"You sit on that bed and calm down, mister." Angel said after both entering her son's room then pushing her son towards his bed. Hazaar not only did as he was told but he also crossed his arms after doing it; the struggle to keep the two tears from falling was not won. This was just not his day. After waking, he had found himself as having a serious chip of the Temperamental phase sitting on his shoulders—he was like a ticking time bomb and, sadly, he had just let the fuse run out. Momma, along with saying that he could follow her into his father's office, had said for him to let her do the talking... had he done that? Uh, no; after entering the office, then spending a few minutes of poking around, looking at this thing and that thing, he exploded. A verbal altercation, followed by a minor physical one, had happened; he was grounded now... the old man had given him two weeks in the hole.
Now that the flames were down, and he was about to experience an emotional episode—which he almost always experienced after going through a tempered moment—, he knew that he deserved to be punished. All the things he had said, and the two swings and the one push that he had given to his father... why the hell hadn't he stayed out of the room, or made the decision to go up to his room and then turn on some music or watch some tv? Along with knowing that he was about to get a sort of lecture from his mother he knew that his father wasn't about to let him down on what he did—the old man didn't seem all that favoring towards understanding the issue before throwing out the punishment for it.
"Can't pin the blame for what I did on the events that happened yesterday..." he thought while brushing the tears from his face.
He and his brothers, over the last twenty-four hours, had found themselves as lacking some of their stuff; the music discs seemed to be tops on the list of items that were missing while the magazines wre next in line. He had come close to exploding after finding that he was lacking most of his January editions—while having read them already he still wanted to keep them; with their not being on his person, or being able to be found, he was lacking that desire. After seeing that he was lacking some music, and most of his January editions, he had gone downstairs to confront either his father or that rank Master Vile on the theft—momma had "bumped" into him before he had even had a chance to start down the hallway that was on the house's second level; after taking him to the side, then talking to him about what was wrong, then giving him her promise on her finding all that was missing, she had sent him back upstairs. The trip to his father's office had only been done because of the items that were missing—momma had been able to mention the items to the man, and he had been able to see that the man was rather stressed out over something, before the fuse that was his temper went out.
Who would want to take a bunch of their music and magazines; he saw no reason behind the theft and, honestly, he wanted his stuff back and pronto. Whoever it was had made-off with maybe around sixty or so dollars worth of music—the magazines were really worthless while the rest of what was missing would make the monetary tally go up more. He hoped that the one who went into his room, then took what he jolly well wished, dreamed well and he really hoped that, one day, he'd bump into him—he could well teach him a lesson on who to not mess with and on what items of what person he should stay clear of.
All his phase had caused was trouble; he couldn't undo it, or say that he was sorry and then be let off the hook. He was stuck with the consequences and, sadly, his brothers might be in jeopardy of being punished now too—if they walked in on the old man right now, or a few minutes from now, and he had yet to cool down, he might yell at them and then ground them for simply coming in for either a visit or to let him know that certain stuff of theirs was missing.
Hazaar hung his head; he felt miserable. Even more miserable than before. The feeling of his being helpless was also present too.
"Hazaar, I told you to not say anything while we were in his office." Angel started to say. "I said for you to let me handle it and you deliberately disobeyed me—you went and ran your mouth, and started a fight; that isn't how you handle things. You approach them in a mature way."
"I'm sorry, momma." Hazaar muttered.
"You let your temper take a-hold of you again—how many times have I told you to go off to some other place when you feel like you're about to explode? Instead of standing around, or doing what you did, you could of gone to your room, or to the gym, or even to the pool—you could of used something in each of them three rooms to take your frustrations out on. Instead of doing as you should, you exploded and then targeted your father, who's very busy and who's teetering on the brink of being very stressed out."
"I d-didn't m-mean to." Hazaar bawled.
Angel looked at her son, who was now in the full throws of an emotional episode; for the thinnest fraction of a second, she considered going to him. She wasn't one who liked seeing her children be this upset, and she wasn't one to let them be in the episodes that Hazaar was now disclosing. At the very last second, she tore herself around then left the room—Hazaar needed some time to himself; to think about what he did and to think about how he was going to make up for it and to think about how he wasn't going to do what he did again.
The last twenty-four hours hadn't been easy for her children; Eshal was scared of going anywhere in the house and that really went double for her sons too and the reason behind this was because almost everyone seemed to be at another's throat. If it wasn't her and her father then it was her father and his father; her father and his grandfather had had a go at it about an hour after the storm started and, about two hours after that was put to a close, her father targeted Trobrencus—and for absolutely no reason too. Her father and Bile, and her father and Tazir, had had a go as well. Shaam, and some unknown guy who had placed a call to his cellular but who hadn't given the man his name, had had a go as well and so had Trobrencus and Olok.
