Spider Web: by Melanie Martínez
————————————————
Crimson butterfly,
Death's delicate dance unfolds,
Life's fragile beauty.
— Wu Jinlong
(Gosh ever since I've figured out the method of writing Haikus, and especially through Jinlong's poetic bashing of Jayr Aikia all those many chapters ago...I have come to the realization that I LOVE WRITING HAIKU'S! 😁)
————————————————
A nine year old Aciano was singing a song that he name Spider Web as he slices the lotus roots with a kukri blade while his group of onlookers peer at him through the kitchen doorway in various stages of bewilderment.
He doesn't bother to acknowledge it as he poured the sliced lotus roots into the soup that's been boiling at a gradual heat with the lightly seared Hellish Boar ribs, that will continue cooking until tender under a low flame.
One thing he can admire about Modern technology is that when you want a fast process of cooking, you only need to turn the stove dial.
He's still humming that odd little song cuz the alternative would be humming to a different song...
The other song never ceases in drawing forth a dull buzzing sensation that reverberates through his whole body and into his soul. It also makes his head hurt so he refrained from that second song and choses to sing his newly created Spider Web song.
For his butterflies the songs affects on them are similar enough to a purring cat, and the affect is not unsurprisingly calming.
He waits for the soup to cook and gathers the bowls and sets the aside on the countertop. Then he taste tests the soup with a separate spoon and hums in approval.
He smiled before getting the large ladle and serving out portions of the lotus root/boar rib soup.
He turned around and smiled at the onlookers. "Well, are you going to just stand around or are we going to eat this before it gets cold?"
The inhabitants were immediately impressed by Aciano's culinary skills. Elizabeth hummed over the delicious flavor. "This is delicious Aciano!"
Demonia smiled and pointed her empty spoon at him. "I'm having you help out more in the kitchen young man."
Aciano shrunk down to his nine year old form and blushed with a soft smile.
Vlad smiled as he offhandedly offended a piece of boar rib meat to Grimm Fang. "You remembered how to cook this didn't you?"
"Yeah...it's weird. It makes my head hurt but my heart feel warm all at the same time."
Viviana and Caliban shared the briefest of looks before Viviana smiled at Aciano. "He made it for you didn't he?"
Aciano nodded. "Yeah. That, and the honey rice porridge."
His smile faded after that and Caliban wasn't the only one who noticed. "Hey, you don't have to tell us what happened between you two today Aci...You've already told us a lot of heavy topics."
"Huh, I appreciate it Cal, but remember what I said about hiding it again..." he looked away. "The butterflies are already getting antsy and if I don't say it...which means it won't end well for anyone if I emotionally explode again."
"Again...?"
"Halloween—specifically in beating up that bastard for touching Eli."
Caliban and Viviana blinked.
Aciano sighed as he set his bowl aside.
"Despite what you know about my past of purposefully antagonizing Blackie—I don't like violence. I downright detest it. It makes me wanna hurl half the time, but, if I don't let out a little steam through fighting......the monster inside of me gets—jittery."
"You're not a Monster!" Viviana said with stern frown.
"Yes. I am." He buried his head into his hands. "You don't even know the half of it Viviana."
"Aci-,"
Aciano slammed his hands into the tabletop as he stood up and shouted amidst a flurry of frantic butterflies.
"No! You Don't Just Get To Say That I'm Not When You Haven't Got A Clue! NONE OF YOU DO!"
He opened his eyes and was panting only to grimace at their stunned faces.
"You're right." Caliban was unnervingly calm. "We don't. But I can speak for the others when I say that it doesn't matter Aci. You're not a monster, not to us."
Caliban sighs softly over his freind and continued speaking. "Your ability," he held up his hand and created a green soul fire dragon to hover over his palm. "...it doesn't make you a monster."
He snuffed out the fire with a wave of his hand. "You're just a kid. A scared kid who was forced to grow up too fast while suffering in conditions that no child living or dead should have ever had to endure."
Caliban's eyes narrowed. "You're not weak Aciano. The shear fact that your soul is still in tact without shattering under the strain is proof enough. You're one of the strongest sinners I know."
Aciano stared at Caliban in shock before looking away. "Well, I really don't think, that form, is the form of someone who is strong Cal."
"That's fine...I can only hope that one day you can see yourself the same way I do buddy."
Aciano smiled softly at his best friend before he closed his eyes and took a slow even breath to settle his thoughts.
———————————————
Flashback, Aciano's Memory...
Honesty comes in sentences pulled from the back of one's throat.
