Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON TWO (Ongoing)

Part 4.2

I wake up to a paw in my face.

I blast Onyx with a cloud of ice magic. It sends him somersaulting across the room until he stops midair, glows, then descends.

He trots over to me again.

How are you feeling? he asks.

"I'm feeling like you should get your fluffy, treacherous butt out of my sight," I reply.

Onyx sighs. I have not betrayed you, Lily. The reason you keep insisting I have truly escapes me.

"You bowed to the fire demon," I remind him. "I'm not falling for your lies any longer."

I'm in a cave of some sort. Darkness sits around me. It's only when I switch to energy-sensing that I realise I'm in the illyrite prison.

Onyx's charcoal eyes glow in the dark. I bowed to King Dionysus because he is the first of all fire demons. He always wanted peace between our planets, but the King of Phaedra made that impossible.

"So you admit it," I say, "You're an evil demon."

Why must I be evil?

"Because you're a demon," I say. Why won't this stupid demon cat just admit to his own evil and get on with it? He tricked me. He won. What's he still lying about?

I am an ice demon, Onyx explains. King Dionysus is a fire demon. I am of Phaedra, and he is of Ariadne.

"So you're a Phaedrean demon. Right. Because that makes it so much better."

Why are you so against demons? You know next to nothing about us.

"That fire demon was going to destroy the planet - you said so yourself. Now you're bowing to him."

Onyx blinks. No, no. You misunderstand, Lily. King Dionysus has no intention of causing such destruction. I was not sure at first which fire demon was trapped in the Orb of Ariadne. I had heard rumours that it was Dionysus, but they were unconfirmed. I only feared the demon's power because I assumed it would be under Scion's control, and therefore forced to do his bidding. This seems not to be the case. King Dionysus is willing to face an eternity in the orb rather than cause harm to this planet.

"So where does your fluffy butt come into this?" I grump.

I am a descendant of King Aurorus of Phaedra, who started the first Phaedrean-Ariadne war. I was only an infant when I was trapped in the Orb of Phaedra by an enemy soldier. Amarat and Scion released me from the orb centuries later. That is how we met.

"What do you mean, the King of Phaedra started the war? The Phaedreans are the good guys."

Onyx sighs. Life is not that simple, Lily. Phaedreans and Ariadni have a common lineage. We are all descended from an energy being who divided himself into two so that he could experience both planets. Those two were King Aurorus and King Dionysus, the first ice demon and the first fire demon. All Phaedreans are descended from Aurorus, and all Ariadni from Dionysus. Do you not see? We were never meant to fight each other. We are all one.

"But the demons were all wiped out," I argue. "Why are the two of you still here?"

The orbs preserved us. The war between our planets spelled the end for all demonkind. It depleted our energy and caused great change to both of our species. Save for myself and Dionysus, we have survived only through our descendants - the Phaedreans and the Ariadni.

I wrinkle my forehead, trying to take this all in. It seems I'm back to my usual form. No wings or big hair, if the decrease in weight is anything to go by. "Why did Phaedra attack Ariadne? I thought they were the bad ones."

The course of history has changed them, just as it has changed us. King Aurorus instructed his forces to attack Ariadne because of the fire quartz, and the stone native to Ariadne - the emerquartz.

"A war...over fire quartz?"

Yes. We consumed the stones as a food source.

I blink. "You ate fire quartz," I say, disbelief colouring my voice.

It was a source of energy. But King Aurorus eventually claimed that our consumption of the stones was harming the planets. He claimed he heard the voice of Phaedra's spirit pleading with him to stop. Dionysus did not believe him, so Aurorus resorted to force in order to protect the planets.

"So our mad king started the whole thing," I muse.

Onyx turns from me. He was not mad. The darkness is empty without the glow of his eyes. King Dionysus was a reluctant participant in the war. He tried to wager peace on many occasions, but Aurorus became more frantic and frenzied with time. There was no choice but to defend his planet and his people. When Amarat released me from my orb, I was dismayed to see that, even centuries after the war had ended, the old feelings of enmity still existed. Our people hate each other, and most of them do not even know why.

I let this info settle for a while. "Where are they now? Scion and the fire demon."

Onyx sighs again. Scion has escaped, but I will find him. King Dionysus has retreated as well, but he wants nothing to do with our fight. I do not know where he will go.

Anger clamps down on me. "Why should I believe you? You've been helping Scion. You're the spy."

A surprised meow slips from Onyx's lips. He turns to face me again, those marble-like eyes of his wide. Lily, he says. I am not the spy. The spy is Queen Irine.