· · · · · · ·
The plan apparently was to occupy the island until either a new demonsblood talisman finished brewing, or Lina Inverse found a way to return without bringing Volphied along. That meant being stuck on an island for chaos knew how long, together with dragons and gods. He wasn't even allowed to go out of range of the gods because they suspected Valgarv would find a way to take him out — he couldn't be expected to stick to strategy.
All things considered, it could be worse, but it sure didn't feel like it when Zelas ordered him to summon Lina for further discussion. It wasn't the prickly Lina, the looming gods, or the tension of Zelas. Oh, no. What really dealt a blow to Xelloss's mood was a trivial little detail.
Amelia found out that Lina was now her sister in law by means of having married Naga. The excess of pure happiness coupled with proclamations about love and declarations on justice (the Sailoon laws needed a few adjustments that Amelia and Phil were entirely committed to now) were inescapable. Xelloss had to be near the talisman to keep Lina's connection. There was no escape from the syrupy poison. Not eating the emotions wasn't enough, he still had to smell it.
Oh, and Lina revealed that yeah, Volphied had plotted all of this and the machine in the red world didn't even have a reverse transport program. Xelloss found it difficult to appreciate the horror of this because oh chaos and order combined get me away from the happy inlaws. Even Zelgadis had been smiling for nearly twenty minutes. Make it stop.
The Sailoon forces didn't leave for the north soon enough and really, Liliane could have responded way sooner with offering to shelter citizens. Xelloss fled the moment Zelas told him he wasn't needed anymore.
Fleeing was hampered by the area. So much magic drenched the foundation of the island, it existed as obstruction on the astral plane itself. Wolfpack Island had this too, but the trees were alive and thriving while this was all walls and halls.
The astral plane was not meant to have corridors, yet here they were. It hindered the already murky perception of his astral environment. So, it came with fun details like the new Aqualord being able to concentrate her power next to him without his notice; at least not until he tripped over a little old lady.
He caught himself on a piece of coral, but found his staff stuck in her hair. She pushed it out with her own staff.
"So, ehm, miss ... Claire? Ragradia? How are you enjoying your newly regained godhood?"
"Ragrairyos will do."
"Really? That's not a public only thing? You don't seem enthusiastic about it."
Barely had he said that, or the old lady had been replaced with Lyos's form. "I'm unsure where I stand on a social or individual level, but that is a concern for less dire times."
Xelloss tilted his head, curious. "Is this something like the way the false Val existed?"
"No, this is no program, this blends," the Aqualord said, shifting into the little girl now. "I saw it fit to keep certain aspects of him, but they won't get in the way of business."
"So, no separate person?"
"Only uncoordinated personality traits," she said. "I'll be creative and sort it out, but I'm content with what I have."
He hunched down. "Content, sure, but happy?"
"Your kind of happiness, no. Let's be honest, beast priest. As a god with the purpose to rule, a fixation on small things serves me nothing but distraction. For you, whose intent is to mingle with life and manipulate it, becoming the abyss has more use than not. Don't confuse us."
"Well, we do whatever's most useful to us," he said.
Neither the Aqualord's emotions nor her expression really changed from the dim smile. "And it's so useful now. Can you imagine how the mortals would respond, hearing us speak of our emotions like garments?"
He scratched his head, not exactly comfortable with this either. For the life of him, he couldn't tell for what reason more : handling minds like dress options, or the shortage of options. He didn't even wear real clothes to begin with.
"Don't worry so much," the Aqualord said. "I believe we can manage it as long as we don't do something pointless like develop a conscience. Having ethics is already troublesome enough."
"It might be for you," Xelloss said.
"Hypothetically speaking, you might find your own ethics obstructive too, given the right circumstances."
He wanted to dismiss that, but curiosity won out. "Oh? Do tell this hypothesis."
She didn't talk, but did teleport him elsewhere.
After the unpleasant burn of the holy shift, he stood in a relatively small hall without physical exit, not even for fresh air. Seaweed drifted all around on magical currents. Behind twisted pillars, an open stairway spiraled the hall, leading to about twenty progressively smaller doors.
Filia had to live here, judging by the occasional frill and vase, as well as the potter wheel behind one of the doors ajar. The scent of soaps, clay and tea mingled together, the only deviation being the spicy scent from a little to the left.
There, draped over a couch with her nose in a book was Leyunso. She looked up, nodded at him and put her book away.
The Aqualord clapped her hands together. "I am given to know she and you can communicate without side effects. I can't listen to her speak without those side effects, and more so, I have to go north and be useful. Be mindful on your way out, I have left residue to block out any too curious angels of Rangort. Enjoy your relative privacy."
Now that was puzzling to say the least. The Aqualord withdrew without another word, and her promised barrier quietly went up.
Leyunso invited him to sit; she already had tea prepared. The right kind, of course.
"I'm told my ethics will be tested hypothetically?"
"Yes, you've been told, but it needs a little build up. My lovely child there has an interesting theory on Val, one that comes parallel to something our frilly dragon suspects. They put their thoughts together with mine, as best as we could with the way I can't talk.
Here's what we know about the Val program.
The reason you saw 'Valteira' in Kataart is because Claire allowed him to access past memories, which caused a distortion in the program that is Val. It gave access to some parts of the true mind, but not others. Those were Valgarv's memories filtered through Val's personality. This was not meant to happen.
Another distortion happened when the pillar rose first to godly power, including Volphied's resident power that the program is crafted from. Perhaps on its own, or exploiting the preexisting weakness, this mingled Val with the subconscious of Valgarv. However, when you pulled him through the fusion shield, the program reverted back to its normal modus operandi.
The intent of the fusion magic you and Filia had created was to protect the children, right? It didn't just cut off the pillar's call, it cut off all external input. The program Val may not be a real person, but the reason it passed as such is that it exists independent of Valgarv. He wore the personality and mind, and like typical clothing, we can steal it. How does combing life laws with fusion sound?"
Programs were incredibly complex, stagnant spells, the Black god black had used these to control their machine. That was all he knew. "Worth thinking about, at least."
"Say we hack the program and replace the command prompt, or in our world's words : we give it its own breath of life. A soul."
