Sinful Darkness
What will you find in the dark?
Prelude
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“A |
TTACK! BRING THE STRONGEST MEN TO THE FRONT! TODAY, WE FIGHT FOR VICTORY!” the head knight of the North Snow Tygre clan, Terrif Skaa shouted above his fellow Tygre knights, roaring their cries of war. Their white furry skin lined with stripes were covered in armor, from the tips of their tiger ears, to their padded tiger feet. It seemed they could be protected from anything. Anything but…
*****
The North Glacyer Rapticles adjusted their armor as their leader Garamound Asche walked up and down his line of warriors, inspecting them. His black tipped gray hair ended a bit past his shoulders and was pulled back to stay out of his face. He hooked a few stray hairs behind his oddly pointed demon ears and walked back up his line on his clawed raptor feet. He scratched at an itch on his blue tinted skin before stopping in front of one soldier, a bit shorter than the others. Even though he was 67-years-old, he was only just starting to show signs of maturity. His shoulders had finally broadened, the curved ice blue hunting claws on his feet had finally finished developing, and his voice only squeaked part of the time. He had blue skin that faded to light blue on his belly and chest with black stripes and rings in random areas, like all Glacyer Rapticles. Two stripes lined each of his cheeks and one over each eye. His long black tipped silver hair was pulled back into a braided tie and his green eyes looked eagerly into his father’s. “Seraph, are you ready to show your devotion to the Rapticles Clan?”
“Yes sir.”
“Don't slip up," Garamound said only for Seraph to hear with a wink. He straightened his face to one void of expression and shouted, "Draw your weapons!” He raised his own sword above his head as they each drew their weapons and shouted, “PREPARE YOURSELF FOR BATTLE! WE WILL FIGHT TO THE DEATH TO END THIS WAR!”
They all gave off a battle cry while releasing ice cold energy, and charged onto the battlefield.
*****
Each clan of all different races, both human and demon alike, joined with themselves to partake in the war. While the war was being fought on the battlefield and many lives were being lost, the elders of each clan met to try and sort out a way to compromise the land they lived on. They came to the conclusion of an accord. They called in the head knight of each race, or if they had been killed in battle, their oldest son or daughter would witness the signing. The accord stated, “We, the elders of each race, whether it be human, demon, or a mix of both, have signed this accord as a sign of peace. The war of the clans is over. Each race will live in peace with each other, living in villages fit either for specific races, or mixes. Each of them will have a designated ruler, whether it be male or female. The ruler will be either the head knight or the head knight’s child, if the head knight has died in war.”
Seraph Asche, Exousia Skaa, daughter of Terrif Skaa, and many, many others witnessed the signing of the accord. Each of the witnesses was then made either Lord or Lady of their races’ City.
400 years passed. Everything had run smoothly with absolutely no flaws ever since then… except for one city. A city called Delania. The humans that inhabited that city were evil. They never agreed to the accord like their elder Telscha had. Delanians loved war. They loved to make their blades sing and cry out for the taste of blood. They loved the sound of an arrow being pulled back in its bow to be launched at the enemy in swarms like bees. But they lived in peace like they were told; only it was a bitter peace. Then, one day, a young Delanian named Lucifer came across a power that was forbidden to all those in Delania. It was a power that if you possessed enough strength on your own, you could open the 6 gates of Hell and rule the entire underworld if you could defeat the Almighty God of the Underworld. Lucifer, already attaining quite a bit of power, tried to open each gate. He got to the fifth one before he was defeated and flung back to his mortal body with so much force that it made the building he was in crumble around him.
When he was found, he was only sealed away instead of buried. No one could unseal him if they wanted to live. There was only one who could get away unscathed. One of green dragon blood who shows enough courage could do it, and only he could seal the monster away again.
So until then, Lucifer was sealed away in a tomb, never withering away, and withstanding the destruction as his city was destroyed around him, waiting for the day to be brought back to the land of the living. Until then, he was doomed to walk the misty path of nothingness.
Chapter 1
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“I |
FORBID YOU TO SEE HIM AGAIN!”
“Hache, please, she’s only a child. She doesn’t know the laws.”
The little girl, who the anger was directed at, stood there, holding a stuffed dragon in her arms, her long talons almost piercing the fabric in fear of her father. Her tail curled around her legs tightly. She looked up at her father with gold-flecked scarlet eyes and he returned the look with a fierce gold-green glare. Her father, Hache Lucretia, was the Lord of the
“Please darling. She doesn’t know what she’s done. At least explain it.”
At first he tried to protest, but the grip on his arm tightened and he finally growled out, “Fine.” Sighing and sitting on his throne once again, after having leapt out of it in his explosion of anger before like a raging bull, he calmly steepled his fingers and rested his nails to his chin. “Talyn, come here.” He patted his leg and the girl started to move, tripping over the tail that was still wrapped around her legs. Tears burning in her eyes, she stepped up to the throne and Hache lifted his daughter into his lap. “My little innocent Half-child. I should have told you the laws. I am deeply sorry I yelled at you. I just cannot allow your friendship with the Green Dragon.”
“But Soverin’s really nice to me Papa,” Talyn said, oozing off the innocence of a very young child. Being only 35 in human years, she was at most 9 in a demon’s. “Why can’t I be friends with him?”
“It’s against the Dragons’ Laws. Mastiphal’s wrath child, do you really want me to disgrace our elder’s name by breaking the rules?”
Talyn vigorously shook her head, her long red tipped black hair smacking her in the face. “No Papa, I don’t want that. But why does Elder Acham want the clans separate if you rule them all?”
Hache struggled to find the words to tell her. He didn’t want to tell her the real reason of a prophecy foretold of her and a member of the Green Dragon clan. “I can’t find the words to tell you that you would understand my darling. When you are older, you may understand the reason for keeping the breeds separate.”
Astarte opened her mouth and then shut it again. She knew just as well of the prophecy, so instead, she just nodded. Although, being a fire elemental with no dragon in her bloodstream at all, she really had no say to begin with.
“Will you promise me that you’ll never see that child again my Halfling?
Talyn seemed really disappointed and she muttered a reluctant, “Yes Father.”
“Good girl. Now off to bed.”
Talyn slid off his lap and ran out of the throne room, closing the doors with a click behind her.
Hache let out an explosive sigh and put a hand to his head, his long talons entwined in his waist-long black hair. Astarte went behind his chair and put her arms around his neck. “Darling, what are we going to do? She’s growing up too fast to stop the prophecy. She’s going to find that child eventually and He’s going to wake again.”
“Can’t we get rid of him with force?”
Hache pulled his hand away from his head and started grinning. He got up with a leap, scaring Astarte. He hugged her and twirled her around. “Love, you’re a genius! We’ll Exile him! Send him far away from the Doragon Cities! That way Talyn can never find him and fulfill the prophecy!” He gave her a hard kiss on the forehead and took her hands, pulling away. She had a small, sad expression on her face. “What’s wrong? You know what the prophecy said they both would turn into.”
“I know as well as you, but it just doesn’t seem right. We’re crushing our daughter by not telling her why she can’t keep him as a friend! Look how much happier she’s been the past week. No one in the Black Dragon clan accepts her for being half fire instead of all dragon. They see her as only a half-breed.” Tears shined on her face. “Do you know how hard it’s been, watching from the palace windows as the kids her age all crowd around her, taking turns in pushing her, taunting her, beating her. All because she has half of something else flowing in her veins! It tears at my heart Hache! I don’t want to see her like that anymore. I watch it all happen before my eyes, knowing that I’ve caused her pain by being fire born and not dragon born. For 35 years I’ve had to endure the horrible truth and watch her punished for something she couldn’t prevent.” She held on to his shoulders and buried her face in his chest. “Do you know how painful it is to watch it all happening, knowing I have absolutely no right to say or do anything to stop it? Knowing that if we don’t stop it at the same time, that boy would be able to unlock the very being we all fear the most.”
Hache cupped her face in his hands and kissed her eyes. “I’ll give her private lessons in fighting so no one can hurt her again. Darling, she’ll be the best fighter in the whole world under my command. You won’t have to watch her suffer any more. Don’t blame her heritage on you. Just because she’s not a full dragon, it doesn’t mean her powers are any less. In fact, since she’s got the fire in her, she’s got even double the power. Don’t be ashamed for that. Come; let’s go to bed. The Exile will take place tomorrow.”
Astarte wiped at her eyes and nodded. He slipped his arm around her waist as they walked out of the room. Hache flapped his wings once to send a gust through the room and extinguished the candlelight before closing the door.
Chapter 2
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T |
wo hundred years later, the two suns hung high in the sky over the city of Dyluthe. There was a sigh, disrupting the buzz of people down on the streets, black smoke accompanying the small noise. The young looking man that had blown the smoke from his mouth and nostrils put the black cigarette back in his lips and took another long drag from it, stubbing it out on the windowsill. This time, instead of sighing, he made little smoke rings that flowed away with the wind. Smiling, he picked up the sword next to him and absent-mindedly wiped off the fresh viscera with a piece of cloth from a body lying on the floor in a pool of its own blood. “Not like you’ll need the clothes where you’re going,” the man said, seeming completely unfazed when the man that was supposed to be dead in front of him stirred.
Very, very weakly he said, “Not… my good… shirt.”
The young man laughed a cold, emotionless laugh. “Still alive after being stabbed through all your major organs, Giforte? And still worried about your clothes more than ever? This is how you got yourself in this situation to begin with.” He caressed the other man’s face softly, much too softly for what he had just done. A lover’s gentle touch. He then quickly grabbed Giforte’s face and tightened his grip, making the head of his victim explode in his hands.
Disgusted, he wrinkled his nose and shook off the bodily fluids from his hand and stood up, his coat falling off his knees and flowing almost to the floor. Protruding from just a few inches above his buttocks was a spiky, green dragon tail swaying slowly. Raking a black-clawed hand through his long, fine, silver hair, he pushed it behind his long pointed ears. His skin showed no signs that he stayed in the daylight at all, being almost as pale as the white moon. On his face were two scars under sapphire eyes, both running either under or over the left eye. The eye that had the scars around it was lighter than the other, meaning he was partially blind in it. He stepped onto the open windowsill and called in his green dragon wings. Looking over his shoulder, he glanced at the mess he had made by playing too roughly for the four dead men to handle. He grinned and jumped out the window as he headed for a back street to land in.
When he finally found a quiet place to land, he vanished his wings and stepped into the main courtyard, narrowing his eyes as people were crowding around the stage in the middle of the town square. Glancing on the stage, he saw a man stripped bare of any article of clothing and tied to two posts so he was standing with arms and legs outspread. They wouldn’t… not in public, the man thought. Three people walked up the stairs, one, a female holding a scroll, another female with a syringe full of clear liquid, and a male with a kama.
Then the female holding the scroll raised her hand for silence. Once she was rewarded with not a soul talking except for the few mutters from the man tied to the posts, she cleared her throat and opened the scroll. “People of Dyluthe! This man before you has been sentenced to be cleared of all that makes him man, by order of Lady Ryluten!”
The whole town square erupted into a roar. Soverin, the young man, gulped, but kept his face mutual. They were excited! They were happy that the man was going to loose something very precious to him. And to just imagine the pain! Soverin flinched inwardly and had the sudden impulse to grab his own manhood at the thought of it. The female with the syringe stuck the needle into the man’s organ and pushed the liquid into it. That would keep him awake through the whole thing, but would not relieve him from the blinding pain.
“Cut him!” the one with the scroll demanded, and the man with the small curved knife stepped up and moved the main organ to one side, revealing the man’s testicles. He stuck the knife into the middle of one of them.
The scream was deafening. And it was only the beginning.
All throughout the process of the cutting, the screaming continued, and Soverin continued having a hard time keeping his face neutral. Eventually, he decided enough was enough and turned away, pulling his pack of cigarettes out of his coat and putting it to his mouth, catching a black cigarette with his lips and lit it with a small black and green lighter. He let out another puff of smoke with a sigh and kept walking, adding another victim to his long list. Trying not to dwell on what his consequence had actually been, he walked down the cobblestone road, towards a building with an unmarked sign.
He opened the door and was immediately greeted with the heavy musky scent of the place. The woman behind the counter, a woman who could pull off “pleasantly plump”, flushed when she saw him. She had blonde hair that she kept in a neat bob. Her blue dress flowed out to the floor and the straps hung over her shoulders. Her green eyes sparkled at him. Being the manager of that particular place, rent was easily afforded if you were someone like Soverin. Rumors about his behind door skills traveled all over the world for a century and a half now. “You seem to look like you saw a ghost out there,” she said with her slight accent, coming out from behind the counter to look more closely at his expression.
He smiled at her. “No my dear, just witnessed another man getting his balls sawed off, nothing too bad. Though I could use a bit of your strong tea and cakes, Zeldaña.” He planted a kiss on her slightly chubby cheeks.
“But of course,” Zeldaña said, going into the kitchens.
Soverin followed like an obedient puppy and sat at one of the tables.
“Who was it this time?”
“Random stranger. No crime, apparently. They just cut him.” He gave a small shudder. “I still can’t get used to it.”
“Well that is obvious you silly man! You are watching someone of the same gender getting his cock and balls hacked off. Why do you continue to watch when you know it brings you much discomfort?” She put a cup of steaming tea in front of him, which he drained.
“I watch it because I can’t look away. The pain the man must go through. Don’t even let me get started on the women.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” Zeldaña shuddered this time, holding her lower belly. She waved her hand in front of her face as if swatting at a fly. “On other ends, are you working tonight?”
“Probably not,” Soverin answered, biting into a warm, moist cake and savoring the taste of bananas. He loved how she knew banana bread was his ultimate favorite food. “I hope I do get the privilege to choose whether or not I do?”
“After that ordeal I’d doubt very much so if you could work. I’ll cancel all your appointments for tonight and put them into tomorrow. Is that fine?”
Soverin nodded and finished the cake. “Yes, that’s fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a few errands to run. I’ll be back before nightfall,” he added with a slightly boyish tone before pushing in his chair and heading out the front door.
Zeldaña sighed. “That boy can take more hits to the mind more than anyone I’ve met. He certainly doesn’t seem to faze that easily…” She trailed off and collected the plates, putting them in the sink and started soaping them up.
Chapter 3
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O |
nce out in the streets again, Soverin’s gaze turned toward the stage in the distance. All the spectators had gone back to their everyday life, as if nothing had happened. He turned away. “Tch, of course. They wouldn’t leave something that horrific up for the children’s eyes.” He chuckled to himself. “Then again, who the hell knows WHAT the Lady would command?”
He randomly walked around the streets on the sidewalks to avoid being run down by any passing vehicles, stopping here and there if something caught his eye. He didn’t stop until the suns started to give way to the moons. He found himself in front of a run-down looking place with a neon sign saying in pulsating green and orange colors “Bulgine’s Tavern” hanging above the entrance. A sign on the door in front of him held a notice:
"Divine Torture"
Playing tonight only
Last show on the Planet
Soverin finished reading and shrugged. “Got nothing better to do…” He pushed open the door and was greeted by feedback on speakers.
“OY! Watch it Bulgine! That’s been with us since day one!” said a man onstage with dark purple-blue hair who was hooking up wires. He had on what was the strangest costume Soverin had ever seen. In his pointed ears were three orange studs in each. Also in his left ear was a strange, twisting, dark blue earring-stick that came out the top part of the cartilage and went through the bottom at the near tip of his left ear. He wore a pair of leather shorts that really had no meaning and fishnets covered all his limbs. Donning his hands were pair of dark gray fingerless gloves and there was a green garter belt around his left thigh, the same neon green as the sign outside and on his fingernails. There was one long claw, his right pinky, that was about 2 inches longer than the others. On his feet were platform boots with heels that had a knot-like end. The platforms must’ve given him an estimated three inches to his height. Also, he had a nose ring, lip ring, and a piercing where the bottom lip meets the chin. A libre piercing, Soverin concluded after finding the right word.
“It’s heavy! What’re you keeping in this thing, eh? 50 pounds of grass?”
“Tch, don’t you wish, you addict?”
“Just give me a hand with this thing!” the man named Bulgine grunted as he shifted the speaker in his hands. He had on a stained through dark green shirt over a bulging beer belly. His pants were fastened to his waist by a black and tarnished belt. His curly black hair was pulled back into a small and simple ponytail to keep it out of his small, beady gray eyes.
Soverin stepped forward and helped him pull the speaker on stage.
“Hey, thanks there,” Bulgine said, sliding down to the floor and wiping off his brow with the back of his arm. “What are you doing in here anyway? Show doesn’t start till 9. You’ve got an hour on your hands buddy.”
The other man with purple-blue hair snapped a black and silver case closed. “Lay off Bulgine. The man wants to be here early and witness the band's last performance, wherever the hell the other members are.”
Soverin took a closer look at the man, and stepped back in surprise. “I KNEW you seemed familiar. You’re the lead singer Exil Lücke!”
Exil raised a brow. “No, really? What was your first clue?”
“But what are you doing setting up?”
“Pfft.” Exil waved a hand in front of his face as if waving off a bug. “The roadies left. I gave them the speech about ‘It’s been fun’ yadda yadda, and poof, gone! Tch, you think they’d say ‘Oh we’ll stick out the last show’, wouldn’t ya?” His turquoise eyes burned into Soverin’s sapphire ones. “You know, I think I’ve heard of you before. Demon, mismatched sapphire eyes, Green Dragon born, long silver hair. You’re Soverin Daemon, aren’t you? The world’s greatest man-whore.”
Soverin smiled weakly. “So they say, though I find that not to be the best way to be known.”
Exil’s eyes widened. “You kidding me?! I’d LOVE that title. The women always wanting to bed with me for my skills and not my fame of voice.” He bowed down and swept off his red top hat. “I bow at your great presence.” Taking off the hat showed he had worn it for so long his ears permanently drooped instead of staying straightly pointed like a normal demon’s ear.
Bulgine scoffed and got up, departing to behind his bar. “I’d love to just be demon born like you two, eh? I’ve gotten old fast.”
Exil let out a laugh and placed the hat back on his head. “Bullshit. Old my ass, you’re only 45. Pretty decent age for a human.”
“Bullshit right back. I’ve got heart problems, arthritis, and my eyesight’s going out the window. You sit there all healthy and primp. You can’t keep serious wounds, since they heal within an hour. Trust me, you guys aren’t weak like us humans.”
“What kind of demon are you?” Soverin asked Exil, who’s face dulled.
“No idea, truthfully.” He stuck out his tongue and started playing with his lip ring and labret piercing, showing he also had a pierced tongue.
“So that’s how you got your name, huh? I was Exiled as well.”
“What was your crime?”
“Loving the Dragon Lord’s daughter.”
A glass that Bulgine had been polishing broke as his grip tightened and Exil nearly bit off his tongue.
“WHAT’RE YOU, CRAZY?” Exil let out a cry that sounded like an old war cry. “And you being born of the Green Dragons of all people! You’re lucky you were only Exiled, you fool! Do you not know the reason for the breeds to be kept separate even though they are one city?”
“Never really bothered to ask as they were literally kicking my ass out of Doragon.”
Exil sighed. “You might want to sit for this. I’m surprised you never knew…”
“Just tell me.”
Exil rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding scratching himself with his oversized pinky claw as Soverin straddled over the back of a chair. “Oy, where to start… I’m sure you know about the war, everyone does.” He adjusted his near black male corset and flicked the attached cape so he didn’t sit on it as he rested in a nearby chair.
“Of course.”
“Well there was one city, Delania, who always desired going back into war, but listened to their Elder and lived in peace. One boy, about 21, and Delanians were humans, mind you, discovered an ancient power of sorcery. This boy, whose name was Lucifer, found something that had been forbidden for centuries. It had the power to open up Hell if he so chose and if he had the strength. Well, he tried to open up the 5th gate, and failed.
“As he was slammed back into his body, which killed him instantly, the resulting pulsation made the room crumble around him. He was discovered and sealed away. Anyone who tried to unseal him would die trying. Except for one individual.” He pointed at Soverin. “You, Green born. They’re looking for you. They have been. They’ll do anything to get you.”
Soverin gulped. Exil’s voice had changed completely. It had gotten so cold… “Who’s after me?”
“Seven lower classes that Lucifer unsealed. They want their master back.”
“How do you-“
“Know all this?” Exil smiled sheepishly. “I tend to eavesdrop in places I’m not particularly welcome in.”
Soverin slunk down in his chair. “Well how do they know it’s me and not some other Green born?”
“’The Green Dragon that shows kindness to one not of full blood shall be the opener of the door…’” a voice recited from the door.
They turned around and Soverin’s jaw dropped.
Chapter 4
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“T |
alyn?!”
The woman at the door with long black red-tipped hair and scarlet, watery eyes smiled. “Soverin. I’ve been searching for you… The only one who ever showed kindness to me.”
Soverin leapt up out of the chair and knocked it over onto Exil, who let out a yelp as it landed on his leg. “Talyn, how the hell did you find me?”
Talyn giggled. “Not so hard to find one as famous as you when the person searching is female, is it?”
“Heh, I guess not.”
Talyn ran into his arms. “Oh you don’t know how long I’ve waited for this moment, my darling!” she said into his chest.
Soverin chuckled. “What moment? And when did I become ‘darling’?”
“The moment where you free my master.”
“Free your-“ Before he could finish, a blinding pain coursed though his body that filled him with unthinkable rage. He fell to his knees and curled into a ball, holding his head and snarling.
The front door burst open and two other individuals stepped in. One was a man with red hair with three strands spiked over his right red, pupil-less eye while the rest ended a bit past his shoulders. He wore something resembling a shirt, but not completely. One side of the tight red garment held it up. Over that, he wore a belt with a third side, encased with little studs, around his shoulder and sides. Around his right arm, he wore black, shiny tape, and on his left arm, encasing his hand, he wore a dark red glove that came up to his elbow. In his left ear was what looked like a black fang. His tight black pants were encased by boots that ended a bit below his knees. Where they vanished into the boots, a red fire design appeared. Slung over his shoulder was what looked like a giant scythe with two extra, smaller blades at the other ends. The top one resembled the top of a pike. Strangely enough, it looked like a number one… Next to him was another man, this one in mostly purple. His purple hair looked very scruffy and tousled, like he had just woken up from a very unstable sleep. His purple eyes were also void of pupils. He had on a small purple shawl-type thing and nothing underneath that. He had a small purple male corset and a long, black mid-leg skirt over purple and black-stripped stockings. On his feet were small black boots that rose a few inches over his ankles. They had an inch platform and a two-inch heel. Over both his arms were loose violet sleeves that started right over his elbow joints. On his left hand was a crushed velvet glove, and the nails on his right hand were painted amethyst. In his right hand, resting against his shoulder was the strangest looking gun. It had a five-inch barrel and a handle that curved outward, making the whole gun look like a two.
When Exil made a move to help Soverin, the man with red hair swung the scythe in his direction with ease. “Make a move toward the Savior and I’ll chop off your head.”
“Oh, but Wrath, he’s kinda hot,” the man in purple said as he licked his plum glossed lips and the redhead rolled his eyes.
“I swear, you are gay no matter what you say Pride,” Wrath said as the one known as Pride seemed to fume.
“I’ve told you already, Master screwed up and made me male! I’m female, dammit!”
“Whatever you say, I’m the true female here,” said the one known as Talyn, as a soft yellow light encircled her and blew away like dust as her shape changed. She now had short blonde hair. Her yellow eyes were exactly like her comrades and her lips were glossed with yellow. Around her neck was a black piece of leather with a diamond shaped jewel on it. She wore a small yellow corset that barely contained her chest and a small yellow skirt that had a yellow cape in the back that fell to the floor. She also had yellow boots that had a slight heel to them.
“Ah shut it Greed, we don’t need any more fighting then what needs to be done,” Wrath said, narrowing his eyes and pulling his red glossed lips back in a smile. His gaze still hadn’t left Exil.
“So what do we do with the other two?” Greed said, looking over Exil and Bulgine.
Pride put a hand to his chin. “Kill the fat one and take the dark haired one with us. He could be of some use.”
“Yeah, we could use a slave like him,” Greed said, raising a yellow gloved hand to Exil and filled him with the same excruciating pain as Soverin. He soon fell to the floor snarling just as Soverin had.
Wrath grinned even more. “Works for me.” He didn’t even seem to move before he got behind Bulgine and decapitated him in one swift strike. “It’s no fun when they don’t struggle like those two,” he nodded towards the previously writhing demons that were currently being tied up with ropes that Pride had summoned. The snarling had subsided as they had passed out from the stress of the pain.
“So shall we go join the others?” Pride asked as he finished up.
Wrath flicked his scythe and made it vanish. “Yes, I think it’s about time. We’ve been waiting long enough, wouldn’t you agree?” His eyes glowed a more violent shade of red. “LET’S RAISE OUR LORD LUCIFER FROM THE DEAD, WHAT DO YA BASTARDS SAY?”
Pride laughed and Greed grinned. “I LOVE it when you get this worked up,” she said. “I haven’t seen you this excited in decades.”
“Then it’s settled,” Wrath said again, seeming to calm down as he picked up the two limp forms. “We’ll be proven to be Lord Lucifer’s most loyal servants. Now let’s ride, Bitches!” He kicked open the Tavern door and strutted out to the street where three vetorbikes were waiting. He slung the two over the bike’s seat and sat behind them, revving up the engine as Pride and Greed got on their bikes. The motors roared and they took off down the street at a blurring pace, nearly running over other people who barely jumped out of the way in time. They let out a loud hoot of murderous joy as they sped off into the night.
Chapter 5
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C |
lick clack click clack.
People ran by the lone figure in the cloak, paying her no mind as they went down one alley. There was a big crowd hovering around the entrance to a small tavern at the end of it. The figure lifted up her chin towards the crowd, and she said in a strong, yet still feminine voice, “What’s happened here?”
There was a sudden, still silence. Everyone turned to face her.
“Murder has happened here missy,” one of the people closest to the doors said to here. “Murder and kidnapping on a very high degree. No signs of struggle anywhere besides a single tipped over chair.”
“Who was murdered and who was kidnapped? I’m looking for someone and I’d like all the cooperation I can get.”
“The owner of the tavern, Bulgine, was murdered. Head cut clean off his shoulders. As for kidnapped, the lead singer of the band supposedly performing here tonight was taken, Exil Lücke.”
“That’s not the only one,” said another man. “In the blur of those vetorbikes I saw two lumps on the bike instead of one. Blur of silver hair and pointed ears. He was a demon as well as Mr. Exil.”
The woman’s only visible eye narrowed. “How many people in this city are demons with silver hair?”
“Only one,” a woman said, blushing slightly. “He was visiting and working at Zeldaña’s whore house. He’s the world’s best, so I’ve heard. Soverin Daemon is the name.”
“Tell me the direction they went in.”
“They went in the direction of the Forgotten City Delania.”
“Doesn’t seem to be forgotten anymore, now does it?” the woman asked. “Thanks for the information folks. I’ll let you back to cleaning up.” She ran back out of the alley and jumped up powerfully into the air. Spreading her arms out she summoned huge, leathery folds of skin that extended from her sides out to each of her fingers that had grown long and bat-like. Her long black tail balanced her out straight and she flew off into the night.
Chapter 6
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T |
here was an echo of laughter in Soverin’s pounding head as he regained consciousness. He opened his eyes to be met with haze at first and the fuzzy outline of six figures. Some were tall while others were short. One out of that group was extremely fat. Shaking his head, Soverin opened his eyes again to slightly sharper vision. He felt his arms pulled behind him and knew he was hanging suspended from them from some type of support. He felt a body next to him and saw Exil, wearing the same look of confusion on his face as his vision returned as well.
“Yo Wrath, they’re awake!” a male shouted from the group.
“How much power did you use Greed?” a male asked, adjusting the glasses covering turquoise pupil-less eyes and leaning against a broken and shattered support beam. He crossed his arms over his chest. He had on a long powder blue trench coat that ended a foot and a half above the ground and was buttoned up all the way to the slight turtleneck collar. His black velvet gloves covered his hands up to his palms. His black boots had no heel or platform to them.
“Half power, if you must know, Sloth. I see you haven’t done any share in this as usual,” she said, pointing an accusing finger at the male in all light blue.
Sloth shrugged lazily, the chest length bangs of his black-tipped light blue hair moving a bit. The rest of his hair was the same style, only waist length. “You know how I am.”
“Yes we do know, you lazy bastard,” said a male in all green with short and shaggy forest green hair. His green shirt fit tightly to his body and had a curvy and large v-neck all the way to his mid-navel. The shoulders seemed to be lopped off so it was held up by thin bits of the green fabric by the neck. The long sleeves nearly covered his hands, which had light green gloves covering them. Hanging off his hips and over a pair of dark green pants was a black mini-skirt. His green eyes stared at Sloth menacingly yet longingly at the same time as his green glossed lips pouted. “I wish I could lay about like you and get away with it.” The man leaned back, crossing his legs at the ankles, letting his green booted feet dangle off of the rock he was sitting on.
