Daemons in the Mist

Chapter 22 - Is This More than You Bargained for Yet?

22

Is This More than You Bargained for Yet?

Sunday, January 22nd

PATRICK

                        

Normally, I would feel uncomfortable sticking out in a strange place. So I decided to pretend I was cosplaying at a convention and that helped ease my anxiety. But only by a little. As it was, the outfit was pretty damn cool and could only be best described as a men’s formal kimono. The kimono top and hakama pants were dark blue and long; the sleeveless haori over vest was white on the outside and light blue on the inside.

“So how does it feel?” Nualla asked, looking at me as we walked down the window lined hall on our way to the Grand Council.

“If by that you mean, ‘How does it feel walking down the hall in something that looks like it belongs in an anime,’ then yeah, I feel fine.”

“Really? I would have thought—”

“I go to a lot of conventions; this isn’t the weirdest thing I have ever been caught wearing in public.” I stopped walking and looked at her. Nualla looked far more uncomfortable than I did. “You’ve never been to a convention have you?”

“No.”

“You’re really missing out—they’re awesome. I’ll have to take you to Fanime in a few months.”

“Okay,” Nualla replied in a cautious voice.

Her outfit looked a little less Japanese than mine but not by much. It had a long deep blue floor-length kimono the color of lapis lazuli. A wide sash in periwinkle blue hung down the front from her waist and was held in place by a silver obi corset-like thing. The top half of her hair was pulled back into a loop and the rest was falling freely down her back like it normally did. Most noticeably though, was the crown; a delicate and beautiful silver lotus sitting atop her head with a pair of bars curving outward from her head on either side like silvery stag horns. And hanging from the ends of each of the bars were strands of blue and silver sparkling beads that danced like a shimmery waterfall with each step she took. Now more than ever, she looked like a princess.

I leaned a little closer to Nualla and asked quietly, “So why exactly do we have to go before this Council again?”

“Choosing a human isn’t forbidden, just frowned upon. It casts suspicion onto the daemon in question because we don’t need human mates; only Kakodaemons do. Because of who my dad is, that suspicion has been removed, but I still had to register you.”

“Why do I suddenly feel like a stray pet?”

Nualla ignored my remark and continued. “It should be an easy process; just answer their questions truthfully.”

“I have no problem answering things truthfully; that’s usually what gets me into trouble in the first place,” I admitted with a sigh. With all that had happened in the last two weeks, I wondered if my life would ever return to normal. Something told me it wouldn’t.

I looked up and saw a massive set of doors; ornately carved like something you would see on a temple in a fantasy movie. Inscriptions ran across the door frame in something that I couldn’t read; I really hoped they didn’t say something like, “Abandon all hope ye who enter here.” It was flanked by guards of some kind, dressed similarly to the way Natasha had been. Which meant they were probably also part of the same force—the Kalo something.

Nualla leaned in closer to me and whispered, “Bet you’re wondering just what exactly you have gotten yourself into, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, a bit,” I admitted still looking at the imposing doors.