In a remote, abandoned underground conduit not far from the clothing shop—
—the black-cloaked figure who'd bumped into Zhao Chen's guard on the street earlier was making her way carefully along the underground passage. After walking who-knew-how-long, she turned into a small side conduit, then rapped a rhythm against the wall with her hand.
Soon, several dozen figures came out of the darkness ahead.
They were, one and all, female — short little horns on their heads, small wings at their backs, and even a slender, delicate tail at the base of the spine.
"Sister Lilith." The girls gathered round the black-cloaked figure.
The cloaked figure drew back her hood, revealing features of a striking, willowy charm; though her face was smeared with some black, mud-like filth, that did nothing to hide her allure.
Like these girls, she too had black horns upon her head.
"You must be hungry. Here's some food I found. Eat, all of you." From within her robe Lilith drew a box filled with a green, viscous liquid food.
It was artificial food.
The taste was poor, but at the sight of it the girls, without a word, grabbed handfuls straight into their mouths — plain to see, they'd been hungry a long while.
Watching these children eat, Lilith couldn't help but swallow.
But alas — today she'd set her sights on a big-spending patron, only to find no chance to move; she'd never imagined the man's guards would be so alert, leaving no opening at all.
"Sister Lilith, you have some too." A little girl who looked 13 or 14 held up a bit of the green artificial food and looked at Lilith.
Lilith smiled gently. "Big sister ate outside already; I'm not hungry. You eat."
The little girl blinked, then set to wolfing her share down.
Lilith turned away and pressed a hand to her own flat stomach.
In fact she'd eaten nothing at all — for the food stolen today was little, enough only to fill everyone's share; if she ate too, there'd not be enough for the rest.
Going one meal without was no matter to her, but she couldn't bear to watch her own people go hungry.
Watching that basin of green, viscous artificial food get eaten clean in so short a while — even the bottom of the box licked spotless—
—she heaved a sigh. It seemed she'd have to go out and "hunt" once more today.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Just then came the faint sound of footsteps.
But Lilith heard them all the same, and looked at once toward the way she'd come, calling out sharply, "Who's there!"
"So I wasn't seeing things earlier — this girl really is a succubus!"
"That's our big brother's cleverness for you — figuring that a succubus wouldn't be alone, and following the vine to the melon; who'd have thought there'd be so many of them!"
"They say the market price for a decent succubus these days runs into the thousands of star coins. This one before us would fetch tens of thousands, I'd wager!"
Seven men walked out of the darkness, blades and the like in their hands.
Within the starport there was a rule that no hot weapon might be carried into the residential and trade districts, so what they bore was only cold steel.
The seven men looked over the succubus before them with savage grins — and the succubi behind her, huddled together now in terror.
Succubi.
One of the rarest of interstellar races — no males, only females, able to reproduce asexually.
Every succubus was an alluring creature. They'd first lived on a planet undisturbed by any other, but once discovered, their enticing forms had swiftly drawn the hunters of humanoid life.
The planet where the succubi lived had soon seen an invasion; the succubus race was never strong, and in the end the planet fell — most succubi killed or captured, the remainder fleeing their homeworld by ship to begin a long, wandering life.
In their wanderings, the succubi had scattered by degrees.
On the black market, a single succubus went for over 1,000 star coins, and one of especially fine looks for tens of thousands.
A great many princes and nobles counted it a point of pride to possess a succubus slave.
But on account of the wholesale hunting, the succubi one could find now were fewer and fewer.
And who could have imagined that in this starport's abandoned conduits there lived, of all things, several dozen succubi!
A moving treasure-vault, they were.
"Run, all of you!" Lilith cried out sharply, drawing a dagger and settling into a combat stance.
The succubi behind her began scattering in flight.
"Thinking of running? Not a chance!" The men swarmed forward.
Lilith swung her dagger, but her fighting skill was plainly no great thing.
Before long the dagger was wrested from her hand by one of the men.
"Little miss, I'd advise you not to resist. Rather than eke out your days in a hole like this, better to let me sell you to some prince or noble — then you'll live in clover, no more of this suffering." The man seized Lilith's arm with a savage grin.
"Who'd want to be a captive under the likes of you! I'd sooner die than let you have your way!" Lilith opened her mouth and bit down straight onto the man's arm.
The man cried out in pain and kicked Lilith hard in the stomach.
Lilith went flying backward and slammed hard onto the ground, curling around her belly in pain.
"Let me go."
"Sister Lilith, save me."
Behind her rose the weeping cries of the companions who'd fled a moment before.
Lilith clenched her teeth and lifted her head — and there, at the far end of the conduit, were another four or five men, blocking that way out, already seizing hold of her companions.
They were, it seemed, all one band.
"Hey — why'd you kick her so hard? Break her, and she won't fetch a good price!" one of the other men cursed.
The bitten man gave a cold snort and walked toward Lilith, saying as he came, "If she won't sell, we'll just enjoy her ourselves. I've lived all these years and never once had a go at a succubus. They say one taste of a succubus is worth it even if it takes 10 years off your life."
So saying, the man reached Lilith, planted a foot on her back, seized her by the hair, and said with a savage grin, "Tonight I'll have myself a proper taste of that famous succubus flavor the whole cosmos talks about."
Hauled up by the hair, her head wrenched back, the pain in Lilith's body was as nothing beside the anguish in her heart.
She knew full well what fate awaited her and her companions once taken.
Fled all these years, scraping out a bare, desperate survival.
Why!
Why did they, the succubi, have no right to live as equals?
Only because they were born beautiful?
Lilith hated it — hated this cursed cosmos, hated those who'd invaded her homeworld.
Hated the man before her.
If… if anyone could save them, she, Lilith, would give anything — even her life.
"Aah!"
"Aaah…"
Suddenly, screams rang out down the conduit.
At first they took it for the fleeing succubi.
But it quickly grew plain something was wrong, as a figure stepped out of the darkness.
"Such a lively little party — you don't mind if I join in, do you?"