"Hey," Taber said, pointing at Apophis. It was so, so...rude, and unlike him, but he didn't like her. And it wasn't that often that it took so quickly for him to dislike someone. "Whatever's going on, he's not that Aagares person anymore. People can change."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Damascus held eye contact with the demoness, and he steeled himself. The one way to get Apophis to ease her front would be to stand his ground. Right now he was just being easy prey, and he knew it.
"It is, thank you." He said evenly, though his voice was still painfully quiet. "I never could fool you, could I? So here is the truth, plain and simple: I would rather you not enclose details to any of my friends about my past, but I do know that there is no stopping your whims."
He took a breath and stood taller, using every bit of assertiveness he contained to challenge her.
"So, I offer you this. Toy with me all you want, play your little games, make a fool of me. Do what you will, but leave my friends out of it."
He was being selfish. Disgustingly, unfairly selfish. His brothers didn't deserve to be kept in the dark about Damascus' past, he knew that, and he had every intention of confessing eventually.
But not now. He simply couldn't handle being reunited with his brothers only to have their view of him destroyed forever. He couldn't bear it.
He turned to Taber then, his eyes shining and touched. He couldn't manage any words just then, but he smiled gratefully, squeezed the hand on his shoulder, and hoped that his intentions would be clear.
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She came towards Taber and gave him an overly-sweet smile. Auryon shifted nervously, unsure of what her demon was about to do but uncomfortable with the knowledge of what she was capable of.
"Taber, was it? Look, dear, I think it would benefit all of us if you would bow out now, because you have no idea what you just stepped in the middle of," she said, then turned to Damascus and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, sweetheart, I have no intention of saying anything unless you give me reason to. I certainly have no qualms about changing my mind should you give me such reason, however." With this, she turned, walking back towards her vessel and leaning in, murmuring in the scarlet-dressed woman's ear before slipping away into the crowd and leaving Damascus, Taber, and Auryon to their own devices.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Taber stuck out his tongue as Apophis left. "I don't like it when people tell me 'you don't know what you're getting into'," he said. "I've gotten into lots of things I didn't understand, and I turned out just fine."
He stopped and looked down at Damascus's hand. Taber sighed. "I hope I didn't mess things up. People like that always find a reason, so that kinda sucks. And just, you should definitely be honest, but it's okay to want to hide things? There's lots of things that suck. There's lots of things I don't like to tell people. It's fine not to. You don't owe anyone anything."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Auryon looked at Taber as he spoke his first lines, shaking her head slowly. "That's what I said when I met her," she said. "Now look where we are. Don't play with fire, please." There was a certain note of pleading to her voice and a sincerity that was rarely seen.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Hmmm," Taber said, puffing up his cheeks. Then he exhaled and bowed his head. "Yeah," he said. "But I can at least stand with you if this stuff happens again."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"Yeah, well, don't do anything stupid," she said, glancing at Damascus. "And you keep them out of it."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James’s attention was torn. Kratzer had no answers, and Tasha ordered her friends to stand down, but Damascus and the wolf man had gone after Viper, who... had split into two different people. He had seen many strange things, but he had to admit, he wasn’t expecting that at all. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the golden-eyed counterpart taunted Damascus and eventually disappeared into the crowd. He had no way of knowing what was really going on, but he worried for his brother.
There was enough drama to dread among what Kartiel and Rendra were planning. They didn’t need more trouble - and he was sure Damascus was no cause of it. The woman, however... he was keeping an eye on her. He didn’t know if both women were a friend of Kratzers’s. He didn’t know how that worked. But he was going to keep a watchful eye out for Damascus in light of that interaction.
He turned to Tasha and Thana. “It seems there are people of all sorts here,” he commented quietly.
"She's a demon," Tasha said softly, watching as Apophis disappeared into the crowd. She leaned into James a little closer and held his hand tightly - she was spooked, even if her countenance didn't betray it. "She's a demon of our world. Not like these others, where they're demonic, but...different. Strange. Alien. She's...I don't understand. I thought she was from the land of your silver-masked brother?"
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Damascus smiled genuinely at the wolf, and attempted to control the tremor in his hands.
"Thank you, Taber. I appreciate that. I'm afraid that all that's going on is..." he sighed, wanting to confide something. "Apophis knew me when I was, not a very good person, to say the least. I had, ah, brief relations with her. And I'm sure you've picked up on that. She isn't someone to be trifled with."
He looked over at Auryon as he said this, and reassured her with apt sincerity. "Of course. I will protect them, if I can do only that. I swear by it."
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She looked him over, unconvinced but definitely not going to argue. She dropped her gaze and stepped back in an almost submissive or aversive way. She'd drawn enough attention to herself already; she was uncomfortable - no, afraid - to do so anymore. Especially with the present company. Aside from that, with Apophis gone, she had no protection. She was a good fighter but she didn't expect to be able to hold her own against Aagares should his motives change, nor many of the other beings frequenting this masquerade.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
That was all? Taber's brother had 'brief relations' with other people all the time. It wasn't that big of a deal. But, if Damascus said it was, it was.
"I guess we should head back to the others now?" Taber said, glancing back at the group around Tasha and James. "If she's not around, it should be pretty quiet?"
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
James squeezed Tasha's hand back, pulling her close. He knew little about Kratzer's friend Auryon, and little about how demons, or anyone for that matter could find themselves in other worlds. For all he knew, it could've been similar to how Tasha found her way to Nye, or maybe it was more like how Maahes could be summoned by others.
"I thought she was too. Maybe... your world and his touched somehow, or are linked. Or she was brought to theirs like you were to mine."
My eyes chanced upon Auryon the moment something surged forth from her: a golden-eyed witch of a woman, graceful, elemental, burning with insatiable, hellish light. Had I said witch? The understatement discredited her. I could think of no word that did not fall short of her.
And she had business with Damascus, of all people.
I could not see his face, but something unnerved me about how stiffly he stood.
I had to ask Damascus if he was feeling alright; not who the lady was to him, or what had passed between them, only if he was alright. I had to.
And yet, a mysterious something pierced through my flesh and slithered around my bones, constricting, rooting them to the ground. No. No, it didn't matter if I had no right to him, or to his woes, he could have been in pain, and I was only a few paces away from him.
I didn't need to ask him to detail his burdens, or know how to ease his mind, just be there, say something, anything.
And yet, after minutes and minutes, all I could summon the nerve to do was ask Engel to lend me his level-headedness.
"Should we...?" I said weakly, hiding behind the word 'we.'
"I know we shouldn't intrude, but..."
It was no matter. By then, as I was trailing off, the golden-eyed woman had left, after what had really been a very short time. And Damascus was with Auryon and Taber. Neither of which I knew too well, but were both good company. He was fine. I was reading too deeply into things, things that I had no right to, regardless. Really. I felt as though I had insulted his constitution by presuming he needed anything from me to begin with.
I turned back to Engel, and tried to look relieved. My facial muscles obeyed, but it would be up to my brother's verdict to say if they contained anything resembling relief.
"Well, there we are, then. I suppose it was, fine."
Bad souls have born better sons, better souls born worse ones -St Vincent
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