Goosebumps ran down my entire body as I stared up at the entrance of the fortress that the academy is, pretty much as huge as our palace at home, and I've been here long enough to know that it's also bigger than the current Royal castle, but not as huge was the old one in the old Nyx capital, where the tyrants ruled in the North. They say it's haunted, still tainted in blood and their corpses are all still there, up in the mountain range that's so high it touches the skies. Where is always night, a night so endless that even during the day in here, if you go near there it'll be dark, a starless night.
It's the only place in the Kingdom I did not wander around, one I didn't explore in my 10 years in here, not in the past millennial, even less two millennials ago. But now, thinking about, my body always turned that way when I was too deep in my head, it always turned north, every time I walked without thinking, I found myself blindly heading north. Maybe I should go there this time, maybe I should say fuck it and explore what lies in there.
I'm a Tartarus explorer, come on, it can't be bad. Nothing, and I say this with all the certainty in the world, nothing can be worse than Tartarus. For your knowledge, Tartarus was my play ground in my first 635 years, before the oldest of my siblings was born, I was always there, whenever I disappeared, my parents knew I was there, and not even them dared to walk in Tartarus without a worry like I did.
I was wild, I've always been wild, an explorer to the bone, no wonder everything felt off when I changed a millennial ago. But again, before I came to fairy-tale land the second time, I had already explore all that was to be explored in Hell, you can do a whole fucking ton of stuff in 1969 years, the age I was when I came here again, a thousand years ago. I wasn't being arrogant when I said that I have nothing to fear for my life in Hell, because I'm the Apex predator there, but the fairy-tale land here is wilder, different, they thrive in a complex way.
Sure, it's a constant danger like in Hell, but the life in here bloom like death does there, and it's... an attractive light, I never had light in my life before, Hell is always dark, an endless lifeless night, sometimes our "sky" there was red, but it wasn't a sunset kind of red, it was a nearly black and bloody kind of red, and when it did, the very hot air in there smell of blood. I just know that my youngest one will suffer to go back there after this, she's always been the most light of us, she was the first light I had in Hell, and she lightened up when I most needed.
"I don't know if your mom told you, Valentine," Markus snapped me out of it and I turned my eyes to him, "but you will pass for a throughout cleaning, just to make sure you won't bring any unknown bacteria or diseases to the our kind, given how the Underworld is a... completely different environment. It'll last a little bit, but then you will be put together and taken over to the communal lounge of VHA, where you will be separated into the four houses of the school and taken to your dorms," then he looked from them to me. "You are the first demon legacy of Poisontail House, so I think you will be in there."
"Mom told me about it," I put my gloved hands on my pockets. "She also said that I would definitely be going to the same house as she and grandma did. And probably Kat will too."
"Who's Kat?" He looked around my sisters.
She rose her hand, "Kat is short of Katherine, you can call me that. Katherine Kimberly, but just Kat is alright," the way to differ them easily is by their eyes, Kat has bright pink eyes.
"Katherine, nice name. And you?" He turned to the girls.
"I'm Iris Amanda," while she has midnight blue eyes.
"Jade Yolanda," she said, having jade green eyes.
"I'm Louise Roxana, but you can call me Lou," orange eyes.
"Madeline Isabel, call me Maddie," she grinned mischievously, her grey nearly silver eyes shinning under the sun above us.
"And I am Naomi Madison, Nana for short," now she has ice blue eyes. "You can guess our age by the alphabetic order of our names. Alyssa is the oldest, then Iris, Jade, Katherine, Louise, Madeline, and me. The boys are all Kat's age, Alesso aka Alec, Dexter and Maddox that we call Dex and Dox twins."
I told you she was talkative.
"Nice, I'm Markus, don't know if I greeted you all yet, but I'm Markus Gullscream. We'll meet again in your five years in here, I'm the gatekeeper of the portals around VHA. I see that you all know each other. Last time they were all unrelated, I guess they changed this time so you wouldn't feel so alone," he turned to me again, "your mom was always alone, but she was bright, an explorer, she was always curious about everything, while your grandma was... nasty and closed off, but both ambitious."
I felt my siblings and the twins looking at me, definitely the case because all of them asked me about my time in here, even the boys, "Sounds like them, I think I'm a bit... in between that, still ambitious. I guess they picked us because we would stick together, since mom said that everyone walks around in groups in VHA."
"Sorry, but, what is this VHA?" Dox asked.
"Von Hyden Academy," me and Markus said together.
"But why do you say it as vee-hah, and not as in v-h-a, spelling all the letters?" Dex tilted his head curiously.
"Just because, I guess," Markus rolled his broad shoulders. "Never thought about that. It also sounds better as vee-hah than in v-h-a, it's more... melodic, I would say."
"Are there Royalty here?" Dox asked and I felt like strangling the bastard for being so absurdly obvious. "Von Hyden is a Royal House, right?"
He tilted his head, "I would say this is the year with the most royalty in it, all the Royal heirs and Noble heirs are here, it's actually overwhelming. And though a millennial ago that had not been made public yet, Von Hyden isn't Von Hyden House anymore, it's now Wintermere Von Hyden, their Crowned Prince of the Von Hyden married the Wintermere Princess, and they had two sons, Davon and Isaac, and they are now Wintermere Von Hyden Princes."
Markus played with one of his arrows, side-eyeing me in a way that tells me he remembers how Eric had been after 'Alamea' before she, aka I, left a millennial ago, leaving him here on his knees and despairing. And the simple idea that Eric did get married with a Princess, did have two sons who will be present here, and that one of them will probably look like him... fuck if that doesn't tear my heart apart. I feel like crying, like screaming, like going back to Hell and never leaving at all.
But in the end, I can't, this is all my fault.
"I'm from the order of the Hindergrass, but I'm not a Hindergrass citizen, I've been in here ever since before the Great War, so, I don't have a word about who I think it's more befitting the power. However, now that the Wintermere and the Von Hyden united through marriage and had sons that are old enough to be in here now, the power scale is tilted up, they have 50% of the Royal power, and they are the strongest house, their sons are hybrids of dragon and fenrirwolf, and there will be heavy competition in here between the four houses because of that."
"I am warning you about this, because of Alyssa, I'll be honest, your mother caused an impact, and her leaving caused quite the after impact, and I know because I was here again, opening the portal for her to leave. So, I just want you to beware this, you all, since you are all with her, I guess."