"Hey, Arbus?"
"Yeah, Ater?"
They were seated against two of the bannisters by some steps out by the garden near a cliff, one of the popular attractions for people in the village and tourists who visited this place. The pair were eagerly licking the lollipops Valens gave them both after their harrowing escape from Grora. Their dark gray skirts brushed up against the poles, their black and white tails swishing happily as they enjoyed the treats and this fabulously sunny day. Although their school uniforms would have led to some confusion as to why they weren't in school—possibly skipping by taking a day off—the truth was that they were actually Kcalb's pet cats who worked in the castle. Yet there was still a ring of truth to that part about skipping because they hardly ever did anything aside from helping in the castle's daycare center for little children. Their cheerful attitude and playfulness were clearly great aspects that made them popular with the children, but none of them were in today because it was a holiday on which their parents could bring them in to work for the day. That was why Arbus and Ater had nothing to do for the day, so they were glad for the time off to take a breather from a job they loved—not that it was needed since they considered every day on the job a fun, extended break. Even so, it was better the children weren't in to see Grora's rage; that angel was nice, though quite terrifying as well whenever she charged into the daycare center to kill the cats—mainly Ater.
"What do you think would've happened had Miss Grora caught us?" Ater inquired because she had been thinking of all the bad things Grora would've done to them. Everything she pondered regarding that sounded painful, and it made her shiver nervously while clutching at her arms.
"The usual, of course," Arbus answered with a smile and closed her eyes, savoring a sweet flavor of the lollipop—mint, their shared favorite. "Beat us to a pulp barehanded, pelt us both with arrows, etcetera." She raised an arm up and put it around her twin to offer some comfort. "No need to fear her anymore, at least for today. Miss Grora got scolded since she did the crime."
"So she does the time!" Ater laughed, thankful for the show of support from her sister.
"She reaps what she sows!" they both giggled in unison while the white haired cat demon's arm rose so she could embrace Arbus, who grinned at the thought of the angel being punished. Yet it soon turned into an inquisitive frown because Ater posed another question to her twin sister.
"Do you think she hates cats?"
Arbus shrugged. "Probably, but we've seen her play with cats before. I think she just hates us." It was a fairly obvious response for they were already well aware with the answer. "Though I think she loves dogs more than cats. That may explain her behavior around us for decades."
"Maybe," Ater agreed, nodding to concur with that opinion before offering her own theory to possibly explain it—one everyone was already familiar with by now. "Is it because I accidently gouged out her eye?" That clearly was the root of all their problems with Grora because it was due to that incident which began the tyranny they experienced from her on a daily basis all the time.
"That did start it, yeah," Arbus agreed. "Had that not happened, she wouldn't be angry with us—well, you, to be specific as it was accidently done by your hand, Ater; not that I blame you."
"But you're always getting hurt because of me…" her twin sister spoke softly, staring down at her lap in shame since she felt guilty for having unintentionally involved Arbus in the pain which was caused by the furious angel. "You should run away instead of staying put for me…"
Her sister's guilt concerned Arbus, and the black haired cat demon tightened her embrace, but kept it gentle too because she wanted to soothe Ater's frayed nerves. Ever since that accident, the poor girl was still something of a wreck despite her cheerful attitude. She had nightmares about the incident and its aftershocks on her, what she did having left behind a serious scar on her which had never healed because of Grora's constant attacks against her and Arbus. Whenever the angel's lone eye fell upon the cat demons—specifically Ater—she would chase and beat them. The many beatings caused psychological harm to her; although Arbus managed to maintain her sanity, she'd known Ater was slowly beginning to lose hers due to the attacks. Ater was gradually becoming an insecure, crippled mess on the inside, but still tried her best to stay happy amid the abuse. "Ater…"
"It's okay, Arbus, I won't be mad with you for abandoning me to her…" Ater spoke softly in a quiet voice, trying to reassure her sister that it was okay to leave her. "You're not supposed to get hurt over what I've done…Please, just go on without me, okay? I can take it by myself…"
"No, you can't, Ater," Arbus commented in a stern tone, but she adopted the attitude since she wanted to comfort her sister and stay by her side. "I know you better than anyone. You cannot handle her by your lonesome self. I need to be by your side at all times so you won't ever be alone. You do not have to face her on your own, that's why I choose to stay by your side." Having finished her lollipop, the cat demon took Ater's hands into her own and pressed her forehead against Ater's while closing her eyes. She smiled warmly, embracing Ater in her arms afterwards. "We're twins, Ater, twin sisters; always together, forever in health, sickness, and even death—however grim that is. I would never abandon you, nor will I ever let you be harmed by anyone, no matter what."
