12.08.98; 02:16; Destine Mansion:
Thersities was the first to land before the entrance to the mansion's living room. He heard his sister landing behind him, but was already fully concentrated on what he saw through the glass-panorama.
In the room, Lana sat on the floor, helping her baby sister Gem to play with blocks and some other toys. Thersities was going to knock, when Gem discovered them, gulped happily and extended her little arms to them.
Lana's reaction, after following Gem's eyes and discovering the two gargoyles, wasn't so happy. For a moment, Thersities believed to hear a slight groan, but then Lana winked them in as she stood up.
"Hello." Asrial greeted her.
"Hi." Thersities continued.
"Hello." Lana told them, less enthusiastic.
What do they want? Lana asked herself since she had never seen these ones hanging around with her grandma. If I have two new admirers, then one is definitely too old and the other is of the wrong gender.
"Lana?" a voice, which Asrial recognized as Darlene's called out of a room she believed to be the kitchen. "I thought I heard...."
This was when her mother came in, discovering their guests.
"Oh, hello!" she greeted them. "I didn't expect guests tonight."
"We visited someone else tonight and you were on the way back," Thersities explained grinning all over his face, "so here we are."
Darlene replied this with a smile, knowing for sure that both of them were not just here because of this, if it played a role at all.
"Weren't you worried because of Lucifia?" she asked them.
"Worried?" Thersities asked, as if he was embarrassed. "Ha, we face death every night, a nasty evil gargoyle won't stop us. We even faced a clan once!"
Asrial stared at her brother's back. Every one of her clan, not to speak of her rookery siblings, would have laughed by these words and even she had to work hard not to giggle, especially when she thought about the little spider incident this evening.
"A-hem." someone coughed from direction of the floor and when Asrial looked to it, she discovered her sister standing there, Shade by her side.
"Mother, look who has come for a visit." Darlene told her smiling.
Demona was not smiling when she looked at the visitors, not a bit.
"Hello, sister." Thersities told her, waving a claw while grinning.
"Hello." Asrial said politely, even when not half as enthusiastically as her brother.
The immortal greeted them back with a nod, just to turn immediately to her daughter who was less than pleased with her mother's warm greeting.
"I have finished the magic lesson with Jarred." She explained to her while Shade left her side, taking scent of the guests. "He is up in his room."
Darlene nodded.
Meanwhile, Gem had decided to greet the guests by herself and had crawled to Thersities feet claws, now drawing up to his legs.
"And what do you want, little one?" he asked the infant while taking her up.
Gem gulped and stared interested at the two different horns growing out of the gargoyle's head, until she gave him a yawn and placed her little head on his shoulder tiredly.
"It is time for her evening nap." Darlene told Thersities. "I better bring her up."
When Darlene tried to take her little daughter from the gargoyle's arms, Gem was only half-asleep, and began to whimper.
"On second thought," Darlene concluded after she had given up trying to take her daughter. "Would you mind bringing her with you upstairs, so that I can take her to bed?"
Thersities grinned over his beak while he nodded to Darlene, showing that this was definitely no problem for him.
We are having some problems tonight... Darlene thought, looking to her mother and then to her other guest.
"Mom, why don't you show your sister your lab?" she suggested.
Demona stared at the daughter, hatched from her last laid egg, as if she had suggested her to dance the flamenco, but Darlene's face stayed nice... and hard behind this niceness.
Finally, Demona looked to her sister, her face now not as hard as when she had first entered, not even a bit as surprised as before.
"If you like." she offered in a neutral tone.
Asrial saw in her sister's green eyes that she wasn't very interested in leading her around, and neither was she. But then she made a look to her brother, who definitely wanted to be alone with Darlene and after what he had done for her tonight...
"Sure," Asrial told her sister. "Lead the way."
Demona nodded and began to follow her daughter and Thersities upstairs. Asrial followed her on the tail, just to stop at the beginning of the stairs to look back to Lana and Shade who had somehow been ignored.
But Lana seemingly didn't mind that and had sat on the couch to read one of her lifestyle magazines in the middle of spread baby toys. Shade didn't mind even so, as she lay down in front of Lana, moving aside some toys and watching her.
Asrial followed her sister until they reached her room and there, through a bookshelf, which Demona opened with her code, they went down into the secret area of the mansion.