Involuntarily, like the sudden instinct to drop everything in order to comfort and protect a scared traumatized child from all of the world's harms.
But - when such tender love and trust is broken...the results of such a betrayal, are painful and long lasting.
Even when the mind forced to forget; the soul — the soul...
Will Not.
A nine year old Aciano was in the middle of painting a beautiful drawing of a sleeping Meihu when Jinlong's apartment door opens.
Aciano smiled with his eyes closed as he shrunk down to his five year old form and immediately turned to address his mentor like he always does.
"Ni Hao, Wu-Laoshi!" He opened his eyes only to falter over the look on Jinlong's face. "What-what's wrong?"
Jinlong was grief stricken as he slowly closed the door behind him only to stumble as he dared to step towards Aciano. He grabbed the edge of the nearest piece of furniture and leaned against it.
He was shaking, paler than Aciano's ever seen him (even after watching his mentor post panic attack from a nightmare of his own death), and breathing extremely heavy.
"Wu...Wu-Laoshi?"
Jinlong visibly flinched over that formal address—as though it caused him immense pain.
Aciano watched in worry as his mentors grip on the edge of the ceramics cabinet tightened to the point of cracking the wood.
Aciano shifts to his nine year old form and gulps. "...Wu-Laoshi?"
"Don't call me that." Jinlong's voice was hollow and extremely forced as he refuses to lift his head to look at the young boy that he's grown to love as his student and view more as his honorary nephew.
Aciano flinches as his eyes widen in confusion. "...What?"
"Don't, call me that."
Aciano blinks. "I...okay..." he gulps and carefully chooses his next words. "Did-Did something trigger your bad memories? Wu-La...I mean, Jin—Jinlong?"
Aciano grimaced over saying his mentor's first name. He's said it before, in meetings, but it felt so foreign to him. It lacked in the respectable meaningfulness behind his normal honorific. Being told to address his mentor—in such a forceful way—by his mentor no less, after spending years calling him by his honorific...was extremely jarring.
It wasn't just him that found it jarring. Jinlong grimaces as though he's been punched in the solar plexus. He clenches his teeth and growls, something that is by no means directed towards Aciano, and frantically shakes his head in frustration. He was struggling with controlling his tone and his voice snapped a little too forcibly than he wanted towards the boy.
"Jin. Just call me Jin."
"Wu..."
"Aciano—please." The pleading in Jinlong's voice caused the nine year old Aciano to tremble in concern.
"O-Okay...but...can I ask...why?"
Jinlong bit his lip and whines as he's struggling to hold in his tears and shakes his head without answering.
"Wha-What's wrong? Why are you..." Aciano then noticed Jinlong's adamance in avoiding his eyes by refusing to lift his head.
Aciano turned into his sixteen year old form and spoke in a firm tone of voice that he's only ever used in meetings when someone was skirting over the truth.
"Wu-Laoshi." Aciano said that honorific in such a way that mirrors Jinlong's own reprimanding against him for being reckless in combat training. It's not something Jinlong was expecting to hear from the boy who respected him so highly.
Jinlong flinched, despite how jarring it was to be on the receiving end of that scolding tone, he couldn't help it.
This is his stu...
"Wu-Laoshi."
Jinlong couldn't even finish that thought when Aciano's tone sharpens even more in its scolding intensity with the additional condescending question.
"Why are you refusing to look at me? You know that's bad manners."
Jinlong refuses to answer him and practically whimpers when he see's Aciano moving towards him. He releases his death grip on the ceramics cabinet and stumbles away from Aciano and grabs ahold of the back of a bamboo chair.
He covered his face within his right hand. "Stay back."
Aciano stopped and spoke. "Why won't you look at me? Why are you shaking as though you've just relived your 🤬 death?!"
Jinlong muttered. "My death is 🤬 tame compared to this anguish I'm currently feeling."
"What was that?"
Jinlong cursed in Chinese and Aciano scoffed. "Shit is right. What happened."
Jinlong was still shaking and refuses to look at him. Meihu is unnervingly quiet from her lounging spot.
Aciano scoffed. "Fine, if you're sooooooo adamant about me calling you Jin, I'll call you Jin, but that's not what's wrong here."
"Aciano...p-please..."
"NO. This isn't like you. What happened? I know you had a meeting with Lord Dread and Blackie, so what happened?"
Jinlong was panting heavily and a concerned Meihu rumbles a soft roar at him, but that just tips Jinlong's warring emotions over the edge into giving rise to his anger.
