The Daemon's Tale Ch. 04

I feel like a good writer ought to be able to weave more information through their story than I manage in this one, but perhaps I start at a disadvantage because Gabriel was initially conceived in a roleplay situation. This means the whole world he exists in and all its creatures, places and quirks are already formed when characters are created.

Anyway, in answer to a question posed in a comment for the previous chapter, all creatures in Gabriel's world look more or less humanoid. Gabriel, for instance, is discernable from regular humans only due to having pointed claws rather than fingernails and pointed canines which could be described as fangs. Personal quirks include the silver quality of his skin and his beauty, both of which derive from his particular type of magic (bardic magic -- the ability to attract, incite lust, hypnotise, mesmerise, and so forth).

Also, all creatures can immediately recognise a Daemon. Unlike the other three races they do not originate from this land but have travelled from another dimension altogether, and for this reason no Daemon looks anything like a Faerie, Shapeshifter or Mortal. However Gabriel manages to reduce the immediate fear that humans have of him using his bardic magic and this is what allowed him to live among them. Daemons cannot hide their true natures with a glamour, however the Faeries can and Shapeshifters look relatively similar to Mortals.

As always, thank you for reading, voting and commenting.

~Archer~

*

His dreams were full of peace and pleasure. Woven through his own dark, intense subconscious were fleeting glimpses of hers; Vaern's way of experiencing life. It was more colourful and calming than his own dramatic world and he slept deeply and without stirring, free from the nightmares that had begun to plague him recently.

In those dreams Vaern existed with him in a place where he no longer felt the pain of grief or loss at all. He felt free again; virile, wild, unpredictable. His vitality was boundless and his mind as sharp as it had ever been without the distraction of whirling, uncontrollable thoughts about Katherine. It was a hazy place, this dream, but although Gabriel could tell he was it was not real he revelled in it, remembering what it was like to be himself again. Pastel colours embraced him warmly despite the fact that he didn't fit in these dreams very well; too dramatic, too wild for Vaern's imaginings. Her mind was as he might have guessed -- pretty, rich and welcoming.

For Vaern, though, the glimpse into Gabriel's dreams was a frightening one. There was darkness in his mind which belied his Daemonic nature and she was out of place, too soft and vulnerable in the smouldering chaos. She could tell from the dreams that Gabriel was sharply intelligent but very unpredictable; his subconscious shifted without warning even as it gave surprising insights into his thoughts, but it was never for more than a moment. The Elf found herself lost in uncertainty quite quickly and although she would come to appreciate the glimpse into Gabriel's nature when she woke, experiencing it first hand was uncomfortable. As an Elf, a Faerie, she couldn't get used to the alien mind of a dangerous Daemon. Nonetheless in this frightening, unexpected way, the two became closer -- the glimpse into one another's minds formed a bond between them, however tenuous.

When Gabriel awoke sometime near dawn he was initially distracted by the tentative fingers of dusky rose light hesitantly taking over the darkness. He was relaxed after a night free from nightmares and within just a few minutes the sky was blushing scarlet and gold. Where the moonlight had thrown the contours of Gabriel's prone form into sharp relief, picking up every line of hardened muscle and creating deep shadows which emphasised masculine strength, the dawn light softened and soothed him. The next thing he noticed, though, was Vaern's hand entwined through his own.

Gabriel panicked. Adrenaline coursed through his body as he threw himself reflexively away from the sleeping Elf, hissing in surprise at the strong emotion that overwhelmed him. It took him a moment to recognise it because until Katherine's death it had been one he'd very rarely experienced.

Guilt, white hot and scalding, coursed through his mind and brought the stress flooding back. It was so immediately crushing and oppressive that breathing seemed difficult so Gabriel escaped desperately into the trees, away from Vaern and the treacherous spring. The guilt followed him though, inescapably persistent, a crushing vice around his chest. How could he have let himself form an attachment -- any kind of attachment -- to Vaern? Katherine had been killed only a few moons ago and here he was opening his soul, if not heart, to another woman. It seemed he was more depraved than he'd ever thought and yet Gabriel had never tried to cover his shortcomings.

