Zinnia:
I am grieving your absence
∗·• ♔ ♥ ♔ •·∗
"Okay, so the name of one of the two is Rhaegar, better known as "The Beast" or that's what Queen Ivraia calls him. No one, but a selected few, has actually seen him. He owns no land but he shares a bed with his lover Epithymia: The dragon Queen of the mountain cliffs in the South.
Currently though-" Ankai stopped himself mid-sentence "I'm actually not supposed to tell you, but I've kept the secret to myself for too many bloody years..."
He leaned in closer and Ethan mimiced his actions automatically.
"He is currently held hostage in Queen Ivraia's dungeon.»
Ethan's brows almost crossed the line of his forehead and hair line.
«W-what, but why...?" he looked around frantically as an irrational fear of the beast bursting through the walls and eating him, presented itself.
"Jealousy» Ankai shrugged «You see, even though Queen Ivraia is possibly the greatest woman in a demon-form that has even been created, she is greedy. Wherever she goes people don't automatically bow down to her like the rest of the seven, they don't really fear her. Unfair if you ask me. And she has been trying to change that as long as I've known her, which is many years...even for a demon..."
"D-does t-this involve Maze?»
«Yes, because Epithyma, The dragon Queen, is not only fighting Queen Ivraia for the South...she is also fighting to get her lover back»
«I-Is that w-where Maze is now...A-at war...?» his own words caused him to tremble as horrible images of bombs, corpses, and blood ran through his head. Ethan himself had never witnessed a real war, not even an innocent battle at the playground as a child, but he had seen enough movies and read enough books about it to know what to fear.
Ankai nodded his head but quickly shot in a "But it's really no serious danger. Demons can't die, we're already dead. We can only get severely hurt which will take a long and painful amount of time to heal, but then again its is better than death»
"S-so Ivraia is fi-fighting the other Q-Queen for the South»
"Yes, she is fighting Epithymia for the South. She wants to reign it all, not just the Golden cost."
"W-what happens if Epithymia wins?"
"I don't know, but it will never come to that" Ankai answered confidently. «She's got Mistress Raksasha on her side».
Ethan nodded.
So, either Ivraia would beat Epithymia - The Dragon Queen- and take over the entire South. Or Epithymia would beat Ivraia and the outcome would be unpredictable. It helped Ethan to be around someone who was confident enough to not even consider the outcome of the latter.
"Y-you didn't tell me the name of the last o-one of The Seven?" Ethan said, and even as his intuition already told him he knew the answer he needed to hear Ankai say it. He had to know for sure.
"Well, she goes under many names and appearances, but I think you know who she is already" Ankai smirked "Despite the fact that she hosts no constant form, she leaves many marks on the world. The most prominent that I can see right now is the one carved into your human heart, and of course the bruises on your neck"
****
A full two weeks had passed and even Ankai had now seemed to grow slightly nervous. The usual mischievous glimmer in his green eyes and his carefree demeanor seemed to be dulled down little by little every day he was left in the unknown or the dark as he liked to refer to it.
Ethan wasn't doing any better, the worry ate of his patience. He had begun to feel reckless as he spent his days mostly pacing the living-room floor while Ankai was seated on the sofa binge-watching the demon version of Game of Thrones on a little pad. He tried to convince Ethan to join him and allow his worries to be drowned out by bloody battle screams and moans of desire, but Ethan had no concentration left for anything other than Maze. He couldn't believe she had kept him in the dark like this. She was a demon but a rare one at that matter and even worse, she was at war. And Ethan had to hear it from Ankai who was basically just tossing rumors around like it was funny. Well, it wasn't. It was actually anything but funny. It was actually so not fucking funny Ethan was practically fuming in anger.
After pacing the living room floor for the thousandth time Ankai suddenly groaned loudly.
"Would you please stop that? You're making me anxious with all that pacing"
"O-Oh I'm sorry, is my walking drowning out the a-already spent volume limit on your precious demon i-iPad?"
«Oh cry me a river, calm your tits»
«Y-you grow a pair and deal with t-the issue i-instead of drowning it out with s-stupid shows on demon HBO!»
