The glorious quest for Edward, part one: Grandfather's Wrath (solo)

[Valanthe]

(wrong account, ignore post)

[Aiko]

It was a clear, calm mid-afternoon day on the plains of Talmhaidh. Creeping upon the ground in an almost comical fashion was a black haired black eyed beauty. That she was human was clear enough, but where she hailed from was a mystery. In her hands she held a glass jar, and everyonce in awhile she’d slam it on the ground, attempting to catch an insect on the ground. It was infact a very specific insect she was after. A visit to The Synthesis Shop in the Dheathain capital of Donnalaich sent her on a journey from one side of Dheathain to the other after a variety of items to restore one of her treasured possessions, a doll she named Edward. But Edward wasn’t just a doll; Edward was also a voice in her head. Yes, this poor woman in a tattered blue silk kimono was quite crazy, the result of her youth. As a baby she was taken from her cradle and reared by a group of extremely powerful demons who called themselves The Seven Deadly Sins. Each Demon held sway over a particular vice common in many people, each held a form that represented that sin. Truth was, there were eight demons, for the eighth was the most powerful of them all, a demon named Grandfather, and Grandfather held sway over all that was evil, for Grandfather was a Demon God.

Grandfather, he was more than just a Demon God, he was the father, and Grandfather of The Seven Deadly sins. Grandfather himself was not a native Althanian. He came from a place beyond the stars, the reincarnation of another Demon God named Xith’rith’xail. When he came to Althanas, he found himself alone, and faced with enemies all around, so he retreated and dwelled in solitude in the one place he found habitable, The Pyre, where all souls are reincarnated into their next form. In particular, he dwelled close to The Great Nether, and built for himself a great mansion on the border between The Great Nether and The Pyre. After a time he was forgotten, and treated as any of the demons in Haidia. Coming out of solitude, he bred demons until he bred one suitable to take as a wife. With her, he sired many sons and daughters, but they all died at his hands, each unfit for his ends. Then, after a suitable daughter was born, he killed his wife, and raised his daughter in his mansion. After she was grown, he sired The Seven Deadly Sins, and killed his wife that none would take his power from him.

Currently, he stood on the Talmhaidh plains watching the woman creep along the ground. She couldn’t see him, couldn’t even sense his presence, no one could. Yet he was there all the same. At his side was his eldest, The sin of Lust. Lust took the form of an exceptionally powerful succubus. Her skin was red, and tingled with the warmth of her passion and ceaseless desires. She wore nothing at all, except a smile. Her great black wings and long black tail wavered in a non-existent wind that stirred around them. Her long black hair cascaded over Grandfather’s body, as her head rested on his shoulder, her red eyes looking dreamily at a group of traveling laborers in the distance. Grandfather himself held the form of an elderly human, his skin, like his hair, was white. His eyes were steel grey, and looked at the creeping woman with contempt and hatred. In his white gloved hands he held a Mythril Cane, set with the whitest of diamonds like pure driven snow in winter, bluest of Sapphires bluer than the deepest, clearest of oceans, reddest of rubies, like blood the shimmered, and greenest of emeralds, not even the grass on which they stood could match them. The cane itself possessed control over the elements. Grandfather, unlike his hoar of a daughter, wore clothing. Infact, he wore a pinstripe business suit, with a white shirt and matching pinstripe tie and hat. Infact, he enjoyed the look of what were known in another time and place as gangsters. His shoes were black, and made of leather. He had no tail, decapitated in a vicious battle with his first wife. But his great black wings were folded over his clothes like a cape, enshrouding Lust, almost as if he had his hands around her.

“Daddy, why did I have to come with you? I’m bored just standing here watching that girl crawl along the ground.” Lust complained, her voice sultry and enticing.
“She has escaped from us. She thinks to have independence, free will. What useless desires, you know as well as I, a woman’s place is kneeling before a man’s feet. She must be made to suffer, the fragile fires of individuality snuffed out. Is it not written in The Book of Darkness that for every wrong visited upon you, you must return it ten times over? She has escaped our generous hospitality, our games, and in so doing, has wronged us. Besides, ever since those men appeared in the distance, you haven’t been watching her. I have known they were coming, and have been waiting for them. Bring me those men, and you may take one home to play with.” Grandfather said, never once removing his eyes from the woman on the ground.

