Nurturer of Nightmares

Zeella

“Are you insane, Zeella?!” Sarah screamed at me, Genevieve still seated in the other room, alone with Desterium and Reannatiel, their quiet, happy baby chatter heard even now. They seemed to make good on the stereotype that twins had their own language, since I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I threw my hands up, defending, “I just- Look, sweetheart, they’re going to have their own positions in the Manor regardless of whether we want them to or not. Why not make good on what the emissaries from Hell said and arrange for them to have even better positions? I know it’s against what you believe in, but-”

“Is this because Lilith came to visit?! Zeella, for Heaven’s sake, you can’t just sell our daughters to whatever this Daemonium place is! They’re babies! And it goes against EVERYTHING I believe in! Arranged marriage, really Zeella?!”

“They won’t interact with Daemonium until they’re much older,” I reasoned, “Eighteen or nineteen, when they’re Immortal and can handle interacting with a God.”

“They won’t be Immortal! They’re half-human too, you know! They’re my children too! And they’ll live happy, normal human lives here, away from the Manor! No one needs to meet ‘God’ for Heaven’s sake! I don’t care who they are, they aren’t entitled to Desterium or Reannatiel!”

I reached for her, trying to pull her into a hug, and she slapped my hand away, looking furious as she shrieked, “Why are we even having this discussion?! It’s not happening! Hell, and Daemonium and the Manor can take their prophecy and shove it, and if you start getting involved in this shit, Zeella, I’ll just go back home, alright? I’ll take Desterium and Reannatiel with me, and-”

“No one is going anywhere,” I argued, “For Hell’s sake, Sarah, the girls are already mocked in the Manor for being human! They need to have a chance, especially if Desterium is going to take my throne! And for the record, they’re mostly Demonic, anyway! I don’t have anything even remotely human in my DNA! That’s all you!”

“Oh, so it’s my fault they’re being mocked, huh? Then maybe you should have listened to your sister and not slept with me, if you’re so ashamed that the girls and I are human!”

I rolled my eyes, snapping, “See? This is why you’re mocked in the Manor, Sarah! The girls aren’t human, and by raising them as human, you’re setting them up for failure! They will be weak compared to their cousins! Cain is already respected in the Manor!”

“Cain is four, Zeella! What possible command could he have in the Manor? The girls are barely one, and you’re already trying to arrange a marriage for them both? No! Absolutely not!”

She rose, storming into the room with Genevieve, and I followed, opening my mouth to continue arguing, before glancing down to the girls. They were in their cots, the iron that Sarah had put under their pillows to protect them from Genevieve making me grimace slightly. Desterium was watching me, her curious brown eyes full of innocence, while Reannatiel was staring adoringly at the Fae Queen of Tarvenia. She was young, newly minted, but she had come bearing a gift for our eldest daughter, since she hadn’t been aware Sarah had given birth to twins.

It was a dagger I recognised, perhaps even a subtle warning from the Fae Queen. Inferos. Genevieve had brought Inferos to me, one of the very blades I had sought in the first Legacy War with her ancestors.

A warning, or a peace offering?

I didn’t care, I’d given it to Destiny, who had already seemed to adore it, but Sarah had taken it away, citing that little girls didn’t play with knives. Genevieve hadn’t seemed offended, had even seemed to agree with Sarah somewhat. I hadn’t bothered arguing, not after what Lilith had told me about the talks with Seraphina, and what the Archangel had revealed.

No longer did we have to appeal to Hell to stay young, because Reannatiel and Desterium had souls strong enough to keep us Immortal. All they had to do was offer a small slice of their soul every one-hundred years, and it would keep us young. I hadn’t brought it up to Sarah yet, since she would be long gone by the time it would have to happen the first time, and it wasn’t worth the argument it would start.

I felt Destiny’s eyes vanish from me, and she stared at the space near the window, a delighted smile on her lips. I raised an eyebrow, scooping my daughter from her cot and cooing, “What is it, sweetheart? Do you see a bird outside?”

She giggled, reaching for something invisible, and Genevieve purred, “My apologies, Lord of Hell. I did not want to bring Guards, since I trust you not to take my life, but my Guards insisted on bringing someone with me. He decided to remain unseen, but it appears your daughter is an Aura-Seeker.” A Fae Guard who was unseen? I placed Destiny down, and she toddled over to the Faery, wrapping her arms around their legs and giggling, Sarah calling her over.

“Aura-Seeker?” Sarah spluttered, “Not another power! She already has the power of Hell!”

“And Daemonium. Your daughter now has three powers. How intriguing. The Power of Hell, the Power of Daemonium, and the Aura-Seeker ability. Aura-Seeking is when you can see the auras of living things, even when they’re invisible- MOSTLY when they’re invisible. Does Reannatiel show any such abilities?”