It was one of three things that were happening to create all this fighting—while the house was big, and could accommodate the ones that were in it, there might be too many people in it; the people that were in the house had different views, opinions, and personalities and were trying to rub themselves off on others; or the house's inhabitants just plain liked to fight and were having fun in causing her and her family grief. So far, the children were staying calm and clear of the fighting and so were the women—for how long on both parties she didn't know; with everything being the way it was, she wouldn't be surprised if they joined in on the fighting. Tazir had made the decision to mail out the other invites yesterday, so the upcoming new arrivals were probably going to be adding more pressure to what was currently going on in the house—she had made it known very fast last night about her not looking forward to anyone else coming over, which had caused a fight to happen between her and Duru.
The matter of her sons finding some of their stuff missing wasn't helping things either; people were either not taking the probable thefts seriously or they were taking them seriously but were adding in plenty of insults while doing so. Telling Tazir about the thefts hadn't been on her agenda for the day but, after learning that two very serious items were missing, she had made the decision to do so—she felt bad for adding more stress to the man's shoulders but, when it came to missing cash and knives, one didn't play around or count the clouds.
"Everything alright, Mistress?" Kohl asked. Instead of her shadower of the day being Homsi, Eldass, Zshon, Kalach, or Losal, it was Kohl—the man had just been added to her Most Trusted Circle. The order for one in her circle to keep at her side was still on-going. She really had to give herself a royal kick in the ass for not adding Mr. Zolwin to her Circle; along with knowing the man relatively well, they were good friends and they did trust and revere one another well. At the time that she and Hazaar entered her husband's office, Kohl was at her side. He had probably heard all of what happened in the room—he had said nothing on what he had heard and he had said nothing on his opinion on what happened or on how Hazaar acted.
"He'll be alright. He just needs some time to get himself together." Angel replied.
"Master Tazir has been right busy, Mistress. There's been some trouble going on in the Bula Galaxy for the last week to week and a half—a lot of riots have taken place there, and he had to fire some of his appointed officials too." Kohl relayed after two minutes of silence fell between them.
"I heard that he pulled the rug under most, if not all, of his appointed officials on Axalwen." Angel said.
"Yes, that is true. At current, half of his officials on Ssaavoo have been fired. He's doing his best to fill in the empty slots that are available and he's also trying to keep them two planets under his control. If the issues don't clear up by tomorrow morning, I believe he'll be going to one or the other planet to personally tend to them."
"They're still happening—the rioting?"
"Mhmm. Master Tazir thinks that it's one of them underground operations where—"
"—revolters do their work in private, and where they keep their plans secret until the day that they're initiated." Angel finished. "With the Bula Galaxy being under his control for over two thousand years, I'd of thought that he'd of gotten all the issues worked out."
Even though Kohl said nothing in return, Angel knew what he was thinking—with her, and her sons, being gone for sixteen hundred years, Tazir hadn't been able to concentrate on the duties that a conqueror faced on a day-in to day-out basis. The man had just concerned himself with finding them, which had opened a better than fine window for the ones who were on his conquered realms to revolt and cause trouble.
Last night, before going to bed, she had watched a news segment on what was going on on Axalwen. Around a thousand people had been noted as "taking a stand" in the business district of one of the planet's capital cities before moving on to where the capital buildings were; all of Tazir's flags had been torn down and then burned, a statue had been destroyed, and all sorts of graffiti had been drawn on the buildings before the people went on to looting the area's small businesses. The Bula Galaxy had thirty planets in it—so far, the rioting and unrest was only happening on two of them. Tazir had taken the galaxy in a week's time, which had set a record for a conquest of that caliber and which had solidified his title of Conquering Comet, which he had gained after conquering the rest of the Andromeda Galaxy, which he had been nearly to around halfway done in conquering at the time that her decision in taking his daughter in a sort of twisted revenge plot occurred.
Tazir was more than a little pissed about the happenings on Axalwen and Ssaavoo; along with the rioters being hard at work in trying to create trouble he had also had to face the truth of his appointed officials doing nothing to stop them. The people that he had appointed as the mayors, governors, and so on had just sat back while the rioting and looting happened.
"The riots will be put to a close soon." Kohl assured her. "Master Tazir's seen and taken care of riots before—he has experience in how how to handle them."
"You don't think that the ones behind the riots have anything to do with the things that my sons are missing, do you?" Angel asked.
"Doubt it, Mistress. At current, your husband has a spell on this place that prevents anyone from teleporting or using magic to get in or out." Kohl answered. He then asked, "Pardon me for asking but what are your sons missing?"
Seeing as she did need to make a list on what was missing, she led Kohl to the library then had him stand by while she sat then started writing it out. While true, it was mostly magazines and music that was missing, there were two items that were very important that were missing too. Lhaklar's wallet, which had $2,188 in it, and Lazeer's pocketknife were the only two items that she was really concerned about—while she wanted all of her sons' missing stuff to be returned to their owners it was really these two items that she really wanted to know the whereabouts of. According to Lhaklar, he had put the wallet under some of his clothes that were in one of his dresser drawers, and, according to Lazeer, his knife had been under his mattress at the time of his slipping under the covers—Lhaklar's dresser was fine, and looked relatively untouched by anyone other than himself, and Lazeer said that he had felt no one as lifting his mattress up last night to retrieve the knife that was under it; there was no explanation on what happened to the two items and, so far, no one was coming forward to either say that they had been in the two's rooms at the time of the theft or had given the items back.
