Gracious Hosts and Ancient tales Part 1

JP with LSP

Soularous had reentered the home he was summoned from. He silently sat on the floor, by a small table, he laid Jynieth's unconscious form on the cushioned couch. He was lost in thought, thinking about his actions, he wasn't sure if the others felt it, but he did feel something happen within the weave. The scar on his face throbbed in pain, "Garith, have you come to haunt me again?" He asked himself more than anything.

He turned his head behind him, "Sneaking up on a demon lord, are we?" He chuckled to himself, "I don't bite, you can come forth."

Aggie had been watching Soularous from around a corner. She had never known that Aldous had any family let alone a brother and sister. Beyond the two being infernal beings with sets of horns, she could not see any familial resemblance.

“And how can I know I can trust you?” Aggie asked, looking at Soularous and the woman whose face twitched and moved occasionally. “And what about her? She’s in some strange trance and twitching and you’re just sitting there not helping her?”

"She's dealing with a trial while she sleeps, I'm watching over her physical form to make sure it isn't harmed. You can never truly trust a demon, however knowing Aldous, he wouldn't be very happy if I even thought of harming you. We met once before, but briefly if I recall. My brother summoned me, but we left before we could properly be introduced.”

“So that’s what he was doing? But who are you?”

“I'm Soularous, the King in Blue." He faced her, giving her a respectful bow, even though he was sitting.

“You're the King in Blue?” Aggie said, smiling disbelievingly. “Yeah, right, and I'm the Fair Lady.”

“I am, and no, you’re not. She’s much taller,” Soularous said casually.

Aggie paused as though trying to decide how much to believe him, but she knew Aldous would never have left him here alone in the house with her if Aldous didn’t trust him a lot. “Are you really Aldous's brother? That would make you almost my uncle and her... my aunt? It was strange enough having a tiefling father figure growing up.”

"We only will be if you see us that way," Soularous answered her question. "However I do not lie about my title, no reason to. I personally think it's better to have a father than none at all."

Aggie felt a small stab of grief; her own father had only been murdered a few days ago, a crime that still remained unsolved. With effort she pushed aside the horrible thought of it and focused her full attention on the majestic being sitting on the floor before her and his great claims. “If you’re really Soularous, I’d imagined you’d be much scarier than you are, but wait…” the young mage said as something truly momentous occurred to her. “If you’re the Soularous, then does that mean Aldous is the Aldous…?”

"Our names carry weight, no one would dare falsely claim them. How else did you think Aldous charmed so many women in one night?" The demon lord chuckled, before wincing his pain. He covered the scar over his face.

Aggie continued to find it extremely hard to believe she was talking to one of the Nine Lords of Hell. She had always taken Aldous to be some lower being weak enough to be captured by her father to serve him and not a willing subject. Her father had been a very powerful wizard but surely not so mighty he could have enslaved a prince of hell. She noticed Soul wince and clutch at his face.

“Is that an old wound?” Aggie asked, thinking the scar didn’t look recent.

"Very old, nothing to worry about." He moved his hand away, no longer feeling the pain. Aggie could tell whatever created the scar wasn't a blade, it was too rough yet precise, the canyons of his face created by the scar suggested that it was a nasty blow to his face.

During their conversation the women stirred. Her dark purple eyes fluttered open and adjusted to the light. “How’d I get on this sofa?” Jynieth asked, her voice a bit more smoky than Aggie would likely have imagined. Sitting up right Jynieth rubbed her head. “Now I’ve got loose ends to tie up…” she complained in a huff blowing her bangs from her face. “Is Aldous back?”

“Aldous isn’t back yet, no.” Aggie responded having watched the tall demon woman waking up. “Do you need water or anything?” she asked, not sure if Jynieth even needed water. She’d seen Aldous drinking it.

Despite not seeing much in the way of family resemblance before, when Jynieth smiled she saw a bit of Aldous. “That would be lovely, thank you.” she responded. “Oh! Manners. I am Jyienth Lord of Lies according to humans Lordess according to my kind, and you must be Aggie. Aldous has told me nothing but good things about you.”

Aggie took a moment to process all that was going on. So it was true, her caretaker, and basically her uncle was the Lord of Lust Aldous. She held back a shudderer considering the implications of the teachings from the church about the Lords of the Nine Hells. Though from what little she understood The Fair Lady’s teachings about the Lords of Hell were far different than any other.

