10 ❗️10
At that point, Azrael lost focus.
Her heart was pounding in her chest.
Her dragon mark shifted greatly, wrapping around her neck.
Her thoughts were running around in every corner of her mind, trying to process what she heard.
"It..it's not true..." she whispered to herself.
She ran down the hall and leaned against the railing that overlooked the dining table.
'I know we're demons.. but it's not possible to just lose our sanity so easily, right?'
She felt Solano shift once again, "it's true" spoke a soft voice, "I warned you"
'She talked..?'
Her dragon mark writhed unnaturally before she witnessed something that made her jaw drop - it was like a weight slowly lifting from her skin; a small dragon began to form, her mark was leaving her body entirely.
A miniature form of her dragon eventually hovered in front of her.
"W-what.." she stuttered, "why.. why did you-"
"-You are in distress"
"It feels like a part of me is missing right now" the demoness mumbled. "why are you talking to me"
"I've chosen to" Solano replied, "what he was saying is true, that is why I've told you to learn to control your abilities well"
"But me becoming bloodthirsty and killing everyone in sight? that's impossible! i was raised like a human for seventeen years of my life" Azrael protested, "I don't just harm people because I feel like killing someone, if they're in the way of a mission then they're going to die either by me or someone else"
"Your impulses have not become excessive.. not yet at least" Solano responded, "the power we have comes from not just darkness, but many consuming things like fear and malice. You know this. Choose your decisions carefully"
The dragon then wrapped around Azrael's shoulder and sunk into her skin, becoming a mark once again.
Somehow, she felt more relieved.
Azrael ran a hand through her hair, "I don't want to deal with this right now" she muttered to herself.
She felt a sinking feeling in her heart as anxiety fill her mind.
There was only one place in the entire palace she could go to where she felt the most safe.
She hopped over the railing and landed on the ground with a thud.
Azrael didn't even look at the three still at the dining table as she ran by, going down the hall and talking a right turn.
It lead to another hall with a few doors, but at the end of it there were no lights - only darkness shrouded it.
The demoness ran straight into the dark end of the hall and afterwards ended up in an entirely different area of the palace - the area no one else had access to but herself or her father.
It was where her room was.
There was not much light, only a few dimly lit lanterns mounted on the walls illuminated some of the area.
Azrael opened the first door on her left and went inside, slamming it behind her.
Her room was spacious, and while she had the option of lighting the lanterns in her room, she chose not to.
Instead, she sat near the frame of her bed and put her hand on the wall above it.
Black flames ignited from her hand that flowed into specific lines and shapes until it formed a dragons claw. After it completed, a large portion of the wall popped out mechanically and moved to the side revealing another room that was pitch black. It looked like whatever light dared to enter would be snuffed out instantly.
The darkness in that room seeped out, almost like a liquid.
This room was a replica of the one that Asmodeus had in his.
He had said that in times where they are badly injured or in need of rest, going into the shadows would be the ideal place to heal.
After all, their powers had originated from the realm of shadows.
She reached out a hand, and the darkness automatically clung to her arm.
She sighed as she stood on her bed and hopped into the room and was embraced by the dark liquid.
The entrance shut as soon as she was completely submerged.
It was a weird feeling at first, at times she couldn't get used to it.
It felt like she was underwater, though she could breathe and see herself inside the darkness.
It was warm, unlike what most people would expect.
She felt as though she was floating in mid air.
She brought her knees close to her chest and hugged them tight, closing her eyes.
The words 'unstable' 'lack of control' and 'dangerous' were thrown around too often these days, and the more the words echoed in her mind, the more she thought back to five years ago - when she had awakened.
She still had trouble remembering at times, when it had all happened the trauma caused her to forget what she had done temporarily, 'until Basileus forcefully reminded me' she thought, recalling the first time they had met.
His words stung the most, giving her scars that still ached occasionally.
The words replayed almost instantly.
'You lying FOOL! Acting like you're a child of God, even when you so mercilessly slaughtered two people!'
Basileus was a shapeshifter that could take on the form of any creature he thought would coax his target the most, and to appear friendlier to her, he posed as a female nun, only revealing his true self until her father was summoned.
He left an intimidating first impression, having been in the mortal realm for so long, he grew impatient with Azrael quickly - as she came to learn, the servant truthfully did not have that much of a temper, only getting infuriated if something had truly irritated him.
Back then, as he revealed later, he eagerly wished to return to Hell.
He did apologize in the end and acted like his usual witty self, but it took quite awhile for her to become comfortable around him.
'Sometimes I can't believe he ever said those words to me'
Realizing that she was the one who slaughtered Jun and Juro's human bodies nearly destroyed her mind.
She shuddered, still hearing the screams of denial that came from her seventeen year old self.
'LIES, LIES LIES LIES!'
Losing the grip around her temperament was something she feared deeply, though she did not say aloud.
"The princess has returned to the shadow realm's passage I see" a voice spoke.
She opened her eyes slightly.
"Please don't tell my father I'm here, I just want to rest" she forced herself to say.
"Oh young one, he will know soon enough" the voice told her, "and we, beings of the dark are in no position to lie to the one who sees all in this realm.. someday, you will also be in charge of-"
"-Leave me!" Azrael growled, "I don't want to hear anyone talk"
With no words of protest, the voice was gone.
Left alone with tiredness sweeping over her, she closed her eyes again and began to drift soundlessly into a sleep, hoping that she would not dream of that day.
🔥
"Where is Azrael" Asmodeus asked, approaching the table with Beelzebub behind him.
'They come back now?' Juro thought, 'they just missed her.'
"I don't know, she jumped from the second floor and ran off" Jun shrugged, "why?"
Asmodeus shook his head after a moment, "Basileus, are you confident?"
His servant nodded his head, "my apologies, she's very stubborn"
"Now where have I heard that before" Beelzebub sighed.
Juro gulped and hesitantly met eyes with the King of Edis, "what happened?"
"It appears my rebellious daughter eavesdropped on our conversation in the consultation room" he crossed his arms, peering at the ground as if deep in thought.
'So that's why she left suddenly'
"Well clearly if she ran away looking upset she wasn't too happy about what she heard" Jun scoffed turning to his father, "what were you even discussing dad"
Basileus, Asmodeus, and their father had grim expressions across their faces.
Juro noticed that all of them were hesitating to speak about it.
He was unsettled by the tenseness in the air, contemplating if he had underestimated the severity of the issue.
"Dad?" His brother called again, this time with a worried expression.
"I was hoping.. to discuss this in a proper manner, with all of you present" he finally began, "but.. seeing as one of you already knows, I suppose we will discuss it now"
