Discussions among the House

The first day of winter was an unsettling one. There were no distinct changes in the environment, and yet everything which held breath knew something wasn't quite right.

The rabbits chose to rest their yearning legs, the birds held their need for song, and the squirrels did not dare leave their roosts. A thread of instinct, rooted in all encompassing fear. 'They' who dwelt in the forest all felt it, but only three chose to ignore it.

Hunters, ones that had grown far too content with being the kings of a small world. Too bad their bows could not pierce through fate's hand as she deigned them sacrifices. Martyrs guided by the curse of their consciousness, a burden in an invisible cloak.

The second their cabins became a flicker in the distance was the same second in which their 'world' was shattered. Egos cleaved in twain just like their heads, all collapsing in the same instant.

Just then the white blanket which covered the forest became tainted by red. The quiet which draped each drop of snow was shattered by the vibrance of life. The kind which had once been quiet but now strained against the terror of death.

Insects, mammals, birds, and reptiles, burst in all directions. Those which felt the least fear were cut down first, but death came to all who fled. Their instincts as prey were simply not refined enough to escape their predators.

Size, age, species, all irrelevant to the noise their bodies made as they crashed against the snow. Insignificant in the face of the color of their blood's shade as it grew cold.

It took no less than a minute for quiet to nestle itself within the forest yet again, ensured by the certainty of death.

There was a dripping still, but it came not from the prey. The ice had begun to melt, its permanence perhaps moved by the cries of the fallen.

"Why are you crying Shiba?" hummed an angelic voice, fusing song and question.

The man named Shiba turned his head, and a twisted smile began to open up on his face. The contrast between his tears and his grin made for quite a portrait, one which seemed to transcend the flowing of time.

His clothing captured this striking anachronism even better. He wore loose robes from a distant land and​​ shoes which practically invited the ice to dig itself into his feet. If they were gone there would be no difference between him and the snow below, for he was unbelievably pale.

All that distinguished him were four crimson eyes that completed his porcelain features, giving him an ethereal look.

"Ah, it's nothing. Just the cold I suppose."

"I can warm you up if you'd like." whispered the voice, dancing its way into a lethal seductiveness. Only fitting for its owner, a woman blessed by the goddess of beauty herself. With dark skin that wrapped around her hourglass frame, complimented by her amber eyes.

Her only blemish was a scar on her lower lip, the same one she used as she pulled Shiba into a kiss. He traced his arms down her back before breaking away.

"You ruined my ring."

The woman turned around, noticing a rabbit strewn away from its position. A defect, just like the one which marred her skin.

"We'll fix it later, when you're in better condition."

She pulled him in once again, but he broke free of her grasp, rejecting comfort for freedom. One brought by an icy wind that swept across his frame.

All it took was a single shudder and he was once again a puppet, being pulled along by the yellow eyed enchantress.

"Where are we going?" he asked bitterly as she dragged him along by the wrist. Every cell in his body knew he should resist, but her touch was like a glass of Blu Ferdau, too intoxicating to break away.

"There's a cabin nearby."

"Aren't there people in it?"

"Only two. I killed the wife, and by the looks of it you got her man."

"You know I don't like doing this right? The others are supposed to meet us in two hours."

"So what was your plan? To turn into a block of ice? I can't do much with someone who can't move now, can I?"

She smirked, as if she'd said something amusing. She hadn't, but it spiked Shiba's blood anyways, albeit for a different reason.

So they hastened their way down to the house, and perverted it. Turning a place built for love, and casting into carnality.

They returned exactly one hundred and twenty minutes later to find Shiba's corpses thrown completely out of order in favor of a behemoth of stone and wood. A temple, with a wolf etched on its sides, drawing upon the frigid liberation which defined this place. A work of art more complete than what Shiba could ever muster.

He did not take offense to it, for his expertise was in the physical and not the symbolic. He preferred the way of blood and steel to thought and brush.

The specialist in such manners made their presence known in the doorway of the building, blue skin pulsing and yet blending against the white backdrop.

"You're late." they said, gender indiscernible. Untethered by nature's laws, dynamic by way of existence. Their infectious personality was just the cherry on top.

"I thought we were on time?" Shiba said with a smile.

"If you were on time you wouldn't be the last ones here."

Infectiously toxic, it seemed.

"Oh cut us some slack Nakki. We haven't seen each other in forever, we deserve a little fun." Lili muttered, tracing her finger across Shiba's arm. He shivered, trying to turn away, but her touch fastened him in place. It always did, drawing him back when he longed for freedom.

