A Fairy Out of Her Tale - Dear Diary - 62. Scene 62

In which we learn what demons do to their captives.
Today's chapter is sponsored by rainbow Lóránt as part of compensation for the changes in the update schedules. This link has a more detailed explanation of why the change happened and what I'm hoping to accomplish with it. 
 

27th January 1995

Dear Nessa,

Four days have now passed and we are not anywhere closer to finding you or Kris. Is four days enough for the demons to take you to Skull Island? For their hypnotic powers to take away your free will? Have you already been turned into their mindless servant, ready to spend the rest of your life fighting their wars for them?

I have not told you this yet (although this should count as me telling you), but I have been to Skull Island. I saw with my own eyes the soulless people they hold captive. Their eyes were dull. Their life was gone. Yet, when they were not fighting, they led perfectly normal lives and were not aware of what had been done to them.

The first real fairy I spoke to was one of the captives in Skull Island. He was already a full-grown man, whereas I was a child accompanying my elders on a business trip. The fairy was acting like a butler, having been sent to welcome us and see that we were comfortable before the hosts' arrival. He still had his wings, so he must not have been one of the fighters. Those wings were your favourite shade of pink (you would like them, as long as they were not too strong a reminder of your loss). My Fadalesh was limited at the time, but this was my first trip with the elders and I was curious. The only conversation I could have with that man was about family.

'I have a daughter.' His voice had little emotion. He looked at me, but his eyes stared off in the distance. He didn't see me then. 'And I have a partner. A giant. He is the mother of my daughter.' The man smiled and I thought finally some genuine feeling had shone through the demon's spell, but the impression was short-lived. 'I am glad that the master paired me up with him.' His voice turned emotionless again. 'I am very happy here. I have a family. The master is good for our family.'

Back then I did not know that demons not only captured beings from all races, but paired them up strategically to create mix-race beings to fit their ambitions. That fairy's daughter would be part fairy and part giant, and possibly have some power over both nature and earth. And she would most likely not be the only one of her kind.

Even as a ten year-old, I did not take well to hearing those things. Did the demons force this fairy to pair up with the giant? Was their mind control ever lifted, so they could get to know each other's real selves? Or were they both living machines, just doing what was programmed in them?

And was the daughter already under the demon’s control? What if she lived her entire life not knowing the meaning of free will?

It only got worse as the fairy was told to take us to his master. We needed to go into a different building from the one we had arrived at, and on the way to the meeting point we passed by the captive's village. I took some time to understand what it was: a long street filled with rolls of identical houses on both sides. The houses were simple structures over two floors, not too different from the buildings in Daisen (however nothing like the tunnels back home), with small gardens at the front. Children ran around, playing and laughing and looking like they were having a good time. Adult giants and dwarves and fairies and shape-shifters surrounded them, also looking like their lives were as normal as yours or mine.

But then a voice spoke over a loudspeaker, and everyone stood still. Their eyes glazed over, the joy disappeared from their faces. And everyone, adults and children, marched in synchrony back to their houses. By the time we arrived at our destination, the street was silent as dead.

Once the business meeting was over, the fairy butler was meant to escort us out. I told him I hoped his daughter was happy and he blinked.

'I have two daughters.'

'You said you had only one.'

He blinked again. 'I have one daughter. She is happy and I am happy. Thank you for asking.'

The visit was creepy from start to finish, and that was my opinion as a child who liked (age-appropriate) goth literature. I had never been so anxious to return home and be free from that strange place. And I tried to ask the elders why our community insisted on having demons as clients, but they told me off for my curiosity. 'You will understand when you are older,' they said.

Two months later, I was on the run. And ten years later I still don't understand.

And now I fear you will become one of those soulless people with a happy façade. If worst comes to worst, at least I can console myself in knowing you will likely live in material comfort with a good, comfortable house, and a partner and children to make you company. You will not have the chance to love said partner and said children, and they will never have the opportunity to learn to love you back the way you deserve, but you will not be in pain. You, the Nessa I love, will be gone forever, and only the empty shell of your body will remain in this world.

If this is where you are now, if this is the life that awaits you... I will rescue you. I will find a way to break that control and bring you back. I cannot bear the thought of the loveliest being in the world being gone forever.

Tomorrow is another day. Another hope.

Always yours,

Lydia

Thanks for reading!  
We now have an idea of what the demons are up to when they kidnap other people. Of course, there is always the question of how reliable a memory from ten years ago is, and how a child's perception of reality would affect that memory...
Either way, Nessa's future doesn't sound too promising if she has been really captured by the demons.
You can help make sure Nessa stays safe by giving me monetary incentives to make the plot go your way. It's not the most respectable way to write a story, I know, but authors need to put food on the table too. So be sure to visit my Patreon page and make some compelling financial arguments as for why I shouldn't make our heroine be forever mind-controlled.
I mean, who care about plot and continuity and narrative arch when I can just make a ton of money out of people who think they can write my story for me?  
(This has been an attempt at mind-control by a demon testing whether they can control people via text as well as speech. I suppose my bank balance will tell whether this was successful or not.)