Demi-Sin of Deceit: Part Two

Zeella

Lional met me in the throne room of the Caliem Manor, now fully refurbished with furniture that we’d brought back from Revala, his chin lifted high. Pride refused to let him lower it, even knowing that he was close to ending up in a grave beside Danla and Harva. Beside him, Abel, Leviathan, Paimon and Chemosh stood silently, their faces grave.

Lilith had spoken to our dead brothers yesterday, but without being close to the Garden of Eden and its source of magic, she couldn’t raise them again.

Even with Earth now ours to roam, we’d found no evidence of the Garden of Eden, visiting every war-torn, nuclear-ravaged country, state or continent in the hopes of finding something.

Agron had decided to remain in The Borderlands, now guarding his newly taken territory, while Triton and Lilith had accompanied me back to Caliem.

Triton had immediately gone to Pangorama to buy blood from the hospital, while Lilith was upstairs, redecorating Destiny’s room. I’d revealed my plans to trick Destiny into working with us, and while she agreed for the most part, she had made me swear I would end ‘the pathetic brat’s’ life as soon as I was done with my games. Kristos, still sulking after losing Tarvenia to Cain and the others, had chosen to stay in Revala under the guise that it ‘needed protecting’. I’d told him that if I’d wanted it to be safe while I was gone, I would have stayed myself, rather than risk him losing it. The wound had cut deep, my brother refusing to speak with me ever since. Not that it mattered, since I’d brought a few lucky new allies in his place. Adramelech, Asmodai, Beelzebub, and Aeshma, their bodies so kindly donated by some of Tatiana’s dead soldiers.

Now, I could begin exacting my plans against Destiny, miraging her mind to make her believe that after our little plan in The Borderlands, she had been captured by Tatiana and the others, and kept for nearly an entire year, being tortured by Tatiana’s Fae warriors.

To explain Cain’s lack of appearance, I could easily claim him to be dead, killed by Tatiana’s allies as he’d tried to rescue Destiny.

Naturally, I still wanted to extract information from her, which would make her training in the Dome all the better for me. Leviathan, Paimon, Chemosh and Abel could torture her, Grigori could mirage her mind to make her think it was Tatiana who had done it, and I could get the answers I wanted.

But before I could begin all of that, I had to speak with these four fools.

“How’s my daughter?” I purred, leaning back in my chair, Lional’s face turning pale. Abel, gritting his teeth, turned his face away, and I paused. What the Hell were they hiding?

Leaning forward again, I growled slowly, “Is there a problem?”

The four of them stared at me, the furious expression I knew was carved on my face, and it was Abel who cracked first, the Demon Lord shouting, “Leviathan killed her!”

Leviathan turned on Abel quicker than Destiny had turned her back on the Manor, snarling, “It was an accident, you imprudent idiot!”

Lional took a step away from them, toward me, to explain, “Abel told me only an hour ago. Leviathan injected Destiny with Neon Hellion in an attempt to torture information out of her, accidentally giving her a lethal dosage. Abel said the last thing she told him was, ‘Suck it, Abel’.” So Destiny was dead? Hell below, I gave them one damned job, and they couldn’t even do that correctly!

No matter… I would have Grigori raise her. It would have risks, being outside of her normal summoning period of one-hundred-years, but it was a risk I would have to take. Any memory loss could be blamed on Tatiana, the same with any maiming that might happen to her physical body.

“Destiny would have been aware she was dying,” I said flatly, and Lional raised his eyebrows briefly, sighing heavily. Even he thought they were idiots. Forgiving my brother for a moment, the two of us unified in our shared beliefs that the Demon Lords we had summoned were truly lacking in brain cells, I stood, clapping my hands together thunderously. The effect was instant.

Paimon and Chemosh, who had quietly stood back while Leviathan and Abel circled each other, bowed their heads, while Leviathan continued to snarl for a moment. Abel, sensing the command in my voice, and clearly wishing to remain on my good side, straightened.

“Leviathan,” I snapped. The Demon Lord kept his teeth bared at Abel for a second longer, before wrenching his gaze back to me.

“Yes, my Lord?” The words seemed forced, spat out of anger, and I questioned, “Is it true that Destiny died when I specifically requested she be kept alive?”