“A weak control over the Power of Hell,” I murmured jokingly, “It seems Destiny stole her twin’s share of the power as well.”

“Desterium is incredibly powerful for a toddler. A half-human toddler, at that. I am aware of the End of Days Prophecy, of course, and I would like to caution you both against it. Desterium is destined for another, not a God of Daemonium.”

I raised an eyebrow, curious, and Lilith breezed into the room, singing, “Knock-Knock! I’m here early!”

Cain sprinted into the room, looking eagerly around for Destiny, wrapping his arms around her. My daughter giggled, Cain pressing a kiss to her forehead. I released Reannatiel from her cot just as Abel came rushing in, the four of them running out of the room, laughing like ghouls.

Genevieve smiled warmly, and I asked, “Who is she destined for?”

“A Connected of hers. A sweet boy who will do her justice.”

“I won’t ask how you know,” I muttered, and Sarah smiled, asking, “Is he a human?”

“No. He’s not a Demonic-being, either, but that’s not for any of you to worry about.”

“Zeella?” There was a knock at my door, and I lifted my head from my desk, piles of paperwork surrounding me. I lifted my hand, accidentally knocking a bottle off the desk, where it smashed onto the floor, and my powers unlocked the door as I breathed, “Come in.”

Lional strode in, a pile of paperwork in his hands as he replied, “There was a disturbance on Caliem’s borders…”

“Oh?” I groaned, rubbing at my head, and Lional breathed, “Kenrith was sent back in pieces, with a rather distinct message on his back and chest. There are photos.” Lional tossed them onto the desk in front of me, all of them quite graphic for so early in the morning, and I muttered, “That’s Cain’s work. See the hole in their chest where their heart would be? That’s Cain’s signature, just about. It prevents us from raising Kenrith from the dead.”

The note was addressed to me, a reply to the message I had left on that Faery’s wings yesterday. Obviously the message had been received, and taken about as well as I had expected it to be taken.

In Demonic, Cain had carved, ‘Any and all lives for her. Send your Demonic scum back here, and they won’t come back in one piece.’

The writing was messy, written clearly while the Demonic-being was still alive and conscious enough to writhe beneath the blade, and Lional exhaled slowly, looking sickened as he said, “Zeella, enough with the war. You’ve gotten what you needed. Let their Dimension go.”

“We have complete and total control over it! The warship from the Northern Isles can be dealt with the moment it lands on the shore, and after that, we will have control over every continent in the Dimension, aside from the Twisted Isles, but let’s face it, after our last raid there, they won’t try and intervene again.”

Lional pressed his lips together, preparing an argument in his mind, and I lifted my hand, saying, “Where is the shipment? I want plenty of time to prepare for the feast we’ll be throwing for Lazarus, Nazareth and Nicnevin.”

“It’s coming this afternoon. The servants have already begun preparing with whatever supplies they do have, and will finish once the rest arrive. Do you wish to have all of the Heirs attend, or only Desterium and the Jezebel girl?”

“All Heirs. We need to put on a united front. Have Desterium brought out of the White Cell half an hour after the shipment has arrived, and have her put in…” I clicked my fingers, the box I had taken from the Ordeallan Palace falling onto the desk, the note from her Fae ally still stuck to the top, “this.” It was the wedding dress her Fae friend had made for her when she’d married Revala’s Prince for allies. A foolish move, considering we’d already had them under our thumb, but I had to admire her efforts. The sapphires on the dress glinted at me when Lional removed the lid, hissing at it.

“This is a wedding dress,” Lional said darkly, slamming the lid shut again, and I replied, “Her actual wedding dress for Lazarus will be much more Demonic in taste. This can be her evening gown for the night. Maybe it will remind her of her place in our court, and what she’s lost in this war- What she continues to stand to lose. I want the room decorated with the things I’ve had placed in the storage cupboard in my room. They are the wedding gifts her friends gave her, and for the centrepiece… The wooden carving of her allies. Beside it, place the rose her Connected made for her.”

“Zeella, this is taking it too far! Sarah would-”

I rolled my eyes, grabbing the nearest, still-open bottle to me and swigging from it, muttering, “Don’t try and use my dead wife against me, Lional. That’s a low blow, even for you.”

“Well, it’s true! She would have killed you for treating Destiny like this!”

“Sarah is dead, Lional.”

“And you’re the fool who pushed her to it,” he seethed, and I sucked in a deep breath, snarling, “Get out!”

He rose, taking the wedding dress with him, slamming the door. I threw my bottle at it, hearing the glass explode across the room, and I could have sworn the sapphires were still glaring at me, through cardboard and walls alike…