All it took was two minutes for the list to be made; once the items were on it, she gave it to Kohl then waited for him to both read and then given it back.
Bile's missing things:
1. Ozzy Osbourne's Bark at the Moon; music
2. Ozzy Osbourne's Scream; music
3. Aerosmith's Big Ones; music
4. Fastway's Trick or Treat; music
5. A disc of music that has several different bands on it
6. The January edition of WhiteTail; magazine
7. The January edition of Water Fowl; magazine
8. The January edition of Knives Illustrated; magazine
Lhaklar's missing thing:
1. Little Walter's Best of Little Walter; music
2. Ray Charles's Swingin' Along; music
3. Bo Diddley's Super Blues; music
4. BB King's My Kind of Blues; music
5. A disc of music that has 10 songs by Charles Brown on it
6. The January edition of Field and Stream; magazine
7. The January edition of Fly Fishin' and Bassin'; magazine
8. A wallet that had $2,188 in it
Hazaar's missing things:
1. 50 Cent's The Massacre; music
2. Def Jef's Soul Food; music
3. DMX's ...And Then There Was X; music
4. Fort Minor's The Rising Tide; music
5. Lil Scrappy's Tha Gru$tle; music
6. The January edition of Outdoor Living; magazine
7. The January edition of Playboy; magazine
8. The January edition of BowHunter; Magazine
9. The January edition of Deer and Deer Hunting; magazine
Lazeer's missing things:
1. Bob Marley's Burnin; music
2. UB40's Food For Thought; music
3. SOJA's Creeping In; music
4. Like A Storm's Chaos Theory: Part 1; music
5. Sick Puppies's Tri-Polar; music
6. The January edition of Turkey Hunting; magazine
7. The January edition of Predator Hunting; magazine
8. His pocketknife
The two hours that followed the list's creation were hectic; his employer, after learning of the list's existence, then asking to see it, was fast in giving out a series of orders. He and Homsi were told to take Mistress Angel to a room and then to keep her there until word came to them that it was okay for her to leave it; the Young Masters, and Miss. Eshal, joined them a few minutes later—the order was the same with them. The members of his employer's family were told to go to their given rooms while the staff were told to go to the dining room. In all, it took an hour and a half before everyone heard the news on what was going on.
The rooms that Young Master Lhaklar and Lazeer inhabited had been searched; after the missing knife and wallet weren't found in them, or in any of the other rooms in the house, Master Tazir called in several of his bigger, taller, and more burly-bodied Goblins. Between he and four others, everyone was questioned on whether they had the missing items or if they knew where the missing knife and wallet were—it took just thirty minutes for everyone to be questioned. When everyone was questioned, and it was assured that the knife and wallet weren't on anyone, and that no one was responsible for their being missing, the word was given for normal living to be resumed.
Homsi, he thought, would stay by their Mistress's side for the remainder of the workday; after word was given for everyone to go by their own again, he found his co-worker as going off on his own. He was left as the only one to keep their employer's wife company. Homsi, who looked rather perturbed over the events that occurred after the list was seen by their employer's eyes, wasn't seen for a while by either he or his Mistress. His Mistress, after being allowed to roam the house again, was fast in tracking her husband down; after telling him to stand by the door of the room that he was in, she went in then spoke with him. In all, it took her five minutes before leaving the room and then going back down the hallway.
"Everything alright?" he asked after they went down to the house's first level then started down the hallway that branched to the right of the one that ran into the foyer. After descending one of the foyer's two stairwells, he had noticed that one of his more burly-bodied co-workers was stationed by the front door—this gave him both a chill and a cause to be concerned.
"Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine. Tazir turned Lhaklar and Lazeer's rooms upside down—he was really intent on finding that knife and wallet." his Mistress replied.
"Find anything?"
"No. Even after dusting for fingerprints on Lhaklar's dresser and Lazeer's mattress he didn't find anything—just Lhaklar and Lazeer's prints were found as being on the two items."
"Excuse me for asking but could your sons of misplaced the items that they're missing? Left them outside, or put them down somewhere then forgot about them." he asked.
"They'd of been found if the latter happened, and my sons claimed that they knew where they were before they were noted as being missing."
"Could they be trying to get attention by making up a lie?"
"My sons know better, and they wouldn't lie about something like this." Angel said. "They're very serious about their missing items—even Tazir noticed how serious they were when he took them to the side for questioning."
And so was he. The missing knife concerned him more than the other items that were on the list; while the missing wallet was also concerning, and also needed to be found, it was the pocketknife that was the more pressing thing that needed to be found. According to his Mistress, the wallet had nothing but a photo I.D. and money in it—the one who had the wallet would probably use the cash, and would have a mind to try to pass off as being Young Master Lhaklar by using his I.D., but no real harm would come from that item's loss. The knife could be used on someone. If it was possessed by someone who was either not loyal or who was playing the "ghost" routine in the house it could be used on either his employer or on one in his family.