“You always wish you had something, Envy. But you know what, I wish you’d shut the hell up once in awhile!” Sloth snapped back.
“Ooh, touchy,” a woman in blue said, narrowing her deep blue eyes. She had wavy blue hair that flowed to her waist and a beauty mark sat to the left of her nose. Her long sleeved top cut off just below her bosom and was strung together in the front. A belt hung off her hips and her long skirt split up the left side to show thigh-high boots and fishnet stockings. “But if you’ll get back to remembering our duty to revive our Lord…?” She waved her blue-gloved hand in a circle as she outstretched her arm, pointing it towards Wrath who was just now coming into the picture from the shadows of a ruined hallway.
“Much thanks, Lust.” He narrowed his red voids called eyes at the hanging demons. “So we’ve finally found you, Savior. We’ve been searching ever so long. Where HAVE you been hiding?” He stepped up to Soverin and stroked his cheek once in a soft gesture. One that Soverin himself had used that same morning.
Soverin tugged back and snarled. “What the hell do you want with us?”
Wrath snorted and the other six burst into fits of laughter.
“There’s no
The fat man giggled, catching the falling drool on his bulging orange clad stomach. He pulled a diamond out of his black shorts and held it up to his mouth; he bit right through like a boiling knife through a block of butter. Exil looked like he could have wet himself.
“That’s Gluttony,” Wrath said as Gluttony swallowed the half of the gem and grinned. “He can bite through anything. Metal, diamond, … flesh especially. Gluttony is somewhat of a … cannibal of sorts. And with any metal he eats, he gets a new part of a shield protecting himself. Too bad he isn’t the brightest of us.”
“Who are you and what do you want me to do?” Soverin said, pulling at the ropes holding him in place.
“We, boyo, are known as The Sins,” Sloth said from his place on the beam. He tilted his head down and let his glasses slip down the bridge of his nose. “Personal assistants to Lord Lucifer.”
“Yep,” Envy added in, a bit too cheerfully. He held himself up on the rock with just his hands, letting his legs sit out straight in front of him. “Straight from the underworld.”
“You’re the key we’ve been looking for. For a VERY long time now,” Pride said. “You and your mark.”
“My what?”
“You haven’t heard of the prophecy?” Greed asked, slightly stunned. “How could you not-“
“I’ve heard of the damn prophecy, but how do you know it’s me?”
“Easy,” Wrath grinned. “Envy, I’ll leave you to it.”
Envy stood up straight and saluted. “Right Wrath, sir!” He jumped off the rock and stood up on a chunk of wood behind Soverin. “This might hurt!” He made his green nails glow and then pointed into tips. He placed them right below Soverin’s neck, and dug them into his back, ripping down and tearing through his shirt and coat.
Soverin threw his head back with a snarl.
The other sins looked at his back and gasped.
“It is him!” Pride said. “Quickly, Lust, start making the other circle. Sloth, get your lazy ass in gear and get the Lord!”
Lust knelt down in the sand and starting making a very large circle.
“I’ll ask again,” Soverin said through a tight-lipped growl, “HOW the HELL do you know I’m the one?”
Wrath laughed. “Your back has the alchemy array of bringing the dead to life. Did you not know that? You are key to waking our Lord.”
“I’ve heard that already, but how did I get an array on my back?”
“When Envy tore through you. His touch of being one of the underworld woke up your mark. Your mark is only part of what we need. The one that Lust is currently making is the biggest one of all. It’s very complicated and everything MUST be in the right position. It’s the only way to bring the true dead back to life.”
“So you want me to wake up this fucker so he can destroy the whole world by opening up the other gates of hell, is that right?”
Wrath slapped him. “NEVER insult Lord Lucifer like that.”
Soverin cracked his neck by rolling it back to face Wrath. “I’ll insult whomever I like. I’m a mercenary. I’m not afraid of people like you.”
Wrath looked taken aback for a few seconds and then chuckled. That chuckle turned into a full out laugh. “My boy, I don’t think you have a choice! If you don’t cooperate, we kill this one next to you!”
Exil yelped. “Soverin, just do what he says! I have a feeling Gluttony likes to eat man bits before bones, I can tell you that much! Swallow your damn ego!”
Soverin started to protest, but fell silent.
Wrath chuckled again. “That’s a good dragon.”
Sloth came out of the shadowy hallway carrying a tall casket.
“It’s done,” Lust said, standing up a good distance from the array.
“Good.” Wrath nodded towards Sloth. “Place it in the center. Be careful not to disrupt the sand.”
Sloth sighed and walked carefully to the center of the array, placing the casket in the direct middle before walking carefully back out.
“Brothers and sisters!” Wrath cried out. “Join hands and make an energy line from array to array!”
They each grabbed another’s hand, until all seven were in a straight line, Lust with her hand on the sand array and Envy with his hand on Soverin’s back. A loud clap of thunder sounded overhead.
“I don’t like this at all,” Exil muttered. “And I miss my hat…”
Soverin glared at him.
“What? It fell off back in the tavern…” He sighed and let his head droop.
A second thunderclap soon came and lightning followed, falling from the sky in a zigzag streak and landing on the sand array. The sand array lit up a silvery blue and the power flowed through each of the Sins before hitting the array on Soverin’s back. Soverin growled in pain and clenched his jaws together tight.
It seemed to go on forever. But just as soon as it started, it stopped. Pure and utter silence filled the air.
The silence stayed in the air for a while until Gluttony broke it. “Where’s Master?”
Wrath spat on the dirt. “It didn’t work. We waited too long. We’re stuck on the wretched planet forever.”
Then, there was a creaking and an explosion from the casket as the lid flew off and landed in the rubble. Out from the smoke, a shadowy figure emerged. He had on platform heels that gave him an extra 4 inches to his height and he wore a long, sleeveless tight-fitting coat as a shirt with the collar upraised. His black hair hung around his face, which was in dire need of a shave; both factors gave him a very disheveled look. His ears almost looked human, and then pointed a bit at the very tips. His full lips were stained black and around his purple eyes were black markings.
Lord Lucifer had risen again.
Chapter 7
|
“M |
y Lord!”
Each of the Sins fell to their knees and wept forgiveness.
“We are so sorry it took so long! Please do not punish us!” Lust cried out.
Lucifer only chuckled. “My dear Lust, wherever did you get the idea that I would ever punish any of you? My most loyal servants, that’s the farthest from anything that I would ever do to you.” He then turned his attention to Soverin and Exil. “So, I can only guess which one of you it was who helped in my return.” He nodded towards Soverin, whose ripped clothes hung at his shoulders. “I guess it’s only fit to repay you. By death!”
“Wait a second!” Exil yelled. “What do you mean death as a repayment? Bullshit! He helped you rise from the dead, so you’re going to kill him?”
“And you as well.”
“I don’t think so!” a voice called out from the sky.
They all looked up to see a large bat-like creature swooping down. As it dived, its wings disappeared and it began to freefall. It summoned a long sword and hit the dirt as if it had only jumped off of a foot high rock. The creature took a crouching fighting stance as Soverin and Exil’s ropes fell at their sides. In its fall it had cut their bindings.
“Soverin,” it called.
“Who are you?”
“No time. Summon your wings and take Exil away from here, I’ll catch up to you.”
“But-“
“NOW!”
Without another second of hesitation, Soverin summoned his green dragon wings and picked up Exil, taking off with a powerful leap.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Lucifer snarled at the creature, who stood up straight.
“I just so happen to be the Dragon Lord’s daughter. Talyn Syn Lucretia.” Her face was barely visible in the darkness of the night. “And I also believe that, I’m out of here. Toodles!” She spread her arms and summoned the black folds of leathery skin again, jumping up just as Soverin had.
She wasn’t even half a mile away and she could still hear Lucifer’s snarl of rage.
*****
“My Lord, calm down,” Greed said, her voice shaking with fear.
“Calm?” he roared. “They can tell the whole world of my return and I’ll be hunted down and sent back to that place!”
“Then let them come,” Wrath said. “You have your cronies this time to protect you. They will have to get through us before they get to you. This will give you plenty of time to get used to being on the planet again.”
Lucifer took a deep breath and sat down on a rock. “You’re right Wrath. I thank you. You have waited many years for my return, haven’t you?”
“More than you know. But with that time, we’ve taken into consideration fixing up what used to be your tomb into something more… livable.”
Lucifer looked up at him. “Really now? And what exactly did you do to my tomb?”
Chapter 8
|
A |
fter landing near a running stream, Soverin vanished his wings and knelt down by the cool water.
“Hey, you don’t look too good,” Exil said to him.
Soverin hurled up whatever food he had eaten that day into the water, along with a bit of blood. “Yeah? No kidding? You try having your back ripped open and being part of a ritual to raise the most powerful being on the planet. I doubt you’d be too good.”
“Well, I witnessed it.” He ripped off a piece of cloth from Soverin’s torn coat and put it in the water. “But I know that can’t compare.” He put the wet material to the dragon’s head.
“Thank you, Exil. I’m glad I met you. But you probably think opposite of me, right? If it weren’t for our meeting, you’d still be back at the tavern performing.”
Exil scoffed. “Yeah, and I can talk to mice. Comparing the two of almost being eaten by some fat ass, trying to help out someone who actually talked to me like a person and not a voice and singing my heart out, proving I’m only a voice, I’d choose almost getting eaten. I’m a thrill seeker. To tell truth, the only thing I’ve done as a major thrill was get my penis pierced.”
Soverin flinched. “Why the hell did you-?”
Exil shrugged. “Really, I don’t know. But it sure as hell looks cool.”
Soverin couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah? Well keep your man bits to yourself. I really don’t care what you do in your spare time.”
Exil laughed as well. That was their only way of shaking off the scene they had narrowly escaped.
“What, starting the party without the one who saved your sorry asses? I’m hurt.”
The boys stopped laughing just as Talyn landed in front of them.
“Nice spot though, I must admit. Took me a bit to find you.”
Soverin stared. “This better be the real you this time.”
“What the hell are you talking about stupid? It’s me, your childhood friend. Don’t you remember?” Silence followed her. “It’s Talyn!”
Soverin didn’t know what to do. Yell out in surprise, or hug her. So, in some strange process of almost blowing off Talyn’s eardrums and knocking the wind out of her by pushing her back, he did both. The result wasn’t a real beauty.
By knocking her over, he moved the hair away from the right side of her face. Three horrid looking scars were left over her eye.
“Talyn?”
Talyn scooted away from him and pulled the hair back into her face. “Bad injury fifty years ago. That’s all.”
There was a few seconds of silence before Exil cleared his throat. “Anyway. What do we do now?” He snapped his fingers and his hat appeared out of nowhere. He placed it delicately back on his head. “We can’t exactly go back to Dyluth. Too many questions will arise.”
“We have to go to my father,” Talyn said. “Him being the leader of the World Council, he must know of Lucifer’s return.”
Soverin snorted. “Good luck with that. You know I can’t go back to Doragon. Your father Exiled me.”
“True as that may be, I think Lucifer rising is a bit more of importance than if you are allowed back into your own home city or not. Besides, the only reason why you were Exiled is because of the Prophecy. He feared it, but he was too late. Nothing he can do about it.” She shrugged. “But I suppose if you want to run away from all this, be my guest. I’ll go myself.”
“I’m not running. I just can’t-“
“Fine, you’re being a sissy then.”
“You know, I should just-“
“Just what?”
Soverin took a fleeting look at Exil, who had been changing his glance from Talyn to Soverin in the feud. “Do you mind?” He made a shooing motion with his hand. “For a bit?”
Exil jumped at being addressed. “Oh, yeah. I got it. Come get me when you want to leave, okay? Better yet, let’s sleep out here tonight, leave in the morning. How about that?”
“That’s fine. Go. We’ll see you in the morning.”
Exil nodded and went into the woods.
Talyn gave a small chuckle behind her hand. “So how’d you meet him?”
“Don’t even ask,” Soverin said, making a mix of a sigh and a laugh. “But besides that, what’s with you? Showing up like this.”
“Well it’d been a long time, and I just sensed something was going to happen, and…” she trailed off. “Well, it’s a bit complicated. Really, I was worried about you.” She looked into his mismatched sapphire eyes and cast her gaze away. “I’m sorry.”
He lifted her chin to make her look at him again. “Why look away?”
“Because I’m scared.”
“Scared? What could you be scared of? I’m fine, nothing too life threatening. … Well, besides what just happened an hour ago but-“
“That’s not what I’m scared of. I know you’re a mercenary. You can take care of your own. What I’m scared of… is you.”
“Me?”
She ran a clawed finger down from his hand to his elbow. “You. Your eyes are different; I can’t look at you without some form of fear flying down my spine. You’ve changed so much.”
“Two hundred years changes people. Hey, I can’t even look at both your eyes anymore remember? You’ve changed as well. Last time I saw you, you were still VERY, underdeveloped.”
This made Talyn smile and she lightly pushed at his chest. “That all you can think of?”
Soverin shook his head. “No. You’ve grown, matured, and you’ve become everything that I’ve hoped you’d become.” He put both his hands on her cheeks. “You’ve become a woman, worth my actual love, not my skills.” He leaned in and kissed her, the first kiss that they had ever shared together. Well, kind of. It was a real hit and miss. He got her nose while she got his chin.
They both laughed a bit. “Care to try again?” Talyn asked.
He nodded and leaned in again, catching her lips with his this time. They really got into it after awhile, changing their speeds from slow, to fast. Eventually, she reached up to his shoulders and pulled at his ruined coat and shirt.
“You sure you want this now?” he asked, panting a bit.
“I’ve saved myself for you for two hundred and thirty years. Don’t deny me this.”
He smiled. “Alright then.”
As they took their time undressing each other, slowly and steadily, pressing kisses and licks and bites to their skin, he had two people in his mind talking to him. One, being his horny, fuck them and leave them side, started saying “Do it fast, get it over with,” and the other, being more reasonable, began saying “Give her the best time you ever could. Put meaning into it”.
Well, she took over before he could even decide what exactly to do. He looked down at her. “Know what you’re doing?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
“You know you don’t have to- Ow!”
She lightly bit him. “I know that. But I want to.”
He growled. “Why are you continuously cutting me off?” She came back up to his face, and he saw the tears in her eyes that she had been trying to hide. He held her close, his fingers entwined in her hair. “Why the tears?”
“Because I love you.”
“That’s not a reason for tears.
“You’re that sure of your deduction?”
He kissed away her tears, while some of his own started at the corners of his eyes. “No.”
She saw his and laughed. “So what’s your tears for then, if it can’t be-“
“Shut up.” He kissed her again, and pushed her flat on her back, trailing kisses down her stomach, playing with her belly button with his tongue. “I love you too, if you were wondering,” he added, not looking up and continuing downward.
“What exactly do you love now? I’m getting mixed signs from your point of view.”
A laugh escaped through his nose. “You. Not your body.”
Being carried with romantic passion, the two were swept away into a new world never known of before. A world with just enough room for two where the physical body is stripped away and all that is left is the spirit. Both of their mental boundaries crossed, and every bit of their pasts were revealed to each other. What Soverin saw from Talyn’s head made him slam back into his physical body.
“I’ll kill that bastard,” he growled fiercely, baring his fangs.
“Soverin, no. He didn’t-“
“He scarred your eye! He didn’t what? He didn’t mean it? He was only training you? Training only goes so far Talyn! Your own father…” He stood up and pulled his pants back on. “I’m killing him.”
“No!”
“Why not?!” He raised his voice so high at her that the sleeping birds in the trees surrounding them flew off into the night.
She remained quiet, turning her gaze to the ground.
“He hurt you much more than needed for training. Did I not say to you when we were kids I’d protect you no matter what?”
“Yeah, but we were kids, we didn’t know any better.”
He shook his head and forced a sigh out of his nose. “Listen to me. I’m sorry I yelled at you, but that bastard of a father you have is dead. He harmed you. He stole half your sight, and you don’t hate him? He sent me away from you, your only protector, and you don’t hate him?”
“Well, I do, but-“
“What in the world is going on here?” Exil came back into the clearing, his corset and cape removed so he was still in his boots and shorts, his hand pasted to the corner of his head.
Soverin stepped in front of Talyn, keeping her from view. “Get dressed, the both of you. We’re leaving for Doragon right now.”
Exil sighed but went back into the woods. “Fucking reunions… I need a smoke.”
Chapter 9
|
A |
loud cackle echoed through the long halls leading underground to Lucifer’s innermost chambers. “Now THIS is more like it. Dark, dreary, and oh so gothic and torturous,” Lucifer laughed, spinning around once, staring at the high, dark ceiling before collapsing into his throne. The throne was made of hard, cold steel and was built into the wall. The back of it came to a
Pride handed him a glass of red liquid. “We managed to get you what you need to strengthen up, Lord Lucifer.”
Lucifer looked at it, sniffed it, and pulled it away from his delicately pointed nose. His pale, smooth face grimaced. “It’s cold, whatever it is.”
“It’s blood, my Lord,” Sloth said from a place in one corner of the room.
“What the hell do I look like, a vampire?”
“Warm it. Drink it. You’ll feel strength,” Wrath said, nodding towards the glass.
Lucifer wrinkled his nose in disgust, but warmed it with a small tongue of fire nonetheless. He took a sip, and found Wrath’s words to be truth. He felt strength returning to him fast. He drained the cup and Lust took it from him. “Please tell me that doesn’t have to be an everyday ritual…” He stuck out his tongue with a gag and started scraping at it with the points of his long nails, as if this would alleviate the taste.
“For three more nights,” Lust said to him.
Lucifer made a distasteful sound. “A few droplets I could stand, but mouthfuls? But I suppose three more times wouldn’t hurt.” He sat back and steepled his fingers at the tips of his nails. “So what say you we get that girl who helped the bastards escape?”
“She may actually provide leverage to bring the silver-haired one back to us,” Pride said. Gluttony just grunted.
“The trick is, catching that little wench while she’s alone with no protection from those two.” Lucifer rubbed his chin. “What did she say her name was?”
“Talyn Syn Lucretia. She also said she was the Dragon Lord’s daughter,” Envy answered.
Lucifer grinned. “Even better. Hache’s daughter, bound in these chains. Can you imagine it? The power we’ll hold. Combine it with the rebirth of my sorcerer’s power, and just think of the results. There should be times where she’ll be away from those two men… When that happens, we’ll strike.”
“That’s all well spoken,” Wrath said, leaning on the throne behind his Lord, “but how do you suppose we’ll go through with it? The dragon will be more protective of her now that she’s back in his life after well over two hundred years.”
“Yes, that’s our only problem…”
Envy cleared his throat. “If it helps any, I can lock on to the direction they went. It may not be a perfect match on their location, but we’ll have a general idea of where to look.”
Lucifer sighed. “I suppose it’s better than nothing. Work away.”
“Yes My Lord.” He bowed and left the room to his own chambers.
“… Yet again, while that is well spoken, what more can we do in this situation? How can we get close enough to take her away, without raising suspicion to the dragon and their other companion,” Wrath persisted.
Greed sent a glare his way. “Do you not remember I can shape-shift?”
“Yes, but we’re not even sure where they are, so how would your shifting help us?”
“We can port to them, if needed, can we not?
“Well yes, but-”
“So wherein lies the problem?”
“We don’t know where they are and what situation they’re in. We don’t know if they’re in a city, in the forest, we don’t know anything.”
“We do now,” Envy said as he reentered the audience hall. “They’re in Seben.”
Lucifer arched a brow. “Is it still the same shit-hole it’s always been?”
“Two hundred years haven’t changed the human peasants that inhabit that city. It switches between Lords and Ladies so often they’re just about ready to leave the whore house as a Maiden’s Kiss.”
“Whore house?”
Sloth nodded. “Depending on if a Lord or Lady is ruling a certain city, the whore house reflects the gender and sexual preference of the Hierarchy. As of now, there is a straight Lady ruling, so it’s a Maiden’s Kiss.”
“Ah, I understand now. We had similar in Delania, in its peak. Being humans, the Hierarchy would change constantly.” He thought for a moment. “What status does he have on the black market?”
“Top mercenary, and the best whore in Kyten.”
Lucifer’s lips pulled back into a grin. “And with Seben being the dump that it is, their whore-house would be the only inn that would be actually sanitary enough.”
“We don’t know for sure thou-”
“You may not be, Wrath, but I’m certain on my hunches.” He placed his chin back on his fingers. “Greed my dear, I need you to take the form of a woman. You don’t need to waste your time on beauty; he won’t look at you as more than a paycheck no matter what.” He narrowed his eyes, stroking his chin in thought. “About 5’7”, brown hair, bright blue eyes. Clothes with possibly a few tatters, considering the classes that are in the city around the capital.”
She nodded, indicating she understood. Spreading her arms to the side, she encircled herself in a yellow aura that seemed to pause over her form for a moment, thinking of what to become. The aura faded into her, lengthening and darkening her hair, altering her clothes, and changing the pigment of her irises from yellow to blue. “Is it to your liking, Lord Lucifer?”
“Yes, it’s perfect. He won’t suspect a thing.” He glanced at her now-ungloved hands. “You’ll need to cover that mark though. It will give away what and who you are in an instant.”
She held her hands in front of her, fingers spread, and the aura encircled them as well, forming fingerless black gloves to hide her mark of rank.
“Perfect. Now then, while Greed has the boys distracted, we’ll need two to go grab the dragon woman. If he is the top whore of Kyten, there’s no doubt they’ll have him perform tonight for his room. From what I remember, Talyn will not be allowed to have contact with him all night.”
“Yes. She shouldn’t be with him to begin with, but there isn’t much choice. She’ll either be confined to a room or working behind scenes with the other performers,” Sloth answered.
“So then, will you be volunteering?”
Sloth bowed. “Yes, My Lord.”
“And I shall go,” Wrath said, summoning his one-shaped scythe. “We will not fail you.”
“Good to hear. Now that you’ve said it, I’ll tolerate no disappointments. Understood?”
“Yes sir,” the three answered. Each in turn created a black portal and bowed out of the room.
Once they were gone, Envy stepped forward. “Through following this man, this Soverin, we have learned quite a bit about him. He has an elder brother that will do anything for their family. He still resides in Verdeta, on the other side of the dome.”
Lucifer quirked a brow. “Oh? That may come to be useful.” He thoughtfully rubbed his chin as he looked around through the ruined halls. “This place could use some sprucing up, don’t you think?”
“We’ve done the best we could over the past year,” Lust said. “None of us were… well no one knows much of construction.”
“Not exactly what I meant. More-so, I could do with followers; supporters of the darkness in their hearts. Humans are easily manipulated…”
“How would you like for us to round up these followers of yours? When everyone was taught to fear your name, it was eventually erased from existence. Parents will not teach their children the consequences of messing with black magic, or why they should act a certain way. So after a few more generations, near all the newer generations of demons, and many generations of humans, have no idea who you are.”
Lucifer grinned. “That’s why it will be so easily to manipulate them. If they don’t know outright of my past deeds, the young ones will have no hesitation to have an outlet for their anger. And young sources of power are always stronger than the older.”
“That still doesn’t answer how.”
“The rest of you, I want you to minimize what you can in your appearances and send whispers through the cities you can get to. Start in the slums; word will get around soon enough. There are no doubt plenty of back-alleys you can hold a meeting.”
“And those that aren’t interested?” Pride asked.
“Easy.” He mocked the shape of a gun with his hand, pointing it at the purple-clad man square between his eyes. “Kill them.”
Chapter 10
|
D |
awn was approaching faster than the three demons realized. They had been walking for hours. Exil hunched over, his face looking deflated as his arms dangled at his sides. “Soverin, can you let us stop, please? There’s a city coming up, and we’ve got a bit of money. Can’t we rest a bit?”
“Yeah, please Soverin?” Talyn asked as well. Her eyes looked like they had ten pound weights attached to them.
Soverin remained silent. He still hadn’t gotten himself into a new jacket or shirt, so he stayed in just his hip-hugging pants. He continued walking as the other two let out hard sighs.
“Soverin, do realize that it will take weeks to get to Doragon by foot,” Talyn said. “We need to stop sometime.”
Soverin stopped suddenly, making Talyn and Exil slam into him. He wheeled around. “You want sleep so damn bad? Fine. We’ll stay until tomorrow morning to get back on track.” He turned left up to the high gates and walked in with Exil and Talyn following like shadows.
The city they entered was a shit-hole. Crates and old peddlers’ stands stood in ruins as filthy animals roamed the streets.
Soverin scrunched up his nose. “This is defiantly a human’s city. No self-respecting demon would ever let a town go to shit like this.”
“Let’s just find a place to rest up, ok?” Talyn asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Soverin nodded and they began walking again, until they came to a sign that said “Maiden’s Kiss”.
“Sove, why’d you stop walking?” Exil asked. “This is a male-whore house. We couldn’t get to stay here. We don’t have THAT much money with us.”
Soverin looked back at them over his shoulder. “You sure about that? I’m the world’s best man-whore, remember?” He pushed the door open and a bell rang, announcing their entrance.
Exil and Talyn looked around nervously as Soverin approached the counter where a female was reading a trashy romance book. She had far too much make-up on, and was noisily chewing the gummy substance teenagers normally chewed on. Soverin cleared his throat and the female looked up from her book, obviously pissed at being pulled away from a scene of orgasmic lust.
“Yeah, whaddya want? You have to pay extra for gang-bangs.”
“Not at all. I’d like to be part of the showing tonight,” Soverin said. “As long as my companions here get some rest.”
The female looked him up and down. “Sorry, but we’re full tonight. The only way you’d be able to get in now is if you were Soverin Daemon.”
“And someone said I wasn’t?” He stared at her with his one discolored sapphire eye glaring menacingly.
She almost fell off her wheeled chair. “Holy shit, you are the demon legend. Yes, we’ll get you in tonight. Anything else for you, sir?”
Exil leapt at that opportunity. “Yeah, mind if I join in the show? I could serenade your ladies.”
“And you are…?”
“Exil Lücke, milady. Vocalist for the former band known as ‘Divine Torture’.”
“So we’ve two legends in our midst. Very well. And what is the lady here for?”
Soverin’s gaze grew cold. “If she’s touched while Exil and I work, this place will be erased from history.”
Talyn put her hands on her hips. “I can earn money just as easily as you two.” She glared at Soverin. “If you sell yourself, I sell myself.”
Soverin looked taken aback at first, and then he chuckled. “My dear, this is a city ruled by a FEMALE.”
“And…?” She waved her hand in a circular motion. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Everything. If a city is ruled by a female, there is only a “Maiden’s Kiss”, a normally shady place full of men selling their bodies, performing on- or off-stage. If a city is ruled by a male, which hardly ever are anymore, there is a “
The female at the desk took pity on Talyn. “How about this hun, I’ll show you the private rooms we rent out upstairs, and you can lead clients to them as they arrive. We’ve got ten arriving later tonight, if that’s fine with you.”
Talyn nodded. “Yes, that’s fine.”
Soverin nodded in approval as the female took Talyn away. She looked back. “The dressing rooms are in the far back down the right hallway. The performance stage is in the room on the left. Wear whatever you want. The other men won’t be here until tonight. You can take the time to rest up, you all look exhausted.”
He and Exil walked down the right hallway as the woman and Talyn walked down the left.
“Think she’ll be ok?” Exil asked.
Soverin nodded again. “She’ll be fine.” He pushed open the door that said “Dressing Room” and walked in. The room was very large for the size of the place, but not very variant with colors. It was the normal colors for “Maiden’s Kiss”, green, red, blue, and black in intricate designs, creating an exotic atmosphere. Costumes upon costumes lined two of the walls in the room, and a three-way mirror sat in one corner. A long vanity took up the remaining wall, while the side they entered had another doorway leading to a bathroom full of showers.
Exil looked over the costumes and had to suppress a laugh at a few. “Hey Sove, how about his one?” He took one off the hook and held it up to him. It was a pair of puffy pants that connected to a frilly shirt. The whole thing was a disgusting green.
Soverin’s cheeks expended as he tried not to laugh, making a snort come out of his nose. “No way,” he said, strangling his laugh. “Look, we’ll make this easy.” He flicked his wrist and called in a particularly large trunk with a lock on it. Next, he called in a key and unlocked the trunk, letting Exil see its contents.
“Wow, not a bad collection of exotic clothes, my friend. But no offense, I think I’d rather use my own clothes.” He also called in a trunk, one that was a bit smaller than Soverin’s.
Soverin scratched his bare chest to get rid of an itch. “So what do you have in there?”
“Stage make-up, clothes for shows, boots, my rings, anything for appearances.” He opened it and rummaged through it for a bit, throwing a few shirts and pants over his shoulders.
The pants nailed Soverin in the face. “Oy, watch it!” He peeled them off his head and delicately dropped them on the floor. “And just so you know, I got hit where your crotch has been!”
Exil laughed. “Don’t worry, I haven’t worn those for a long time now.” He paused and pulled a thoughtful look as Soverin picked them up again and looked at them. He grinned mischievously. “Come to think of it, I believe the last time I wore those pants was when I was getting head backstage months ago.”
