Cursed: Redemption

Chapter 5: The Truth Best Left Untold

Chapter 5: The Truth Best Left Untold

~Persephone~

Removing demons from the body requires a small bit of finesse. For centuries Scarlet and I spent a good part of our time hunting them, trying to find the links between different demons. Trying to find a way to keep the things out of humans and immortals alike.

Eventually, we found that a certain symbol can keep them out, for a time at least. The five-point star people are so afraid of for no reason. The symbolic meaning of it, meaning the coming together of all five elements, is what actually keeps the creatures of chaos from a place.

Now if I thought getting them to leave was a problem, finding demons is nearly impossible. Usually, I could track their movements with the increase of nightmares in certain areas of the world. But if they weren’t in this world, I’d have a bit of a bigger problem.

“Are you actually doing anything to try and find her?” Ian’s voice cuts through my thoughts and I pivot around to stare at him. “Do you even care where she is?” I don’t answer immediately, which seems to agitate him as he plonks into the chair by my desk. My left arm is folded over my chest, while the other is bent so I can chew on my nail as I think.

“Of course I care, Adrian. She’s the one person who never freaked out when I lost control; she actually hit me over the head with the hilt of her sword once to stop me. She’s one of my closest friends, and I don’t have many of those to begin with, in case you hadn’t noticed. But finding demons is going to take time, they don’t sleep and they are really good at hiding.” I can’t look into the eyes that have gone dark, a sign of his missing her.

“Why didn’t she tell me about you, then, if you’re so close?” his question throws me off completely, I have no idea how to explain it to him. He stares me down, probing at my head to pull out the answers he wants. Slamming up barrier after barrier makes him back off, though, and sort of awes him. Obviously he hasn’t had much contact with other Immortals.

“I- um…” I look everywhere but at him, somehow this one male, barely a quarter of a century old, manages to make me completely speechless. I lean against the desk, facing away from him, my hands gripping the wood. “I’m not the type of person you should be proud of knowing…” I mutter.

“Why not?” sweet Rhea, the man asks a lot of questions.

“Look, you may think Tristan is bad, and he is, but I’m far worse. He was relatively tame in comparison to me,” I say, not able to look my half-brother in the eyes. “When I lose control, nothing stands in my way, I levelled towns and killed countless people because a few idiots tried to harness my magic for their own gain.” I take a deep breath before turning to him. His face is deadpan, almost as if he isn’t able to take it all in; I stay silent, waiting for him to speak.

“So you’re-“he scrambles for a word, reminding me so much of Scarlet when she first saw that side to me. “Extremely dangerous? Is that really a bad thing, I mean, you can feel guilt and you’ve obviously tried to keep yourself in check, I don’t understand why you’re so…terrified of yourself.” Yep, she’s definitely influenced him.

“You sound just like her, you know that?” he ducks his head, obviously embarrassed.

“So what can you do?” he asks suddenly, obviously trying to turn the conversation.

“Well, basically my powers are restricted to the mind, like yours. I have a certain skill at telepathy and telekinesis, but mostly my powers lie in the realm of Dreams.”

“Seriously? That’s awesome!” His face lights up and I can’t help laughing.

“I can’t actually dream anymore, with the influx of people in the world, my mind reaches for them and I can’t seem to build enough barriers.” His face falls as mine turns sombre, I guess he understands how hard it must be, seeing as he also gets constantly assaulted by the conscious minds of those around him. ‘But I don’t mind so much, my body rests, and I can watch the dreams of others…” I trail off, kind of embarrassed to admit that I’d known about him before even Scarlet. The dream realm is where I hold my true power after all; the call of my father’s blood is strong.

“Have you watched mine?” he asks, looking kind of alarmed.

“I’ve known about you since the first time you entered my realms upon the development of your consciousness,” I say, looking away from him again. I can feel his eyes on me, shock prominent on his face. ‘Adrian I- if you feel violated, I apologise, I never meant to hurt you, and I actually kept away most of your nightmares…”

“You’re her,” the sound of his voice shocks me. “You’re the girl I always met in my dreams, you taught me about my powers before my parents found out. You…you’ve been watching over me this entire time?” all I can do is stare at him; I didn’t think he’d remember that, I didn’t expect his reaction either.

“You aren’t angry at me?” I ask, walking around and leaning against the desk again.

“You’re the first person I ever trusted, you showed me how to control what I do, how can I be mad about that? You basically stopped me from making some huge mistakes.” How on earth can I be related to someone this calm and accepting?

He suddenly seems deep in thought, as if realising how much I’d actually helped him. “You- you suppressed my visions, didn’t you?” I walk away then, unable to answer. “You made sure that they wouldn’t rule over my life before I was ready.”

“I- yeah, I did,” I run my hand through my hair. He is far too smart for someone his age…I guess that’s kind of my fault. “I just…I wanted to protect you, you were so young and so lost, I thought that if I helped you, you’d have a fighting chance against the council. If they’d found you unstable…they wouldn’t have waited until your coming of age to bind your powers.”

“What the-“he’s running his hands through his hair now. “They would actually- why?”

“The Council have seen too many of their offspring lose control and go completely nuts. They’ve learnt that prevention is better than cure, a bit too late.” His face is completely devoid of emotion now, the realisation of his parents willingly torturing him sinking in slowly. “I’m not sure how much Scarlet told you about the others, but their reaction is sort of warranted, if unfair towards you.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand them,” he whispers before getting out of the chair and storming out of my office completely. I don’t bother trying to follow him, I know he needs his space. Instead, I pull one of the maps I made of the dream world to me and begin to trace my way to Scarlet.

If I can’t find the demons, maybe I can find her, if they’re keeping her sedated that is. I don’t really know what applies as logic to them, I’m not even sure they know what it means.

The demons people are so scared of are actually Dark Mages who went a little too far. They’re the ones who were so starved for more magic that they made a deal with Calypso -the woman formerly known as Lilith, and my mother-, the Queen of Chaos herself, to make themselves infinitely more powerful.

The price for that power had been everything that made them creatures of order, their emotions, their self-control and even their ability to reason. Those who were too far gone became unrecognisable shadows of their former selves, able to control humans by taking over their bodies. Most of them don’t bother though, it’s easy to stir up fear when what humans come into contact with can’t be explained.

The rest, well, they were handed over to Calypso’s Trusted. The servants of the demon queen who were so loyal, so powerful themselves, that they were given reign over their weaker counterparts. Said counterparts were usually tortured by their betters, as cruelty becomes second nature to demons.

That and vengeance, which the torture just magnifies, turning them into fully unfeeling monsters. Then they were handed over to Calypso to be used as she saw fit. From what I gather, it’s then that they begin to regret their thirst for power, as she truly delved into the deepest and oldest magic around. Older than the most basic Elementals.

She tried to harness the chaos that is necessary for the world to remain in balance, and gained what she so dearly wanted. At a higher price than she probably thought, but of course, greed is second nature to dark mages. Any of the so-called ‘seven deadly sins’ are, after all, what they access to fuel their spells.

***

Author’s note: Yes, yes, I know, the chapter is short. But I’m kind of building up to something here, so bear with me.