Devil's tale

Devil's tale Chapter 1

Avarice yawned and rubbed his nose. He sleepily turned the page of the dusty book in his hands and sluggishly adjusted the lobsided candle next to him. He could see in the dark, sure, but some light was always helpful. Avarice had a sip from his flask of tea, earl gray tea, like he always drank.

He wondered if his horns had started to collect dust, with how long he'd been sitting in the royal library.

He leaned back in his chair, lifting the front legs off the ground. When he came back down, he let out a loud yelp, as one of the chair-legs had come down right on top of his rather sensitive tail. Avarice swore under his breath, though he restrained himself from cursing too vulgarly, muttering a simple "Damn" instead of the several more colorful exclamations he'd cooked up inside his head.

Once he'd looked around a few corners to make sure he was still alone, Avarice continued to read his book 'Of devils and their blood. A guide to hellish bloodlines.' He'd flipped through several chapters, each one explaining a different devilish bloodline and its characteristics. Devils of the bloodline of Hoceth, for example, had ebon skin, curled-back horns, and white eyes. Avarice himself, had red skin, yellow, catlike eyes, and his horns curled upward from his forehead. He also had purplish black, long hair which he wore in a thick braid over his left shoulder.

As luck would have it, he flipped to a chapter on the bloodline of Kairon, which matched his exact description, right down to the purplish hair. He wore a massive smile and eagerly began to read the description of the bloodline and its history.

Avarice often lost track of time while reading, and this instance was no different. He devoured the words on the old, yellow pages in front of him, learning everything he could about his heritage.
He learned that devils of his blood tended to have an aptitude for controlling fire, which didn't really surprise him. He tried to move the flame of the candle next to him without using artistic magic. It was a strange sensation, but his familiarity with spellwork allowed Avarice, after a minute or so, to make the candle's little light flicker brighter or dimmer. The minstrel tried to make the flame take on a more complex shape, like the shape of an angel. His control over the fire wavered and the candlelight didn't obey his command. He shrugged; he'd get better with practice.

Just as Avarice turned the page to learn what other powers he might have, a loud voice echoed through the library.

"Who's there?! I know you're in here! I can sense the fire from your candle!"

The young devil jumped and quickly extinguished the tiny flame next to him. He looked for where he'd pulled his book from the shelves and remembered it was all the way on the other side of the library.

Sneaking into the Royal library was bad enough, but someone like him reading a book like this would be a city-wide story and Avarice was in no mood to get famous, at least not like this.

He tried to sneakily run through the maze of towering bookshelves, but his boots clacked across the stone floors loudly and echoed all throughout the library, no matter how quietly Avarice tried to move. Either he was really bad at sneaking around, or this supposedly quiet library was terribly designed, he thought to himself.

He chose to forgo stealth and just book it.

"Come out and face the law, you disgraceful coward!" Cried the voice of the guard, and Avarice rolled his eyes as he recognized the voice and way of speaking.

"Welp, the devil you know-" He whispered to himself while he ran.

"I recognize those footsteps! Avarice! Come out! I won't hurt you!"
"You drag me away by my tail every time!" Avarice called back.
"So?!"
"SO! It's really sensitive!"
"Sure it is!"