He growls a dangerous nonverbal command as he shifts his head towards his demonic white tiger and told Meihu, with just a single look, to go into his bedroom and to stay there.
Meihu lowers herself to the floor in a submissive manner with her ears pinned back. She whines like a fearful kitten who's been scolded by it's mother, before slowly walking towards Jinlong's bedroom with her tail tucked between her legs.
Aciano was stunned.
"What...the...🤬?" He gawks in disbelief. "Did you just dismiss Meihu?!"
Jinlong turned his glare on Aciano with a vicious sneer, and that's when Aciano saw the tears streaming down Jinlong's face.
He took a step back in shock and whispered. "What..."
Jinlong blinks over the shocked and slightly fearful look in Aciano's eyes and his anger crumbles as he looks away in shame and wipes his eyes.
"Aci, I...I..."
"Wu-Laoshi...I'm sorry. I-I was out of line, I..."
"Aci...please...no. You...you could never disrespect me." Jinlong closed his eyes as he bit his lip until it bled.
"I'm the one who is failing you. I've failed you Aciano. I'm no longer worthy to be your Laoshi. This is the day my mentorship ends."
Aciano blinks, and then he laughs.
"Hahaha that's not a funny joke Wu-Laoshi. You had me worried there for a moment, but I know you'd never say that and mean it. Not after everything..."
"It's Not A Joke Aciano!"
Aciano was stunned as he caught sight of Jinlong's eyes as his mentor's voice wavered only slightly at the beginning before turning as hard as iron. "A-As of this moment...You are no longer my student. You are to report to Lord Dread immediately."
~Friend's heart turns to ice,
Loyalty shattered like glass,
Betrayal's cruel price.
It felt like Aciano was dunked into an ice bath as he stared into Jinlong's eyes. He-He was serious, but Aciano could also tell that it's forced.
His eyes turned red in his rage as he clenched his fists at his sides and allowed his butterflies to swarm around inside of him.
~Crimson eyes behold,
Betrayed by friend, malice stirs,
Butterflies take flight.
A handful of butterflies crawled out from underneath his black and red accented hood to cover his right eye while more were fluttering around his body after exiting from the shadows of his cloak.
"It was Black...wasn't it?"
Jinlong was grieved and looked away. "Aci...please...don't make me say it again."
"No! You don't get the privilege to speak to me with such remorse after you've allowed that Monster to order you around like your some 🤬 game piece. You're letting him win and ripping my heart out like it means nothing to you in the process of saving yourself! Especially When We Both Know You Don't Want To Do This!"
"Aciano...I have no other choice."
"Oh 🤬 You Then! You Coward!"
Jinlong's eyes widen as Aciano snarls at him with an angry retort.
"You're Just Scared!"
Jinlong emotions snap as he yells at the boy through his tears.
"OF COURSE I'M 🤬 SCARED ACIANO! IF I DONT DO WHAT LORD DREAD AND BLACK TELL ME TO DO THEN...then...you will be...be-,"
"What? I'll be what, oh great Laoshi? Exterminated?" Aciano laughs until he cries as his appearance slowly turned into something—else.
~Forced betrayal's sting,
Vengeance bares the name of Black.
Embracing the swarm.
He screams. "IT'S BETTER I DIE TWICE NOW THEN HAVE TO GO ON LIVING AND FEELING LIKE THIS!"
"Aci..." Jinlong dared to approach as Aciano was shaking in grief and rage with his hands covering his face. He was now in the form of an adult man. "Aciano you've-?"
"I'll 🤬 destroy them." He snarled out of malice. "Starting with Black."
Aciano burst into a thousand deadly butterflies and fled the room.
"No! Aciano!" Jinlong tried to run after him but his shaking legs gave out on him. Meihu burst into the room and supported him as he screams. "ACIANO COME BACK!"
*Find him. Find them both. Make them HURT!* Aciano finds them in Draegan's massive top floor home and immediately snuffs out all the candles within the rooms to blanket them in darkness.
Draegan snarls. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"
Black (who is still more demon than Android at this time) can't see anything...but then...a single silver butterfly flutters into his line of sight. Then another, and another, and another...
~Find solace in rage,
Vengeance seeks a willing heart,
Peace found in darkness.
A haunting laugh entered their ears.
A laugh that Black will come to know and fear.
Black took a step back as Draegan snarled. "What the Hell is this?"
"Hmmmm?"
"Oh! Helllllloooo Master Dread."
Black's eyes widened as he stuttered. "A-Aciano?!"
"Shhhhhhh..."
