Daevas -I- ✔️

Chapter 16.4: Ties That Bond Us

A room full of light laid before them. When they entered,  Ari noticed the room was surrounded by Greats. They were adorned in white robes with hair combed back neatly into pony tails or various styles of buns much like the one's Kaval would do to his hair ever so often. Ari licked his lips and breathed. Nothing was going to stop him from doing as he pleased. He owed nothing to them but an explanation. He would not be cowed.

"Harun, so you have come," a beautiful woman with cascades of dark curls said. She strolled closer but Kaval made sure to keep her at an arms length. Ari tapped Kaval's arm and shook his head. There was no need for it. Let her come closer and try something if she dared. 

"I am not him," Ari announced. He was proud to do away with that association with the name. "I only pretended to be for a man who said he was." 

A clamor broke out filled with angry whispers and glares thrown his way. Others stayed silent while the very few stepped away from the edges of the great room and came closer. 

"I was wrong for having fooled many of you, but I am not him. What answers you may be searching for cannot be found with me."

The woman narrowed her eyes and hissed. Some of the Greats who came out from the edges Ari realized were all women. The more he looked around the greater their numbers grew. A few men spotted the room ,but not nearly as much as the women. Ari looked to Kaval with furrowed brows, but Kaval said nothing. 

"Meris is gone. You have come here along with blood demons and the Khaeo is running amok. We no longer want answers from you. We ask that you leave." 

Ari blinked. 

"Our numbers are few. Many of us are dead or fast asleep in these walls due to a war you or whomever had brought us into so long ago. We wish no harm to the humans, but the humans mean to harm us. What can we do but protect ourselves." 

Ari sagged his shoulders and lessened his guard at words. He looked closely at the women surrounding the room seeing one pretty face after another. The only other demon Ari saw that was female was Koli.

"Kaval is a dear friend and great pillar to our kind, but if he wishes to go with you, what can I do but allow it." 

No matter how much Ari tried to search for a memory of her, of them, he could not find one, but they were all very familiar. His body told him so. 

"Lasana, I thank you." Kaval pressed one hand to his forehead before extending out to her as he bowed his head. 

Her eyes watered and her hands clasped at her robes. "I did not gather everyone here for the words of a Daevas. No, Kaval, I did this for you. Since this will be the last time you will ever step inside these walls again." 

Ari's eyes flicked to Kaval's but he stared at Lasana, unmoved. 

"Lasana," a familiar voice boomed through the silence. He rushed to the center with labored breath. Sweat poured down his forehead drenching his robe and hair. "Do not do this. Kaval is—" 

Lasana put up a hand, silencing him. "Maoz, this is his choice."

"Kaval," Ari murmured under his breath. He was terribly selfish for not realizing how his choice may have affected Kaval and his ties to this place. He felt unwanted here, but he did not think, for a moment, of Kaval's feelings. This is a place he called home, and where he belonged. 

"But—"

"Sai has already left us once and chose to leave again. You can choose to leave as well." 

Maoz shook his head no and backed away. 

"There will be no more ties to the outside world until that monstrous thing is dealt with. It is the only way to insure he will not sneak back in here, and destroy us all as he intended."