Much to Asrial's surprise, the light of torches hanging on the wall illuminated the place, which she knew was at least one floor beyond the mansion's main level.
Her surprise would have faded at once if her quick mind hadn't noticed that something important was missing.
Where is the soot? Asrial asked herself.
When she stepped closer, she remembered a documentary she had seen once about there being no soot found in the buildings of the ancient Egyptians and that some weird scientists believed that they had actually used electric light for this.
Other scientists believe that they had used another way to make torches, which produced less soot... Asrial thought. Maybe this is one of them?
Her thoughts were stopped when she noticed that another important part was missing by these torches... They emitted no warmth?
Curiously, Asrial approached the strange flame with her right claw until she nearly touched it, still feeling no warmth and then went through it, much to her wonder, without any burning.
"They are magic torches." Demona, who had noticed what her sister was doing, explained. "They have no heat since they are mostly illusion, neither do they need oxygen."
"You can make such?" Asrial asked her surprised.
"Such, and better." Demona explained, shrugging her shoulders "These ones burn for years, really good ones can do it for decades."
"Why don't you simply use artificial light?" The clever sister asked Demona wondering.
"It would need electric energy from outside," the immortal explained, leaning against a wall, "or a generator. Both could reveal this floor to someone who searches for it."
Asrial stared at her sister.
"You really want to be careful, don't you?" she asked.
Demona simply shrugged her shoulders again.
"The centuries taught me to be so." she explained, her voice calm this time. "Come, I will show you my lab."
Asrial nodded and followed her sister through the corridor. Meanwhile, they past more torches and some closed doors except one, which the Clever Sister recognized through a quick glance as a training room.
"How many rooms are here?" she asked her rookery sister curious
"Not many." Demona replied while she came to stop at a door. "One is my private training room, but most just serve me as stores for my rather exquisite artifacts."
Asrial nodded, looking at her sister's back while she opened the door. Her sister seemed normal for this evening, cutting out the icy welcome, sane. Not as the insane, wicked monster she had heard of... or what she had imagined during the time she thought about her. Sure, she had been arrogant while speaking to the clan, but it had been a hard time for her, hadn't it?
"This is the place I usually practice magic in." Demona explained, extending her arms. "And I teach Jarred magic here."
Asrial looked around, studying the room. The light of the torches seemed dimmer here, illuminating a room, which seemed like the prototype of all wizards' chambers. On the shelves, stood decorated books, which Asrial recognized at once as very old.
On the desk below it, were a mortar and a dish, from which Asrial believed to smell sulpher coming from it. Looking further she noticed glasses on other shelves, filled with odd looking liquids and partly containing small bones, dried plants, minerals and much other things that Asrial couldn't identify.
The right table contained an alchemic device, covering nearly the whole table and reminding Asrial of her own workroom, back in Wyvern... before she had got a new one, much more scientific, from Xanatos.
Asrial looked back to Demona, who had just closed a book, which lay on a bookstand.
"It is really great here," the clever sister noted finally enthusiastically. "I always imagined the Archmage's room to look like..."
Asrial bit her lip, as the Archmage surely was not the best topic to talk about.
"Rooms of sorcerers mostly look alike." Demona explained, seemingly untouched by the comment of her former teacher. "At least, most of the ones I saw did so."
Asrial nodded and decided not to deepen this topic.
"You have an impressive home," she told her, "it's very large."
"This is why I purchased it decades ago." Demona said. "But I live just in the main and the first upper level. The three upper levels mainly serve as stock for some things I got a claw on over the centuries."
"Centuries..." the clever sister repeated, trying to come after the deeper meaning of this word. "What is it like, to live through a millennium?"
The immortal hesitated a second and then shrugged her shoulders.
"Like life is." Demona told her meaninglessly, in a nearly tired tone. "Some years pass fast, some not, things change and most stay the same."
"But..." Asrial continued restless. "All the time, the discoveries, the journeys, what you have seen..."
"Ha," Demona commented, staring ahead for a second as if to see another world. "I traveled from one part of the earth to another, just to find the same old game. Humans killing gargoyles, or humans killing each other."
Asrial sighed. Somehow there was no topic that they could truly talk about? She truly didn't want argue with her sister about...
"Like in Wyvern." Demona concluded, breaking through her sister's mind.
"It wasn't like that." Asrial replied. "We fought side by side with them."