He grins and Draegan finds himself in a defensive stance over the raw aura of Aciano's powers. Demonic power that is blanketing their surroundings in pitch black darkness. More than once Draegan is reminded of just how dangerous their situation is as the butterflies are vanishing into the darkness that surrounds them only to reappear in the corner of their eyes as a silent warning.
Black stutters drawing Draegan's attention back towards the boy.
"You...your older?"
"Oh? So you've noticed?"
"Don't I look handsome?"
Neither Draegan or Black comments on the fact that he looks just like Rasim Najjar.
Aciano chuckles and then sneers.
"I have a bone to pick with you two. You've continued pushing and prodding and now you're going to suffer the consequences-," he frowns as Black tries to move only to stumble back and closer to Draegan with fifty deadly butterflies block his path. "Why it's rude to leave before the feast."
Black gulps. "F-Feast?"
"My butterflies are soooooo hungry for the nectar of your blood Black."
~Hysteria's dance,
Laughter mingling with teardrops,
Butterflies take flight.
"No, don't try to speak. It is true, Black, it's truer than anything else I know," he said, speaking faster and faster, "you were always forcing me to be the good little boy, always the perfect little boy, the perfect little killer—solider—game piece to be used and abused before thrown aside like a broken weapon. Until I wasn't anymore, and I was chasing down a better afterlife, a place where I could be free and have a semblance of love within my heart, while you continued acting as though my mentorship with Wu-Laoshi was just a cloak I could toss aside when Dread comes a calling. You're wrong."
He stared Draegan down and smirked. "You miscalculated. This fragile peace is not to be trifled with, not when it's been coursing through my blood, engrained deep into my bones, and wrapped so tightly around my still beating-crying-screaming heart - a heart that's always-always-always being forced back into the oblivion of torment that you've continued to thrust upon me...as if I'm just some sacrificial lamb to be—,"
He cut himself off with another manic shriek of laughter as he pulls violently at his own hair, then, he drops right back into his ranting speech.
"—and you with all your twisted views for a perfect little solider; suddenly decides to put a knife to my 🤬 back and slashes-cuts-slices at my body until I'm left sobbing on that cold metal table...Sobbing to the point I'd rather die twice than feel anything ever again...Then, a warm hand pulls me up from that pain, covers me in flowing silk, and says that he loves me like how an adult is supposed to love a child,"
Aciano chuckles through his bloody tears as he staggered slightly and laughs. "Peace is as fragile as the mind you like to play with Dread! When it shatters like glass you won't be able to get up all of the pieces! My mind is in shambles thanks to you and it's YOUR FAULT! ITS ALL YOUR FAULT! ALL YOUR FAULT!"
He abruptly calms down and grins.
"You poke and prod and twist our arms till they break, but never once questioning the consequences of pushing us past our limits. You push and push until the next time...the next time it all goes wrong and the blood that was supposed to belong inside of a child is left buried under the earth along with his heart. A child who's left wondering and doesn't know why he can't fix it because he's suddenly back on that cold metal table and it's now the demon he called his family who is slicing through his skin and letting the blood stain the cage that's encasing the child's heart in ice until all he can see, all he will ever see, is the exact spot where he finally lost touch with what he thought was the important truth - and it never-it never-it never-it never—ever,"
He choked on his own blood, amidst his sobbing, "—lets me out. I can't leave, even as my Laoshi, the one demon who's held up my soul like a priceless treasure and gives it meaning, skips out on me, because to you I'm just another disposable little pawn. A pawn that's meant to be locked away in this hellhole of a city until it's of use. A pawn who's just waiting to be left alone once this is over so I can use that crystal chandelier in the entry room as a means to hang myself from. Maybe then...maybe then I'll finally-finally-finally learn...maybe then I'll learn that there was never a real safe way out of this nightmare. You let this feeling of love imprint itself within my thoughts and allowed for love to sit within the cage I created out of my rib bones to shield my heart from your influence Draegan Dread. There's now a block of ice where my heart is supposed to be because of you Simon Black. A heart that should have remained unmarred by such pain, but now it's been tainted."
He smirked as his small group of fifty butterflies swarmed around them both. "Were you expecting me to just follow-follow-follow your every 🤬 word—or that I'll just allow you to take away that with I've come to treasure and love the most? You should know better Draegan Dread, and I'm disappointed by you Black."
His lone uncovered eye stared Black down with a vengeance. "You should've known by now that I'm going to kill you Black, ohhhh yes I'm going to kill you, and I'll laugh and laugh and laugh—because isn't it soooooo funny how hard you tried to mold me into being the perfect little assassin—when it wasn't even you that trained me!"
