𝙃𝙄𝙎 𝘽𝙐𝙏𝙇𝙀𝙍 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙊𝙍𝙄𝙂𝙄𝙉𝙎 𝙊𝙁 𝘼 𝘿𝙀𝙈𝙊𝙉

Chapter 32: The Winds Of Change

CHAPTER 32 - "THE WINDS OF CHANGE"

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9

Damascus smiled with a broad grin. He had never considered himself a religious man, but as he sat next to Kassy in chairs watching their five year old twin boys roughhousing with eleven year old Tristan Phantomhive in the back courtyard of the Smythe family home - which was now his home - he had never felt happier.

In his ten years as a Roman citizen, he thought he knew the world according to what he observed and experienced in Pompeii - he thought a fisherman's life was his fate. When Vesuvius erupted and killed the city and he was asked to make a choice between life and death by Master Belial and to become a demon, he never would have conceived that he would be living the life he had now - albeit pretending to be human.

At this moment, everything else that had occurred in his life was moot.

William and Beautiese and Miles and Mary Phantomhive had gone away on a trip together leaving Damascus and Kassy alone with the kids, including Tristan, for which they were happy to look after. Tristan was such a good boy and the twins enjoyed his company, looking up to him like a brother. And already Tristan had begun teaching them about the star constellations and the planets in the sky.

Like many school children now due to the London Fire in 1666, six years ago, Tristan was home-schooled. Tristan had been home school from the beginning, much like his twin boys were beginning to be. But Damascus wondered if Tristan would become a teacher when he grew up because he was so smart and so knowledgeable in so many subjects of interest such as math, science, chemistry, English literature and, of course, astrology.

Bryan had been wrong. His boys had been born with their mother's temperament and good graces. Although, every once in awhile, Damascus would have to sneak away and obtain soul nourishment for them to feed to them in their sleep, but they were not demanding as Bryan had once claimed they would be. And he was not ashamed to admit they were more human than demon lineage.

He had never been more proud of anything or anyone in his life than of his twin boys. When they were married, Damascus didn't have a surname like most humans did these days and took Kassy's - Smythe. It was unusual, but Kassandra, husband of Damascus, son of Barracus, was not only was too long, but didn't sound well - so Damascus decided to break from tradition of the wife taking the husband's name and took hers, this way, his boys would also have a very strong surname. As the origin of the name Smythe meant "blacksmith" - a very strong individual who used his imagination to build sturdy things with his hands.

They were good boys, and the only difficulty when they born was what their names would be.

Kassy wanted more modern names, but he wanted something that catered back to his Roman heritage - although, he couldn't say such, and in the weeks before their birth, they "fought" over names. But later, when he actually thought about it, the names he had in mind were either very rare, outdated or had famous history behind them, and he wondered, would other children compare or make fun of them because of such? He didn't want that, so he agreed on two choices Kassy wanted, for which now, he couldn't see calling them anything else: Braydon and Brandon. They were close in wording, but as twins it made sense. But later, to make things easier for the kids and for their vocabulary, they shortened them: Bray and Bran. Later in life, if they choose to restore their full names, they could do so.