"Here's your preferred beverage, Maracujá juice Your Highness!" The maid in the dark green long sleeve, ankle length dress poured a glass of dark pink liquid.The boy just stared at it blankly.
"Garner IX, son, you look dismal. What ails your normal chattery mood?" King Garner VIII asked. Like his son he had wavy blonde hair with grey strands. On his head rested his heavy gold gem encrusted crown and he dressed lavishly in dark blue robes.
"I had a strange dream father," Prince Garner IX remarked.
"Oh and what was it about?" King Garner VIII remarked half lidding his eyes while from drinking from his golden bejeweled goblet.
"Well..." Garner IX started to say.
"Your Majesty it appears Lord Malchaihathanne and High Priest Calhoun wish to speak about an urgent matter! They came at their earliest and wish to inform you of a grave matter" A grey haired servant threw open the dining room double doors. Following him was a man wearing a white cassock with blue details. Accompanying him was a pale skinned man with shoulder length red hair, blue eyes and a indigo Victorian style suit with tiny golden stars reflecting the light around him.
"Your Majesty! Requesting permission to speak!" The High Priest requested before the other could say anything.
"Garner, leave us, take your attendant with you" the King commanded.
The boy gulped nervously, dropping the fork and knife he'd been using and chose to flee, grabbing the maid closest to him. Likely one of his personal attendants.
As soon as he had left, the confused servant in tow, the king looked at his subjects.
"Very well, permission granted. What is it High Priest Calhoun? Lord Malchaihathanne" He asked.
"At midmorning yesterday it finally happened! The dormant Malefic half of the Sword of Destiny became active! It began acting erratically; glowing and pulsing until it acted of its own accord. Flying south to presumably the force pulling it there." He explained breathlessly. He seemed both wary and fascinated by the whole event.
"That is a little after one of the gates was used. After my meeting with one of the Guardian mages was interrupted." Lord Malchaihathanne added calmly, greatly contrasting the man next to him.
"Just after the boy, she called her brother interrupted my attempt to send her the Scales of Fortune she requested." He continued.
"I suspect if he has the sword he will immediately go on a hunting spree to kill anyone he feels suspicious of, especially anyone he feels will hurt his dear sister," Lord Malchaihathanne examined.
"What makes you think of that?" the High Priest wondered, inching toward the door.
"You should have seen it. The look on that boy's face when he broke down the door concerned about her well being... It indicated he was moments from screaming at me 'who are you? Are you harassing my sister, you sick freak?'" Malchaihathanne commented in a concerned tone.
"If an innocent person even gives her a wrong glance he could snap, you understand what it will mean if it happens too often,"
"Locate the gate that boy used and have him brought here!" The King ordered.
"His identity must be confirmed! And He must not be allowed to have a spark of privilege should his no doubt power be able to take hold of my people!" King Garner VIII raged standing up.
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While walking down the dark road, Lotte lit the small lantern she'd been carrying so they could see. They had somehow been in Morgan's pseudo church too long. It was definitely now night.
"Hey would it be too much to ask you to just take me home instead of staying over at Nico's home uninvited?" Damian asked in a resigned tone.
"I can't, my powers are weaker at night," Lotte explained. "Besides opening gates is beyond my abilities,"
Damian deadpanned. "You waited till now to mention that?"
He heard a twig snap and looked to his right. A black fox with yellow eyes stared back at him. Stupified he hesitantly waved at the fox.
Nico smiled sympathetically. "It's not exactly her fault, it's this way for all Guardian mages, no matter how much experience they have. Their powers are simply inefficient at sundown. Courtesy of your Patron the Deity Helios" He supplied.
"Inefficient?! Are you calling me useless!?" Lotte snapped.
"Well I'm sure you'll be helpful!" Damian sweatdropped then hurried towards them.
"But um now that you put it in perspective, how did we teleport here?" He asked.
"My supervisor, Baron must have opened them because he wanted be to bring the scales of Fortune to Earth." Lotte decided.
"Right... I remember that being mentioned, but how would that have worked?" Damian stopped walking while Nico unlocked the door..
"I can't exactly open the gates anytime I want to," Nico admitted walking down the hall lighting all the wall candlebras.
"But I can take you to the one at the border of this city state." He decided. "If they follow their normal schedule we should have an opportunity to get you home," Nico explained.
Damian looked surprised. "Since I'm sure you've known this place longer than me, it's generous that you want to help me, someone who's been prophesied to destroy this place,"
Nico blinked, the tips of his ears turning pink.
"It's... Just what friends are for," he flustered.
"We can't really stay in any of the guest rooms since they're locked," Damian remarked now that they'd returned to Nico's room.
"We established that earlier Captain Obvious. Nico, Your room isn't bad, if a little barren and depressing," Lotte decided.
Damian rolled his eyes. "Whatever, we can sleep there, maybe grab some pillows blankets and sheets"
"Uh I don't want to sleep in my uniform..." Damian mused.
"I have some clothes you can wear," Nico reached into the dresser with a layer of dust on it and pulled out a simple grey shirt and some matching pants.
"Here,"
"Thanks Nico, I'll go change" Damian remarked walking out of the room. Right as he did Lotte made an exclamation of triumph and numerous pillows and blankets appeared on the floor.
"Lotte where'd you -?" Nico asked.