"Interesting, but let's say this is feasible. How would you hold still the one we're stealing from? Valgarv may not have perfect control of the pieces of Shabranigdu, but he has enough to be a very real threat. On top of that, he is far north, surrounded by legions. With every passing moment, he might become better at controlling his power."
"True, and that is why we can't afford to wait weeks, months or a year to sort out the issue of talismans and Lina's absence. As a reasonably smart but doomed man with father issues once said, one does not simply walk into the local hub of the doom blob," Leyunso said, nodding. "We can't experiment on him with armies around, especially not when the water devils show up. So we teleport him somewhere more convenient. Here's where your ethics come in : you will be the mole who plants the beacon around him."
Xelloss couldn't help but laugh. "Really now? I'm afraid that by now, I'm the first person Dalphin would suspect of being a spy. Even if I could lie without being horribly obvious, they know who gives my orders."
"Then, how would we convince the enemy to welcome you to their court?" Leyunso snapped her fingers, which set alight the dim lamps in every room.
One of the doors opened and there was Filia, asking, "You're done with the basics?"
"No," Leyunso said.
Filia had had cast aside her official clothes for the pastel housewife fare, her remaining hair tied back into a low ponytail. She looked almost normal, if not for the far more pronounced undercurrent of misery. Filia never was truly without it, but since the whole Kataart prison disaster it was worse. Seeing her so casual made the contrast stand out.
"Good." Filia stepped out and held the door for Jillas. They took a seat and claimed tea and cookies, all the while without Filia really looking at him.
"Hello to you to, miss Filia. Did you sleep well?"
Now she looked. Just calm, almost normal, but what she said wrong.
"The more we wait, the more people will suffer. Miss Lina needs to return as soon as possible, so I think that what I'm about to has a good enough reason," she said, which seemed rehearsed and out of the blue.
"Really now. Do what?"
Filia got that unique, devious look on her face. "According to miss Ragrairyos, the devils have word that Zelas joined the gods. Wolfpack Island has been raided and devils escaped from here. The know, but they don't understand everything. Dalphin must be confused once they hear that you and I were cooperating, maybe even seen performing fusion magic. What if we can convince her that only happened because of your orders and my broken mind? She has now idea that freeing me from Kataart was your choice.
You fooled Deep Sea Dalphin by making me feel betrayed where the enemy could eat my emotions, knowing it was genuine. How about we do that again, but with Zelas?"
He chuckled. "You can't play lord Beastmaster."
"Oh, really?" She inclined her head to Leyunso. "I'm told that Zelas knows you doubt something regarding her and the events that led to sealing Shabranigdu's first piece. We add fuel to that by insinuating that her command led you down a path that finally broke your faith in her. A terrible, tragic road down to sin. She'll see all the signs, but never enough to stop us before it goes too far. What were her exact orders when she sent you to fix things with me?"
"Find out why the fusion shield failed and do what you can to restore it. I found out it's because you can't trust me anymore, so—"
"Never mind that. We're going to pretend that you left something out, and that concluded the way to restore our bond was to engage in a starcrossed romance with me."
Xelloss's teacup slipped from his hands and clattered on the ground.
Old Filia would have complained about the broken cup and rushed to clean it up, but this Filia didn't even notice. He'd have said something about her slacking off, but was too busy with more important things like keeping his "What?" flat rather then screeching.
He also meant to say I don't follow, but he just ended up staring with both eyes wide open. The sheer absurdity of Filia saying that so casually ...
"Soon, the Aqualord will arrange we attack Deep Sea Dalphin's island. There, you will take the chance to defect to Dalphin's court. It makes sense, doesn't it? A devil cannot love, so when Zelas tried to make you do it because she wanted the best possible fusion magic, it drove you over the brink. The combined poison and the mental impossibility of loving another put together were too much for you. Enough to take the risk of defecting in front of Zelas.
I've been told that miss Leyunso said something to Zelas that made her ... think different. You can repeat that in all honesty before Dalphin and Dynast, if they ask why she herself goes on with her plan. Dalphin will welcome you with open arms — I hears they've lost quite a few priests and generals — and Valgarv cannot complain : you did exactly what HE told you. Destroy all the dragons in Kataart, which included me. We are going to get back our talisman, we will infect Valgarv with a virus and we will make him summon Lina for us. Are you game?"
Of course, if you were to defect out of the blue, Zelas will figure out within five seconds that something is up. She won't be shocked, she'll be curious or worse, she'll figure out and feel glee. If Dalphin notices those emotions, it's all for naught. Dalphin won't be questioning you till later, she'll attack and give you no chance to sell a ruse either.
When you defect, you'll do it by murdering you because you're fed up with me. Zelas is going to be shocked and surprised. She'll also be surrounded by a dragon clan full of whispers of how they saw it coming. She will believe she really drove you over the brink, at least long enough for the emotion eaters to believe it.
If that's going to work, we need to convince her that something is really wrong with you, but it can't be anything that'll make her bind you to the island, like taking risks or trying to flee. That's why we're going to give the dragons confirmation of what they think we've already got."
He stared for two seconds, or five. Then a shaky little laugh escaped him.
That had not just come from miss Filia's mouth.
It had not.
No way.
No.
No, really. No.
It had. Oh, chaos. Damn. It. All.
"You ... you want to repeat mister Jillas's scheme of emotional divide and conquer on a bigger scale," he said, looking across the line up. Jillas had that in him, and Leyunso had opened her book again. It described the cult of the god of marriage, whose features on closer inspection wasn't unlike that of Leyunso herself.
Filia herself ... well, it wouldn't be the first time she surprised him. It wouldn't be the first time she had played anyone either. This was just ... this was absurd. Reality couldn't be seriously doing this. Any minute now, she'd get nervous and back down of this ridiculous scheme. His own mind screamed like a strangled pig that this could never, ever be done. He could not betray his own lord, it went against everything he was.
The silence dragged on as he waited for the punchline that never came.
Yet ... he wasn't betraying her for real, now was he? He was only avoiding the truth for a while, so in the end he could present her the exact result she wanted. Everything would be back in place.