Soverin yelped and tossed them back at Exil, who just laughed his head off.
“Sorry, I had to. The situation was very tempting. And I was lying, by the way.”
“Better have been,” Soverin mumbled, kneeling by his own trunk and looking through it.
“Ah! This’ll do just fine!” Exil said, laying articles of clothing beside him. There was a pair of black leather thigh-high boots with a four-inch heel and two-inch platform, torn up stockings, and shorts that would probably end about 6 inches above his knees that was connected to a small halter-like top by two straps with o-ring studs. There was also one glove that attached to the middle finger and ended in the middle of a bicep. Exil stood and stretched. “I think a shower first is in order.”
Soverin nodded. “Go ahead, you’ve got your clothes figured out.”
Exil grabbed a towel from the pile on the vanity and went into the bathroom, where Soverin soon heard the sound of running water and Exil’s loud sigh of relief of having warm water.
Soverin sighed himself, both from being tired and not being able to figure out what to do tonight. By agreeing to perform, he couldn’t see Talyn the rest of the night. He’d have to comply with whatever requests he received. He yawned and then growled. His back still ached from Envy’s nails digging in his back and all the energy that was transferred from the array. He wondered if it was still there…
Standing up, he stepped over his trunk and headed towards the mirror. To his disappointment, the mark was still there. Every angle that he looked at it, it was still there. But now that he got a proper look, he was amazed something like that could ever exist. It was far too complicated and didn’t even seem possible to create over-night, let alone in one touch. But, there it was, tattooed into his skin like a tribal insignia.
Giving up with trying to understand the tattoo’s importance in alchemy, he went back to his trunk and pulled out boots that went up to his knees and were cut to his thighs in the back and had pretty much a flat two inch platform, along with shorts that were two pieces of cloth held together every-so-often by a few stitches and had a curve at his upper-thigh to another piece of cloth that held it up like a belt. Satisfied with his choice, he also grabbed a towel and went into the showers, where Exil was just finishing up drying. That was when Soverin noticed that Exil had been telling the truth about his piercings. He flinched. “I still don’t see how you could get that done.”
Exil stopped towel drying his hair and grinned at Soverin. “Actually, I had to do it a few times. The piercing through the head had to be done first, and then I had to go back to get the three ladder rings.” He resumed drying off. “I suppose you could say I like a bit of pain.”
Soverin had taken off his boots and tossed them to the side as Exil was talking. “Become a mercenary instead of a singer. Then you’ll get to deal with pain all you like,” he said as he pointed at his nearly blinded eye. He finished undressing and stepped into a shower stall, turning on the water and welcoming the warm water. His skin started tingling as he washed the dirt, grime, and blood off of himself. Carefully grabbing onto his tail between the spikes, he scrubbed it, noting that it was starting to shed again. Cursing to himself, he had to make sure it didn’t show he was starting to molt until the next day. He had oils in his trunk to cover it up. He rinsed out his waist-long hair and turned off the water, making his body go cold again.
Shivering, he grabbed the towel off the edge of the stall and dried off his skin, leaving his green tail to dry off on its own. Just as Exil had, he started towel-drying his silver hair. Exil walked back in, wearing a pair of loose black trousers. He yawned and went to the mirror. “I got to take these rings out. Can’t sleep with them in for some reason.” He took out the six studs and the one odd, twisted one from his ears, and then took out the nose, lip, and libre rings.
“You mean you have to take out ALL your piercings?”
Exil nodded. “Besides the tongue, yeah. It’s not bad coming out, as it is putting it back in.” He opened the front of his trousers and pulled out his organ, unscrewing one end of the one in the head and taking it out, screwing the ball end back on. Next, he unscrewed the three other rings that were on his shaft and pulled them out slowly. Sighing in content, Exil looked over all fourteen of his rings. “Think I’ve got enough?”
“Oh, yeah, More than enough,” Soverin responded as he stopped drying his hair. He pulled the towel off and his hair was extremely frizzy.
Exil snorted. “Oh yes, Soverin,” he said in mock ecstasy, “you look sexy enough to fuck right here and now.”
It was Soverin’s turn to snort. “Shut up, would you?” He went back into the room and put on his own loose trousers, these a dark lime green. As he was brushing the tangles out of his hair, the lady from the front desk walked in.
“Alright boys, I’ve got two rooms reserved for you. The girl is sleeping in a room of her own.”
Soverin closed his trunk and vanished it again. “Show us then,” he said while Exil came back in, holding his piercings in his hands.
The lady nodded and motioned for them to follow her. Exil vanished his trunk and they left.
Chapter 11
|
O |
nce situated in his room, and lying down in his bed, he folded his arms behind his head and stared at the ceiling, the two suns peaking through the heavy curtains. He sighed, trying to remember all that had happened leading up to what had happened just hours before. He wrinkled his nose as he tightly shut his eyes. Sighing with the frustration of coming up with nothing, he rolled out of bed and let himself fall on the floor. His restless mind couldn’t be put to sleep, no matter how near exhaustion his body and spirit were. As his nose had a nice little meeting with the horrid smells of the dusty wood floors, Soverin pushed himself into a sitting position, looking at his reflection in the floor-length mirror. Nothing looked any different than it had two days ago. His skin was still as pale as one of the three moons, and he still looked as bored as he usually was. Clenching his eyes together again, he yawned and stood up.
“Might as well get myself some warmed milk. That might make me sleepy.”
He walked out into the hallway and closed his door behind him slowly so not to make any noise. He crept down the hall to where the small private kitchen was located and peered into the cooler. Finding what he was looking for, he called in one of his own glasses and poured the liquid in. It was then that he realized one thing. His specialty was not warming things or setting them aflame with fire, it was of plants. Rolling his eyes, he turned on the burner so blue flames shot up.
“When in doubt, improvise,” he muttered.
“Speaking to yourself now, that might not be a good sign,” a voice said with a yawn from the entranceway.
“I think everyone does it now and then, Exil. What are you doing up? I thought you were so tired.”
“Well shit, I am. But I can’t stop my mind from darting to one subject to another. It always seems to be dwelling on the ‘what ifs’ of life right now.”
“Like?”
“Like, ‘What if I had gone back to the bar’, ‘What if I had never done the last performance in Dyluth’, ‘What if I had ne’er become a singer’?”
“Wow, that is a lot to dwell on,” Soverin said, taking his liquid off the burner and turning it off before he set the place to ashes. He took a sip and felt instantly drowsy.
“Mind sharing that? I don’t feel like warming one for myself,” Exil said, sitting at the table and rubbing his forehead.
Soverin drank half. “Nah, I don’t mind.” He handed it to Exil and sat down across from him. “So, what do you have in mind performance wise?”
Exil drained the cup and handed it back to Soverin. “A few old songs, and some that I was going to originally perform last night.” He coughed. “What about your end of the performance?”
Soverin shrugged. “That depends on your singing. I never go into a performance with a ‘game plan’, so to say. Whatever I feel in the music, I do.”
“Hmm, well then I’ll be sure to do some good old ones, like ‘Blood Maid’, ‘Corpse’s Caress’, ‘Dignified’, and ‘Light My Fire’. As for new, I’ll especially do the one I’ve been tweaking for awhile now.”
“Got a name for it?” Soverin said through a yawn.
Exil yawned as well. “Don’t do that. Anyway, it’s called ‘Ma Cheri’.”
“’Ma Cheri’? What’s that mean?”
Exil shrugged. “No idea, I just know it’s not our language. I heard it somewhere… I just can’t remember where.
Soverin stood and picked up a brownie from a plate on the table. “I suppose we’d better rest up then. Who knows if we have to do some ‘behind the scenes’ action tonight as well.”
Nodding and also stealing a brownie, Exil wrinkled his nose. “Something tells me I’m going to get stuck with a fat screamer.” He shuddered. “If I’m right, I’m gonna chop it off.”
Soverin let out a snort around his brownie. “You’d probably just get it pierced again.”
“Nah, I’ve got enough. Fine, I won’t chop it off. I’ve grown attached to it. I’ll just sanitize it a shitload of times.” He opened the door to where he was sleeping. “And here is where I say goodnight… er… good morrow.” He put on an effeminate voice and waggled his fingers. “Thank you for walking me safely home good Sir Soverin.”
Soverin just laughed. “Get some sleep, I think they dropped you on your head at one point.”
Exil shrugged and wolfed down his brownie before closing the door. Soverin didn’t even get back to his room before Exil’s snores could be heard.
Chapter 12
|
L |
ucifer awoke to the red and blue suns coming through his window in the high tower. He sat up with the sheets draped over his nude form. Putting his head in his hands, he fiercely rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as a knock came from his door.
"Enter," he growled sleepily.
Wrath came from the other side of the door, holding a tray of food and a glass of blood. "Good Morrow to you Lord. I didn't know if you'd like some food with your blood."
Lucifer waved his hand. "Nonsense. Who in their right mind deprives themselves of food?"
Wrath nodded and set down the tray on the desk under the window. "Yes, that is true. Would you like some privacy while you dress?"
Lucifer shifted under his sheets. "No, I'd like you and the others to watch while I put my clothes on. Of course I'd like privacy." He gave Wrath a shooing motion. "Now off with you. Round up the others. After I eat, I'd like to know what has happened while I've been wandering the Broken Path."
"As you wish, My Lord, but I must add before I take my leave. Greed has found the two men and the woman. She has gone to apprehend them." He bowed and exited the room, shutting the heavy door behind him.
Lucifer stood and walked over to the desk, looking past the food and out the window to the ruined place he once could claim as his home. He sighed and hung his head. "Oh my dear Delania. What has happened to you in my absence? I promise to you my land that I will have you rebuilt and alive once more." He sat and began picking at the food. Not bad for the lack of resources, but bad for the taste. Gagging on the first bite of whatever was in the slop, he forced himself to eat it. He needed strength, and if this was the only way to obtain it, by the gods, he'd do it. Laying down the spoon, he reached for the glass of the crimson liquid and grimaced before bringing it to his black lips. He held his nose and drained the glass, slamming it back down on the tray. Lucifer shook his head as if shaking water out of his still shaggy hair.
Now looking at the empty plate, he smacked his lips in a longing kind of way. "I'd do anything for some real food." Looking around the room, he spotted his pants and pulled them on.
As he was fastening the two chains that held his long jacket together, he saw a bookshelf across the room. Narrowing his eyes, he carefully moved toward it. He raised his hand and brushed his hand against the books’ spines, until he came to one particular one and stopped in his tracks: His old book of spells and black magic. He tipped it toward him and pulled it off the shelf, sitting back down at the large desk. Before opening its pages, he stared at his bare right hand, his fingers slightly curled. ‘I wonder if I can still…’ Closing his eyes, he starting muttering under his breath, and a small hint of blood red fire formed in his outstretched palm. He grinned and opened his eyes. ‘Looks like I’ve got a bit of studying to do.’ With that, he opened to the book’s first pages and began to take in each of the spells.
Chapter 13
|
“A |
lright people! Suit up!
“What, are we the men of the hour?” Exil asked, putting a hand on his hip.
“More like night,” Pixy said, flipping a page over on a clipboard. “You’re both booked solid. Up for five rounds each?”
“It’s a bit much, but we’ll handle it. I still haven’t gotten paid from my last job, so we need the money,” Soverin said.
“Yeah, and the rest of the band took the cash we earned. I wanted to start fresh,” Exil said and sighed. “Wasn’t expecting things to exactly go like this.” He turned to Pixy. “Tell me I have no fat ones, please tell me no fat ones.”
Pixy looked over her clipboard again. “Not that I can-oh wait, yes, at midnight, your second appointment.” With that, she left the room to open the main doors.
Exil let out a loud sigh and drooped his shoulders. “Hope she’s not a screamer…” He trailed off and went to his trunk in a corner of the room, pulling out a bottle of lime green nail polish to repaint where it was starting to chip already. Soverin, not wanting to get his trunk, went through Exil’s to look for make-up.
“Hope you don’t mind, seeing what you have.”
Exil shrugged and shook his left hand to dry it off. “Go ahead.” He pulled his hand away and held it outstretched to look at it. “I feel like a man now.”
Soverin laughed and pulled the false top down from the open trunk and looked at the drawers that were in there. He was just about to grab some mascara when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Yo, Soverin, you might need this for the women in this city,” the voice said.
Soverin turned around and saw a dark cream-colored man with rabbit ears poking out of the top of his white hair that faded to blue. He had in his hands a crumpled paper bag that concealed a bottle of some kind of liquor. “And you are?”
“Usagi. I’m a rabbit by birth, taking a somewhat human form by choice.” His dark purple eyes looked Soverin over.
“What’s in the bottle?” Soverin said, getting a little uncomfortable from not knowing the rabbit’s real preference.
“Oh this?” Usagi asked, looking at the bag. “Rum and fizz. Lots of rum.”
Soverin eagerly took the bottle and drank some.
“Rum?” Exil asked. “Where in blazes did you get that? The pirates have that drink for themselves, and themselves only.”
Usagi grinned. “I have my sources. A friend of mine, Vincent Argon, is a captain of a pirate ship, the Darkshore.”
Soverin choked on his last gulp and another one of the male performers, a Jung-le Rapticle named Rakuin, had to thump him on the back a few times. Exil was just happy he hadn’t been drinking, otherwise he might’ve choked as well.
“The Darkshore? That’s the worst pirate ship in the world! How do you know the captain?” Exil asked.
Usagi laughed. “I used to be first mate. Pirating just… lost its appeal.”
“Rolls in the gold though, how could that loose appeal?” Soverin said, coughing a few times and handing the bottle to Exil, his cheeks turning a pale pink.
Usagi shrugged. “I just thought this would be more interesting, and less dangerous.”
“Mind if I down the rest?” Exil asked, raising the bottle.
“Not at all.” Usagi knelt down next to his own trunk and lifted out a false bottom.
“Good idea, Rabbit,” Rakuin said, sitting in one of the vanity chairs and crossing his legs, “I need to relax a bit more.”
Usagi chuckled and pulled out a plastic bag of white powder and some straws. “Who’s up for lines?”
Exil checked his nails and smiled. “I’m up for it.” He flicked his wrist and called in his own straw.
Rylee, a cat demon also called in his own equipment. “I’m in.”
“Soverin, you want in?” Usagi asked, holding out a straw to him.
Soverin considered before saying, “Yeah, I’m in.”
Chapter 14
|
I |
t was an hour later, around ten, before Pixy came back in.
“Soverin, Exil, you guys ready?”
“If the band’s ready for the concert,” Exil said, wiping his nose and setting down his straw.
Pixy nodded. “Yes, they’ve practiced the music you wrote for the new songs, and they know the old songs. They have the line-up down as well. We’re just waiting for you to sing your lungs out to the women, and for Soverin to show us his moves.”
Soverin got up and felt a slight buzz when he did. “Yeah, you’ll get my moves.”
Pixy smiled. “I see the boys helped you unwind. You’ll need it for these girls. Come with me to the stage.”
They adjusted their clothes and followed Pixy to the stage where she took the microphone off the stand. “And now ladies, I hope you’re hot by now. If not, let’s turn up the heat with two legends, Exil Lücke and Soverin Daemon!”
Wolf whistles and squeals followed her speech as Exil stepped forward to take the microphone. “All you lovely ladies in the house ready to feel the heat?” The women screamed. “Ok, ok, but first, let’s look around. Are there any bachelorette parties, birthday parties, I-hate-my-husband’s-fucking-guts parties going on out there in the audience?”
“Right here, sexy!” A woman with brown hair and blue eyes said, standing. “And I’m first up for Mr. Soverin after his performance.” She gave Soverin a lust filled smile.
Exil laughed. “Well now that that’s known, let’s get it blazing in here! Boys, you know what’s up first, the classic, ‘Light My Fire’.”
The band struck up the first chords and Soverin began dancing sensuously.
Exil grinned and started singing.
“You had to look at me,
With that look in your eyes.
You had to get my fire going,
So bitch, kindle my fire.
“Light my fire,
Heat my desire.
Keep me on the edge of my seat,
Come on bitch; let's scald these sheets!
“Eyeing me across the dance floor,
What the fuck are you looking for?
Sizing me up to the competition?
I dare you, push me in a dangerous position.
“Motioning for you to come near,
I can almost see your fear.
Leading you to the back room,
Come on bitch; let's seal your doom.
“Light my fire,
Heat my desire.
Keep me on the edge of my seat,
Come on bitch; let's scald these sheets.”
At this point, Exil grinned wider and whispered, caressing the microphone stand.
“Tempt me to ignite,
Tease me to burn.
No turning back,
No leaving now.
Come on bitch,
Light my fucking fire.”
He tilted the stand and starting singing louder, and louder.
“Too much heat to handle,
Windows foggy,
Cover my kill,
Char you to the bone,
Char you to fucking ashes!
“Casually slipping my coat back on,
I leave that club.
Brushing ash off my skin,
A fire's ignited in my murderous gaze.”
The women in the audience whistled their approval. Soverin clung to the pole, waiting for Exil’s next move. Exil nodded and tipped his hat lower over his face. He spoke with his voice hinting a low growl. “Now we’re gonna go to the… darker, deadlier side of a man. A man who loved his bride so much, he didn’t want anyone to have the chance to have her ever again, so he took her life. Ladies and women, this is a song you will hear only in this night, this moment, and never again. While I love this song, and its outcome, as you know, Divine Torture has been disbanded, and I’m retiring from the music business. Consider this, your lucky day. Females, this is ‘Ma Cherie’.”
The band started up, slow and steady. Exil bobbed his head with his eyes closed a few times, testing out the beats, before starting his song.
“You’re still a bit warm
In a certain little area.
While your skin chills my bones,
That place warms me to the core.
“Frankly, me cherie,
I could give one damn,
That you’re dead,
Dead as they come.
“I throw the blood-dripping knife to the side,
Taking out my own flesh knife out.
Even in death you prove useful to me,
Being the sheath that this hard knife needs.
“Deeper, Deeper does this knife go,
Your now dull blue eyes stare at me.
Unblinking, threatening.
Tantalizing.”
At this point, the tempo sped up a bit, and Exil’s singing grew darker and louder. Soverin worked the pole like no tomorrow.
“Frankly, ma cherie,
I could give one damn,
As I seize up, my knife in your sheath,
You’re as dead as they come.
“I’ll write on your tombstone,
For all to see:
‘Here lies my dead bride,
Best little whore in the land.
“Unblinking,
Tantalizing.
Yet so warm.
“Ma cherie,
You’re as dead as they fucking come!”
He swept off his hat as he bowed to the crowd, who whistled and applauded. Exil went through two more songs before he and Soverin left the stage to start the second part of their jobs.
Chapter 15
|
S |
overin closed the door to his room and flicked his wrist, calling in his trunk of clothes. He pulled off the boots with difficulty and squirmed out of the shorts he had on. He knelt by his trunk and fished through it for a pair of black dress slacks and a sheer white button down shirt. He put them on and fixed his cuffs before pulling down the false top of his trunk. Next to the single make-up drawer were three bottles held in by elastic straps. He took the middle one and shook out some of the contents into his palm, scrubbing it into his tail to get rid of the peeling skin.
After he put the bottle back in the slot he stood up, looking at his reflection in the mirror. Through the shirt, he could easily see his pale flesh. Shrugging, he sat down at the table and pulled out his box of black cigarettes.
“Mr. Daemon?”
He looked up with a cigarette dangling from his lips. “Hmm? Oh, it’s you. That lady from before, right?”
The woman smiled sheepishly. “Yes, my name is Lola. First up. I hope you don’t mind that I came early. Rylee and Rakuin’s performance didn’t exactly turn me on.”
Soverin shook his head. “No, that actually works perfectly. It’ll get business going easily. I’ve got to get it up four more times after you.”
Lola closed the door. “Need a light?”
Soverin took the cigarette and put it back in the box. “Nope, let’s just get the show on the road.” He got up and led Lola over to his bed. “So what do you want, fast, slow, hard, soft, you have to speak up,” he said, laying over her.
She grinned and flipped him over, so she sat on top of him. “I’d like to take control, if you don’t mind.” She hitched up her skirt and unzipped his pants, letting him fall out.
“Whatever you want, you’re paying for me.”
Lola frowned.
“Something wrong?”
“Besides the fact you’re soft, you’re supposed to be the best, and you’re just gonna let me do what I want without doing anything?”
Soverin shrugged. “Well you were the one who flipped me over and said you want control. You’re paying, you do what you want.”
“What I want is, something you have, but not for long.”
“Pardon?”
Lola grinned, and searing pain went through Soverin’s shoulders, holding him down to the bed. A loud growl escaped his throat.
“What the fuck is wrong with you lady?” His fangs bared against the pain, and he hissed in anger. “If you want kinky, there’s less painful ways than this!”
“Chill you over-grown lizard.” She got off and pulled down her skirt. Snapping her fingers, she vanished in a puff of yellow smoke.
“Son of a bitch! It was Greed!” He struggled against the energy holding him down, but to no avail. His shoulders bled from the invisible pikes. He roared as white-hot pain seared through him. “EXIL! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE! EXIL!”
Footsteps pounded against the wood flooring before his door burst open and Usagi came in with Exil in tow. “What’s going on?”
“Exil, get in here!”
Exil pushed past Usagi and ran up to Soverin. “What the hell happened?”
“It was Greed, that lady who said she was to be my first tonight, that was Greed in disguise! She said she wanted what I have, she might’ve taken Talyn, check her room!”
“But your shoulders-“
Soverin’s eyes glowed red and he bared his fangs. “I said, go check on Talyn!”
“Right! Usagi, let’s go!”
Usagi nodded and ran down the hall to the left corridor with Exil right behind him.
Soverin tried getting up again, and only succeeded in making his shoulders bleed worse. He hissed as he drew in breath. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He muttered words of the ancient dragon language, making himself glow dull green. After a few seconds, Greed’s hold on him faded and his wounds healed. He sat up and stuffed himself back in his pants before running out of his room and smacking into Exil.
“Soverin! She’s gone! Talyn’s gone! All that was there was this.” He held up a yellow slip of paper.
Soverin snatched it out of his grasp and read it.
“You really would figure ‘once bitten twice shy’, but I suppose that’s not the case with you, Mr. Daemon. Your lover is with us in Delania, I will say this much, but good luck getting in. What we want, is for this message to be delivered to the Dragon Lord. ‘Darkness will be brought back into this world.’ He’ll understand the meaning. If you come straight to Delania without telling the Lord, we’ll kill what belongs to you.”
“So what do we do?” Exil asked, trying to keep Soverin calm.
“We go to Hache. There’s nothing else we can do.”
“Soverin, Doragon is at least two weeks travel, on horseback, or racerback. Three walking. Do you want to risk her safety?”
Soverin shrugged. “What other choice do I have? If I go straight to Delania, she dies. I can’t have that happen, Exil.”
“I can be of a small bit of assistance with that,” Usagi said at the doorway. “If you go to the nearest port, a day on horse or racerback, four on foot, I can have Captain Vincent meet with you and cut your travel in half.”
Exil was glad he was sitting. “Captain Vincent Argon?”
Usagi nodded. “I told you, I know him personally. I can get him to take you, so long as you don’t mind loosing your land legs for a week, landlubbers.”
Soverin smiled. “Not at all. Contact him immediately, we’ll leave as soon as possible.”
One of the other performers, Jeordie, stepped in the doorway, his horse hooves clacking against the floor. His long black dreadlocks were held partially back while other parts of it hung in his face. He still hadn’t changed out of his performance clothes. “If you need transportation to the port, I can lend you two dark horses free of charge, Mr. Daemon.”
“You raise dark horses?”
Jeordie nodded. “And racers. This is how I get the money to breed and raise them.”
“We’ll take them. Good shape, I hope.”
“Health is top notch, and they’re both purebred. Come with me, I’ll take you to them.”
Soverin vanished his trunk and Exil flicked his wrist so his disappeared as well from his room. Once they looked around for anything that might be missed, they followed Jeordie out into the cold streets, heading towards his home.
Chapter 16
|
J |
eordie came out of the stable office with two bridles, one over each shoulder. “They’ll find their way back after you get there. As purebreds, they are very intelligent.”
Soverin adjusted the saddle on his dark mare before taking a bridle from Jeordie. “I must admit, finding purebreds that are tame, even if they were born in captivity, is a rare find.”
Jeordie smiled. “I suppose it helps being a horse myself.”
Exil nodded. “Yes I suppose it would. But what about the racers?” He nodded toward the large tan animals on the other side of the stables. Their bodies and head resembled large lions, but with huge paws. Their long tails had three lime green spikes towards the end, with one at the tip like a scorpion’s tail.
“Those were tricky. Racers don’t normally answer to things outside of their race, let alone be penned up and sold. Those four were orphan cubs that I took in, the only survivors of their pride. I’ve got three females and one male, but they’ve not matured just yet.”
“They’ll find the amazement of sex soon enough,” Exil laughed while swinging himself on his mare. “The male’s gonna have some fun.”
Soverin nodded. “Shall we head off then?” He mounted his own steed.
“Yeah. Don’t worry about the mares Jeordie, we’ll make sure nothing happens to them.” He nudged the mare into action while Soverin did the same.
“Those horses better be in the same condition they’re in now guys!” Jeordie called after them. Shaking his head, he patted his prized stallion’s muzzle. “Don’t worry boy, your mares will be fine. I need a smoke…” He trailed off and went back into his office, slamming the door behind him.
Chapter 17
|
T |
he next day was a terrible storm. Soverin and Exil had to stop in the next village for shelter and change into dry clothes.
Soverin, now in a blue shirt tucked partially into black pants and a long black jacket that his tail slowly twitched from, sat on their room’s windowsill, staring at the still pouring rain. A large red collar hung from his neck.
Exil, looking quite fine in a blood-red old world type coat that was unbuttoned, with long sleeves that were unbuttoned as well and opened, black pants that were stuffed into a pair of boots that came just under his knees with three inch heels and one inch platform that laced in front, and his normal red hat and gloves, sat at the table, reading a news article by candle-light. “Staring at it won’t make it stop, just as water never boils if you watch it.”
“What do you know about it?”
“Not much, I’ll admit, but it’s quite logical. Just staring and doing nothing will cause nothing to get done.”
“Since when are you a scholar?”
Exil shrugged. “No need to get pissy, Dragon. All you can do is wait it out. Storms don’t last forever.”
“And neither do lives.”
Exil stayed silent. Soverin did have a point, and time wasn’t exactly on their side at this moment.
“So what do you make of all this?”
“Now you’re asking my opinion?”
“Yes.”
Exil sighed. “Truthfully, I don’t know much about the Sins, but I do know about Lucifer.”
Soverin sat in front of Exil. “But you know something about them, correct?”
Exil nodded. “Yes, from what we’ve seen though. We know there are seven deadly sins that all creatures tend to fall into from time to time. No matter how faithful or religious a person is, they will succumb to some type of sin. There are Wrath, Pride, Greed, Envy, Lust, Sloth, and Gluttony. It seems that the sins are persons themselves, reigning from the fourth gate of Hell out of six. That’s all I really know about them.”
“So really, we don’t know much about our opponents.”
“So far, we know of a few powers of the Sins, and I know Lucifer is one Hell of a sorcerer. Wrath wields a scythe that resembles his number, Pride uses a gun that looks like his number, and Greed uses disguises and illusions. Gluttony, as we saw, can bite through even diamond and use whatever he consumes as a shield.”
“But he looks the dumbest out of them all.”
Exil held up a finger. “Don’t judge a book by its cover, Soverin. He could be good at his own form of tactics. Remember where he came from.”
“Ok, fine. But what else do we really know besides the fact they have Talyn and know something about Hache no one else does. How could that be?”
“That’s what stumps me in this whole mystery. Lucifer had never left Delania, and Delania’s Lord during that time wanted nothing to do with Hache’s council, so children grew up not knowing about the Dragon Lord. Lucifer, even though he studied more than any other child in all of Delania, couldn’t find out anything like a weakness in Hache. He studied the dark arts more than the Dragon Lord.” Exil bit his finger. “I can’t begin to understand where the phrase ‘Darkness will be brought back to this world’ would spook him. Lucifer, no matter what, can’t open the 6th gate.”
“Are we really sure of that Exil? Then why was he so afraid of the prophecy of him being brought back if when Lucifer tries again the same fate will be met? There’s something we haven’t been told. I think with the Sins’ help, Lucifer will overthrow the Underworld Lord and take over the castle Pandemonium.”
“Do you really think it’s possible to overthrow someone with a rank like that? Or just that specific person for that matter?”
“If he tries hard enough. He’s proven he’ll do anything to do it, and if he can be strong enough to get the Sins on his side and not on the Dark Lord, I think he’ll be even stronger now that he’s a devil, wouldn’t you think?”
“When you put it that way, it does seem possible.” Exil looked to the window. “It’s stopped raining. Do you want to head out?”
Soverin nodded. “Yes, let’s go. I’d rather not keep someone like Captain Vincent waiting at the port if we happen to show up late.”
