Tales of a Travelling Archdemon

Prologue

There once was child that was not supposed to exist.

His mother was a shrine maiden sworn to serve only her god and was stolen away by an tyrannical emperor in order to satisfy his greed. Gods are not allowed to directly interfere with the mortal realms, so Arius could only watch as the maiden suffered.

When she became pregnant, he blessed the child and in doing so, condemned the maiden to death. And so that unlucky child was brought into the world. A child born through his mother's death was created to kill his father.

At first Arius was angry, but he knew the child was not to blame. It was simply his own pettiness that wished for a resolution to a situation out of his control. The child was destined to kill his father, whether or not he intervened.

So he watched, and slowly over time, he grew to care for this nameless child. Each lonely night spent shivering and hungry, every tear shed in pain and each new scar that was added to his body. Arius knew it all. He watched over him every single day, for thirteen years until the moment of his inevitable death.

For the first time, Arius couldn't watch. This child had effortlessly captured his heart and now he couldn't bear to let him go so easily. Not when he had seen so little of the world.

All he knew was suffering and bloodshed.

He had never once been held. Never had a good meal or a place to call home. No family, no name. Nothing. He had nothing. Arius wanted him to live, not just survive. He wanted him to be happy.

It was then that he made up his mind. Only select few gods had the ability to send mortals from one world to another and he had that privilege. He had not used it in a long time, in order hide from Orpheum but, if it was for the sake of this child, he was absolutely willing to risk it.

He would bring him to Novae, another world that he watched over. He knew that a caravan would soon pass by, one headed by a Drifter. He knew them, for they were of his own kind, wanderers and outcasts, discarded and displaced from their original homes and families. They would take care of him.

Before he left, he wrapped him up in a cloak of his own making to protect him from the snow and hung a simple pendant around his neck. The only gifts that he could give to this child.

He wanted to name him, but felt like he did not have that right. He would wait, until the day this child would stand before him and proudly say the name that he had chosen for himself.