It was Nakki who pulled him away til they were both past her earshot.

"You must really love getting burned, dont'cha Shiba?" Nakki said with a shake of his head.

"The hell are you talking about?"

"I'm sure you'll agree when I say Lili has a...fiery personality. All passionate and free flowing."

"Used by everybody too." he grumbled, trying to soothe the truth. Instead it just stung more.

"That's exactly why you should stay away. Fire's warm sure, but you seem to love the heat a little bit too much."

Shiba ignored him, strutting his way into the temple doors, not sparing a glance at either of them. He could feel the pity in Nakki's gaze already, if he had to actually see it he might just melt.

The interior was even grander than what laid outside. Tapestries and tables, spruced with color and sprinkles of wealth. A pearl here, a ruby there.

It seemed unnecessary, but the extravagance had been earned by those blessed to enjoy it.

There were eight men and women, excluding Nakki, Lili and Shiba. Each was perched at their own table.

Some sideways and others upside down, all unique and all improper. It was only Shiba who sat down correctly, for Lili sat perched up like a cat.

It wasn't as if she was incapable of refinement, it was simply that this was her natural state. A beast with silk for fur, that was the aptest way to describe her.

At the very center was a stone platform with a map laid across it. Kingdoms and cities viewed from the eyes of God's agents, the birds. Only a single chair accompanied the structure, more akin to a throne than anything else.

But not because of the design, but the man who graced it. The one for whom it was built. A blonde man, with crystal blue irises and a pale face entrenched in youth. His body did not reflect that, but did not contrast it either. It was more wise, lined with scars that peeked from underneath his robe. Marks etched along the lines of muscles which strained against his aura of innocence.

Everytime Shiba laid eyes open he appeared different, more fluid. Not in the sense of gender, at least not just that. But in the sense of identity. As if when he opened his mouth his voice would be completely different then it had been before.

"How long has it been since we were all gathered here?"

Without missing a beat Nakki responded. "Six hundred and sixty six days."

"I'm surprised you forgot Julius." whispered Famorda. Threaded around her presence was a sense of mysticism, unbound by the conventions of man. There was a raw beauty to her, nurtured by the harsh wilderness.

Her clothes were drab and bare, not like Lili. Perhaps that was why they shared such animosity for one another.

"I don't care much for details like that." Julius said frankly

"Yet you were so specific about what time we had to be here?"

"A-Actually I was the one who did all the details."

The voice that softly waxed over the room belonged to a man named Inquisitor. It was even softer than Lili's, ironic for a man with so much weight. It pushed through his stutters and made itself present in his design.

Not the one he was given at birth, but the one he had forged for himself. He wore layers of red and purple thread over white silk and adorned with jewels. Amongst all there, his clothing shone with an expressiveness he could not.

"You're an odd one, y'know that Inquisitor? Oi Julius, please never let him choose this stuff again. If anyone's going to set up a meeting it should be me, seeing as I have the most tact." Lili cut in, her voice thick with disdain. It was as if all the subtlety that seemed to shroud her had been utterly cast aside.

"You'd make way too much of a show. We don't need to worry about having a country after our heads every time we meet." snapped Famorda.

"Oh shut up you jungle freak."

"How am I a jungle freak and yet still more civilized than you?"

"You're not civilized, just cowardly. Besides, we already have at least a dozen armies after our heads already. What's one more?"

"You say that but we all know you're not going to do any fighting."

"I'll fight you right now!"

All it took was a raised brow from Famorda and a sigh from Shiba to cut down her confidence.

"Why not let them fight?" cried Ulrech with a bellow. He was so obviously drunk it was comical, but nobody batted an eye. Not to his slurred speech nor the blood splattered across his gray skin and horns.

"Don't provoke them Ulrech." he said, trying to give off an impressive of cold assertiveness.

"Your bias is showing Shiba." Ulrech cried disappointedly. "I thought you were a student of battle. To think you would be swayed by a woman."

"Me? Getting swayed? Even if that were the case I'd still cut you down with no more than three swings."

"Care to test that out." Ulrech growled, sobering instantly.

"Alright, alright guys. We can do all of this later. I can't have you all killing yourselves before you've tried my food." squeaked Yenin, a girl only eleven years of age. Nobody knew where she came from but Julius, who was at present completely silent.

Her skin was reddish with streaks of brown and blue, complemented by pitch black eyes. To think that there could be so much emotion wrapped in such darkness. Had she found her way anywhere else that feeling would have been robbed, most likely by a noble with a penchant for exotic heads.