Exil laughed. “Soverin, they’re in the middle of the
“I suppose.”
Chapter 18
|
T |
alyn awoke in what seemed to be a dimly lit bedroom, quite different from when she had gone to sleep.
“Wait a minute. This isn’t right. Soverin!” No answer followed. “Soverin!”
“Soverin is not in at the moment, please leave a message after the scream,” a voice said, before a face accompanied the vocals.
Talyn let out a frightened squeak. “Who are you?”
“Not a very good message,” the man said. “Do you really want to be remembered by those words?”
“I said, who are you?”
The man grinned. “You don’t remember? You were there not even 36 hours ago when I came back, and you forgot already?”
Talyn moved back. “Lucifer?”
“Bingo, bingo! She finally gets it.”
“What do you want with me?”
“To get to your father, what else? You did a big mistake of introducing yourself in that big machismo way. So, Hache’s your daddy, huh?” He started laughing. “Big, bad, monstrous Hache, degraded to reading bedtime stories for a little girl.”
Talyn growled and tried to lunge at Lucifer, but an unseen force-field held her at bay. “What the-“
“I thought about how to keep a black dragon at bay, and then I remembered, you’re half fire. You, as a halfling, only have half the strength of a dragon.”
“Half is more than enough to kick your sorry ass,” she snarled.
“On the contrary. You see, I can perform magic, and am not limited to elements. You, on the other hand, have only darkness and fire.”
“And?”
“And, my dear, I can perform magic of land, fire, wind, water, electricity, ice, darkness, and light. I cancel you out every time, so if you’d like to live to see another day, I suggest you hold your tongue and behave.”
“So what if I die? What difference does that make?”
“Much. If you die, Soverin’s cause will be nil. Yes, he would have gone through with warning your father of my return, but when he comes back here, it will be in vain. You’d be dead, the darkness opened, he’d have nothing to go on, and die, letting the world succumb to my power more easily.”
Talyn fell silent.
“Now you understand. If I were you, I’d do everything I was told. If you do, maybe I won’t torture you to the extent I had planned.”
She backed up against the wall. “You wouldn’t.”
Lucifer laughed and sent a chill running down her spine. “My dear, you have no idea what I would and would not do. There’s some who say I was a psychopath when I was alive as a human. I think being a devil would intensify that… belief.” His black lips pulled back in a sinister grin and his purple eyes gleamed with malice.
“So I’m an object for your twisted pleasures.”
“In every way m’dear.” He moved toward her and she screamed. “Talyn, that won’t help you, you do realize that. Yes people can hear you, but they won’t do anything. We’re far from civilization. The only ones who can hear you happen to be seven lower classes of the underworld, and I.” He covered her mouth with his gloved hand, lightly scraping her cheek with his talons. “So I’d advise you to stop while you’re ahead.”
She stopped screaming, only to bite down hard on his hand with her fangs.
He howled as he held his hand close to his body, blood dripping from it. “You just sealed your fate. You could have gone quietly, but you didn’t.” Lucifer held his right hand over the wounded one and it glowed white, making the blood stop. With that same hand, the energy turned its normal red and he held it outstretched towards her. “You won’t be getting away any time soon.” The energy tightened around her wrists and formed shackles, pinning themselves and the appendages to the wall behind her.
Talyn began panicking and struggling against the shackles to no avail. This act only made Lucifer laugh harder.
“It’s useless, that energy is the exact same thing as the metal shackles in my throne room.”
She glared at him, murder in her eyes. “Why are you doing this?”
“Simple. We’ve established your father is the High Ruler of Kyten, and everyone knows he’d do anything for his daughter. Well, apart from your training. That he did take a bit too far, don’t you think?” He reached out to brush the hair away from her scarred eye, though she pulled out of his reach as best she could, snapping at his fingers.
“Do not forget, this is not my base form. Can your shackles really hold the wrists of a Black Dragon?” Her red eyes flashed brighter, and her teeth each turned to sharp points.
He grinned. “Just try.”
As her skin shifted to black scales, an electrical flow coursed through her body, halting her shift. “What….”
“My magic can counter each and every element, Sweetheart. You need to draw on the dark to shift, do you not? Take a look at those shackles again.”
She glanced over at the restraints, seeing they were glowing a faint white. “They were just red. What did you do?”
“Just transformed the energy to be the base opposite of yours, reinforcing my previous statement. You cannot escape me.” He clasped on to her face with both a hard grip to keep her still, but still soft enough to not hurt her too much. “And even though I have your body trapped, you still do have your thoughts. Your consciousness.” He pursed his lips in a smile. “And I know how to fix that.”
“Oh? Then share. You cannot lock away a person’s conscious.”
“Don’t be so sure, Sweetheart.” He locked his lips with hers, pinning her further to the back wall so no matter how hard she struggled, she would not be able to move out of the way. Soon, her body alit with black energy, her energy, causing her form to slacken a bit. He coaxed the energy into his body through their joined lips, feeling her form slump over completely with lack of control. Only then did he pull back with a grin. “Easier than I thought.” On the table behind him, he took a crystal vial and placed it to his mouth, releasing Talyn’s energy into it, sealing her very soul away with it.
A knock at the door roused him from his business. “My Lord, I hate to interrupt,” Wrath said from the other side, “but we have him here.”
Lucifer knitted his brows together in confusion. “Who, exactly?”
“The brother.”
Chapter 19
|
S |
overin and Exil let the horses run back home when they entered Port Siyble. Exil groaned and stretched. “Oh my gods, I think I have saddle-ass.”
Soverin started howling with laughter. “What the Hell is saddle-ass?”
“Where you can’t feel your ass after riding in a horse’s saddle. I don’t know if it’s a real word, but I think it works.”
“If modern day medical terms turns down that suggestion, they’re nuts. C’mon, let’s go find Captain Vincent.”
Exil cracked his back and then followed Soverin down to the docks. Many ships were waiting to leave, and some were arriving, but none of them the infamous Darkshore. “Well, where is he?” He leaned against a building, enjoying the shade of the roof.
Soverin shrugged. “Maybe the storm slowed them down like you said.”
“Ahoy landlubbers!” a voice called to them from above their heads. They looked up to see a blonde haired man with a red bandanna tied over his head. He had a dark red vest opened to expose a chiseled tan chest. On his left hand was a small fingerless glove, and on his right hand was a long leather glove that extended to his elbow. He had light tan pants that disappeared into boots with a turnover-top, and had two belts handing from his hips, and one fastened around his middle. On one of the belts hanging off his hips, a holster for a pistol hung with the pistol snugly inside. The black smudges around his emerald eyes made him look fierce, and he had a small patch of blonde hair on his chin. A small blue orb hung from a necklace that he had wrapped three times around his neck. His small pointed ears indicated he was of an elemental race.
“Ahoy!” Soverin answered. “Are you Captain Vincent?”
“Aye, that I be,” he answered back, jumping down from the roof and standing in front of them to show he was a bit shorter than the both of them. His voice wasn’t gruff, nor was it soft. “So ye be wanting to get to Doragon, aye?”
“Right,” Exil said. “Er, aye Captain?”
“This will not be a cruise, savvy? Ye will be working for me with the rest of the crew. Usagi never bothers to mention that part.”
“It’s fine,” Soverin stated, outstretching his hand. “I’m Soverin Daemon, and this is Exil Lücke. It’s a pleasure to meet the most famous of pirates like this, Mr. Argon.”
Vincent put up a finger. “There’s no need for formalities, Soverin. Captain, Vincent, or Captain Vincent will do. I ne’er can stand me last name.” He tilted his head and let the gold in his left ear chink. “So, to Doragon then?”
“Yes. Where is the Darkshore?” Exil asked, looking around. “I don’t see it.”
Vincent laughed. “Do ye really believe it’d be up on the docks like some public transportation? Me crew’s got it in the ocean already. We just have to commandeer ourselves a boat to get to it.”
Soverin and Exil looked at each other.
“You’re kidding,” Soverin said. “You’re just pulling our legs.”
“Do it look like I be kidding?”
“Well how’d you get here? On shore I mean,” Exil asked.
“We had a little life boat on board that we stole some time ago. That didn’t last long after I got it in the water. So, we commandeer a new one. Not like it’s hard to do lad.” Sighing at the performers’ looks of ambiguity he continued on. “Right, how about I commandeer a ship, and ye two sissies watch and follow me orders?”
Exil nodded. “That seems better. Minus the ‘sissies’ part.”
Vincent nodded and motioned for the two to get behind a pile of barrels. “See that there boat?” He pointed towards the closest vessel, a small but still sufficient trader boat with S.S. Flint on the bow. “That’s the one we’ll take. No one’s aboard and it only will take one of us to steer it out into the sea. Let’s go.”
They moved cautiously across the dock behind the barrels to stay out of sight until they reached the boat’s port side, walking just as carefully up the plank.
Exil and Soverin were caught up in an adrenaline rush. “What happens now Vincent?” Exil asked.
“Very easy work lads. Soverin, hoist the anchor and I’ll get behind the helm.”
Soverin stood there. “Vincent, what did you just say?”
Vincent rolled his eyes. “Lad, walk over to the bloody anchor on the stern, that’s the left, side, and start cranking the bloody thing up, savvy?”
Soverin nodded and ran over to the anchor, thinking it’d be easy work ‘hoisting’ it. One pull made him realize it’d take half his demon strength to get it up. Once it was up, Vincent turned the helm starboard side and told Exil to hoist the sails. Soon, the boat was moving slowly but surely out to sea.
The owner of the S.S. Flint threw down his merchandise and started running down the dock. “Hey! HEY! THAT’S MY BOAT YOU BLOODY PIRATES!”
Onboard, Vincent laughed at the man’s misfortune. “Lads, did he have anything worth keeping on deck?”
“Not that I can see,” Exil answered.
“Go below then, maybe he has weapons we can commandeer as well before we make this boat live up to its name.”
“You’re going to burn this?” Soverin asked, looking away from the rail he was leaning on, on the starboard side.
Vincent nodded. “Aye. What good will it do to rot on the sea? Better to let it burn.”
Exil returned from below deck. “He has a few provisions, but nada on weapons, and horrible looking linen.” He held a purple and red-checkered curtain up that was hanging from his arm.
“Since when the Hell do you give a damn about linen?” Soverin asked. “Is there something I don’t know yet?”
Exil rolled his eyes. “Yes Soverin, I’m gay, that’s why I sleep with women. Even from a fellow straight man’s point of view though, you can’t say these things aren’t horrible.”
“I can see your point, lad,” Vincent said. He nodded forward. “Thar she be, the Darkshore.”
Chapter 20
|
B |
oth Soverin and Exil’s jaws dropped as Exil let the linen fly away in the wind. “Holy shit, that thing's huge!”
“Did you think a ship under me command is going to be a tiny vessel? Buckos, ye better think twice. If ye were to go on account, this be the best ship to do it.”
“Er, to go on account?” Soverin questioned.
“Aye, becoming a pirate yerself.”
“Oh, I get it,” Exil said.
“Ahoy Captain! Bring’er aside!” a voice called from the Darkshore.
“Nay!” Vincent yelled back up. “This here be a fire vessel! Ye know the things needed mate!”
The man on deck nodded and disappeared. Yelling on deck was heard as people ran about, getting something that was a mystery to Soverin. A plank was sent down, full of gunpowder and tar.
“Vincent, what exactly are we doing with this boat?” Soverin asked.
“I said it to ye already. It’s living up to its name. Setting it to cinder is the best parting gift we can give it anyway, since it has lack of resources and usefulness." He set to work, laying down the tar and gunpowder sloppily.
"So, that's it?" Exil asked, watching as Vincent threw an empty barrel into the ocean.
Vincent clapped his hands together as he stood up straight. "That's it bucko. Now, let's get on deck and torch this bastard." He stepped onto the plank and motioned for Soverin and Exil to follow in suit. "Don't need ye getting blown to smithereens, now do we?"
"That would help," Soverin said, holding onto one of the ropes while Exil held another.
As the plank was raised, Soverin soon heard the sound of singing. "What are they doing on deck Vincent?"
Vincent laughed. "Ye never heard a chantey before?"
"What's a 'chantey'?" Exil asked, tilting his head to the side a bit in confusion.
"You do it all the time, but it's called 'songs' on land. On the sea, while the hands work, they sing chanteys to raise their spirits and keep in a good mood. Otherwise, they'd succumb to 'ocean madness' and nothing would go right, and I'd be scared out of me wits that the scurvy dogs would mutiny against me for a reason unknown."
"All hands on deck! The captain returns from gathering the guests! Step lively now!"
"And that would be me first mate, Victor." Once the plank was level to the ship's deck, he jumped onboard. "AVAST ME HEARTIES! Smartly now, men!" he glared at his crew. "Now then, as I hope ye are nothing more than squiffy, these two men are to be treated with respect. Landlubbers, though they may be, neither will hesitate in killing ye if ye dare touch them." He looked each one of the crew of 25 people. "Savvy?"
"Aye Captain!"
Vincent threw his hands in the air. "Hoist anchor. We celebrate tonight with a feast!"
The command to hoist anchor was shouted around deck to the stern, where one of the hands raised the anchor.
"Vincent? What about the S.S.Flint?" Exil asked, looking over the side of he railings.
Vincent turned and grinned at him. "Do ye really believe I've forgotten that little dingy? I am not so dull in the head as to leave that thing floating in the ocean with gun powder and tar loaded on its deck." He looked up at the sky and let a breeze blow through his short blond hair. "Give it time."
Soverin knew what he meant from his experience with explosives. That much gunpowder in the tar would make an explosion so big, it'd blow up the ship they were currently on, as well as the
The sails were lowered and the ship started moving with the breeze. Soon the little boat was pretty far away.
"Now watch and learn boyo." Vincent took out his three-barreled pistol and took aim at the boat. He closed one eye, and fired. The explosion that followed would've deafened them if they were any closer to the damage. He laughed. "Now THAT is how ye make a fire vessel." He put the pistol back in its holster. "Now then, I've been telling the hands that they couldn't touch this, but since ye have been picked up," he kicked open the door next to him, leading to what looked like a wine cellar, "it's time to get, as ye landlubbers call it, shitfaced." He whistled loudly. "BUCKOS! Who else says it's time for a clap of thunder?"
"AYE!" The hands dropped everything they were doing and ran past Vincent into the cellar.
"'Clap of thunder'?" Exil asked. "Now what in Hell's name is that?"
"Term for strong liquor. Sink me, boyo, do we need to spend the whole night teaching ye these terms?"
Exil nodded. "That'd help, yes. Er, aye."
Vincent sighed. "Well, at least ye be caching on to the basics." He took a large swig of the dark liquor in his hand and sighed in content. "Ah, a pirate's drink indeed. I'll be assuming Usagi let ye two try our beverage of choice?"
"I had it before," Soverin answered, "but never in fizz."
Vincent spit out the mouthful he had just drunk. "Bah, that lad was always a light-weight in drinking. Always having to dilute the good rum with something." He sighed and stared at the stained wood. "Good liquor gone to waste."
Just then, the crew pounded past them, singing another chantey:
“Yo ho,
Yo ho,
A pirate's life for me.
We pillage and plunder
And riffle and loot,
Drink up me hearties yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot
Drink up me hearties yo ho!”
Vincent grinned and started dancing with his crew, taking occasional swigs from his rum.
“Yo ho,
Yo ho,
A pirate's life for me
We extort, we pilfer, we filtch and sack,
Drink up me hearties yo ho,
Maraud and embezzle and even hijack,
Drink up me hearties yo ho!
“Yo ho,
Yo ho,
A pirate's life for me
We kindle and char,
Inflame and ignite,
Drink up me hearties yo ho,
We burn up the city, we're really a fright,
Drink up me hearties yo ho!
“We're rascals and scoundrels, villains and maims
Drink up me hearties yo ho,
We're devils and black sheep and really bad eggs,
Drink up me hearties yo ho!
“Yo ho,
Yo ho,
A pirates's life for me
We're beggars and blighters and ne'er do well cads
Drink up me hearties yo ho,
Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads,
Drink up me hearties yo ho!”
They each clashed their bottles together and took a large swig of rum.
Exil nudged Soverin in the side. "So what do we do?"
Soverin grinned. "Join them, of course. We're pirates now." He took a bottle from the cellar-looking room and took a big swig like the crew. He grimaced.
"Bad?"
"No, just really strong." He coughed a few times.
"Hey, let me try." Exil reached for the bottle and Soverin held it close to him like a child.
"Get your own."
"Aw, but Soverin!"
"What are you complaining about? They're right next to you."
Exil paused. "I'm lazy."
Soverin sighed. "You son of a- watch that I don't kill you in your sleep." He handed Exil his current bottle and grabbed another one. They took their bottles and walked to the bow of the boat, watching the horizon stretch before them.
"So what do you think of all this?"
Soverin shrugged and sipped his rum. "A few days ago I was doing my job as a whore and mercenary, and now, I'm on a hunt for the world's most dangerous asshole."
Exil choked a bit. "Asshole does describe him, but best not say it to his face."
"Like I care what I call him right now. He has Talyn, and there's no telling what he or the Sins are doing to her."
"Best not to think about it."
"That's why I plan on getting shitfaced and then deal with a hangover tomorrow to keep my mind off of it. How long is it until we reach Doragon again?"
"Three days lad," Vincent slurred from behind him, and then let out a loud hiccup. "Me thinks I'm loaded to the gunwalls." He nodded towards his half empty bottle.
"If that means 'wasted', yeah, you're getting there Vincent," Soverin said, looking at the pirate who's cheeks were a light rosy color. "So how long have you been a pirate?"
Vincent covered a burp. "I went on account many a year ago. I was exiled from me clan, so I says 'Fuck it, I'll just ruin yer damn lives'." He took another large swig and staggered a bit. "I pillaged that damn place soon's I became a pirate, and burned me old home to ashes. Don't miss it one bit." He nodded towards the setting suns. "Beautiful sight, nay? You ne'er see that kind of sunset anywhere but in the middle of the ocean. Nor the full moons. Those are even better. Lights up the sea and you can see down to the merfolk and aquatic life."
"The merfolk are still around?" Exil asked.
"Of course they're still around. What are ye, daft?" He finished off his rum. "Bah, the rum's gone. I'm going to fetch some more."
"Have fun with that," Soverin said while Vincent turned his back.
Vincent motioned some sign to them before missing a stair on his way off the deck and fell onto his face.
Exil and Soverin and the whole crew were either holding onto the railings for support, or on the ground, clutching their sides, laughing so hard they would soon cry or piss themselves, or both.
Vincent got up, now pure red in the face. "Yeah, sure. All ye laugh at yer Captain," he hiccupped and burped, "when he's loaded to the gunwalls. Extra work for ye all in the morrow! Either ye work, or ye'll meet the rope's end!" He muttered something incoherent, grabbed another bottle, and went into his quarters, ranting something like the crew was "swinging the lead" and "they'll all be keelhauled".
Soverin shrugged and drank some more of his rum, feeling a bit tipsy. 'I'm gonna get you back to safety soon, Talyn. I swear it. Until then, try and stay alive.'
Chapter 21
|
S |
overin awoke the next day with a massive hangover. He groaned and tried rolling over, only to find himself falling from a small height onto a hard wooden floor. "Well doesn't that suck?" He got off the musty floor and sat on the edge of the hammock he had been sleeping in not too long ago. He scratched his head and smacked his lips. "Wow, horrible morning breath." It was then that he heard Exil's innocent snores. He grinned and leaned over Exil's sleeping figure, getting as close to his drooping ear as he could. "Exil, hey Exil, get up."
Exil groaned and flipped over. "Five more minutes," he grumbled, swatting at the air.
Soverin took a deep breath and blew into Exil's nose.
Exil flailed his limbs around and fell out of his hammock from a higher point than Soverin had. He landed with a loud crash. "What the Hell was that?"
"Lovely morning after breath. Isn't it just wonderful?"
"Yeah, keep your wonderful puke/rum mouth secretions away from me." He coughed. "Jeez, if my head wasn't pounding before, it sure as Hell is now."
"ON DECK YE SCURVY DOGS!"
The boys flinched at Vincent's loud voice.
"I spoke too soon."
There were heavy footsteps coming down the stairs into the room they were in before the door burst open, and in walked Vincent with a mean look. "Ye buckos have hangovers, I have a hangover, I know that excuse is gonna be used."
"Not really an excuse if it's true," Soverin said, running his fingers through his bangs.
"Aye, tis still an excuse, true or naught. But see, ye only need to clean the deck. I have to steer this damn vessel with me head pounding." He tossed Exil and Soverin mops. "Get started with the poop deck. Ye know where that is, aye?"
Soverin nodded. "Aye Captain."
Vincent nodded back. "Good lad. Get to work." He turned and left them in silence.
Exil turned to Soverin, "Good thing you know, because I sure as Hell don't."
"I lied. I've no clue, but I figured it would be best not to enrage a hung-over pirate."
"True enough."
They went on deck and asked the nearest hand where they were supposed to go.
"Ye don't know?" He laughed heartily. "Bucko, tis the deck above the Captain's quarters. On the aft," he added in to their confused faces.
“Thanks,” Exil said as they walked to the aft, finding the deck with ease. “So what exactly are we cleaning here?” He looked around. “I don’t see any poo.”
Soverin rolled his eyes. “C’mon, let’s start mopping.”
The two no sooner got water in the buckets on the deck when a sound came from Soverin’s pants.
“… Please tell me they’re not trying to talk to me, because that’s not right.” Exil looked at him.
Soverin growled and reached into his back pocket, pulling out a phone. He flipped the cover open. “I’m off duty.”
“Oh but Mr. Daemon, I know you’ll reconsider that after I tell you your mission,” a cold and familiar voice said on the other line.
“Lucifer!” He snarled. “How’d you get this number?”
“From a few sources. Now for your mission.”
“I don’t care, I’m already on a stupid mission for you.”
“This one’s a bit different. I feel like testing your survival skills, both as a mercenary and a dragon.”
“How do you want to do that when I’m in the middle of the fucking ocean you prick?”
“Temper, temper, and such a foul mouth. Really want to talk to me when I have your lover on my end of the transmission?”
Soverin remained silent.
“Good boy. Now, I’ve sent one of my demons to locate you. You won’t know how it’ll arrive, but let me assure you, it’ll be a blast.”
“I hate you.”
“The feeling is mutual, let me assure you my boy. Have fun with your playmate.”
The line went dead and Soverin swore.
“How do we tell Vincent and the crew in such a short time?”
“We think like Vincent.” He raced to the edge of the railing overlooking the deck. “ALL HANDS ON DECK! ALL HANDS ON DECK! WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”
All of the crew rushed into action and Vincent came on deck, glaring at them. “Buckos, who do ye think ye are?”
“Lucifer is sending a demon after us! He wouldn’t say how it’s getting here, but he said it’s coming.”
“Well then what are we dawdling for? All hands to the cannons!”
“Soverin,” Exil said as they ran to the main deck to help supply the cannons, “why would Lucifer use the phrase ‘it’ll be a blast’?”
As an answer, a large blast of water hit them and sent them flying across the deck, nearly going overboard.
“You had to ask, didn’t you?” Soverin asked, flipping his hair backward and spitting out seawater.
“Shit, it’s a serpent!” Vincent yelled from the helm. “Load all the cannons and guns and take aim. It’s coming up on starboard side!” The clamor grew even louder as orders were given to the crewmembers. Soon the once peaceful sea air was full of explosions and shouting.
The serpent dodged most of the cannon blasts, and only Vincent’s bullets seemed to actually hit the beast. Not that it really did anything more than piss it off.
Lucifer’s words echoed in Soverin’s head. “I feel like testing your survival skills, both as a mercenary and a dragon.”
“I think I know how to kill it,” Soverin said to Vincent, making him stop loading bullets into his pistol.
“Well then lad, whatever ye think it is ye need to do, do it. Don’t let this son of a bitch take me ship!”
Soverin nodded as he spread his arms, calling his wings to his back. The rings hanging from the thin membranes jingled as he leapt into the air. He called in his sword as well, gripping onto the lime-green handle tightly. When he attacked the serpent, his hit was backed with rage. The sword seemed to make a solid hit, but when he pulled back, it revealed that the skin only dented. The sword hadn’t pierced the skin! Soverin dodged a swing from the serpent’s tail and aimed at a new point: its eyes. This had an effect, and made the serpent scream in a horrible blood curdling way. Soverin’s new plan seemed to be working. Take out its senses, and it can’t do a thing. It couldn’t possibly hear him due to the wind, nor could it smell him because of the salt water. He had taken out the only plausible sense the snake had against him. But how to kill it… His element was earth, which couldn’t be used in this area without possibly destroying a mercity under the surf. Then he got an idea. It was an attack that he hadn’t used for years, but it was the only way he could think of killing it. He summoned in a small burlap sack and pulled out a seed. Vanishing the sack, he waited for the opportune moment, and flicked the seed down the serpent’s throat. When he was sure the serpent swallowed it, he made energy follow it down, still dodging the snake’s flailing tail while doing so. Within 2 minutes, the seed bloomed in the snake’s stomach, bursting through its skin and making it fall into the ocean.
An outburst of cries of joy came from the ship, which he had accidentally flown a bit too far away from. With a powerful flap of his wings, he soared back over to the Darkshore and landed with shaky legs. His wings evaporated, and he vanished his sword and threw up.
“Get him some water and give him space! C’mon buckos, smartly now!” Vincent yelled out and kneeled at Soverin’s side. “Boyo, that was something I haven’t seen all me life. We couldn’t see what ye did to it to get plants to burst through its gullet, but that was sure something.”
Soverin laid on his back and looked up at the sky, the warmth of the suns heating up his skin and drying off his clothes. One of the crewmembers came back with a flask of cold freshwater, which he drank gratefully. “I haven’t used those seeds in a long time, and now I remember why.” He coughed. “It takes way too much energy and concentration.”
“Well ye paid off ye duty, so ye don’t have to swab the decks the rest of the voyage.”
“That’s great. Can someone help me back to the hammock?” He reached up with a heavy arm that Exil took and helped him get up. He supported his weight and assisted him down to where they were staying. “If I need to kill something…don’t ever let me use that thing again.”
Exil nodded. “Ok, will do. Sleep off the weakness, and call for me when you get up.”
Soverin didn’t even hear a word of Exil’s reply. He was fast asleep as soon as he stopped talking.
Exil sighed through his nose and shook his head, leaving the cabin to finish his work.
Chapter22
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“S |
overin slept on through three days. Three grueling days that Exil had to rise early with the crew and work double for the two of them. The work grew considerably easier, he found, when the crew stopped sending glares his way and showed him how to work. Most likely Vincent had told them to cut the boy some slack.
Or however you said it in pirate speak.
He was starting to pick up the lingo too from the cook in the galley, Sasche, a blue dragon that took a completely different form from one he had seen Soverin in. The man had a type of physic with long legs that curved back at the knees, and the feet were extended and raised to accompany the body to walk. His skin was a mix of light blue and aqua, the lighter of the two being on his chest, underbelly, and chin. There were four stripes that ran over the tops of his elevated feet and two over each of his three deep-blue clawed toes.
“No kidding, you’re Blynd from ‘Faded Effect’? You guys had a long run. What are you doing aboard the Darkshore?” Exil asked while scrubbing a pot, watching Sasche cook their dinner for the night.
Sasche’s expression grew sad. He glanced at the younger demon with his one good green eye, the other having an acidic looking purple scar over it, and said, “Strange things come when you least expect it.” He spoke normal Universal, glad for a chance to take a break from the pirate jargon. “I met up with Captain Vincent a few weeks after the band split in a pub down at the docks of Ameta. Spoke of the split, of course, and how I couldn’t find work doing much else. He asked if I was good at cooking. I said I was, and he hired me onboard this ship a few years ago. He taught me the ropes, the language, and it’s been ‘smooth sailing’ since.” He smiled through his snout. “Any other questions.”
“Yeah. What’s with that form? Soverin’s a dragon, but I’ve never seen that.”
Sasche laughed. “There are a few forms a dragon could take. Drake, humanoid, dragid, and the very rare draconic. The form you see before you is dragid, though not many dragons in the other breeds use this. Just the water dragons. We chose dragid and drake over humanoid as your friend is in.”
“Wait, a rare form?”
“Mhm. Draconic is a form beyond drake. It seems to be a mix of humanoid and dragid. Horns,” here he grasped on to his right deep blue horn, the one with a bangle clasped around it, “and spikes protrude from various places on the bodies, the sclera fades to pure black as well as the lips. The limbs are dragid in form, resembling the color of the dragon in question.”
“What causes this transformation?”
“Fear, dread, absolute anger. Hence why only certain dragons have it. Some that don’t scare or anger easily. Well… not anger to that extent anyway.” He added a dash of salt to his mixture in the pot and tested it, seeming to approve of the taste.
“Well wait,” Exil set down the pot he had been cleaning, “what about the other eye thing? Most demons’ eyes flash when angered. What does that mean with a dragon?"