Filia leaned her chin on laced fingers, elbows on her legs. "What's the matter, Xelloss? Too proud to indulge in a scheme not of your own making?"
"It's just that I'm surprised to hear this from pious little you. How is you being murdered productive to this anyway?" he said too quickly, shifting in his seat.
"I'll come back, I've done it before. The Aqualord will secure my body."
"And whose idea was this?"
"You need to ask?" Filia huffed.
"You?" he said as if he'd just been given evidence the planet was flat. Just because he'd accept this reality didn't mean he couldn't rub it in.
"Yes, I! Hmm. Off course you'd underestimate me," she said, spiked with indignation. "Now, as much as I enjoy your lack of blabbering, will you respond already? I'm offering you to refine our contract. Or are you too much of a straight arrow priest to even try?"
Oh no, she didn't.
She had.
His pride appealed to his intelligence, but said intelligence was too busy thrilling about bizarre reality. Xelloss was the Beast Priest, one of the strongest devils in the world, slayers of thousands of dragons and a lot of other weighty titles that made it very silly that a golden dragon tempted him.
No, more specific : the temptation came from a fallen priestess of the golden dragons with the intent to deceive his mistress as part of the grand scheme to betray Shabranigdu, treating her own emotions like a tool without losing the life in them, while trying to corrupt what little ethics he had. This all because she was a good person by her own standards. She'd be chaos or law depending on what goal she strove for. She would use him like he himself used other people, but unlike Fibrizo had used him, she wasn't taking him away from lord Zelas or trying to destroy this fun world.
Filia was one of the most obnoxious yet unexpected things the world had ever given him — what better way to screw over Shabranigdu?
"How you are willing to try this scheme at all? I was under the impression you hated our way of operating."
"I do, but I cannot escape it. Zelas has used me like a pawn, and you are just barely less awful. By now, I've understood the game. I get nowhere if I don't play. If I have to use my allies, the you and Zelas I feel the least guilt about. So, will you help us?"
Filia leaned ahead with her hand held out held out, a simple gesture to seal a business contract, but her eyes dared him.
He shook it enough that she nearly fell out of her seat, breaking her serious look. "Off course! My my, you wouldn't even have needed to ask. Me, straight arrow? Pffft." Okay, not the best kind of denial. "I'm thrilled to accept a plan that involves completely ruining your reputation."
She jerked her hand loose and said nothing, just pushed herself a little further into her seat. Below surface irritation lay the ever present anxiety for him.
Xelloss sat back and cracked an eye open. "All jokes aside, will our recent — let's call it hostile interaction — be a problem?"
"No. Let's call it what it was, torture and manipulation, and use the result."
"How so?"
"You have permission to spook me when we need a certain effect, but we'll get into those details later. First, I want you to promise a few things." She pulled out a thick scroll from under her cloak. With a flick of her hands, it rolled open all the way to the opposite wall. "You will read and sign all of this. I've accounted for a variety of ways you could exploit vague rules. After all, the better we get along, the better our fusion magic will be. We're going to need it, so be a moderately acceptable cone and sign."
He read over it all : an extended version of her earlier demands. Many of them were specific events, like the time he had sent all the people in her factory to the wrong stations, or when he aided a rival company. Others were broad strokes with small print and references. It culled most of his options to manipulate her.
"I guess I have no choice," he said lightly and signed with a little cone with arms, which crossed its fingers. "That translates to me obliging as long as you do."
"That's not a real signature!"
"It is by Wolfpack standards!"
"Oh ... you ... you ... mister Jillas, that was your cue!"
"Cockroach!"
Xelloss felt his treacherous eyebrow twitch.
Smugly, Filia crossed her arms, looking at him through narrowed eyed. "I didn't say it."
Well well, she'd found the loophole.
"I take it mister Jillas is going to be around a lot?"
"I'll be helping you two with this ruse. And you better behave like gunmoll wants it, or else I have a Drag Slave level bomb for you."
"Duly noted, mister Jillas."
This was going to be so much fun. He could have gone another thousand years with the simple travelling trickster routine, but perhaps it was time to reach a new level.
He hadn't even needed to say yes.
· · · · · · ·
Brewing doubt that accumulated into horrified acceptance of the truth; that they had to incite in Zelas in front of Dalphin. Three weeks of cooking to prepare for that one crucial moment.
It might be altogether more pleasant for Filia if they portrayed something genuinely sappy, but aside of Xelloss being sure he couldn't handle that, it wouldn't be credible. Zelas had to believe he actually tried but couldn't get a hang of it.
The role was a little out of Xelloss's league, and Filia was quick to remind him he only had one role : fishy priest. That little remark didn't fly by their agreement she not call him names again, but she proclaimed it a neutral statement, supported by herself being a fishy priestess. Leyunso quietly added that given how his part of that bargain turned out, perhaps he shouldn't complain too loud about technical details.
Leyunso took him apart in one of the many rooms, to transcribe Filia's script. Her curse worked through words, so it was safest if someone write it anew for her.
In the act they were to play, her penchant for manipulation couldn't be a reason for his interest in her. He was to be the suave, seductive master of words to her feisty, sexually frustrated, verbally challenging yet purehearted holy maiden. The whole opposites attract, light meets darkness thing with a dose of mind games. That's what the dragons expected.
"I don't think I can fake being fascinated with miss Filia to this degree when it's not about her being manipulative."
"We can't portray her as manipulative, it could make Zelas figure things out," Leyunso whispered.
"But I told lord Beastmaster what miss Filia did first time meeting miss Lina. The whole pretending to try killing them just to get a response? Please, how could I not mention it?"
"If you didn't see this coming from miss Filia, then neither will Zelas."
"Still, wouldn't it be more fun if we did a more proactive variant than this? Or at least make my part not so tacky?"
"Everyone knows you're a jerk who goes around manipulating and murdering without a speck of remorse. Who would believe you'd be anything but an domineering, abusive asshole if you tried? Emotion eaters all over the place, beast priest. You and her already are at odds, we might as well play into the stereotypes associated with the bottom truth."
He still didn't like it, but had to admit that had to do with his mysterious priest reputation.
