Demmaryous and Octavia stood by a window, keeping their distance from Rupture, who was messing with his phone and drinking something from a coffee shop cup, they both envied the smell of the roasted beans.
"What even is he?" Demmy whispered, "Is he an imp... or... a Goetia?" Rupture looked over and raised his cup in greetings before playing with his phone.
"I think he's both, but that's beside the point, we're out of that meeting room." Octavia sighed. She pressed her back against the wall and slid down it to sit. "We can ease up a bit,"
Demmy copied Octavia and sat next to her, curling his big tail feathers away from Octavia so as to not brush against her hands or legs. He patted his pants, feeling for his phone, but the familiar bump in his pocket was missing. He looked around on the floor in front of the meeting room door and from where he had walked earlier.
"Looking for something?" Rupture said from across the room, he must've seen Demmy looking around, he stuffed his phone into his pocket and walked over to the Goetia, his hooves clicked cleanly on the marbled floor.
"Um, yes, actually," Demmy said awkwardly and stood up, even standing at his tallest, Rupture was at least a head taller than him. "My phone is missing, I think I dropped it somewhere."
"You left it with the meeting people, it's on the table." Rupture said, "I thought it was weird that you left it there." Rupture blinked his gleaming yellow eyes as if waiting for a response from Demaryous. "Right. I'm Rupture, son of Seir." He held his hand out for a shake.
"Demaryous, son of Astaroth." He said he was still a bit wary of this Goetia, Demmy shook his hand regardless. "And this is-"
"Octavia. I know, my dad talks about you and your dad like all the time," Rupture said, "Us being Half-Cousins and all." he flicked his wrist as if he'd known her his whole life.
"I guess I've heard of you?" Octavia said trying to remember, "Nope, never heard of you....like ever. I didn't even know I had cousins till today, honestly."
"Yeah, same here." Rupture said, "I wasn't really told much of my Goetia family, most I've heard is there all stuck up their own asses and "wooden plank" boring. I don't hear much of what's happening in hell anymore, I read only the interesting things on Sinstagram." He said and flipped his phone around to show the other Goetia. His phone was littered with few apps Demmy had seen, the rest he hadn't even heard of.
"What's this one?" Demmy said. It was red with a little white circle in the middle.
"Oh, that's just VeiwTube, it's something the humans watch for fun. It's kinda Voxflix." Rupture explained as opened the app to show them.
"You have surface apps on your phone?" Octavia blinked, "How?"
"With my dad's business and stuff, my family stays with him in the Surface World. I get bored a bunch, so I just got a few apps that the humans made. I gotta say VeiwTube and Pin-It are my favorites so far." Rupture said.
"You can just GO to the human world all the time?" Demmy asked, he always wanted to see other worlds. While he could open portals like his father, he couldn't go anywhere new with them. He would have had to have been there before in order to use his portals. "You gotta bring me!"
"Slow down pal, I can't bring you up there. My dad has a special spell he uses to get up there. You'd need to talk to him before getting up there." Rupture shrugged and saved his phone.
"My dad has a spell to get up there too, he rarely uses to go up there," Octavia said, "If it's in a book like my dad's spell, why not just steal it and use it for yourself, there's no shame in a bit of rebellion." She shrugged and talked so casually, had she done that before?
"I'd never steal from my dad unless it was some kinda candy or something sweet, then I'd steal from my dad." Rupture joked, and a loud thud echoed in the lobby from the Meeting Room door. "I usually just have to ask him for a portal though," He shrugged and looked down the hall, looking curious as to what the noise was.
"You're lucky," Demmy sighed heavily, he finally let his shoulders ease since he arrived at King Piamon's palace. "My dad doesn't let me leave my house."
"Don't you mean our house? Talking for you and your dad." Rupture said. "I mean your what... seventeen, you can't live by yourself already." the crossbreed walked down the hall, getting slowly closer to the thumping door, he could hear muffled shouting and screaming.
"I've had my own house since I was ten, we share a dining room, but my dad had it built to keep me away from him once my mother... disappeared," Demmy said, thinking about it made him feel upset that she was gone, he wondered where she went... "He doesn't let me leave my house unless he's going somewhere important, even then he only brings me to these boring meetings or to the store just to keep an eye on me, and then when he's off doing business he has Cackle or his snakes watch after me..."
Seir was thrown out of the doors to the meeting room, Demmy and his new friends looked into the room and saw Astaroth standing on the table with his tail feathers flared, blocking everyone behind him from watching.
"Dad!" Rupture screeched and ran to help his father up as he whipped the dribble of blood from his beak. "Are you ok? What happened?"
Demaryous looked into the meeting room and at his father, the fury in his eyes scared Demmy for some reason that he didn't know like he'd seen this look before when he knows he hasn't. He went closer to the door, holding onto the frame fearfully as he watched all the other princes rise up in anger, but he couldn't hear them screaming and snapping at his father. Everything was a blur to his sight and hearing, all he could see was that furious glare his father had as he screamed threats at Rupture's dad.
He put his hand on his chest, why was his heart beating so fast? Why was his breath getting faster? Why did he feel so scared of something he never did?
As his head spiraled, Octavia pulled him away from a blast of Astaroth's magic. The surge slammed into the wall, destroying a picture of Piamon and Seir. All he could hear from the sound wave was ringing as his father was angrily walking over to Octavia and Demmy, demanding his son back for some reason.
Though he couldn't hear, Stolas stepped in front of the duke and stopped him from getting closer to his daughter as well as Demmy. Astaroth attacked Stolas, sending Octavia to tackle Astaroth to push him away from her father. The sounds of the fight quickly faded into his ears and suddenly he could hear all the sounds and screechings of bird demons screaming at Astaroth and Stolas.
Prince Stolas was pushed away from Astaroth by King Piamon and Demmy's father was dragged into the meeting room by himself to talk to the king. Everything rushed to the door to listen, everyone except those who were hurt.
"I'm ok, Via, it's just a scratch." Stolas wheezed and rubbed his arms as his daughter strangled him in a hug. He looked over at Demmy, who quickly looked away from the family moment and looked towards Rupture and his dad, who seemed to be much worse than Stolas as he was whimpering and not talking back to his son.
Octavia helped her father up and the two walked over to Sier, "Is he gonna be ok?" Rupture asked, holding his dad's hand.
"We can bring him to our mansion, I have plenty of herbs and medicines to help wounds, it wouldn't be a trouble at all for my brother." Stolas said as he leaned over to Seir, "Can you stand?" Seir nodded as Rupture and Stolas helped him up. They started to leave, all very worried for Stolas and his brother, "You'll want to come to, Demaryous, knowing King Piamon, you'll be without a father for a while... It'll be safe with us,"
What choice did he have... Demmy stood and rushed to Stolas and hugged him tightly, still shaking from seeing his father do all that... At least now he was with family, technically speaking.