“Nothing abnormal. It’s a general demon thing. A flow of blood through the eyes when a temper is triggered. Still makes you back off though, no matter who you’re talking about.”
“Do you… know of anyone with the ability to go draconic?”
“No. Many of them are captured and put under watch in the jail in Kuroiten.”
“Isn’t it just another form? Like the one you’re in?”
Sasche looked at Exil with disbelief. “Are you nuts? Of course not. In draconic the mind is long gone, and you just have the urge to kill anything and everything in your path.”
Exil shuddered, picking the pot back up and scrubbing it once more. “If Soverin turns out to have that form, along with his skills as a mercenary, he’ll be hard to escape.”
“Too right.” He put the lid on the cauldron and added wood to the fire under it. “Now then, back to your jargon lesson. ‘Measure ye fer yer chains’.”
“To be outfitted for the gibbet cage.”
“Which is?”
“A threat to all pirates. Proper use for your phrase would be, at least on this boat ‘Do ye wish to be measured fer yer chains? Are ye daft, ye scurvy dog?’ Right?”
“Well done lad,” Sasche said, slipping back into the jargon himself. “Ye be well enough to go on account now, by thunder.”
“Hand me an eye patch and a hook for an appendage then.”
Sasche was about to make a joke at that, when Vincent came into the galley. “What brings ye about, Cap’n?”
“Aravey be in sight. Everet in the crow’s nest sighted it not long ago. Need the boyo to wake his mate so we can shove off to the port.” He took a whiff of the boiling cauldron. “Argh, soup again Sasche?”
“Hm, yes it is getting a bit old,” the dragon replied. “Should we send some men out for provisions while in port? If I can get some cackle fruit and more onions I can make salmagundi for ye all tonight.”
“So be it.” He turned to Exil. “Smartly now bucko.”
Exil nodded and left to the quarters he and Soverin had been sharing, finally understanding all the commands that were flying around on deck. He’d have to share the knowledge with the dragon; if he ever woke up.
He carefully opened the door. “Soverin, it’s time to wake up.” It was then he noticed the grimace on the dragon’s face, the snarl emitting from deep in his throat. He was dreaming, and from the looks of it, it wasn’t pleasant. The blankets had been tossed to the ground off his hammock in a small tussle he must’ve had during this said dream. “Sove? Hey, are you alright?” He moved closer, hearing him mutter something. “Sove?”
“I’ll kill you… I’ll kill you!”
Rolling his eyes, Exil grabbed the water pitcher from the side of the door and threw it on his face. “Soverin, get your ass up!”
“I’LL KILL YOU!” Soverin tried lunging after Exil, only to lose balance in his hammock and fall to the floor.
Exil had actually had to leap back to get out of the way of Soverin’s extended claws. “What the Hell are you doing? Soverin, snap out of it!”
Soverin curled into a ball and closed his pulsating red eyes tightly. “He rapes her! Exil he rapes her! He raped her in front of me!”
“Soverin, calm down, who rapes who?”
“Lucifer! That son of a bitch rapes Talyn! He raped her in front of me and I couldn’t stop him! Something was holding me back! That son of a bitch raped her in front of me and I couldn’t do shit for her!” A smack landed on his face, a hard one that made him shut up.
“Soverin, you’re not making a lick of sense. Calm down and then speak, or do I have to smack you again?”
Soverin opened his discolored eyes that were slowly fading back to normal. He breathed a few times to calm himself. “Lucifer somehow brought me to his fortress. In his torture chamber I can only guess. Talyn was strapped to one of the tables, and he came in. I could hear her yelling for me, but only he could hear me. He said Talyn was trapped inside her body, and that he caused that. He uses her for a slave, like a thing. Exil, we have to get to Doragon. And warn Hache.”
“That’s what I came in to tell you in the first place. We’re here.”
Chapter 23
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“I |
be sorry I can’t take ye closer to Doragon,” Vincent said as his crew lowered the plank down to the dock of Port Aravey. “It is not too far away though.”
“This is fine Vincent,” Soverin replied, still feeling a bit light headed. “I can find my way from here.” He pulled his jacket tight around his body as they faced the cold of the Northern Regions.
Exil looked at him. “You sure you don’t need a day to-“
Soverin turned and glared at the Exiled Demon. “I can find my way.”
Exil put his hands up in front of his chest. “Ok. You can find your way.”
Vincent nodded and they each exchanged good-byes. “If ye need me, send a call. I will get to ye as fast as I can push me men.”
“We will, thanks for everything Captain.”
He and Exil shook hands, not noticing that Soverin had already started up the dock to the port.
Exil looked back and took a double take. “Hey, HEY! Sove! Bye Vincent!” He held onto his hat and ran after the shivering demon. “Are you absolutely sure-“
“YES!” Soverin wheeled around, eyes flashing scarlet again. “I’m just a little cold is all. If you haven’t noticed, it’s cold enough to get your tongue stuck to this pole.” He jerked his thumb towards the nearest metal pole.
“Really?” Exil stopped and looked. “Hey, if I stick my tongue to it, will you stop being Pissy Dragon?”
Soverin tilted his head and gave him a look of bewilderment. “What?”
“I’ve never been to the Northern Regions, I don’t know if that rumor’s true or not...”
Soverin shook his head. “You’re a moron.” He kept walking to the busy
“I’m just trying to lighten the mood!”
“Well stop trying!” Soverin called back and put his hands in his pockets, walking quickly to the nearest store.
Exil ran after him and caught up. “So what’s in here?”
Soverin shook his head. “Nothing important. Just think I should get changed into my old winter clothes.”
“Winter clothes? I don’t have any of those.”
Soverin turned to him. “How do you not?”
Exil shrugged. “I told you, I’ve never been in the Northern Regions, hence, I have no warm clothes.”
Soverin sighed and moved to another store door. “Fine. Come with me.”
“Yeah, because I’m really gonna leave you alone right now.” Exil rolled his eyes and followed the dragon into the warmth of the store.
“Good morning, is there anything I can help you with?” the tailor asked them, fidgeting with the measuring tape that hung from his neck.
“This one here,” Soverin nodded toward Exil, “doesn’t own a lick of winter clothing. Can you suit him up
The tailor leaned forward. “How do you know my name?”
Soverin scoffed. “How could I not? Remember the green dragon that had to keep coming back two hundred years ago because he kept outgrowing his cloaks?”
Soverin grinned back. “Should I take it as a compliment, or something I should worry about?”
Soverin noticed a plain gold band on the tailor’s right hand ring finger. “So you finally settled down.”
“You’ll have to let me meet her one day.”
“Same here with your… er… friend. So have you finally chosen a side of the playing field?”
Soverin looked taken aback. “Excuse me? No, I’ll only stay long term with women.” He nodded towards Exil. “This here demon you should recognize quite well. Meet face to face the vocalist of the prior band, Divine Torture, Exil.”
“Oh really now? A pleasure to meet your acquaintance. I must say, your music has helped out in situations behind doors quite a few times.”
Exil smiled. “That’s what I was hoping for.”
“So anyway, you boys need winter clothes, you came into the right place. I’ve been doing this for so many years, I’ve lost count.”
“It’s longer than I’ve been around, I can tell you that much,” Soverin put in.
Exil whistled. “That’s a lot of time with a needle and thread.”
Shrugging,
Exil did so as Soverin went into the back. He found a stall with an open door and walked in, closing it behind him and letting it lock with a click. He summoned in a different trunk from the one he called in at the “Maiden’s Kiss”. This one was slightly smaller, and black, with green trim. Opening the lid, he pulled out a long heavy black coat with a faux racer fur collar. He hated the thought of skinning an animal, mostly because he knew animal demons who took slightly human forms from time to time. He hung it on the hook behind him and pulled out the rest of his winter clothes. The wool shirt he pulled out was soft and thick and blue in color, and the slacks were black as night.
“OW!”
“Well hold still and I wouldn’t prick you!”
“I get twitchy when people touch me though!”
Soverin suppressed a laugh as he proceeded in getting changed. As he fit his cloak around his body, he was glad to see everything still fit and was snug in the places it should be snug. For a finishing touch, he pulled a pair of pleather gloves from a pocket of the coat, slipping them on his fingers. He outstretched and clenched his fingers a few times, listening to the sounds of the stretching material. Satisfied, he closed his trunk and vanished it.
A knock came from his stall door. “You done in there? I got my stuff, so I need to get changed.”
“Yeah, hold on a sec.” He tied up his boots and hooked his hair behind his ears before standing up straight and exiting the stall so Exil could change.
He spent the time looking through the racks of clothing and supplies that
“Let me guess, the missus wanted a spot to sell her products?”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s true.”
A loud crash and a yelp brought their attention to the back room of the store.
“Exil, don’t tell me you fell over in there!” Soverin called back.
Exil appeared back up front, smiling sheepishly. “No, just tripped putting my boots on is all.”
Soverin rolled his eyes. “So we’ve got everything then?”
Exil nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Except payment, of course,”
Exil called in his coin purse and pulled out three gold slivers. “Is this enough to cover?”
“It’s fine. Now off with you. Doragon is a long ways away.”
“So which way do we head now?” Exil asked.
Soverin nodded towards the northeast where the snowcapped mountains combined with the gray snow clouds. “Doragon is located behind that mountain range.”
“Well here’s another question for you. If all of the breeds of dragon live in Doragon, how do they all survive? I don’t think a few breeds would be able to live in such harsh winter conditions year-round.”
“Of course not,” Soverin laughed. “Doragon is pretty much a system of domes containing each of the Elemental Breeds. All are separated, and no one really leaves their dome, so that’s how Hache can keep all the breeds separate. But we survive in natural habitat as either our dragon forms, or our demon form. Everything is provided in the domes for us. Only the dark dragons leave their dome. They’re the hunters of the dragons. Once a week they hunt to provide for the domes.”
“How many are there?”
“Land, fire, wind, water, electricity, ice, darkness, and light,” he ticked them off on his hands. “One breed for every element. So eight.”
Exil whistled. “Damn, that’s a lot of variety.”
“You’re telling me. I just hope I can get in.”
“You won’t be able to,” a voice said behind them.
They turned on their heels. In front of them stood a tall-cloaked figure.
“Who are you?” Soverin demanded.
“A follower of the risen lord.”
“Follower? He hasn’t been alive long enough to get followers. How do you know of his return?”
“I have seen his powers, and I have chosen the winning side.”
“Wrong choice buddy.” He summoned in his sword Gambler and the black and red dice chinked together on the hilt.
“Don’t think that your sword skills will save you. I know all your moves.”
“How could you? You don’t stalk me do you?”
The figure laughed. “Don’t tell me you can’t figure out by my voice who I am.”
“I don’t normally associate with tall cloaked figures who stalk people.”
The man pulled down his hood and Soverin’s eyes widened. Feeling weak, he dropped his sword to the ground.
“Sove, you ok?” Exil asked.
“No. That man… is my older brother Raiden.”
Chapter 24
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R |
aiden laughed. “Ah, so you do remember me.”
“What are you doing on Lucifer’s side Raiden? You never used to be power hungry.” Soverin looked at his brother. There wasn’t much difference between them, yet nothing was all the same. Raiden’s silver hair was cut short and worn in spikes, and his sapphire eyes were a deeper shade than Soverin’s. His spiked green tail swayed out from beneath the cloak that reached to the ground.
“Yeah well times change.”
“So what exactly were you sent here for?”
“To let you know his power is steadily growing, of course.”
“Jeez, you’d figure he could call me and let me know a snake is coming after me, but he can’t tell me he’s getting stronger. What a damn pansy.”
The words no sooner left his lips and Raiden smashed him into the nearest wall, holding him by his throat. “Never insult Lord Lucifer around me.”
“Raiden, please don’t cause a scene,” Exil said, looking around frantically and holding his hands up to his chest. “We really don’t need this right now.”
Raiden let Soverin go, letting his younger sibling fall to his knees, coughing and rubbing his throat. He sneered at him. “Forget about that bitch. Lucifer will kill you without hesitation. Get in the way of his powers, I’ll kill you myself.”
Soverin made a lunge at Raiden’s heart, but only managed to rip a hole in his cloak. On Raiden’s right pectoral muscle was an anarchy symbol. Raiden caught him by the wrist and flung him back with ease.
“You know, for a mercenary, your skills at killing suck. Stick to being a whore. You’re good at that.” He held out his right hand and summoned a black portal. He stepped into it and vanished along with the portal.
“Sove, you ok?”
“I’m fine Exil, don’t worry about it.” He sat up. “I can’t even begin to fathom how he got in league with Lucifer. He was always quiet, but kind hearted.”
“It’s always the quiet ones that you need to watch out for. Their minds work in weird ways.” He extended his hand and helped Soverin up. “Shall we keep going then?”
Soverin nodded. “The sooner we get there the better.”
They walked in silence along the trail carved into the mountain. Exil was the first one to break it. “Hey Sove, did Raiden always have that tattoo?”
“No, he was never big on them two hundred years ago.”
“Why would he get one like that though, if you said he was kind-hearted. Anarchy means something a lot different than that. And come to think of it, why would it be over his heart?”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that would be Lucifer’s symbol that he places on his followers. That’s probably why he was wearing that cloak.”
“Though he could’ve also been wearing it to keep warm.” Exil put his gloved hands to his nose, holding the elongated pinky nail that extended from the gloves away from his face.
Soverin shook his head. “Cloaks like that were never his style. I don’t know how to explain it, but he was never into long coats like that. But whatever the case, I think we have a lead. If Lucifer is strong enough to make followers, he’s bound to have a lot out there looking for us, and we found out how to distinguish them from regular innocents.”
“Yeah, the followers anyway. How do we figure out the Sins?”
Soverin fell silent. He thought back to when he and Exil were chained to the posts. Each Sin had been wearing at least one thing in common on one hand… “Exil, did you notice something when we were in Delania?”
“What do you mean? All I noticed was a barren wasteland.”
“I mean on the Sins. Each of them was wearing at least one glove. If they had only one, it would be covering their left hand.”
“And…?”
“And, that means they’re hiding something. Wasn’t ‘Lola’ wearing gloves? And when she dressed up as Talyn, didn’t she have gloves on as well?”
Exil’s eyes widened. “Which means the Sins have marks as well! Just in a different area!”
“Exactly. But the thing is, they as Sins will want to hide what they are if they have to walk in public. Followers would flaunt their rank and whom they follow proudly, no matter who or what they follow.”
“So if anyone happens to walk by with that mark, we kill them, right?”
“Right. Plain and simple, easy to remember. “
They stopped dead in their tracks when they heard a gun cock behind them.
“Don’t move, or I’ll shoot your heads clean off their shoulders.”
Chapter 25
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“T |
urn around slowly so I can see your faces.”
The boys obeyed and came face-to-face with the barrel of a gun that had a knife attached to it. Holding that razorgun was a Glacyer Rapticle, his bright green eyes staring viciously into their gazes.
“State your reason for being on the Glacyer Path.”
“We need to get to Doragon, sir,” Soverin said slowly, “we need to warn Hache of a newly arisen evil. He is the only one who can prevent Darkness from overtaking the world.”
The Glacyer narrowed his eyes even more. “State your names.”
“Soverin Daemon and Exil Lücke.”
The blue Rapticle placed the razorgun back in its holster. “Forgive me for turning my weapon on you. You are quite well known in the north for your growing bravery against that bastard Lucifer.”
Soverin and Exil sighed in relief that they’d see another day.
“But why do you bear such urgency to see Lord Hache? He cannot do anything to prevent Lucifer’s power.”
“We have proof Lucifer is gaining power and recruiting followers. We need to get to Hache soon and relay a message to him, otherwise his daughter dies.”
“Then we shall get you to Doragon as soon as we can. Only problem is, there is to be a snow storm tonight, and if you continue your journey, you will die. Come, we shall give you shelter for the night.”
“Are you sure your village would provide shelter for us, with us being outsiders?”
The Glacyer snorted. “They better listen to their Lord.” He shook his elongated blue snout. “Forgive my rudeness. I am Lord Seraph Asche, leader of the Glacyer people.”
“Wow, impressive,” Exil said, shivering as the wind started to pick up.
Seraph looked up towards the sky. “We must go now. The storm is going to start within the hour. We don’t want to get caught in it.”
Exil opened his mouth, as if to ask how the blue Rapticle knew, but closed it again. Instead, he said “How far away is your village?”
“Not far at all. Just down this pass. Come, follow me.” He led them up a broken path, moving with ease on his clawed feet. Soverin and Exil followed with a bit of difficulty.
“How long have you been a lord, Seraph? Er, Lord Seraph, or-“
Seraph laughed. “Seraph is fine. No need for formalities. I’m not like Lady Exousia of the Snow Tygres.”
“She’s still Lady of the Snow Tygres?” Soverin asked. “She was Lady over 200 years ago.”
“How do you know that?” Exil asked.
Soverin fell silent. “I’d rather not discuss it.”
“To answer your question, I’ve been a Lord ever since the war. I’m over 500 years old. I witnessed the signing with Lady Exousia,” Seraph said to break the awkward tension.
“Wow. How old do your species live to?” Exil inquired.
Seraph shrugged and moved a branch out of his way. “I’m 667, but not the eldest of my species.” His black striped blue tail whipped behind him. “The elder of the Glacyers is about 976. He was around before the wars started, when all demons, humans, and mixed species lived on the same pieces of land without segregation.”
“That was a long time ago,” Exil said. He took another step and fell into the deep snow.
“Jeez, Exil, are you alright?” Soverin said, kneeling down in the snow and helping the demon up.
“The only thing hurt is my pride,” he said with a small smile.
“Aw, how sweet. I’m all yours then?” a familiar voice said not too far ahead of them.
They turned to come face to face with purple voids of eyes.
“Boys, you’ve gotten close,” Pride said with a grin. “Too close, actually. Lucifer needs a bit more time to recuperate.”
“What the Hell is your problem?” Soverin demanded. “I’m doing what you asked me to do, why do you have to keep stalling?”
“You know that old cliché,” Pride said as he waved a hand in front of his face, “the evil-doer comes back, sends the good-doer on a quest, the evil-doer stalls the good-doer with extra things, and therefore gets more power and more time.”
“Get off my land,” Seraph snarled, baring sharp flesh-tearing teeth. “I don’t know who you are, but if you are to jeopardize the safety of these two individuals for that son of a bitch, you will die.”
Pride scoffed. “I have no business with you, boy.”
“Boy? I’m over 600 years old, I am far past boy-hood.”
“Yeah? Well I’m over 1,000, so shut your pie-hole.” He flicked his wrist and called in his gun.
At that time, Soverin called in his sword, and Exil called in a purple guitar with a rose emblem on its body. Up towards its neck, the curves twisted around, making it seems more like a butterfly.
Soverin looked over his weapon and arched a brow. “A musical instrument?”
Exil shrugged. “She’s called Rosa Marie. And don’t judge her by her looks.” He stood up straight and stepped forward. “Let me show you what she does.”
Pride pulled his purple lips back in a grin. “Oh this should be fun. A gun verses a pansy guitar. Well then… round 1.”
Chapter 26
|
"S |
o tell me," Exil said while circling Pride, "doesn't it get kinda... oh I don't know, drafty in that thing?" He nodded towards Pride's skirt and put the guitar strap over his shoulder to hold it up.
Pride fumed and loaded his gun. "You shouldn't ask such a personal question to someone like myself."
Exil snorted. "Think you outrank me, just because you're from the 4th gate?"
"That instantly qualifies me as your superior."
"In rank, I suppose, skill, not a chance." He absentmindedly fiddled with the tuning on the guitar.
"Oh what, you gonna play what you want dedicated to you at your funeral? Or are you gonna play me a sad love song?" Pride pulled a mock pout while Exil rolled his turquoise eyes.
"In your dreams only, faggy boy." Satisfied with the tuning, he got into his fighting stance.
Pride grinned and cocked his gun. "Oh well. Can't blame a Sin for trying, eh?" He pulled the trigger three times.
Exil grinned right back. "True enough." He began playing a fast paced chord progression that made the bullets ricochet off invisible walls and back at Pride.
Pride swerved and ducked, avoiding the first two bullets and having the third graze his left shoulder. He growled. "You're a wave master?"
Exil's grin still hadn't left. He shrugged. "Who the Hell knows? Nifty little weapon I have here though. With it, I can control sound, manipulate the air, and use it for band practice."
Pride spat on the ground. "Humor won't get you through this alive. Let's go."
"I've been going, if you haven't realized. Why, have you not?"
Pride growled. "Don't get cocky boy." He ducked and ran at Exil, catching him off guard and ramming him in the gut.
Exil gave out a groan and fell back into the cold snow. He rolled over out of the way as Pride went to drive his foot down on his chest. Cradling his guitar to him, he got up and spun around, strumming out another melody. This one summoned waves of purple electric energy that zapped around him. As he continued playing the melody, the waves grew bigger and bigger, until he finally changed his progression to a new melody, this one faster than the previous. The energy struck out at Pride, wrapping around him and crushing his arms closer to his body. As Pride cried out, Exil laughed. "Who's cocky now?"
"Y-you son of a bitch," Pride forcefully said as the waves continued crushing him.
"Actually, I believe I am just that."
"You forget one thing though." Pride's hand moved ever so slightly and pulled the trigger on his gun. Before Exil could stop it, the bullet penetrated his right shoulder.
Crying out in pain, he fell to his knees as the snow around him turned red. The waves holding Pride prisoner weakened and he eventually floated back down to the ground. He laughed. "You know, it'll be a pity killing you. You who are so handsome. If only I had my proper body, I'd make you my own."
"Even if you were a chick, you're one I wouldn't bang if I was getting paid or not. Meaning I'd rather fuck some fat screamer than your sadistic ass," he groaned in response.
Pride snarled. "You're in no position to be stating your mind to me." Straitening up, he smiled again. "Oh well. You prefer death, so be it." He raised his firearm and a shot rang out.
Soverin's eyes grew wide. "EXIL!"
Chapter 27
|
E |
xil clutched at his chest, but no new pain was there. "What the-" He quickly looked up at Pride.
Pride's eyes grew and he clutched the back of his shoulder. He growled and wheeled around, only to come face-to-face with a gun that had three barrels.
"Vincent?" Exil said, taking his guitar off and vanishing it. "What the Hell are you doing here?"
Vincent grinned, never taking his eyes off of the Sin. "I thought ye boyos could use an extra hand here and there. Good thing I came, otherwise ye'd be consuming more bullets than ye could take."
Soverin laughed and ran towards the two, closely followed by Seraph.
"This is not over, Wave-master. Take note of that." Pride vanished in a puff of violet smoke.
"Hey, that's not fair!" Exil said, getting up with a bit of difficulty.
"We must hurry back to the village and get that bullet out," Seraph said, inspecting Exil's wounded shoulder.
"Bah, I'm more worried about my jacket. I just got this damn thing, now it's ruined with blood and a bullet hole."
Vincent laughed. “I knew it was a good decision to come back and help ye.”
Soverin and Vincent helped Exil off the ground and supported his weight equally between them.
Exil flinched. “These don’t feel like regular bullets. My shoulder feels like it’s being ripped off.”
“It might be poison,” Seraph said. “Come, my village is just over this hill. We’ll take him to the medical hut.”
They continued following Seraph, stumbling a bit from Exil’s weight. By the time they reached
A female with the same blue-tinted skin came from the back of the hut, moving surprisingly fast on her clawed feet. Unlike Seraph, who wore a long loincloth, fishnets on his feet, a shackle on his right ankle, a gold ring on his little clawed toe on his left foot, a blue spiked bracelet on his tail, and straps holding up the loincloth with an o-ring, Sahra had a white skirt and blouse. She wore no jewelry, save for one necklace, and her eyes were a dull green. Her light blue hair was pulled back in a bun to keep it out of her face. She had the same black stripes on her face as Seraph, one over each eye and along it, and two over each cheek, but that was where the similarities ended. She clicked her tongue. “I thought you were out hunting those miserable wolves, not searching for lost creatures.”
Seraph growled. “Sahra, treat my guests with some respect.”
“Why, Brother? What makes these demons so special?” she sneered back, showing the same teeth her sibling had. “You know I treat no one that is not our own.”
Seraph roared a monstrous sound. “If I say to treat them with respect, you follow my orders. I am more than your eldest brother, I am your Lord. Family or not, I will not hesitate in punishing you for your disobedience. Now help this boy out.” When Sahra didn’t budge, he narrowed his eyes at her. “Now!”
Sahra jumped and helped Vincent and Soverin take Exil to one of the beds in the back.
“Seraph, what happened to him? He shouldn’t be sweating like this in 32 degree weather.”
“We suspect poisoned bullets. They’re lodged in between his chest and shoulder.”
The boys helped Exil out of his jacket and shirt and made him lay on his back. Sahra took a curved instrument and slammed it into Exil’s shoulder, making him cry out in pain. He gripped on to the sides of the bed, digging his claws in to the edges. “What are you trying to do? Kill me?”
“Shut up,” Sahra snapped. “I’m getting the damn bullets out of your body. Who the Hell shot you anyway?”
“Pride did,” Soverin answered.
Sahra stopped digging and stared at him. “You’re telling me an emotion pulled the trigger of a gun and put poisoned lead in his system?”
Seraph snapped his jaw at her. “No, it’s what I tried warning you all about, but you wouldn’t listen to me. Lucifer is back, and the Sins have their powers fully back.”
Exil shook his head. “The Sins always had their powers in full. Now that Lucifer is back, they can use them fully. They don’t have to worry about dying and not being able to bring their Lord back. They have his powers to back them up.” He groaned and clutched at his shoulder. “Sahra, please get these bullets out.”
Sahra continued her digging. “You do know, the poison is already in your system, and we have no idea what it is, so I can’t determine how fast or slow it moves through your system, or even what it does to you.”
Seraph looked over the wound again. “The edges of his skin where it was pierced say biomorphisis. See how it’s turning a faint green? I’ll go to the healer and get the antidote from her.” As he opened the door to go to the healer’s home, Soverin saw that the sky was almost fully deep gray.
“So he wasn’t kidding about the snow-storm,” he muttered. He looked down at Exil, who was now biting on his finger so hard, his fangs were piercing through his skin. “How you holding up buddy?”
“Let’s see. There’s something digging in my chest for bullets lodged by my shoulder blade, and I feel like I’m gonna hurl, or pass out from this throbbing headache. Nah, I’m just peachy-keen.”
Vincent moved to get Exil a trash bucket and put it over his head.
Soverin snorted around a laugh.
“Ha ha ha. Very fucking funny. You’re not helping,” Exil said, muffled a bit by the bucket. “If I could I’d punch you in the jaw Pirate-boy.”
“Ooh, he is in pain,” Vincent said. “No one has ever disrespected me before.” He laughed. “Shows the boyo has some balloux.”
“There, I got them.” Sahra dropped the shells in a tray on the table next to her. “Seraph should be back within the next three minutes with your medicine.”
Exil took the bucket off his head and sat up slowly. As soon as he did, he laid back down. “Nope, that was a bad idea.”
“How bad is biomorphisis?” Vincent asked.
“If not treated within two hours, he’ll die a painful death,” Sahra shrugged.
“Oh real fucking great,” Exil said, bringing the bucket up to himself and loosing whatever food he had consumed.
The door opened, letting a flurry of cold wind in along with Seraph. “Sahra, I need you to get me a measuring spoon. He needs to take this gradually through the night. One teaspoon every hour on the hour until the bottle is empty.”
“Why only one teaspoon every hour?” Exil said, holding his stomach.
“Simple. You drink all of it at once, you’ll die. Biomorphisis can only be cured with another, less lethal poison. If taken gradually, it will eat away at the poison little by little and fade away.” Sahra handed him a measuring spoon and he poured some into the teaspoon. “Tyrianna said that the medicine will burn your throat for a few seconds, but it will die down.” He helped Exil swallow the poison.
“Holy crap what the Hell is that?” he coughed.
“Reational. It’s the only poison that eats away other poisons gradually and not devour its host.”
“Sound’s lovely,” he said sarcastically. “And is it supposed to make you drowsy?”
“That would be from the biomorphisis,” Seraph explained while setting the bottle and spoon aside. “Since we’ll each have to stay here for the night, I suggest we take turns giving Exil his medicine. For now, I have to go to the Main Hall and report my findings today and inform everyone you’re here.” He inclined his head to them all and left the hut once more.
“I’ll take the first watch,” Vincent said. “I’ll wake ye when I get sleepy.”
Soverin stretched and yawned. “Alright. Sahra, we’re allowed to use the other beds, right?”
“Of course. I have no other patients as of now. If we need your particular bed, we’ll just flip the mattress with you on it.” She got up out of her chair and headed towards a private room in the back. “I have to sleep now, no clue what could happen tomorrow and I have to be prepared. Remember, every hour ON the hour.”
“I won’t forget something as important as that,” Vincent said. “Ye can count on that one.”
Sahra nodded and entered her room, closing the door and more than likely locking it.