Aiko felt the rising thrill of triumph. She had been following the tri-horned beetle for some time now, and almost had it. She looked up slightly, there was a very slight incline the beetle was going to crawl up. Perfect. She was going to have Edward back yet. She crawled forward slightly for her reach to extend to the incline that was even smaller than her hand. The beetle crawled up it. Perhaps it knew what was about to happen, perhaps it didn’t or just didn’t care. Either way, it crawled along the ground, hitting what was to it, a small hill. Suddenly it collided head first with the jar. Confesed, it looked all around, not understanding where the magic invisible barrier came from. Two giant pink things grabbed it on either side, and dropped it into a trap comprised of the same mysterious force field. It looked up in time to see a great clack thing with holes hover over it. The last thing it saw before it disappeared into the mysterious dark hole behind the blue giant’s back was of a mysterious giant with a great black shell.

Aiko stood up, and brushed herself off. Looking around, she saw a group of men in the distance. Grandfather smiled in stasifaction. Lust had done wonderfully. While Aiko was busy catching the beetle, Lust appeared to them as a common and unusually attractive beggar woman, with naught but a burlap robe for covering. Covered with fake bruises, she sobbed to them about how Aiko had robbed her of her possessions. Scowling, the men turned to deliver what they thought would be justice, while Lust grabbed one of them to stay with her. As the men turned there backs and they increased their distance from the pair, Lust resumed her normal form, and before the lone man could cry out she had covered his lips with her own, easily restraining his flailing arms with her own and covering both their bodies in her wings, her tail already freeing the man of his clothes. A great fire sprang up around them, hotter than any fire found naturally occurring within the world. Sinking into the flames of The Pyre, Lust claimed her victim. Grandfather knew the man wouldn’t even last an hour. All that remained of where the pair had stood was a great scorch mark in the ground where nothing would ever grow again.

As the group approached Aiko, the unseen, unfelt wind that blew around Grandfather carried his words into the hearts of men.
“Kill her, beat her down, tear her clothes to shreds. Force your way upon her, do great evil to her for the imagined wrongs she has not committed.”
Aiko felt worried, for she had done nothing to anyone, yet these men were muttering sentiments about justice. As they approached they drew knives and daggers, and Aiko didn’t even bother to wait and see what they wanted, she started swinging. She hit one in the head, and dodged another’s knife.
But there were too many, she was surrounded. If it weren’t for the pair of Draconian warriors coming from the same direction the laborers had been, all might’ve been lost for Aiko, but as Providence would have it, they were kind hearted enough to decide to help the poor woman they beheld. Shouting at the men to pick on someone their own size they rushed forward to help Aiko, which caused the laborers to pause, stunned, and fearful. Grandfather scowled as he looked into the hearts of the two Draconians, they were too pure hearted for him to influence, and would end up saving the day. He looked at the laborers, he had use for them, if they could withstand being twisted to his desires. He dropped the invisibility around him, and walked quite calmly over to the fighting group. Seeing the demon before them, the laborers fled in terror, but Grandfather merely tapped his cane on the ground and vines entangled everyone but himself.

“This isn’t over, my strumpet. You will pay for escaping. I will not take you back now, for that would be too easy. No, I’m going to break you, through circumstances, and then make you beg to come back. Then I will refuse you, and kill you. Fight all you want, my words will come true.” He said, keeping Aiko silent with more vines. He tapped his cane upon the ground once more, disappearing, and taking the laborers with him. After he left, the vines crawled back into the ground from which they came, and the two confused Draconians ran over to see if the frightened woman they beheld was okay.

[Aiko]

The sun was setting over Luthmor. Aiko walked along with two Draconians by her side, one who had purple scale, and the other had orange scale. They happened to be very pleasant folks. Both were siblings, at least in spirit, for they had fought a lot of battles together all over the world. The one with Purple scale male was named X’leth, and the orange scaled female was named Fereleh. They were also in love, but taking their relationship slow.

