A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!
The orb of light in the dark sky was steadily getting tinged with crimson. A red moon was in full swing tonight. Such a red moon allowed the demons to access their full power while the holy Temple would be at their weakest. In other words, tonight was the perfect time for a reconnaissance mission.
The demon prince had received information that some sort of a secret meeting would be held by the priests tonight. His other demon companions were watching in the night but from much farther away as the holy magic from the Temple repulsed them much strongly than it did for the demon prince. While the agenda of the meeting was unknown, the demons had a feeling that it could be summed up in two words: not good.
From the shadows, the demon prince watched as a tall blonde knight walked alongside the Saintess. The Temple had decided that the Saintess needed a bodyguard since she was about to be formally ordained as the Saintess. It was a pity for the Temple that the Saintess had quite a knack for sneaking off without her bodyguard noticing, thanks to invisibility spells and sleeping powder often slipped into the knight's afternoon tea.
The knight walked her to the back of the Temple where private quarters had been set up for the Saintess. On every full moon, the Saintess went into seclusion in her quarters to pray and accumulate holy powers.
The demon prince waited until the Saintess had completely entered the building. Her bodyguard stood in front of the door, his arms crossed. Eventually, another knight would take his place in a few hours, exchanging shifts.
The demon prince assumed the building the Saintess entered would be where the meeting was held. If there was some sort of secret meeting held, they wouldn't exclude the Saintess, right?
The demon prince gritted his teeth. The day of reckoning was coming closer than he had anticipated. If the Saintess was going to be at the forefront of an attack on the demon realm, then the demon prince would find himself torn between duty and feelings.
While the front of the small annex was well guarded, the latter half was not, perhaps because it faced a tall wall enchanted with holy artifacts. Had the demon prince been a full-blooded demon, he would have experienced severe pain from all the holy magic. With his human blood and the new bracelet he received from the Saintess, the demon prince should experience much lighter symptoms.
But all he experienced was a faint tickle of his nose as he silently moved over the wall, and he muffled the tingling sensation of wanting to sneeze.
Strange. He expected a stronger sensation, like perhaps light nausea or dizziness from all the holy artifacts decorating the Temple. Even his human blood shouldn't have protected him to that extent. Unless the Temple's defenses were weaker than expected? Furthermore, he expected more guards to be on duty in the Temple, especially during a full red moon when they were at their weakest. Was the information false in order to set a trap?
But there was something else. The demon prince sniffed the air and detected something even stranger. There was a faint trance of demonic energy that he barely managed to sense out from the holy magic. The demon prince shot a glance at the annex. He should follow the Saintess, right? But his instincts told him there was something else to be investigated first.
No demons other than him should be in the Temple. Even his companions were outside the Temple walls because of the aversion to holy magic. But this presence of demonic energy was familiar. Had the Temple captured a demon? If so, this reconnaissance mission would quickly turn out to be a rescue mission.
He carefully headed towards the direction of where the demonic energy was the strongest. Checking that his invisibility spell was still working, the demon prince found himself near the entrance of a cellar. Quick as a cat, he slipped through the doors and down the stairs.
Keeping to the shadows, the demon prince heard voices grow larger and larger as he neared, some of which he realized he had heard before.
The stairs eventually opened up to a dark room. He detected three priests and a priestess in the middle of the room. There were a few more shadowy figures in the far side of the room where the candlelight did not reach, but the demon prince didn't need to see to recognize the demons.
One of the demons was his eldest cousin, born from the current demon lord's elder brother. That uncle of the demon prince had been the one to lure and nearly drown his father. After the current demon lord had taken over, the demon lord's siblings were imprisoned if they did not renounce their rights to the throne. The eldest sibling, in particular, had not ever renounced his right, and so was imprisoned and poisoned to a state that he lost his demon powers. In his magnanimity, the demon lord had spared his three nieces and two nephews for they were innocent. Still, the demon lord kept an eye on his relatives, as there were still factions split in the demon aristocracy. This particular eldest cousin of the demon prince was especially on watch.
Now, the demon prince wondered if the demon lord had made the right choice. As for the other demons in the room, the demon prince did not know too well, but he had seen them hang around his cousin. It was clear now. His eldest cousin was collaborating with the Temple to stage a coup. No wonder the holy magic of the Temple seemed dull. The magic had been deliberately dulled down to accommodate its new demon visitors.
The demon prince edged a little closer, trying to get within a better listening range. Valuable information passed through his ears, including how his cousin would sow discord within the demon realm. Meanwhile, the Temple would attack the borders of the demon realm, sweeping the current demon lord's reign into the gutters.
His ears perked up as the Saintess was mentioned. Apparently, his cousin had been spreading demon illnesses to the human population, while the Temple would send priests to eliminate the diseases and collect money for its "healing". Part of the fees had been sent over to his cousin to fund a secret demon and Temple combined army.