“Yes…” He hissed slowly, and I drummed my fingers together, glancing to Lional. Punishment would be required. I would leave Abel out of it, since he’d been the one to report it to Lional, and Paimon and Chemosh didn’t appear to be involved. I turned my attention back to Leviathan, murmuring, “Ah, well… Accidents happen, I suppose, but you do understand that you will have to be punished, right?”

Leviathan stiffened, clearly running over whatever horrors he had inflicted on my daughter, before bowing his head. Paimon and Chemosh gulped, but remained silent.

“You will clean this hall for three days. That is all. Abel, fetch Grigori for me- He’s in the lower levels, in his workspace.” Remembering that Abel had no idea of the layout of the Manor, I added, “Down the stairs, and three halls down to the left, last door. Tell him that I need him to do some Necromancy.”

Abel nodded, rushing out before he could fully comprehend what I was ordering, and Lional breathed, “You’re going to bring her back?”

“Yes, I am. I’m also going to have Grigori mirage her mind. Any mention of her being an enemy of ours will be met with swift punishment, and I can guarantee that it won’t be cleaning floors. If any of you reveal to her that everything I say in the intermediate future is a lie, I will personally skin you, gut you, and leave you to rot on the walls outside. Dismissed.”

Paimon, Chemosh and Leviathan nodded, waiting to be excused before rushing out of the room, practically slamming the door behind them. Lional took his seat on the throne beside mine, questioning, “Do you have a plan in case she remembers? She’s the Demi-Sin of Deceit, brother.”

“If she happens to remember anything, I’ll kill her myself. As for being the Demi-Sin of Deceit, she hasn’t caught out any of our lies about our true reason for searching for Eden, so I doubt she’ll notice this.”

“And if she remembers her Connected?”

“Sarah was my Connected,” I sighed, “I’ll just feed her some bullshit about how I understand how convincing Connected’s can be, and leave it at that. If she questions it further, I’ll ‘reluctantly’ admit that our latest Heir of Hell is dead, murdered on the battlefield.”

Lional nodded, convinced, before breathing, “Thank you for giving her another chance. Maybe, after she’s been converted back to the Manor, she might become a permanent member again?”

Giving my brother a saccharine smile, I wistfully breathed, “Perhaps.”

When Destiny had given me the information I’d wanted, and I was done playing games with her mind, I would execute her. She’d been disloyal to the Manor, and to me. That was enough of a reason to be executed to me.

*

Grigori chalked out the final few steps of the pentagram on the floor of the throne room, Lilith watching curiously on as our resident Necromancer laid Destiny out in the middle of it all. He’d dressed her in a dress that Lilith had gone out and bought, the black silk draped over her pale skin, her feet bare. We’d removed all signs of her old alliance, burning the singlet and pants she had arrived in, the armour hidden safely away in one of the dungeon’s storerooms. Inferos hadn’t been with her, and as part of Leviathan’s first duties over the next three days, I had sent him out under the order to find it, or not come back at all.

The only thing we had been unable to remove was the thick diamond cuff around her wrist, and while Abel had suggested cutting off her hand to remove it, I had decided against it. It likely held no significance in her memory to her, just another pretty gift from Cain or her Connected.

Yes, that was a good idea… A gift from Cain. His final gift to her, before he had so tragically perished, having passed away on our doorstep. Obviously, Grigori had done his very best to raise her beloved cousin, but the attempt had been futile, Cain’s soul lost to Hell. Lilith had already arranged for a fresh grave in Pangorama, a decorative headstone with her son’s name carved into it. Luckily for us, Cain’s room in Destiny’s quarters had remained untouched, too, adding to our cover story. I’d locked the room, the key already awaiting my daughter on her desk, for when she had the courage to enter and mourn him. I knew she would need time to mourn, and in my efforts to play the ever-loving father, I would allow her that time. Fully paid, obviously. When she was ready to work for me again, I had a handful of assignments for her. There were plenty of Pangorama politicians who had taken our departure as an opportunity to drop all ties with us, and I needed them eliminated. I’d even bought my daughter a gift, to try and sweeten the blow done to her morale. It was a charm bracelet, the inscribed initials of Nym, Lydiav, Bal’gag and Cain on each charm. It was waiting in a box on my desk, my plans for tonight set out.