He laughs in a state of hysteria.
"You didn't train me! When I finally found an escape from this constant pain, when I finally-finally-finally found peace - isn't it so funny Black - that you look at me now and will know just how much you broke me. All I feel is rage and grief and I should've known that this - that this was all it was - this was all it ever going to be...wasn't it? It was always going to end with you tearing us apart."
He cries within his hands and then he abruptly laughs as he claws his fingers down his face and opens his arms wide and tilts his head back to scream up at the ceiling.
"THAT'S ALL THIS WAS EVER GOING TO BE! HHAHAHA HAAAAAA! THATS ALL-THATS ALL-THATS ALL-THATS ALL THATSALLTHATSAAALLLLLL!"
Draegan noticed something about the state of Aciano's eye and cursed.
"He's 🤬 high."
Aciano was undeniably 'High off His Ass' with the endorphins coursing through him and dulling the pain of his never ending bodily harm, and it's only fueled by the unbridled manic rage of his now enlightened understanding of Dread Keep and the unspoken truth of his Demonic awakening.
He's screaming, and cackling, then screaming again until Draegan and Black are forced to cover their ears to protect their eardrums from the shrill shrieks and the rapid thrumming of the butterflies wingbeats as they drew closer to them with every other second that passed.
They couldn't get close to him regardless of the butterflies, not over the raw power emanating from his body in waves of thick black smoke, that's actually his blood, which evaporates into the air as his body is being torn apart and put back together over and over again.
Broken bone by broken bone, ruptured blood vessel by ruptured blood vessel, in a loop, and yet—he doesn't feel any pain.
His only visible eye is staring at them in a look of manic elation as he laughs.
"BWHAHAHAHAAAAAA THATS ALL THIS EVER WAS!"
Draegan and Black watched as he tears open his own chest cavity and allowed even more of his butterflies to swarm out of him as he broke his rib-bones to splay outwards and exposes his frantically beating heart and his bloody liquifying lungs to the pair.
It's a horrific renditioning of a Blood Eagle and has Black paling and Draegan wide eyed in shock over the child's lack of a reaction from his pain receptors.
It slowly heals with the cracking and repositioning of his bones...
Draegan for once is actually reeling with the urge of vomit as just Aciano grins at a truly horrified looking Black and queasy looking Draegan Dread.
Draegan's never suspected this level of raw power from the boy before...this...this is unbelievable.
Aciano's still standing and is laughing hysterically as he raises his arms out towards Black and commands his now massive swarm to attack their primary target.
"Devour him. Slowly. No toxins. I want you to make this hurt."
The butterflies immediately swarm Black and Aciano laughs as Black screams over the paper thin cuts that are continuously slicing up his body from the butterflies deadly wings before they drink the blood from his body like how a spider slowly dissolves it's prey into a liquified slush.
Draegan is kept at bay by a constant swarm of butterflies surrounding Black, which he attempts to burn in an effort to get to Black.
Aciano simply turns his sights on him and just laughs even as he see's the fire turning his butterflies to ash only for more to appear from with the darkness that surrounded them and take their place within the swarm.
"Burn them, tear them apart, crush them under your heels, it won't matter. No matter what you do more will take their place. Just be grateful for your diamond hard skin Dread."
Draegan stares Aciano down as the boy grins viciously. "I didn't give them the order to hold back on their toxins for you."
He grins at Draegan who snarls and attempts to burn him only to burn a wall of butterflies while Aciano's 20 feet away and unharmed.
Aciano chuckles only to freeze up as he suddenly can't breathe.
~Manic agony,
Breath stolen, lungs gasp for air,
Pain self-inflicted.
He-He has to breathe...no, no has to finish this...
He raises his shaking hand and grins manically.
His butterflies practically throw Draegan out of black shroud that he created and it's only when Draegan dared to approach it that he realized the barrier was actually a massive compacted swarm of dark navy blue winged butterflies.
Butterflies that was so dark in color that it almost looks black.
Inside the eye of the swarm Aciano's hands are shaking as his vision blurs.
He-He Can't Breathe! HE CAN'T BREATHE!
He has to end this now!
His butterflies grow more manic in their thirst for blood and coupled with the fact he's now feeling his bones shifting, cracking, and repairing themselves at an alarmingly fast rate before breaking all over again inside of his body, he panics.
~Bones shatter, undone,
Lungs liquefied, voice silenced,
A shallow heartbeat.
He can't even scream now cuz all he craves for is air while all his butterflies crave for is Black's iron rich blood...