Nevertheless, she bounded across the building, unaware of such possibility, comfortable in the skin she had been granted.

Plates of steaming hot rice and fish seemed to appear out of nowhere, like small notes sung by the world to contrast the cold. To think he'd considered killing the brat five years ago for what he believed was mercy.

Fate had certainly repaid him with this dish, and everyone seemed to agree.

"What did you even use to make all this?" sang Noas. But this time, the melody was more than just the state his voice was trapped in, but a hum of excitement.

"What are you saying silly! You were the one who got me the rice! When we killed that lord in Horachytus, remember?"

"So that's where this is from! Damn, I never expected it to taste this good. Glad we took so much then."

He flipped in his hands a turquoise coin, watching as it completed exactly twelve rotations. On one side, a fish with red jaws and spiral scales. Marking the other was a ghost ship.

"Ain't that a Dakon coin?" Shiba mused.

Noa grinned from ear to ear. "That it is. Stole it from some old coot in Taymond Village cause he kept bragging about it." he paused, bringing halt to his boundless ecstasy. "Still though, I never pegged you for a fishing guy Shiba?"

"The only thing I'm getting pegged for is a swordsman."

"Are you sure about that?" Lili chuckled.

Never before had he been so tempted towards violence. No opponent could ever get under his skin like this woman, the seductress wrapped in all he wished for his blade to destroy.

"You don't need to be a 'fishing guy' to know what a Dakan coin is." he mumbled, trying to ignore Lili's temptations. "Just not an idiot."

"I don't know what it means though. Does that mean I'm an idiot?" Yenin squeaked, popping herself back into the conversation.

"N-No. That's not what I meant."

"Look what you did Shiba!" Noas proclaimed with a pout, his seriousness nullified by his barely suppressed laughter.

She ran into his waiting arms, and without missing a beat he whispered, "I think that you should give me Shiba's portion for that."

Shiba hastily devoured the rest of his meal, swept up in the childishness permeating the air. Despite its infectiousness, at least a third the party were completely detached. Like statues they sat in their seats, encased in a bubble of tranquility.

Iralli laid all his arrows upon the table, stroking them with disturbing vigor. There was nobody who had accompanied Shiba on more missions then Iralli, yet he still remained so impossibly distant. It was respectable in a way, yet shameful all the while. This was a man who could give in to lust, not when he had such intimacy with his art.

Then there was of course Ajax, the winged anomaly. He had been with Julius the longest, replacing the shadow he never had.

Even Nakki, who was normally so talkative, remained silent.

"Never before in man's history has blood and wine been balanced."

In a moment of synchronicity, everyone turned their heads. The words had come from Julius, but they didn't sound like him. Melting over his consciousness was an image of a red haired little girl, no older than Yenin. So plain, yet so out of place. Shiba reached for his blade, but all it did was snap him from his stupor.

Julius had replaced the little girl, and her figure became no different to a ghost, flickering past the borders of reality.

"Erm…what?" he said, in response to Julius's statement.

"Ah, it's nothing. Just my own little twist on an old proverb I heard a long time ago."

Once again his form vanished, replaced by an old man. He could practically smell the rot snaking off his flesh, but the scent evaporated soon just as the moment passed.

He locked eyes with Lili and Famorda, their suspicion made clear as day. Famorda moved to speak, but she was quickly cut off.

"Isn't wine blue though?" Yenin asked, her boundless curiosity the only constant. But even though she wavered, he could see it in her eyes.

"That's Blu Ferdau you silly girl. Wine's either red or white."

It was strange seeing Lili so quiet. The elegance she always seemed to carry was always interwoven with devilish intentions. Even still, her intentions were imperceptible. She was peerless as an actor, but Julius stood at a different summit entirely.

That was who he was. Complete in combat and speech, perfect in mind and body, a transcendent entity. He was different, down to his-

"Blood and bone."

Ulrech completed his thoughts, and for a moment panic crept inside Shiba's chest. He seemed to have been talking about the colors of the wine, but something just felt off. The influence of whatever Julius was doing weighed upon his mind, yet the courage in his mind did not reflect in his words.

"Wait what? That's not right. I've seen green wine before." Noas chimed in, even more oblivious than Yenin.

"Well then it's not wine." Lili snapped.

"No, they make green wine in Murgandiel. Pink too, but it's more popular in Xol-Kain." interjected Iralli.

Seeing him string together so many words at once was like a rare event.