“Don’t worry.” Jynieth said. “We’re not that bad, especially Aldous he sort of changed the game down in the Nine Hells...at least for a bit. People just like to spread rumors. But if you wish us to leave until Aldous returns. I would understand and drag Soularous from your lovely home. He’s just a big baby, really. Look at him nursing that scar he got more than a thousand years ago like it’s a fresh owie.” She frowned as she noticed how odd that last part actually was. “What’s your malfunction, Soul?”

The King in Blue removed his hand from his face. "Just a pain, that's all," he lied to Jyneith. He was hiding something, usually he would reveal many things about himself, especially to his siblings. The only thing he never liked talking about was that scar he gained. He had always avoided it, either by starting a new subject or simply giving out a poor reason. Soularous turn to Aggie, "Really, we are said to be much worse than we actually are because many churches don't like us or need us to look bad to scare people from doing bad things to send them to us."

“I guess you could be telling the truth,” Aggie thought aloud. “I mean I’ve seen Aldous go into The Church of the Fair Lady and not been vaporized by holy light.”

Soularous smiled, "We can be very friendly, however I think that the Fair Lady is just a sweetheart." His eyes flicked over to Jynieth, before flicking back at Aggie, realizing his mistake of boldly lying to the Lordess of Lies about his scar. "Aldous however has always been one of thoughts and words, why he leads the Nine, been a great mentor for many of the new members."

“Are you implying she’s not a sweetheart?” Jynieth asked. “She allowed you to live, that’s pretty sweetheart behavior if you ask me.” she added. “Besides she doesn’t get in the way like some other ‘gods’ love to.”

“Weren’t you going to fight an angel?” she asked. “He’s just destroying more stuff if you are just sitting here waiting for Aldous to get back.”

Soularous tapped his foot, "You heard the Dark One, I have to wait, he doesn't want me charging in. I have a feeling he has our old man behind this. If you haven't felt it Jynieth, something attacked the Nameless itself, I felt it in the Weave, don't you feel it too, the sudden silence from the outside, the Nameless was knocking on our door, someone answered, but didn't let it in. Now the knocking has slowed." Soularous pointed out, his scar might have picked up on one side, but he knows his infernal senses picked up the other side, something beings should have felt, no longer was there something barring down on Aeran, familiar chaos had begun to leak through.

“So… are you ready to stop lying about that scar now and tell me what’s really happening.” Jynieth asked Soul. “You should know by now you couldn’t lie to me, even if you were a good liar. I’m The Lordess of Lies, it is kind of my deal to know when someone is lying.”

"I don't know, I have been able to pull off a lie about this accursed thing for two thousand years." Soularous motioned to the scar, "Incarius never gave me this scar. Someone else gave it to me, nearly killed me." The memory shivered Soularous to the bone, "I never thought something like that was possible…" He turned away from Jynieth, refusing to face his sister.

“Have you ever considered that I knew Incarius didn’t give you that scar?” she asked him “And that maybe I knew that you didn’t want to talk about it so I just let the subject go? Letting you come to me in your own time if you’d wanted to talk?” Jynieth asked. “You seemed shaken by it and if Aldous taught me anything, its that ‘if people want to talk they will, pushing it will only make them clam up more’ or something like that, he probably said it way smoother and his shirt was probably open. Come to think of it, has he ever worn a shirt? Getting off topic sorry, but if you want to talk I’m all ears. You can trust me, they didn’t turn me with their capture. I’m still family.”

"I only hid the truth because what that thing was, threatened us, and was at one time, something I considered family. Draken isn't the first child I've had with a mortal." Soularous confessed out loud, he turned to Aggie, "You don't have to stay and listen if you don't want to, it's a dark tale."

“You don’t need to explain why you hid it from us. But if you want help, you have to tell me at least something.” Jynieth paused. “If you want to wait for Aldous to get back, that's fine. I know things between us were stressed at times. But I wouldn’t be trying to help you if I didn’t actually want to help you. Now are you saying this had something to do with one of your children?”

“Yes,” Soularous said, pausing. “But not any of them you previously know of…”

“What?” Jynieth said. “Okay, now I’m really interested and not just politely humouring you.”

Soularous smiled, but there was pain in it. “Well, let me tell you the tale, the Tale of the Heartless…”