Bedtime Story

“What do we do?” Nestor whispered.

Airi gripped the star shard. Since it was made of mana, it should cut through the statue like it had cut through the slimes. The statue’s neck looked like its weakest point. Right now it wasn’t moving, perhaps digesting all the food it’d eaten. If she ran up from behind—

“Two of my sweet children are still out of bed,” the Mother of Plenty said without moving its head.

Fear seized Airi. She could only repeat the thought that circulated through her head: “You... you’re a monster.”

The statue said, “So you recognize what I am. My sweet children, do you know how monsters work?”

“You eat people,” Nestor said. His expression was as angry as Airi had ever seen it.

“You have much to learn,” the Mother of Plenty said gently. “We eat to sustain ourselves, just like you. It doesn't have to be humans. I happen to prefer vegetables over human flesh." She smiled. "You are only children, so you might not understand my preference for vegetables.”

“So you’re a vegetarian monster. Are you saying that we should spare you because of that?” Airi demanded.

“How funny that you think you would be the ones sparing me. Tell me, why do you want to kill me?” it said patiently, as if lecturing a naughty child.

“You’re starving the people of Harveston! It’s evil!” Nestor said.

“Evil?” the Mother of Plenty said. “You are children, and you do not understand. I am helping them. They are but simple people from an insignificant town. All they know is work and hardship, one harvest after another, year after year, until they fall into dust. I am providing them with happiness that they may never know otherwise."

“You’re killing them!”

“It is true that they will eventually perish. But you will not find a happier town anywhere,” the Mother of Plenty said. “And isn’t that what you humans desire—happiness?” Her voice turned honey-sweet. “Why don’t you stay in this town, my sweet children? You, too, can become happy.”

“What will you do after the town runs out of crops?”

The Mother of Plenty only smiled wider. Despite its motherly personality, it reminded Airi a lot of a certain demon she had made a bargain with.

“We won’t let you eat the townspeople,” Nestor said bravely.

“How sad. You are two unhappy children.” The Mother of Plenty’s voice turned jagged as stone. Her eyelids flew open, revealing empty sockets filled with purple crystals.  “I shall eat you and put you out of your misery.”

It leapt from the fountain, landing on the stones with a crack, and ran straight towards Airi, who barely had time to raise her hand to block her face—

CRACK.

But it wasn’t Airi’s bones. It was the Mother of Plenty’s hand. The monster looked at the gaping hole where its hand used to be with a serene smile. “My sweet child, it seems that you are stronger than I thought. Still, you cannot block every attack with your hand.”

When the monster lunged forward for another attack, Airi reacted too slowly and felt her rib crack. Her vision exploded with stars.

She rolled over, grunting in pain. The Mother of Plenty came at her again and this time, Airi punched a hole into its face. It didn’t hurt her right hand at all.

Meanwhile, Nestor was chanting; Airi recognized the words from Tale of Flight. “Airi, I can’t lift you! What do I do?”

Airi gritted her teeth. “How much mana do you have left?”

“I’m getting tired!”

“Keep trying!” At this rate, Airi would die if she stayed within range of the monster.

“Why don’t you two sleep now?” the Mother of Plenty asked.

It looked quite monstrous now. The top of its head was gone, leaving only jagged crystals and smiling lips. And yet the damage still wasn’t enough to kill it.

“The only one sleeping will be you!”

Despite her brave words, Airi had never been good at physical fights; that had been Kazuko’s forte. And there was nothing Nestor’s water balls could do against a monster made of stone. Airi rolled away and the Mother of Plenty’s hand scraped against her cheek.

Suddenly Airi choked; the Mother of Plenty had lifted her by her neck, its marble grip impossible to escape. It raised its razor-sharp stump of a hand to Airi’s neck.

“Say goodnight,” whispered the statue.

"Wait—" Airi gasped, head beginning to swim. If the monster could talk, then she could buy time. What could she say to make it listen? "Mom." It had been years since Airi had addressed anyone by that name. "Will you tell me a bedtime story?"

The creature before her looked nothing like Mom. Its crystal-filled sockets glittered. "How naughty. You're stalling for time."

"Please, Mom. There are still so many stories I don't know." Airi's heart beat frantically.

"Very well. I will grant your request, since I am not particularly hungry at the moment." Without loosening her grip on Airi's neck, the Mother of Plenty murmured, "Once upon a time, a king and a queen had a beautiful baby girl."

A strategy, that’s what they needed. Airi nodded along, but she wasn't listening to the monster's story. Nestor wasn't strong enough to lift her, but maybe he didn't need to. She squeezed the star shard with her crystal hand.

"Mom, you probably know a lot more than me. But there's something you don't know."

The Mother of Plenty paused in her storytelling. "What is it, sweet girl?"

"You should've cut off my tongue while you had the chance." Airi managed a defiant smile. She jerked her neck to the side, ignoring the blood that trickled down, and shouted, “Nestor! Redirect the spell to this instead!” She dropped the shard of mana to the ground. Now it was all up to him. If he could control water that smoothly, surely this—

The shard of mana paused mid-fall and looped upwards to pierce straight through the Mother of Plenty’s neck. It didn’t stop there—it flew a few feet higher into the air and fell in a shimmering arc.

Airi tumbled to the ground, praying that this was enough to defeat the monster. Black goo oozed from the wounds on the Mother of Plenty’s neck, head, and arm; she looked like she was melting. But she didn’t immediately harden to stone like the slimes.

“How odd... that I would be defeated by two mere children...” she said. Her voice sounded like it was dissipating. “But you are not a human, are you, sweet girl?”

“What?” Airi said.

Even while dying, the monster could still smile. “Did you know?” Her voice grew fainter. “A human would have been killed by the accumulation of mana on their body. You... are a kind of monster... too.”

With that, she burst into dazzling purple light, far brighter than the slimes. The light flowed towards Airi—she didn’t have time to blink as the crystal on her right hand spread upwards, until her entire arm was covered. Though the new crystal was purple at first, it gradually paled to sky blue like the rest. Her sleeve seemed to have vanished; she couldn't feel the cloth against her skin anymore.

“Airi? What did the Mother of Plenty mean, when it said that you were a monster too?” Nestor asked.

“Huh? Oh—” Airi remembered that the kid’s father had been killed by a monster. “Nothing. It was lying, probably trying to mess with me.”

Nestor looked at her apprehensively. “You mean it?"

“No, no. How could I be a monster? I’m bleeding.” Airi pointed at her arms and legs. As far as she knew, she wasn’t a monster. She couldn’t be, right? She was still human... even if she’d made that bargain with the demon, she still had a soul.