“Are you even listening to me?”

He snaps up, tearing his eyes away from the painting in his lap, Beth is leaning over the back of the couch a hand on her chin, her black lipstick-covered lips down turned into a frown.

“I’m listening,” he defends, moving his attention back to the painting, it’s a half-finished portrait of their mother, he wanted to give it to her for Mother’s Day.

“Riiight,” his sister agrees in an obvious tone that suggests she doesn’t believe him at all, “well spare a moment for your amazing little sister would you?”

“For what?” he asks, untrusting this sudden nice sister.

She huffs and crosses her arms, “Hard to believe I just want to spend time with my big brother?”

“Yes.”

She sighs dramatically and flings her arms around his shoulders, pulling him in for a hug, “My own flesh and blood doubting my pure heartfelt intentions!”

“Get off!” and he shoves her away as she laughs, “What do you want punk?”

Still laughing she responds with a chuckle, “Well sorry to ruin your amazing perception of me, but there’s no alter motives here, I really just want to hang.”

He gives her a wary look, “why?”

“Oh my god,” she huffs, flopping over the couch to land next to him and bumping his shoulder hard, he hisses and rubs at it as she rolls her eyes, they both know it didn’t really hurt, “College idiot.”

Oh right, Beth had just gotten an early acceptance letter last week, “you still have months left till then.”

“Well yeah but…,” she gets quiet, glancing around the small townhouse, “everything will be different.”

“I’m sure it’s not going to be that bad,” though he doesn’t actually know, as he never went himself, average in pretty much every way, no way he was getting into a college with enough financial aid to actually make it.

“I’m trying to say that I’m going to miss you,” she spells out, “you are terrible at this older brother thing.”

He takes that personally, “Well I’m big brother enough for you to tell me.”

She seems to consider this but doesn’t relent.

“Anyway,” and he reaches over pulling his sister close for a hug, “I’m not going anywhere, so stop looking like I just killed your goldfish again.”

“I’m never letting you forget that.”

“I know, but reminder I was 7 and you are the one who said you wanted glitter in the tank.”

“don’t you blame me for Fish’s death!” and his sister pounces, digging her nails into his sides, causing him to laugh and try fruitlessly to kick her off so he can breathe.

“Wait stop-!” and he gasps trying to get enough air into his lungs, everything is spinning and fuzzy. He wants to just close his eyes and keep sleeping-

“Master?”

He jolts awake, the memory lingering in front of his eyes for a few heavy seconds, Beth’s victorious smirk lingering even as the constellation mural comes into focus. He tries to cling to the memories. He had forgotten about that day, he had never finished that painting, his mother had found it when she came home and the surprise was ruined, but he wasn’t upset, the failed present was worth that moment with his sister.

‘I promised I wouldn’t leave her,’ he reminds himself as his vision finally focuses on the familiar ceiling, ‘I really want to go home.’

“Master?”

He jolts, turning quickly to the voice next to him. Red eyes met his own and he feels the tension ease out of him.

“Wh-,” he coughs, cringing at how raw and scratchy his throat feels.

Quickly Cadeyrn produces a glass of water and offers it carefully, “Here, this should help.”

With a grateful nod he accepts, letting Cadeyrn help sit him up, as he shifts something falls around him. Puzzled he picks one of the objects up, it makes a soft chime, it’s one of the little stars. Looking down he finds dozen more tangled into is hair. Seeing him awake the stars start glowing and circling around his head. he offers a hand as he drinks the ice water, and they all bunch around it skimming across his hand like little fireflies. All the noise causes something to move under the blanket. He carefully shifts it away to reveal a dead sleep Pluma, his little talons stuck straight up in the air like a small dog.

“How long-,”

“Only half a day, it's shortly before midnight.”

Less time than he thought considering… he glances down at his arms. He knows he won’t see any marks, but he can still a deep ache thrumming under his skin. It hurts, an itch he knows he will never be able to reach, but he can’t really feel anything, everything is numb, distant as if he’s watching someone else hurt.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Asterius,” he startles and turns once more to Cadeyrn, he’s watching him carefully, an emotion he can’t name swimming in his eyes, “I’m sorry.”

Of all the things he thought Cadeyrn would say, that was at the bottom of the list, “It’s okay,” because it is, Asterius knows neither of them really had much they could do. Cadeyrn had his binds and Asterius had the System. ‘Wait, where is the system?’

He shifts his eyes to the side, trying to spot the over-eager text box, and there lingering by his elbow, is a small dark evergreen box. He’s not sure how long it’s been there, but he bets at least since he woke up.

[System is sorry.]

Well sorry was a start, but the System better have some damn good reasons for not warning him about that.

[System didn’t know.]

He finds that hard to believe, the System should know everything in this world how could it not know something as important as-

“Asterius,” and he turns towards Cadeyrn, letting his mental insults of the System end there. Cadeyrn is frowning, a serious furrow to his brow, “I-I promise,” Asterius straightens a little at the grave tone Cadeyrn takes, a weird buzzing feeling running down his skin, a sign of the power starting to build in the room. The divine binds on his arms flash a bright white, Cadeyrn flinches but keeps talking, “I promise you that I-,”

“Master! You’re awake!” and Pluma barrels into his side, big crocodile tears wetting the front of his robe as the little griffin quickly shifts into his Vessel Form, “I was so worried!”