Leyunso had outlined a variety of manipulative things he should do with a note of, like you always do. It bothered him a lot that someone so neatly saw through every trick in his book, down to the way he used politeness to get under people's skin. She must have observed him before they met.
Siephied had been powerful once, but now the god had become someone terrifying. She went on at length on the limitations of her powers and being unsure of the results, but with her near unlimited perception of the world, she had a massive advantage.
"Are you done yet?" Filia called from down below.
He wrote very slowly and didn't answer until he was actually done. A quarter of an hour later, he popped out of the room and said, "All done. No need to yell."
It did not incite an angry retort. In fact, she wasn't even paying attention to him. Her back was towards him and she spoke with Jillas about their home, whether Elena and the others could be informed (nope) and what to do about Luna (she apparently snooped around for Dilgear).
Xelloss stood around awkwardly, hoping she'd yell again eventually for him to phase right behind her and complain about the pressure. Five minutes later Xelloss was too bored to keep waiting; that and the conversation drifted to the topic of Valgarv and that started sinking Filia's mood.
He shoved her papers before her face, startling her. "How about we practice first?"
Without a word, she took them and glanced through it.
"You're not going to read it thoroughly?"
"Miss Leyunso conveyed the gist of it when we planned, earlier."
Leyunso sat down a few levels up and called Jillas up, treating it like a theater. That bothered Xelloss a lot; he was usually the one watching, not the one being watched.
Filia made a show of shoving chairs aside, then stood before him with a flat, cynical look. "You go first."
"Why don't you go first? You've actually got a romantic orientation, unlike me."
"Just shut up and do it, ..."
"Trash!" Jillas called from above.
This would be a long day.
The paper before him seemed far more daunting than it should be, and it was hard to imagine that shortly before he'd been thrilled with the idea of this subterfuge.
The more he thought about being daunted by paper, the more it hurt his ego, and that wasn't good either.
Right, he could do this. It was just words.
Xelloss opened his eyes wide, faced Filia and said, "Within you I find ... I ... No. No. There is no way I can say this." He tried throwing the paper, but it was too light and just fluttered down.
"Praise the heavens, you admitted you failure so quickly," Filia said as she snatched his papers and handed them back.
"Why don't you do better?"
"I plan to."
She found the paper with her dialogue, took on a most serious expression and started. "Xelloss, you are the darkness to my light, the-the — gnhhhhhehehehehehe."
"You too?" Leyunso asked as the snickering continued. "This won't be a problem, surely."
"No, no problem, it's beautiful writing, but then I have to associate it with ..." She flapped her hand in Xelloss's general direction.
"Sewer drainage," Jillas said.
"Thank you," Filia said solemnly.
"You think this is beautiful writing," Xelloss flatly said. "I dread to think what kind of romance you would have had with Valgarv, had been on the table."
That was meant as pay back for her earlier remark, and it got the desired response. Her amusement flickered out like a candle, her hands clenched.
"Don't go there." It had been a dead whisper, not the raised voice of indignation.
"You can't keep getting upset at every mention of him," Xelloss said. "How else are you going to face him?"
"Stop it!" she snapped.
"Stop the scheme? Well, you sure changed your mind about this scheme soon," he said.
She glared, but rather than speak she just teleported to one of the upper rooms. The papers fluttered to the ground.
"We'll try later, when he figures out how to behave!" she called from above.
"What? I wasn't even feeding, I just pointed out the obvious."
"Well, don't!" she said, and slammed the door.
"You slime," Jillas said, trying to sound angry but coming out more as a blubbering mess. "You don't get anything, do you? Lord Valgarv is ... just don't talk about Valgarv. You have no right."
And off the vulpen was, running up to the same room Filia had vanished into.
Leyunso jumped down, grabbed the washlist of demands and hit him on the head with it. "You have an excellent way of dealing with traumatized people."
"I guess I do," he said cheerfully.
His first impulse was to just shrug and let it brew, it would be good food later.
His second response was remembering nearly dying because fusion magic failed and he had orders to prevent that situation. To what extent did that go? When was it enough?
This third response was a fresh loathing of Valgarv for evolving new ways to ruin the fun.
"What just went wrong? I thought we were just taunting each other."
"And then she told you that you went too far. Now it's your turn : mind it."
"Mind what?"
Leyunso rolled her eyes. "Let's not pretend you aren't aware of respect. You can bear to learn where to expand that into. That's one place to start being right."
"Did you ever have to struggle with figuring out people? Not they themselves, but how you worked with them — beyond the curse, I mean?"
The weird grin on her face suggested yes, but her answers didn't even bear the power of her curse, so vague it was. "I'm only right inside."
They didn't continue working on the plot that day. Xelloss read over his guidelines, and burned them once memorized. After that he wandered around the island and tried spooking some dragons. This was easy and boring, and only got him bland food.
It would do him less than good to lament that he couldn't treat Filia as food source anymore, at least not outright. Not a pawn either. Xelloss wasn't alien to cooperation, of course, but the world was Lord Beastmaster and then everyone else was a potential pawn, enemy, or both. His interaction with Filia was defined through things he wanted from her, for one reason or another. Entertainment and challenge, mostly. Now also fusion magic, and that came at a price.
Paying was fine, but where did that leave him? Or her? There was nobody to just ask.
· · · · · · ·
The next day, Leyunso and Jillas teamed up to plant rumors, each using their strengths to their advantage.
"I don't believe Xelloss and Filia are involved," Leyunso would say. Most who heard it thought she did believe it, but that she was covering for them. There were a few nitwits who couldn't tell apart opinion from fact, who only heard "Xelloss and Filia aren't involved", disbelieved it and ran with that. Alas, victims could not be avoided in war.
Ragrairyos could not believe that Leyunso was in fact Siephied. That was how Leyunso had fooled the machine too : reply to the principle that she was totally Siephied. Five thousand years ago, Leyunso had told the gods she was Siephied and found out the hard way what curse Lucifer had left her with. Since Ragradia retained these memories, it still worked. This meant Leyunso had to be extra careful with her choices, she could not say anything that made Ragrairyos disbelieve something vital.