"Oh yes, I remember," her sister noticed. "We were allowed to save their lives every time their soldiers proved to be weaklings and as a reward they treaded us with contempt."
"With time, this would have changed." Asrial told her, clenching her fists. "Goliath said..."
"Goliath is a fool..." Demona interrupted her sister. "The humans will never change."
"STOP CALLING HIM A FOOL!!!" Asrial screamed on the immortal, surprised by her own anger and the red glowing eyes. "He loved you and you betrayed him and broke him his heart... You have no right to offend him."
Demona seemed surprised too, never having suspected this by her clever sister and studied her somehow distantly.
"He is a good clan leader... the best." Asrial continued calmer. "Much better than you ever could be."
"Your best leader," Demona seemed to spit out these words, "let the humans treat us lower than dogs and defended them instead of standing up for his own kind."
"I never heard such complaints from other members of the clan." Asrial replied angrily. "It was just your pride that couldn't live so, just for your pride you betrayed us, Demona."
Demona smiled cruelly on her.
"Maybe you didn't notice or ask." she noticed. "Not everyone can hide themselves in a room, playing with their machines, Asrial. And not everyone wants to."
Asrial winced, feeling her stomach contracting as if the immortal had beaten her. Was it the shock of her sister's words? About the evilness, or maybe the spark of truth in them?
Asrial didn't know. All she knew was that she felt tears threatening to emit from her eyes. Even she couldn't say if it were tears of pain or tears of anger, but she fought them, not wanting to cry, not in front of her...
Demona opened her mouth and from the eyes still staring on her, Asrial could see that it would be no excuse. Either the immortal did not see the tears in her sister's eyes, or she did not care for them.
"Did you...?" she began, but never finished the sentences.
Some minutes before, living room:
Lana, watched by Shade, sat on the couch, looking through her magazine, studying photos and envying the models in it, some for the tan of their skin... or just the pinkness of it.
She groaned, placing the magazine beside her and stretched all her five limps.
Five limps, the gargoyle-turned human thought, studying her tail.
How could her brother enjoy being like this?
Not only had she to live so for six months, but also her mother, not to speak of her grandmother, had done nothing to change this. She couldn't even remember feeling the sun on her arms, just the tingling when her body changed to stone and the darkness following it.
She starred ahead, noticing Shade watching her.
great Darlene's daughter noticed cynically now even the monster dog is beginning to like me
Lana groaned again and leaned back on the couch, closing her eyes, just to relax and to forget her situation for a moment, remembering the fun she had had with her friends.
The knock she heard stopped this relaxing and brought her back to the present.
Not more visitors! Lana prayed, opened her eyes and looked to the veranda glasses.
No one stood there.
What the...? She thought, before her thoughts came to an end she saw Shade running into the floor and the knock came again.
The knocking came from the floor.
Lana stood up carefully, taking care that she didn't step on one of Gem's toys and went to the door.
She knew that maybe she should call her grandmother, since she had explained to them that someone at the front door would most definitely want to talk to Dominique Destine, and not to some gargoyles.
Lana hesitated, standing between the door, besieged by Shade and the stairs.
Taking a look won't kill me, will it? Lana thought, taking a look through the spy hole, just to see no one.
Surprised, she checked the monitor of the hidden cameras, but there was no one... nowhere in the whole entrance, and the gates to the mansion were closed.
Lana was going to go inform her grandmother when she discovered the packet lying in front of the door, being decorated with a beautiful, even though trashy, looking red ribbon.
That's it. Lana thought frustrated while opening the door. Now they even bring me presents.
She was going to open the door when Shade began to growl.
Surprised Lana looked on the scarred beast and then shrugged her shoulders.
"You have nothing to say here." She reminded Shade and went between the beast and the door.
Lana opened the door and carefully looked around while holding Shade back with her claws, but discovering nobody.
"Oh, a secret admirer." Lana noted cynically while closing the door behind her back and studying the packet. "Have you at least got good taste?"
As if to answer this Shade's growl rose by three points in the scale, but she was ignored.
The weight of the packet wasn't so heavy, Lana noticed while she unwrapped it. Having done so, she took a look in it.
Some minutes before, living room:
Lana, watched by Shade, sat on the couch, looking through her magazine, studying photos and envying the models in it, some for the tan of their skin... or just the pinkness of it.
She groaned, placing the magazine beside her and stretched all her five limps.