"I never pegged you for a wine enthusiast?"

"Goddamn it, Noas! Stop saying that word will ya?" It was his turn to speak. He didn't mean to come off so angry, but he was unsettled.

"It's been at least a couple of months since we tried that." Lili mused, dragging out the emotions he was trying to suppress. "I didn't know it left such a deep impression on you."

"Shut the-" he wanted to say something, but he found himself unable to articulate his thoughts. It was as if there was a pressure on his windpipe that condemned him to incompletion.

Instead it was Nakki who spoke, feasting on his silence. No longer an advisor, but an adversary, cutting him with words and not with steel.

"You two are such beasts I swear. All impulse and no reason."

"I wouldn't put it that way. After all, reason is necessary to draw out the most of one's impulses." Lili quipped. She was a master of this domain, and that was what made her so enamoring. So enticing. So tempting...

"That's like having a ladder to heaven and using the wood to make a fire."

"I don't see what's wrong with that. The fire would be preparation for hell, seeing as how I'd stick out like a sore thumb if I went to heaven."

"Then you'd miss out on all the beautiful angels." Ulrech teased.

"Angels are just priests with wings and magic."

"What's wrong with priests?" Yenin chimed in, blissfully unaware.

"Well, erm, she kind of boiled a few alive 'cause they rejected her advances. Now she's kind of banned from Lyrvost." Noas whispered, trying to be as discreet as possible.

"So you're scared of a small city state?" Famorda said with a flamboyant chuckle. "But no, no, no, 'what's one more army' am I right?"

"Oi, don't put words in my mouth Noas!" Lili hissed, her sophistication peeled away like snakeskin. She appeared to be entrenched in anger, but it belied a subtle playfulness. Her tone had a kind of intimacy in its exuberance, an impishness to fit her stature.

Shiba was used to it, but to see her being so mischievous in front of other people..almost hurt? Even if they were like his kin, it still-

"Why, is it full right now?" Noas mused, giggling all the while.

"You're just jealous that I would go for a priest but not you."

That shut him up quickly enough.

"Besides, priests are boring anyways. They're like puppets, silently hanging themselves on their strings of 'faith'."

"You have strings too, they just go around instead of up, hooking themselves onto whichever poor man or woman you fancy." he muttered, not realizing the bitterness in his voice until it was present for all to hear.

He met eyes with Lili for a moment, and found himself being swept up in a violent chill. No snow could compare to this, but when he averted his gaze Julius awaited him. Cloaked in silence, entrenched in turbulent cold. There was no emotion to it, no palpability.

He'd always imagined the devil to have a fire to his gaze, but in that moment that hell was a far colder place than he expected.

"Yes, but at least it benefits me." Lili voiced, casting his ingratiation back into the forefront of everyone's mind. "A puppet's strings are supposed to move them, not strangle them."

"They still move just fine though, don't they? Their threads don't strangle them, they stop them from collapsing in on themselves." Nakki argued, reasserting themselves into the discussion.

"Even if they did, I don't see what's wrong with that. After all a man only truly lives when he's on the edge of death." Ulrech said, sparing not a single word in explanation.

"Well I'm no man, so I'm just fine the way I am."

"Neither am I, but you don't see me out here behaving like an animal." Nakki snapped back.

"I don't see how being passionate makes me the same as, say, a fish." she paused. "Sorry, was that too close to home?"

Nakki instantly placed a hand on their gills, and for a moment their blue face flushed as red as Shiba's eyes.

"Passion without purpose does."

That sentence was the best they could muster, but of course it was shot down instantly.

"I have a purpose alright. I just don't see the need to suffer for it."

"I suppose that purpose is something along the lines of 'sampling the finer things in life', ain't that right?" Shiba declared.

"Precis-"

"And then sucking those things of any importance like a parasite, since that's what you always do."

Her suaveness immediately plummeted, and for a moment something else was reflected in her expression.

Was that..hurt?

Was she even capable of that?

"Oh come off it. Both of you are just mad that you can't be comfortable in your own bodies." That sentence was all it took for color to flush back to her face, sorrow drowned by self confidence.

It pissed him off to no small degree.

"Or we just have something to stake them for. Look at Ulrech. He's plenty comfortable, but he can still see past his own skin."

"Oi, why the hell are you speaking for me?" Ulrech boomed.

"Why, am I wrong?"

"Well no…but still!"

"How do you manage to still sound drunk when you're sober." Famorda remarked.

"Cus he's an idiot." Noas said, his typical vivaciousness having been restored.