Aiko told them her story, that she was okay. They were curious about why a demon might be interested in her, and she told them about Grandfather, and The Seven Deadly Sins. They were a family of extraordinarily powerful demons that lived in a The Pyre, close to The Great Nether. She didn’t know much about how she came to be with them, but she did know they kidnapped her from her cradle as a baby, they said so themselves. They enjoyed lying to her, tormenting her with tortures of all kinds, beating her, stabbing her, having her do all the work they didn’t want to do, which was all of it, and Grandfather especially seemed to enjoy forcing intimate relations with her. She had no childhood, for she was never given a chance to just be a child.

X’leth and Fereleh both felt sorry for her, and decided to travel with her as far as donnalaich, for they had business there. Aiko felt grateful, and didn’t tell them any more about her, such as the fact that she had a child by Grandfather once. Calbrena, her beautiful daughter, she looked exactly like her mother, wearing a similar Kimono to the one her mother wore. Curiously, The Seven Deadly sins were unable to affect Calbrena, and Grandfather couldn’t bear her presence. Thus Calbrena grew up unharmed and unaffected by her half brothers and sisters, and her father never touched her. Aiko spent as much time as she could with Calbrena, for with her daughter she felt free. She might have successfully escaped with her daughter that fateful day she tried, but Grandfather grew enraged by her escape attempt, and tried to lock Aiko in a prism of crystal, but Calbrena threw herself in front of her mother and bore the full brunt of the attack, becoming imprisoned herself in a prism of crystal. The effect this had on Grandfather was most extraordinary, for he fled in tears from the scene, allowing Aiko to put on the circlet that held her daughter and crawl out of what eventually turned out to be a cave from the surface of the world to Haidia, and so Aiko was free.

With a melancholy sigh, Aiko returned her attention to the world around her once more, only to find they were now in a camp, and Edward had taken over. Now completely lost, Aiko quickly got up and looked around, but in the darkness, could see nothing. In the dying embers of a campfire, Aiko could barely see a shimmering shield around the small camp.

She sat back down, and fell asleep. She dreamt she was with Calbrena on a moonlight field, the two were dancing, hand in hand, twisting about. Left, right, forward, back, around and around in moonbeams they danced. Up and up they ascended, climbing the moonbeams like a staircase, and free of the world, free of the family, free of all restraint, they ran and climbed and tumbled and played, together at last, mother and daughter, together forever. But all good things must come to an end, and as they spied a familiar world down below, Calbrena turned to Aiko and in a bright cheery voice and said:
“We’re here!”

Aiko was confused, for it seemed they must now part.
“We’re here.” Calbrena repeated in an unusually grown up voice.
Aiko shook her head and found herself looking at Fereleh, who was standing next to a tree with red leaves.
“We’re here.” Fereleh said again.
“Oh, so we are.” Aiko said mutely.
“Well, didn’t you need some leaves and bark from the Meabhair tree? Well, this is the tree.” X’leth said.
Aiko shook her head again.
“Yeah, of course.” Aiko said, disappointed her dream was just a dream.
“We miss Edward, for most of the day you’ve been some lewd man named Lerim. Claimed to be a mighty sorcerer, even set a tree on fire to prove it. At least Edward we can relate to, even if his speech is a bit odd. Do you really drink as much as he claims?” X’leth asked as Aiko gathered a couple of handfuls of leaves and stripped some of the bark.
“No, only Lerim does. Though I must admit to waking up completely drunk on occasion, I thoroughly blame Lerim. I also Blame him for losing inordinate amounts of my money, and occasionally waking up next to completely unclothed women and being so myself at the same time.” Aiko grumbled, putting the leaves and bark into a separate sealed compartment in her pack.

Watching them from some distance away was Grandfather. In his hands he held some thick chains of prevalida. They were restraining a horrible monster of a demon, great black wings larger than any of the other Seven Deadly Sins, and even Grandfather’s. His arms and legs were as the trunks of trees, and his jaws were as great serrated blades. His claws dripped with venom, and his tail split into four, each with great sharp spikes of bone protruding. The Sin of Wrath growled and tugged at his chains listening to them clink, as though it were a form of therapy for him. Grandfather tapped his cane, and wind stirred through the jungle, stirring the mist, carrying his words.