"But that would mean you could attack someone who hurts us, Arbus…"
"I would never hurt anyone Ater, you know that; I also know you would never hurt anyone either. It's hard simply just accepting the abuse, but we do try to run from her when she's angry at us." She would have named her sister as the specific individual, but corrected herself and decided not to. "Besides, Miss Grora gets in trouble all the time anyway, you know that. She hasn't stopped hurting us, I know, but I hope a day comes when she won't anymore. Maybe the punishments she receives will help in some way; perhaps Lady Etihw and Lord Kcalb will send her off somewhere else, another town if possible." Arbus let go of Ater and held her sister's hands again. "We'll hold out together for however long it takes, like we always have, okay? We can do it together."
"On our own?" Ater asked, still sounding unsure about their dire predicament.
"With Lord Kcalb and Lady Etihw on our side, as well as all our friends" Arbus reassured her. "We've got them supporting us, and they'd do anything to protect us; you know that."
Ater sniffed and swallowed heavily, afraid to pose her upcoming question. Still, she needed to ask it for the sake of ascertaining further reassurance from her twin sister. "And our parents?"
Arbus' eyes widened slightly, but she shut them moments later. "You know they're gone."
"I know, but…" Ater's voice was beginning to quiver, and she shuddered nervously. "Will they be coming soon? Where are they?" Both were valid questions, but Arbus couldn't answer due to a promise they made to Kcalb about that which was why she remained silent for a bit before she started speaking again. However, her response wasn't what Ater wanted to hear from her.
"You know we're not supposed to talk about that, Ater. We promised Lord Kcalb not to."
"But why, Arbus?"
Arbus stood up and helped her sister to her feet. "I don't know, but it's the only thing he's asked us to heed throughout our lives, even if we don't ever listen to him well. Now come on, we'd better get back to the castle now that Miss Grora's off our tails for now. Just drop it, okay?"
Although she didn't like it, Ater realized the topic only made things tense. She brought the notion up before plenty of times, but learned overtime that it was better to comply than worry over something that would upset them. Besides, she had asked Lord Kcalb about it and he said he would do his best to find their parents for them. Until he located them, he asked that they continue to live their lives happily instead of worrying over people who weren't in their lives, ever. The cat demons knew Kcalb only had their best interests at heart which was they listened and even complied with that request he made by not speaking about it. While she did suspect he might have known what happened, he reassured her that he was doing everything he could to find them so she and Arbus could finally meet their parents and welcome them into their lives. She believed him as she looked up to the Devil and loved him like a father, hence why she listened. Despite being uncomfortable with it, Ater gave in and kept her faith in him because she loved him. "Okay, Arbus, let's go."
She would still believe in Kcalb and be happy in life for others, hence the smile that slowly crept along her face until she was beaming again, glad to be thinking positive. Hopefully she could be able to have her wish come true soon after decades of waiting for their parents to appear. Until then, she'd continue to be happy and look forward to the day they would arrive in the Gray Garden.
The two cat demons cheerfully went on their way down the path towards the castle, neither of them aware that somebody was watching them from atop one of the trees nearby behind them.
…
"…and that's how the hero had saved the day by destroying the malevolent dragon that had been terrorizing the village," Kcalb remarked with a small smile, having finished reading the fairy tale he'd been relating to Ater and Arbus. The cat demons were curled up against him, their heads lying on his shoulders while he put the picture book down and reached his arms up to pet them on the heads before giving each of them a tender kiss on the forehead. "Okay, girls, bedtime."
"Okay, sir," they each spoke affectionately and purred happily, wrapping their arms around him to give the Devil a hug which he returned before getting off the bed. "Thank you, Lord Kcalb."
