Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

OTF Chapter 12 - An Unfortunate Encounter

Chapter 12 

VIVIENNE WOKE up feeling weak and tired the next morning. She suspected it was a consequence of forming another bond with a very powerful demon and then engaging in a marathon mind-reading session. She got up and found a simple dress to wear. There was nothing she wanted to do more than to go back to bed, but she suspected keeping Lady Maglania waiting wasn't an option.

As she walked into the throne room that morning, Lady Maglania was waiting for her along with her handmaidens. She had six total; they have all dressed alike in braids and white dresses.

"Come stand by me, child," Maglania said and motioned to an empty spot to her right. "You need not feel pressured to participate. Just listen and learn."

Vivienne felt like a literal black sheep standing with the handmaidens seeing as she had chosen her usual — a plain black dress. She was relieved beyond words when Julian showed up, looking much recovered since the night prior despite his fistfight with Blake. With a blink of her eye, she was able to convey to him mentally through their bond about her wardrobe malfunction. He was kind enough to take her aside and offer her a white handmaiden dress to slip over her flimsy black one.

"Wait, wait, before you put that on, I need to snap a picture," Julian ordered as he snapped away on his cell phone. "I'm going to text this to your boyfriend."

Vivienne glanced over Julian's shoulder as she saw him text: Not EVEN Melody Balan would dare wear this CRAP to meet with Maglania.

"Who is Melody Balan?" Vivienne asked, quizzically. "Some hooker you brought home?"

"Sssh! Goddammit! You better not let anyone hear you say that! She's no one a nobody like you would have heard of," Julian said without looking up from his phone. "It's an in-joke between people who actually know things. You can ask your boy toy if he ever decides to tell you anything about his real life."

Vivienne rolled her eyes and went back to the Throne Room. Whether it was in the cafeterias of Remin or the Royal Palace of Manna City, it seemed she was ever the outcast. At least the other handmaidens had stopped giving her nauseated looks.

Maglania held a meeting with three of her princes. One of them, Vivienne recognized. Lucius appeared, now with a scar over his face and a missing left hand. The two other princes included two twin brothers named Lance and Isolde. They were both tall, appearing in their late twenties with brown hair.

Vivienne sized them up as they reported their activities in Aemon's Gorge to their master. They gave detailed reports of the number of demons they found and the ones they were able to eliminate. Vivienne played a game in her head where she wondered how quickly Blake could kill them all. When that got tiresome, she wondered how quickly she could command the Segais to impale the handmaidens standing around her.

Isolde appeared quiet at first then as he recounted how he killed a fearsome snake demon he grew ever more animated, gesturing wildly with his hands. "By the time we finished off that bad boy, he was a pile of broken bones. The carcass was picked cleaner than the late Prince Fredrick after the demon crows were done with him."

"What did you say, little gutter rat?" A male voice asked from across the room. Vivienne's reverie was broken by the hostility in the tone of that voice. All the other handmaidens immediately stood up straight at attention. A tall boy with dark hair approached with a drawn sword in his hand. Vivienne recognized him. She had seen him at the party the other night paying his respects to Maglania. Isolde, seeing that he was in the wrong, immediately dropped to his knees. "Did you really mock the death of Frederick Gemmel Sarastri, son of Barthélemy Gemmel Sarastri?"