The Cave

Thytes nodded slowly. The very idea that someone could be immortal baffled him, but he'd also just heard the dead, had spotted countless advanced devices, and was currently in a somehow nearly intact town at the bottom of a cave. As far as he could tell, this wasn't a place for the mundane.

"So anything could happen to you, and you would be able to recover from it?" he said. "Are you some kind of god?"




"Planet?" Jaron said, looking up at Leo. But he quickly refocused on the jacket. "It's nice. Can I wear it?"

Kendrik wanted to stop the fox, but at least Jaron was asking politely. For once.

James raised his brows at the sudden appearance of a sketchbook, and looked curiously at Lucifer. He did seem like the type to draw.

"...are you... an artist as well as a mage?" he asked quietly.

Kartiel nodded. "That I have to agree with. There's this one girl that I've been classmates with for years, and she actually used to be pretty nice to me. But now all she does is glare at me from wherever her desk is. I think I even heard her muttering something about me being her rival under her breath once."


"I'm not a god," he hurriedly clarified. "At least, I don't think so. It doesn't...it doesn't seem like that would be the case after everything I've been through."

After a moment of hesitation, he decided that it was time to tell the full truth. He took a deep breath. He hoped Thytes wouldn't be upset with him for not telling his real name from the beginning. "If I'm telling you about my immortality, I should tell you the truth. My name isn't Reyes Eberhardt. It's Orrin Baines."


It was a request that was surprisingly one he frequently received, so he had no problems with removing his coat and holding it out to Jaron. "You can definitely try it on," he said, smiling.


He looked up, putting his pencil behind his ear out of habit. "I, uh, am. There's not much to do for thousands of years when God's busy with taking care of Christianity, so I taught myself magic and how to draw. Now I do a lot of different art projects at my school, and I don't think there's that many magic users who know how to use as many spells as I do."

"Oh," Thytes said. He blinked. It wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting to hear, or wanted to - he'd been hoping for a "yes" - but he could handle it. "That would make sense for someone as important as you likely are. My father used at least a few when he was on the run from the authorities." He looked away and coughed. "Fun times." After tugging at his toga, he refocused his gaze on Orrin, his earlier calm confidence coming back. "Not to say that you are a criminal, of course. I imagine you must have much better reasons."



Jaron eagerly took the jacket and slipped it on. It was a bit too big for him, so that it extended past his hands and reached to the ground, but he didn't seem to mind. He smiled and nodded - not shaking, for once - at Leo.

And then he tipped forward.

Kendrik reached an arm out to catch Jaron by the chest. That steadied Jaron long enough for Kendrik to wrap his arms around the fox. Head resting on Kendrik's wrist, and knees bent slightly, Jaron mumbled something about being tired. Based on that and his faint smile, Kendrik sighed in relief. This must've been the crash Thytes had talked about.

The idea that someone thought he was important made his cheeks red in embarrassment, and he ducked his head for a quick second in the hopes that Thytes didn't notice. "It's not because I'm important or anything like that," he said, shifting uncomfortably. "It's just that, well, I should have died nearly a century ago. Somewhere in the 1920s, but now it's 2018 and I'm still alive. So I had to come up with another identity for myself, and then another one when the life of the second one should have ended."

He took a deep breath. "I think-I think that my dad was probably like me, too. Or is like me, since I haven't died yet and I doubt he has either. My mom used to tell me that he left me when I was only a baby, but, when she was on her deathbed, she told me the truth. She had run away from him...She was scared of what he was, and I think I've inherited that. Baines was his last name back when they met each other. I've been hoping that he's still using the same alias, but I don't even know where they first met or if he'd still be there."


"Is he alright-" he hurriedly started to ask, only to fall silent when he heard what Jaron quietly said.

The details of what Lucifer was describing went in one ear and out the other. James was done trying to comprehend other people's worlds with no other frame of reference in which to understand them, and he'd already grown weary of overhearing the others discuss differences between world mechanics and what should or should not be in existence.

So he clung to what little he knew. "...what... things do you draw?" he asked, knowing his voice sounded weary weary of conversation, but trying to fill the idle space if only for the sake of Lucifer not looking so nervous all the time, and in hopes that it might actually distract him from the inevitable panic at being stuck in a strange town underground.

