The monk Mizrak was alone in his quarters reading the Bible when he heard an unfamiliar voice call from a dark corner: "Mizrak!"
He almost answered—but then he remembered the old tales of demons and spirits. So he pretended not to hear and kept reading.
A moment later, the voice came again from another corner: "Mizrak!" This time, he could tell it was a man's voice—still unfamiliar, but soft, husky, and strangely alluring, curling into his ear like smoke. His heart pounded as he began reciting scripture aloud, trying to drown it out.
Then, after a pause, the voice sounded right behind his neck: "Mizrak!" Afraid of yielding to temptation, he squeezed his eyes shut and didn't dare open them until the voice faded.
But when he finally looked—there, right before him, was a face. A beautiful, brown-skinned face, with gleaming emerald serpent eyes, framed by long black hair that spilled across the pages of his Bible. And when he looked closer—beneath that head coiled a thick, jade-green serpent's body, wrapped once around his waist before slithering back into the shadows.
Trembling, he watched as that silken black hair rippled like waves across the holy text. He tried to shut his eyes again, but the serpent’s grip tightened around his waist, forcing him to keep looking.
Then the lips of that unnatural face parted, and the voice whispered:
"Mizrak, why won't you look at me?"