The throne room was now fully decorated, brand new tapestries hanging over each pillar, depicting the five crests of the remaining Sins proudly. The thrones were freshly polished, and for decorations sake, I had given Lilith Revala’s old throne, the golden dragon leering over her shoulder menacingly. It suited her, the golds and reds of Revala, and I already had plans to gift the continent to my sister once this war was won.

We’d decided against carpet or rugs in the throne room, keeping the marble floor polished for balls and parties, but we had erected a new platform on the other side of the room, complete with an Ordeallan-like Execution Post for any of Tatiana’s warriors that we caught. I had plenty of names to use in my cover story, names that I had ensured Destiny would specifically remember from her time in Tatiana’s dungeon. Syrphien, Selphien, Tiskial- I had no idea who they were, aside from the fact that the first two were Fae Royalty, and all three of them Faeries, but regardless, they would play important roles in my daughter’s reforged memories.

Syrphien had been the one to lay the killing blow on Cain, Selphien had killed her Guardians- who had tried so hard to protect Cain and Destiny- and Tiskial had been the main one to torture her.

Lighting the final candle, Grigori straightened, a book of Necromantic spells in his hands, already open to the page he required.

“Are we ready?”

I ushered Lilith closer, my sister already wiping fake tears from her eyes as she joined my side, and I knelt, Lilith standing slightly behind me, her hand on my shoulder.

Grigori cleared his throat at my nod of approval, chanting the words that would hopefully reanimate my daughter, and the lines of the pentagram began to light up.

It would be a race against time for Grigori to not only bring Destiny back, but to then mirage her mind well enough that she wouldn’t immediately try to kill us when she awoke, and I noticed that the Necromancer was already preparing the second sheet of chants as he finished the first, the five points of the pentagram glowing an ominous red. He turned the page, continuing the chant, and the five points of power lanced inwards, towards Destiny, her body absorbing the power…

The glow faded, the three of us waiting to see if it had worked, and Grigori began immediately weaving the mirage on her mind, rearranging her memories, altering them so they worked with the story I had created for us; the perfect, happy family.

Destiny suddenly took in a sharp breath, and I placed my hand on her shoulder.

“Desterium?! Are you alright?!” My alarmed tone must have shocked her, because she sat up,

Lilith continuing to wipe tears from her eyes, and with a click of his fingers, Grigori’s summoning circle vanished, even the candles disappearing. The Necromancer himself ran out of the room, waiting just outside of the door, having already been schooled in what to do next. Destiny opened her eyes, now a deep black, although I could tell her Demon Lord wasn’t present, and my daughter froze.

Her eyes slid over to us, studying us in alarm, reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there, before the mirage took over, her eyes glazing over… I could see the battle behind her eyes; the fight between truth and lies, but eventually, the strength of Grigori’s mirage won, and she relaxed.

“Zeella?” She breathed, and I pulled her into a tight hug, her body stiffening against me. Lilith, fully submerged in our story now, sighed, “Oh, thank the depths of Hell she’s alright!”

Destiny pulled away from me, rubbing at her head, where I’d been certain to leave a bruise, “What do you mean? What happened?” The alarm returned, but this time, there was no war for truth behind her eyes, and she looked around the Manor in confusion, as if she hadn’t seen it before.

I looked over in concern at Lilith. She didn’t remember?

Perhaps the marble floor had been a terrible idea, then, with Destiny still being off-balance from her injuries yesterday. Hell below, she was lucky she was still alive!

Gulping guiltily at not taking more precautions to protect my daughter, I frowned in worry, murmuring, “You don’t remember?”

“I… No? Why- I feel strange…” She clapped a hand over her mouth, turning a light shade of green, and I clicked my fingers, a bucket appearing in front of us. She hurled into it, hauling her guts up, and I sent the bucket away before she could notice the green swirls of the Neon Hellion still in her system.

The mirage was still taking hold, clearly, worming its way into the deepest parts of her brain, and I helped my daughter to her feet, catching her when she swayed. I held out my hand, a mint appearing, which she took gratefully, and Lilith and I helped her limp over to my throne, propping her up in it. When she was seated upright, I shouted for Grigori.

“Destiny, can you tell me what you remember? Anything at all?” It was both a way to instil that something was wrong, and to ensure that the mirage had worked.

My daughter frowned, running over the memories we had intentionally left foggy, before shaking her head, hugging herself tightly.