After a while of just staring at each other, they both sighed in unison.
"I-I'm sorry..."
"Nah, you have nothing to be sorry about, I started it»
"Y-yes I do, I yelled a-at you. I-I'm sorry"
"Stop apologizing, I said it was fine"
"N-no it's not!"
"For crying out loud! Why are you so set on disagreeing with everything I say?"
"Wh-why are you s-so set on disagreeing with everything I say or do!"
They hadn't even noticed that they were both standing screaming in each other's face until Ethan's breath hit Ankai in the nose and he cringed.
"Jeez, mate! You need to brush your teeth"
"A-at least I don't have crumbles a-all over my face like a hobo...» Ethan bit his lower lip after the words had fallen from his lips. He felt bad for being so mean, but he just couldn't help it. He was worried sick, drowning in his own anxiety. And he was hungry. Hell didn't have a big set of variations when it came to food. And he was growing sick of strawberries, but it seemed to be the only thing Maze had bought him.
"W-we can't go on like th-this..." he muttered quietly.
Ankai nodded his head in agreement. He had no idea the human could even raise his voice and now they were at each other's throats like hounds.
"We need to find a way to ease the tension somehow"
Ethan huffed "Y-yeah"
****
"Th-this isn't exactly what I had in mind..." Ethan muttered, sighting as his nose began to itch again, but he couldn't scratch it due to the fact that his face was smudged in a thick layer of mud.
"Well, I'm relaxed" Ankai exhaled, sinking further into the bathtub.
"I-I didn't know they had f-face-masks in hell"
"I've already told you we copy stuff from the human world. Then again, any idiot could come up with smearing mud in your face while taking a relaxing bath" Ethan laughed a little and just nodded.
The demon really didn't lie when he said demons copied ideas from the human world. If Ethan didn't know any better, he'd say the bathing suits, bath bombs, and facemasks were stolen from a common H&M store. They just lacked the price tags and logo.
After a while of silence, Ethan sighed again. "D-do you think they're o-ok?" He asked hesitantly. He knew he had promised Ankai not to mention it in the spa-zone, but he just couldn't help it. He knew Maze couldn't die but he had a bad feeling that despite her immortality she still wouldn't return.
"I don't know. War doesn't happen too often in hell, at least not after The Seven arrived»
Ankai could tell his words weren't helping by how Ethan's breath suddenly grew shallow and so he quickly shot in a reassuring: «But Maze is powerful, besides no one dares to touch her or Queen Ivraia for that matter. Even as they don't know who Maze really is they know how dangerous she can be when she is forced into a corner and believe you me, you do not want to stand in her way when she would rather hurry back home to her precious human"
Ethan couldn't help but smile at that. He finally felt the claw of worry release its grasp around his heart ever so slightly and exhaled as he too sank down in the tub. He closed his eyes, the warm water suddenly felt good on his skin and the face-mask tightening around his skin applied enough pressure to alleviate the headache biting at his temples. He finally felt relaxed for the first time in weeks and it didn't take long for him to be lulled into a peaceful slumber.
Too bad reality always has to come crashing down on you at the worst time.
Ankai shot up in the tub, water splashing everywhere as he jumped out, starling Ethan who had just successfully managed to fall asleep.
"A-A-Ankai w-what-"
The demon hurriedly grabbed a towel, his tail flickering anxiously behind him as he dried himself and the face-mask off.
"An-Ankai!" Ethan yelled after the demon as he ran out of the room, the human stumbling after him, grabbing a towel on the way and wrapping it around his waist. The purple demon was just about to head for the door when Ethan caught up and grabbed his arm.
"A-Ankai what's going on!"
Ankai's eyes were wide and it scared Ethan beyond belief at how much worry that swirled around in his green orbs.
"They're back"
****
Poor Ethan, life just can't give him a break. I feel like a jerk for tormenting him. But someone has to take the fall of the plot.
They're back, what do you think happened? Who do you think won?
If you liked the chapter please leave a vote and a comment!:)
Have an awsome day!
-B