Chapter 30

It had taken a while to find her, but then again he hadn't expected to find her where he did. In fact he hadn't even known the place where he found her existed, until he found her there. It was a playground, of moderate size, with its most dominate feature being the play-fort like structure in the centre. The structure was made entirely from wood and had various levels, with various standard playground equipment attached. The wood it was made from was painted in dark greens and reds and the structures sole slide was made from a dull yellow plastic and was bizarrely too short for the part of the fort it was attached to.

It was on this she sat, with her legs dangling over the two foot drop the base of the slide hung over. In his head he could only imagine the slides main purpose was to serve people in the way she was using it; anything else would have been far too dangerous. Placing a hand on the gate in order to open it, he was half surprised by the bizarre little shock which sparked at him. It didn't hurt exactly, but it felt weird. Pulling the gate open he entered the playground, receiving another bizarre little shock for his effort.

Having seen him enter, she lowered her head in a strange kind of amusement.

'You're much closer to being seventeen, than sixteen, aren't you?'

'Yeah,' he nodded, 'does that bother you?'

'No,' she shook her head, 'but it bothers this place. There was supposed to be an age limit see, only… something happened here. Now it'll let anyone in, but it doesn't always like it.'

'You speak as if this place has a mind of its own.'

'It does,' the slide she was sitting on began to change shape and move towards Lus.

'Wow,' he blinked in amazement as he watched the slide snake towards him. 'How…?'

'This is Giya,' she laughed, 'and being who you are I'm sure you've seen much more impressive things than this in your time.'

'Maybe,' he shot her a nervous smile, as the slide came to a stop in front of him.

'It wants you to sit,' she patted the space next to her, which suddenly appeared much wider than before.

Nodding he did as he was told. Almost as soon as he was sat down the slide began retracting to its former position.

'Wow!' Lus half found himself falling off.

'It takes some getting used to,' she laughed again, placing a hand on him for support. 'But you soon get used to it.'

'Do you know what happened here,' as the slide came to a stop, he was able to re-examine his surroundings.

'I know exactly what happened here,' she nodded. 'See this place was originally created to be the safe haven of child souls. Well… Nethher Herins up to the age of sixteen and Vii Sen to that age as well. No adults allowed. This place was created to protect the innocent.'

'But even I know not all Vii Sen are innocent as children,' he rolled his eyes, before shooting her a guilty look. 'Not saying that you weren't or aren't but…'

'It's okay, I do get what you mean. But your right, this place can't distinguish between good and bad, innocent and corrupt. The only thing it can tell about the people it allows in is their true age.'

'Why do I get the feeling that has something to do with what happened here?'

'Do you know what a Hateling is?'

'Other than it being the name CiCi insists on calling her brother, no.'

'Hateling is the name given to anyone with demon blood who is not fully demon; although in actuality it just means half-demon.'

'I see,' he frowned feeling more than a little clueless.

'I'm not so sure you do,' she studied him for a moment, 'but its simple; if a demon has a child with a non-demon that child is born half-demon.'

'Well I got that much of it.'

'Obviously. The proper term for such children is Hateling, not because they are necessarily hated by those who gave them life, but because neither side knows what to do with them. Non-demons fear the child may become evil, whilst demons themselves fear the internal conflict the child goes through. The thought that the good in them might cause them to fight against their blood because someone with demon blood can do more damage in hell than someone without.'

'I think I get it, but would a true Hateling be a natural Balance?'

'Oh no, far from it; they'll always be born with a strong pull one way or the other. But that doesn't mean they won't occasionally do things to compromise their own moral compass. In other words good Hateling can be bad and bad Hateling good.'

'I see,' he nodded slowly, 'and what about Hatelings who aren't just your run of the mill half-demons. Are they just those born with demon blood because they're the off-spring of Hatelings or…'

'Some are, some have the blood added to their makeup. The hazards of being a living Balancer I guess.'

'I…'

'Blood doctoring, I don't fully understand it myself, if you ever meet False I'll get him to explain it to you.'

'Okay…' he pressed his lips together, 'but what does this has to do with what happened here,' he indicated around.

'I'm just getting to that,' she sighed, 'you see most, but not all Hateling are raised by the same person Vii Sen are. I mean, we're both essentially neither one thing nor the other and there are some who would say we're both moral ambiguities, so it kind of makes sense we would be raised together.'

'Which I suppose means you also play together,' Lus felt as though he was starting to understand a little of what she was getting at.

'This place discriminates only against age.'

'So a bad Hateling destroyed this place?'

'No,' she shook her head, 'a good one did. But they had their reasons. I mean, they were being constantly picked on and tormented because…' she hesitated for a moment.

'Because of what?'

'The non-demon half of them was MacTay,' she appeared to wince at the thought. 'Well at least someone from the MacTay clan and most Vii Sen are taught not to have very high opinions of the MacTay.'

'Why not?'

'You do know who the MacTay are, don't you?'

'I know they're something to do with my cousin Fray's sons, but other than that…'

'Okay, well they're a clan of warriors, headed by a small group of demi-gods, the MacTay brothers, Fray's sons, their wife and the sons they had with that wife.'

'And you have a low opinion of them because their demi-gods?'

'No…'

'Because their warriors.'

'No, the objection most Vii Sen have to them is the fact they're incestuous polygamists. Vii Sen are barely allowed to be in relationships with each other and the MacTay…' she averted her gaze. 'Well it's not exactly fair, is it?'

'I guess not.'

'Yeah, well anyway that was why this one particular Hateling was isolated by most of the others. In fact, they were isolated and tormented by all but one of the others, so…'

'It must have been awful for them; especially if they were morally good, like you say. I can understand why they lost their temper and…' he indicated around them.

'Broke this place,' she finished for him. 'It might have been an almost unforgivable act, but it was more than understandable.'

For a few moments she was silent, then she pressed her lips together and shot Lus a serious look.

'The one person who never isolated or tormented this person was my mother.'

'What?' Lus couldn't help but frown at her. 'Wait… I…'

'I'm the Vii Sen child of a Vii Sen,' she shifted her gaze away from him. 'Well at least that's what I am technically. My… father wasn't mortal, so there was no possible way for me to have been born alive. You need mortal blood to be born alive and demons and demi-gods aren't mortal so…'

'Wait, so you're saying your father was the Hateling?'

'So now you know the terrible secret about my past,' she gave a lamented sigh, 'or at least most of it. Because you see, my father, the Hateling, was also a woman.'