"Ok," I said as I set my coffee down on the table. "I can handle one of you or the other being quiet and moody, but not both at once."

I looked at my demon and said, "Eva I know you're sad and stressed and disappointed that we haven't found your lover yet, but we haven't given up and we're not going to give up. We'll find her, I promise. We can't do it without you though. I'm not saying you can't be sad, and if you need us to stop and take a few days off that's fine too? Otherwise we need you to focus and participate, even while we're just making plans over breakfast."

My focus shifted to my girlfriend as I continued, "And Marianne I don't know what's got you distracted this morning, but I'm here for you if you want to talk about it ok? And same thing, if you need to take a break please say so. I know that drive yesterday was a lot, if you're not feeling up to doing that again today don't force yourself."

It was Wednesday morning and the three of us were up early again, having breakfast at the buffet in the hotel. And both my companions had been almost silent for the past twenty minutes.

Marianne mostly focused on her coffee or her brioche, she didn't look sad as such but she had a thoughtful frown on her face since we got up. On the other hand Eva definitely looked sad but also troubled, as she spent most of the time staring at a spot on the opposite wall.

Except now they were both looking at me, my girlfriend was grimacing slightly while Eva wore the thoughtful frown.

"Marianne?" I asked, "Just tell me what's wrong?"

She sighed and shook her head, "I have a few questions on my mind, but they aren't urgent Lexi. They can wait until we're alone."

"Eva?" I looked to my demon. "Do you want to wait till we're in private too?"

"Yes Lexi," she nodded. "After you've both finished eating we'll return to our room, we can talk there."

"Alright," I agreed, and the three of us finished breakfast in silence.

Back in the room Marianne and I sat together on the sofa while Eva took one of the comfortable chairs across from us. As soon as we were all comfy I looked across at our demon and asked, "Ok Eva, what's on your mind?"

She responded with a question of her own, "Do you remember Lexi when you signed my pact, I was surprised that you weren't afraid of me, that you didn't mind that I was a demon? In fact you told me the scariest thing you could think of was other humans."

I thought back then nodded, "Yeah I guess. I definitely think some humans are a lot more monstrous than demons are."

"On the other hand some humans are pretty darn good," I added as I smiled to Marianne. She didn't notice though, she was staring off into space with another thoughtful look on her face. So I turned my attention back to Eva and asked, "Why's that on your mind?"

She sighed, "Yesterday you two mentioned something I was unfamiliar with, then you both changed the subject rather than discuss it. Neither of you seemed comfortable explaining it to me."

"Oh," I frowned as I realized what she was getting at. "So I guess you looked it up last night?"

Eva nodded quietly. She took a deep breath, and in a soft voice she described how after Marianne and I were asleep she borrowed my body then spent three or four hours going down a wiki rabbit-hole that started with the second world war and ended with modern nationalist movements. That in turn led her to learn about modern political and religious bigotry and intolerance such as queermisia, racism, and various other isms and misias.

In the end she sighed again, "I suppose I was foolish or naive, but I thought perhaps humanity had gotten better. In the seven weeks since you woke me I've seen so many wondrous things? Cars, planes, computers, phones. And things you probably find too mundane to even notice, like how so many of you are literate and educated, and how you have so much food available. So many of you are healthy too, your advances in medicine and health-care are amazing. And you all seem to get along? I've seen cities like London, Heraklion, Naples, where hundreds of thousands, even millions of people live side by side in relative peace."

"I thought the warrior culture I knew three millennia ago was gone," she added with a shrug. "I thought humanity had moved beyond those primitive urges. In my day, in the lands I called home, humans were often violent and greedy. They fought over land, they fought over grain, they fought over shiny metals, and they fought over coloured stones."

She continued quietly, "I saw many battles in my day because that's where my meals were most plentiful. I consumed the fear, sorrow, pain, and grief of the fallen warriors. I brought them peace and tranquility in their final moments. I fed on the negative emotions of those who fell in battle, and thanks to humanity's thirst for blood I never went hungry."

I shook my head, "Sorry Eva. We've come a long way, and a lot of us want to keep advancing? I know there's still so much more we can do, so much more we can improve. But some don't want that, they don't care about others. They're just interested in greed or power. Some folks don't care what kind of suffering they bring to the world as long as they profit. And those are the humans I fear, more than any demon."

The expression on Eva's face matched how I felt. We were both sad. She was disappointed in humanity, and I was ashamed of the sorts of things we kept doing to ourselves.

It felt especially damning to hear her point this stuff out, to hear the sad frustration in her voice. Like in her day she probably saw humanity as a bunch of childish savages running around killing each other, after three millennia ago she thought we were all grown up. Instead she just found out that the only thing we've changed is how efficiently we were able to kill each other and how effective we were at lying to ourselves about it.

"Sorry," Marianne spoke up after a half minute of silence. "Eva you had wings, didn't you? You talked about flying with your daughter. Did you fly to those battlefields?"

Our demon looked a little confused by the sudden change of topic but she answered, "I have wings in my true form. They're feathered, like a great bird of prey. My lover and child both have wings too, but theirs are leathery like a bat. Why?"

My girlfriend responded, "You're an immortal supernatural being who lived in Scandinavia, who appears as a beautiful blue-eyed blonde woman, and you can grow wings. You visited battlefields to help ease the fallen warriors into the afterlife?"

Marianne looked and sounded surprised or impressed as she stated, "The Norse goddess Freyja could well be based on you. Or at least you might have been the inspiration for the mythical Valkyries."

"I came across those legends and myths in my reading last night. The name Freyja comes from long after my time," Eva replied quietly.