The demon prince recalled how the Saintess had asked once if he had been feeling well and if he had caught the plague. It appeared that the Saintess and a few others had grown suspicious of the plagues that were affecting the humans. Apparently, there were two factions splitting in the Temple as well, one secretly supporting the demons for a war and the other in favor of a peaceful co-existence.
One priest mentioned a plan for eliminating the Saintess. Hearing this, the demon prince frowned. The Temple would instigate a fight between the Temple and the current demon lord's faction, but would either secretly poison the Saintess beforehand or kill her in battle and blame it on the demon lord's faction. This would give them a just reason to unify the Temple's factions and charge into the demon realm while the eldest cousin would harm the current demon lord from the inside. The Saintess was also idolized by the common people, so her death would also give the Temple monetary and political support from the commoners.
Ker-clunk. It was a faint sound much like a pebble bouncing off the stone ground. The conversation stilled.
"Did you hear that?" His eldest cousin demanded.
The demon prince stiffened as well. As far as he knew, he was not the source of the sound, but it was close and behind where he hid in the shadows. This was not good. If his cousin came close to him, his disguise might be detected.
"A rat must be within the wall." The priestess muttered.
"Well, find and kill it!" His cousin scowled. "Our plans will be ruined due to your carelessness."
"Shut up! You do not have command over us! We are merely working together, not your foolish slaves."
The demon prince did not get the chance to hear his cousin's furious rebuttal as a slim, warm hand had slid over his mouth. Before he could flip the unknown assailant and attack, the leather bracelet on his wrist given to him by the Saintess burned intensely. The demon prince found both hands suddenly tied together that he could not physically break through no matter how he tried.
"Be quiet. Follow me or you'll be discovered," whispered a soft voice into his ear.
Had it not been for that voice, the demon prince would have summoned every bit of his demonic energy to attack. Then, for sure, he would be discovered.
The demon prince found himself being pulled backwards and into a side hallway. As soon as he was fully inside the hallway, the air rippled and a wall stood in front of him, as if the side corridor to the cellar never existed.
"Annabeth, what is going on? You-"
The Saintess muffled his mouth to shush him again. "Not yet, we're still not safe here. Come on."
Wrists still bound, the Saintess led him through the dark corridor, climbing up a flight of stairs before they finally emerged from the exit several minutes later. The demon prince blinked, finding himself in what appeared to be a bedroom. He watched as the Saintess closed the door to the secret passageway, which was apparently designed to look as a painting of a ship sailing through the deep blue ocean.
He knew the painting well. After all, he was the artist and had given the painting to the Saintess as a birthday gift.
"Where is this?" He questioned.
"My quarters."
The Saintess quickly checked that the door was locked, and that there was no one on the outside of her bedroom. The curtains on the windows were already drawn.
The demon prince observed her room. A large bed leaned against the wall next to the painting. A plain desk and chair were in the corner under the windows. There were bookcases covering the expanse of one wall. None of the bookcases contained any of the books he had given her. Neither of his gifted knick-knacks were on display either. Only his painting and the earrings he had given her, which the Saintess was currently wearing, could be seen. The Saintess noticed his observation.
"I can't place any of your books on there, because my room is searched often. Those books are banned from the Temple, after all." The Saintess explained.
Still not saying anything, the demon prince raised his hands.
"Ah, right."
With a snap of the Saintess' fingers, the cords binding his hands vanished, returning to the leather corded bracelet. For a while, the demon prince and the Saintess stared at each other. Her face was paler than usual, and there was a smudge of dirt on her nose.
"I apologize for tying you up." The Saintess broke the silence first. "But you were about to attack me. I had to get you to follow me quietly before we were both discovered. And I reassure you, I didn't cast any magic on the bracelet for nefarious purposes, although the bracelet does have protection magic. It was how I tracked you to where you were."
"You caused the pebble to fall." He surmised.
The Saintess shrugged her shoulders. "I was more careless than I wanted to be."
In the light, the demon prince could see the weariness in her hunched shoulders as she sat down on her bed.
"You were the one slipping information to the demons about the meeting that was going on tonight." The demon prince deduced. "How long have you known? About me and what I am?"
The Saintess gave him a small smile as her grey eyes turned a faint shade of red. "From the moment we first met."
A/N: Congrats, ya'll remembered to breathe on Friday! (But still wear masks and stay more than 6 feet away from others when you go outside, people :D) Also shout out to those who guessed what kind of demon our Saintess was! Been dropping hints here and there ;)
Anyways, OMG, my fellow kpoppers. TWICE's performance of "Cry For Me" at the 2020 MAMA awards was just *chef's kiss. We need a digital release of that song ASAP! So glad they're releasing it. Also Stray Kids and GOT7 got me slayed with their performances. Pray that I'm alive tomorrow so I can update the next chapter in time.