After seeing that there was a burly Goblin stationed by the back door, then by the doors that went to each of the level's other rooms, he figured that his employer had set in a security measure for the house—everyone was to be watched. If something amiss, or odd, was noted as happening, the burlier Goblins would go to work in detaining that person and then finding what it was that was so off about their behavior. Even though this measure was a good one, he still got the chills from it.
"Not since taking up the job for Mr. Surfeit have I seen such a measure be put into effect." he thought while following his employer's wife around.
While she didn't know where she was going, she did know that her feet were taking her somewhere and, honestly, she was curious about where that somewhere was. Kohl followed her; he made no motion or protest when she went up one of the house's many stairwells, or made her way to the house's third, fourth, and fifth levels. All while going down the fourth and fifth levels of the house, she fought the urge in wanting to touch the amulet that she was still wearing. After going up the stairwell that'd take her to the house's sixth level, her struggle was lost.
It was still the same—the drawstring was still brown, and the little jar still has its potion in it, but there was something different to it that made the act of toting it around even more difficult. Trobrencus, after calming down from his fight with her father, had asked for her to see him in Tazir's office; while curious, and a little bit nervous, about what he wanted, she had done as he had requested. Along with getting a little surprise, she had received a small chiding after meeting him. It seemed that Tazir had been approached by the man yesterday, at around lunch-time; along with usual discussion, Trobrencus had both disclosed his concern for her and her sons and had asked him about the amulet. After learning about her claim on her use of Elimination Demoniaque in a conversation with Bushon being normal talk, he had made the decision to see her and then try to give her some help with her little problem.
After entering the room, then walking up to him, she had found herself as being asked to take the amulet from around her neck and then give it to him—though feeling relieved to have it from herself she had also been reluctant to give it to him. After giving it to the man, she had seen him take a small, black and purple book, that had gold lettering on it, from his pocket; the book was opened, then the amulet was placed before two of its pages, then a spell that she had never heard before was said before a type of prayer was done over it.
After the book was seen, it hadn't been very hard for her to figure out what was about to happen between he and the amulet. IackVile Uovo Surfeit, Trobrencus's father, had intended for his son to be a clergyman—the interest in his becoming a conqueror hadn't been there for some reason; she had never asked him why or had even given it a good thought on why. Even though Iack had intended for his son to be in the clergy he had still sent him to the schools that a conqueror was known to go to—Iack, after picking out and then sending him to his first five educations, had enrolled him in the Power of Clergy Academy and then the University of Church, and for the same tenure of five hundred years. After Iack died, Trobrencus went on to become a conqueror; a few hundred years after marrying Bahne, then siring the first four of their ten children, he became the sole remaining member of his father's immediate family—after his two brothers, Rosol and Raal, died, it had been up to him and Shaam, and, later on, Duru, to keep the family going, which they had done rather well.
"Need to see your sons next," he had said after closing his book and then sliding the amulet back around her neck. "Did I not get on you about your habit in keeping things to yourself? I recall on the day that you came by my place that I did so—things such as demonic possession, or oppression, or probable possession or oppression, aren't meant to be kept to one's self; don't ever retain things like what I just found you as hiding again, Angel."
Though thankful for his assistance, and appreciative towards his understanding her on why she had kept what she had to herself, she hadn't felt safe after the spell, and then prayer, was done over the amulet. The feelings that seemed to be flowing from it had grown stronger, and she had heard some sort of gasp followed by an incoherent gargling sound right after it was returned to her neck. Her sons, after having the same spell and prayer done to their amulets, and then having their amulet returned to their necks, had given the room a curious, yet spook-filled, look—she didn't know why but she had a feeling that they had heard the gasp, and gargle sound, too.
"Mistress?" Angel stopped after hearing the distant-sounding voice that belonged to Kohl. After taking in her surroundings, she saw that she was both on the house's seventh level and standing before the door that went to the room that her father inhabited.
"I'm sorry, Kohl, but I'd like to speak with my father." Angel said. While she didn't think he was involved with the thefts she figured that, since she was here, she might as well talk to him about them and, possibly, talk some sense into him on mellowing down. "Can you wait outside? I'd like to speak with him alone."
"Mistress, I do wish to come with you—I fear the things that'll happen when you're with him."
"I'll be fine. If anything starts up, I know a good knee to use." Angel gave a false smile to Kohl before going on to knocking on the door. Kohl was fast in standing by the door after giving her a nod and then a long look.
The door that she knocked on had a dark silver paint-job on it that almost looked metallic; its knob was shaped like a dragon's head, which she did think was cool.
After knocking, she waited; while waiting, she thought about how loud her father had been that morning—after seeing her as coming into the house's dining room, he had just not had anything good to say on what she was wearing. Her pants were black, and were a little loose in the lower leg areas, and her shirt was one of them half-halter types—while it was purple, it was covered in a glittery material that caught the shine from the house's lights well. Her shoes had a low heel on them; they matched her outfit well. All of what she was wearing had been found in a box, which had been on the end of her and her husband's bed that early morning—with great love and affections, and to the most beautiful woman in the Universe, your ever-doting husband, Taz was what had been on the little tag that was on the box's top. While Tazir had given her a few gazes, and had whistled once or twice after seeing her, her father had taken one look at what she was wearing before going on to insult both it and her.
