"Big brother, are you being serious right now?" Eosira caught herself saying. his reasoning was outrageous.
"One hundred percent," he replied in a dry tone.
"Please, I"
"Shhh!" Eosira hissed at the dying man, trying to make her point. "But you already incapacitated him."
"Look at you!" Veythar suddenly exclaimed, with a hint of praise in his voice. "You used incapacitate correctly. Seems like your vocabulary is getting better."
"Right!? Eosira is the best isn't she?"
"And yet, you keep speaking in third person." Veythar muttered, but he couldn't help but acknowledge that he had gotten used to her childish antics. "Anyway, what do you suggest we do? if we leave him, he'll return."
"But what if we make him promise-"
"Seriously!?" Veythar snapped, forgetting her age for a moment. "What, like your father promised to come back for you?" He stepped closer looming over her small frame. "He promised he'd return but here you are."
Eosira felt her breath catch and her head pound. She wanted to retort, to scream that his words were lies, but she could not. She was not as ignorant as she was a month ago. When she saw his wicked smile, she felt a chill crawl down her spine, like the touch of a great many strangers. Eosira had wanted to take a step back. But when she saw him hand her his word, her eyes went wide and her heart dipped.
"You do it." He said as if he was asking her to kill a rat. "Kill him and I'll teach you to use your spirit to not only cast zero spells but how to mask your presence, and so much more."
"But..."
Veythar grinned, slithering his way towards her. "Come on, He's dead already. He's lost too much blood." He said with a bewitching smile that seemed to draw warmth from the world around them. "This is but a mercy."
"No.." Willard tried to say, but he was too weak. Darkness had already crept into his vision, it was cold, so so cold.
"Do you remember what I told you? Aim for the heart." He said like a devil upon her shoulder. Handing her the blade she never reached for. His grin widened as he saw her small fingers curl and tighten on the tattered grip. He took a step back to allow her demons to guide her.
"This is mercy..." Eosira said to herself in a bid to convince herself that what she was about to do was right, but she knew better. She took a step forward and before she knew it, she was over him, placing the tip of the blade on Willard's chest.
The sword had been so devilishly sharp, that it had already found flesh. Eosira shivered, feeling the sweat trickle down her cheek, she gulped, turning to look at...
"Over here," She heard the voice right beside her ear. She had not felt him there before. He slowly curled his fingers around hers.
As if to assist her in this matter, He gave her a look that made tears want to stream down her face. He was so warm...
"Alright, so-"
She jerked the sword down.
"Ah!" When Willard took his last breath, pearly red beads slid down his chin, as for a long while he gargled on his own blood and died. Veythar had been watching Eosira so intently that he almost smiled, for what he saw in her eyes was not guilt, relief or doubt. All he saw was greed, for when she looked at him, her eyes shone with a brilliance beyond the stars, amidst the storm of emotions clouding her eyes.
"Good job, little Eosira." He softly praised as he patted her head as the blood pooled from the rim of the blade that had pierced Willard's heart. "Good job."
Ravaged by emotions, she couldn't quite place, Eosira looked up at those silvery eyes and felt with all her heart that what she had done was the right thing. She purred, like a cat being praised.
"Now. Go take a bath."
************
Covering his tracks, Veythar looked up at the body that hung alongside the skeletal remains that had been picked clean by the ravens and crows.
"She is quite a natural, I wonder what kind of monster birthed such a girl." He mused, standing at the very spot he had first met the silvery headed girl. He chuckled and returned home, where he met the little girl staring at him, het hair was wet and she had an expression of brooding.
"Teach Eosira." She demanded.
"In due time. But before I instill in you the path of Arcana, I need to know why you are so intent on becoming strong." He said as he sat down, stabbing his obsidian blade as he looked at her.
In the past weeks, he had taught her how to hunt and to survive. She didn't need to get stronger, but every morning she trained like she was being chased.
Eosira curled her small fists into balls, "So big brother doesn't abandon Eosira." She said, her head bowed.
And there, he saw her for what she was, a five-year old child left in the woods by her father to die.
He looked her over with his cold lifeless eyes. "You know that I'm not a good person right? The amount of people I've killed could fill entire sections of this realm."