Soverin took off his jacket and laid down on the bed, using it as a blanket. Only a few minutes after he closed his eyes did he fall asleep.
Chapter 28
|
I |
nstead of going down the path of sweet dreams, Soverin's mind took him down a hallway of nightmares. Behind each of the doors that were in the hallway laid out in front of him was a memory he had locked away for so long. He took the handle of the door closest to him and opened it with a bit of difficulty. Stepping inside the blank room, it transformed into a familiar street. One he recognized as the one he had first met Talyn.
A little girl with red-tipped black hair that extended down to her waist ran through him as if he weren’t there at all. It took him a second to realize who the girl was. Not too long afterward, three boys ran after her, each with the same black dragon tails as the one they were perusing. Their eyes each hinted malice as they grinned mischievously. “Where are you going half-breed? We just want to have some fun with you!”
They caught up to the girl just as she left the Kuroiten dome and one of the boys grabbed her tail, pulling her back from her escape. “Stop it! Leave me alone!”
The boy holding on to her tail swung her into the arms of one of the larger boys, who laughed at her attempts to free herself. She tried to kick, but to no avail. The last boy grabbed her chin and laughed in her face. “We don’t take kindly to half-breeds, no matter what rank you were born into. Your mother has made you into scum.” He nodded towards one of the electricity poles. “Jinth, tie her.”
The boy holding her started to take her to the pole when something cracked into his shin, causing him to collapse on to the ground in pain. Talyn fell to her knees, coughing as dust rose around them from Jinth’s fall.
The boy who had given the order snarled. “Who the Hell do you think you are?”
Talyn looked up as a shadow crossed over her face. Someone had their back to her, but she couldn’t tell who it was. They had long silver hair, and wore a blue T-shirt with black slacks. What was most captivating was the fact he had, not a black dragon tail, but a green, spiked tail.
Soverin watched from the background as his past played out in front of him. His younger self crouched in a fighting position, tail extended and swaying threateningly. The spikes glinted in the sun. “Why do you cause this girl harm?” he demanded.
The boy sneered. “It’s none of your business, Green-born. You don’t belong on these lands.”
Soverin’s younger self laughed and looked around. “I believe we are outside of the Kuroiten Dome. These lands belong to no particular Breed. I have every right as a dragon to roam these streets. Now I demand to know, why are you harassing this girl?”
“She is half-born, which we do not care for as dragons of the darkness. She is half fire, which is a disgrace to the Dark Dragon race. We were going to stone her ourselves to take the trouble off of her father Hache.”
“You’d dare stone the daughter of our Lord?”
“No doubt he’d do it given the chance. He is all about purity of our races. Now stand aside, Green-born and let us do what we set out this morning to do.”
Soverin snarled. “I won’t allow such a thing to occur.” He charged at the boy and swung around, letting his tail slice into skin and tear through the muscle of his arm. He used his claws to dig into the throat of the last standing boy. “Even though you are still young, I have no problems killing people like you. Set your priorities straight, or I will not hesitate again to end your life.” He threw him aside and let him scramble to his feet, coughing and sputtering up blood as some trickled down the puncture wounds in his neck. Soverin stood over him, his blue eyes glowing. There were no scars on his face, showing he still had all of his vision. “I suggest you and your friends run now before I change my mind.”
The boy on the ground nodded. He and the boy with the wounded arm helped Jinth up, dragging him back in to Kuroiten.
Soverin turned back to the girl and gave her a soft smile. “I hope they will leave you be for now.”
The girl shook her head sadly. “They are not the only ones who view me as an abomination. But they were wrong about my father. He doesn’t want me dead in the least. He loves my mother even though she is an elemental. It’s the Dark race that doesn’t like my existence. You’re the only one who has stuck up for me.” She inclined her head to him. “You have my thanks, mister.”
Soverin laughed. “My name is Soverin Daemon, no need to call me ‘Mister’.”
The girl laughed too. “Alright then, Soverin. I am Talyn Lucretia. Would you like to be my first and only friend?” She extended her hand to him.
“But Talyn, it would be forbidden. The races must be kept separate.”
Talyn smiled. “In the domes we must live, but outside of the domes we can visit. Right here, every day!”
Soverin smiled back. “Alright, we’re friends then, Talyn. I will protect you always, no matter what.”
The grown Soverin had had enough of this memory and left, closing the door and his eyes, leaning against the cold steel. “I’m sorry I failed you Talyn.” He brushed away a tear on his face and continued on down the hallway. He extended his hand to another doorknob and opened it. The room changed into a courtroom, one he recognized as the one he stood in as he was being Exiled. He looked around and saw his mother sobbing onto the shoulder of his father. Next to his mother was Raiden, who wore a look of sincere grief. A set of side doors opened and his younger self was brought in, held fast by two Black Dragons. He didn’t struggle, didn’t cry, didn’t scream. Just let them drag him in to the room and stood in front of the podium Lord Hache sat behind.
Hache stood. “Soverin Xavier Daemon, you stand here accused of breaking the Dragon Laws and associating with a dragon of a different breed than you are. What do you plead?”
Soverin held fast. “Guilty.”
“Do you have anything to say in your defense?”
“Of course. I defended your daughter, the dragon I am being Exiled for befriending. When I met her, she was being harassed, and the boys would’ve stoned her to death had I not been there that day. Outside of the boundaries of Kuroiten, I was her savior. No one hurt her. Without my existence, Talyn would’ve been killed, and you Exile me for protecting her.”
“Had you been a Black Dragon, we would not be here, but you as a Green Dragon were not even supposed to approach her.”
“IF I HADN’T SHE WOULD’VE DIED! WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE THAT?”
“Hold your tongue!” Hache snapped.
“Well would you?!”
“Silence!”
“I will not be silenced! I am the only one besides her family that does enough to protect her! Lord Hache, I LOVE HER!”
Silence fell over the courtroom.
“You what?!”
“You heard me correctly. This whole room did. I love Talyn, which is why I chose to protect her.”
“Remove him from my court room! His sentence has been made. From this day forth, Soverin Xavier Daemon is Exiled!”
His mother Sophia cried louder, and the grown Soverin wanted nothing more than to comfort her, let her know he was fine.
His younger self fought off the two guards. “Hache! I will not go down without a fight!” Soverin’s eyes glowed a violent shade of red as his skin turned to the same shade as his tail. His mouth became a muzzle full of razor sharp teeth. Soon he stood before the Dragon Lord in his true dragon form. He roared. “You will not Exile me without looking into your heart and answer me truthfully. Did you want your daughter to die, or are you grateful I saved her?”
Hache merely stood and transformed himself to his black dragon form. “Let’s take this outside.” He spread his wings and jumped through the roof of the courthouse. Soverin followed suit, until they reached the battle arena.
The real Soverin was transported with ease to the arena.
Hache folded his wings. “Why do you insist on being so stupid?”
Soverin snapped his jaw at him. “Answer me my question!”
Hache smacked him with one of his forepaws, creating the horizontal gash across his check. “I will never answer to you Green born! Your Exile is about much more than you befriending my daughter.”
Soverin ignored the stinging pain in his face. “Then what am I being charged for?”
“It is something foretold to me and I must prevent it from happening. I will not allow the fate of the world rest in your hands.”
While he spoke, he swiped his paw over Soverin’s eye, creating the last scar.
Soverin roared in pain and closed his eye out of reaction. He swung at Hache, narrowly catching him across the chest. Hache snarled and swung around, cracking Soverin across the skull with his tail.
Soverin howled and lost balance. He fell and soon lost consciousness. The room the grown Soverin was in grew black and then lightened again to blankness.
He left and went into the room next to it. He shivered at the piercing cold.
His younger self awoke before him, almost covered in snow. He jumped to his feet and looked around him. He was back in his demon form. The crack to the head must’ve turned him back when he lost consciousness. He saw none of the domes, and had no idea where he was. But he was determined to find out.
Soverin stumbled through the cold snow, shivering against the freezing winds. The tears of frustration on his face fell in small ice drops as he bit back sobs of anguish. How could his father hand him over to Exile so easily? Without so much as a fight? Night was falling and he was without food and shelter. He sank to his knees and cried out, “I’ll never forgive you! You hear me?! I’ll never forgive you for this!” He slammed his fist into the snow, his tears sinking down to the ground.
Just then, he heard a rustling in a bush close to him. In a spasm of panic, he forced his energy into the ground, causing vines to snatch at whatever it was that caused the noise. A small squeal and then snapping of bones sounded, along with silence. The pure white snow around the bush was soon stained deep red. Soverin carefully walked over to the bush and looked at what he had killed. His eyes widened and he fell back on his rump with a yelp. He had killed a small rabbit, and the way it laid there, disfigured and now bloodstained, he couldn’t bear the sight of it. He turned over and threw up.
“Soverin?”
His eyes widened and he whirled around, looking through the flurry of snow to see the speaker. “Raiden. You’re not supposed to see me or speak to me. You could be Exiled as well! Get out of here!”
Raiden flinched at his younger sibling’s harsh words. “Brother, I came because it was unjustified for Hache to Exile you for such a simplistic reason. I only wish I knew why he was so afraid of you being friends with his daughter. Talyn adores you, she still does.”
“That’s still no reason to follow me. Please, I don’t want you Exiled as well! Go back to Mother and Father, they’re probably worried about you.”
“They’re worried of your safety. That’s another reason why I’m out here.” He pulled a long cloak out of the bag over his shoulders and laid it over Soverin’s shoulders. “Mom says to take this. You’ll need it out here. And she also gave me food to give to you, since I know you can’t handle hunting on your own.” He nodded back to the bush where the blood still seeped into the snow.
Soverin looked away, ashamed.
“The Snow Tygres don’t live too far from here. Father says they owe him a debt. You can stay with them and train yourself to hunt. You can stay out of the cold.”
“If Father wanted to help so bad, why didn’t he come himself?”
“He couldn’t. He sent me because it’s easier for me to get out of Verdeta. Come on Brother, let’s get you out of the cold. What do you say?” He stood and extended his hand to Soverin.
He looked at it before taking his hand and getting up.
Soverin left as the room’s scenery began to fade. He closed the door and sat on the floor.
“Soverin, wake up boy, it’s yer shift.”
Soverin opened his eyes and saw the figure of Vincent above him. “What?”
“I said it’s yer shift. Exil’s dead asleep, but he still needs his meds. I just gave him his dose for this hour.”
“How long have I been out?”
“Just about 5 hours.” He glanced at the clock. “I just now have become sleepy, so I figured I’d wake ye up.”
Soverin sat up and the jacket fell from his shoulders. He rubbed at his eyes with his sleeve, causing it to become damp.
“Ye alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Eyes are just leaking a bit.” He slid off the bed and let Vincent have it and his jacket. He sat in the chair that was next to Exil and stared at the clock. ‘Hang in there Exil. Only a few more doses…’
Chapter 29
|
“L |
ord Lucifer, why have I been summoned?”
Lucifer looked down at the dragon in front of him from his throne platform and grinned. “Two more days, Raiden. That’s all I need.”
“Why summon me?”
“Don’t play coy. I have chosen you as leader and master of the followers because you are the strongest.”
Raiden scoffed. “I thought it was because Soverin is my little brother.”
“That is part of it, but your strength makes my choice stronger.”
“My Lord, if I may, why do you want him killed so badly if he is the one who released you? He has played his part in your uprising.”
Lucifer’s eyes glowed red. “Do you not realize the same man who unsealed me is the only one who can lock me away again?”
Raiden took a cautious step back. “No, I was not aware of that fact.”
“I want him dead so I never have to go back! I will drain the blood from his body and use it for my drinks. I’ve grown fond of that metal, thick taste. Every drop of human blood I receive, I grow stronger, feeling more like a devil every day. Just imagine the power of a demon’s.”
“The followers will only slow him down, not kill him.”
“That’s my goal. I could actually get him to kill himself if I so wanted.”
Now Raiden was intrigued. “How so?”
Lucifer laughed. “Oh Honey! Come great out guest.”
Raiden narrowed his eyes as the door to Lucifer’s chambers opened. He soon paled. “Lord, do you really want Hache’s wrath down on you? Are you that insane?”
“Why yes, yes I am,” he said, slinking his arm around Talyn’s waist as she neared. “It’s funny how compliant a body can be once you lock away its soul.”
“Hache’ll have your head.”
“He’ll blame your brother before even myself. Right now, my existence remains unknown to him, so he believes his daughter’s absence has solely to do with him.”
“She did leave Kuroiten to find him, all of Doragon knows this.”
“And so they shall believe. Hache will not believe the word of Soverin. Well, not until he hears my message.”
Suddenly the grand hall doors burst open and Sloth came in, supporting Pride’s weight.
Lucifer rose to his feet. “What happened? I only told you to continue warning them, not fight them.”
Sloth wrinkled his nose in disgust. “He was shot with a bullet to his right shoulder. No one but Pride puts poison on their bullets, so we’re fine in that area, but nevertheless, the bullet must come out.”
“You were a doctor in your former life, you perform the surgery. There’s an examination table right in front of you.”
Sloth scoffed but helped Pride to lay on his stomach. “Be that as it may, I don’t hold the right tools, and the lives were more fragile then.”
“You didn’t have proper tools in that time period anyway. Improvise.”
Sloth growled and pushed his glasses up the bride of his nose. “I wasn’t THAT primitive. We had some tools in the 1800s.”
Lucifer sat on his throne again. “As I said, improvise.”
Raiden joined Sloth’s side and looked over Pride’s wound. “Maybe Gluttony’s claws would do?”
“I believe so. Look for him, we need to get it out soon.”
Raiden nodded and left the grand hall while Sloth removed the cloth draped over Pride’s shoulders.
“So how did you come around to being shot?” Lucifer inquired, his purple eyes hinting amusement. “Neither of those men believe in guns.”
“A third man… with blonde hair and green eyes. He held a three-barreled pistol. A red bandana around his head. They called him Vincent. There was also another man with them. He was a Glacyer Rapticle. I don’t know how important he his, but if he was patrolling he couldn’t be too high in rank.”
Raiden returned with one of Gluttony’s claw gloves. “He said you could use the one.”
Sloth took off his own right glove and put on the claws. “Alright Pride, this is gonna hurt like a bitch, but at least the claws are a bit better than tools I had to use in my former life.”
Pride grimaced as Sloth plunged a claw into his back, searching for the bullet. “Wow, getting shot does suck.”
“Showing sympathy for your victims?” Lucifer asked.
“Of course I’m not. It’s all fun and games until someone, usually you, gets shot. Anyone else gets shot and it’s hilarious.”
The claw scraped against metal. “I think I found it. I’ll just go around and scrape it out.”
“What the Hell kind of doctor did you used to be and what frigging time period did you perform surgery in? Medieval Times?”
“No, try the time period where the Civil War was going on in
“You were around for that? Damn, I died in 1930.”
“All of us come from separate times.” He pulled the bullet out. “But remember, we are not to speak of former lives around those on this planet. Hades forbids it.”
“Hades?” Lucifer asked, his brow furrowed. “I thought he was known as Satan.”
Sloth and Pride both laughed.
“In our former lives, he had many names. Osiris, Hades, Satan, the Devil, Donn, Mictlantecuhtli, and most importantly, Death.” Pride explained.
“There were more than likely a numerous amount of others, but those were most common in the big religions of our times,” Sloth added in.
“Why so many different names?” Lucifer inquired.
“Different time periods and different faiths. For example, in Ancient Greece, the Lord of the Underworld was known as Hades. The Greeks believed in an abundance of gods for everything, just like you do in this realm.”
“Every religion had a different story for their gods, or one specific God. The religions caused a lot of conflicts over a great many of years,” Pride added on to Sloth’s words, pulling his cloth over his head. “Everyone was trying to force their religion on someone else. The atheists were always viewed as outcasts and not given much thought.”
Sloth opened his mouth to add on, but a sudden jolt passed through them. “We’ve said too much.”
“Says who?”
“Says Satan. We are not followers of him, but we still belong to him. He created us, so we still must abide by his rules.”
Pride slipped off the table and left the room, with Sloth following suit.
Lucifer sat there, flabbergasted. “Raiden, what secrets could the Underworld be hiding?”
Raiden shrugged. “Seems like the Sins once all inhabited one planet other than our own. I have never heard of a ‘Civil War’ or a country ‘
Lucifer nibbled on his finger, but then grinned.
“My Lord?”
“Just imagine when I get Pandemonium. All the knowledge of the world and more will be mine.”
“When will you open the first gate?”
“When the Sins round up enough followers to sacrifice themselves for me.”
Raiden stepped back. “Sacrifice? But you weren’t even 21 when you opened the gates before.”
“I slept around,” Lucifer said simply. “Each woman I slept with gave me a vial of blood.” He looked at Talyn, who continued to stare blankly ahead. “We have one sacrificial lamb. Her blood can make up for 10 humans. We’ll need much more though.” He ran his nails down her arm softly. “Raiden.”
“Yes my Lord?”
“Make sure the Sins continue bringing in my followers. They haven’t brought me any in a day.”
“Yes Lord Lucifer. I’ll find their locations and check in. Shall I report to you?”
“No, I don’t believe so. I think I’ll be… busy in a few minutes.” He waved his hand in a shooing motion. “Now go and find out what they’re up to.”
Raiden nodded and opened another portal, stepping into it and disappearing along with it.
Chapter 30
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he suns never came up in
“How’s he doing?”
Soverin shrugged, rings starting to form under his eyes. He yawned. “He still hasn’t woken up, but the wound is almost healed, and it isn’t green anymore. I just changed the bandages.”
Seraph nodded. “I’ll wait for him to wake. You sleep.”
“Wait for who to wake?” Exil muttered. “I’m up, I’m up…”
Soverin breathed a sigh of relief. “You gave us all a scare there Exil.”
“What, a demon can’t get a good night’s sleep?” Exil sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Why is it still dark outside?” he asked, glancing at the clock.
“The blizzard is still going on,” Seraph answered. “It will be for another few hours. “
Soverin slouched in his seat. “Meaning we’ll have to hold off telling Hache the news.” He bit one of his fingers.
“A few hours is nothing compared to what it normally is outside.” Seraph took a seat on one of the beds next to Exil. “So you’re fine now, I take it?”
Exil nodded. “Yes, I am. Tyrianna’s potion really helped.”
Seraph laughed. “Her potion would be the only one out there to cure biomorphisis. She has done a lot of research well into the night to find out if any other potion will cure it instantly. While she’s supplied us with 10 vials, she’s found out there is in fact another potion that will cure it faster than the one she gave us last night. It’s called Poiserum and is available to the public."
"Wait, us?"
Seraph nodded. "If I may, I'd like to accompany you on your journey."
"Yes, it's no problem at all," Soverin said. "You might be able to help us into Doragon."
Seraph shook his head. "That I cannot do, but I can lead you through these lands, and it's about time I left this village and let one of my sons take over."
"Sons?"
"Being Lord of a city has its perks," he winked. "Unfortunately, my sons were born bastards, but they still have royalty in their blood. Once the snow lets up, I will inform the whole village of my intentions and make my eldest the new Lord.”
“Does he know?”
“Yes. I’ve told Zakariah of my intentions and he’s extremely happy about it.”
Soverin yawned and then looked over at Vincent, whose bandanna had crumpled under his arm. A bit of drool dangled from his partially opened mouth. “I suppose I should wake him then.”
Seraph shook his head. “No. Get some more sleep yourself. We’ll be heading to the
“How far away is that?” Exil asked.
“Not far at all. Just beyond the
“So we get to go ice skating across?”
Seraph laughed at Exil’s dry humor. “No,
“Should be ‘Valley of Ice-Blue Eyes’ then.”
“If I could changed the name of a land I would, but that’s not my authority. That is for the Elders to decide.”
“Will Zakariah try and change anything?” Soverin asked.
“No. A Lord has power, but not much. Only Hache has the same power as an Elder. The powers a Lord or Lady has is to uphold and abide by the set rules the Elders have set. Zakariah knows this, so that’s why I chose him.” Seraph shook his head. “But you have about 4 hours, and you can’t survive outside like I and my species can. The storm has died down a bit, but not enough for you. You both sleep while I hold the ceremony.”
Soverin yawned again and stretched. “Alright, that sounds good. Exil, you up for more sleep?” He looked over to see he had already passed out again. “Well that answers my question.”
Seraph stood and walked to the door. “I’ll come and get you if I do not see you outside during the ceremony.”
Soverin nodded and laid out on the bed Seraph had been sitting on. He felt the cold as the door opened and closed to let Seraph back out into the snow. His exhaustion carried him back into sleep that wasn’t disrupted by horrible memories.
Chapter 31
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e was awoken three hours later to the sound of trumpets and drums. The trumpets sounded so loud he fell out of the bed and landed hard on his ass, sitting on the spikes of his tail. He yelped and jumped up, crashing into a side tray that had been left on the nightstand between his and Exil’s beds.
The other boys jumped awake as well. Vincent held his pistol blindly in front of him, his bandanna askew over his eyes.
“Show yerself ye scurvy dog!”
“Vincent, calm down, it’s only me!’
Vincent pulled the bandanna back into place. "Jeez mate, what the hell are ye trying to do?"
"The trumpets spooked me is all."
Exil walked over to the window, hands rubbing his arms. "It's a big hullabaloo out there."
"Well yeah, normally passing on royalty is a big deal. It hasn't happened with demons too many times," Soverin said, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, "but it happens frequently with the human Lords and Ladies."
"Do you want to go out there?"
"I for sure do," Vincent said. "I have yet to see something like this."
Soverin looked him over. "Vincent, you'll freeze your ass off."
Vincent flicked his wrist and called in a yellow-trimmed red trunk. "Don't be so sure boyo." Out of the trunk he pulled out a long red overcoat and put it on over his vest. "See? Nice and cozy."
Soverin shrugged and handed Exil his coat. "Alright, let's go see what happens here."
They opened the door to find the cold air to be not as harsh as it had been the day before. The sound of the trumpets now turned to drums as more Glacyer Rapticles were dressed in tribal garb, all dancing in rhythm. Their moves had to have been practiced for many years, and never forgotten. At the end of the smaller hide covered huts was a large temple with one of the balconies above the entrance showing off a scroll hung over the railing, On the balcony stood Seraph and a younger Rapticle, no doubt his son Zakariah. Zakariah had random stripes all over his body, and one thick stripe over his snout. He kept his black tipped silver hair short and down. Like his father he wore a long loincloth, but instead of straps, he had a corset, similar to the one Soverin had met Exil wearing. Fishnets covered his arms, and a choker encircled his neck. The thing most visible on his slender hunting body was the small scar over his heart.
Once the music ended, Seraph extended his hand to call for silence, which he received without complaint.
"My brothers and sisters!" he called out to the crowd. "I have called you all together for this Passing for a very important reason. While I know it is all too sudden, I am getting on in years, and I'm tired of being your Lord. While I have loved being there for you all when you needed problems solved, I myself need time to see the world outside of the Northern Regions. So while I will miss you all, my eldest son Zakariah shall take on my responsibility. He shall be your new Lord, your new Counselor, your new best friend." He smiled at his son. "Zakariah, are you prepared to take on the responsibilities of being Lord of the Glacyer Rapticles?"
Zakariah nodded. "Yes milord." He took a deep breath and turned his attention back to the crowd. "I, Zakariah Asche, son of Seraph Asche and Felicity Ralia, hereby state, I take on full responsibility as Lord to the Glacyers. I will try and follow in my father's clawprints and maybe even surpass him. I wish you to treat me with the same respect as you do him. If you respect me, I will respect you. People of Glacyer Pass, from this day forth, I am no longer Zakariah Asche, but Lord Zakariah, leader of the Glacyer Rapticles." He raised his fist into the air, and the crowd cheered.
The three boys added to the noise by clapping in respect. Seraph was clapping as well, high in the balcony. He placed a hand on his son’s broad shoulder. “So now, we let the festivities begin!”
The main doors below him opened, allowing a mass of blue bodies carrying trays of exotic food to pour out. Soverin saw rabbits, foxes, minks, bits of bear, and mounds of wolves, all food Soverin hadn’t seen since he himself lived in Doragon.
“Wonder why there are so many wolves to be eaten,” Exil said at Soverin’s left.
“The Northern Wolves and the Glacyers are mortal enemies. They hunt each other for food.”
“I’ll not be touching the wolves then,” Vincent said with his nose cringed a bit.
“The ones who are killed are the ones stupid enough to get caught. Glacyers are less commonly caught than the wolves. Glacyer youths are normally cocky, but aren’t stupid. Wolf cubs are both. Cocky plus stupid equals deader than a doornail. It also helps that they have much more advanced technology than them.”
“So kill or be killed?”
“Up here, yeah, pretty much.”
“And to think, 200 miles away is a bustling city with pre-packaged meat,” Exil said with a shake of his head.
“Some cities choose not to become advanced, to stay traditional.”
By then, the tables that had been brought out, lining the outside of the main trail, had been covered in the trays of food, and twelve bowls of either wine, punch, or water had been set out as well.
“How many do you think inhabit this city?” Exil asked.
“About three hundred,” Seraph said, Zakariah trailing a small distance behind him. “Not a lot, yet not so little.”
“Didn't even see you leave the balcony,” Soverin said with a smile. That smile turned grim though. “There’s only 300 Glacyers left?”
Seraph nodded sadly. “While there are about 50 rouges out in the world, that’s all there are of us. I don’t know the average population for the Jung-le and the Bléys Rapticles, but I know it’s not a high number either. I don’t really keep in touch with Lord Jaden and Lady Fira.”
“Rakuin from the Maiden’s Kiss, he was a Jung-le Rapticle, wasn’t he Soverin?” Exil asked.
Soverin nodded. “Yeah. He must be one of the Jung-le rouges.”
“Ah, so that’s where he went,” Seraph grinned.
“You know him?”
“If he’s the same Rakuin Jaden was looking for. That’s his son. Rakuin’s been missing for some time now. They had a disagreement and he ran off that night.” He pulled a thoughtful look. “I think he’s been gone for… 20 years now?” He turned to Zakariah. “Was that when we saw Jaden last?”
Zakariah nodded.
“I’ll send word to Jeordie and Usagi later to tell Rakuin. Might not want to let Lord Jaden find out his son became a stripper,” Soverin laughed.
“Gods, what do your parents think about you then?” Exil asked.
Soverin shrugged. “Haven’t seen them in so long I don’t think it really matters.”
“Maybe before we go to Kuroiten we let you see them in Verdeta first. They might be even more help than Lady Exousia,” Seraph said. “Zakariah, why don’t you enjoy the festival with your wife?”
Zakariah’s cheeks turned a darker shade of blue. “I’m kind of in the dog house.”
“Really now? What did you do to claim the couch?” Exil asked.
“Serene has always wanted a dog, and I had promised to get her one for her next birthday, but I just couldn’t get a husky puppy in time so, I got kicked onto the couch.”
“He was going to go today, but I told him this couldn’t wait.”
“Try telling Serene that,” Zakariah muttered and walked off to find his wife, sitting at one of the round tables. Her clawed leg was hooked over the other and she was looking off to the side. When Zakariah came over, she snarled at him.
“This may get ugly,” Seraph said with a grimace. “What he sees in that woman, I don’t know.”
“Speaking low about your own daughter-in-law?” Exil said.
“Blatantly speaking, she’s a royal, high-maintenance bitch who married my son for his standing.”
Vincent, who had grabbed a glass of wine off a passing tray, spit the wine out laughing.
Soverin and Exil stood there wide eyed and jaws gaped.
Seraph merely shrugged. “It’s true. He’s told me she’s said I should’ve kicked the bucket already, even though I’m still young. She’s wanted him to take over for awhile now. You’d figure she’d be ecstatic about the news.” He sighed. “Anyway, before the scene gets worse, let’s go. I want to have some more fun before I go.”
“As I be getting smashed, trashed, and blown out of this world,” Vincent said, reaching for another glass of wine.
“Good thing there’s no stairs around then,” Exil laughed, recalling his spill on his own ship.
Vincent flipped him off and walked off to find food to eat, making a wide detour around the table holding the wolf meat.
Chapter 32
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eraph took the two around
“The big building down that path is the armory, and next to it is an apothecary."
“What weapons do you forge?” Soverin asked.
“Swords, knives, and razorguns. Basics of our hunting gear.”
“Not much variation, huh?”
“In types, no. But plenty of variety of what we do have.”
“We’ll have to look at that later,” Exil said, watching Vincent walk by in a drunken stupor, singing “yo ho blow the man down” in a very dirty way.
Soverin stared after the inebriated water elemental. “I thought that song was about killing someone.”
“Apparently it can go both ways,” Exil said, shaking his head.
Soverin stooped down and scooped up a pile of snow, packing it together in a snowball. He took aim and nailed Vincent in the side of the head.
Vincent wheeled around. “Who be there shooting cannon balls at me head?!”
The three boys stifled their laughter.
“The gods are raging war with you Vincent. They’re retaliating for your horrible deeds!”
