Daevas -I- ✔️

Chapter 3.1: Ignorance

Ari waited until the sun left the sky to creep down the darkened hallway. His eyes could grasp the faint silhouettes of objects varying in shades of black and gray. As moonlight peaked through the windows, the darkness became like shadows lingering well on into the night. He went around the tables and chairs scattered around the floor and perched himself up by a large window covered with cloth.

Freir would not have abandoned him without a plan. He pressed a hand against the cold glass before dragging them down the window, clenching them into fists. Horrors from the night before ran through his mind. He squeezed his eyes shut and banged a fist against the sill. If not Freir, Rein should have come by now. He could not attempt to run again. What the demon had shown him that night was a warning and he was not so desperate whereas he would try again already knowing what the results would be.

Ari surveyed the desolate landscape, marked by the skeletal remains of buildings consumed by fire. Snowflakes made of ash fell from the sky, cloaking the scene in an otherworldly pallor. The anguished cries of the afflicted whispered in the wind, a haunting chorus of despair. Amid this bleakness, Ari confronted the unsettling notion that Auovin may be the embodiment of hell—a malevolent force getting gratification from the suffering it made. Yet, a more urgent concern pulled him from his thoughts—the need to reach the sacred grounds before it was too late, a journey complicated by the ominous shadow cast by the demon.

Just as Ari was getting ready to leave, gruff hair tickled his neck causing him to shirk back. He stumbled over some chairs before regaining his footing and looked at the looming figure before him.

"Shh." Ari's eyes widened as the figure stepped more into the moonlit window revealing a noticeable scar going across the side of his face. "I am here for you, Ari."

"Freir?" Ari whispered in disbelief.

Freir nodded, but Ari backed away in response. He had wished for this, but now he regretted it. "I am not running and you cannot fight him. You will die and he will make me watch," Ari warned.

"Ari." Freir outstretched a hand towards him, wanting him to take it. However, Ari grew farther from him. "What has he done to make you so afraid?"

"Nothing. He has done nothing."

After he had shown him the terrors of what his anger could bring forth, Ari had decided it was best to bide his time with the demon, to earn his trust even. It was the only way he would ever be able to escape. Running, like the time before, would not do anything but incite the demon's anger. He did not take kindly to it before and he would not tolerate it again among other things. He made that clear enough. Ari touched the inside of his left arm, black and bruised, still healing from the demon's last drink.

Freir's hand closed around Ari's arm, an insistent pull forward. Despite Ari's attempt to resist, Freir's grip held firm. "Did you truly think I would abandon you to that creature? You know I would return for you."

"You must leave," Ari urged.

"And go where? Nolan will have my head!" Freir's whisper in Ari's ear made him recoil. He seized the top of Ari's arm, a dagger's edge grazing his throat. "This is the fate for those who defy orders. Need I remind you?"

A surge of fear pulsed through Ari.

"Rein is waiting outside for us. Do as I say and we will be fine, boy." The scent of ale and mead lingered on Freir's breath. As Freir pulled him closer, his gruff beard scraped against Ari's skin like sandpaper. "If you do not." Ari shut his eyes as the dagger traced down his neck, slipping beneath his shirt. "You and I would have more to fear than just a Blood Demon."

Ari knew those were only threats to scare him. Empty words Ari had grown used to after having spent more than a decade with him and many others who had wanted to be rid of him.