Author's note: This is a songfic, based off "Seven Devils" by Florence + The Machine c':
Eli had awoken from yet another night of nightmares and visions, with nothing to show for it but a mess of sweat and blood spattered on the pillow. Gingerly, she brought two fingers up to her nose, only for them to come away bloody. She wasn't surprised.
In fact, she had insisted that her wife wasn't to sleep within the same bed as her any more. A disappointment to the both of them, but they accepted it as necessary. After she had slid out of bed and made herself decent, she curtly instructed a servant to change the sheets of the bed. She had lost count of how many times she had given that order.
Day by day, her mind slipped further, threatening to become a victim to the Seven Devils that invaded her sanity, her thoughts and her judgement. More than once had she had to catch herself, even having the thought of sentencing a poor man who had done nothing but attempt to steal food for his family to death.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw something dark blue. But it was gone the moment she turned her head. She felt a flash of recognition go through her head; it was one of those damned devils. A constant looming reminder that they were with her and they refused to leave. But something in her mind told her that she shouldn't tell a soul. Every time she had tried, her words had stuck in her throat and her mind had steered away from the subject.
She exited her chambers after she had cleaned her nose up, she was immediately greeted by her wife, Nozomi. If Eli had one reason to still be sane, it would be the woman that had eagerly ran into her embrace, just as happy to see her as the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that. She even managed a troubled smile, but her facade remained strong.
"Elicchi, did you sleep well?"
Her smile faltered, "I slept well."
She answered a little bit robotically, the words leaving her mouth before she had a chance to process them. But she gave her a kiss on the lips, before being interrupted by a servant, instructing her that her generals were calling her.
She pulled away from Nozomi's embrace, missing the comforting warmth as she was pulled into another room, with four high ranking generals stood around it. She steeled herself before standing in front of the table with a map drawn out across a large piece of parchment.
"You called for me?"
"Yes my lady. Recently, the kingdom to the south has been mustering troops which we suspect may march up for an invasion. We wanted your input, we were struggling to come to a conclusion on our own."
"I say that we aim to put up a defense around our territory. All of our troops put to this task would make for an impenetrable force, protecting our people and our kingdom."
That general was General Tomoyoshi, a voice of reason amongst her generals. His proposal met a nod from General Nakano.
"And I say that the Southern kingdom has gotten far too cocky this time. We should teach them a lesson by marching our own army to attack. Raze their numbers. We have the manpower to do so."
General Mori had crossed his arms over his chest indignantly, almost as if he was challenging the other two generals. General Ito seemed to agree with him.
Eli placed both hands on the table and let her gaze fall to the map, glancing over the locations of the mustered forces. She looked back up towards her generals.
But they disintegrated away into dust, leaving nothing in their wake as darkness fell upon the room and a chill forced its way up Eli's spine.
Then, on the opposite side of the table, were two figures, one looking mock-intently at the map whilst the other had her hands behind her back.
Two of the dreaded Seven Devils.
"This land's pretty big. Wonder what it would be like to rule over the entire thing?" One mused out loud, deliberately breaking the silence.
Eli stared blankly at the black haired devil who she had learnt to be Nico over the course of her restless nights, and soon she stared right back, grinning and bearing her fangs at her, "Don't tell me you've never been curious. I know all about what's in that little head of yours."
"As do I," The blue haired devil, Umi spoke now, "When one has power, they always need more… Don't they?"
She shot a piercing gaze at Nico, who decided she was innocent, "Hey, don't look at me! Besides, we're not here to talk about me, as disappointing as that is."
Anything Eli wanted to say wouldn't come out. But soon enough, Umi's gaze turned to her, "You're right. But I get a feeling that she doesn't want to be talked about."
"Hm? Well, what a shame," She remarked with a shrug, "If I want to talk, we have to talk."
"And I want to talk as well. It's two against one."
Eli cleared her throat awkwardly and shook her head, "What do you want from me…?"
"Right, so," Nico quickly began, "Your generals, right? They're idiots! Attack or defend, ugh, boring!"
"What else is there to do though?" Umi questioned, leading the other devil on.
"Good question! Now, I know that there is little else that can be done, y'know, but there is one less boring option."
"And whatever could that be?"
"Attack, but not just attack. Burn, pillage, expand territory. That's exciting. If you defend you're just cowering. Not doing a lot. That's boring."
"But what of your people, what of those under your protection?" Umi asked with a hint of uncaring in her voice.
"War comes with sacrifice," Nico replied with a shrug, "There's always civilian casualties. Serves a higher purpose."
"And what does our lady say to that?" Umi asked mockingly.
Eli steeled herself, "Stop this," She hissed, "I won't bow to you or your will!"
"With all due respect my lady, there's seven of us and one of you. Plus, you are a mere mortal. Power was handed to you on a silver platter."
"And you two didn't have it given to you?"
"We," Nico rolled her eyes, "Have been through more than you can imagine. You've never really gone through a lot of stress."
"But we're not here to talk about our own toil and trials. It's all about you today. You have the power to overrule each and every one of your generals at once. They abide your will."