Vincent’s face paled. “I SWEAR ON ME LIFE I DIDN’T DO IT!” He turned to run and had a bad meeting with a tree.
Soverin had to hold his sides to keep them from splitting, and Exil fell onto his knees in the snow. Seraph leaned against the nearest solid object to keep himself standing.
Vincent slowly got back up, using his attacker for support. "I swear the thing jumped in front of me."
"Yeah, sure Vincent. Keep telling yourself that," Exil said between laughs.
"Let's see, his own ship attacked him, and now a tree," Soverin said, ticking the two off his fingers. "Who wants to place a bet for a whole building next?"
Vincent put his middle three fingers up. "Read between the lines, smartass."
Soverin pulled a taken aback face. “Vincent, how could you?”
“Very easily boyo.” With that he walked back to the festival.
Exil cleared his throat. “While I have grown to just LOVE the Northern regions, who else agrees we should keep moving?” he said, shivering a little.
Seraph nodded. “There’s really not much else besides the training grounds and the research labs.”
This caught Soverin’s interest. “What data do you hold in your lab?”
Seraph’s lips pulled back in a sharp-toothed grin. “Almost every file on every famous or infamous person, landmark, or thing.”
“Do you have anything on Lucifer and his Sins?”
“Of course-“
“May I see them?”
Seraph hesitated. Then he scratched an itch on his snout. “Normally outsiders are not permitted to the computers, but I shall make an exception. But I would figure you’d know everything you needed to already on that whoreson.”
“Everything currently and how he came to become infamous. Nothing else.”
“Very well then. Follow me.”
Chapter 33
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eraph led them to what seemed to only be a large boulder. He placed his hand over a section on the right side, and it glowed in intricate light and dark blue colors, giving off a trickling kind of sound. Soon the front of the boulder faded and a long passageway was opened to them.
Exil’s eyes widened. “How the crap’d you do that?”
“As I’ve said, our technology is advanced,” he replied simply. “Right this way.” He led them down the stairs carved straight from the stone, as the front of the boulder materialized again.
The passageway was lit with, not torches as Soverin had expected, but fluorescent lights that softly hummed overhead. As they walked, it got a bit warmer, instead of getting colder as it should when in an underground cave, whether man-made or not.
Soon they reached the end of the tunnel and came to an actual door instead of another rock face. Seraph lifted the lid of a grey panel next to the door and punched in a few codes. The door beeped and unlatched.
“Gentlemen, you are the only outsiders apart from Hache who know about this room. If I find out you’ve let word spill… well, we’ll figure that out if it happens, now won’t we?” He gave a smart smile, making the boys a bit nervous. Seraph opened the door and they emerged into a brightly lit room that was completely devoted to one single computer. Three separate screens took up a whole wall, while the panel below it curved around, supplying the keyboard. Wires hooked up to machines that constantly beeped and hummed.
But they weren’t alone.
A young Glacyer sat in front of the screens, typing something in a never-ending manner. He was dressed in a white lab coat and black thick-rimmed glasses. If he didn’t have his hair in a neat and short ponytail, Soverin could’ve sworn it was Sloth in a Glacyer suit.
Seraph sighed at the young one. “David are you still working on this? I thought you got the virus out ages ago.”
David wheeled around in his chair, his claws scraping the tiled floor. “Yes Lord Seraph, I have.” He pushed his glasses further up his snout. “I just didn’t want to attend the festival.”
“Why would that be, boy?”
David fiddled with a pen he had in his hand. “No one likes me…” he said reluctantly. “Because I’m the computer nerd. They think what I do is too stupid for one my age. That I should be out hunting and proving I can provide for a family.”
Seraph laughed. “So you let other people’s judgment get you down? Why don’t you go to have fun? You’re skinnier than a twig boy; the festival would help put meat on your bones.”
“Yes, but no one will talk to me. I’ll feel out of place.”
“Nonsense. I’ll go with you and make sure you have fun.”
“Oh no milord, I can never ask that of you.”
“Yet you’ve been serving me dutifully for the past 15 years. You deserve a break and I will observe that you are taking one you well deserve.” He motioned for David to follow him. Once he was close enough, Seraph put a hand on his shoulder. “Soverin, it’s all yours. Come back to the village when you’re done.” He inclined his head to them and left with David.
Soverin took the seat in front of the keyboard and stared at it.
Exil stood by him. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“How do you start?”
Soverin, who’s hand was above the rotary ball, paused. “You know, that’s a good question.” He typed in a code and brought up a search box. “Let’s look at the history of Delania first then.”
“That’s a start.” He looked around for another chair and found one. By the time he wheeled it back, Soverin’s eyes were squinted, mouth moving as he silently read the words on the screen. “Anything interesting?”
“Not at the moment. It just says here that Delania was a city that never agreed with the Accord.”
“The Accord of Ancients?”
Soverin nodded and kept reading, scrolling down the screen every-so-often with the rotary ball. “’Delanians loved battle, so never agreed with their elder Telscha. Elder Telscha signed the Accord of Ancients to try to keep peace. He was too old to keep fighting. When Delania finally crumbled to the ground, 15 years after Lucifer’s attempt at opening the Gate of the Underworld-‘”
“That’s it! That’s what we’re looking for! OW!” Exil received a good punch in the shoulder for his interruption.
Soverin growled and searched the page, finding his place again. “’…opening the Gate of the Underworld, his signature disappeared off of the Accord. The destruction of Delania has never been verified, and the remains of Elder Telscha have yet to be found.’”
Exil rubbed his shoulder continuously. “What does that mean?”
“Means something went down in Delania that Lucifer wasn’t around for, and not even the best historians know.”
“Speaking of the black-haired ugly duckling, let’s bring up his background and see if there’s any dirt we can use against him, like buck-naked pictures of him on a bearskin rug or something.”
Soverin snorted, but typed Lucifer in the search. A few results popped up, so Soverin clicked on the best sounding.
Lucifer Dezaria
Age: 21
D.O.B: Exact date unknown
D.O.D: Exact day unknown
A.O.D: 21
Lucifer Dezaria, son of Beelzebub Dezaria and Medusa Dezaria, was born in the destructive city of
He began practicing magic when he was 13, and slowly grew stronger with it. His eye color, once blue, turned purple with all of the power he developed.
While reading one of his books, Lucifer came across the legend of the Gate of the Underworld. Lucifer, already believing he had enough power, studied the spells and incantations needed to open all 6 gates. Blood of sacrificial virgins were needed, but Lucifer, not addicted to bloodlust and cleaning up after murder, took vials at a time from virgins before sleeping with them.
One of his only friends recollected a chilling statement Lucifer had said after confessing to his deeds. “Killing is easy, it’s cleaning up that’s a bitch.”
Lucifer, now 21, proceeded with his ritual. His only friend refused to help, wanting nothing to do with the Underworld. Lucifer succeeded to open 4 of the 6 gates, a feat never accomplished in the history of Kyten then, or ever again. Standing in front of the 5th gate, he proceeded forward, only to find he still wasn’t strong enough, only being a human. He was slammed back into his fleshy tomb, and the reverberations this caused, caused the whole underground cathedral to cave in on his body.
Elder Telscha ordered a search team to recover his body. Lucifer wasn’t dead just yet, but Elder Telscha wanted nothing more to do with this troublesome boy. He had almost caused an apocalypse to befall all of Kyten. Elder Telscha had the body placed in a make-shift coffin and sealed it. He called on Lord Hache to oversee the banishment.
Lord Hache, being the Lord of Kyten, as he is to this day, was informed of Lucifer’s actions, and agreed with the terms Elder Telscha laid before him. Lucifer could be unsealed by a certain Green Dragon. A Green Dragon who shows kindness to one of not pure blood. He laid this down, believing it would never happen. Dragons never interbred with other dragon species, nor with any other species of demon or elemental. Their pride eats away at them. Green Dragons are the most prideful, right after Black Dragons.
And so Lucifer was sealed away, to never be disturbed again, and doomed to walk the path of nothingness between the land of the living, and the realm of the dead.
Soverin had clasped his hands in front of him and leaned his lips to them. His knuckles were turning white.
Exil sat there, mouth slightly agape. “They never thought it completely through.”
“No, that’s not it. Lord Hache fell in love with an elemental, something unforeseen to all of Doragon. They sired Talyn, and because I didn’t share the same pride as my breed, I went to her aid.” He slammed his fist into the table next to him so hard the wood dented and the metal legs tipped towards him. “He knew and he still fell for Astarte! This is all that fucker’s fault! HE KNEW OF THE DAMNED SPELL!”
“You can’t help who you fall in love with,” Exil said, unusually calm. “You of all people should know that.”
“Exil, understand that if I had known all along of the damn thing, I’d have avoided Kuroiten with all of my will. I would have never met her, and Lucifer would still be sealed away. Green Dragon parents must’ve stopped telling their children of the spell long ago, or it turned into a fairy tale.” He growled. “I would have never fallen in love with her.”
Exil placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You were never told. But you are right, this whole mess is Lord Hache’s fault.” He looked back at the computer screen. “Anything else we need to know?”
Soverin shook his head. “I’m done.” He stood and fixed his coat. “We’re leaving tomorrow. Have fun at the festival if you want, but go to bed before midnight.”
Exil nodded and closed the search boxes they had made, then stood in the same fashion as Soverin. “After finding all this out, I don’t think I can enjoy it, only fill up my stomach.” He followed Soverin out the door and turned the light off behind him, plunging the quietly noisy room into near total darkness.
Chapter 34
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he next morning, the boys set off for the entrance to the
He jumped when Exil broke their silence with a laugh. “I just thought of something.” He took a deep breath, raised his head to the sky, and slowly breathed out and walked faster.
Vincent raised a brow. “What was that supposed to do?”
Exil smiled. “I made a cloud trail.”
Soverin rolled his eyes. “You’re such a naïve child sometimes.”
“No, I’m the source of entertainment is what I am.”
“From being naïve.”
“Whatever works. Broke the silence, now didn’t it.”
“Yes, but once we reach the end of the Valley, we must be as silent as the grave. Wolves live on that side,” Seraph said, his braided-back hair slowly falling over his shoulder.
Soverin pulled his black cigarettes and lighter from his pocket and lit up, taking a deep inhale.
“Can’t break the habit, eh?” Exil asked.
“I could if I wanted to,” he answered, flicking ash from the end. “Just don’t feel like it.”
“Of course,” Exil laughed.
Silence fell on them again.
“Soverin,” Seraph asked.
Soverin looked at the blue Rapticle. “Hm? What is it?”
“What happens if Lady Exousia can’t get us in? What will you do then?” he said without looking at him.
“I … really don’t know. I just hope she can. If not, I think I know how. It’ll just be a bit complicated.”
“What is that?” Vincent said.
“Go pay my folks a visit. Only thing would be getting into Verdeta. I wasn’t Exiled from only Kuroiten. I was Exiled from all of Doragon. I’ll have to hope my costumes will hide my identity.” He expelled a puff of smoke and looked at Exil. “And I’ve been thinking Exil. When you first told me the story of Lucifer, you said he had died. What we read said he was near death.”
Exil smiled sheepishly. “I just told you what information I had gathered from rumors I heard going about.” His face got a bit more serious. “Why were you dwelling on that?”
“Different stories have gotten around, so how do we know what we hold is truth?”
“We trust our intelligence,” Seraph interjected. “All the information in that computer had been painstakingly collected over a good 60 years. Trust us to know the right information, especially from someone who lived through it.”
A half hour later, they reached the end of the Valley.
“The
Even through all of their precautions though, they soon heard growling all around them.
Seraph bared his sharp teeth in a sneer. “Curse their senses.” His green eyes darted around, trying to see where all of the wolves were, and how many there were. He held his arm out and called in his razorgun. The boys followed suit and called in their own weapons. Soverin noticed Exil hadn’t called on Rosa Marie, but a set of forest green tambourines.
He shook his head. “What is it with the weapons?”
Exil smiled. “You’d be surprised how much ass you can kick with a pair of tambourines.”
“What are these called?”
“Poison and Ivy.”
“Original.”
They formed a circle so none of their backs were showing, weapons at the ready. Wolves slowly emerged from the surrounding trees. Seraph didn’t see any of the demons, only their pets. His eyes narrowed. “Odd. Normally not this many of the pets would be out without at least one demon master.”
“Well then we’d better get to killing them, shouldn’t we?” Vincent said, cocking his gun.
“Hey Vince, your pirate jargon is wearing off,” Exil said.
“That’s what happens when ye stray far from yer crew and ship, and hang with people who don’t speak a lick of it.”
The wolves made the first attack, baring fangs through thick snarls.
Seraph moved forward, swinging around and cracking the wolf on the side of the head with his whip-like tail. The spiked bracelet made solid impact and the wolf faded into dust.
“Alright! No clean up then,” Soverin said with a grin. “My favorite type of kill.”
Exil was the next to rush the next wolf, bashing its head with the tambourines. As it was knocked off balance, he swirled around with them and knocked it up into the air. He jumped up and hit it again, sending it flying back into the ground. The collision snapped its neck and it too faded to dust.
“Oy, Seraph,” Vincent said after he shot another wolf. “How do you get the meat if they fade like this?”
Seraph grinned back after slitting a throat with the knife on the end of his gun. “That wolf meat, was the meat of the demons, since their pets fade too fast.”
“I’m happy I didn’t have any then.”
Soverin had himself circled by wolves. He stood there calmly as they slowly advanced on him. He sighed. “What to do, what to do. These brutes have me surrounded.” He grinned. “I know what.” He crouched down and spun, sword extended. Each of the wolves advanced got a double hit, one from Gambler and another from his spiked tail. All of them faded.
Exil laughed as he bashed another wolf’s skull in. “So that’s the mercenary in action? Not much if you ask me.”
Soverin wiped his sword in the snow. “It’s more impressive if you replace the wolves with creatures, either human or demon, with weapons of all shapes, sizes, and makes. I normally only use it when I find myself surrounded.”
“You’d make a good warrior,” Seraph said while shooting his last wolf. “Mercenaries were commonplace on the battlefield, except they were all rouges who didn’t give a damn what happened.”
“Then I would’ve been a perfect candidate, wouldn’t I?” He stabbed a wolf advancing behind him through the head without looking back at it.
“You’ve got the senses for it.”
“Just as we have the senses of you damn Glacyers for killing our kind.”
They turned to see a small group of wolf demons, about 10 or so, each holding a different weapon but the same look of malice.
“We haven’t traveled to kill. We killed from self defense,” Seraph said, standing as tall as he could on his crooked legs.
The wolf that must’ve been the leader of that particular hunting pack rested against a leaned forward knee and grinned. “Tough shit, you’re on our land, we have every right to kill you for wandering on it, just like you have every right to kill us for trespassing.”
“We came to see Lady Exousia for an important matter, our business is not with you Miyuku, or any of the pack.”
“As I said, tough shit.”
“MIYUKU!”
The pack leader flinched as a female voice sounded from behind the boys. It was a snow white woman with black stripes randomly placed all over her fur-covered body, two on each of her cheeks and two next to her eyebrows. A strange earring hung from her left ear; a few beads, ending in a light blue feather. Her narrow eyes were the same light blue as the feather. She had long white tipped black hair that hung loose down to her waist, meeting a long, thick, and white tail, lined with more black stripes, a black ring, and a black tip. Her legs bent in the same manner as Seraph’s, but instead of two toes with a much larger one with a hooked claw, she had larger than normal paws with retracted black claws. A blue halter shirt held up her long and tight black skirt with an O-ring. In her hands was a long staff with a knife embedded in the tip.
She pulled the black lips of her snout back in a snarl. “Miyuku, if they say they have come to see me, you do not touch them. And you at least attempt to restrain your ‘pets’.”
“Yes Lady Exousia.” Miyuku bowed. “I will know this for the next time.”
“Next time you make the same mistake, you will die, simple as that. Now go back to Lord Arcana.”
Miyuku nodded and he and his pack left.
Exousia vanished her weapon, the boys followed suit. “Long time no see, Lord Seraph. I understand you are in dire need of my services.”
“Lady Exousia. We need you to accompany us to Doragon to speak with Lord Hache about letting Mr. Daemon into the city to inform him of the whereabouts of his daughter.”
“I don’t know how much help I can be, Hache has become increasingly stubborn since Lady Talyn vanished. He’s starting to ignore Lady Astarte.”
Soverin narrowed his eyes. “That’s never a good sign. He turns to Astarte for everything.”
Exousia turned to Soverin. “You’ve grown since I last saw you.” She walked up to him and put a hand on his chin, tilting his head to the side to get a good look at him. “You still don’t look like much, but then again, the weakest looking runt could grow to become the fattest.”
“Excuse me if I don’t like to be compared to livestock, milady.”
“Who really does? Making a point.” She examined his scars. “They’ve healed well.”
“They still ruin my face.”
She let him go. “It distinguishes you.” She crossed her furry arms over her chest, making it look even bigger than it already was.
“I’m next for inspection!” Exil said.
Vincent shouldered him. “No, I am.”
“Neither of you are,” Exousia said. She faced them all. “You three are all well-known for something, so I don’t exactly need to inspect you further. To prove my point, Exil Lücke, you are the famous singer of the now non-existent ‘Divine Torture’. Vincent Argon, you are the sole captain of the infamous ‘Darkshore’, and you, Soverin Daemon, are the world’s best whore, and the world’s best black market mercenary.” She narrowed her eyes further. “Why would a band of people like you, require help from a Lady? And Soverin, if you are the best mercenary now, why is it you fear facing Lord Hache on your own?” She smiled, something oddly enchanting with her slightly elongated face. “Is it because you are afraid of being scarred more? Or being taken down by the guards? Or is it you do not wish to kill the innocent?”
“To answer all of your questions, in order,” Soverin said, his mismatched eyes turning stone cold, “We require your assistance, because we know Lord Hache will listen to you, you being one of his closest neighbors and allies. I do not fear facing Hache on my own, but knowing I’ve grown so much stronger the past two hundred years, so has he. He beat my ass last time, what’s to stop him this time? A dragon of the darkness is the most powerful. Lucifer has scarred me enough at the moment, nothing Hache could, and will do, will worsen it. The guards cannot take me down, no matter how many are on me, but, as a mercenary, I do not kill the innocent, unless it means to protect those close to me.”
Lady Exousia’s smile broadened. “You pass my test. I will help.”
“How much longer do we travel?” Exil said, brushing snow off of his coat. Sahra had fixed it, so there were no signs of battle. She was a remarkable seamstress, along with a nurse.
“An hour. If you did not travel with us, you would not know how to get there. Follow me.”
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xactly an hour later, they reached an enormous waterfall that amazingly still flowed, even through the cold. The source of the water above them couldn’t be seen, but it still fell into a deep pool that didn’t look even on the verge of frosting over. Fog flowed out from it over the ground they were standing on. Exil leaned over and put his finger in.
“It’s so warm. How can that be with this cold?”
Exousia smiled. “You’d be surprised what Kyten has to offer to those that respect her. Those cities you’re used to were once beautiful forests full of mystery. There are very few cities left respecting our planet. The Northern Regions, save for Doragon, are one of them.”
“Why say ‘save Doragon’? Isn’t it frozen outside of the domes as well?”
“No, it’s not,” Soverin said. “Not all the time. Only in true winter is it like this. The rest of the year, the grass is alive and lush; the trees are full of leaves and fruit, and wild game run rampant and free. It’s only inside the separate domes where we can really survive though. An Electric Dragon could not live in Mizuten, dome of the Water Dragons, nor could a Fire Dragon live in Hieloten, dome of the Ice Dragons. Get it?”
“Yeah. But what makes the domes so special?”
“Temperature, environment, living quarters. Not all of us Dragons sleep in caves like it’s rumored. That’s the very old Dragons who chose not to live in the main center of the domes. The old ones of our breeds inhabit the caves made for them in the outer end of the domes.”
“Then how do you get in?”
“The domes are not as small as you think. Seven are thirty miles in length and surround Kuroiten, which has sixty miles diameter due to Hache’s castle.”
“How do you know which is which?”
“Jeez, questions questions.” He ran a hand through his bangs. “Besides locations, each dome is the color of their elements. Kuroiten is black, Verdeta is green, Mizuten is dark blue, Hieloten is grey, Fuegora is red, Vientora is light blue, Santoten is white, and Eletrica is purple. Hard to get them mixed up.”
Exil opened his mouth again, but Soverin cut him off.
“Whatever else you want to ask, wait until we get there. If your question was how, it’s behind this waterfall. The elders of each species put a barrier over our land so we would have normal seasons like the rest of the world, but still be secluded and on top of Kyten. Dragons are very prideful.”
Exil made a disgusted sound. “Let’s try not using the word ‘pride’.”
Vincent laughed. “Yes, because who knows when yer little fan-boy will pop up any time ye say that word.”
They ducked into a cave behind the waterfall, trying hard not to become drenched in the process. They did not have to walk much further, for they soon reached a curtain of vines.
Soverin pulled them back, making them all need to squint their eyes at the brightness they had long forgotten in the cold world they’d been traveling in. The fiery orange and bright blue suns shined down crystal clear due to the barrier.
“This is what I’ve been telling you. It’s a bit better seeing it with your own eyes than imagining it.”
“Where do we go first?” Seraph asked.
“Visit Verdeta first and secure a backup plan,” Soverin said as he started down the hillside toward the green dome. He stopped in his tracks. “Only trick will be getting in. The domes were never really secure with who went in or out, unless you were to go into Kuroiten. The only thing that kept Dragons in their own domes was the fact they couldn’t survive very long in each other’s domes, despite the fact the breeds didn’t like to mingle anyway. Who’s to say they’re still not secure?”
“What should we do?” Exil asked.
Soverin pulled his hood down over his eyes. “Act casual, and if there is a guard, tell him we are here to see the Daemon family.”
“Yeah, because a band of different species of demon, one with a hood covering most of his face, that’s not out of place at all, let me tell you.”
“For once, don’t be a smartass and try and make this work.”
Exil sighed. “Better to be a smartass than a dumbass, but whatever you say.”
“Hopefully since I still show my tail, they’ll know I’m one of them and let me through.”
“We’ll hope,” Exousia said. “If not, you have a Lord and a Lady with you. We’ll get in one way or another.”
Soverin nodded and they walked again to Verdeta, Soverin’s birthplace.
Chapter 36
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here was a guard on duty, just as Soverin had feared. He motioned for them to stand to the side, against the dome. “Don’t forget, act casual, and if asked what your business is with the Daemons, state we are messengers sent to bring them information.”
They each nodded and Soverin allowed Exousia to lead the way. They reached the guard who was waving in a small family who must’ve just come back from a picnic outside. He looked middle-aged, with silver hair that curved around his face and green eyes. As they approached, he asked who they were.
“We are messengers, sent to pass on information to the Daemons.”
“Is that so?” the guard stated, raising a brow. He looked at Soverin, standing off to the side. That was when he noticed a small strand of silver hair, like his own, flowing out from beneath his hood. He checked to see if he had a green dragon tail and paled. “S-soverin?”
Soverin felt a jolt go through him as he recognized who the voice belonged to. He slowly looked up at the guard.
The guard’s face softened. “So you have returned.”
Soverin nodded.
The guard looked around. “You shouldn’t be here. If anyone found out-“
“I’d be a dead man, I know this is well as any other Exiled child. You don’t need to tell me twice, Father.”
“Are you kidding me?” Exil said. “This guy’s your dad?”
“You don’t see the resemblance? Well… Raiden did look more like you than I ever did.”
His father looked around. “Keep your hood down and I will escort you home. Along with your companions.”
Soverin nodded and tilted his head down to the ground again. They used all of the side streets they could to Soverin’s home, which wasn’t that big of a place. Two stories, in between more houses on each side, no space between them at all. Two windows were on each floor. “So you never moved.”
“Where can we move to? We can barely afford upkeep on this house, let alone get another.” He opened up the door and Soverin was greeted with the smell he used to remember so dearly.
“Nothing’s changed. “
“No, it hasn’t.”
“Where’s Mom?”
“Out shopping I think. We were running low on a few things, so she should be in the market.”
The three removed their winter coats and hung them on the coat rack next to the door.
“And if you were wondering, I haven’t seen your brother for awhile now. We have no idea what’s become of him. He just up and left a week or so ago.”
Soverin didn’t have the heart to tell his father what had become of his only brother. “Raiden’s always been responsible. He should come home soon.”
“I hope so.”
They each took a seat in the living quarter.
“So why have you come back?”
“It’s a long and important story.”
“Really think I’m gonna go anywhere?”
“I think your wife would like to hear this story as well,” Seraph said. “It will include both of you in the end.”
It was only then did his father realize the grave look on his son’s face. “What’s gone wrong?”
“We have to wait for Mom.” Soverin stared straight at the ground, unblinking.
“How severe is it?”
“Severe enough that I have to come to ask for your help, despite my restrictions from being free to live here again.”
The front door opened as he spoke. “I hear voices. Valkarion did you invite your friends over without telling me again?”
“No Sophia, someone even better.”
“Who’s better than-“ The woman at the door stopped dead in her tracks. Her bags dropped to the floor. “Soverin?”
Soverin stood. “Yeah, it’s me Ma. I missed you.”
She ran up to him and hugged him showing he was two heads taller than her. “My gods, you’ve grown so damn much,” she said while trying to hold back tears of joy. “Last time I held you, you were only to my stomach.”
“Two hundred years changes people. But Ma, I come back with bad news.”
“Bad news? What bad news. What’s happened. Who hurt you? I’ll kill them for harming my boy.”
Seraph chuckled at her statement and stood himself. “Mrs. Daemon, if only that could happen.”
“Who are you all and how do you know my son?”
Soverin laughed. “Don’t worry Mom, they’re good guys. The one in the top hat is Exil Lücke, The one with the bandanna is Vincent Argon-“
“The pirate captain?”
“Aye ma’am. But I ain’t as bad as society has labeled me and me crew.” He inclined his head to her in a polite gesture to show his sincerity. “I be fighting on the side of good. The ones making me infamous are the ones unfortunate to have goods stolen by me. But you can’t blame me, that’s what pirates do, eh?”
“I suppose,” Valkarion said.
“The Glacyer is Lord Seraph.”
“Seraph, please,” Seraph said, also inclining his head.
“And the Snow is Lady Exousia.”
“So you have a Lord and a Lady, and two other very well-mannered people,” Sophia said. “But why break your restrictions?”
“You might want to sit for this Mom. It might take awhile.” Soverin himself sat before proceeding to tell his parents the whole story. He told them every detail, minus the fact Raiden had joined Lucifer’s side.
It was a half hour later when he finished telling his story, and his parents held the same grave look.
“So that son of a bitch came back after all,” Valkarion said.
Soverin nodded.
“It was Hache’s fault as well,” Exil said. “As he told you, Hache knew about the spell and how it could be broken, but he still took the risk of siring Talyn with Astarte.”
“He never knew of Soverin’s existence since he is not required to know.” Valkarion put a hand to his chin. “Soverin was born first, yes, but Lord Hache never knew to begin with. But what would it matter, since Soverin never told us of his infatuation with his daughter.”
“What I said in the courtroom that day was true Father,” Soverin said coolly. “Was I to stand aside and allow her to continue to be harassed, or stand up and do something about it? I was the only one who did, and for that, I was punished. I know now why Hache Exiled me. He found out I was showing compassion for one not of full blood. His own daughter. He was too late though. And now Talyn has been captured. But that’s where I need you. Hache will probably never even let me pass the gates of Kuroiten. If this is true, I will need you to go with Lady Exousia and tell him I must speak with him. If he still refuses, tell him it has to do with the location of his daughter. That will infuriate him to the point he will have no choice.”
Sophia nodded. “We will do whatever we can to help you.”
Valkarion nodded as well.
Exousia stood. “Then we should go right away. The sooner he is informed, the better.”
Soverin summoned his trunk and pulled out a hooded jacket so he could still cover his face. Once vanished again, they each headed out the door, on their way to Kuroiten.
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he guards in front of Kuroiten saw them all right away. “What business do you have in Kuroiten, Green-borns and… others?”
“We’ve come to talk to Lord Hache,” Valkarion said.
“I cannot allow that.”
“And why not? Because I am of a different race? It should matter not, seeing as he is Lord of all.”
“Yes, but because of his hybrid daughter, he blames your bastard son for everything, Valkarion.”
Sophia did both a very brave, yet very stupid thing. She smacked the guard. “You will not call my son a bastard.”
Instead of being stunned, the guard retaliated and threw Sophia to the ground. “You Green bitch!”
Soverin, without thinking himself, leapt into action. In a swift movement, he had Gambler in hand and in front of the guard’s throat as he stood behind him.
The guard froze.
“Do that again. I dare you.”
“Who are you?”
“Does it matter? Get Hache. Tell him I have information on his daughter. Tell him it’s from ‘That Bastard Son’.”
The guard nodded and Soverin released him to go to the phones.
“What ever happened to your plan?” Exil said while Soverin helped Sophia up.
“That was before they hurt my mom,” he said simply.
