In this world, there were times when an entire village or even a bustling town vanished within a handful of days. Roads would still lead to where homes once stood. Wells remained. Fields lay untouched. But the people were gone, as if they had been erased mid-breath.
Kingdoms investigated such incidents again and again. Scouts were sent. Mages divined. Priests prayed. In the end, the official reports always carried the same conclusion.
Demons.
It was an easy answer, one that required no deeper explanation and no uncomfortable questions.
And yet, in this case, the answer happened to be true.
But not in the way people imagined.
There existed a demon that did not favor open slaughter or grand battles. It did not march with armies or burn cities to ash. It loved something far subtler, far more intimate.
Despair.