Jillas did not lack technical intelligence, but sometimes he missed vital information. Very often, actually. It quickly gave many the impression he was low of intelligence on all fronts, therefore Jillas's act consisted of adamantly defending Filia's decisions and missing the bigger picture. For now that just centered around her with Xelloss cooperation during the conquest of Elmegiddo, but it would expand later.
The first real act would be at noon. Leyunso assured her it wouldn't involve the dramatic declarations yet, those were for later. All he had to do now was show up on the eastern beach and be himself, then get physical. They had to make up somehow, after that.
That got a little drawn out because lord Beastmaster wanted him to run the pack while she worked on the machine, but that wouldn't be an issue. Filia was to be irritated for the act anyway.
When he arrived at last, she'd fallen asleep on a rock. Nothing unusual, since further on the cliffs a lot of dragons lay down to feed on the sun. Filia however was in human form, close to the water.
He decided to wake her up by nudging her off the rock, so she landed face first in the sand. "Isn't it a little late to be sleeping, miss Filia?"
She groaned and climbed to her feet, slower than he expected. There were other things off, her face a little too stiff, but one would only notice that if they knew her well. There should have been surface irritation consuming her, not this cold stress.
"What do you think you're doing?" she yelled, her voice almost typical. "Where have you been anyway?"
"Why would I need to tell you?" he asked, floating just a little out of range. "I had important things to do, did that slip your mind?"
"Why, you..." Filia whipped out her mace. "You promised to be here in time!"
The bizareness of the gesture paused him. Sexual harassment aside, getting her to explode into violence without being violent first was nigh impossible nowadays. Xelloss just phased out of her reach.
"Will you cooperate?" she hissed below her breath. "Make some loud comments for those dragons to hear."
"I wasn't given enough material to work with," he said, pouting.
"That's the point."
"What's your point anyway?" he whispered while dodging the next mace blow. "Overacting? I don't recall you ever having been so vapid you forgot maces don't work on astral beings."
"I'm supposed to radiate belligerence," Filia whispered back, sounding very much like reciting an obnoxious school lesson. "Really, I'm starting to regret this already. It's making me look like a fool."
"Yes, it does!" he said, then added in a whisper, "See it on the bright side, I'm looking like one too for my association with you."
She threw the mace this time. It clattered onto the rock outcrop just after Xelloss vanished.
"So, how are we going to wrap this up anyway?" Another dodge.
"You're supposed to make a move now, my role description just said I have to storm off after whatever you do. So get on with it," she whispered between swings. "But don't you dare do anything gross."
"Consider your definition of gross entails all of me, I'm not sure I can manage that."
"It'd be the feat of the ages," Filia said, with a hint of her usual sneer.
He had to come up with something to throw her off or she would walk away on top of this round. Hmm, he just had to be himself ... hmm, he liked Filia's hair better when it was long.
He appeared right before her again and grabbed her hand as it nearly planted her fist in his face. Leaning in, he ran his other hand through her hair.
"I bet I can restore your hair, want me to try?" he whispered. From a distance, it would look intimate and up close, it'd irritate her—
She jerked loose and leaped for her mace, far more startled than was good for their act. Damn it.
Filia realized the same and quickly wiped her fearful expression in favor of overacted arrogance. "I do not recall having given you permission to touch me."
She spoke it loud for the dragons to hear, but were the words just part of her role, or ...? Oh well.
In the same motion as picking up lord Mace, she took another swing at him. He dodged again and pulled down his eyelid with a finger.
"So, now what?" Xelloss asked from behind his hand. This was the hard part, because he had no idea about making up. He didn't even know what the fake topic they were pretending to argue about was.
"Okay, fine, I'm sorry!" she hollered.
"What?" he asked, cracking an eye open in surprise. He had expected that he was to start the 'making up'.
On a snooty whisper, she added, "I'm sorry for accusing you of corrupting miss Lina's immortal soul. I know now that not only didn't, but also that you would fail miserably if you ever tried. Or anyone. If I ever accuse or attack you again, I'll make sure it's over something real."
Then louder, she said, "You heard me! But that doesn't mean you get away with being late or throwing me in the sand!"
He didn't know whether to accept the apology or to be offended by the way she phrased it. Either way, he lingered for long enough to receive Lord Mace in his face. This was intentional. Really. It didn't hurt, but his projection had all the nerves and sensitivity for comedic physics to respond appropriately. He toppled over.
Well ... maybe it hurt his pride. Just a little.
While climbing to his feet, he stole a look at the dragons. They watched in horrified fascination, but now he looked at them, three scrambled off. Tss, as if he would explode. Couldn't they see he was the master of self control in face of undiluted (albeit fake) fury?
Filia stomped past him into the nearest tunnel. After making a show of shrugging, he phased away, after her.
"I'm not really sure what we just did, but I think the method acting approach works," he said. "We better not do it too often though, or we'll be out of things to respond to."
"Right," she said. Now they were in the dark of the tunnel and nobody could see them, her shoulders drooped and she wrapped her arms across herself. "Can you ahead and see whether there's any dragons ahead? In case we need to act some more."
"That's all you're going to say about our success at implying we're an item? Really? How b..." He cut himself off. How dull. How boring. Complaining about her lack of emotions because he'd expected a better punchline.
She shot him a foul look anyway. He shrugged and went ahead, but found empty corridors between them and her room.
"All clear," he said. She let go a breath, and Xelloss got the impression that being her usual self took effort now. Even her brisk pace seemed forced. In between Dalphin, Valgarv and his own actions, how much spirit did she have left?
Half under his breath he said, "My apologies for setting you up in that town."
Just a test.
"Hmm? Did you say something?"
She'd wasn't too far ahead to hear, unless her thoughts were elsewhere now. He thought he could guess, but he really didn't know.
"Never mind."
· · · · · · ·
The next day, every dragon on the island considered their suspicions confirmed. This led to the next stage, where Xelloss was to display inordinate fixation on her. In less savory words : stalking. Not the kind from before, which was keeping a track of where she lived and pop up in private space. More intense. He had to follow her around, unprojected at a range outside her dragon senses. Her actual range was about twenty meters, but nobody on the island knew this, so Filia feigned it to be less. It made it easier for the sharper dragons to notice he followed her specifically.
