Flame with a Pinch of Gray

Chapter 10

Emalf gasped for air with each step. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he walked up the almost never ending stairs of Blancblack Castle. Despite a week of visiting the god and devil duo, the trip through the excessive stairs was always painful. Step by step he could feel his knees giving in, and at some point he regretted wearing a jacket as his daily attire. When he finally reached the top, he gave himself a pat on the back and opened the grandiose main doors

As always the castle was eerily empty, with any noise echoing down the halls. The entrance only had the usually diamond structures lining the path towards the stairs, to which he'd been dreading to face once more.

Once he begrudgingly reached the top floor where the God and Devil meet, he entered.

"Kcalb? You asked me to come over?"

Rather than the usual greeting from Etihw, or Kcalb replying, his voice echoed back instead. As the light from the main hall illuminated the room, he got his answer.

The seats were empty. Nobody was there...

He was about to turn back but the doors to the room shut behind him. When he tried to nudge the open he was faced with the reality that they never had handles to begin with. How the eff do Etihw and Kclab open these?? The door must be locked via magic...

He nervously looked around the throne room, his breathes spaced out as he regained his energy from climbing the flights of stairs earlier. Not even a single teacup or crumb of cake was on the table, and it's eerie silence left him uneasy. The lights that usually lit the room were off, and only the faintest of sunlight shined past the window banners. Emalf wouldn't call himself the anxious type, that is around anyone he was trying to impress of course, but he wasn't comfortable with the silence.

If anything it reminded him of the cruel pranks Rieta would play on him when he was a kid. In every instance, it was her form of teaching Emalf a lesson when he messed up. She'd call him into Ivlis is throne room in the middle of the night. Rieta would lead the small disheveled brunette to the red lit room, claiming it was urgent. Most of the time the throne room would be dark, and Rieta would push him in. She'd lock the room from the outside, and leave the defenseless demon alone. With the room basically being sound proofed (Ivlis had no intention of letting any outsiders get information via thin walls), no one could answer his cried. The first time it happened he was seven, and every minute of solitude terrified him. The spirits of lost souls, aimless words, and a voice that has never left him since would all whisper to him. In the end, Ivlis would always find him curled up in a ball behind the throne the next morning. Because of how repeated it was, Emalf developed an extreme fear of large empty rooms.

Without Kclab or Etihw's calming company he was on the verge of panicking. His heart began pounding faster and faster until he felt a stern grasp on his shoulder. He tensed up, the hair on the back of his neck rose, and he stumbled to the floor. Instinctively, he shielded his body from what he assumed to be an incoming blow only to hear a sudden step back from the figure. In an effort to find out just who it was, he slowly moved his arms away from his face.

Kcalb stood, frozen at the sight of the scared boy. "You okay, kid?" The devil's outstretched arm greeted the young demon. Emalf tried to quickly compose himself and grabbed the others hand. Looking around, the main doors were now open, and Kcalb's presence made the room lights turn on.

Emalf sighed, his face slightly flushed. Hoisting himself up, he mumbled, "Sorry..."

"Don't be." Kcalb reassured, his tone patient. "Didn't mean to catch you off-guard. I actually expected to meet you at the front of the castle. My mistake for not specifying it to you."