The man had never been very favoring towards her choices in clothes or jewelry; she had just ignored him after hearing him speak on what she was wearing.
Per request of his, her father's staff were fast in answering the door to his residence after the first knock was heard; if he decided to answer the door himself, he'd also be fast in doing so—when he was in a specific room in his palace home, or in the room that was given to him when he decided to swing by someone's place for a spell, this didn't change. She wasn't but so surprised that the man answered the door to his given room five seconds after her initial knock was given. The man, after seeing who it was that had called him, was fast in bringing her into the room; he closed, and then locked, the door after she was in the room.
"Should I be horrified or excited after receiving such a guest as this in my chamber of sleep?" the man asked after doing a complete circle around her.
"That's totally up to you." Angel replied. She let the man do his sick fetish in checking her out before speaking with him further. "Been using any magic lately, or making any trips to the other chambers that are being used in the house?"
"No."
"Been taking anything that doesn't belong to you?"
"I have not and how dare you come here to accuse me of being a thief!" Master Vile snapped after seeing the true cause of her visit. "What would I do with a bunch of music, that's nothing but noise, and a bunch of filthy, unappealing magazines, and why would I take anything that I have no interest in?"
"How about a wallet that has over two thousand dollars in it, and a pocketknife?" Angel gave the man a good, long look.
"I'm rich, if you haven't noticed. Why would I want to take a wallet that has that much in it when I carry more than twice that on my person, and why would I take a piss-poor excuse for a knife when I have a better one on me?" her father counter-asked. "If it's interrogation that you're interested in doing, do it with someone other than me, and tell them brats of yours to keep better care of their chambers and stuff."
After seeing that the man seemed sincere about the two items that she had just mentioned, she switched the conversation to something else.
"Take it that you think it's a game to create so many fights with people? The purpose for everyone to be here is to get to see and interact with my sons, and to—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah... I've heard that number several times since my arrival. Certain people need to realize that fighting is natural—the brats, and you, will calm down after being around it for a bit."
"You don't seem very concerned with the fact that all the fighting that's been going on in the house has been causing me, my sons, and Eshal stress?"
"Again, you'll get use to it."
"Don't suppose that you've given it a thought about whether or not the constant fighting is also causing your grandson to be stressed too?"
The act of her mentioning Thrax, and of his possibly being stressed out by all the fighting that was going on in the house, was very innocent. The fact that Rita and Lord Zedd had settled down to do the parenting thing was still a surprise to her—at the time of her and her son's disappearance, the two had been childless. While Lord Zedd had wanted kids, and had spoken highly of the children that he wanted to create with his wife, Rita had tip-toed around the subject or had avoided the subject all together. From what she had seen, Thrax was a very obedient and intelligent child; he seemed to be rather close with his grandfather, who also seemed to be rather close with him.
After her father, and his entourage, came over for their stay, she had been fast in thinking that Thrax had taken more after his father than his mother. His body looked much like Lord Zedd's while some of his face had been inherited from his mother. Due to Master Vile being half-skeletal in appearance, and due to Rita having inherited that gene, Thrax had a skeletal jaw and spine structure. Except for knowing that the Surfeit line had, at one time, boasted a lot of folk who had horns on their heads, she wasn't fully able to explain the reason to why he had horns on his head—her father didn't have any and neither did Rita or Lord Zedd.
The child was closing in on his nine hundred and secondth birthday; he seemed rather reluctant to hang around anyone that was in the mansion and he also seemed rather reluctant to be around her and her sons—Rita was happy about this and, really, so was her father.
"My dear daughter, why don't you stick around for a while? Check around my sleeping quarters if you don't believe my word on my having nothing that doesn't belong to me." Master Vile offered. "It's open to you and your wondering eyes and prying fingers."
The offer given to her was a surprise; instead of being told to leave, and to not come back, she was being given the green light to search the room for the items that her sons were missing.
Her father, whenever he was allowed to come over for a lengthy stay, was commonly given a room that matched with his peculiar interests—the man had a big interest in black, but was also one for liking dark gold, dark silver, and dark red too. The room that he was in matched well with this interest of his—along with being medium-sized, it was mostly black.
The bed was big enough for one person, and had a black and purple comforter, and sheets, on it; the bed's pillows were in matching cases that had a black ruff around their outer edges. The black carpet was shag-like in appearance, and the walls and ceiling were a dark gray color. The lounge-like chair, that was by the room's one window, had a dark gold frame to it; the chair's cushion and back were the same color.
The dresser was a dark yellow to near-gold color while the French couch, that was beside it, was either a dark gray or silver color. With her knowing her father as well as she did, she knew that he hadn't used the room's tv, which was on the wall above the dresser, any during his stay—when the man went to bed, or spent any time in either the room that was in his palace or in the house that he was staying in, he just disrobed then went to sleep. The dark silver bedside table, that was beside the bed, had a black lamp on it; if she had to make any guesses, the Gothic-style, bakelite clock, that was before the lamp, was her father's—the room hadn't had that in it before her father came along to inhabit it.