It was the shock that made it so awful and sent the Daemon stumbling blindly through the trees. He'd never experienced more than the odd twinge of guilt before; a brief moment, perhaps, when he killed one who challenged his position as Lord but as it was the laws of his kind this passed quickly on those rare occasions it came at all. Never in over four hundred years though had he felt such self-reproach for his actions and it was entirely unexpected, for Gabriel was no saint. He drank and indulged and killed. Before Katherine he'd been unabashedly lascivious and with his charms had found it easy to seduce women. Yet although Katherine had never asked it of him he'd become, over the years, contentedly devoted to her alone despite retaining his other vices. The fact that he had found some happiness when his soul mate was dead and -- worse -- that happiness had come due to the attentions of a pretty Elf was enough to inspire overwhelming regret. What had he been thinking?

Vaern woke as the sun draped her in warm golden light while climbing serenely into the now-periwinkle blue sky. Though it was a beautiful morning something felt immediately wrong and it didn't take long for her to remember the previous afternoon and flashes of a moon-drenched night. Gabriel melting under her talented fingers as she eased away the tension and stress of his grief. The Daemon Lord stretching out alongside her, water running off his silver skin and life back in those brilliant teal eyes which were partially obscured by damp locks of midnight black hair. And an elegant clawed hand entwining with her own so his dreams merged with hers and they shared a part of themselves with the other.

It was not the memories that were the problem though. The problem was the empty space alongside her, the grass still flattened by the imprint of a sleeping body only minutes before. Gabriel was gone and Vaern had a fair idea why. The Elf quickly dressed and retrieved Gabriel's clothing too, correctly guessing that when she found him he would be at least somewhat more comfortable when dressed, and then easily followed the trail of snapped branches and damaged undergrowth to find the tortured Daemon. It seemed in his panic Gabriel had been anything but his usual athletic, graceful self.

She found him pacing anxiously in a small clearing surrounded by pines. His movements were jerky and abrupt and dark fire smouldered in his eyes, so the Elf approached cautiously. She knew Gabriel well enough now to respect the fact that, although under normal circumstances he controlled his Daemonic impulses well, the tragedy that had befallen him had drained him of the strength required to maintain his self-control. If he snapped and struck out he was more than capable of killing her with little effort; her magic was focused around life and healing and was not a reliable defence against an agitated Daemon.

However Gabriel noticed her arrival despite his preoccupation with guilt and grief, his gaze flicking to her briefly before becoming glazed and unseeing once more. That acknowledgement was enough for Vaern to take the risk -- she placed a tentative arm on his uninjured shoulder and brought his pacing to a reluctant halt.

"Tell me what happened to you Gabriel."

For a long moment she thought he was going to ignore her request. It wouldn't have surprised her at all; the fiercely independent Daemon wasn't the type to open his heart to others with ease, she was sure. But although the silence stretched into long minutes in which the two remained frozen, teetering on the edge of indecision, Gabriel finally decided to share his story.

The Daemon sunk to the ground in a cross-legged position and Vaern followed suit, shifting to sit in front of him so she could catch his troubled gaze with her warm, reassuring one. And her soothing presence -- so powerful, he realised, that it was surely part of her magic -- was enough to allow him to relax and divulge.

"I had a partner."

The words didn't come easily. Grief and anger warred in his voice, marring his distinctive velvety tenor with emotion, but Vaern was patient. She didn't try to rush him.

"Her name was Katherine Sirett. She was a human, very young when I met her, only seventeen or eighteen. But she was beautiful and tempestuous; she'd snuck out of her parents hold and into a tavern that first night and I watched as she beat several rounds of drunken men in cards. She pretended to drink the whole time but while they got more and more inebriated she remained clear-headed, relieving them of all their gambling coin for a week I'd guess. She was cheating of course but another human would never have seen it for she was very good; my Daemon eyesight caught her only in the second round.

"She intrigued me. She was breaking all the rules of Mortal propriety; leaving her house after dark and without an escort, entering a working man's tavern, playing something as uncouth as cards and gambling to boot. And she was the only Mortal who had ever caught my eye; long hair so pale it was almost white, interesting hazel eyes, soft golden skin. I could tell she was an aristocrat from money or nobility, perhaps both, and yet there she was in a smoky tavern cheating at cards in the middle of the night.