"Let's be honest, both of the options suck. As I said, invade! Put forward another idea, jeez, you can't let yourself be ruled by those people. I mean," Nico waved her hand and an illusion of General Ito appeared opposite to Eli, "Look at this guy! God, I know he's probably a good tactician or whatever you people tell yourselves when they promote people but he looks so dumb. A general cannot pull off clean shaven in this day and age, and if they can, it's not this guy."
"I don't think that insulting the generals is going to win her over, but you should consider what we're saying."
Eli shook her head; this was how they functioned. They worked inside her head, into her thoughts if she even considered a little bit of what they were saying. They acted like simple suggesters and tempters, but they could influence her in ways Eli was afraid to find out how. She shivered.
"I'll think about it. Now will you two leave me?"
The duo didn't say any more, vanishing in both black and dark blue smoke, before the room lightened and everyone came back into view. She tried to not appear too shaken, but it appeared that no time had passed to them. They still awaited her answer.
"Is there time to consider both the options?"
"Not a lot, but some," General Nakano spoke, "If they advance, is the defense option what we should go with?"
"If the advance and if they advance alone. You'll wait for my final order."
They all nodded in respect as Eli turned to leave.
Throughout the day, Eli kept feeling consistent waves of nausea and dread. She was sick and tired of these beings tormenting her at every turn in her life.
It had started not too long ago actually. But she couldn't pinpoint any kind of trigger or catalyst to cause the event. She just put it down to a ridiculous amount of bad luck and being a ruler of a powerful kingdom.
Perhaps she had felt the influence long before then, actually? Perhaps before her wedding? Perhaps from the very moment she was born?
Maybe she was destined for this. To be subjected to a brutal torment for the remainder of her life that she felt was getting shorter and shorter by the day. But how could she confide her worries in anyone when they were all around her? When they were in her very home?
She didn't know too much about them. She knew their names, their appearances and their attitudes.
Umi and Nico were the obvious leaders. They appeared the most to her and taunted her the most. Nico had a penchant for ridiculing anyone close to her, and even Eli herself. And nothing could deter her venomous comments. Umi, although more reserved, had an air of high and mightiness around her. And in the cases she did mock her target, it hit close to them.
Then there were the other meddlers. Honoka sprang to mind at first. Even if she was especially lazy and she didn't do as she was told in the most often of times, Eli didn't know much more. And that scared her, if she was being honest to herself.
Eli would call Kotori more of a seductress than a temptress. Or were those the same things? She had a soft voice, but it had implicit and subtle undertones with every word she spoke. She worried more and more every time she appeared to her what she might be able to convince her to do, with nothing more than honeyed words and sweet nothings in her ear.
Whenever Eli had seen Maki, she was mostly unstable. She looked as though a hot furnace was constantly burning and creating a glow in her chest, spitting literal fire with her words and smoke billowing out of her, and the more her mood worsened or Eli fought against her, the angrier she got. She had the worst temper out of all of them and was often hostile towards the other devils as well. Even if Eli had only seen her in dreams and visions, she could swear the heat she felt off her was real.
Rin was… Odd. Amongst the world Eli had come to forcibly know, Rin didn't fit the normal description of a demon or devil. She was actually quite cheerful, but she warmed up to Eli in an unsettling way. If she could get past Rin's exterior, she was terrified at what she might find. And if Eli let her get past her defenses, who knows what she would do?
Hanayo fit into a similar category to Rin. But she was a lot more meek and a lot less sinister than the rest of them. The polar opposite to Maki, the devil never got angry, in fact, she seemed far more likely to cry than ever raise her voice at any given time. But Eli couldn't get complacent or place her trust in any one of them. If she did, it would surely be her downfall.
"I think it's really amusing how she puts up this fight," Nico remarked, examining her nails, "She knows we're like, in her mind, right?"
"It's more to do with her honour. She's stubborn."
"Ehh, whatever, you were always better with this kind mental analysis thing."
"She needs something to push her over."
"What, and we're not doing that enough already?" Nico threw her hands up, "Nightmares, nosebleeds, visions and other things aren't enough?"
"No, no. I have an idea. Those can still continue though." Umi said calmly.
"Idea? You know how much I love your ideas." Nico leant somewhat awkwardly over the arm of her chair to get far too close to Umi for her comfort. Umi stifled a groan before she stood to get away from her fellow devil.
"We send one of us to the mortal realm and contribute to their power to continue to keep them there and make it so only Eli can see her. As long as we all put forward everything we can, she's bound to push her over the edge. We would be able to do what we wanted with her."
Nico thought over what she had said for a moment, pulling herself back up into a more comfortable position on the chair, "Mm… I like that. But which one of us could go though?"
"I'll go and have a talk with her now."
Author's note: forgive me for slow updates for there are exams and stress and i wrote the first chap real quick as a break but now i want to write and develop this into a full length multi-chap but i know how bad i am at those ahah (i'm sorry)
also i'm lonely af and if anyone wants to talk or whatever or listen to my dumb ravings, check out my twitter Yurutono