"He's always been a bit of an odd-ball." she remembered her grandfather telling her once.
Stashed somewhere in the house were several photographs that she had received from an old friend of hers; some of them were of her father from when he had been a student at Pronghorn Academy of Sorcery and Magic while others were of him from when he had gone to his other educations. The boy in the Pronghorn Academy of Sorcery and Magic pictures didn't look or even resemble the man before her—along with being five foot, nine inches, he had been right thin and had been wearing normal attire, meaning a pair of black pants and a normal, white formal shirt. The photograph of his being a one thousand, two hundred, and twenty-nine year old showed the degree of change that had happened during his time in being away from his parents—the pants were still the same but he had exchanged the white formal shirts for near floor-length black robes; he had been two inches taller and had also been battling a bout of pimplitis at the time of that photograph's taking. The fifth photograph that she had was of him from when he was a student at Dark Sorcery and Beyond—though not looking anything like he did now, he had shown the signs of his being both a big and powerful man then.
After giving the room a simple glancing, she turned to leave; she had only just reached the door, and had just placed her hand on its knob, when she felt a presence loom over her. The presence was no more felt before a hand was dropped to her shoulder.
"You remember the blood that you carry, and who you got it from. Keep your hands to yourself—leave that queer-acting Trobrencus alone." her father said in her ear coldly. "Regardless of my being forced to share you with my uncle, you are still mine. You are still my wife, and you are to always be my wife—and Bile is to always be my son, you remember that now. Tazir might of adopted him but he'll always be my son."
"Let go of me!" Angel growled. Instead of doing as she requested, the man drew himself closer to her then reached his hand up. Along with his fondling her back, she felt him as he wrapped his hand around her neck and then ran his hand around to her front-side; when the hand touched the amulet, that was around her neck, it stopped then wrapped around it. For a fleeting second, she thought that it'd rip the thing from her neck—in a way, she hoped that it would. When the hand released the amulet, then went up into her hair, she fought to suppress the sigh that she wanted to emit. Along with being able to feel his every muscle, and his heart beating, she could feel that he had a better than decent erection going on in his pants.
"Your activities, when you were on Earth, what were they?" the man asked while running his hand through her hair.
At first, she didn't understand the question. After disclosing an interest in wanting him to repeat his question, she found herself as being yanked around; her father, after giving her one of the wickedest smiles that she had ever seen, did a twirl then threw her towards the room's bed. Her head, while striking the mattress, didn't hit the board that was against the bed's foot—still, though, she yelled after her funny-bone struck the leg of the board that her head missed.
Her father advanced on her slowly before, in the blink of an eye, lunging at her; while emitting a scream, then closing her eyes, she imagined him as grabbing her and then tearing everything that she was wearing from her. A spell had been done on the room, she thought; with nothing being able to be heard from outside of the room, her father could have at her as long as he wanted to and no one would know of it until she finally escaped him. Instead of doing as she thought he'd do, he stopped before her, then dropped to her eye-level, then asked the same question again. After hearing the question again, then putting two-and-two together on why he was asking it, she answered it.
"Raising four boys has kept me pretty busy—I've had no time to think or worry about sex." the man stared at her before dropping his gaze to the item that was around her neck.
"This... thing is nothing more than an eye-sore on you." he touched the bottled potion with his fingernail before dropping his hand. "I don't believe any of what you've said about this demonic entity that's "tormenting" you and them brats of yours. If you've experienced it, we would have too. Since my arrival, I've felt nor seen or heard anything that'd make my spine tingle—no mysterious shadows, or three-mark scratches appearing on the arms or legs, or eerie voices."
"I'm not sure who it is, or if it's demonic or not." she said. "All I know is that me and my sons have been experiencing him for weeks now, and that we're curious, nervous, and scared of him."
"None of you have been sleeping well—your tired eyes, and minds, are making images pop up that aren't real, and your ears are hearing things that don't exist. Your lack of sleep, your stress and worry, and the fact that Bile and them other boys of yours are in a place that you're not familiar with is making all of you think that you're being besieged by some bad force when you're not." Master Vile stood up after saying this; he looked almost like a giant to her now.
She had considered that... The lack of sleep, the stress and worry, and the house being somewhat new to her and her children had all been considered but... but the fact that they were sleeping, and having moments were they weren't stressed out or worrying about something, and about Zanra acting scared of Lazeer's closet! All of that couldn't be coincidence, or couldn't cancel-out what was being experienced by her, Bile, Lhaklar, and Lazeer—so far as she knew, Hazaar and Eshal were the only ones that hadn't experienced the dark-skinned being that was tormenting her and some of her sons.