Sometimes he would pop up close behind her to startle her, at which she had to break into an exaggerated anger phase and they'd start bickering.
As the dragons saw it, this brief burst of anger devoid of sincere apology on his behalf, rather accentuating her amusing fury, ... it worked. Using Filia's anger as the punchline did miracles with undermining how serious anyone took her concerns.
In the meantime, everything about Filia was just a little off. He couldn't outright imagine being Filia, unless he tinkered with the dreamscape again, but he could remember what it was like just trying. When Zelas had something she disliked, she would order him or not, and everything was in her hands. He had no idea where to start here and now.
· · · · · · ·
Xelloss ran errands for Zelas every so now and then, which involved going to the main land on good will missions for their allies. A war raged up north, but Xelloss wasn't allowed to go near there. They suspected he would be a target.
Filia spent most of her hours in isolation, working with the Aqualord and Leyunso on magic that was beyond Xelloss. Part of their plan involved a waking sleep, a sort of hallucinatory state, which they would induce through the hosts in Valgarv's wings. He dropped by a few times, but couldn't make head nor tails of anything.
The topic of sleep inducement on chimera eventually brought up Luna Inverse. Xelloss hadn't seen her around since the Aqualord's rebirth, not even for the longwinded catch up with Lina. She had a room somewhere on the island, but Filia had already checked and she wasn't there.
"Are you sure about not telling miss Luna?"
Leyunso shook her head irritably, she was sure. Xelloss guessed she must've asked a few times already.
"Why not, exactly?" Xelloss asked.
Leyunso leaned close to his ear and said, "Rangort's trying to get into her mind. Even if it were possible to keep'em out, an extra lock will just make Rangort curious about what we're doing. Right now, e isn't trying to get into Filia's mind so we don't want them connecting. Rangort thinks Luna's the source of soul mess stuff."
Inconvenient, because with Luna's emotional state (or lack of it) she wouldn't have a hard time covering up a lack of terror at Filia's planned death.
Xelloss had no errands right now, but he had questions, so he offered to find her.
Luna had holed up in a little room she might or might now have carved out of the bedrock herself, surrounded by liquor that Xelloss recognized from Wolfpack Island. The kind with a magical aspect to it, to give it extra astral spice. Had Zelas given these to her or had she stolen them?
He knocked on her head. "Miss Luna?"
Her human body just grinned as she spoke with an inhuman, hoarse voice coming from her astral body. "Hey, clown. Wonderful day, isn't it?"
"What exactly do you think you're doing? What if there is an attack right now?"
She waved a finger, her human voice still unused when she said, "Nah, not know. We'd know."
"No health concerns either, then?"
"Whaaat? You talking health? Look, clown, Filia's coping by trying to hit you ... on you, whatever. I'm coping by liquor."
"This is coping? Have you been traumatized too?"
"How am I supposed to know? My subconscious is sabotaging itself. I'm trying to see whether being drunk can get the angst to happen. Then I'll at least know what's below there."
"Sorry, I'm not getting much angst," Xelloss said, scratching the back of his head.
Luna looked at the bottle. "Yeah, noticed it doesn't only thing that's happening is that banging your mother begins to sound plausible. I always wanted it, but not like wanted wanted. Like a fantasy, but I'd say nope if she asked because woohoo, I do not like being the weaker party. Maybe I should try sleep."
"I would gladly assist with that, but first, would you mind answering a question?"
Don't do it.
"Shoot," Luna said.
Really, don't.
"What does miss Filia like, aside of crafts, family and business?"
Oops.
Both Luna's faces and all her eyes fixed on him. "Come again?"
He couldn't fight off the embarrassment anymore, so a little too prickly. "I just want to know!"
After another few seconds that lasted way too long, Luna said, "No skin off my back, whatever you're trying to do. Fairytales, she's a total sap. Family. Val. Redemption. Complaining. Good god, can she complain about customers. And you. But mostly customers. Construction and stuff to build, not just crafts. You know those three dimensional puzzles from Zephyria? I sent her once once, she loved it. I think cherries are her favorite fruit. I've been trying to convert her to cat fanaticism for years. Can you believe she only ever had one cat? She doesn't understand the importance of pets. They're therapeutic!"
Huh, some of those were new. Filia never did relax when he was around, now he thought about it. He'd seen that puzzle, for example, but she'd never taken it out when he visited. Probably out of a (justified) fear he'd arrange for it to be knocked over, and then blame her for rashness.
This would have been trivial news, once. Now his mind made a connection to himself because hell, did he know what it was like to hide a part of his self, just to avoid problems.
More importantly, he had no idea what to do with that. She had crafts available, cats and cherries might be hard to get but not impossible—
A harsh tap to his head brought his attention back to Luna. "Smelling concern here. You better not be pitying me."
"I'm not. Well, I am, but it's about fusion magic. If miss Filia feels too bad she can't do fusion magic right," he blurted.
Right as he said that, he wondered what the real Luna might be and why she was acting like this. This was going the wrong direction.
"Aha, doubt." Luna sat up and hooked her arm over Xelloss's shoulders. "Welcome to the What If? club of existential crises. Club rules are honesty, I'm sure you can handle that."
Xelloss was torn between the urge to flee from the prickly, unstable demigod and a nagging need to find out what she meant with that. She didn't give him a chance for either.
"Your turn. Is Dilgear okay?"
"I'm afraid I don't know."
"Damnit, I tell you stuff, you should tell me stuff. Go find out."
"I don't see why it matters so much to you, miss Luna. You two weren't particularly attached, were you?"
"Dilgear was ... there. He was my thing. It was fun to have another sapient being as a pet and didn't break any laws, because troll werewolf hybrids aren't covered in the law. You know what it's like, right? You had things too." She more fell than sat back down.
"I wouldn't call them things, I do acknowledge they are sapient beings."
Luna tapped her skull, the astral one. "Yeah, but there's your thoughts and there's you. They're like pawns and toys, right? For me, it's like tools and ornaments. Thing is, it ain't me. Sometimes, very sometimes I do feel something else, like when Dilgear and Filia nearly died. It's not all of me, this me. And now he's of the Wolfpack. Not coming back. I really did screw up, didn't I?"