"Not as much as Shiba and Nakki though."

"Mad are we now Lili?" Shiba said, adding his own characteristic little smirk.

"Only as much as you are 'comfortable'. I happen to recall you shaking and shivering in the cold only two hours ago. Not very 'comfortable' I wouldn't think."

"That was a matter of me doing my duty. You know, like the honorable do."

"Leave that to the knights please. Or the 'samurai', or whatever you call them."

"Just because I chose to leave my country doesn't mean my principles become forfeit. It's called having discipline."

"Chose to leave? From what I recall, you were banned because your mother had an affair with a demihuman, isn't that right?" her words were like venom, and her form as that of a snake. Her skin was dark, but in her eyes he saw the figure of his mother. Treacherous and scathing, imbuing his flesh with curses. "All I see when I look at you is a man trapped in delusion. Always acting so perfect and pristine when you're not. It's like the original woman pretending she didn't eat from the apple of sin."

"You're wrong." he muttered, his voice shaky.

"How am I wrong? You're a freak who hasn't accepted it." she finally got up from her cat-like position, all so she could sing her claws into his heart. "I mean for god's sake, you walk around listening to some voice in your head that tells you what's 'honorable' or not."

"I-"

"Tell me, who informs that honor besides yourself? Because as far as I can see, that purpose of yours seems to be rather 'within your own skin', right?"

Everyone else was silent, but that just made it worse. He longed for someone, anyone to say something. Even Nakki was silent, afraid of the blade that disguised itself as Lili's tongue. At last, Julius removed himself from his seat, suspending him from his embarrassment.

"What if the voice is mine, Lili?" he said, his form flickering. Now an emperor, basking the room with brilliance.

"Sorry?" she said in surprise, shifting her gaze. The moment she did fear was struck into her face, and her wall of self security began to crumble at last.

"Say it's not a voice in his head, but me informing his honor."

"I don't understand."

With sudden force he gripped her face and pulled it towards his. For just a moment, his true appearance made itself distinguished, contorting itself into an expression not designed for such gentle features. His face was carved out by hard lines and impressed with legitimate anger as he stared deep into Lili's eyes.

"It's not very tasteful to attack a man's past when arguing over his views." he said, his calmness failing to capture the rage so apparent in his features.

"They're often linked so I don't see the problem."

"Oh really? So if you tried to break a sword would you kill the smith who made it? I mean the two are linked are they not?"

"Well n-"

"Then shut the fuck up."

He let go of her face, and she instantly fell to her knees. For the first time since he'd met her, she didn't stay there.

"And you, Shiba. You're thirty years of age acting ashamed of a woman's touch." Now he took the shape of his father. Red eyes piercing his own, deriding him in silence. Could everyone else see what he saw as well? He felt like one of the animals he had slain in the morn, helpless in the face of someone greater.

At last, his shame was broken by a sigh, and Julius returned to his seat.

"So, Yenin, no food for me?"

"I thought you said you didn't want any when I told you I was going to make some!"

"I've changed my mind."

Wordlessly, Yenin took Lili's and handed it to him, and for the first time in her life she remained silent. She simply sat in her seat, in the same position as always, yet even more fragile. Not exactly a ball, but almost there.

He ate in complete quiet, and not even Ulrech or Noas dared to let out a sound.

"Why so serious everybody! Continue talking, be as you were." Julius said with a laugh. He wasn't ordering them, he couldn't after all. He was their leader but not their master, but even without the right to his words had weight.

"Fine then, if silence is your choice then who am I to stop you. Answer me though, how are things going with Scourge."

It was Inquisitor who spoke this time, eagerness underlying his voice.

"F-Fantastic my liege! I've got them w-wrapped around my f-finger like dogs to a bone."

"I'm not a big fan of that word. We have enough 'lieges' and 'lords' in this world, and I have no intention to join their ranks."

"If y-you wish." Inquisitor mumbled, his voice returning to its usual quiet. It was Ulrech who took his place, supplanting his usual volume with even more of it.

"What changed? You seemed to like such titles the last time we met."

"Well I suppose countless days alone has opened up a bit of distaste for formality."

"I didn't think it was possible for a man like you to get lonely." Famorda expressed, rapping her fingers across the table with amusement.

"Even the devil needs companions, you know." Julius said with a chuckle.

She tilted her head and assumed a frown. "Doesn't that defeat his purpose though? I'm not the most religious person but I always assumed that the devil had no equals."

​​"I don't need to have equals to have feelings. Besides, you are the only ones I wish to not see me in that way. Around you all I'm simply Julius."