With a slight blush she added, "Three millennia ago I was more commonly known as Efranir, that is the name my lover and child knew me by. It's possible that 'eFranir' became 'Vanir' after a few dozen human generations? Freyja was said to be one of the Vanir, who were supposedly a race of gods. I wonder if the term Vanir might refer to myself and my fellow demons."

"I know those wiki rabbit-holes can run pretty deep," I commented, "But how in the world did you get from world wars and nationalism to Norse mythology?"

That question led to another deep sigh from our demon friend. "The people behind that world war you didn't want to discuss yesterday, the ones who occupied this city seventy-five years ago? While I was reading about them I saw a reference that their leadership was obsessed with certain Nordic mythologies."

She sighed once more and added, "So many people suffered and died for misguided beliefs that may well have been influenced by my existence three thousand years ago. That was as upsetting to me as it was to learn that humanity is still as violent and savage as it was back then."

"It's not your fault Eva," I stated. "Nobody can blame you for what some misguided assholes did thousands of years after you were gone."

Marianne agreed, "If people turned your memory into the basis of their mythology that's not your fault either Eva. I understand why it upsets you, but I hope you know that you're not to blame."

Our demon nodded, "I know. Thank you Lexi, Marianne. Knowing I'm not at fault doesn't make it feel any better, that people may have suffered and died in my name."

We were all quiet again for a bit after that, it felt like there wasn't anything more we could say or do to help Eva.

After a minute or so my attention returned to my girlfriend and I asked, "So what had you out of sorts this morning Marianne? You said you had some questions?"

She grimaced, "It feels inconsequential now, compared to what Eva is dealing with."

"Then it shouldn't be a problem sharing what's on your mind?" I prompted her.

"Oh very well Lexi," Marianne gave me a bit of a friendly scowl for not letting her avoid the topic.

She took a deep breath then explained, "I woke up in the early hours of the morning and discovered you and Eva were missing. I panicked a little that the two of you had left me for some reason. Then I realized all your belongings were still here, so I thought you would surely be coming back. I was worried though. You were gone for at least an hour, and I lay in bed as I waited. Then you appeared in our room, by magic I assume? You slipped into bed next to me and fell asleep like nothing had happened."

She finished, "It left me wondering which of you was in control, where you went, and what you were doing. And does that happen often, do you frequently disappear in the middle of the night?"

I stared at my girlfriend for another couple seconds then looked at Eva and asked, "I'm assuming that was you last night? Because if it was me, then I'm doing some serious sleepwalking."

Our demon blushed, "I'm sorry Marianne. After the disappointment Monday, then using my magic all day yesterday, and finally the upsetting information I learned last night, I decided I needed some food. I ended up visiting a nearby hospital to do some stress eating."

She must have seen the looks on both our faces so she elaborated, "As you know I feed on negative emotions. Fear, sadness, dread, pain, anger, grief, and so on? Your modern hospitals aren't as bountiful as battlefields, but they're still an ideal place for me to find sustenance. Like a buffet, full of people who are sick, suffering, injured, ill. I wandered through the emergency area and the wards and helped people relax. I brought them some peace, let them sleep without fear or pain or grief."

"You didn't kill them did you?" Marianne asked nervously.

"Of course not," Eva replied. "I only took enough to help calm them. So they could relax and rest."

I blushed slightly as I asked, "Did you get dressed before you visited the hospital? Because I went to bed nude, and I was still nude when I woke up this morning."

My demon looked like she was suppressing a smile as she shook her head, "No Lexi, we were naked as we toured the hospital. But don't worry, we were also invisible. Nobody saw us, nobody knows we were there."

That made me feel a little better, but I also came up with another question. "When you borrow my body I end up trading places with you so I'm the ghost. How's that work when I'm sleeping? Was I still here while you went to visit the hospital?"

"Or no," I added a moment later. "If I was still here Marianne would have seen me right? And when I'm in ghost mode I can't move out of sight from you, it's like there's invisible walls boxing me in."

Eva nodded, "Correct Lexi. The way we are bound, we cannot be too far apart from each other and we must be in sight of each other. When I borrow your body in your sleep, you remain asleep inside."

I thought about that for a few moments, then asked "What would happen if I was outside the body when you disappeared to go feed or something? Would I get left behind? Would it break the link between us?"

Eva shook her head, "Our bond is much stronger than that. You would get pulled along with me, although I suspect the experience might not be a pleasant one. For either of us."

That made me grimace, but there wasn't much more to say about the topic. Or any of the topics in fact. Once again the three of us were quiet for a few minutes, till I finally broke the silence with another question.

"So what next?" I asked. "Are we going to head back out and continue our tour of the area, or are we taking a break?"

Eva responded, "If you and Marianne don't mind I think I'd like to continue the search. I don't want to push either of you too hard, but if we could spend another couple days searching this region I'd appreciate it."

She added, "If I haven't found any trace of my lover in two more days then we'll stop so I can take some time to re-think the strategy."

"Ok Eva," I agreed. "That's our plan today and tomorrow. What will we do on Friday?"

"I must confess I've always wanted to visit Pompeii," Marianne commented. "It's not too far from here, we actually drove past it yesterday."

She added, "It's not part of my research, but it's one of those places I think almost anyone studying the ancient world would want to see for themselves. It's supposed to be quite remarkable."

Eva nodded and I agreed, "Ok, that's our plan then. Continue our search today and tomorrow, then Friday we'll go visit Pompeii."

PurpleCatGirl

If you're enjoying our work and you'd like to support us, please consider joining our patreon & get early access to new chapters! Patrons have already read chapter 28 and you could too!
https://www.patreon.com/purplecatgirl