"Yes," said a third person, whom Xelloss had missed in the astral noise.
Filia stepped through and started gathering the bottles. "You're officially addicted now, are you not?"
"Right in one," Luna said with a wide smirk. "And it feels good, so shut up about it."
Filia just sighed. "I think you should get to bed and sleep. For real, this time. I'm sure that miss Ragrairyos—"
"Don't say that ridiculous name with me around me," Luna groaned. "It dis ... I think it disgusts me. Getting anything, Xelloss?"
"Not emotionally, but I think emotions have a mental start, so you may well be."
"Xelloss, help me get her to bed," Filia said while picking up bottles and stuffing them back in their crate. She gave him a fierce look, almost daring to say no.
He just shrugged. Denying help was only fun if he got irritation from it.
With some coaxing, Filia hoisted Luna on her back, leaving Xelloss to deal with the erratic wing and tentacle manifestation. Now her lashing wasn't as focused, he could just hold them in place.
Getting Luna to her room was just a tiny bit of a problem due to her erratic projecting dragon parts all over the place. It got stuck on walls, knocked over a few elves and three doors were lost to the cause.
Luna's room was the epitome of neatness, giving Xelloss the reason she's gone to get drunk elsewhere. She didn't want this place trashed. The coral walls had been smoothed down and bland but symmetric furniture had been carved from rock. Apparently she didn't think the stuff of the cult was worthy.
The bed didn't have a blanket or pillow, but after laying Luna down on it, she automatically projected some strange matter that might either be plush or flesh. He couldn't tell what on earth it was meant to be. Somehow, it made Filia smile. Why did that inspire fondness?
It shouldn't be bugging him that much that he didn't understand either of them.
· · · · · · ·
The Aqualord had the habit of taking on her granny projection whenever she felt the need to lecture. Xelloss, Filia, and Leyunso sat on the chairs before her, almost like children to be chastised, except nobody was the slightest bit intimidated by her.
"I'm very disappointed," the god said with echo that Xelloss thought quite redundant. "Xelloss, you cannot be seen doing anything non-combat related that you and Filia agree on. Actually, you should be doing no genuinely nice things for anyone. You are supposed to be a smirking, all knowing suave tall dark and handsome figure whose ambiguously kind gestures don't extend beyond the love interest being intact."
"So? We just tell'em he tried luring her into a false sense of security by appearing helpful," Jillas said. "That's what gunmoll thought the first year Xelloss started hanging around."
"I can't believe I ever thought Xelloss was a good enough actor for that," Filia said with a snort.
"I did manage to lull you into a false sense of security," Xelloss said.
"Ha! No thanks to any skill of yours. I was just a fool."
The Aqualord tapped her staff on the floor. "Stay on topic now. Jillas's idea works, but we need the false part. How about we counteract it with some making out under dubious consent?
Filia shot up, her first genuine explosive reaction in a long time, tail included.
"No! Absolutely not! In fact," she said as she slammed her tail on the ground. "We will not kiss even in a consensual scenario because it's Xelloss. That should be without question. We conceived this whole plan without actually doing anything real and we're sticking with that!"
"Come now. All you'd need to choose a moment when the right audience is present, make a move and voila, the perfect mix of surprise and power display," the Aqualord said, more to Xelloss than Filia. "It'd be good if she ended up enjoying it, so she can claim 'it turned out I wanted it so it's okay' excuse later."
"That's exactly why I don't want it!" Filia said. "I'm saving my first kiss for a romantic occasion with the love of my life and I dare say I've had enough trauma already. I don't want to add molestation to that, whether it's part of an act or not."
The Aqualord clapped her hands together, still looking at Xelloss. "This unwillingness would produce the right kind of emotions. You should definitely use this, beast priest."
Xelloss crossed his arms. "No. First off, I do still have a reputation to uphold. After this is all over, I want to be able to say it's all fake without anyone pointing back to anything to say, But You Liked That, Right? Third, I have an agreement with miss Filia now."
Filia nodded vigorously. "Exactly. Do me a favor, miss Ragrairyos, and stop attempting to corrupt what little standards Xelloss has."
"Says the dragon who corrupted his standards to get him here," the Aqualord said.
"That is not the same. He got a choice," Filia said. She clenched her jaw shut and grabbed the tea pot, refilling up her barely sipped cup more out of frustration than need.
"Hey, I got an idea," Jillas said. "How about gunmoll gets a cut on her hand and the trash licks away the blood?"
"I'm not a vampire," Xelloss grumbled.
"Where do you get ideas like that?" Filia whimpered, yummy disgust pouring out.
"I did it with Elena once back in the town," Jillas said, a little hurt. "The humans responded like it was gross, and one of them asked whether that's how vulpen kiss."
"Oh, right. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply it's ... I was thinking about that with Xelloss in place, it's not that is bothers me when you and miss Elena do similar," she said.
"The only thing I'll be licking is ice cream," Xelloss sneered.
The Aqualord pulled a bucket of ice-cream out of the fridge room, grabbed Filia's arm and slapped a scoop with strawberry sauce onto her palm. This she held out to Xelloss.
"Ugh!" Filia pulled loose, flapped her hand around. "What is this about?"
The god just shrugged. "I'm being creative. Now, hop hop, to work. Xelloss, don't make that face once outside."
When Filia looked at Xelloss, the corners of her mouth twitched. She averted her face quickly, but he swore he heard something about looking like a frog.
"Miss Filia, didn't we have an agreement?" Xelloss said.
"Hmmgheheheh ... doesn't go for physical similarities ..."
"You're stretching the rules!"
"I learned from a master, you ..." she said with professional distance.
"Cockroach," Jillas piped up. "Hey, gunmoll, make that face you did when you ate that rotten egg."
"I'll do that if I don't have an automatic response," she said. "But I'm sure I won't need to act disturbed."
Reluctant, Xelloss followed her.
Ten minutes later and a script later, they had found a shadowy passage where a few elves would soon wander by. Filia had her strawberry free hand clenched around her mace, Xelloss had the shreds of his pride. She started swinging on the Aqualord's cue.