"You're welcome, girls," he stated and pet them again while they each grabbed their diaries out from the nightstands by their bed to write in them about how their day went. "Good night."
"Good night, sir," they returned the comment as he walked out before they began to write.
Taking one last look at the kitties once he reached the door and opened it, smiling while he shut it behind him, Kcalb took a few steps away when he noticed Othros coming up the stairs near him. Wondering if the demon had come with new information, the Devil approached him as the bat demon hailed him while stepping forward. "Othros, good evening, how are things going?" he asked to initiate the conversation between them while motioning his arm towards the office he and Etihw used. "Come right in and chat for a bit. You're doing well, I take it, and so are your friends?"
"Yes, we're certainly well, Kcalb," the bat demon responded with a nod and followed him in, taking a seat in front of the Devil's desk when Kcalb gave a friendly gesture indicating he could sit. "Got a lot of work done in the garden today; the planting's already done, now we just let nature do its job by taking up its role in the affair while we provide the water. We've also looked over an interesting blueprint for a greenhouse the girls over at The Auburn Tulip wish to set up near Apple Park and we unanimously agreed that it'd be a great idea to set one up so people can see the flowers on display." That being said, he produced a manila folder from under his arm and opened it to pull out the very set of blueprints he wanted to show the Devil. "What do you think, Kcalb?"
"Let me take a look…" Kcalb replied and accepted the documents, analyzing them to make sure everything was covered in the blueprints before returning them with a smile. "Certainly, we'll follow through with them on the establishment of this greenhouse since it is a great idea."
"I'll be sure to let them know when I go in tomorrow to pick up some flowers for the offices in the library. Those should help brighten the place up seeing as how some of the flowers there are already beginning to perish. I'd ask Lady Etihw to revive them, but I believe the natural cycle must take its course," Othros briefly explained, taking the blueprints back and putting them away.
"How was Grora today when she arrived in the garden to help you guys?"
The bat demon looked up again to make eye contact with the Devil. "Fine, aside from being in a hissy fit at first because she got caught trying to beat the cat demons once again. Other than it being the source of her complaints, the angel was perfectly alright and didn't cause any problems. She didn't even run off to attack them again when they arrived back from wherever they went."
"That's good, though I wonder whether this behavior will persist forever or eventually stop at some point," Kcalb commented, recalling how he and Etihw scolded her for trying to kill those girls again. "Hopefully she will desist from it and accept the fact she doesn't have to like them. I'd much rather want Grora to forgive Ater and become friends with them, but we shouldn't force that solution. Encouraging it for now should suffice, though it's ultimately her decision to be friendly."
Othros nodded in agreement. "Quite right, sir; and if she doesn't, that's her choice."
"Indeed," Kcalb also nodded. "By the way, Othros, have you heard back from your contacts regarding the matter I spoke to you of regarding the girls' parentage? Has anything new come up?"
Othros frowned, aware of exactly what the Devil was inquiring about. Yes, he had certainly looked into the matter and never gave up for them either like Kcalb. He sent letters out to many of them, even going so far as to meet them in person. In some cases he even resorted to the bribes he disliked using, though utilized only for the protections of others and his friends whom he loved to help. Unfortunately, all of the results from his national contacts in other regions came back rather negative, and so did the foreign associates he had. Once he even asked Mitchell to check with that guild he was formerly a part of, but the monkey demon also came up empty-handed when he heard back from them. "I'm afraid not, sir. They haven't sent word to me for quite a while, so I contacted them just recently and received the same old response from them: no news from anywhere."
Kcalb stared at the bat demon, silently brooding over the response before closing his eyes. "I see…" he murmured softly and picked up a framed photo of him and the cat demons resting on his desk to gaze somberly at it. The photo was a picture of the kitties when they were around three years old, holding favorite toys in their hands while clinging to Kcalb, and it was still a fine quality picture even after so many years ago. He stared at it and sighed, shutting his eyes again and putting it back down where the photo was. "It's been so long since we first started looking for them…"
"It might be even longer still," Othros commented, the mood of the conversation becoming gloomy due to the subject they both began to discuss—a contrast to pleasantries of a greenhouse and their hope for Grora's resignation of her bad behavior towards the cat demon twins. However, there was yet another aspect to this matter that would take it down a dark turn, and the bat demon's reluctance to speak it caved in the face of it being a reality—one they didn't want to accept despite the fact they both realized it was certainly possible. "They might not even be alive anymore." That was a grim truth they wished wasn't true, though they couldn't deny the fact it was a valid notion.
