Kazius and Damon both listened intently as Azanor finished telling the story of how he met Eve… Or rather, Evesorane back at that time. Of course, what was the most shocking about his story though was the fact that Zelphar was Eve’s brother. Azanor’s unfiltered rage when he met Caleb made more sense. More than Ratier and Thimdur, Zelphar’s betrayal likely hurt the most…
And it also brought even more understanding for Zelphar regretting his actions…
“After that, it is hard to know 100% what happened… I read Zelphar’s journal, hoping he would know why Eve ended up how she is now… Apparently, when Evesorane found out that Zelphar had sealed me away, she tracked him down. Evesorane was not like Eve, she rarely cried, much less sob… But apparently, she had been a mess. She slapped him and said that he was dead to her. She demanded he undid the spell… But… It isn’t that simple.” Azanor continued, frowning at the thought of Evesorane in such a state.
“There are two things you can use to seal a Demon… However, for a Demon from the royal family, you need both. One is… You need the Demon’s true name… That is enough for most Demons… But for the royal family, you need a prized possession as well. You bind their presence to the item, split it into pieces… And that is enough to limit our presence in the Mortal Realm even if we manage a connection… Once the seal is made, it can’t even be attempted to be broken for 1,000 years… That is the main reason it took me so long to return…” Azanor sighed out.
It honestly surprised Kazius that Azanor was telling them this… Though he supposed that meant he truly trusted them… Something he had struggled with after being betrayed back then.
“The royal family keeps a list of all Demon’s true names… It is insurance… Against any challenge to our rule. I… Stole that list… And something my family members valued… And taught Zelphar the spell he needed. Perhaps I deserved to be betrayed, I betrayed my own family too… But… I would not allow Mortals to be turned into cattle… I wanted to protect them… Protect my new life with Evesorane… Though I supposed in the end it did not matter, I lost everything anyway.” Azanor sighed out. Clearly, he was at a loss, it was almost like no matter what he had done… He was meant to suffer.
“Maybe that is just the price for going against your nature though… I… I just wish I could bring back Eve’s memories at least… I wish she remembered me… I have no idea why she is the way she is now… Zelphar never met up with her, but he did try. Apparently, she sent him a letter 30 years ago. It is the reason why Zelphar finally opened his eyes to The Church’s nonsense apparently… And regretted what he did to us… I have no clue how she got a letter to him… But she was an incredible wizard… So, it is not too surprising.” Azanor admitted, love and admiration filled his voice.
Kazius was beginning to piece a lot together… For starters… It seemed the rumors about Zelphar going missing 30 years ago were spot on… And it was because of the letter that Eve sent to him…
“It is very likely that Zelphar burned the letter… Or hid it, but he never wrote specifically what it said… I think it has a clue about what happened to Eve… I helped Caleb search all of his belongings… But we found nothing…” Azanor sighed out in defeat, running his hand through his hair in frustration.
“If Eve was all the way in Ratier… It makes me think she was also looking for Zelphar… They may have agreed to meet or something… Or maybe someone dropped her off there…Vargstam is a very unique place due to its mountains… I think in terms of landmarks where someone like Zelphar could hide… It is the best place for them to have agreed to meet. I wish we could speak with the dead… Zelphar would know more…” Kazius trailed off. He was wishing he knew Necromancy… But there was no way for him to learn such a skill… But Azanor said there was overlap in Dark Magic… So, he surely must have some aptitude for it.
“As useful as it would be, I can’t teach skills like that without making a contract and I really don’t need that kind of temptation.” Azanor responded with a frown.
“That is true…” Kazius trailed off.
“I am sure we will learn what happened! It will be fine!” Damon beamed in a reassuring manner.
“Thank you… Both… I will try and be positive… I guess… I am happy I have friends I can trust like this… Even if I am quite a terrible person… We are all quite awful, really. We are over here chatting, and we left Eve and Alice behind…” Azanor admitted.
Kazius felt guilty, he knew that the amount of secrets they were keeping from the two was only increasing… But Kazius was terrified to tell Alice about the sort of creature he was… But he supposed…
‘If Evesorane could accept Azanor… Maybe…’
Kazius shook away such thoughts. There was so much he would have to tell her… What if she got angry at him for keeping so many secrets? He would tell her… Eventually… At the right time.
“We are awful.” Kazius agreed, frustrated with his own cowardliness.
“At least terrible people can do some good though… Vargstam is safe thanks to us all… And we don’t have to worry about Demons too much… It might be another thousand years before they figure out how to free themselves. My brother is no idiot… But normal Demons can't get out without him… Even I lost a lot of my power for forcing myself to be summoned without his permission… I don’t know why my cane was left in one piece… But I told Zelphar to break my brother’s sword and scatter the pieces so no one dumb enough could summon him…” Azanor admitted.
Kazius perked up and grimaced. He was regretting not telling Azanor about his future… But… How was he supposed to tell him now that all his suffering may be for nothing? That his brother would be free much sooner than he would think…
“About that… In my coming-of-age ceremony with The Oracle… I saw myself as a King of Monsters… And I was fighting your brother… I think he will be back sooner than you think.” Kazius admitted with a grimace.