Outside the butterfly barrier Draegan is just about to breathe fire again when someone runs past him in a blur...the only telling attribute to this demon is the golden lotus guan hairpiece that's flying past his right ear and landing undamaged on the ground.
Jinlong doesn't hesitate, he knows Aciano's in there and is hurting and in so so much pain...a pain he caused him to suffer from.
~Instinct takes control,
Fear abandoned, I shall run,
Right into the swarm.
Tears fall from his eyes as he opens his arms before entering the swarm and if this is to be his end then so be it!
The only words he said to the butterflies before running headlong into the swarm was, "Please, let me save his soul."
He was embraced by the volatile swarm only to be shoved into the epicenter where Aciano was standing and gasping for a breath that wouldn't come, while Black is no longer able to scream at all and is just laying on the ground in a bloody mess of lacerations for Aciano feasting butterflies.
Aciano's staring at Jinlong with a panicked wild eyed lack of recognition on his face and the moment the boy coughs up blood Jinlong's running towards him and embraces him in a strong hug.
~Eyes carry sorrow,
Anger fades with loving hug,
Laoshi's anguish.
Jinlong's hands cradle Aciano's face before wrapping around him in a firm embrace. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Aciano. I've fail you. I've failed you! Please oh please stop this. You're destroying yourself Aciano! Come back to me please!"
Aciano blinks and then he's fighting against his butterflies for control the moment they realize this familiar demon is telling their master to have them stop feasting on Black until he's a shriveled husk.
They weren't happy and started swarming both Jinlong and Aciano, who was crying and screaming at them to stop as his red shirt was torn to shreds by his own butterflies.
Jinlong whispers softly into his ear.
"I love you like family. Which is why I know you'll be alright Aciano. You're strong." He weaves his fingers soothingly through Aciano's long white hair and cries as he speaks with such conviction that it has Aciano stunned. "You're so so strong. I believe in you my dear sweet boy." He gently kissed the top of Aciano's forehead as his tears fall down his face. "My most precious student..."
Jinlong slowly backed away, but didn't remove himself from holding onto the boy as his hands rested on Aciano's shoulders. "Forgive me Aciano."
Aciano was stunned as a single tear fell from his eyes. The thrumming of his black butterflies wings faded away into silence as they slowly vanished into a thick black smoke that entered into Aciano's mouth and caused the boy to choke on air that he couldn't even claim.
He collapsed and looked up to see Draegan looming silently over him.
Aciano didn't fight the energy drain as his arms fell against his sides over the lack of air. Jinlong slowly stumbles to stand overtop of him. Then Jinlong fell to his knees, being mindful of the boy's bodily injuries, and wept while resting his forehead against the boys shoulder.
He didn't care that Draegan was standing before them in that unsettling silence. Some might see the silence as mercy to grieve, but Jinlong doesn't view that silence as mercy. No, it's the opposite, it's a imminent reminder of all they will lose once they separate. The fact he's not pulling them apart is the mercy not the silence.
Jinlong can't bear the grief he caused his most precious student to endure and lifted himself away from the boy, who he viewed as a nephew, and sat back on his knees. Aciano watched with a shallow intake of breath and cloudy eyes as his Wu-Laoshi buries his head within his hands and let's out a guttural soul shattering wail.
Jinlong's experienced this anguishing pain once before, why and how he doesn't know, but this pain is familiar. A haunting all consuming grief that's far worse than his death.
A death by 1,000 swords is tame to the pain of a broken heart and shattered soul.
Jinlong was shocked by the hands that held his face. He gasped the moment he saw Aciano weakly holding his face within his hands and slowly wiping his tears. His touch was featherlight.
"I forgive you...Wu-Laoshi...I'm sorry."
Jinlong grabs ahold of both the boys hands and cries.
"No. No Aci, don't apologize. You have nothing to apologize for!"
Aciano smiled softly. "I love you Wu-Laoshi..."
Jinlong's lips trembled as he clenched his eyes shut over the tears falling down his face as he leaned down to kiss Aciano's forehead with the care of a parent.
"I love you, my dear sweet boy."
Aciano's body finally gave out on him as his eyes fluttered to a close. Jinlong continued sitting on his knees and stared at Aciano's face as the boy slowly shifted back into a form he was familiar with.
Shifting into the body of a five year old child with a lone butterfly resting on his forehead, observing the aftermath despite knowing once their masters memories were ultimately erased, they wouldn't be able to appear to him until he somehow remembers what triggered it for himself.