"I know, but…" the Devil stated, swiveling in his chair to gaze at the crescent moon outside the window. "I'd rather not believe it for their sakes. Ater and Arbus miss them dearly, but Ater's been affected by this topic more than her sister. She's asked me several times where they are, and I am afraid I won't know what to tell them. Yet I fear giving up the search for their parents more."
"Everyone does," Othros concurred with Kcalb, the tension hanging thickly over them due to its depressing nature. Even he and the others who were worried about the kitties had to admit it wasn't going to be a pleasant subject until the girls' parents were located, or at least when a single clue emerged to point them in the right direction. "Still, what else can we do but keep searching?" He ran a hand through his short, auburn colored hair to brush locks of it out of his eyes.
"Indeed," Kcalb agreed with him, "though I do wonder how much longer this will take. It's beginning to feel like an eternity waiting for some lead to pop up, and I'm doing my best to prevent myself from doubting whether we should retire from searching because I hope something will soon come up. When I think of Ater and Arbus, I imagine how much more enriching their lives can be; how the presence of their parents could make them so much happier than they already are."
"I know, and I hope we find them soon so the kitties can finally meet their parents," Othros concurred with the general feeling he, Kcalb, and everyone else who knew of the search shared. It was certainly difficult looking for possible leads when none were around, but they had to keep on digging for answers. "Though I don't wish to dampen on our efforts in the search, how far are you willing to go for their sake, Kcalb? I don't mistrust your judgment, but if you are forced to decide on which is more important—finding for their parents, or preserving their happiness—what would be your decision: to press on for more information, or spare the girls from untrustworthy sources and horrible truths that could scar them and forever shatter their ever so cheerful happiness?"
It was a valid question, one which made Kcalb think as he shut his eyes to ponder what he would do in that situation. "To be honest…" he murmured after a couple minutes of silence, "I do not know yet which of those choices I'll have to make. Both have their benefits and consequences. While discovering the whereabouts of their parents would make them happy, an unhappy result of our search could be yielded from our efforts and the sources we look to. They might not be around anymore, or they may have abandoned them on purpose and never want to see them again. Whether those are lies or not is uncertain unless supported by solid, concrete evidence. Either way, I'm not sure what I'd be able to tell them afterwards when we do manage to uncover something."
"We'll all have to think of something to say together," Othros suggested, willingly allowing himself to join in so Kcalb didn't have to do it alone. "We're all in this together for them."
Kcalb nodded, acknowledging his support with a small smile. "Yes, we certainly are."
…
"Damn…to think that all this hassle over what to get those bloody girls as an apology was such a nuisance…" she muttered under her breath, ambling up the stairwell since the elevators she could've taken were already occupied by employees who lived in the village as opposed to here, a great place with exceptional living quarters and enough room for guests from elsewhere. To say it was a bother would be an unfounded comment because of one's personal preference, and she didn't want to insult others' choice of where to live because it was mean and it didn't really matter to her. Grora may have lived in the castle alongside some of the other employees like her friends, though that wasn't justification to brag about it. Besides, her mind was already on something else.
With a small sigh of frustrated irritation, the angel opened up a plastic bag she got from the gift shop near the reception area in Blancblack Castle's main foyer. A bunch of cat treats and toys comprised the contents and she picked one out at random and stared at it, annoyed with the notion of her having to purchase something to say she was sorry to Ater and Arbus for attacking them. It was a direct order from Etihw herself, and Grora did not dare to cross it despite not liking it. While she did despise the cat demons—mostly Ater—the Goddess and Kcalb instructed her to once again desist in her assaults on them. She merely stood by and acted affirmatively in response to the orders they gave, but all three of them were well aware nothing would change that because the angel was definitely going to do it again. Grora couldn't help it; whenever she saw Ater, she wanted to murder her by hurting the poor kitty so bad that she actually wanted to obliterate her over the accident.
