Samsara

[Second Breakfast]

The rakshasa said what she knew they wanted to hear, and yet she was unable to truly grasp its meaning; for that, she would require empathy, and such was anathema to her nature. All she knew is that when she said the words, the right levers were pulled, and the mortals did as was instructed of them.

In the twilight years of Jhaamdath before the flood. In the gilded harems of the Shoon Imperium. Within the palaces of Estagund’s merchant princes. In these places, mortals hung on her every word; they confided in her and shared their darkest secrets and hidden desires. Time and again, it would prove their undoing and their great works would crumble and fall away, to be unseen by the masses. Such was the power to be found in her tongue.

She did not understand why she did not possess the sorcerous powers her kind were known for, and yet she did understand these feelings she had for her kindred that did have them.

Envy. Resentment. Hatred.

When she was whelped, she was the runt - a small and unremarkable thing. No one among her kind ever believed she would be destined for greatness. No rakshasa thought she would achieve anything of value or worth. She struck out in her own to prove them all wrong, but in the end she discovered her worst critic remained herself. She imagined what she would accomplish with the power she was denied; she obsessed over it. The hunger built up inside her and only grew more and more acute as time marched along. All rakshasa had it, it was a part of their nature, and yet for her, it proved unbearable.

She dreamt of finally being glutted, of having the power she long hungered for; in the throes of fitful sleep, something answered.

It took the shape of a crone, and offered the rakshasa power over nightmares and the dreaming world, and by extension, the waking world as well. So long as the price was paid, and it continued to be paid, all would be well.

The once-powerless soon become drunk on it, and many who lived lives free from fear would soon come to know it again.