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Azanor’s expression fell, his eyes widening.
“WHAT!? And you decided to tell me that now!?” Azanor snapped, grabbing Kazius by the collar.
“Hey! Let go! I didn’t do it to fuck with you or anything! I just figured we had enough problems to deal with now! But that is the whole reason why I have been so paranoid about security and promoting as much growth for Vargstam as I can.” Kazius admitted, making Azanor let go.
Azanor sighed, calming down.
“Thank you for at least telling me now… I swear… What did those idiots even do with the pieces of his sword… My cane was even disguised as some sort of Holy Staff…” Azanor grumbled under his breath, frustrated.
“Demons? So… That is why…” Damon trailed off in awe, making sense of what Kazius had been doing with Vargstam.
Kazius kept running all the new information through his head though. The Church of The Oracle was corrupt… And if the Holy Staff in the Church Eve was at ended up being Azanor’s cane… It was safe to say… It was likely that most, if not all, Holy Artifacts The Church had were of Demon origin… Did that not mean that the one with the ability to summon Demons again was none other than The Church themselves?
Perhaps that was just insurance they were keeping in order to remain in power if their authority was very challenged… But then…. In that case, they had no reason to summon any Demons… Unless someone from The Church with knowledge of the artifacts was acting independently.
Suddenly, Kazius grew pale. That day the Orcs attacked… And his life changed… When he met Alice…. The Orcs had mostly decimated places with antiques… It was known on rare occasions some noble families had Holy artifacts that they had collected over the years from Churches that were forced to close due to lack of funding…
If the Church were to lose control of those Demon Relics… Wouldn’t they want them back? But declaring nobles to be heretics and taking them by force can only work so much… There is a point where it would cause total chaos… So instead… What if they gave information to The Orcs and hired them to ransack until they found what they needed?
It would involve working with Monsters… But Kazius knew their hypocrisy… After all, as far as Kazius saw it… The Church truly did not do anything other than manipulate Ratier, Zelphar, and Thimdur… And just took credit for a lot of what Azanor did… He would not put this past them…
But then… If all of that was true… What was The Oracle? And the voice he heard… The Oracle spoke to him… If it was just some fancy magical artifact… He would not hear a voice, right? None of it made sense… Kazius felt like he was trying to understand too much at once… His assumptions could also be wrong… But still… He had a very bad feeling about what happened back then.
“The Oracle… That fancy trinket that drove Ratier, Zelphar, and Thimdur crazy… I have a lot of reasons to distrust anything it would show you… But… If it is true… That means there is hope… I want you to know, Kazius… Once a prized possession is used to seal a Demon once… It won't work again… Not to mention, the others know I am a traitor… I still don’t understand why my brother did not execute me… But I won’t be able to do anything even close to what I did before…” Azanor warned.
“I wasn’t counting on it… Don’t worry… I refuse to make the sacrifices you made be for nothing…. We… We are not good people… I know that very well now… I understand that… We are slaves to our urges… Awful and terrible ones due to what we are… We may even do awful things… Especially me… Who knows how many charred bodies will be left in the same state as those Frost Giants... But… Even so… I believe we can save the world…” Kazius stated firmly, his eyes unwavering as the red in them seemed to almost gleam.
As defeated as Azanor looked, especially after he heard that all his suffering may have been for nothing… There was a glimmer of hope in his eyes. He trusted his new friends with information he had not told anyone other than Evesorane… Kazius had seen his true form, yet he was not afraid… Damon heard of it… Yet he didn’t care either.
“We will have to do even more terrible things… And likely even keep more secrets from Eve and Alice in the process to protect them… That is why… If you don’t want to be a part of this, Damon… I would not blame you… I… I don’t want to make you take part in something you would regret… Azanor and I are already a lost cause…We will try and be better but…” Kazius trailed off only to be silenced by Damon’s booming laugh.
“Buahaha! What part of ‘I would follow you to Hell’ do you still not understand, Kazius? Just tell me what I have to do.” Damon laughed out before suddenly losing his giddiness and growing surprisingly serious. His grin remained, but there was something about his fanged grin that could be seen as unsettling.
“Other than eat a soul… I will also do whatever needs to be done.” Azanor added as well.
Kazius smiled, relaxing some.
“I’m sorry… In advance… And for the stupid question… You are right… Well… In that case… We are all in this together… You can’t back out, even if you beg. We won’t have the force we need overnight… This is a very long-term plan… We need to get stronger… That part hasn’t changed. But, the first thing we need once Isolf returns with his father… We need to bring The Frost Giants under our control… And any other settlements we stumble upon… At any cost…” Kazius stated firmly.
Kazius would love to ideally befriend all Monster settlements he came across… But Kazius was meant to be the Monster King, not The Friend of Monsters… He would not give into The Shadows… he intended to resist them… But at the same time… He could not afford to be kind to everyone…