"I draw all sorts of things," he said, giving a small smile. He was happy that someone was asking about his art. His classmates did too, sometimes, but they often just left him to his own devices when the topic of his creative streak came up. Then he realized that the man sounded like he didn't really want to be having this conversation, so he ducked his head back down and stared at the beginnings of a sketch. "...it really depends on where I am. Right now I'm doing a landscape drawing because I don't want to draw someone without asking for their permission..."

James leaned forward, trying to get a look at the drawing, but he stopped first. "Can... can I see?"

He looked up, surprised at the question. He had been so sure that he didn't care about the conversation. But his guess must have been wrong, because why else would he be asking to see his current drawing? A moment of hesitation later, and he was handing him his sketchbook so he could get a look at it.

Thytes shook his head. With every sentence, Reyes's backstory grew sadder and sadder. He felt a mix of sympathy and guilt, the latter because he didn't know quite how to relate. He said as much. "It must have been terrible to spend so much of your life without either of your parents," he said. "At least I had my mother and father in my father's palace. Well, my mother was distant, and I cannot say that my father was a good man. He never quite cared about my mother, and I was supposed to be his perfect son. The perfect warrior, the perfect strategist, the perfect sire." He smiled. "I should like to believe that I disappointed him."

He placed a hand on Reyes's shoulder. "Would it be rude of me to ask if you would like a hug?" Thytes said. "'I'm sorry' simply would not do, and my brother's hugs are remarkably effective."



Kendrik gently lowered himself and Jaron to the ground. The hound sat down, crossing his legs and resting Jaron's head on his lap.

The hound tried to pull the jacket off of Jaron, but the fox resisted, raising his arms up and hitting Kendrik with one of the sleeves. Kendrik rolled his eyes and stopped, letting Jaron settle back down. "Guess he likes it," Kendrik said, looking up to Leo.

Adeline widened her eyes, marveling at how someone would balantly curse a person like that.

"Oh my. That is drastic. You said she was- a classmate?" She tested out the foreign word.

The look in James’s eyes softened, and he nodded his head in approval. “That’s quite good. You’re getting a good lay of the land.”

"I'd be okay with that," Orrin said, giving a small smile. He stored away the bit of information Thytes had told him about his own life. It would be a good thing to mention later, but now wasn't the time to bring up his apparent royal status.


"Guess so," Maahes agreed. He wasn't upset about the loss of his jacket. He could always make himself another one later, or just get it back when Jaron woke up. And he had to admit that it was pretty cute seeing him cling to it in his sleep.


"Yup," Kartiel confirmed, popping the p. "Her name is Charlotte Hart. I've known her since she was in diapers. Normally, that would mean I was in them too, but I wasn't going to forget how to use the bathroom just because I was reincarnated."


"Thank you," Lucifer quietly said, blushing at the praise. He would have been content to talk more about his drawing, but he caught sight of the man - if he even was that - with the terrifying soul. He wouldn't go as far to say that it was his duty to check something like that out. It wasn't anyone's, really. But no one else there seemed to be able to do what he did, so he would have to find out what the story behind the stranger was.

He took his pencil out from behind his ear and began to fiddle with it. "I-I'm sorry to ask this," he said, ducking his head down and staring at the pencil in his hands. "But you-you know who that man is, right? And you-you know the truth about him, don't you? Because he's not...he's not normal. I-I can tell."

James looked over at Maahes, then back at Lucifer, who was looking increasingly more nervous.

"Yeah. He's not. But you don't need to worry about him," James replied simply, tone mellow and detached. "He's a good guy, and that I can assure you of. But his secrets are not mine to tell you, and I'm not going to repeat to you things he's told to me in confidence."

Thytes quickly wrapped up Orrin in a hug, and just as quickly let go. He didn't want to make it long and awkward, as that could lead Orrin to ask a few questions that Thytes was afraid to hear from him. Kendrik's doubts and suspicions were getting to the lion.

"Well," Thytes said, shrinking back and voice a little unsteady. "Should we go to check on the others?"



Watching Jaron sleep for the second time that day, Kendrik wondered if the fox would wake up tired and sluggish. Perhaps not, because he certainly seemed active enough - tossing and turning and face scrunched up in thought. Not a nightmare, or Jaron would be kicking and murmuring shouts, but not really a happy dream either. The hound would have to ask Jaron when he woke up, if Jaron remembered it at all.

Kendrik groaned as a realization hit him. "I'm goin' ta have ta carry him 'round," he said, half to himself. "And his tools ain't light."