“The path you’re on now twists and bends, the maze you’re in never ends.”

[Aiko]

Aiko and the two Draconians walked through the forest nervously.
“It’s unusually silent.” X’leth said quietly.
“Indeed, none of the normal sounds one expects to here. I’d kill for something to cross our path right about now.” Fereleh
“Does the forest have to feel this menacing? It seemed, okay, on my first trip through, it wasn’t growling like that.” Aiko asked.
The two Draconians looked at her, and drew their weapons. X’leth carried a two-handed greatsword, and Fereleh used a gigantic mace. Both were made of Mythril. The three crept through the forest, not daring to make a sound. They looked at the trees, the bushes, the vines and the flowers, wondering where the growling was coming from. They fancied they heard someone speak about a maze, but surely that must’ve been their imaginations, a way to lessen the rising fright they each felt. Suddenly, even though they had gone straight, making no turns of any kind, found themselves back at the very same tree Aiko had just gathered leaves and bark from.

Grandfather watched them, restraining Wrath with relative ease. Being restrained so; Wrath had nothing else to do, but to poison the forest with his influence. So influenced, the forest began to gain a sort of sentience, but it was primitive. So born of hatred, it looked within itself and saw the trio, and knew within its primitive mind that they didn’t belong. Yet it couldn’t do anything more than exist. Then it discovered it could change around them, it could move and twist. Confusing their steps, it kept drawing them back to the tree, and there it kept them, until it could decide how to punish them for being within it.

The trio might’ve been lost in the forest, had not a benevolent force been watching out for them. In the place which is every place, dwelling in the presence of The Omni, was unlimited potential. Seeing the plight of three such innocent souls, tormented by such malevolent forces, Omni decided to intervene. Though the trio would probably never know exactly what saved them, they knew something helped them, something soothed the forest. Born in front of Wrath’s very eyes, to Grandfather’s utter contempt and horror, a spark of light flared into being, expanded, grew into a being of pure light. A kind gentle woman looked at the pair with new unblinking eyes. Only five seconds old, she already knew her purpose, and all she needed to accomplish that purpose. Grandfather spat on the ground before the new woman, and disappeared, leaving behind Wrath, unbound, and unfettered; yet for all of Wrath’s eagerness to do violence to any before him, he cowered in fear from this woman’s presence.
“Poor creature, I pity you. You hate and you fight, doing harm to your brothers and sisters, and even your own father. You poison the environment around you, you poison the air, and yet you cannot help yourself. To all things, there must be a balance, and to all things, a balance. To that end, I am yours, for I am the virtue of patience.” The woman said. So saying, she lightly rested her hand on Wrath, and Wrath trembled, and began to cry, for it felt calm for the first time in it’s life. Yet even as it disappeared, it’s hatred was born anew, brought to even greater heights than before, because it had knowledge of something it could not obtain, peace.

Patience knelt on the ground, and prayed for the self-awareness of the forest to be made whole, and as she prayed, her essence spread through the forest, giving it peace. Something stirred within it, and it realized it was tired, and the primitive sentience of the forest of Luthmor went into hibernation. If it would ever stir again was uncertain, but what was certain, was that the forest seemed to return to normal. Patience smiled as she watched the trio at least enter the capital city of Donnalaich. Then she returned to her creator’s side. Her first mission a successful finish.

Meanwhile, the trio of Aiko, X’leth, and Fereleh parted ways inside the city gates.
“You know, today has taught me that life is short uncertain. I don’t want mine to end before….” Was all X’leth said as he looked at Fereleh.
“I was thinking the same thing. Lets send word to our families and get married next month. What say we settle down in the small village where we first met. Such a lovely picturesque place to raise a family,” Fereleh said grabbing X’leth’s hand. And so a romance of three years took the next step into marriage. Aiko smiled as she watched the pair disappear into the crowd.

Then she looked around the city, admiring it’s architecture and it’s citizens. All she needed now were some crystals from behind the waterfall, and she’d be halfway done with her list! Well, except for what she needed to buy, but she was going to buy that next time she was in the city.