Restarting The Fire.

"Hello?"

Darkness surrounds you within your subconscious. While you have solid ground beneath you, there is no indication of where it stops. Your own voice travels away into the distance, descending into nothing.

You look at your hands and it seems the only thing that you could see is yourself. If anything, it meant you weren't in some dark place because then you wouldn't even be able to see your own skin.

As you think, it becomes clear. Just like those cold, dark eyes, you are now in your own very abyss. You're trapped within your own mind in order to escape a woman who couldn't be just a succubus. She had to be something more.

You raise your head and sigh.

"Am I dead now?" you question and raise your arms in disbelief, "...did I die because I couldn't stop staring, really?"

You know in truth that it was more than that. The air around that woman was more than just a little unsettling. All of your senses were on fire and you couldn't escape from it.

Nobody answers you back. A dry chuckle escapes from your lips after thinking upon what you saw before. You can only think bitterly of Seriath. If she's a queen, supposedly a powerful being, then it's a falsehood.

"Succubus Queen, my ass."

"That's...not very nice for someone who's trying to save you, master."

You blink and then turn your body in every direction, unsure of where the voice is coming from. Hope fills you and you'd apologize many times to hear her voice again. It also may be your imagination, but her voice sounded strange too

"Seriath?" you call.

Stopping in one direction, the succubus presents herself out of the infinite darkness. She hugs you from behind and you feel her curves pushing against you. Oddly though, you don't feel any arousal even as her hands caress you.

"S-seriath?"

The succubus breathes shakily against your spine and then you understand she's frightened. Tightening her hold on you, she prevents you from turning around and looking at her. Not knowing what to do, you wrap your hands around hers and grip them in comfort. You feel relieved just to know that you're not alone.

She lets out another shaky breath before bumping head against your back. "I'm sorry."

You narrow your eyes and flatten your lips. "For what?"

"For letting you experience that. She...she was supposed to be in deep sleep. I never expected that she would awake when we arrived."

You raise your eyebrows and then start to understand better. What you don't understand is your current state and how you ended up here. You only remember reacting to her presence badly. Good news is that now you can at least picture her without the same reaction. The thought of meeting her again though sends shivers down your spine.

"...but...I'm okay now, right?" you ask, worried.

Seriath shakes once more and that doesn't seem to bode well for your question.

"I...couldn't find you at all for hours when you attempted to shut down. Even now, I'm still pouring myself into you in hopes that you'll recover soon."

"H-hours? Wait so...I was just gone for a while?"

Seriath hugs you tighter and that seemed to answer the question. Since you are linked with Seriath, that probably frightened her too. For such a thing to happen just because you witness that unnatural succubus made you feel even colder...

"N-no! Don't think about her right now! You mustn't let yourself falter when I just found you!"

You gasp, surprised by Seriath's outburst. She lets you go, allowing you to finally turn around and face her. You see that her face is tearstruck and tired, yet there's a mixture of hope, relief, and fear all present on her face.

This seems unbecoming of the Seriath based on your short time with her. If she was truly dreading your lack of recovery, then it means you are in a far serious predicament than you could imagine.

"I...won't," you gulp.

Hearing your promise, Seriath breathes a bit easy. She moves to hug you again and you feel it necessary to console her a little. It feels a bit odd that despite her chest spilling against yours, you still feel nothing.

"So...what now?" you ask.

Seriath's breathing becomes a bit calmer as if she was originally afraid that you'd disappear on her. It seems that her fear of that happening has lessened. She explains better.

"Right now, I have to maintain close contact with you until your mind and soul recovers more. Feeding you energy so far has been tedious but you should feel a rekindling of your own fire."

"Uh...my libido?"

Seriath lifts her head and then chuckles. Some color returns to her face as she smiles, amused. "That too."

Her smiles falter. "I wouldn't have wanted our second dream meeting to happen like this though."

You hum, unsure what to say. You don't blame her for what happened, especially as she tries her hardest to save you. All you can do is trust her words and try not to think of anything but her. After that though, the matter of Kylesa had to be discussed in great detail if you were to survive in reality now.