Souls.

Waking up was un eventful, she found she had somehow during her sleep curled up into a ball with her tail wrapped around her, looking like she was copying mischief who was sleeping by her feet, getting up she went to the dresser trying to find something to wear, but found herself struggling because everything she instinctually picked out by habit ended up being way too large, she hadn't quite adjusted to her small stature hence getting dressed ended up with a lot more trial and error than she cared to admit.

part of her wanted to go get something to eat, it was weird while she had only consumed liquid yesterday it had genuinely satiated some of her hunger, but knowing herself well enough she knew she would just end up horribly lost and she figured the maid from yesterday would likely come for her once again, while she wasn't keen on needing the service of a maid, she also knew she would be lost without hence she ended up resigning herself to her fate.

much to her surprise the room had power sockets and plugging in her laptop she started it up only to realize that ofcourse Internet wasn't a thing...

Well so much for hope in the demonic realm she thought with not a small amount of irony.

Mischief was also staring at her like she was stupid, no need to rub it in little fella she thought to herself and shut the laptop back down, it served very little purpose without access to the Internet.

instead she grabbed the handheld "Toy" as Desmond had described it yesterday and she immediately felt agitated by simply recalling his face.

Snuggling back up in bed with mischief coming closer she managed to play some of the games she had bought on sale but been procrastinating getting around to, that backlog of "I will definitely play this" was getting embarrassingly large.

she was a bit surprised it took 4 hours before the maid arrived, knocking on the door.

"Dinner is prepared if the princess is hungry"

much to her surprise it wasn't the maid, instead Ash had appeared wearing what seemed like fancier maid clothing, no longer wearing the outfit that made her appear like she stepped straight out of a fashion magazine.

"You look surprised Lady Kira, I've been assigned your personal maid since your birth, and seeing you didn't arrive in the dinner hall by yourself I assumed you might desire an escort?"

opening her mouth several times Kira tried to answer but without any luck, being completely unable to reject her with lines like she could get there by herself was impossible, being unable to lie was really inconvenient.

all she could do was give in and accept the escort gracefully while admitting that yes she did indeed need an escort, while walking Ash kept the same the same infuriating smile on her face as her brother for the entire duration.

Before giving a deep bow and gesturing Kira to go into the dinner hall.

in the room it was a pretty similar sight to the day prior, her mom was sitting in the same place and it was clear she wanted Kira to join immediately, Kira couldn't help but look towards the chalice placed at the spot she had sat yesterday with desire.

her clear addiction to this liquid bothered her.

sitting down she steeled herself and pretended the chalice wasn't right in front of her and filled to the brim, right next to it she noticed two small marbles they kind of looked like hard candies.

"Originally I had instructed Ash to bring you the soul orbs as an early snack in case you were hungry, while it is still very clear in your constitution that you're starved you look much healthier today and for that I am extremely happy.

The plan was you could have one, and maybe you could feed one to your familiar, like you he very likely received very little nourishment on earth and he could likely benefit from the strength boost, ofcourse we would never make you give anything to your familiar without you trying it yourself first.

Mischief as you call him is still very much a baby and extremely weak, giving him proper nourishment will help him grow and make him more capable of protecting himself, which might ease your mind while he roams here on Palace ground?"

Kira eyed the small marble, her mom was indeed right she absolutely refused to feed mischief anything she didn't know what was, and she pressumed her mom would likely not give her anything to eat herself that could hurt her.

popping the candy in her mouth she quickly felt it dissolve and it reminded her of a less potent version of the liquid in front of her, she could however not deny it did restore her energy, figuring while normally she would never have given her cat candy, she decided to trust that mischief was likely special and he needed the extra energy he could get, so she pocketed the other candy and decided to refocus her attention on Inari.

"You keep mentioning the word soul, by now I don't take that it is a fancy term for something else?"

her mom took a bit before she answered, to Kira it felt almost like she was trying to avoid the subject but couldn't find a way around it.

"The name is what it is, it is 1 or multiple souls distilled into either a liquid form which is more fresh, or a hard candy like substance loosing quite a bit of its freshness but still serving the purpose, however when we use the word soul we don't use it the same way as humans, as humans often just mean Ego when they say soul, it is true that your ego is connected to the soul, is the soul for lack of better expression the beings life force.

You grew up on earth so you likely heard the myths about vampires, truth to be told vampires are just degraded human demon hybrids who have mutated over many many generations to make up its own species, they are far weaker than pure demons, but they still have a bit of the demonic trait of surviving on life force, which they extract through human blood, its a horribly inefficient way of gaining the life essence but they degrades to being weak enough that they also requires very little to sustain them, effectively they are just stronger humans utilising what little life force they have to sustain the extra strength and expand their life span, by the super natural species on earth they are still the ones closest their demonic origin, their oldest ones also hilariously consider themselves the top of the food chain but truth to be told, even your little familiar could likely take out the strongest vampire if he wasn't limited by his current vessel.

but in short, much like humans kill animals and devour their flesh for proteins and nourishment do we simply just skip straight to the core and consume their life force directly, when you grow strong enough to create your mortal vessel will you once again need to eat human food to sustain the vessel itself, but it doesn't mean you can stop consuming life force as your spirit itself will keep needing nourishment or you will grow weak, I'm quite honestly impressed you're holding up as well as you are currently based on the fatigue from being effectively starved your entire life, but don't worry i will keep ensuring you have all the souls you can digest until your body readjust into a more healthy state."

