Illuminating the Dark Prince

Hope for the Brokenhearted

Little chocolate crumbs clung to the colorful polka-dot paper liner while I eagerly though carefully peeled it away from the cupcake in my hand. The pretty pink frosting and perfectly fluffy cake enchanted my tastebuds with their heavenly sweetness, as I took a big old bit like a starving piranha munching on some poor unfortunate fellows leg... It was my third one of the night. 

Holy fuck, that's delicious...

The ambery firelight flickered over Valarendrik's smiling face while his grey clawed thumb gently swiped a pesky little crumb away from my lip. I giddily smiled back up at him the best that I could with a mouthful of cake and snuggled deeper into his side. We were cozily seated on a very gothic-style black and red victorian couch, telling our anomalous abyssal tale to the others. My legs were tucked up beneath me and Valarendrik's arm was draped around my shoulders to hold me close. He'd changed out of his armor and now wore a cozy outfit that Azathoth had lent him. It consisted of black sweat pants and a black tee-shirt with a large triangular hole in the back that snapped together beneath his neck. No doubt designed for someone with wings.

I was also feeling much better and cozier. It turns out that Azathoth had the ability to heal and had healed the bruising on my face and neck, making the throbbing pain in my cheek completely vanish. I'd mentioned how I would have never imaged a demon to have healing powers, and he'd explained that the ability was due to him being half dracrulian. A demonic dragon-like race created to specialize in violence and combat. They greatly benefited from the ability to heal themselves and others for war purposes... Or so they could repeatedly torture someone.

"Okay, time out." Azathoth placed his clawed fingertips on his forehead while shaking his head in confusion. His huge demonic frame was leaning against the fireplace with the flame licking at his leg, making me wonder how his shirt and pants weren't catching on fire... Oh wait, it's probably fire-proof clothing... "The beginning of this story still isn't really making a lot of sense. So you fell into the abyss because you activated some sort of enchanted necklace on a dead tenverian scout?" His fiery eyes curiously bore into me as though he were looking into my soul. "And then Valarendrik heard you shouting and saved you from wolves?"

I quickly swallowed the rest of the cupcake. "Um, yes?" My mind began to reel, wondering what about our story wasn't adding up.

Valarendrik scrunched his brows in confusion, while the others who were also seated around the fire donned expressions of bewilderment as well. "I do not understand what's so difficult to grasp about it?" The crown softly twitched as he spoke.

"It's not the story itself, but the likeliness of it. If Cerindier sent the scout from Tenveriel, then logically she should have ended up in Tenveriel." Azathoth gestured to me. "And yet out of all the places in such a huge fucking world, she just so happened to wind up in the forest within earshot of you? Honestly, what are the chances of that?"

"We did briefly discuss how strange it was that she didn't wind up in Tenveriel. But that was right after performing the tongue rooting spell." Valarendrik leaned forward in puzzlement, then looked at me with a shrug. "I suppose we both sort of forgot about it since it didn't really matter at the time."

I took another bite of my cupcake, considering what the demon had said. The more I thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed that I would randomly drop into the abyss so close to the one wandering prince within the entire world... That is unrealistically serendipitous... I quickly swallowed again. "Do you think the necklace was enchanted to locate Valarendrik?"

"That might explain it." Gwendolyn said while waving her half-eaten cupcake up in a circle. She was seated on the other couch across from us, now wearing a cute black bathrobe with her long wavy hair pulled back in a high ponytail. "But why the heck would Cerindier bother sending one of her ghoulish goons all the way to earth, only to have them go back to the abyss to find him when she could've just sent someone out into the forest?"