"Sniff.. sniff Eosira doesn't know what that means." She mumbled as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
"I'm a muderer." he scuffed.
"So is Eosira." The young girl said, looking at the twinkling stars above. "Big brother helped with that." She smiled, and he all but wondered if she understood the value of life.
'Did I?' he wondered, from a young age, killing atleast to him, had come as easy as breathing. "If you come with me, you are bound to die shit I'm also bound to die at the hands of someone one day." He stared at the smoldering flames. "I've many enemies, so... so many enemies. And when they learn of my resurrection, all hell will break loose. "
"Yes..." He looked up at the three moons. "When they learn of my resurrection, all nine supremes of the Savant domain will do anything in their power to find me, even at the cost of selling their souls to the nine hells. Gods that walk the underworlds will claw their way from death's embrace to stand before me, " he laughed, snapping his gaze that burned with a faint crimson flame settled on Eosira. "Ancient gods, so old the are unbound by time, will open their eyes to find me."
"Why?"
He smiled. It was a smile so sharp, it seemed to tear the ends of his lips stretching to the back of his ears. "Do you know what they call me?" -Eosira shook her head. "Before I was cast into the Nines, they called me the Harbinger of the heavens, 'the hellspawn.' The one who broke the Heavens, the one who collapsed the Savant domain beneath my fury."
"What are you going to do now?" Eosira asked. She could not quit understand the weight of his words yet.
"I've no idea." The young boy responded, loosing his earlier vigor. The taste of the hells had yet to leave his breath. He jerked his sword from the ground pointing it towards the small girl. "But this isn't about me, are you okay with following a dead man walking?"
"Don't worry big brother! Eosira will protect you!" She exclaimed, pounding her small fist on her chest.
"Protect me huh?" he scuffed. "Well this is a first. How many had dared to claim to protect the Hellspawn." "I'll make you a promise then. If you accept my sword, I swear to never abandon you as long as you stay by my side. In turn, all I ask is you stay alive... even at the cost of betrayal."
"Huh?" Eosira frowned, "Why would betray you?" The very idea made no sense: if anything, it made her mad. She took a step foward feeling the sword tip rest squarely at the center of her chest.
It was weird, the sword didn't seem to cut even after it met cloth and flesh like it did Willard. As if the blade had no edge or point, it rested on her chest like a dull pen.
"All I need from you is to survive, I've little interest in anything else." He blandly stated. "I've the skills to survive and thrive in most situations. A fundamental understanding of all seven schools of the Arcanes." He closed his eyes, finding peace in the breif moment of darkness before it turned into images that made his stomach churn. He opened them, staring at the young girl.
He felt tired and weary. He was tired of fighting, tired of killing, weary of vengeance. He had only been a boy when his nightmare began. A child when it happened. To most humans, a thousand years seemed like an eternity. But to gods and demigods who had children, it was no more than a mere ten years. Their offspring matured much slower both mentally and physically.
The day veythar comitted the second sin, he had been a mere ten year old. And even after twelve Aeon cycles in the hells, he was but a child.
"Eosira will never betray..."
"It is not you choice." He cut in, "You'll do it. I don;t want to die nor do I want to return to the hells. If we are to soul bond, if you die, I'll die. And I cant have that happen. Understand?"
Eosira still had alot of questions, like who were the nine supremes, what was the Savant domain, what were the Nine hells and how did he end up there. But she didn't really care for the answers, all she cared about is that he would never abandon her. So long as he didn't leave her... like her father did.
"Fine..." She relented.
Solemnly, Veythar nodded. "Then do you, Eosira morningstar, vow to remain by my side for all eternity?" She nodded, though that wasn't enough, the Arcanes demanded words not gestures. "Say it." He demanded.
"I SWEAR!" Eosira trembled, not remembering his words word for word.
Runic symbols lit the dark clearing in a multicolored light. So beautiful it was, it seemed like endless wonders of stars. And without another word, Veythar's sword pierced her chest, running through her heart with ease. Eosira's eyes shot wide as she looked at his devilish smile as he continued.
"Then before the Arcana, I Veythar Aetheris, declare our fate and souls bound." She heard, before her world went dark.