♱ • 1750 B.C. • ♱My fingers were stiff - it was almost like they were in a cast."Keir?" her voice called me incessantly.I wanted to answer, I really wanted to..., but I couldn’t."Keir!" she called me louder and louder, but when not even my mouth opened to answer, she sighed and leaned back on that door.The door that separated us."Where is she?" she murmured looking frustrated and sad."Why can’t I answer? Why can’t I move?""I’m here!" I wanted to scream, but my voice simply refused to leave."Does she hate me?" Her voice murmured and now she seemed more down."No!" I wanted to shout "I don’t hate you... I would never be able to hate you, Elaine"Elaine...I blinked.Yeah, that was Elaine’s voice. My Elaine’s.I wanted her to hear me - I wanted to because otherwise I felt she would soon be in tears."Well... it wouldn’t be surprising that you hated me from the start," she muttered and felt my chest tighten.She was thinking too much again, but the sound of the sign made her si
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Samael ⋅• ♱My feet had barely stepped on the black bricks of Callisto's tower and one of the demons serving him faced me."The princess awaits you for tea in the garden."Not the duchess or the saint - as one might expect, but Lucifer and if it was Lucifer they were talking about, then I knew what it was all about."Right" I spoke as I put away the gold cufflinks I had received from Remiel "it will be a pleasure to accompany the princess to her tea."I could hear Anneliese grunting behind me, even though she was the one who would choose to accompany me - she was also the one who would surely complain the most.I sighed.The air of that palace brought back memories I would rather forget and as I followed the demon down a path I knew so well - I realized that nothing there had really changed."Masochistic" I thought as my fingers rose in the air. The way that damn fool had kept it all going - I could almost feel particles of Quinn's divine power everywhere.This
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Asmodeus ⋅• ♱My hair was dirty, my clothes were dirty and even my face had some blood when I got to my office."I liked that outfit" I grumbled throwing the bag of bones over the enchanted stone."You like all your clothes" Belial finally that with irony in his voice "so does that really mean anything?"I rolled my eyes as I flicked my earring."Shut up, no one here asked your opinion and you saw well everything I had to go through!""Well... didn’t you look for it?"I popped my tongue in the roof of my mouth."Since when did you become so rude? Frankly...""I should address you with more pomp and care, oh, Your Majesty, the great prince of lust, the star of the ninth territory" Belial scoffed and held the impetus to take that earring where the existence of the little demon was stored and throw it into the larval sea.There were a thousand things I could do to fuck with your life and existence -, but still... I didn’t."One day..." I muttered "one day I will th
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Elaine ⋅• ♱Tecidos.There were fabrics and more fabrics everywhere.The women spoke and spoke and it was clear in Asra’s face that she was exhausted."You didn’t sleep well, did you?" I grumbled.She had lied to me when she said yes and also when she told me to go back to sleep."Not exactly" muttered "I’m just tired" said shrugging "don’t worry about that, pretty."How the hell could I not worry?Asra seemed exhausted since she had started those preparations and in the last days - she practically did not sleep.My lips closed and a beak formed over them."Stop" I grumbled "why do you keep acting like it doesn’t matter? You’re obviously tired."The crimson eyes stared at me, it was almost as if she was wondering if it was real. If I really was toasting with her, and for a moment I realized how much things had changed.Now... I didn’t even tremble when Asra stared at me like that. I was not afraid that she would just leave me."Okay... I’m wrong, I’m sorry" thos
♱ •⋅ 1750 A.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Calisto ⋅• ♱My eyes were heavy, but I refused to sleep. I refused because I didn’t want to see her again.I didn’t want to risk crying in front of Loren again."You look tired, Dad..." he said as he touched my face and I smiled.At least for him, my smile was not forced."I’ve worked a lot lately" I said and that wasn’t entirely a lie."I know," he said leaning his head against my shoulder "but now we’re almost home, right? Then you won’t have so much trouble...I let out a snitch laugh.I wanted those sweet words to be true - but unlike what Loren said, I had A LOT of work delayed thanks to the time I spent in Lucifer’s territory.Everything would be much faster if it were not our coming and going using a method as outdated as carriages, but what could we do? I would not leave my son for so long alone and using teleport or magical means for transportation could lead to trouble for Loren.Anything that could cause oscillation in his power - it was strictly forb
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Azrael ⋅• ♱I stared at that door for a long time while waiting and soon the purple eyes I waited for - finally -, appeared.She was smiling at me."Sorry for the delay..." Cali said and it was visible on her blushing face that she had made every effort to arrive on time.Good.She had failed miserably, she was seven minutes late.Smile.A forced and distinct smile. I couldn’t say she was late, it wasn’t something that would be well-regarded or expected from the role I was playing."Don’t worry" lied "I just got here."I lied to you again.I was there 20 minutes ago."Really? Oh! That’s good!" She said leaning back the door "I thought I left you here to wait, usually I leave early is that with the dance..." her fingers touched their own lips when she realized she would not stop talking "sorry... I said too much, right? It’s obvious you know how messed up everything is because of the dance..."I let out a puffed laugh and held her hand, taking it from her lips an