She asked, and she got the answer, part of Kira couldn't help regret asking, but at the same time her mom had a valid point, she happily ate meat for the same reason, this was just like filtering out the meat part and consuming the protons and vitamins directly, she felt split.

Part of her wanted to feel guilty about consuming innocent life, but honestly the souls could have come from anything and she didn't particularly feel guilty about enjoying her bacon, no the most upsetting thing to her was the fear of giving up food, as a diet of the same liquid day in and out seemed incredibly boring, then again she was catching herself drool at the chalice in front of her, deciding to just give in she immediately emptied the chalice, and barely had she finished before maids came and filled it up multiple times after 4th, she slowed down, part of her still wanted more but another part made her aware it would be waste as she couldn't absorb more right now.

Focusing back on her mom she simply got a kind smile in return.

"Kira, if mischief doesn't eat the candy all at once there really is nothing wrong, let him take his time for some lesser demons can the soul orb last them months, its all up to the individual how much their body can absorb.

the amount of souls you've been taking in during the last two days is slightly unheard of even considering you have been starved and you're my daughter is it truly a testament to your strength and your potential, I know your nagging hunger right now must seem like it's permanent but it is really not, I know I used vampires as example earlier but realize they are surviving on scraps, and will never get satiated where I will providing you with everything you need to your body stabilises once it does the hunger should also go away and then you would effectively only need to consume more every now and then or for pleasure."

while the Kira wasn't too keen on the subject of vampires being brought up over and over again with her memory flashing back to the dude she accidentally turned into a pile of ash while partially it did serve to help her address her worries as she had felt close to permanently hungry since waking up yesterday, and it's only even now partially satiated.

looking up to her left she spotted the maid who had been pouring her food, and Omfg it was Ash.

she had been too absorbed in drinking to even notice.

"Mom, can I ask that the jug gets placed on the table tomorrow so that way I can pour the amount I feel hungry enough for myself?"

her mom quirked an eyebrow.

"You didn't seem dissatisfied by having someone else fill your chalice a moment ago, did she perhaps pour too little or too much, how was it to your dissatisfaction and I'm sure she will try to do better."

frowning, Kira couldn't lie and she couldn't think of any excused close enough to the truth that she was confident enough she would even be able to say it.

"I just feel that the maids likely have better things to do than pouring my drink when I am perfectly capable of pouring it myself, it feels like a slightly unnecessary gesture wasting their time"

her mom however didn't relent in the slightest.

"She is your personal maid sweetie, her job is to take care of any of your needs, so right now she doesn't have anything more important to do than tending to you, hence you're definitely not wasting her time."

looking towards Ash she just saw the same smile plastered on her face.

Kira couldn't help but whisper

"Well played"

much to her surprise she heard Ash reply "Thank you" almost immediately it was almost not perceptible but she still somehow heard it clear as day.

trying to avoid yesterday's situation she decided to get up first before announcing her plans to return to her room, but just as she reached out for the table her hand caught another hand, Desmond had literally appeared out of nowhere helping her get up while Ash pulled back her chair.

Are you kidding me... but how!

Kira almost internally screamed but keeping a polite smile plastered.

"Thanks for food, I feel much better.

I will withdraw to the chamber I'm occupying and give Mischief the soul candy and play with some of the... ~Toys~ "

stressing the particular word letting her frustration show while glancing towards Desmond

"That Desmond so kindly brought me yesterday"

her mom simply provided her a polite acknowledgement, it almost seemed like she wanted to say something but after waiting a bit nothing more came, getting to the door, Desmond had the door for her before she could reach it.

and both followed her all the way to the bedroom she was occupying letting her get inside bowed and closed the door behind her.

calling to mischief she saw him stretch on the bed and eagerly jump down to her full of expectation.

procuring the little candy from her pocket she presented in front of mischief to gage his reaction.

his eyes immediately went wide, and was looking at Kira as if it was really OK for him to have it, nodding her head telling him to go ahead and it was all his, he immediately started licking the candy and she watched as it slowly became smaller, thinking of her own hunger she wondered if she had accidentally been starving mischief without knowing and suddenly felt very guilty.

She grabbed her switch and continued on the game she had started earlier while mischief was moving back and forth between resting by her side and licking at the candy, the rest of day slowly went like that, she did however notice that mischief consumed more and more of the candy for each time it returned, this went on for a while until mischief gobbled down the last part and extremely satisfied curled up next to her.

Kira hadn't even gotten out of her clothes before she could even think of doing anything she was overcome by sleep, and fell asleep still holding her gaming device in hand laying above the blankets with mischief snuggled up, against her.