Sasha shivered, and Ishtar held her friend in her arms.

‘Why would she do that?’, Sasha asked.

‘Do what?’

‘Kill her husbands. And… eat them! How could anyone be so evil?’

‘Who knows, my dear Sasha… People are strange, and they do the strangest things. But it is only a story, you don’t have to worry about it too much’.

‘Do you think there are people who actually do these things, Ishtar?’

Ishtar took a deep breath and got up. The girls were on the bed, and Sasha was laying down on Ishtar’s lap. The Saintess carefully removed her friend’s head before standing up. She walked up to her desk and served herself a glass of water.

‘Would you like some water, Sasha?’

‘Yes, please’.

Ishtar served another glass, but took her time doing so. She did not want her friend to notice that her pupils had shrunk, and were now shaped like a cat’s. When Ishtar returned to bed, her eyes were normal again.

‘I think there’s all kinds of people in this world. Some are good, and some are wicked’, the Saintess finally replied.

‘Could anyone truly be so evil? I know no one capable of such things’.

‘Just because you don’t know them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. In fact, they could be much closer to you than you could ever imagine’.

Sasha gulped.

‘R-R-R-R-R-eally? Y-you think so?’

‘Certainly. Now, the next story is set in your very own hometown, in the Aquino dukedom. Have you ever heard of the gumiho?’

‘How could I not?’, Sasha started, ‘It is the most famous folklore story in our lands’.

‘Yes, but is it simply folklore?’

‘It isn’t?’

‘Well, I beg to differ’.

The Gumiho Tale

The Aquino dukedom is famous for their abundance of water. On their lands, everywhere you look there is a river, a pond or a lake. It is said their lands were blessed by the gods a long time ago.

Because of this, their economy is mostly based on agriculture and fishing, and they have yet to develop stronger industry and commerce, like their neighbours, the Carmella and the Brandt dukedoms.

The people of Aquino are simple and extremely superstitious. They believe in all kinds of fantastic creatures, not only the gods of creation and the Spirit Kings. One of such creatures is the gumiho.

According to legend, the gumiho is a fox-like creature who can shapeshift itself to look human. They possess extraordinary beauty, and use it to seduce their victims. Once they have caught their prey, they feast on their hearts and livers.

One day, a local farmer reported his sister to be missing. She had gone to the next town to buy some wool so she could knit a scarf for her brother as a birthday present, but she never came back. The local police searched for her all around, but there was no trace of the woman. Her body was found only three days later, and it was missing two very important organs: the heart and the liver.

‘It must be a gumiho!’, people said, frightened.

Shortly after the incident with the farmer’s sister, other young women started disappearing, only to be found three days later deprived of their hearts and livers.

People were terrified. They urged the local authorities to do something about it, but the police of a remote rural area could only do so much. The farmers then decided it was best to speak with the highest authority they could think of: the Aquino family.

The farmers went all the way to Fiume, the dukedom’s capital, and asked for an audience with the duke.

Caspian Aquino was a young man of only sixteen years of age, but at the time he was acting as the duke, because his parents were spending the social season in the Empire’s capital. He greeted the people from that remote village with warmth, and listened to everything they said. He did not believe that such things like the gumiho existed, but sent some of his knights to investigate anyway. 

‘It is probably a crazy murderer, disguising himself as a gumiho, so people will fear him’, Caspian thought.

But he could not have been further away from the truth.

The Aquino knights spent days trying to investigate as thoroughly as they could, but found no traces of the gumiho, nor anything that would draw suspicion to the potential suspect. It was as if the creature had never existed in the first place.

People grew anxious, and the knights were restless. How could there be no trace at all? No clue? No nothing? Had the gumiho evaporated?

After days of no success, the Aquino knights were ready to depart and report the investigation to Caspian. However, just as they were about to leave, a young boy came up to them in tears:

‘My… My… My sisteeeeeeeer! Olivia is gone! Olivia! Olivia!’

‘The knight commander was a very pale woman with shiny blue hair. Her name was Cassandra, and she was of noble blood.

‘Finally’, she thought, ‘It’s here’.