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Elaine ⋅• ♱I took a deep breath.Calisto was back. He was back and the dance would start in a few hours."Don’t move," the seamstress who made the last adjustments to my outfit muttered "it’s perfect..."Yeah. I knew, but I didn’t care.I was too anxious to think about that stupid dress, or even the color I would wear in a few hours, the trim or blah blah blah blah.I was about to go to the dance, see Callisto and... I’d see him with Asra.Just the idea of that image of the past that I relived so many times - made my heart freeze.Asra clinging to Calisto’s arm, smiling at him... dancing with him.My chest was sore.Maybe... I shouldn’t go."Duchess!" one of the maids called her and when I turned, she was there. The only problem was the way I moved abruptly, which made the poor seamstress stick me with one of her pins."Alas!" I cried and Asra’s eyes fixed on me."Are you okay?" he asked me approaching.Smile.Was she worried about me? Why did something like th
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Loren ⋅• ♱"What do you think of that?" Abbadon asked me for the fifth time and I denied it."It doesn’t seem enough...""Hummm..." she pulled another mask, now had details made with gold wires and rubies. Two serpents joined at the end, intertwining."That?"Smile, a big, wide smile."This is going to be the one, but..." I touched my hair with my fingertips "do you think Dad would allow me to use magic to change my hair color?"Abbadon stared at me with a raised eyebrow."But your hair is beautiful, young master... why would you change your color?"I sighed.I also liked the color of my hair and it had not changed, but... that night, I wanted them different."I want to be faithful to the tales" I muttered sitting in bed with my face slightly sullen "the tales speak of a knight with ruby eyes and golden hair, I can change my eyes with lenses, but the hair... he would look so good with magic.""Wouldn’t a wig be a better option?"I bit my lip hard."Eh... I think
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Azrael ⋅• ♱I watched her without realizing it, watched until the sun was setting and the barrier surrounding Samael’s plan was thinner, until the rune fragment she sent me was strong enough to enter."Don’t be an idiot," I remembered as my wings throbbed, "there’s no room for kindness, not after all you’ve done, don’t be such a hypocrite".I swallowed hard and a smile easily appeared on my lips when I crossed. It was like a fog touching my skin, a comfortable cold, a feeling I had missed even without realizing it.What the hell was I thinking? What was going on with me?I closed my eyes tightly, but my wings just beat, just took me there, to that breathless breath and that smile that could be felt in her voice when she called me."Azrael!" His arms wrapped around my neck and... had they always been so warm?"I thought you couldn’t come..." whispered her face down to my neck, I could feel her lips arched into a smile "okay? Did you get hurt getting past the barri
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Azrael ⋅• ♱The child began to be able to move gradually, in a way that was still a little time consuming and different from his usual, from the child who ran around and insisted so much to have his little body in that garden.His speech had returned too, his voice was less guttural, more understandable and a smile that was not painful could be seen, one that was not put on that face just because of the melancholy of Callisto."Look! You can move your arms better now" the quartz eyes were flickering as you said that as something equivalent to Loren’s first steps, as if that was some kind of novelty that should be celebrated with various gifts and a party "how is your breathing? Something still burns?" tried to caress that small face as if it was something that would break by any slip on his part.Loren was now like a valuable piece of porcelain, one that could not risk being damaged after being restored."I’m fine, Dad..." the child’s voice was still low when to
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Elaine ⋅• ♱"I like stars," he said while playing with a pearl between my fingers "I like how they look, how they’re bright and beautiful. I like purple, I like how the sun in this world is red, even though here where Samael lives he looks different."Keir smiled, his hands still playing by my hair."What else?" asked me with her face resting on my thighs."I like salty foods, slightly spicy, bittersweet and especially the dessert that the boss of the mansion always makes." The one that looks like jelly with syrup."Pudding? ' She asked me smiling from the corner and I nodded."That’s right, pudding.""Um, um, uh...""I also like pretty dresses, braided hair, flat shoes, delicate swords..." I continued to list "I like hardcover books and slow songs.""And old scrolls? You live surrounded by them" Keir joked, his lips arched in a mischievous smile that made my heart beat."Silly" I hit with my fingertips on his nose."I know, I know" gave up "continue... what els