Five limps, the gargoyle-turned human thought, studying her tail.
How could her brother enjoy being like this?
Not only had she to live so for six months, but also her mother, not to speak of her grandmother, had done nothing to change this. She couldn't even remember feeling the sun on her arms, just the tingling when her body changed to stone and the darkness following it.
She starred ahead, noticing Shade watching her.
Great, Darlene's daughter noticed cynically, now even the monster dog is beginning to like me
Lana groaned again and leaned back on the couch, closing her eyes, just to relax and to forget her situation for a moment, remembering the fun she had had with her friends.
The knock she heard stopped this relaxing and brought her back to the present.
Not more visitors! Lana prayed, opened her eyes and looked to the veranda glasses.
No one stood there.
What the...? She thought, before her thoughts came to an end and she saw Shade running across the floor and the knock came again.
The knocking came from the floor.
Lana stood up carefully, taking care that she didn't step on one of Gem's toys and went to the door.
She knew that maybe she should call her grandmother, since she had explained to them that someone at the front door would most definitely want to talk to Dominique Destine, and not to some gargoyles.
Lana hesitated, standing between the door, besieged by Shade and the stairs.
Taking a look won't kill me, will it? Lana thought, taking a look through the spy hole, just to see no one.
Surprised, she checked the monitor of the hidden cameras, but there was no one... nowhere in the whole entrance, and the gates to the mansion were closed.
Lana was going to go inform her grandmother when she discovered the packet lying in front of the door, being decorated with a beautiful, even though trashy, looking red ribbon.
That's it. Lana thought frustrated while opening the door. Now they even bring me presents.
She was going to open the door when Shade began to growl.
Surprised Lana looked on the scarred beast and then shrugged her shoulders.
"You have nothing to say here." She reminded Shade and went between the beast and the door.
Lana opened the door and carefully looked around while holding Shade back with her claws, but discovering nobody.
"Oh, a secret admirer." Lana noted cynically while closing the door behind her back and studying the packet. "Have you at least got good taste?"
As if to answer this Shade's growl rose by three points in the scale, but she was ignored.
The weight of the packet wasn't so heavy, Lana noticed while she unwrapped it. Having done so, she took a look in it.
Some minutes before, Gem's room:
Thersities, guided by Darlene, with Gem in his arms, came to a room, which definitely had to be the hatchling's room... or better yet the nursery, since the clan's children all had their main living room in the rookery for the first few years of their life.
Darlene turned to him, carefully taking her dozing daughter out of his arms and laid her on the changing table. While Darlene removed the wet diaper, Thersities looked further around, noticing the wallpaper full of cute animals, the crib with the partly gnawed bars, the...
Thersities stopped, looking to the window.
Was there a movement out there? He asked himself, staring through the window into the night.
"Can you throw this away?" Darlene asked, bringing Thersities back to the present and letting him forget about the shadow, which had probably just been a bird.
Thersities starred on the wet diaper in Darlene's extended right claw for a second before he could overcome himself to grab it. Still unhappy with it, Thersities held the diaper with two of his claws, as far away from his face as possible, especially his nose.
After a short look, he discovered the trashcan and let the diaper fall into it, something that did not go unnoticed by Darlene.
Darlene cleaned Gem's sensitive skin around her base with a rag, humming softly to her daughter so that she could drift into a soft surrounding of sleep, and placed the fresh diaper on her.
Relieved about that she had changed Gem without letting her wake up, Darlene took her now dry daughter over to the crib, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead, before placing her down softly.
Darlene resister the urge to stroke her daughter's blond hair, so as not to wake her up, and gave her guest with her claw the hint to silently leave the room now.
When she had closed the door carefully behind her back, Darlene looked to Thersities.
"You haven't changed many diapers, have you?" she noticed.
"Welllll..." Thersities began, scratching his left arm with his right claw and looking affected. "In the clan, the rookery mothers do this mostly and I don't want to interfere in their business."
"So you think changing diapers is a job for the female?" Darlene asked, crossing her arms.
Thersities looked even more uncomfortable, now looking to the ground.
"It's okay," Darlene released him. "This duty seems to be avoided by most males in every race, including Paul..."
She became silent, looking away, not knowing what to say further when memories of the time with Paul overcame her anew.
Thersities looked at Darlene. He knew he had to say something, something to distract her, to cheer her up. He never came to say one word...
To be continued.....