Her name was Bessie, and she was a succubus.
She'd heard from her companions that they'd once come from a succubus kingdom, but it had been seized by evil invaders, and they'd had no choice but to flee.
From as far back as Bessie could remember, she had already been fleeing.
On planets, on starships, in every sort of place.
They had to disguise their identities, could not show themselves before the eyes of the world; the places they slept were mostly pitch-dark and damp, crawling with vermin and thick with stench.
The food they ate was generally artificial food, and even that only once every two or three days; she'd seen with her own eyes several companions starve to death.
More than once they'd come within a hair of being caught by wicked men, or of being beaten down by hunger.
It was thanks only to their capable Sister Lilith that they'd always escaped danger, always found food somehow.
But then one day, a band of men attacked the underground conduit where they hid; and just as they stood in the midst of peril, a very powerful man appeared.
He'd knocked all those wicked men flat with ease, and then brought them aboard his starship.
She'd never seen so beautiful a ship — and here they needed not hide their identities, for nearly everyone she saw was a female beast-folk.
Sister Lilith had always said the succubi must be 1,000 times on their guard against men!
Men were all man-eating devils.
Afterward, a lovely, gentle young lady had arranged for them to bathe.
That was the first time Bessie had washed in clean, warm water; before, they'd only ever been able to wipe themselves down with foul water.
When she felt that stream of water glide over her body, she'd fallen in love with the sensation.
And not only showers — that place even had a soaking pool, where one could enjoy the bliss of one's whole body sunk in the water.
Afterward, they'd been taken to a canteen, and the lovely young lady had said they could order whatever they liked.
Looking at the names on the menu, her first feeling had, of all things, been one of unfamiliarity — for until then, all she'd eaten was artificial food.
The few times she'd had natural food, it had been a finger-sized scrap of biscuit, or some wild beast caught out in a planet's wilderness.
In the end she'd chosen a dish that looked to have a lot of meat.
When that great plate of meat was set before her, its fragrance washing over her, and she chewed, the boundless goodness spreading across her tongue—
—she'd understood, for the first time, that eating was not merely a thing done to stay alive, but an enjoyment as fine as this.
Afterward, they'd been settled into a spotlessly clean room.
Soft beds, clean bedding, even a private washroom — and clean, tidy clothes, with the faint scent of freshness on them.
Each of them could have a space of her own, with no need to cram into some narrow hole.
Everything seemed so beautiful.
It was like a dream — and if it truly were a dream, Bessie hoped with all her heart that it would never, ever end.
In the week that followed, they had lived aboard this ship, in clean rooms, eating delicious food, and they would help the crewwoman-sisters clean the ship and do some small, trifling tasks.
And this very day, the man who'd brought them here had appeared once more — but the words from his mouth had felt to her like a whisper out of the abyss.
"Tell me — where do you all want to go next? I can send you off."
Bessie's eyes went blank in an instant; the meat before her, which she'd so loved, lost in that moment all its appeal.
There was only one thought in her mind: they… were to leave here… they were to go back to the old kind of life.
No! She didn't want to!
"What do you mean?" Lilith stared blankly at the man before her just then.
Zhao Chen said, "I've already arranged for someone; I can book you interstellar cruise-liner tickets and send you to any planet or starport you wish."
Lilith's expression froze; for a moment she didn't know what to say.
Because these words from the man were nothing she had foreseen.
Suddenly one succubus shot up, snatched a fork from a tray, and pressed it to her own throat.
"I'm not going anywhere! I'm not going anywhere!" The succubus Bessie, her face streaming with tears, looked at Zhao Chen, her voice trembling.
"Bessie! What are you doing! Put the fork down, now!" Lilith looked at Bessie, the youngest of her companions — by the reckoning of the succubus race's years, still an unripe child.
The little succubus Bessie paid Lilith no mind. She looked at Zhao Chen. "Why?"
Zhao Chen looked at this little succubus, all of about a meter 40 in height — but with the inborn developmental gifts of a succubus, she had a most alluring figure.
Were certain sorts to lay eyes on her, they'd fall to their knees on the spot.
"Sister Lilith, I don't want to… I don't want to go back to living the way we used to. I don't want to drink that black water anymore, I don't want to hide in lightless places anymore, I don't want to live every day with my heart in my throat. I don't want, every day, because I'm starving, to go scraping moss off walls, to eat dirt, to hunt down anything at all I might get into my belly, and then to huddle in a corner enduring the pain in my stomach! I don't want, out in the wilds of some barren planet, to fight those terrible beasts over a scrap of food; I don't want to see the corpses of our companions fall in the fighting." The little succubus Bessie choked out the words, looking around her.
She said, with a bitter smile, "Here… for the first time, I found that being alive… can also be a thing to be savored."
Being alive could also be a thing to be savored?
The words were bitterly ironic; but for succubi who lived in the dark, merely to stay alive was a thing exceedingly hard, let alone to savor life.
No few of the succubi present were choking back sobs, their eyes swollen and red.
Some of the older succubi went on eating the food in their bowls, chewing each grain of rice slowly — for this might be the last time in all their lives they ever savored food so fine.
They… were to return to the dark.
The little succubus Bessie, her eyes gone bloodshot, fixed her gaze on Zhao Chen, and cried out in a voice choked with weeping, half-mad, "If you mean to send us away, then why be so good to us in the first place! Why let us taste a life like this — give us clean clothes, warm water, this food, these soft, warm beds? Why let us know that we too… could live so blessed a life. You showed us the light — and now… now you mean to shove us back into the dark!"
As she spoke, the fork in the little succubus Bessie's hand fell to the floor; she crumpled down, buried her face, and wept.
Lilith walked over, a tangle of feeling in her breast, and held the little succubus Bessie close — full of guilt, and yet helpless all the same.