"I watched her until she finished and pulled her cloak back on; sweetly thanking the men she had just cheated before slipping out the door to return to her real world. I was curious enough to follow and she had known I would for she waited not far along the path and smiled when I approached her. She was even sharper than I had guessed; I had remained discreetly in the shadows that night and yet she had sensed me watching her. She should have been terrified, but she greeted me politely and with mischief in her voice.

"I asked her what she had been doing in the tavern late at night, so clearly not where she was supposed to be. But rather than simply answer my question she took my hand -- still fearless! -- and we walked. Sometimes we left the path and she trusted me to guide her, at other times we made our way back to the city where she lived and she led the way. We talked the whole time. It was sunrise before I bade her farewell at the gates, not then being partial to the city where Daemons are generally unwelcome. But already I had fallen for her."

The Daemon emitted a weary sigh as though the sharing of his story were physically demanding, but even as he struggled through the words some of the weight crushing his chest and making it hard to breathe was lifting. Vaern listened silently and without interruption, doing no more than resting a warm hand on his forearm in encouragement. There was no judgement or demand in her expression and after collecting himself for a moment Gabriel decided to continue. She might as well have the full story now; he could feel no worse than he already had, surely?

"She came into the forest every night after that to see me. It meant sneaking out past the guards and her servants -- I learned, during our nights together, that she was indeed nobility. Her father was a Duke with reign over a small Southern province and although they weren't closely associated with the royal family they were wealthy and respected. Katherine was the youngest, with two older brothers, so she was of little use to her family except as a political pawn. She told me she was mostly ignored until she was needed to appear pretty and proper at social functions and this suited her fine because she was not really the noble type; she was far too impatient and rebellious. Her family's ignorance, though, allowed her to sneak around as she did.

"We spent almost a year meeting nightly among the trees. I showed her my world and introduced her to the creatures of magic and she remained fearless and curious throughout. She wasn't naturally afraid of Daemons as most humans are and she quickly endeared herself even to my closest friends. We were content to continue this pattern indefinitely; I had no desire to leave the forest and as a human she didn't have the means to survive outside the city so our arrangement provided a nice compromise. We were content. However her father had other plans.

"It seems all those social outings she'd been involved in had actually been for a purpose. Katherine's father had been courting the King since she was a child and finally he had agreed to allow his second son to marry her. Though this would not make her Queen it would provide a link between the Duke's family and the royal family and it was an invaluable contract; Katherine had blossomed into a beautiful woman as I well knew and the young Prince was enamoured."

Gabriel's eyes were distant as he recounted his story, entirely lost in memories which had come to have such a defining impact on his life and his character. Katherine had been his first and only love -- he'd waited centuries to meet her -- and she had changed him forever. The memories remained as fresh in his mind as the day's years ago that they had occurred.

"You can probably guess from my description of her personality that Katherine objected to the union. She had met the Prince only in passing and, at any rate, she had been in love with me for some time. He was a good enough man by any account; he could ride, handle a sword, and was obviously wealthy. But I suppose Katherine had always been attracted to the unusual, to the wilderness, to danger, for she had never been afraid of me and she certainly should have been. She was not unaware of my temper or my abilities and yet she told me she could not even picture the man she was meant to marry, just as I no longer saw the faces of other women. She was furious the night she told me. It did not take her long to decide to leave.

"I knew it would upset her family and cause problems for them with the royal family. I also knew that if anyone Katherine knew found out she'd left with the Daemon Lord it would probably incite a war between the Mortals and Daemons, or at the least damage already shaky relations. But I couldn't bring myself to care -- the very thought of her marrying the human Prince was enough to make me see red. I readily agreed to leave with her so we travelled to Terrace.

"Terrace is a smaller Mortal city, surrounded by walls just as the main city is but separated from it by several miles of fairly dangerous road. I charmed the guards to let me in with Katherine and used magic to suppress the fear response of all the Mortals we came into contact with. Katherine brought enough stolen money from her father to purchase a small rooftop apartment and it was here we settled for over ten years, living under fake names so Katherine wouldn't be found. It was not hard to hide, though. Her father did not have the time, resources or inclination to hunt for her for too long. And in Terrace we flourished; I made frequent trips into the forest to maintain my duties as Daemon Lord but the time apart only brought us closer. It was a peaceful decade and I have never been happier, in all the other many decades I have lived.

