The Heart Of The Demon

Chapter Three: The Truth

I stayed silent the whole time Geayu stitched me up. Half-brother? My father had never spoken much of his time on earth, and now I can see why. He would've been killed for creating a Demi. Imagine the bad that would've happened if he tarnished the family name like that. We all would've been exiled from Vagotha and hunted like the Demi's we were trained to slaughter.

"Are you going to just ignore what I said?" Geayu asked as he rolled me over to bandage the stitched wounds.

I grimaced. "What do you expect me to say? Your claims tarnish my family name and revenge? How are we supposed to get revenge? There's nothing left to save."

Images of my family home burning to the ground with my parents inside ran through my head. I had been too slow. By the time I found them, they were nothing more than charred corpses.  Every friend I'd ever made, not that I had many with my position, was dead, bleeding out on the ground as their magic pooled into nothingness. "They won. All we can do is hide and hope they don't find us."

"You're going to give up?" Geayu asked, his voice rising in pitch as he pulled the bandage just a bit too tight.

I let out a yelp from the throbbing pain it caused.

"Is this really what's become of a once great general?" Geayu loosened the bandage slightly and stepped back, crossing his arms. "I must say, I'm disappointed."

"Ranks mean nothing, they only exist for the society I was born into, without it, they are meaningless."

Geayu hummed. He stroked his thumb over the shadow of stubble on his chin. It was clear whatever situation he was facing was getting to him with the dark circles under his eyes and his unkept features. "The demons won't stop with Vagotha if we do nothing. Activity has increased based off of the information my scouts have brought me in a manner of days. They're planning something, something big." Leaning forward, Geayu put a hand on either side of me, forcing me to give all my attention to him. "I intend to stop them with or without your help. I assumed you would be thirsting for revenge against those who took everything."

Increased activity? What would happen if the very place I fled to ended up burning the same as the one I came from? "What kind of movements? Do you have a map?" It was clear his scouts had been tracking the demons, that meant we weren't going in completely blind. However, how much did I want to trust a strangers lackeys? Geayu seemed honest enough, but he was a Demi after all. Demi's were unstable, this could simply all be the ramblings of a madman sending me off against something he understood nothing about.

Geayu took out a map with several marked points. "My scouts have reported all portal activity they find or all suspected activity. They follow at a distance, I'm not foolish enough to send them so close that they get captured or killed. It's not going to be exact, but it's better than having nothing to work with." He laid out the map on my lap and helped me to sit up so I could see it.

With how random the locations were I couldn't tell the exact strategy, but something about the pattern had a familiarity to it that I had seen before. "Get me a quill and ink, I need to see what picture these make."

"Picture?"

"Demons don't often randomly open portals, they open them intentionally in different locations to summon different things," I stated as I tried to trace the points with my trembling hand. On occasion I could figure out the picture with simply mentally connecting the dots, but this time it was not working, likely because of my newly acquired injuries causing pain that gave me the worst amount of brain fog."Sometimes it's hellhounds, other times it's armies. The pattern they create allows them further access into hell in order to pull through whatever it is they need on their rampage."

Geayu disappeared up the stairs and came back with a quill and ink, setting it on the table beside me.

I dipped the quill, tapping it lightly on the side to avoid causing any ink blotches. I started at the furthermost point and connected it across. The more that I tapped, the tighter my stomach clenched. "It couldn't be. . ." But it was. Before me was a nearly completed six pointed star. All it was missing was two points. "They're summoning a demon general."

"Fuck," Geayu hissed as he ran a hand through his hair, making a further mess of it.

The similarity between how he did the gesture matched that of my father, catching me off guard. When I really took the time to look at him, Geayu was the spitting image of my father as a young adventure. Perhaps he really was my half brother.

I shook my head. There was no way to prove our heritage, besides, why did it matter what he was to me? We hadn't grown up together. He was a complete stranger. Yet, the idea of having some form of surviving family member provided a type of comfort I had not attained since everything burned to ash. "How many do you have at your command? Are they trained in the art of battle?"

"Many, but not enough." Geayu passed the room before stopping at a basin and washing his hands vigorously. "The Demi's haven't seen battle since the last Vagothan raid. Most of those who fought in it are older and less agile now. We've been at peace for quite some time now, it makes them soft." He turned to face me. "That's why I was seeking your help. I need someone battle trained to prepare us for what is to come. . . However, without your powers, I can't say I'd allow you on the battlefield."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm a grown man, you can't make that choice for me."

"As your older brother and physician, yes, yes I can. You nearly died to a hellhound, a lower tier demonic race. Children are sent to fight hellhounds."

"It—It was a big hellhound! That was not normal size," I argued, throwing my arms out to emphasize my point. "That was some mutated hellhound the size of two men!"

"Falosa. . . Have you considered the fact that you're simply the size of a child?"

Crossing my arms, I glowered, hating the fact that I had nearly break my neck to look up at Geayu. "I'm average size, everyone else is just a giant."

Geayu sighed. "That's what short immortals say to feel better about themselves. But we're getting off topic. Do you have any idea what we should do to stop what's coming? In your experience, what's the best plan of attack?"

I looked down at the map. "If we can take out three of the five portals they've opened, and every demon with it, we can put a stop to it." Finding the demons wouldn't be too hard, especially since the recon team was already seeking after me. All we had to do was let them think they'd one and capture one of their own, forcing them to lead us to the portal. But stars knew how many demons would be guarding each portal. Even if they were lower level, the sheer number would easily overwhelm a small group of warriors, especially if most were untrained.

"I'll call a meeting at my house so that we can discuss this with the others, however, considering your slaughter of our kind in the past, you'll need to watch your back." Geayu narrowed his eyes. "Demons aren't your only enemies."

Greetings Readers,
I am so sorry for how long it has taken me to get back to this story.
I decided to make it my nano.
I plan to write this one to completion,
and then continue with the rest of the eight book series without stopping.
No more reworking the first book. It's been ten freakin years,
it's about time I finish the whole series.
N.G.Brier