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Quinn ⋅• ♱His arms wrapped around my body and then everything seemed to be fine.I no longer felt the blood, nor the weight of the souls that I plucked, that I hurt."Everything will be fine" he repeated as a melodic song and if it was Calisto who told me those things... I naturally believed."How can you not like it here?" I asked as I stared at that landscape, the sky, the grass that resembled a red foliage. The stars that always shone in the sky almost always cloudy.Calisto snorted."I don’t know..." he said sincerely "maybe... I just can’t see the beauty of hell when I didn’t have you by my side."A twinge struck my chest, a twinge of happiness and hope."Fool" I mocked wrapping my arms around his neck.I loved that being.He loved his color-changing eyes, loved his foolish way of thinking that the world was more beautiful outside of hell. He loved the way the rebellious waves of black hair he had struggled to unravel around his delicate face.I loved the
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Calisto ⋅• ♱I could not sleep.My eyes weighed and weighed, but I could not sleep - because there, in my arms -, there was a fragile being who did not seem able to open his eyes again.Whenever everything was cloudy and sleep pulled me down, I saw myself awakening in fright and looking at him.Checking.Checking to see if he was still alive, if he was still breathing.It was every day, every second - more complicated to watch, to watch."You should rest," Azrael told me one night, his eyes sharply in pain as he stared at the child, my child."How?" I heard myself ask, Loren’s sleeping face was so pale I had to put my fingers close to her nostrils to make sure he was still alive."Samael is good" he said hoping to console me, but it didn’t work.How would it work?"Then why haven’t we heard from you?" I practically growled, my hands closed in fists, tears burning in my eyes "I sent letters and more letters... I... I did everything I could... I DEMANDED answers a
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Asmodeus ⋅• ♱"Asmodeus is a great...""This time it’s going to work," I said ignoring the voice of that damn demon in my earring as I focused on that crystal, that crystal I was able to form from Quinn’s blood."You’ve been repeating this since...""Shut up" growled tearing the earring from my ear and throwing it at the wall.I wasn’t in the mood to be careful about whether or not I could hurt him or even break his prison.I was just tired.I wanted to see her."It needs to work" I muttered as I imbued more and more magic in that little crystal "work, work..." I kept repeating, as if somehow that was a stupid mantra - strong enough to make everything work; but nothing could be easy when it was for me, right?Nothing worked as it should.I bit my mouth hard, the fangs thrust into my lip until a sliver of blood came down my chin.I couldn’t see her, I couldn’t be with her or protect her. I couldn’t go to her even though time was passing and yet, the least I was a
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Loren ⋅• ♱My eyes weighed, my belly looked strange and at times it was like floating in my own body.I could feel my father’s affection as he tried to talk and distract me, but now even opening his mouth was a complicated task."It’s going to be okay" he repeated and at that point I already knew he was saying it more to himself than to me."I know" I wanted to answer while smiling, but my mouth did not move, in fact, opening my eyes was already a gigantic effort, so I was content to grunt and hold her hand.It wasn’t a squeeze, I couldn’t even call it anything but touch. A soft, almost nonexistent touch that my father should be questioning if it was real.He was sad, wasn’t he? Abbadon should also be, but after I started sleeping more than 17 hours a day, she was no longer there, just Dad.A version of Dad who stared at me with a red face from crying."Do you want to hear a story?" He asked me with a broken voice and I forced myself to smile, forced my face to
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Samael ⋅• ♱I blinked."What was it?" she asked me as she sat in the armchair and the red-eyed duchess stared at me with an raised eyebrow."I did not expect... the two" I spoke sincerely, after all the agreement I had made with Elaine was already a clear way to make the duchess calmer with all that; even so, the sharp gaze of Asra shot me as if my mere mention of her being there was an offense. Maybe it was the result of years on the battlefield, but I knew when I wasn’t able to win a war, so I sighed winning "but since you’re here..." I muttered indicating with one hand to the armchairs - sit down."Where will you start?" Asra questioned, the red hair falling with perfectly braided waves on her back, the sharp eyes staring at me and looking for any sign of flickering in my attitudes or decisions."I’ve been thinking about tears..." I said remembering Quinn, the way he had acted.Since that day, the bastard did not even give me a mere sign of life and Callisto’
♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱ •⋅ Elaine ⋅• ♱Samael did as he said he would, but from the day we arrived at the camellia mansion - a name given by Keir, since the garden was full of camellias -, I did not even see the slightest sign of the priest’s existence, but now, when morning came by the door of our house.The huge smile on his face made me question my own sanity as he said - what was sweet? If you keep looking at me like that, I’m gonna think you don’t like my presence.I opened my mouth to confirm that assumption, but I chose not to."Just... I thought it was too early for you to be here," I lied and apparently that wasn’t one of my best lies, as he just smiled as he drank his tea."Early? We have a lot to study, especially if we want the child to experience one of my theses before dying."I swallowed it hard."Is he... very ill?"Samael laughed quietly."Does it really matter to you?"'No' I realized as I pressed the skirt of my dress between my fingers.My concern for Loren... was mini