While true, she and her sons hadn't been physically harmed by the dark-skinned being, there were some instances that she couldn't explain or put a cause to. Lazeer hearing someone calling out to him from his closet, and then seeing someone as coming out from his closet, and Zanra being afraid of going near that closet; Lhaklar's mirror exploding in the way it had after she whipped the towel from it; the dark entity being seen as manifesting close to where Trobrencus's place was, and then striking at her car after she was away from Trobrencus's front gate; Bile's premonition-like dreams being almost identical to what happened in Green River, Wyoming on December 13... there was just no way to explain why or how them things happened.
Course, if she said any of this to her old man, she knew that he'd say otherwise or do something that would have a consequence to it; she spoke none of what she was thinking. Instead, she readied herself to leave the room.
Her legs were gathered, and were propelling her up from the floor, when she felt the drawstring around her neck pull up and then tighten. She thought nothing negative on this; with her leaning against the bed, the bedding had caught against the drawstring and then caused it to pull up and tighten at the same time.
This thought of hers changed in a fraction of a second; after pushing herself from the bed, she felt the drawstring tighten still more then she felt some force yank her back. She fell to the floor quickly, then gained to her feet just as quickly, then made the move to move away from the bed—at the time of her making this move, the drawstring tightened again. Unlike the last time, where she was yanked back to the floor, she found herself as being yanked to the bed.
"Enough! That's not funny, Angel, nor is it getting the attention that you want from me." Master Vile snapped.
"Connection; rebuild the break in connection; remove the item that breaks the bridge of our conversation and connection." the voice, that belonged to the black-skinned guy, was heard; while she was able to hear it, she didn't know if her father was hearing it.
"You hear me? Quit the act—it's not gaining what you want!" Master Vile barked again.
That was the last that she heard of her father on that day; the drawstring was currently so tight around her neck that her flesh was poking out from around it. She didn't so much as lose consciousness as much as she just plain felt herself as being yanked from her body and then dragged along the immense vacuum that was space. She felt her spiritual essence leave her body, then fly from the mansion, and then from Moas; the trip through space was rather interesting... or, except for when she saw and then felt herself as being pulled towards Earth, it was.
A blinding white light was seen; she had no choice but to snap her eyes shut after seeing it as rushing towards her. When her eyes opened, she found that she was no longer on this strange ride through space—she was now on the planet, and was in an area that she wasn't aware of.
All around her were Norway spruce, Douglas fir, Scots pine, and European silver fir trees; it was quite dark where she was, so she guessed that it was either night or she was in a plane between death and living that was always dark. There weren't all that many bushes in the area, but she was able to hear bird calls and the occasional sound of an animal walking about. She had just taken in the animal sounds when she saw that she was in a camp of some sort—the tent was nothing more than a white sheet, that was stretched across an overhanging branch and weighted down by rocks; the fire was roaring, yes, but its pit looked rather poorly constructed; there was a jean bag a few feet from the pit that had a stack of magazines and music discs beside it. One look at the magazines and music discs sent her mind in a flurry—they were her sons', that was without a doubt, but why were they here?
"Break the strand; severe the item that breaks my line of contact and connection with my mutter." she heard. After hearing this, she looked at the camp again. She had no more taken everything in before gasping—sitting before her, on the other side of the fire, was the black-skinned man. He was sitting just as straight as could be; his hands were on the knees of his legs, which were crossed underneath him; and his eyes were shut.
"Hey... Hey, you!" she heard herself say. The one before her opened his eyes; while she didn't know if he was able to see her or not she knew that he was looking right at her.
"Mum?" the black-skinned man said.
The one before her undid his long, black legs; when he stood up, he looked very strong and very well balanced. The man, or whoever he was, looked around as if he was looking for something... or someone—while there were other instances where she had felt sorry for him it was really this one where her heart cried out to him. To her, the one before her didn't seem fully grown—after watching his movements, she got the feeling that he was a teenager. His high-level nervousness, and the way his camp was situated, and the fact that he seemed to be very keen on following her and her family was in no way, shape, or form adult.
When the man stood up, then started moving around, she noticed that something fell from his lap. Seeing as her legs weren't working on her, she squinted her eyes to see what it was—it was only when the flames blew to the side that she saw that it was a wallet, and not just any wallet at that. Lhaklar owned a wallet that was made of a brown leather material, that had dark red stitching on it... the wallet on the ground looked very eerily similar to it—it even looked very "stuffed" with cash too! After trying to make her legs move, so she could get up and then go to retrieve the item that belonged to her son, she grew frustrated then sighed.
"You're the one behind my son's wallet being missing?" she heard herself say.
"Wha-k-t was that?" the one before her asked. He turned twice, then went around his camp, before stopping before the fire. "Hello? Mum? Mutter? Is tha-k-t you trying to contac-k-t me? I've been trying to get in contact for a long-k time now... my connec-k-tion was broken by some force and I'm trying to ge-k-t it back. Please, mum, tell me that you're here!"
"The amulet..." the word was no more said before she wanted to choke it back.
"Amu-what?"
"Why did you taken my son's wallet?" Angel asked.
"Tha-k-t damn force must still present!" the one, who she was now certain wasn't a man but a child, said in frustration. "I'm trying-k to get it removed, mum. Le-k-t me try something real quick, okay?"
