The Ascension

16: Ikina's moraless tale

 "I don't want you getting caught up with petty criminals." They said.

Aster grit her teeth. "They're just my friends."

"I gave them the gift of life for your sake. If you misuse it like this, I will take it away."

"So let me out of this... room place and put me back in the house. I'll tell them to stop it. But if you leave me here, you can't really fault me for their actions."

"You have your morals, Aster. Don't toss them away."

"You're the one who gave me a shot that's taking away my humanity! I really don't think you have the right to be ordering me around." Aster snapped.

Ikina looked to the side. "That was Artemis and Eii's doing."

"So? You're a god. Why don't you show some responsibility and fix me. I mean, it's taking away my feelings, right? I didn't even cry when I looked at Baased, and..." Aster sighed. "That probably wasn't related to the shot, was it?"

"People grieve in different ways, Aster. You'll figure it out some time later. And it will be okay."

Aster frowned and ran her hands through her hair.

"Don't try and revive Aelen." Ikina shook their head.

"Why?"

Ikina almost spoke, and the paused. "Look." They said, and they walked through the dark room until it became a cliff overlooking Verise.

"I remember this. Looking over the plains of Sved. Why did Laila and Silan save me?"

"I don't know why. Laila was there when your mother tried to dispose of you. The two of them are my creations, and I suppose some of my fondness for humanity- and children, especially- leaked into them."

"Why do you like humans so much? My mother... tried to kill me, I guess you're saying. And you still say you like them, and Laila still saved me."

"That never was your fault." Ikina sat down. What appeared to be a cliff was more a floating platform that resembled a cliff. "And I only love humans this much because I grew up with them."

"So you're like Artemis? A human? He and Eii made you sound more like some sort of god-king..."

"Never human." Ikina corrected. "But mistaken for one. I am- if I had grown on this planet, you would have called me a demon, like I had been called on my home planet. The irony is not lost on me."

"But what is a demon?" The word generally meant 'bad thing' on Daliis, not referring to any mythical creature.

"I am from a godless world, and the odd rumors you hear about those places are true. Creatures with powers that delve beyond science arrive there. And yet, almost mystically, humans appeared. It's a mystery before my time why humans have become the template of a species that they are now..." Ikina had a hard to understand face, but they appeared caught in thought. "Do you know the name Ioro?"

"It's yours, right?"

"Yes. I figured Eii and Artemis had been using it without my permission around you." As they spoke, they lingered long on every sentence, as if thinking was hard. "I was born Ioro, an incubus, in a household of humans. I didn't know I was one until I matured, some twenty years in. The incubi were human-like, but had evolved to feed off of human's energy, primarily through sexual intercourse."

"Oh!" Aster exclaimed. "That's what you're doing now, right? Feeding off of energy?"

Ikina gave a soft smile. "Yes. But that is leaping far ahead. Incubi are shapeshifters, bound through old science to do things impossible to replicate in a lab. They- We, sorry, I always forget I am one- shift sexes freely, thus taking the sperm from one man and inserting it into the womb of another woman. The purpose of this I never understood, but it was a ritual I found myself practicing regardless. And I do apologize for having to be so blatant about these sexual things, but it is part of what I am."