A Brother's Bargain

Alec's Beginning

Alec wasn't always bad, but he was never good. He just had the nature in him that led him to the darkness instead of the light. Mother was good, father was good, and even the old hag had some good left in her. Father should have been bad. The hag was his mother. But he got lucky and was found by a Elvin priestess and raised up to be all good. She was an elemental and a summoner of animals. If they had ears, she could make them hear her. She taught Father to be the same.

Mother was a witch by birth. Her father was a warlock and her mother a high priestess in a coven. Both were healers. Her father was a creator and her mother was a midwife with a touch like butterflies wings. Both spoke to animals and both had a familiar that kept guard over them and their single daughter. Mother was gifted in all things magical. She was said to have been destined to take over the coven and make it the greatest there ever was. But she wanted children, and Father was  willing to give them to her.

First was Maize, an elemental master, but fire was her favorite. She was a simple child with red hair and brown eyes. Always on her best behavior and always followed Father to see after the animals. She has her first Pegasus when she was three. A gift to her from Father since Mother was having another baby.

Next was Malaya. Raven haired beauty like her mother. She was spirited and greedy. She wanted anything and everything she saw and she learned how to make sure she got it. She was skilled with creating something out of nothing. She could make flowers grow, the grass greener, and tree sprouts shoot up to ten feet high. Even at 3 years old she was making Mother and Father crazy with flowers throughout the house. 

Malaya wanted a baby. Mother had given her to Maize, now she wanted her own baby too. Maize always got what she wanted. Winter fell with another beautiful little girl.

Mariah was light haired and pale faced. She loved the cold and the ice. She could make rain drops on a sunny day turn into dancing snowflakes while she was still in her crib. She was a very shy little girl. She didn't like to be held or touched by anyone other than Malaya. Malaya was fine with this at first. When Mariah started freezing her creations, though, Malaya decided Mother needed to give her a new baby. Mariah was broken.

Shortly thereafter came Alec, Mother's pride and joy. She gave Father his son. Alec was Father's shadow. He learned to do all that Father could, but instead of healing the sick, he wanted to see how much sicker he could make them first. Instead of fixing an injury, he had to push it to death's door first. Father did not like this at all. The hag was shining through on his only son.

Father decided to send Alec away to live with the Druid priests for a year. He thought they could show him the ways of truth and light.

Alec didn't want to learn about truth and light. The darkness inside of him burned like an unquenchable fire in his soul. He sought out a warlock while he was away with the Druids. He would study with the priests by day and play the role of the good son, working hard to make Father proud, but at night, when the manor was asleep, Alec was studying with the warlock under the moon. He met a voodoo priest, a necromancer, and a disgusting hag that were all pure evil. All the things he was looking for.

By the light of the moon they taught him their ways. All the good that he was born with made a lot of what they were trying to teach him impossible for him to master. He grew more and more frustrated that he had any good in him at all. He wanted to find a way to cleanse himself of the light and fully embrace the darkness.

Alec met a Demon at the full moon gathering his second year away from home. While his sisters were mastering their gifts, he was making a deal with a demon. The demon was beautiful, as most demons are. She was a succubus, and fed off the souls of the men she attached herself to. But not Alec. She didn't want his soul. She wanted him to gather souls for her.

She called herself Ruby. When Alec went to meet her in her little cavern of hell, the room was full of red smoke and the lighting was also dim and red. Her eyes glowed like bright rubies and she captured you with her stare.

"I'll give you what you want, Alec, but it will come at a cost," Ruby offered.

"You can take all the good out of me, no more light and love and empathy?" he asked.

"Oh I can fill that hole inside of you where the darkness grow. I can make all those spells and rituals you work so hard on be as easy as you and I talking right now. I can give you that and whatever else your little black heart desires. But with all things there is a price," Ruby said leaning forward from her throne where he could almost see her face.

"Anything, I'll give you anything," he pleaded.

"That's what they all say...until it comes time to pay," she sneered back, leaning back into her throne.

Alec walked as close to her as his courage would allow. "Look, I hunted you down. I'm not asking for a sack of silver and a horse in trade for my soul. I don't care. I want what I want and that is all there is to it, but if you don't want to do business with me, I'm sure there's another one like you who will."

"Brave boy. Good," she said standing up and coming out of the shadows, "I'll tell you my price. I want your unborn sister before her eighteenth birthday."

Ruby had an immense presence sitting down, but when she stood and flapped her enormous dragons wings, clearing out some of the smoke in the room, Alec's jaw nearly hit the floor. Her black and red wings had a span of at least five feet each and the leathery texture of dragons wings. Her hair was long and wavy and red but partially pulled away from her white face by a sheer black hood. She had fangs like a viper.

"I don't have an unborn sister," Alec said.

"It's been a while since you've been home, hasn't it?" Ruby laughed.