"Don't jest with us." spoke a raspy voice, emerging from the lips of Ajax. "Everyone here can see of your abilities to change form. You stopped being Julius a long while ago, haven't you?"

Shiba could almost see the shifting of the atmosphere with his fourth eye. Something so intangible, yet so distinct in the way it soured the hearts of all within it.

Everyone had be thinking it,

A grin opened up on Julius's face, and once more he shifted. But this time, he maintained the same likeness. Just with more chiseled features and longer hair, with larger muscles and specks of stubble. All traces of femininity had been stripped from his person, and yet as time ticked away they returned.

"You're doing it right now!"

"Tell me then Ajax, what form did you just see?"

Ajax rolled his eyes and shook his head. "A man bathed in white light, indistinguishable beyond it. It was unmistakab-"

"That's not what I saw?" Yenin said with a frown. "I saw a woman."

"As did I. She was at least eight feet tall." Famorda whispered.

"The one I saw was short though…."

Soon the room had devolved into chaos and confusion, and Julius only seemed to entertain it.

"All of you stop it!" he shouted, with a sense of authority he had not felt in what felt like ages. "Let him explain."

"Well what is there to explain? I have as much of an idea of what's happening as you do. I'm simply enjoying the discussion." Julius said, hiding behind a veil of presumed innocence. Or was it real? His eyes and his face told two different stories, but neither seemed all that trustworthy.

"You seem awfully self assured for someone who has 'no idea what's going on'," quipped Ajax. He looked as if he had been violated somehow, as if every word was burdening him to say.

"I don't need to understand something to be entertained. All that's for the scholars, and personally I'd rather stand atop a hill in pride than despair over knowing it's not a mountain."

"That's all well and good, but then you can't expect us to not see you like everyone else does. Just as you have no control over this trick of the eyes, or whatever it is, neither can we in our inability to see you as Julius anymore." Famorda stated, piercing through the walls of deceit Julius had surrounded himself with.

"I have control over it, I just don't know what it is. This 'trick of the eyes' is simply me being myself, I just can't see the trick."

"Well 'yourself' has clearly changed. I'll say it again, you stopped being 'Julius' a while ago didn't you?" Ajax said coldly.

His question earned no response. Not even a look in his eyes. Instead, Julius examined them all, looking at every inch of them but the spheres by which they saw the world. When it appeared he wouldn't say anything at all, he decided to speak at last.

"When I was a boy, I was always told by all the priests that 'every man is a born sinner', and that 'to live is to sin'. All the other boys and girls tried their darndest to live good lives and repent or whatever, and I never understood why." he spread his arms wide, as if he was trying to encompass the whole world within their grasp. "What good is life if it's not spent to its fullest, and if that makes me some kind of monster then so be it. The only problem is, I'd rather be a monster than be Julius."

"I'd say the two are interchangeable." Lili said, using the tongue she was so skilled with once again.

"Perhaps, but 'Julius' is too limited. 'Julius' can never understand why a woman would cheat on her husband. Or why a brat would kill his father. Or why an ugly man would kill a handsome one. Too many evils that one perspective can't capture. But you know what can?"

He didn't wait for a response.

"Acting! All the things I can't enjoy as myself I can enjoy as someone else. A whore's lust and a poor man's greed, I can feel them all and enjoy them all!"

"Acting's just pretend. You can't enjoy something you're only pretending to experience. You can't be someone you're not," Shiba growled. He couldn't accept that this was the product of skill. To admit that would be to accept that he was nowhere near as great at what he did as he thought.

"Yet you, my closest friends no longer see Julius do you not?"

There was nothing anybody could say to refute that.

And so Julius laughed. He giggled with the fervor of a child who was given a toy, and in that moment that was truly what he became.

A child, and yet a man all the same.

Interchangeable and fluid in state and nature, unbound. How hopelessly depraved it was, for an individual to exist in such a state. But for a moment, Julius flickered, he slipped, he toed the line of existence itself.

No one in that room understood this phenomenon, this seemingly impossible moment, but it was undeniable.

Julius was no longer Julius, but a demon wearing the skin of a human being.

"So then what would you like us to do?" Ulrech muttered, his voice soft for the first time in his life.

"With what?"

"We've obviously been gathered for a reason, so what is it?"

"Hmm…you're right. I'd like to say this is just a good old reunion, but that would be a lie. There's a place I'd like us to pay a visit. I'd like you all to know where 'Julius' came from."