Closing her eye, Grora sighed again as she thought back to that terrible day when the spiked marble Ater carelessly shot from a slingshot gouged her eye out. How the cat demon discovered it was beyond her, though Ater and Arbus had unknowingly wandered into the barracks when young. Nobody noticed they were there since everyone was busy, but all of those present soon came to be aware once Grora started screaming in pain after investigating why the armory door was ajar. They found her slumped against the wall, holding her left eye in pain as tears flowed down her face from her right eye…and within the room was the pair of cat demons. Arbus hadn't touched a thing, but Ater's curiosity got the better of her which led to her taking the slingshot and trying it out to grasp what it was like. The first shot she fired was the last one before she dropped it and cried with Arbus over having done something they shouldn't have which got them in quite a bit of trouble.
That was decades ago, and Grora still refused to forgive Ater for the accident. She was not going to, and she didn't have to. However, she was forbidden from abusing her and Arbus. It might have been considered overkill—as a matter of fact, it was overkill due to how extreme she went in comparison to the accident—but the angel didn't give a shit so long as Ater paid with her life. That was definitely a much higher currency than she had paid herself when the cat demon took her eye by accident. People said curiosity killed the cat, and Grora wished it would come true soon instead of sometime later because curiosity already seized her eye and she refused to get a brand new one, or at least see to it that her grave wound was cured of any diseases and bacteria and healed fully.
"This really blows big time…Why must I be the one who has to waste her money on these useless trinkets for a useless pair of good-for-nothings? They should at least earn an allowance of sorts to buy this shit instead," she complained, crossing her arms while walking. Opening the door up top, she stretched her wings back behind her to step through before flapping them gently. "Man, why can't those little shits ever purchase what they want instead of badgering others to do it. They live here too; would it kill them to learn some discipline?" Quickly jogging up another staircase to the top floor where the Goddess and Devil shared an office space and also where their bedrooms—and the Head Angel and cat demons since their bedrooms were here too—were located, Grora sauntered down a hall where Kcalb, Wodahs, and the kitties had their rooms. As it was pretty late and she figured Arbus and Ater had already gone to bed already, the angel decided to just waltz in quietly and place the treats and toys on the table in their room before booking it out of there without waking both of them up. She wouldn't bother lingering; she'd only want to kill them in their sleep.
Carefully pushing the door open and crossing the threshold to find them both asleep, Grora silently strode over to the table and put the stuff down like she planned. However, her initial choice to just leave right away was postponed when she caught sight of two books on the nightstands. She believed they were personal diaries, journals for them to record their thoughts. Although Grora did not like intruding on others' personal privacy, she put her hands on her hips and stepped toward a pure white journal with Arbus' name on it surrounded by flower doodles and in black print. Taking the manuscript in her hand, the angel flipped through the pages and carefully read each one because she believed the cat demons might've been planning on getting back at her for chasing them. Then again, perhaps simply doing nothing and letting her get caught was always their plan for revenge. Yet Arbus' diary contained nothing of the sort, just casual remarks about how their days went.
Seeing as how that one had nothing of interest written in it since there was nothing in plain sight or in some kind of code—Grora knew how to break those from her days in the war, and these days she sometimes utilized the skill as a fun brain teaser—she set it back down. Heading around the bed Ater and Arbus shared, the angel picked up the similar black diary and opened it to a page indicated by a bookmark. Reading through the entry, Grora found nothing of interest until her eye fell upon a single paragraph down at the end which completely caught her by total surprise.
"I asked Arbus about our parents and she told me not to talk about them. Lord Kcalb says he's looking for them all the time, but…when will we see them? Why can't we meet them now? Did we do something wrong, Arbus and I? Is that why they won't come? I wish they were here."
Caught off guard by the remark and how somber it sounded, Grora checked the other pages.
"I wish our parents were here."
Those were the most common words at the bottom of every page, though the sentence was varied slightly from time to time even though it generally centered on that main idea. Grora's eye widened somewhat, pondering what the meaning of this discovery was while turning back towards the last page where she first saw the writing about the cat demons' parents. Looking over each line in that short paragraph, the angel analyzed the content sentence by sentence. From the sound of it, this whole subject about their parents seemed to leave Ater and Arbus divided on it; Arbus wanted to let the matter drop as possibly suggested by the absence of such remarks in her own diaries, but Ater's was full of allusions to their parents as if she was begging for them to show up one day.
