Twelve years ago, Exedra had a young nanny whom he loved dearly.
Lillian was like a second mother to Exedra.
She doted on him endlessly and taught him to read and write, took him on walks on the days his body would allow, and stayed in his room to read to him when it would not.
He would even sneak and try to help her with chores which led to him forming friendships with most if not all of the castle staff.
While Yara was by no means an absentee mother, Lillian was the person he spent the most time with as a child and had the most fond memories of.
Memories that Carter inherited.
One day, guests visited the castle on official business.
They were Jirai and his son Jeddah.
While Jirai was discussing something important for the kingdom, his son wandered off before he noticed and left the two of them to explore.
He stumbled into the garden where he saw an extremely enchanting young woman.
Lillian was a tiger beastkin with bright orange hair and emerald eyes to go along with her extremely well endowed body, she gave off a feral charm that attracted men in droves.
Jeddah was no different.
Under the guise of a respectful and courteous young man, Jeddah approached Lillian and Exedra that day.
He joined them for tea and Lillian was charmed by his handsome appearance and good manners and they quickly fell into a courtship.
That year Jeddah visited several times to join Lillian and Exedra for tea or even just to chat and Lillian fell deeper and deeper in love with him.
Eventually, he proposed to her and Lillian said yes.
The day of their wedding, Lillian hugged Exedra tightly and proclaimed that even if she was no longer going to be his nanny, she would always be his friend.
Because he did not want to burden Lillian, the young Exedra put up no resistance to their marriage and even walked Lillian down the isle since she was an orphan.
He remembers it fondly as the first time he'd ever seen a woman smile so brightly.
Just like that, three months went by.
Lillian hadn't visited, nor had she responded to any of his letters.
Noticing something was wrong, Yara inquired about this to Jirai and was told that she'd come down with a terrible illness.
When Yara told Exedra, his entire world broke apart.
He begged to go and see her and Yara of course agreed but it would take time since she was busy with political matters.
This wasn't good enough for young Exedra.
Under the cover of night, he bought a coach to take him to clan SnowScale.
The coach could only take him so far because access was restricted on dragon lord lands so Exedra had to get there the rest of the way himself.
By some miracle, he dragged his small frail body through those wintery lands until he arrived at the castle.
He collapsed right at the front gate and was brought inside.
It was there that Jirai realized who he was and instinctively knew what he was doing there.
He told Exedra that Lillian had come down with a contagious flesh eating disease and even being in the same room with her would put him at risk.
Jirai left Exedra in the room alone as he went to notify Yara to take him back home, but Exedra snuck out and began to scour the castle.
He wandered so far into the castle, that he eventually passed by a dark room with a terrible smell coming from it.
Something told him not to open it, but his curiosity overwhelmed him.
By some miracle or perhaps a twist of fate, the door was unlocked.
What he saw next scarred him forever.
Bodies of battered broken women were piled up right next to an incinerator.
Exedra feel to his knees immediately and vomited all of the contents of his small stomach onto the floor.
When he attempted to scramble on his knees to get out of the room, that was when he saw her.
Her once beautiful orange hair was now matted with her own blood and her beautiful pale skin was riddled with bruises and gashes.
Her beautiful green eyes which were once so full of love and life, were now lifeless and empty.
Even if her face was scarred and bruised he would never forget her.
How could he?
Exedra dragged his frail body across the floor to where she lay and held her gently in his small arms.
No matter how much he called for her, for the first time in his life she didn't answer him.
Her body was already cold.
Grief stricken and broken, he let loose a horrible scream that traveled throughout the entirety of the castle.
Every guard in the castle was there in minutes.
Jeddah and his father included.
What they found was a small boy with black hair and tears coming out of his eyes clutching the deceased body of a woman.
Jirai was outraged.
Because he was so busy as a dragon lord, he knew absolutely nothing of his son's life or his sick hobbies.
The only reason he'd told Yara and Exedra that Lillian was sick, was because that was what Jeddah had told him.
He simply thought of his son as trying to be a good husband and did not pursue the matter further.
When Yara found out where her missing son was she was relieved.
Helios was with his daughter when the news about Exedra's whereabouts broke. Together they flew to collect his grandson.
When Exedra was finally in his mothers arms he weakly told her what he saw and what happened.
All Helios needed to see was a single tear fall down his daughters perfect cheek and the castle of clan SnowScale was reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble in an instant.
Like a god of death, Helios held Jeddah and Jirai by the neck in the air and prepared to end their lives.
Through restricted breaths, Jirai begged for his life and the life of his son.
He professed his undying loyalty to the kingdom and proclaimed that this was all his fault for failing to educate his son properly.