“I… No, I’m sorry.”

There was fear in her eyes as she spoke the words, clearly expecting me to berate her for forgetting, but I knelt before her, still scowling in concern as I murmured, “It’s alright, Destiny.”

It was at this moment that Grigori chose to re-enter the room, carrying a small medical bag in his hand. He bowed to the three of us, greeting us with our names, before saying, “You called for me, Lord of Hell?”

“Destiny fell once again, but this time struck her head on the floor. When we woke her up, she didn’t appear to remember anything.” By now, Destiny began to panic, her heart racing in her chest as she demanded to know what she was meant to be remembering. Lilith shushed her, still wiping tears from her face. Destiny, seeing this, widened her eyes, falling silent. She hadn’t seen Lilith cry in centuries, and obviously, it didn’t help her growing panic.

“Including yesterday?” Grigori asked concernedly, raising an eyebrow. I nodded, lowering my voice in an effort to shield the words from my daughter, not wanting to inflict the pain of losing her cousin on her all over again.

Yesterday had been rough for the both of us, Destiny refusing to believe that Cain was dead until we had taken her to see his grave. She’d cried for close to four hours, then, shifting between screaming for him to come back, and sobbing silently, unable to find words. When I’d finally managed to coax her home, and into bed, she had refused food. Now, just as she was starting to venture out of her room again, she fell, striking her head, and forgot everything again!

“How do I explain everything again?” I begged Grigori quietly, “I can’t break her heart again!”

“Explain what?” Destiny said sharply, “Explain. What.”

Lilith silenced her again, Grigori thinking for a moment, before regretfully sighing, “I’m afraid you’ll have to bite the bullet and just explain it again. I can see already that she’s fine, physically, aside from the wounds I examined yesterday, of course. The head wound won’t even result in a concussion. It’s the mental pain that I’m concerned about.”

I bowed my head, my shoulders slumping under the weight of my decision as I sent Grigori away, turning back to Destiny. My daughter stared at me expectantly, trembling in the chair, unable to place where she stood in this encounter. The masks she normally wore were missing, and, in her mind, she now had no idea which one to place on.

“Destiny, I’m sorry to do this to you again, but if you can’t remember…” Hell, if she could remember for just a moment, I wouldn’t have to see the pain in her eyes again as I told her that Cain was dead… In a moment of desperation, I begged, “Are you sure you don’t remember yesterday?”

Lilith put her hand on my shoulder as Destiny searched her memories again, shaking her head. Gritting her teeth to stop them from chattering in fear, my daughter straightened herself, bracing herself for the worst. Noticing the wounds on her body, she brushed her fingers against them, confused. Only another Demonic entity could leave lasting scars on a Demonic-being.

“Just tell her, Zeella,” she sniffled, “I’m sure we’ll cope.”

“Tell me what?” Destiny whimpered, and I turned to Lilith, “I don’t want you to hear this again, too.”

“Whether I hear it again or not doesn’t change what happened, Zeella!” Lilith snapped, annoyed at my stalling, “It doesn’t change what that Fae asshole did to my son!”

Destiny froze, pain already filling her eyes as she began to suspect, and I took my daughter’s hands in my own. She left her hands there, limply in my own, but I could feel her shaking.

“Destiny, I’m sorry to have to tell you this again, but… We found you, yesterday- on the doorstep. Cain was still holding you tightly, and he had just enough time to gasp out what had happened to you. When I sent you on that mission to The Borderlands to fetch the Sacreds, something went wrong in our plan. Tatiana, the Fae Princess of Tarvenia, somehow managed to figure out our deceit, and she captured you, declaring an Immortal War on the Caliem Manor.”

Lilith, still at Destiny’s side, let out a quiet sob, and tears began to swim in my daughter’s eyes, finally beginning to remember. What the mirage didn’t do, her fractured memory would.

“They kept moving you, too quickly for us to capture you, and we found out that they were torturing you for information on the Caliem Manor. They used a new Demonic creature they had found and twisted to work for them to leave scars on you. After several months, Cain insisted he rescue you, and we tried to stop him.”

“Zeella-” Lilith’s voice cut into my monologue, dipping her chin to Destiny, who let out a quiet whimper, reminded of the torture she’d faced under Tiskial’s hands. She brushed her fingers against the scars, her expression haunted. I bit on my lip, hesitating, and Destiny quietly demanded, “What happened? Where’s Cain?”