Kcalb apparently conducted a search for the missing parental figures, but it appeared there was no luck in that regard, hence the uncertainty and nervousness Grora inferred from Ater's diary. The poor girl only wanted to meet them and was wondering when they could and why they weren't allowed to see them. Was the Devil hiding something from them like something unpleasant he did not want them to know? Did he not say why due to something the cat demons did as Ater referenced on the last page, but what was their offense? Thinking about it further, Grora hypothesized the two of them were in some kind of trouble in which Kcalb was angry with them and chose not to relate anything to them. But that didn't make any sense since he was looking for them, so was that matter about the search a lie concocted by the Devil to make them behave? It sounded plausible to Grora because they were always misbehaving by not listening to him, yet everyone—including Kcalb—loved them. He wouldn't keep something like that from them, though Grora definitely would since that could've been considered part of the payback against Ater for accidently gouging out her eye.
Averting her attention to the sleeping cat demon lying on the bed, Grora stared at her before turning back to the diary. Ater sounded desperate to see them, afraid their parents wouldn't come. Although the angelic woman considered whether that accident had anything to do with it, she could feel as if what happened wasn't involved with this subject. Some kind of sixth sense was informing her mentally about how this seemed to be a different subject entirely, one she stumbled upon even though it was by accident—just like the problem with her absent left eye. While she could ponder whether to incorporate this discovery into her punishments…Grora realized she'd strike a nerve to break Ater's sanity, especially since she believed it was already crippled to begin with because of her assaults against the cat demon. That was a tender nerve at best, and she thought it wasn't right to delve into this too deep and say or do something to upset Ater over her parents' absence.
With a frown, Grora set the diary back down and quietly left the room, leaving the girls in peace. It didn't sit right with her knowing that something else was making Ater suffer besides her, and it made the angel feel a bit sorry for her for once because she had no justification for utilizing the lack of parental guidance and attention in Ater's presence to punish her. Grora still didn't really feel much sympathy for her, and she hated Ater with every fiber of her being…but she would never go that far in her torture of the poor girl. Doing so would just be too cruel and make her a monster. Grora couldn't live with that guilt despite already having wholeheartedly accepted the fact that she constantly beat the cat demon to a bloody pulp all the time and enjoyed it as revenge for her eye.
"Evening, Grora," Kcalb greeted her cordially as she exited. "You brought the apology?"
"Sir Devil…" she murmured quietly so as not wake Ater and Arbus from their slumber due to having spotted him leaning against the wall by his bedroom door with his back against it. "You saw all that, didn't you?" The angel wasn't surprised since she knew she'd left the door wide open, but she still asked anyway. Grora believed she got herself in trouble again. "Sorry for having read their diaries. I didn't mean to disturb their privacy," she remarked, but the Devil shut his eyes and shrugged. His reaction confused her, more so when he opened his door and bade her to enter. She followed him and took a seat at the table once he invited her to sit as Kcalb went over to a telescope and gazed at the moon and the night sky through it. "So, I'm to be punished again, I take it?"
Kcalb shook his head. "No, not this time, Grora…" he commented somberly, looking into the telescope. "I just wanted to ask for your opinion about something, that's all."
"Sure, shoot," Grora ushered him on, waiting for the inquiry.
"What are your thoughts on what you've read? Specifically the closing remarks on each of the pages." So he had seen her pick up their diaries and read through them, yet his second sentence was alluding to Ater's. Grora figured he must've read their diaries too at some point before her, so she decided she might as well share her thoughts as Kcalb requested of her by discussing that bit.
"Pretty sad, really. I'd have expected hers to be happy like Arbus', but she sounds gloomy."
"Indeed, I fear this subject is taking quite a heavy toll on Ater," Kcalb admitted, not taking his eyes of the night sky. "My only wish is for them to be happy, and I'm doing what I can to make it remain like that. It's tough for we've not found any leads and Othros has confirmed his contacts don't know. He's been keeping me up to date on clues alongside contacts of my own, and we've got others here at the castle involved in the search as well. Yet nothing's come up at all."
