Bleeding Demons: The Dark Bloods - Book III ✓

Chapter 17 - The Brushstrokes of Memories

There was a stinging feeling at the side of his neck. His face scrunched up at the nagging sensation until he recognized it for what it was. Someone was staring at him. He turned to see Verden.

"What is it?" he asked him.

"How was it living with your parents?"

Mundus blinked at the question. His mind went blank, giving space for each word as it appeared in his head with placid heaviness.

"What?" Mundus stared at Verden.

His brother didn't flinch. "I'm sure you heard me."

"Yes, I did."

A pause.

"My parents." Mundus sighed through his nose. "Why are they my parents? Are they not our parents?"

"Answer my question first." Verden's gaze shifted away from him, but his posture said he was listening.

Mundus tried to gather his thoughts, but ultimately answered truthfully. "I do not know. There is not much to remember."

Most of his memories were of civil war, of when his mother raised him to fight those who opposed her. When Cerus and Erian were trained until they cried. And then trained again until they stopped crying and the sheen of life Mundus remembered seeing in their eyes disappeared.

He remembered how his secret admiration of Gahn as the strongest, fastest demon was crushed under her mother's foot. How his questions about his father were met with answers he didn't understand, so he kept asking and asking until his mother's glares silenced him.

And in it all, there was blood and death and Mundus couldn't recall when he had accepted it, much less when he had started to enjoy it.

But there was something.

Mundus held his breath for a second before he spoke. "There was a giant fountain like a lake in the middle of the courtyard. I would play there with Cerus and..." Mundus inhaled to halt the trembling in his voice. The air entering him held his body together with tiny invisible hands. "And Erian.

"There was a day when I saw mother and father walking along the odd shore. They were talking, and then, father splashed her. I recall the brief shock on mother's face before a smile overtook it and she returned the favor. Soon, they were caught in a water fight." Mundus chuckled. "Those around froze in awe and confusion, but I raced to them and joined in the fight.

"The cool water beading through my fingers and hair. The warm security of sitting on top of father's shoulders and the hot embarrassment of mother kissing me in front of the court and my friends. I recall it all. We stood there, soaked, and my mother and father were laughing."

It wasn't until he finished that Mundus noticed the hollow ache in his chest that echoed with a sound he would only hear in his memories.

Verden nodded, but other than that, he showed no reaction. He waited a few seconds before he asked his next question. "How do you feel knowing that I'm taking your throne?"

Again, Mundus didn't know the answer. He had never really expected to take the title of demon king. He had thought his father would be king forever because he felt the war would have gone on forever.

Mundus shook his head and gave a small grin. "You must answer my question now. Why did you not call them our parents?"

Verden returned the gesture and Mundus felt like his father was reborn. "Because I have no parents."

"Father loved you." Mundus words cut into Verden's as if he was expecting that answer.

He frowned, another gesture that had Mundus seeing Auronmar. "I never knew him."