“We have informed Hache of your presence; he will be he-“
From the entrance of the dome, a black dragon came barreling out at them. It caught Soverin off guard and pinned him to the ground with its forepaw.
“WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER YOU SON OF A BITCH?”
Soverin coughed as the wind was knocked out of him.
“ANSWER ME!”
“Give me a minute you fucking overgrown lizard!”
Hache returned to his demon self. His black hair was pulled back in a ponytail and his gold-green eyes were flashing red with malice. “Tell me now.”
“Finally he calms down after nearly crushing my ribcage in,” Soverin sneered. “I come to tell you were Talyn is and you nearly kill me. Real nice. I was told first to deliver a message to you.”
Hache raised a brow. “Why tell me this before telling me where Talyn is?”
“It’ll make you understand the severity of the situation.” He flicked his wrist and called in the yellow piece of paper and handed it to Hache. “The phrase sound familiar?”
Hache’s normal slight tan complexion grew pale. “I caused the end of the world,” he muttered. His eyes wide, he fell to his knees and leaned over, looking like he was about to retch.
“That’s one way to put it,” Soverin said, no mercy in his eyes as he gazed upon his elder. “You didn’t listen to Elder Telscha, now look at the consequences. How was I supposed to know befriending your daughter would cause this? If you hadn’t sired her, none of this would’ve happened, and I would be living comfortably in Verdeta to this day.” He raised a brow. “Now was it fair for me to be Exiled, when I was not the cause?”
“The Sins found you, didn’t they?”
“Uh, yeah. How long did it take you to figure that one out?” There was no mistaking the venom that edged itself in his voice. “I had no idea about them until the day they caught me, nor did I have any idea it’d turn out to be my job to get rid of the Bastards and Bitches of the Underworld, and send Lucifer back to where he was sealed away to. All of this is on your damn head.”
“You don’t know what it’s like to be in love.”
“Yes, I do. And because of that love, your daughter is in danger. I’d die for her.”
Hache looked up at him. “I mean, you don’t know how much I love her mother. No Dragon, of any breed, could match what she means to me.”
“And why should I listen to you now, when you didn’t listen to me two hundred years ago?”
“It’ll explain why and how I fell for Astarte.”
“Then get up, you worthless excuse for a Demon Lord,” Soverin snarled. “You started this mess, and because of your irresponsibility, I’m dragged into this out of my own misfortune of not carrying Dragon Pride,” Exil flinched, “as the rest of us.” His eyes flashed red. “Get up.”
A shiver went down Exil’s spine. In the short time he had known Soverin, he didn’t know his voice could hold such cruelty, such hatred.
Hache slowly got to his feet. “I will discuss this with you, not in my home, but in yours, if you do not mind, Valkarion.”
“Your business is not with me. If it must be done in my own home, so be it. I want nothing to do with you after sending my son away from us out of your own mistakes.”
Hache nodded. “I understand now how it feels to be away from your child.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Sophia spat. “Talyn has been gone for a short amount of time, yet we have had no contact with our son for two hundred years. You don’t know how it feels to suffer for that long, not knowing if your child is still alive, on the verge of death, or even surviving.” It was her gaze that grew stern now. “You know nothing of our suffering. You are welcome in our home to get this straightened out, and then you are to leave.”
Hache nodded again, and he allowed Valkarion and Sophia to lead the way. Soverin shouldered past him, a low draconic snarl emitting from his mouth.
If it’s a thousand years before I see a dragon pissed off again, it’ll be too soon, Exil thought, and then followed the crowd back to Verdeta.
Chapter 38
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veryone crowded into the small living area, some using chairs from the dining table to sit on. Sophia put some tea on the stove for them.
“Alright. You wanted to tell us, so spill it,” Soverin said.
Hache leaned forward onto his knees, leaning his chin on steepled fingers. “It’s hard to figure out where to begin.”
“Start by telling us how you met her,” Exousia suggested.
He nodded. “When my hunting pack came across her, she was about to be raped by the wolf demons. The wolves had shredded her to a point she couldn’t fight back. She didn’t have the strength. How a Fire Elemental ends up in Doragon, I didn’t know at the time, so it puzzled me. I found out later she had been sold as a concubine to be delivered to some long forgotten Lord, and she had escaped and gotten as far as the
“We killed the wolves, and against my pack’s wishes, I took her with us. They said, her being a Fire Elemental, she should be left to die. Like you, Soverin, I don’t think I was born with Dragon-“
“Don’t say it!” Exil groaned and held his head.
Hache gave a quizzical look.
“Pride has a major crush on him,” Soverin said, rolling his eyes. “Just ignore him.”
“As I was saying, I don’t think I was born with Dragon… you-know-what. If I had, I wouldn’t have even helped her. Instead I brought her back to the castle and helped her heal. In that time, we bonded and I fell in love with her. It was a love that scared me. I had never felt this strongly for anyone. And she felt the same for me.
“I knew of the spell, of course, but Soverin, you of all people should understand, you can’t control who you love.”
Soverin nodded.
“I couldn’t help myself. I warned her of the spell, told her everything about it. I tried killing her in her sleep to keep myself from succumbing to my love any further. I got so close one night, when she turned over in our bed, and stared wide-eyed at me. I dropped the knife onto the floor and fell into her arms. I had come so close to losing what I cherished most. I knew it was what had to be done to protect Kyten, but…”
“You’d die before you’d ever harm her,” Seraph finished off.
The kettle on the stove whistled vehemently and Sophia rose to tend to it.
Hache nodded. “That night, I made her my mate. I knew it put Kyten in jeopardy, but at that time, I thought it impossible for another Dragon, a Green Dragon of all breeds, to lack the same you-know-what, as I. That same night, we sired Talyn. The next day, we properly made plans to officially wed, against the wishes of all the breeds.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I never knew the spell would break. Not while I served my reign.”
“Well it did. Now what are you going to do about it?” Soverin said.
“There’s nothing I can do,” Hache said. “It is a responsibility placed onto your shoulders.”
“A responsibility I did not chose.”
“But one nonetheless. Would you rather Kyten sink into the Underworld?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
“Boys, boys,” Exousia said, knowing very well Hache out-aged her by 400 years. “You should both agree you were at fault some how. Though most of the blame is on Lord Hache’s shoulders, Soverin, at least he’s admitting it. If you do not take up this responsibility you were unfortunately given, all of Kyten is doomed, including Talyn.”
“Lucifer already has her under his spell. She’s beyond even my reach,” Soverin said quietly.
“How do you know this?” Seraph said.
“His dream,” Exil said. “The day we reached port, I woke him from a nightmare, or what I had thought was a nightmare. Lucifer had sent him a vision. Isn’t that right, Soverin?”
Soverin nodded. “He uses her as a pleasure slave. He said she was trapped in her own body.”
“But if she’s trapped within her body, she could be brought back to the surface,” Vincent said.
Soverin shook his head. “Lucifer could have the power to destroy her soul if he so chose. Why he locked it inside her instead of removing it is a mystery to me.”
“Wait,” Hache said, his strong voice slightly cracking, “that son of a bitch… uses my daughter… in that way?”
Soverin nodded.
“My baby girl…” He hid his face in his hands. “Soverin. If you bring her back to me, and defeat Lucifer, I will allow you back into Doragon, allow you to have my daughter as your wife and let you live in the castle.” He looked at him, eyes shining with unshed tears. “Please, I beg of you, bring her back to me.”
His face shocked Soverin to the bone. Hache never let anyone see any face besides a hard, stern one. A face for a Dragon and World Lord. The one he had now made him look so pitiful, like any other creature on the planet. Soverin had to look away. “I don’t want all that, because I can’t promise you her safe return. Right now Lucifer has her, body mind and soul. If I even tried stealing her away, he could destroy her spirit. Hache, I remain true to my words that I spoke during my trial. I love your daughter. But if I am the one putting her at risk of losing her life, I couldn’t live knowing that I failed my promise to her. Though, with how things have turned out, I’ve failed already.” He took the tea his mother offered him, but only stared at the rising steam.
Silence fell upon them all.
“Well then,” Vincent clapped his hands together and stood up, making everyone look at him. “Looks like we’re in for a hard battle ahead of us.” He took his tea and looked at it. “Mind if I put a small bit of brandy in it? Thanks Mrs. Daemon.” He took the bottle of brandy from her and added a bit to his tea.
A faint sound met their ears.
“What in the hell?” Vincent spun around. “Tell me I ain’t hearing things.”
Soverin shook his head. “No, you aren’t. It’s my phone.” He pulled it out of his pants pocket and flipped it open, looking at the screen. “Unknown number again…” He hit the send button. “Who is this?”
“Leave your house.”
“I asked you who you were.”
“You’ll know soon enough. If you do not wish to endanger your parents, get out of the house. If you don’t in the next five minutes, I blow it up. Sound fair?”
“You work for Lucifer, don’t you?”
Hache looked up. “Lucifer?”
“You could say that. Work without pay. Oops, 4 minutes. Time’s a’tickin’ boy. What will it be?” The man on the other end of the line laughed a hideous laugh and the line went dead.
“Ah shit!” He tossed the phone to the side and summoned Gambler. “Everyone, weapons at the ready and get your asses outside NOW! Mom, Dad, you stay inside and stay safe.” He ran out the door, into the streets, frantically looking around for anyone without a green spiked tail.
Exil appeared by his side, holding Rosa Marie. “Who do you think it was? Your brother?”
“No. It wasn’t Raiden. Someone else.” It was then he spotted someone running away, further down the street, wearing the same cloak as Raiden did, and he had no tail at all. “AFTER HIM!”
They pursued the man, breaking through the crowded market street clusters, not even taking notice to the dragons that looked at them with curiosity.
The man led them to the outskirts of Doragon itself, and then stopped. The cloak hood still over his face, he turned to face the group.
“Ah, Lord Hache, you joined the fighting party too, eh?”
“Who the Hell are you and what are you doing with my daughter?” Hache demanded, black flames dancing on his fingers.
“Me?” The man put a hand to his chest. “I have yet to lay a finger on your daughter. Talyn is not available to anyone but Lucifer’s use. I must say though, she is something else. I’d love to have a go at her myself.”
Soverin snarled. “Talyn is mine! Not yours, not Lucifer’s, not any of yours!”
“Ooh, I struck a nerve then, haven’t I?” He tsked. “Weakness in battle proves deadly, you as a mercenary should know that. You know all about using a person’s weakness against them.”
“Who are you? I won’t ask again!”
“And what will you do if I don’t tell you?”
“I’ll chop your god damn head off!”
The man sighed. “What good would chopping off my head do besides make you feel better for a few moments? Until, of course, the realization sets in that you gained no information whatsoever on the one who is pulling out all the stops to have you killed. Killing me before will do you no good.”
Soverin growled, knowing the man’s words to be truth.
“If you’re so desperate to know, I am Demos, a former inhabitant of
“How is Lucifer gaining so many followers?”
“His Sins, how else?” He smiled. “But apart from that, I’m here to carry out my orders of killing you.” Without warning, he attacked Soverin with a sword that had gale-force winds encircling it.
“What the-“ He put up his guard.
“Ha, with this sword it is not necessary to touch you with the blade. My wind acts like an extension, and also a physical barrier.”
Hache flung his black fire at Demos, who merely shot it right back at him with his wind. Hache jumped into the air and hovered with his summoned wings, avoiding the retaliating blast.
Demos looked over at the others. “No need for you to just sit there. Here’s something to keep you all busy. He held out his arm and a swarm of periwinkle bats flew at them.
Seraph and Vincent did their best to shoot them before they got there, but it was no good, their agility was far too high.
Soverin growled. ‘His wind pushes me away if I get close, and tears me up when he gets close. Hache’s magic got flung back at him. I have an idea…’ He knelt down on the ground, one palm face down flat.
“Oh ho. Surrendering already? Good boy.”
Soverin looked up at him. “Not on your life.”
From directly behind Demos, sharp rocks formed out from the ground. Vines emerged from the cracks and ensnared him where he stood, sharp rocks impaling his body. The sword dropped from Demos’ hand and the wind dissipated. A line of blood trickled down from his mouth.
“All of your major vital organs have been pierced. If you’re still alive to hear me, you have very few minutes to live. If you can still talk, answer me. How is Lucifer gathering followers?”
“I told you. His Sins gather them. They promise he can cleanse our souls. They showed us what they could do. A few of us from Haron went with them to Delania, where Lucifer himself marked our chests with his symbol.”
“He uses the anarchy symbol for his own, correct?”
“Yes. Each follower the Sins gather get the symbol from him, and those who aren’t strong enough to fight stay behind to rebuild his castle. I was supposed to be rebuilding, but I rebelled, thinking I could carry out orders I had over heard. I guess not. I can do one more thing though.”
“And what would that be?”
Demos grinned and raised his hand up to Hache and released lashes of wind, cutting through Hache in a bloody massacre. “At least I can help the Lord this much.” As Hache’s arms fell from his body, Demos died. Soverin ran to his side.
“Hache!”
The bats attacking the others disappeared and they ran by the Lord’s side as well.
“Hache, talk to me!”
“I can’t feel my arms. What happened?”
“Your arms were severed off. You’re lucky none of your vitals were pierced,” Soverin said, looking over his bloody chest. “You’ll survive, but we have to get you to your home immediately.”
Hache struggled to get to his feet and once he finally was, Soverin slug him over his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, I won’t drop you. Vincent, can you grab his arms?”
“Aye, I can.”
“Exil, Seraph, you stay here and do something about the nuisance of a corpse. Exousia, come with me.”
Exousia nodded. “Alright.”
They each went their separate ways, the party with Hache moving as fast as they could back to Kuroiten.
Chapter 39
|
O |
nce within earshot of the Kuroiten guards, Soverin and Exousia began calling to them for help.
“Lord Hache has been attacked! Help us!”
The two guards on duty saw them and immediately called ahead to the hospital inside the dome. “Bring him right up to the doors.”
“Easier said than done,” Soverin said, adjusting the grip on the armless Lord. “One of you needs to show us where it is.”
The guard who had counterattacked his mother nodded and stepped forward. “Follow me.”
They obeyed and followed him deep into Kuroiten, which was lit much less than Verdeta had been. The hospital, as it grew closer, was not a white building, but, of course, a black one, the tallest building of the dome aside from Hache’s palace. From the outside, it seemed to contain seven floors with a vast amount of windows that could only be patient’s rooms. Outside the front glass sliding doors, two nurses in black uniforms with black scaly tails like Talyn and her father protruding out of the backs of said uniforms stood waiting for him.
“Will you be able to put these back on him?” Vincent said, holding out the severed arms.
One of the nurses crinkled her nose. “No, I don’t believe so.”
The other lifted Hache’s chin and inspected his unconscious face. “He’s loosing too much blood. We’ll have to do a transfusion. Hurry and bring him inside. We have a gurney waiting and a room prepped for him on the top floor.”
Soverin nodded and stepped inside the chilly hospital, lying Hache down as gently as he could onto the gurney. Almost immediately, a doctor in black and red scrubs rushed to the side of the gurney. “Never thought I’d see the day someone came in with both arms severed off, let alone it being Lord Hache.”
“Is there any way we can put these anywhere?” Vincent said, holding up Hache’s arms.
“For now, no. As far advanced as Dragon magic and mending go, we still have yet to have a successful limb mending after it has been severed. All of his nerves and muscles have been shot.”
“We’d better get some blood pumping into him fast. He’s getting cold as ice,” Exousia said, putting a furry hand on Hache’s shoulder. What remained of it anyway.
The doctor nodded, and with the help of the nurses, he wheeled Hache towards the nearest elevator and pushed him on, with the three in tow.
Once in the room, another nurse came in carrying a bag full of blood and hooked it up to the pole next to his bed. They had trouble deciding where the needle to insert the blood should be placed, since it is nearly always placed in the arms. They finally decided on the artery in the neck and taped it there. Not that he could rip it out, in his bleeding state. The first two nurses held hands over his limbs as they began to glow a deep purple color. The blood flow began to ebb, but not stop completely. The last nurse helped the doctor apply bandages to the stumps and the healers brought in a tank of oxygen and placed the mask over his face to help him breathe.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Exousia asked.
The doctor shook his head. “Right now, it is imperative we do something to end his bleeding and figure out what we’ll do for replacement arms for him. If you’d be so kind, could you place wait down the hall in the waiting room?”
Soverin nodded and Vincent and Exousia followed him to the glass-walled room. Children’s toys littered the floor, and the picture box was on a news channel.
“More disappearances have happened this week, leaving ten more families distraught. The most recent disappearance happened two days ago in Maelstrom City, with the mysterious vanishing of commoner Michael and Veronica Metz’ oldest, Seyron Metz. Seyron, age 190, was last seen entering his home down the road from his parent’s house three days ago. He had not answered calls, and was not home when they went to see what was wrong, but many of his possessions were missing.” An image of Seyron appeared on the screen. His ears ended in points like all demons, but his skin was a tint of blue, lighter than the blue on Seraph’s chest and stomach. His eyes seemed to be deep pools of blue and his hair a deep shade of the same color. “If anyone has seen Seyron, please contact Michael or Veronica at…”
“New enemy, I take it,” Soverin sighed as the other two took a seat farthest from the windows. He himself took a seat on the windowsill and looked down at the street below. The view wasn’t too spectacular, but he could still see the Black Dragons below, passing by. He wondered what it would be like to be like them, going about with his life with none of this hanging over his head.
He was pulled from his thoughts as a hand flapped by his face.
“What the hell – “
Vincent was making Hache’s dismembered hands talk by moving them. “Why so down Gloomy Bear?” he said in a high pitched voice.
Soverin just stared. “Vincent, I think you should stay off the drugs or rum or whatever it is.”
“Oh come on. Just trying to have a bit of fun. What else am I supposed to do with these things? I can’t exactly place them in the nearest trash bin. Don’t want kids getting heart attacks.”
“For one, playing with your own hands is fine. Playing with another’s, especially when it’s been severed off, that’s just creepy.”
“Fine then, party pooper.” Vincent tossed them over his shoulders, both smacking Exousia in the face. He heard the smack without even turning around. “I’m so sorry, bad aim and all ye know?”
Exousia snarled. “Face me.”
Vincent obeyed with a look of terror. “Yes ma’am?” Without warning, one of the limbs collided hard with Vincent’s face and made him topple over.
Exousia’s snarl had turned into a laugh.
“Guys. You do know you’re messing with bloodied arms, don’t you? That’s disgusting.”
“Oh have some fun.”
“Easy for you to say.” He rolled his eyes and looked back at the street. Without warning though, he jumped up, clutching at his jacket pocket. “Ah damn it!”
“What’s wrong?” Exousia asked.
“My phone. I left it at my parent’s house.”
“Yeah, and?”
“We’ve been gone awhile and probably won’t be getting back any time soon.”
“I have one on me,” Vincent said, handing over a light blue phone.
Soverin was astonished that a pirate of all people had the simplest of phones. Soverin’s black and lime green flip-phone was better than Vincent’s piece of equipment.
“I don’t have very many people to keep in contact with, ye see,” Vincent explained. “No need to waste gold on a thing I rarely use.”
“Makes sense. I need to use mine for businesses.” He dialed in the numbers and hit send, adjusting to the non-flip-phone. After a few rings, his father’s voice answered.
“Daemon residence.”
“Dad, it’s Soverin.”
“Where are you? We’ve been worried out of our minds.”
“
“Who was hurt?”
“Hache was. His limbs were severed off at the shoulder.”
Valkarion sucked in a breath. “His guard must’ve been severely lowered.”
“We were all caught off guard. Do you think you can bring my phone to me?”
“I was just going to ask you when you were coming home.”
“Not for a while. I should really stay here.”
“It’s a pity.”
“Why’s that?”
“Your brother is here.”
Soverin almost dropped Vincent’s phone. “Raiden is home?”
“Yes, he showed up about a half hour ago.”
“I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
“You just said you should stay though.”
“This is a bit more important. Don’t leave the house. I’ll explain when I get there.” He hit end and put his number in Vincent’s contacts.
“Soverin, is he really there?” Vincent asked.
“Yes, he is.” He handed the phone back. “If I’m needed here, my number is in your phone.”
Vincent nodded. “Make sure they aren’t hurt.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Chapter 40
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N |
ot wasting any time in getting there, Soverin summoned his wings as soon as he left the hospital doors. He quickly soared through the front Kuroiten gate and then into the Verdeta gate. Within ten minutes he was in front of his door, pushing the solid wood to take him inside.
Raiden was there, sure enough, in clothes that fit his style and not his follower’s cloak. He sat there calmly sipping tea as Soverin burst through the door.
“Soverin!” his mother said, jumping up. “You got here so fast and- Sweetie, what’s wrong?”
Soverin was staring at Raiden with a look that could kill. “How dare you set foot back into this house after betraying our lives?”
Raiden finally looked at his little brother. “Odd. I thought you were the one not allowed here again. I am at liberty to ask you the same ‘how dare you’ question.”
“My sins, if you can call them that, have been forgiven. You I can never forgive.”
“Soverin, what is going on here?” his father asked.
“Did you honestly not think it odd, after hearing our stories, why Raiden has been gone for so long? A thing quite unlike him to do.”
“You never did know when to shut up and know your place,” Raiden stated serenely, setting down his cup. “I think I should be on my way.”
Soverin reacted before he knew that he was moving. He put his brother in a suffocating headlock. “Show them before you leave then. Show them what their first-borne son has been doing.”
“What are you talking-“
Soverin’s choke-hold arm grew tighter. “Your mark. The one Lucifer embedded in your skin. Don’t play coy with me.” As Raiden continued to thrash about, Soverin shred the sweater-vest over Raiden’s left pectoral muscle, revealing the anarchy tattoo.
Sophia let out a sharp yelp and dropped the china teapot.
Raiden stopped struggling and Soverin let him go. “You all don’t understand.”
“Then you’d better get to explaining boy,” Valkarion snarled. “I give you five minutes to inform us of what we don’t understand. If you manage to sway my heart, I’ll let you stay unscathed.”
“I did this to protect all of your lives. Yes, you too Soverin.” He sat back down. “I’m sorry to all of you for taking the side of evil, but it’s the winning side. I don’t want you all to die.”
“In the end it’s either I or Lucifer who wins. You should know this by now,” Soverin sneered at his elder brother. “I’m sure you’ve overheard something.”
“I have. He’s made me his right-hand man.”
“YOU BASTARD BETRAYER!” Soverin punched Raiden in the jaw. “You’ve condemned us all to death! Do you honestly believe he’d spare Mom and Dad’s lives? He’d either kill or imprison them, or hell, even torture them. He’s a sick man, or have you not realized? Especially after seeing what he’s been doing with Talyn.”
Raiden rubbed his injured jaw. “Talyn’s misfortunes are indeed regrettable, but as I told you at Port Aravey, forget about her. Lucifer holds her soul, and if you try to save her without his death taking place first, she will die. Soverin, look at his records. Look at what he was capable of as a human sorcerer.”
“I have, and I know his powers were great and as a devil sorcerer will be even greater, but that does not mean I shall sign my life over to him just because of power. I am the highest ranking mercenary in all of Kyten.”
“Yes, but you are also the highest ranking whore, so what does that show?”
Soverin fell silent as his father looked at him. “Is this true?”
Soverin nodded. “After I left, I began the training for the mercenary, but I needed money. So I became a male-whore. After time I perfected everything needed in both areas, and just never dropped either. Both rake in a lot of gold. I would’ve sent some to you to help you both, but under circumstances… I just never could.” He shook his head. “But Raiden is the main concern here, not my lifestyle.” He turned to his brother. “So why have you come back?”
“I was hoping you were here and wouldn’t attack me.” Raiden continued rubbing his jaw.
“Too late for that.”
“How fast can you get to Risle?”
“Why?”
“Don’t you recognize a tip-off when you hear one?”
“No, since tip-offs nearly always contain more than how fast one can get somewhere. So why do I need to go to Risle?”
“A few vampire followers are planning on going to the party city to stave their hunger. For that, they’re planning on setting fire to the biggest club in that city to frighten their victims, getting the already pumping blood flowing with fear and adrenaline.”
“Why help me?”
“You’re my little brother. My sacrifice of being right-hand man will be useful. I can get away without being held back by him. These vampires have the mark, which he uses to track the others, but they have found some way to block the signals. Lucifer will have no idea what they are doing or where they are.”
“You have the mark, but why not the tracker?”
“As I said, you are my little brother. If he sees my absence he will believe I am tracking you. Soverin, let me redeem myself by helping you take down his followers.”
“How many does he have?”
“So far, over one hundred humans, demons, vampires, and Halflings. You took down Demos, but big deal. It won’t put a dent in his wallet, so to say. He’ll be proud that Demos’ sacrifice put Hache out of commission and out of the way. I can tip you off on where these followers are going to be, along with photographs and names so you can find them. You phone has a camera, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good, I can update you on information, just not very often. It’d get suspicious if I was gone too long and too often.”
“Why can’t you do it at his palace?”
“He has a barrier put up that tracks any and all plots, schemes, and other such things.”
“Then how did these vampires plot?”
“As I’ve said, they know some way around Lucifer’s tracking. I’m their higher up, I don’t have any effect with it, but he can still hear what I say and know where I am.” He looked at the clock on the fireplace mantle. “I should get going. I’ve been gone awhile.” He turned to his father. “Do I leave unscathed?”
“Yes, so long as you keep Soverin updated and help us take Lucifer down.”
Raiden nodded. “I will.” He pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket and flipped it open. “Give me your phone and I’ll put my number in yours. You put your number in mine, alright?”
“Yeah, just hold on, I threw it on the couch before I ran out. Dad, do you have it?”
Valkarion reached into his slacks pocket and retrieved Soverin’s green and black phone. He handed it over to Raiden while Soverin took his. Each exchanged numbers and then phones.
“When will you be in touch?”
“Well how long will it take you?”
“Two days at most.”
“Then in two days I will contact you. Until then, good luck.”
The brothers exchanged hugs and Raiden walked out the back door to teleport back to Delania.
As Raiden’s portal faded, Soverin’s ringtone went off. He flipped it open to see an unfamiliar number. “Who are you and what do you want?”
“It’s Exil, man. Chill. We need you back at the hospital. Hache’s gone pale as a ghost. We’re afraid that’s what he’ll become soon.”
“From losing his limbs? I thought that’d be no problem for the Lord of Kyten.”
“That’s what we all thought. Turns out there’s a poison that’s seeped into his bloodstream that no one knows about. They’ve drawn blood, stupid I say since he was bleeding the shit from his shoulders, and they’ve taken it into the lab downstairs. The results should be back soon, but he’s not looking good.”
“Alright, I’m on my way.”
“Soverin, if you all need a place to stay, you can use the house,” Sophia said.
“Alright Mom, I’ll have Exil tell them.” He turned his attention back to Exil. “Did you hear that?”
“Yeah. I’ll let them all know. Just get here fast, alright?”
“Yeah, I’m coming. See you in a few.” He flipped the phone closed and said his good-byes before leaving the door and using his wings again to get back to Kuroiten.
Chapter 41
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W |
hen he arrived, Exil was waiting outside the doors, smoking a cigarette of his own.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” Soverin said as his wings faded away.
Exil smiled and nodded. “Yeah, on the rare occasions, this one being really rare. Never thought my first meeting with the Lord would be on his possible death bed.”
“He can’t be that far gone. Has Astarte arrived yet?”
“She hasn’t left his side for an instant.”
“Good. Hopefully she can bring him back to everyone.”
“I don’t know. I hope so.”
“Exil, how much money did we make from the Maiden’s Kiss?”
“Four hundred gold slips. Nice, huh?”
“How much do you think it’ll take to get an airship ticket by tomorrow to get to Risle?”
“Risle? Why do you want to go to Gambling Central? We just got all this cash, don’t lose it.”
“Raiden is helping us.”
“After nearly strangling you?”
“It’s complicated, but think of him as someone behind enemy lines. A spy, if you will.”
“Well what has he said?” He flicked the buildup of ash off of his cigarette.
“A group of vampire followers are going to the biggest club there. I can’t remember the name though.”
“The Raven?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“Why are they going there? A rave club shouldn’t be on Lucifer’s hit-list.”
“It’s not,” Soverin said as he took a seat on the bench by the doors. “According to Raiden, they’ve found out some way of blocking the tracking system the tattoos give Lucifer. He can’t keep track of them.”
“But still, why Party Central?” Exil took a seat by him.
“Adrenaline. Vampires crave both that and fear in their victim’s bloodstream. It heightens the taste, so I’ve been told.”
“I take it you knew a vampire.”
“Worked with one once. He had a nasty habit of bringing his clients close to death. For some reason, most enjoyed it, so he never went out of business.”
“Think he’s part of this group?”
“Nah. Besides being a whore, Tir keeps to himself really. No way he went to Lucifer’s side. Raiden didn’t say how many would be there, but he’s overheard a few discussing plans.”
“Whatever you decide, I trust your judgment. I won’t be the ass sitting on the sidelines just waiting to say ‘I told you so’.”