I Just Wanted A Soft Life, Not A Demon Husband

Elyn’s POV

"Me?" I asked, laughing.

"Yes, you, firefly," he said.

"Nothing," I told him.

Zorathys continued looking at me.

"Nothing at all," I repeated innocently. "I’m simply taking a look around the cave like you told us to. I have absolutely nothing to ask you."

He didn’t say anything. He merely raised one elegant eyebrow. I smiled back just as innocently.

I made a show of looking around. Very, very elegantly too, because of course I did things elegantly.

I also made sure several seconds passed before I turned back to him.

"Actually..."

"I knew it," he said with a sigh.

I folded my arms, giving him a glare. "I just happened to think of something."

"You had something to ask," he replied.

"I didn’t before," I told him. "But I do now."

"You did not have anything to say, but in just ten seconds..."

I gasped. Surely it should have been longer than that, right?

"It was ten seconds, firefly," he said as if reading my thoughts.

I glared at him.

"So?" I asked him. "A lot can happen in ten seconds. And why do you even know how many..."

"I counted," he told me, stifling a yawn. "What is it that you want to ask me?"

I glanced toward Lithovar, who remained rooted to the ground, looking absolutely murderous... Don’t ask me how I knew; I just did... despite being unable to move. Then I looked back at Zorathys.

"Can you make golems too?"

He looked at me for another quiet moment before asking, "Was this what you were whispering about with the fox pest?"

I gasped dramatically and placed a hand over my chest. "Zorathys!"

"Hm?"

"Why would you think such a thing?"

"I saw you whispering, firefly. It wasn’t exactly subtle, either."

"That was an entirely different matter."

"And they say I’m the demon," he muttered.

"Zorathys!" I called out. "Can you or can you not make golems?"

Lithovar immediately began shaking his head vigorously as though he desperately wanted me to not ask Zorathys the question, which... it had already been asked.

"Why is he shaking his head?" Rin asked. "It’s quite..."

"...scary," Vaelory concluded for her.

"That wasn’t what I was going to say, but I understand you, VV," Rin said.

Vaelory groaned. "That’s not my name."

Zorathys glanced toward Lithovar. "I imagine he finds the idea offensive."

Lithovar shook his head even harder.

"...Or perhaps he’s trying to warn you, firefly."

"Warn me?" I asked in shock.

"Hm," Zorathys replied lazily.

"About what?"

Instead of answering, Zorathys lazily stretched out one hand. A small stone lying on one of the nearby tables floated into the air. Every conversation inside the cave stopped. The children hurried over. Even Brixton forgot what he had been saying. Zayrion quickly adjusted his glasses, paying even more attention.

Lithovar looked increasingly distressed. His entire body trembled. If he could have spoken, I was fairly certain he would have been shouting.

The stone slowly spun in the air, round and round. Zorathys watched it with the same sleepy expression he wore when watching absolutely everything else.

He stopped spinning the stone. It hovered quietly in the air for a brief moment. Then he released it. The stone dropped onto the floor. It bounced once, rolled a short distance, then became completely still.

"Oops," Zorathys said.

There was silence. Nothing happened. I turned to Zorathys, then back to the stone, and then back to him, but before I could even say anything, Azerion spoke up.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"I think so?" Retheris muttered.

Zayrion adjusted his glasses. "I doubt that. His Majesty is the most powerful in the realm, and making a golem will be easy for him. I am very certain there is more to come. We just have to keep observing... maybe."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Zorathys muttered dryly.

One minute passed. Still nothing. Another minute. The stone remained... a stone.

Azerion sighed dramatically. "I think it died."

"It was never alive," Velira replied. "Don’t you know the difference between living things and non-living things?"

"I’m just wondering," he replied as he immediately threw something into his mouth.

Rin immediately tried getting him to open his mouth so she could see what he threw into his mouth. Azerion hissed at her, his eyes turning to slits, but just then, a sound echoed across the cave.

Crack.

Everyone froze.

Another crack followed, then another. Tiny fractures spread across the surface of the stone.

Aziren gasped. "It’s moving!" he said excitedly. "It’s moving."

Velira flung her hair back, a smug expression on her face.

"I knew my king wouldn’t let us down," she said.

Zorathys looked disgusted by her words, while I just chuckled at his expression.

The cracks on the stone widened. And then darkness seeped through them. I didn’t have to be told that the darkness was shadows.

They poured from the stone like smoke escaping through broken glass. The air around us suddenly became colder. The shadows swirled together, wrapping around fragments of stone as though weaving them into something entirely new. The tiny pieces rose into the air. One attached to another, then another. Stone and shadow intertwined seamlessly.

Within moments, a small figure stood before us. It was unlike any golem I had seen inside the cave. Its body was made of polished gray stone threaded through with flowing shadows. Its arms shifted constantly between solid rock and living darkness. Its tiny feet barely touched the floor. Even its eyes weren’t carved gemstones. They were pools of pure shadow.

The little creature tilted its head. Its mouth slowly formed from the darkness stretching across its face. Then it looked directly at us.

I have no idea why, but I was certain everyone except maybe Zorathys himself expected the golem to do something, so we just stared at it, eyes wide.

The golem blinked at us and then spoke up.

"Did someone summon me?"

For one heartbeat, the cave remained completely silent. Then massive cheers erupted throughout the cave.

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