New Plan

''Now you're really scared. I can feel it, what is the problem?'' The fox asked.

''Not your business,'' I answered. What were the chances of him being here? It was near impossible. ''I won't let my fear paralyze me,'' I murmured.

Being in bed with boots was uncomfortable, but they were the only thing keeping me warm. I wish there was someone whose warmth I could borrow, but I couldn't go and pick up someone from the street. Adele's words were bothering me, the last thing I needed was an angry pimp right now.

I pulled my knees to my chest and took the embryo position to reduce heat loss and covered myself with the sheet. ''Didn't you mention that the name of the lust demon clan came from fire and light? Does it have to do with having to take heat from others?'' I asked.

It appeared on the pillow next to me, ''When you are qualified to know that, you learn.''

I closed my eyes and tried to meditate to forget about cold, I was too cold to argue with the fox. I close my eyes and formed a circle as I did in the forest when I first got the Desires of Heart. Ever since I passed out because of feeling too much desire, I was trying to suppress the skill as much as possible.

Carefully widening the circle, I felt the desires... the life energies and heats of surrounding people. It was painful to know they were there but not be able to drink their lust. It was like sitting at a banquet table, smelling delicious food but not being able to eat.

I focused on the closest energy, it was Adele. I narrowed the circle and surrounded her. What did she desire? If I could find it, I could use it somehow, maybe. I looked for money, love, fortune in her heart. I couldn't find any of them.

''What are you hiding Adele? Show me,'' I whispered. She wasn't trained or talented. She had just buried her desires deep. It had been a long time since she stopped hoping, I could feel it somehow. She gave up already.

I took a deep breath and imagined a shovel to make my job easier. Normally I imagined people's hearts as a pond or a well. It was enough for me to look to see the desires of some.

Sometimes pond was blurry, they were doubting or rejecting their own desires. I had to put my hand in the water to find their desires, or worse, I had to dive into the water.

When it came to people with strong minds, I couldn't dive into the water. I could feel monsters in the water. If I put my hand in the water, piranhas would shatter it into broken bones and limbs.

Adele's mind wasn't that strong. I was at the bottom of her 'desires' pond, but there was nothing I can use. I tried to dig the sand at the bottom of the pond with my hand, but the waves were filling the spaces I dug with sand back. She was trying to forget.

I imagined a shovel and started digging in soft sand. Of course, the sand was not real sand and the shovel was not a real shovel. They were the metaphors I used to guide skill more easily and eventually, it worked.

I heard a baby crying, no, babies. Cries disturbed my concentration and my trance was torn apart. Still, it was worked. I was in her mind, ''Hey, are you okay?'' A man asked. She was crying and yelling, ''Fuck. I'm out,'' The man threw some coins on the bed and left the room.

''I can't believe, you really broke her,'' The fox said.

I closed my eyes and tried to figure out the problem. I was hearing cries. Baby cries, was she lost a baby? I wandered through her mind and memories. It wasn't a baby. It was the cries of the babies that she couldn't able to keep. Except for one, they never allowed any of her babies to be born. Pregnant women had no many customers.

Once she was impregnated by a nobleman. The man's wife was barren and they had no children, he needed an heir so they paid her for nine months. She remembered the day her baby born. She heard her baby cry, she reached to hug her baby but they didn't let her.

She didn't know what it felt like to hold her baby in her arms. She had never seen her baby's face, they had never told her her baby's name. All she knows was the crying. This was her worst nightmare.

I opened my eyes and felt the warm tears running down my face. Wiping my tears, I tried the fix what I've done. But the pond somehow turned into an ocean and I was in the middle of a hurricane.

''Fuck. What should I do?''

''Give her what she wanted,'' The fox said. I frowned, there was no way for me to find her baby. I created an illusion, a dream, and trapped her in the illusion. Was it a gift or torturing to show her a future she could be with her baby, I don't know. But I didn't know what else I could do either.

I spent the night fixing Adele's mind defenses that prevented her from collapsing and trying to warm myself up with lust drops I found from the surroundings. ''I guess if people are burning something deep they have a good reason,'' I said, watching the sun rising.

''See the glass half-full, you have practiced using your skill,'' The fox said. ''If you are really going to do what you say, you will need it.''

''Right,'' I said.

''You know, normally someone in your situation would go to the meeting in the forest,'' The fox said.

I shook my head, ''No, that would be suicide. But if we see the full side of the glass, the fact that the captain and commanders will be at the meeting in the forest means they will not be in town. Their base in the town don't get more vulnerable than this,'' I said.

''How do you know there is a base in the town?''

I shrugged, ''There must be. They need somewhere to store all those documents and other stuff.''

''...and since you don't know who to leave to guard the base, you will try to feed as much of the soldiers as you can until the full moon so that you can control them when the time comes?''

''Go on if you have a better idea,'' I said.