"I see…" Grora murmured, taking a pen from a container on the table and fiddling with it. For some reason the minor activity fascinated her, and she didn't know why. Perhaps it was a way of trying to think of something else. Nevertheless, she managed to pose two inquiries to him. "How long has this investigation been going on? Have they done something to warrant not being told?"
"Aside from their behavior, no," Kcalb answered the second question first, now sauntering away from the telescope to sit across from Grora. "I want to find their parents for them, but we've found nothing despite having spent decades searching." That was the answer to her first question. "I wish I could tell them something, give them a status update on the investigation, but there is not a thing to relate that hasn't been told already." He frowned and sighed, shutting his eyes.
"So you've been working on a cold case for decades and made no progress, eh?" That was a reasonable question even if the tone of voice Grora used to put it forth wasn't really sympathetic enough. He nodded and she sighed as well. "I guess you might be doubting whether to turn in your towel on this one, Sir Devil—a presumptuous thing to say, I know, but food for thought."
"You're right, Grora, there is a grain of truth to your statement," the Devil conceded since he couldn't deny the fact it was true. "Even so, I don't want to give up. I want to still try, for their sakes, Grora. Although I cannot ever be a true father of sorts to Ater and Arbus, I still think of the two of them as cherished loved ones despite the fact I can't replace their real parental figures."
So he was kind of like their foster father in a way. If so, perhaps Etihw was a foster mother to them too. Grora pondered whether that was the case, but figured it was probably true. "Could it be why you refuse to let this cold case die? That you'd risk a lot for that goal to be fulfilled?"
"I've been over that with Othros, but I'm not sure what I'd tell them when and if we acquire a possible link, clue, or a lead on their parents' whereabouts," Kcalb admitted. "It's a difficult topic to go over with them, something we have no way of preparing for because we have nothing to even work on in that regard. What we discovery could be elaborate, or fairly straightforward; it'll either be a truth, or a lie. In any case, we need evidence to support any leads we discover, if any."
Grora figured as much because she knew it was hard to establish theories based on nothing to little information in cold cases when there was a scant amount of evidence to back them up. "So you're still grasping for straws in the hope you'll find something despite there being none at all?"
"You could say that."
The angel shut her eye, frowning as she stood up to leave. "No offense to your efforts, Sir Devil, but it sounds to me like your investigation could be all for nothing if you haven't found any clues for decades. Harsh, I know, but applicable when there's nothing driving it on any further."
"True, I do admit there isn't anything yet," Kcalb murmured, "but I still want to hope there will be something soon. Before you go, Grora, there's just one more question I'd like to ask."
"Go on," she encouraged him to speak it.
"Do you understand now just how much pain Ater and Arbus are in? I've told them I want them to fulfill only one order even if they disobey everything else, and that's to not speak of it due to the emotional and psychological harm this subject can cause under these conditions. If you have already analyzed Ater's remarks about that—and I feel you did—you'd know Ater does not really comply with it out of fear and sorrow for being left in the dark on this, whereas Arbus has followed my request straight to the letter. They're divided and conflicted on this issue, and I worry it'll cause a deeper divide between them that might not ever be mended. You think so too, do you, Grora?"
She didn't know how to respond. Her hatred for Ater consumed her, and she willingly gave into that darkness so long as she could have her revenge. Now, however, it felt like she was starting to become a little unsure of herself, how that disdain was molding her into something she was not. Nevertheless Grora pushed aside her doubts and answered honestly. "I think it's terrible, though it does not change how I feel about Ater. She took my eye, after all, and I still want my revenge."
"Over an accident she already repented for?" Kcalb raised an eyebrow, feeling she did not get the message and the meaning inherent within it. "When will you ever forgive Ater for that?"
"Never, though I will concede the point and say that I do understand her a little better. That will not stop me, however, but I shall respect the problem by not bringing it up or utilizing it unto her as part of my revenge," Grora said, her voice full of conviction. "You have my word on that."
"I see…" Kcalb shut his eyes and consented the debate. "Fair enough, but know this—"
"I know, you'll still punish me for other offenses against them," she said and left the room.