Because Helios did not want to kill one of the leaders of his own faction and risk his kingdom crumbling from the inside, he wavered and asked Yara what she wanted instead of ending their lives outright.
With tears in her eyes, an unconscious son in her arms and an exhausted expression, Yara's only answer was that she wanted to go home.
Was she angry? Of course.
Did she want them dead? Who wouldn't.
But more than anything she was tired of loss.
This entire event had reopened old wounds for her that were entirely too much to bear.
She wasn't over Asmodeus' death yet and now this?
She was ready to break.
All she really wanted was to go home and curl up in her bed with her son in her arms.
She wanted to hide away and pretend, atleast for a little bit that this was all a bad dream.
Helios obliged her, but not before he stripped Jeddah of his title as successor to his clan and ordered that he be castrated and whipped everyday for five hours for five years, to honor the fifty women they found dead in that room.
Jirai was ordered to pay reparations to Exedra and Yara separately in the form of one hundred million gold coins.
After that event, little Exedra wasn't ever the same.
For the first two months after the ordeal, he was borderline catatonic.
Only after the third month did he recover slightly, but he still refused to leave his room.
One day, he heard a knock at the door that was different from the rest and opened the door to see what looked like the entirety of the castle staff that he'd befriended alongside Lillian.
Each of them without exception hugged him and cried with him.
It was only after that day that he showed signs of improvement.
Even when he was able to smile again, those that paid attention to him knew it wasn't the same smile as before.
He was lonelier, he was sadder, and above all he blamed himself for not being able to protect her.
Unbeknownst to him, this internalized guilt contributed to the avoidance of his wives years later.
Because if he couldn't protect Lillian how could he possibly protect them?
Jeddah's punishment was of course carried out, but in a world full of magic limbs could always be regrown.
After his five year punishment was over, his ugly habits began to show themselves again.
Since nearly everyone knew he was stripped of his title for his dishonorable acts, he no longer put on the guise of a good natured citizen and instead reveled in debauchery and coerced women into giving themselves to him willingly through whatever methods necessary.
He used money to keep the families mouths shut and when that wouldn't work they would just go missing entirely.
Naturally Jirai tried to put a stop to his son's behavior, he even had a special information team directly responsible for watching his son's every action.
Eventually, with work again beginning to overwhelm him, Jirai allowed Jeddah to continue his disgusting hobby, and asked only to be alerted if the woman targeted had an outstanding background that could bring trouble.
And like that, seven years went by.
Reparations were sent to Exedra and Yara and formal apologies were given by both the father and son duo every year on the anniversary of Lillian's death.
Little Exedra who had no power to take revenge simply accepted the apology every year and got the ordeal over with.
And because Exedra seemed to be over it, Yara did not pursue the matter any further either.
Only Exedra knew that he would never forget.
Not for a single second.
-
When Exedra's eyes landed on Jirai something strange happened.
His presence, his aura, his breath it all disappeared.
Mira had to look behind her to make sure she was still sitting on him, and his wives had to check to make sure he was still next to them.
They weren't evolved enough to feel the sinister energy he'd compressed inside of himself.
Hell even Yara couldn't feel it.
The dragon lords, the first prince, the witch queen and the vampire queen were the only ones who could sense the energy boiling within Exedra's body.
Unconsciously they all took a step back and placed their hands on their weapons if they had them.
It was as if the grim reaper's scythe was now hanging over their necks.
"Mira my child…" Exedra's voice was so different from normal it sent shivers down the spines of everyone in the room.
Mira looked at her father with an anticipatory look and waited for his instructions.
"Go cover your mothers eyes, okay?"
Mira instinctively knew he was talking about Bekka and went and sat in her lap and covered her eyes with her little fingers.
Lisa was shaking.
The one person she never wanted to see was here in front of her once again.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked to see Exedra giving her a warm look before he planted a small kiss on her forehead that eased her nerves.
"You bastard! You dare to touch what's mine in front of me?!" Jeddah was walking forward and ice magic had begun to gather at his fingertips.
Jirai appeared in front of his son in a flash to stop him. "Idiot! What the hell do you think you're- "
"Let him go." Exedra's voice was unfathomably cold and regal.
Jeddah almost obeyed, but a third level evolved dragon has enough willpower to resist Exedra's charm spell.
"I-I don't know what's wrong with him, please excuse us we are leaving immediately!"
Exedra said nothing and with a wave of his hand, pitch black chains covered in red miasma shot out from Jirai's shadow and pinned him to the floor.
"W-what is this?!"
Jirai could feel his strength being sapped as the chains dug into his skin and immediately began to try to escape.
Exedra knew that his chains would only hold a third stage for a few seconds at best.
But a single second was all he would need.
"Glimpse of Oblivion."