Jinlong slowly lifted his head and stared Draegan down with a vicious glare. He slowly stood up with the defiance of a soul befitting the Archangel Gabriel's status as the "Strength of God" and snarled.
"I will only submit willingly to my memory erasing if you do a blood pact with me Draegan Dread."
"You Would Dare-!"
Jinlong scoffed and walked straight up to Draegan with only an inch separating them and sneered in his face. "Try me."
Draegan was stunned.
"I may not know why you're doing this to us Draegan Dread, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to protect this boy from the monster that's named Simon Black. Which is why I'm proposing a blood pact."
Draegan's eyes widened and his eyebrow twitched.
"I know you have a small amount of blood magic in you Lord Dread. Though you detest it for how weak it is compared to the powerful magical abilities of you deranged younger sister...It is the only logical explanation I have for Black's sovereign loyalty towards you. I am curious as to the story behind that blood pact but I know better than to test that little curiosity."
He smirked when Draegan's eyes narrowed over realizing just how perceptive Jinlong truly is. Jinlong smiles wickedly.
"Yessss, I know the signs of a blood pact when I see it Lord Dread. Having made quite a few of them myself during my former life to ensure the final words from my fallen soldiers are kept and honored in the accordance to their families. Although, those blood pacts held no actual binding power to them, the same cannot be said for down here, in Hell, where such a ritual can have far greater consequences if they are broken."
"How the 🤬 do you know?!"
"I saw the signs the day of my manifestation."
Draegan is perplexed. "You what?"
Jinlong pointed to Draegan's left palm. "The scar, it appears even on the gloves you both wear as a discolored line. It took me many months to realize the significance of this to come to a conclusion about the connection that was made between you and Black. Which is why I'm doing this now. I know you pride yourself in how Aciano has been striking fear into the hearts of Hell. You relish in their growing unease and paranoia. Which is why I know that once Black is allowed to do as he pleases by torturing young Aciano; that productivity will fade quicker than you could possibly hope to comprehend. You can't afford any further setbacks in the future if you are to maintain this level of productivity in culling the lesser pawns. We all have priority to you, but Aciano's ability to do his job should be higher up on that priority list. Right-next-to-mine. If you truly believe in reaching your end goals, then you will agree to my terms. Especially considering that it is the most beneficial arrangement for all those involved."
Jinlong sharpened the nail on his right index finger with his hardening abilities and sliced open his left palm.
He then held out his bleeding hand and hardened the skin around the cut to slow the healing and willed his blood to continue flowing out of the wound.
Draegan arched a brow then sliced his own right palm instead of the left and clasped hands.
"State your terms clearly and the cost to be paid for breaking them."
"I Wu-Jinlong hereby make this blood pact between myself and Lord Draegan Dread to ensure the protection of Aciano Ramirez from suffering future torture by the hands of Simon Black. You Draegan Dread are to monitor Black and ensure that he doesn't inflict pain onto the child through any means of torture. As well as ensuring that the memories of Aciano's training under me will be altered only so that his skills are retained and viewed as merely muscle memory from his life on earth. You are to treat him with the same high priority as you would for me. Failure to adhere to these terms by yourself or the known aggressor, who goes by the name of Simon Black, will result in physical pain. Make sure Black is aware that he can't get out of this no matter what he tries to do to avoid it. For you, Lord Dread, you will suffer from crippling migraines for each offense Black inflicts upon Aciano. That is a mercy considering how you allowed us to say goodbye. For ever migraine you have over Aciano I'll consider it as compensation for forcing me to break my students heart. But that shouldn't be to difficult for you since it is something you're already intimately familiar with."
Draegan's right eye twitched at Jinlong's smug grin.
Jinlong then sighed.
"As for me...I shall willingly accept my fate of losing my memories of Aciano, and do not fret over Meihu's memories, her soul is tied with my own as she is my spirit animal. She too...will also lose all her memories of the boy. And, to further solidify my intentions all the paintings and literally works that were done during the time of my mentorship with Aciano shall be burned and scattered to the four great winds. A worthy send off for our treasured memories. See to it that it is done with the respect it deserves."
Draegan gave a grimaced reply.
"Very well."
Their blood glowed as their wounds healed. Draegan stared Jinlong down. Jinlong exhaled and closed his eyes.
"Just get it over with."
A hand is placed over his eyes and Jinlong collapsed from the process and the sudden energy drain of the blood pact. Then it's Aciano's turn and the butterfly vanishes the moment his memories are taken from him without him being conscious.
~Fragments drift away,
Memories like whispers fade,
Lost, yet hope remains.