“Oh… Des… Cain managed to get you back, but he had to fight Tatiana’s soldiers to do so. He suffered a pretty bad wound, but he ran you back to Caliem on foot… He…”

Lilith stood, shaking her head as she excused herself, rushing out of the room, still crying, and tears began to slide down Destiny’s eyes as she remembered her cousin carrying her through the snow, limping his way to the safety of the Manor, willing to risk it all for Destiny.

“He managed to knock once on the door, and by the time we opened it, he was collapsed around you, a solid trail of blood leading into the snow. He had enough time to explain what had happened, how he’d fought a soldier called Syrphien, how Nym, Lydiav and Bal’gag had used their lives to distract the other soldiers while he rescued you, before he himself…” I gulped, composing myself. Caliem had lost a fine general when Cain had died; he’d died before we could even get him inside.

“Destiny, Cain was killed by Syrphien’s hit- a direct blow to his lower abdomen. He barely had enough time to bring you home before he died on our doorstep.”

“Cain’s dead?!” I watched as all hope for a happy ending rushed out of Destiny, her tears freezing for a single moment, as if it were a sick version of the calm before a storm. She pulled herself to her feet, clutching the armrest in grief, before screaming, “Tell me you’re lying! Zeella, TELL ME YOU’RE LYING!”

I shook my head, trying to pull my daughter into a hug, but she brushed my hand away. It was similar- so, so similar- to how she had reacted yesterday.

“Grigori did his best to bring him back, but he was gone… There was nothing we could do… Lilith had him buried in Pangorama. We took you to see his grave yesterday.”

The tears that had frozen on Destiny’s face started up again with a new vengeance, my daughter sliding until she was sitting against the throne, sobbing, shaking her head.

“Please, just tell me it’s some sort of sick joke,” she begged, her eyes glittering with tears as she stared up at me. I joined her sitting on the floor, pulling her against my side, and she went limp, bawling into my freshly ironed shirt. I rubbed her back for a moment, allowing her to let it all out, before tapping the diamond bracelet on her wrist.

“This was his final gift to you. We found it in his room with a note dictating that if he died retrieving you, we were to place it around your wrist.”

Destiny took one glance at the diamond bracelet before burying her face in my shirt again, her fist slamming into my chest as she shrieked, “Bring him back! Zeella, I can’t live without him! Bring him back!”

Her voice cracked in pain, grief and a horrified acceptance as her memories rushed back, confirming what I had said, hit her all at once. I continued to stroke her hair, whispering, “I’m sorry. Destiny, I’m truly sorry. I know what he meant to you… I’ll take you to see his grave again later, I promise.”

“I- How did it happen? You said Syrphien killed him?”

I nodded, before shaking my head, murmuring, “I don’t know the specifics, sweetheart, I just know that Syrphien was the one who killed him. Cain died saying he loved you.”

Destiny let the words sink in, clearly shocked into silence, before whispering, “You said Nym, Lydiav and Bal’gag… Oh, Hell…” She dropped her head into her hands again as I breathed, “They gave their lives distracting the soldiers for long enough for Cain to get you out. They chose to go, Destiny, they weren’t forced.”

There was absolutely no light in Destiny’s eyes, all signs of happiness dimmed beneath a wall of grief, regret and pain as she choked out, “I’m alone…”

I held her tighter, shaking my head vehemently, breathing, “No, no you’re not. I’m here. I know you don’t remember this, but I apologised to you yesterday, for everything I did wrong to you. I want to start over, to give you a chance at a normal life. Cain’s death made me realise that you deserved better than being locked up in the Manor.”

The combined sorrow of her friend’s deaths, along with her longed-for promise of a family from me, sent her over the edge, and she began sobbing again, my shirt damp from her tears. When a few minutes of this had passed, I gently peeled her from me, saying, “It’s been a long two nights, Des. How about you go to your room, and get some rest?”

She was exhausted from being summoned, and I from trying to console her, and she nodded weakly, seeming more dazed than anything; hoping that it was all a nightmare that she would wake up from.

Without another word to me, she stumbled slowly out of the room, the normally elegant gait subdued.

I waited, still sitting on the floor of the throne room, until her footsteps vanished up the stairs…