She knew the various spellings of the word mother and mom well; while mom, mommy, and mother were the more used terms there was also ma and mama—Bile was a frequent user of the former and an infrequent user of the latter while Lazeer sometimes used ma and mama in reference to her—and momma—Hazaar was a frequent user of this one—and mum and mutter. The latter two were more frequently used by folk who lived on Earth's eastern hemisphere. Being that the mum and mutter terms had been used, she figured that the youth before her was from that part of the planet.
She was about to ask the kid the question on what his name was when he came towards the fire then sat down; he reached into the pair of light brown cargo pants that he was wearing, which were ripped rather badly from the knee on down, after he sat down then, right before her eyes, he withdrew a knife that looked eerily similar to the one that Lazeer was missing.
The knife was black on one of its sides; when the one who was holding it turned it to the side, she saw that its other side was a metal-silver color. When the kid opened it, she saw that it had two blades in it—it looked very much like a bat in flight now that it was open. After the knife's two blades were out, the kid sat perfectly still; he did nothing more than look at her for the longest of time before saying—
"Break the band; break the strand; break the force that forbids me from communicating and seeing my mutter." he was quiet for a second before going on. "Make communication and connection become available; fix the bridge; repair the breech between my mutter and me."
She was yanked from the area; she left the planet then flew through space again—the stars were pretty against all the black, and so were the many planets that she also saw. She didn't know how long it took for her to see Moas zooming towards her, or to see herself as falling into the mansion. When her trip was done, she felt herself gasp—the burning sensation of having something, or someone, hit her face was very present, as was the one of a liquid splashing against her.
Her physical body didn't hesitate to gasp, or wheeze, after whatever was experienced was over; she coughed, and then sputtered, before starting to cry and then roll over to her side. Her vision was poor, her breathing was raspy, her reflexes were terrible, and she was having a time in being able to hear what was going on around her.
"Mistress? Mistress, speak to me? You okay? Mistress Angel!" Kohl yelled while trying to keep the woman on the bed from rolling to the floor.
"She breathing? Kohl, is she breathing?" Homsi asked while shoving through the line of Goblins that were in the room that his employer's wife was in.
"Yes. Yes, yes—she is, thank the Gods she is!" Kohl said after checking, and then finding, a pulse. After seeing that she was breathing, he yelled, "Someone get me a wet rag—the bottle, that was around her neck, exploded right after its band snapped!"
After hearing the scream, followed by Master Vile telling her to both stop it and that whatever she was doing wasn't getting the attention that she wanted from him, he had turned and then kicked the door to the room open. After seeing that the woman was being choked by her amulet's drawstring, and that the man who was her sire not doing anything but standing around, he had rushed forward to relieve her of the issue that was giving her trouble.
Her face was deathly pale, her lips were blue, her breathing was barely able to the detected, and she was clutching at her throat when he came in to see what was going on in the room; his P-38 had been taken from its stationed pocket and then slid underneath the drawstring right after he saw all of this. His actions hadn't been the cause of the string breaking—the drawstring had acted like it was cut, yes, but he hadn't been the one to cut it, which he did think was rather strange. The bottled potion exploding like it had had also been strange to him.
His yelling—at Master Vile, for his not doing anything but standing around while his daughter choked to death, and for his employer's wife to say or do something—had attracted the attention of everyone who was on the level. Ten of his co-workers had run into the room after he started yelling; a big traffic jam was currently going on in the hallway that the room was on thanks to everyone from the lower levels rushing up to see what was going on. One of his co-workers had yelled for someone to place a call to both Homsi and their employer—one of them calls must of been done because Homsi was here; he wished that his employer was in the room and he also wished that someone would get the cretin who was his Mistress's father out of the room.
Master Vile was currently up against the wall—someone had shoved him against it after coming into the room. Either the man was making the decision to stay where he was or someone was keeping him there; while he looked confused, he wasn't speaking on what he had witnessed. Except for Master Vile, the room, and its inhabitants, was a frantic mess.
"She alert?" Homsi asked. He tore his kerchief out from its pocket then ran it to the room's appointed bathroom; when he returned, it was soaping wet. After giving it to his co-worker, he checked his employer's wife—though awake, and breathing, she didn't seem to be fully there, which concerned him.
"She's alive," Kohl answered. He was fast in wiping the now-destroyed bottle's contents from Angel's chest, face, and neck. "Where's Master Tazir?"
"Was he called? Does he know what happened?"
"I don't know."
"He should of been the first to g—"
"Out of the way! Get... go... clear a path will you!" TazirVile rushed by the Goblins that were in the room. "Kohl! Homsi! What's the meaning of the message that I was sent? Angel was strangled? By what and wh—"
"I came in here to find her being choked to death by the band that went to her amulet." Kohl said before tearing his body around. He jabbed a finger in Master Vile's direction after turning around. "He saw it happen and he did nothing to prevent or stop it from happening! He was just standing a few feet from her when I came in."
"I want everyone out of the chamber—clear the hallways!" TazirVile yelled while going to retrieve his wife. He wasted little time in scooping her up, or in taking her from the room.