overlaid, including living in the demahnk form—a close mimic of the syraza species, as they were particularly adept at potency manipulation.
Zakaar and Helori lightly manipulated the hybrids in order to suppress their resistance, then abducted them to the demon realm. The simple presence of the hybrids had an immediate though subtle stabilizing effect on the potency-overloaded planet.
But before leaving the demon realm, the collective assigned one other Ekiri to remain as an impartial overseer. Xharbek.
The sparkle-touch faded. I blinked then sighed. It had imparted far more, but the rest would take time for me to process.
Zack’s ghostly form faded to nothing, leaving Jill with an armload of empty clothing.
“Where’s Zack?” she demanded. “What the fuck just happened?”
Szerain’s head dropped back against Turek’s scales, and he released a long, slow breath. “He’s with me for now,” he said, voice utterly weary but equally calm. “He’s safe. Doesn’t want you to worry.”
Jill stiffened, every possible emotion other than “not worried” passing over her face. Behind her, Sonny sat up, eyes on her. I felt his talent at work, a deeply calming influence that had helped Zack make it this far.
A measure of the stress melted from Jill. “What does that mean?” she asked, looking from Szerain to me.
“He couldn’t hold a physical form any longer,” I told her, drawing on the understanding that Zack had shared as he passed into Szerain. “But he couldn’t simply go non-corporeal either because he’s cut off from the other demahnk, and has been ever since he broke the bond with Rhyzkahl. He was dying.”
A flicker of movement drew my attention. I glanced up in time to see Rhyzkahl travel away with a syraza.