"Relax it's from the storage closet near the bathroom, I saw it when we looked earlier before we went to get food remember?" Lotte explained.
"My magic is weak at this time but it still works," Lotte waved her wand for emphasis and accidentally put large and small blue glittery feathers on her face.
"Ack!" She yelled and rubbed at her face to brush the smaller ones that remained off.
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"Lotte you.. never told me, how do you train your subjects to be villain material for your kingdom's grand executions?" Damian asked quietly.
Lotte tensed and didn't turn to face Damian.
She could feel his gaze boring into her. Questioning in a patient and almost cold way.
"I would get them emotionally unstable or eliminate the good in their personalities," Lotte said quietly after a long moment of silence.
Nico didn't say anything. Neither did Damian for awhile.
"So you manipulated their emotions" Damian said, almost barely audible.
Lotte closed her eyes tightly. "G-Good night Damian,"
In her dream, Damian stood in a vast dark room, looking at an enormous longsword. The color was pitch black with jagged cracks down one side. The Malefic half of the Sword of Destiny. Hesitantly he reached out to touch it.
"That blade... Is waiting for someone," someone said as if warning that touching carelessly was unwise. Lotte recognized the voice.. It sounded like Damian's almost.
"It's waiting? For who exactly?" Damian asked as he stared at it. His amber brown and green colored eyes widened. "Wait why do I care-"
"It's waiting for the right person." The voice responded.
"Hold up who's talking—" Damian started but the dream shifted.
The sword he was reaching for was being offered to him by a different, older, crueler entity. The silhouette was just barely visible, yet unfamiliar. He was no longer in a dark room, instead he stood on a ravaged battlefield with many fallen soldiers, knights possibly mages and elves. It looked like a moment froze in time.
A black fox with yellow eyes observed Damian, circling him from a distance.
With a sigh, it spoke.
"Lotte you always were a bit hopeless. Always getting your brother into your problems without telling him. Leaving him and everyone else to pick up the pieces,"
'The sword chose him, it now waits for him to fill the shoes of the role he's been called to play," the fox continued stopping in front of her.
"Phobetor stop playing around," another fox albeit with three tails commented. It was accompanied by two scorpions, a pitch black rat, and what on Earth was called a Shoebill Stork.
The scene resumed. Dani touched the sword and seemed captivated by how it felt in his hands. Similar to what had happened when he first picked it up earlier that day.
Subtly, or perhaps less subtly he seemed to change. Gaining a healthy ethereal glow in his skin (was he tanner now?), his hair seemed longer and his clothes had been replaced by blood red battle armor.
He seemed beautiful, noble almost like wielding the sword had somehow put him higher than most. But when he smiled it was such a cruel and malevolent smile.. the malice dripped from it like a leaky faucet.
She could see that person wasn't her brother anymore, perhaps he never was.
She had created a real monster. A monster no one could stop.
Lotte's heart sank. She hadn't had this dream since she first moved into the Abraxas household.. Back when she had first been adopted and Damian still hadn't gotten used to her yet.
"Lotte... This is all your fault..." A boy she felt she should know sobbed.
Lotte blinked rapidly, fighting back tears. "But I only did my job..! what I was recruited for,"
"My father is dead, because of you," the boy accused and Lotte forced herself not to openly wail with a protest.
Damian snorted sardonically. "Allow me to correct you, the girl was doing what she said. Her. Job." He crouched down in front of the boy, grabbed him by the throat and held his head upwards. Slowly he lifted the boy into the air as he stood. The boy was noticeably shorter than Damian, but a lot of people were. Damian was barely holding the boy up and he was already several inches away from the ground.
"Your grief is valid although misplaced. Don't worry, I can understand." His eyes flitted over the boy, as if looking him over and examining him for the first time. The boy continued to struggle against Damian's grip for air, futilely kicking as Damian stretched out his arm.
"And another thing, Your father is dead, because of himself," Damian sneered and threw the boy into a wall, where he presumably collapsed unconscious.
"Hello little brother," Damian's visage commented to someone in the distance. Someone wearing a heavy tattered black cloak and holding a scythe.
"Older brother... You look almost as you did in your original body," a woman's voice responded. The confusion made Lotte's head spin but not as much as the way the two seemed overjoyed to see each other. Her dream was longer than it had been that night, she thought dimly. 'What did that woman mean by original body?'
"Oh right I forgot you don't use those pronouns or adjectives anymore," he chuckled.
"It's sister now right?" He tilted his head slightly and asked calmly.
"Dami... you're a good person. Damian stop this," she gasped looking at the carnage and destruction around her.
"But why? I haven't had any fun yet. I didn't get to do anything. I haven't in so many... Millennia," he commented breathlessly. As if eager about whatever malevolence he was about to partake in. Damian held his sword out slightly, careful not to hit himself with it. He walked over and stood next to his sister who had yet to show her face.
"My fun's just beginning." he turned towards her and smirked. "And I'm going to do it with my real family," he rested the hilt of the blade on his shoulder. Eyes sparkling red and green the way his hazel ones had.
"This is only a premonition," Damian said but now his voice didn't match like it should have. "Nothing here can hurt you until it becomes reality,"He smiled again, sending chills down her spine.
"Wake up," he said and snapped his fingers.