"I knew my partnership with Katherine was unpopular. It is not unheard of for Daemons to take Mortal partners but many of my kind considered it inappropriate for the Daemon Lord to do so when our two races are so different. In general the Mortals, as you know, have no respect for the forest or the life of the trees, and many felt I was wasted with her. I didn't care. I knew Katherine and I were soul mates, happy in our unorthodox bubble, uncaring of the opinions of others. I should have taken the dissent more seriously though. If I had, I might have been prepared for what was coming.

"It was a Vampire that did it. She was one of my subjects, jealous of Katherine's involvement in my life and probably contemptuous of Mortals as a whole, and she snuck into the apartment one night. I wasn't expecting so foolish an attack. Didn't she think I would be so furious I wouldn't pause to ask questions? I was too slow to stop her breaking Katherine's neck though. It took less than a second after she entered the room. I killed the Vampire immediately of course but it was too late. There was nothing I could do."

Vaern didn't speak right away, noting the Daemon Lord had slumped against the tree. He seemed exhausted but the violent energy associated with his guilt had drained too and the Elf could tell he'd taken another small step in the long healing process. Divulging his story to her must have been very difficult -- Gabriel was a notoriously private person and very independent -- but it had been important to allow him to move on. She smiled softly; she was glad she'd been able to help him. He was proving a dangerous and difficult patient with wounds that reached far deeper than muscle and bone but healing was Vaern's unquestioned calling and her words and actions for Gabriel were intuitive to allow him to begin recovering.

"Thank you, Gabriel. You've put your trust in me and I appreciate it, but more importantly it shows that you are still able to trust at all. Losing that can destroy a man, you know; if not physically then mentally. I would not want for you to lose yourself." The Elf squeezed his arm supportively.

"It wasn't your fault, Daemon Lord. Sometimes bad things happen to good people."

Gabriel laughed shortly and humourlessly. "I'm not a good person. In fact I'm often very badly behaved."

"I've no doubt," the Elf smiled. "But the essence of who you are is good. Katherine's death was a tragedy but you didn't cause it."

"If she hadn't become a part of my world she never would have been killed."

"She never would have been happy, either."

The Daemon had closed his eyes to regain his composure but they flickered open again to observe Vaern when she placed a gentle hand on his cheek. Her touch was delicate and warm and he leaned into it instinctively, too drained to war with the guilt anymore. He would probably carry some of that with him for a long time, perhaps for the rest of his life, but Vaern had given him the chance to learn how to deal with it. And her words were, as usual, exactly what he needed to hear -- whether he completely believed them or not. For now at least they were enough.

He slept alongside Vaern again that night though this time and although this time they remained clothed and did not touch, Gabriel felt closer to her than ever. Her body heat warmed him and her breath on his face was sweet and rhythmic. He watched her for a long time before he drifted off himself and marvelled at the Elf's gentleness and power. She was doubtless one of the Faerie's most talented healers and he was grateful that she seemed to care enough to spend so much energy on him. For without her, he surely would have given up by now. So many times it was only her whispered words, captivating gaze or soothing touch that stopped him spiralling completely into madness and no doubt death.

From that night onwards Vaern and Gabriel were more or less inseparable. Both had things they needed to tend to -- the Elf her other patients, much neglected since Gabriel's arrival, and the Daemon passed some time with the Council. The everyday demands of politics and leadership took his mind off his loss and allowed him to slowly slip back into a pattern of normal functioning, at least by day. But by night he and Vaern travelled extensively through the Faerie stronghold, hand in hand. She showed him places that were sacred to her kind, places so heavily infused with Faerie magic that he might have lost his mind if he'd strayed there alone or for too long. Beauty defined every destination and journey they made but it was Vaern that captivated him. He continued to fight it whenever the guilt drive him to do so however his dangerous moods in which he fled from Vaern and caused untold destruction whenever he panicked were becoming fewer and far between.