EPISODE ONE: INFANCY
Talia felt the demon enter her womb within her nightmares. It felt horrific, her body was penetrated without her consent when she was her most vulnerable. The next morning she woke up in a sweat and held her swollen belly in pain. The contractions she was getting were painful, more painful than any she had gotten before. Eventually, she began to bite her lip as the cramps worsened and when ten minutes had passed she started screaming.
When her son was born six months later, he was black. Covered in a dark goo that went away with one touch and suckles from his tiny lips on her breast. Everyone was startled and her father was disgusted. At first, she wanted to smother the little rat, she stood for many hours just staring at him in his cradle. He'd whine, his little hands already moving despite being only weeks old. He would demand her attention and when she ignored him tears would drop down his chubby face.
It was insane to fall in love with a demon. But she had always intended to raise him as one so for now his ailments would do. Talia tried to kill him but he was very resistant. Drowning him in a bathtub of warm soapy water was painful. It was cruel. Her newborn howled as the black goo returned and wrapped around the maid who she instructed to do the deeds wrists. The woman started to scream with him as the sickly woman watched, vigilant as the goo devoured her.
Skin curled away from fat that dissolved like the soap bubbles on her son's cheeks and disappeared into nothingness. Talia found her cold heart flickering with warmth. A son who was monstrous like this would survive under her training. He would be strong, powerful when a man and a perfect vessel for her father. Watching the goo detach itself momentarily and force itself down the woman's throat was unreal. She had never seen anything like it.
In the following months, she decided to bond with her son. He was very clumsy but cute in his childlike ways. So innocent he assumed a dagger was a rattle and a gun was a teddy bear. Thankfully she was smart enough to keep these items out of reach and locked away, she couldn't let him die before he was potty trained. The assassin found herself doting on the boy as more people began to learn about his disease.
Behind their backs she felt their judging eyes, she knew of the doubts that danced in their heads as she walked around with the boy. With every grin, her son gave her these things meant less and less to her. He was one of a kind, he was a gift from the heavens telling her that she was on the right path. Whatever creature that had assaulted her hadn't left her with a curse as many told her. But instead an offering, a form of payment for her defilement and degradation as a queen, a goddess.
The infant son became a toddler with watchful, old eyes that followed her every move. Talia observed him and the slime that attached itself to his soul. Whatever it was, demon or not it was ancient. It would whisper in garbled noises and howls to her son who would reply in the same but his soft, innocent voice. This scared the servants but amused her. It was clear that whatever knowledge the creature had was being passed onto the boy.
At six months he spoke basic English. At one year he spoke like a native, which puzzled her as she made sure to only speak Arabic to her firstborn. Soon that followed, with her finding the boy writing the characters of the language in his fingerpaint. It was like a game, finding new words and concepts her son suddenly knew. An hour before he could cry when trying to eat a salad with his mouth and she'd come back to him using a fork the way her father did.
She hummed with praise at the child, coldly watching from afar as he became bigger by the day. His worth grew and she was pleased with the fact his death hadn't been successful. She would have missed out on someone so worthwhile, an investment that was truly worth the price. Her relationship with the bat had left her feeling scorned in many ways but this was no longer one of them. His seed had given her one of many ingredients that formed her little demon.
By the time he was old enough to go off to his father, the slime would often take control over his mind. Talia loved studying the effects this had on her baby and made sure to comfort him when he came back. It was hard because she hadn't been taught how to be warm and motherly to a child but they had their way. They would spare or she would speak to him softly in Arabic, her hands rubbing his sun-kissed cheeks and patting his weary back. He was so tired of someone who hadn't taken many lives.
A killer at heart, that was her son. And she was pleased with his progress, even if her father saw him as a failure. Her son followed her like a little duck and imprinted on her. The other league members watched with disgust that hadn't died while serving the child for years. They had all witnessed her son devouring servants and greedy traitors who wanted to use him. He was a loyal, good boy who was unable to let go of his emotions.
"Mama," The seven-year-old stared at her with his sickly sweet eyes. They used to be blue but soon turned a murky green that resembled the pit. "Why do we have to go? Why can't we stay here with you and grandfather?"
Talia sighed, patting him on the head as he scrambled to push himself closer. He was scared of his father, the man who managed to bewitch the demon queen herself into falling for him. "Because your father will teach you what I cannot. He will make you both much stronger with his training."
The child whined with a sniffle as she continued. "Your grandfather is a man who ascended into a realm of power unknown to your father. But he can fight in ways that neither I or your grandfather can teach you. He's the only mortal that can fight me toe to toe and soon you will too."
He whimpered, hiccups leaving his mouth as he whipped his runny nose against her skirt. Once upon a time, she'd smack him for such a display but a soft spot had formed for the child and the demon that danced in his head. So, she could only stare with her cold gaze and caress his cheeks as she thought. She had been tailing his father with sleeper agents and had soon decided that she'd reveal their son a few years early.
Instead of unveiling the boy at age eighteen, he would be ten. She had three years to teach him about his father, the children he controlled, and how to survive without her. She knew her presence would only harm all the effort she had put into the child's development and that would be horrific. Her child would have only his demon to stand by his side and as his strongest weapon.
"Will our brothers like us?" A small glob crawled down from his palm and squirmed on her leg. If she hadn't been trained to be so emotionless, she'd act in revulsion. "Will they love you?"
"They will grow to care for you as mortals do with children. But they share no love for me and they will never be able to love you. Not the way I do," She gave a soft chuckle. "But that's not important. Your father's praise is all that will matter, my son."