“Ah hello,” he greets, trying not to flinch from the slightly too tight hug, “thank you for the concern,”

He glances up at Cadeyrn, but the demon is pushing himself up out of the chair he had been sitting in, “I’ll go get you something to eat Master.”

“Wait-,”

But the door is already closing on his retreating back.

“Master?” Pluma asks, glancing between him and the demon with a confused frown, thankfully letting go enough that his grip is no longer painful, “do you want me to go get him?”

“No,” he says shaking his head. It's stupid, but it almost felt like Cadeyrn was going to- no he really shouldn’t be filling his head with any more silly fantasies. “Are you alright?”

Pluma's face twists, “You were the one hurt!” and the little star angels chime loudly as if agreeing, “I should be asking you! Are you okay?”

“Nothing too bad,” he says, flexing all his fingers, and raising a hand to pat Pluma on top of his golden curls, “see everything works.”

“It can still hurt,”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”

Pluma pouts but seems to know that Asterius isn’t going to budge and just clings to his side. Temporarily having appeased the child Asterius shifts his gaze upward, to the floating text box.

‘Want to explain now?’ he asks in his head.

[Sanctus-] Asterius feels himself shiver just from reading the name. seeing his discomfort, the message quickly changes, erasing the name, [Asterus had once expressed desires to end the war, to aid the Gehenna gods in the fight. The God Emperor sent his seraphim to make sure Asterius would never betray the heavens.]

‘That’s the only reason?’ even if Asterius had thought about treason once upon a time, for a parent to do this to their child-

[System is unsure if there were other reasons. All gathered data on Heilous suggests that he was a good king and an even better father. But after everything System has learned, System does not know-] it cuts off its message as a nearly impossible-to-read smaller window appears, [System thinks it has false information.]

Hist stomach drops. "False information" could mean anything from an accidental mistype to purposeful sabotage. 'And what did that mean for his mission? Would he ever get to go home?’

[Host should still be able to go home once done. That programming is the central idea from which System was based on, anything related to missions should be unaffected by… corrupted background data.]

Even if it did have wrong data for some things, it surely wouldn't have false information about everything. So he asks the next pressing question bothering him, ‘How long?’ How long had the original withstood this? How many years in silence, repeatedly cut off from anyone who would listen again and again.

[System’s database does not contain a date. System can infer based on gathered data… since Asterius was a godling.]

‘The God Emperor feared his child so much he-,’ he crumbles, feeling the tears sting his eyes once more. Just thinking about it causes something terrible to fester inside of him. He pulls Plums closer, burying his face into the soft golden curls, trying to find comfort in the steady rise and fall of his chest. He was alive, Pluma was alive, and everything was okay.

Pluma startles at the sudden hug, but clings back just as tightly, making a few bird-like trills in a gesture Asterius is sure is meant to be comforting, but it's mostly just funnily cute. Still, it helps.

Cadeyrn arrives with food only a few short minutes later, eggs quickly scrambled and bread just a shade too burned. It reminds Asterius of his first day here, of the breakfast they all shared downstairs. He wonders what happened to that table, he knows getting rid of it put in character but… ‘I’d like to see it again,’ he thinks.

“See what master?” Pluma asks, trying to tear apart a brunt piece of toast and having little success, “Do you want me to get something?”

Oh, he had said that out loud, “No, I just… just an idle curiosity nothing more.”

There’s a hand on his shoulder. He jolts slightly before he registers the unnatural chill, Cadeyrn. “Would Master like to accompany me out to the garden later?”

He had wanted to go before, with the stress of his first mission and then Solvieg, he had never actually made it outside, but… he wasn’t totally sure he could move right now, not to mention the garden was outside. In the sunlight.

“I don’t think…,”

“Not now master,” Cadeyrn corrects quickly, making a vague gesture behind him, Asterius would almost say he looks nervous, “later. Tomorrow maybe. After the suns have set.”

Oh, that… should be fine.

He nods slowly, picking at his own food.

[System advises Host to eat more!] the textbox reads, making little arrows to point down at his plate, [System’s databases show that Hosts perform better on full stomachs!]

He turns away from the window. It’s stupid and childish he knows, the System didn’t know, but still the anger festers.

The textbox gets smaller, hovering over his hand, [System is sorry Host. System can’t fix it, but System will try to warn Host the next time.]

His fork clatters onto the tray. Pluma is immediately peering up at him in worry, “Master?”

‘The next time?’ he thinks, shifting his full attention to the window, ‘there’s going to be a next time?’

The window goes shaky at the edges, font shrinking, [System-] and Asterius can’t read it because Cadeyrn moves into the space it was occupying.

“Master,” and just like every time Cadeyrn calls him, his attention is on him. He gives him a gentle smile, it’s such a drastic change from the indifference and fear he had been showing the past two weeks. His heart thunders in his chest, and he glances away before he says something ridiculous.

“Whatever happens we are here,” Cadeyrn assures, and the demon slips his hand into Asterius’s own, a cold steading weight that grounds him gently into the present. A mocking repeat of his own words to his sister ringing in his ears, the only difference, this time he believes them.