———————————————
Aciano sighed and spoke with a drained tone of voice.
"I'll never forget what he did for me. Not now not ever...never, again..."
All eyes were on Aciano as his voice faded into silence as he sat with his head bowed. Caliban was about to say something but paused the moment he heard a soft snore coming from his best friend.
Aciano's out cold.
Caliban smiled softly as Viviana giggled and reached out to gently mess with his navy blue hair getting Aciano to grumbled in his sleep.
"Little goof. Only you can somehow find comfort in sleeping while sitting in a chair."
Vlad smiled fondly and picked up the sleeping boy and carried him off to bed to enjoy his nap. Vlad only paused once he reached the dining room door and spoke as he looked over his shoulder.
"Let's all take this time to process what we were just told. I for one plan to thank Wu-Jinlong some day for his dedication to ensuring Aciano's safety."
Then he left to look after Aciano.
Demonia smiled softly as she stood up and turned to Elizabeth. "I'll be heading out to provide aid to the Stone Giants for a week. They've requested my assistance with a project of there's the requires specific magical wards. Be sure to inform Vlad of my absence Lizzie."
"Of course."
Demonia turned towards her son.
"Cal, sweetie, try to keep your father sane for me while I'm gone."
Caliban chuckled softly. "I make no such promises when it comes to Dad, you know that Mom."
Demonia chuckled softly and rolled her eyes as she left the room with the Night Sisters. Elizabeth turned to Caliban and Viviana and smiled reassuringly.
"She really shouldn't worry about Vlad, he'll be to preoccupied with Aciano to notice. Come along Grimm Fang."
Then she left with Grimm Fang to do their daily patrols and Castle work.
Caliban leaned forward in his chair and rested his chin against his folded hands with a contemplative stare. Viviana whispered in concern over his intense staring match with the marble floor.
"Cal?"
Caliban stood up and spoke. "Come on Viv."
Viviana blinks in surprise then silently followed him to the library.
Caliban entered the library and moved with a purpose through the bookcases.
"Cal what's going-?"
Caliban was running his hands over the spines of the oldest hardcover books in the library and pulled out and few and held them under his arm. "Black made a blood pact with that bastard uncle of mine..."
He paused on an ancient looking tome and hummed in speculation before taking it off the shelf. "But why? What for? What would Black get out of it? He's always been a mystery to me. He's old. Very 🤬 old according to my mom. Despite his name Black's been around before the 🤬 flood." He headed over to the bay window seat and started reading. "So I'm going to find out how the blood pacts work and maybe I'll learn the origins of the demon we call Simon Black."
Viviana smiled and sighed as she picked up and book and playfully swatted him with it. "Then at least let me help out so you don't keel over from sleep deprivation."
Caliban grumbled and rubbed his sore head. "Okay, but be careful with those, some of them are older than me and twice as fragile."
Viviana smirked and sat down beside him and cuddled his side.
"Yeah yeah I know...sooo if Black's older than the Biblical Flood...do you think he could be a descendent of...of Cain, do you?"
"I wouldn't doubt it. The bastards been an enigma to my mother the moment she first met him. He knows his way around an iron forge and is a sadistic metal working genius—and I'm saying that rather begrudgingly. I can't believe I never bothered to look into it until now but we know next to nothing about him other than the fact he's an ancient sinner with a blood pact to my uncle and a twisted fascination for torture and weaponry."
"Do you think your mother realized the same thing. Is that why she's going to the Stone Giants for a week?"
"I-I don't know, maybe..."
"Hey," Viviana kisses his cheek and fiddles with braiding a long strand of his hair. "We'll be fine."
Caliban was staring down at the page with a distant frown and Viviana gently tugs on the braid.
"Ow! What the h-," He turned to see Viviana staring him down with a fierce determination in her hot pink eyes.
"We'll be okay Cal."
Caliban exhales and nods as he rests his head against hers.
"Yeah...yeah you're right...we have time to come up with a plan. For now we focus on what we can do here and now." He closed his eyes and sighed softly. "Thanks Viv."
"You'd be so lost without me."
Caliban smiled with his eyes closed and his breathing evening out with a bone tired exhaustion.
"Something that you constantly remind me of, everyyyy day."
Viviana giggles softly over his playful comment and buried her face against the crock of his neck and kissed the area of skin overtop of his jugular vein and whispered.
"Take a nap Cal, you're just as emotionally exhausted as Aci. I'll handle the research for now until you wake up."
"...Lov...you..."
Viviana smiled against his skin and kissed him again. "I know. I love you to Caliban."