"Ehm, don't we need something to bicker about?" Xelloss asked.
"They'll just assume I'm offended by your existence."
"Now you're just pushing it!"
Filia stuck her tongue out, but her had face serious just as the elves rounded the corner.
Some of the group carried magical stabilizers, while two others were engaged in negotiation with local nature spirits. They chatted among each other with cheer, but fell silent when they sensed Xelloss.
Ugh, here went nothing. Xelloss opened his eyes, grabbed Filia's mace and threw it a few meters away. Before she could object, he leaned in on her. She had to step back against the wall to avoid touching him. "Come now, Filia. Don't play."
It came out way to stiff, he liked playing, damn it. At least with his back mostly to the elves, all he had to focus on was keeping one eye open.
"I'll do what I want!" Filia pushed him away, her hand brushing across a sharp piece of coral. She didn't actually touch it, yet left a smear of red.
A little too slow, she clutched her hand close, but at this angle Xelloss blocked some of the view. Hopefully the stiff move didn't stand out.
"Now look what you've done, you stupid dragon," Xelloss chided. "Was there any reason to be so aggressive?"
"Off course. You're a devil and you're ... you're ... I don't know what you want. Just keep your slimy hands off of me," she said, anxious to the core for reasons other than it would look like.
"What, are you afraid?"
"I'm not afraid of you, just what you can do," she said. As if they were different things.
Here came the hard part. Part of his outline meant he had to drop a verbal assurance of safety at some point. Not the typical don't worry or frustrated stop acting like I'm out for your blood, for crying out loud, I'm not even hungry, no matter how much he wanted to yell the latter. It had to be serious, not too overtly emotional and paint the idea of powerful self control.
"Miss Filia, I'd never hurt you," he forced out in his most serious tone. It bordered on a lie, barely passing on the different between would and could and want. Oh by chaos, how he wanted to top it off with pushing up his nose and asking how flammable her cloak was.
"If you didn't mean it, why do you keep doing things that do that?" She spoke the words, but didn't look at him anymore. Her thoughts had carried her away again, probably to a dark mountain, where the light burned and the sounds pounded and every bone he'd broken hurt so much more than it should.
He took her hand, brought it to his face and forced his mind to think about anything other than how he would look to those elves.
The ice cream hadn't melted due to magic, but that also meant the unpleasant sting of holiness.
Filia jerked her hand away, clutching it close to her. She lingered longer than she needed before teleporting away, just to let them see the fear in her eyes.
Xelloss glared over his shoulder at them, generating bloodlust by thinking about Valgarv. Then he left as well.
The mockery of coercion they set up felt viler to him than to Filia — another thing not the way it should be. In his preferred way, Filia was the flighty, uncontrolled part of the dynamic, yet he still twitched when he returned to headquarters while she ... where was she anyway?
"That was adequate," the Aqualord said. She pointed at the coffee table, where three sorbets had been placed. Xelloss wasted no time grabbing one, curling up on a chair and obsessively eating it. Had to get the sinking feeling of realization out of his head. He decided that he absolutely despised acting.
"Gunmoll, don't let your ice melt!" Jillas called to some room. Xelloss looked around the edge of the chair.
"Eh? Oh, yes. Alright," Filia said from the bathroom, where she scrubbed her hand clean with a sword polish cloth. "Just a minute."
"Doesn't that hurt, gunmoll?"
"Xelloss licked me. It's something I will have to live with till the end of my soul," she said, face solemn save for a twinkle in her eye. With an extra helping of melodrama, she continued, "I can only hope to dull the sensation."
Filia joined him after a whole five minutes. No way did she believe she needed that time to get clean off. This was about rubbing it into him.
"Admit it, I did the face perfect. You were lucky they didn't need to see your face the entire time," she said between spoons.
"It's not hard to act when you really feel disgusted, but it's hard to not enjoy this ice cream, even when served on you." That came out very wrong.
"I noticed alright. Was that a wolf tongue? It felt like sandpaper," she said, almost chuckling. Just almost.
· · · · · · ·
By evening, everyone just knew that Xelloss did dubious things with Filia. The stories went roughly in two directions. On one side, those who believed Filia was a forsaken traitor whom the gods only used out of need. On the other, those who believed was a poor, untrained dragon seduced by the power of darkness. The anomaly who suggested that maybe Xelloss was the one tempted by the light was ignored by all. Leyunso made sure to sound ambiguously supportive of that individual.
Zelas, who made a point of being around the mesh hall to unnerve dragons, called him in eventually.
"Xelloss, since when are you into blood?" she asked while drinking what might be a glass of blood. "I don't recall you having expressed any interest more organic than food before."
Put on the spot like that, he had about five seconds to develop an impromptu fascination with Filia's craft. This involved slightly conceding that her fusion vessels were more durable if you took away his tampering with the laws of physics.
"I just think there's something interesting in the way miss Filia uses her hands for such versatile purposes when the average dragon does not even bother having hands, or use them for such, ahem, on hand purposes when they do. Since her hands are now less useful thanks to me, I'm interesting to see how she adapts. I'm thinking about taunting her when she can't."
"I see," Zelas said in tone so lifeless, icy was a worthless metaphor.
· · · · · · ·
Next stage, Leyunso went around the island claiming that Xelloss and Filia were not in a relationship, which sowed some basic doubt, but did in and of itself not compel people to believe the direct opposite, largely since it had no opposite that meant romance. She was shy of claiming they were not romantically involved, because in the future that would mean these people would believe they had been. Both Filia and Xelloss insisted this would be avoided.
Besides, the way the dragons extrapolated leaned towards base sexual obsession anyway. They could not unite the idea of a spiritual dragon tolerating a devil, so she had to be defective somehow. That way, they could see her as not one of them.
They could leave it at that, but the Aqualord insisted they play into it, which was met with again equal resentment from the parties involved.
"I don't have such base desire!" Xelloss huffed. "We're playing this as me being control hungry, I do not need to be hormonal for this."
"You got addicted to tea," the Aqualord said. "And it's so convenient if we give the dragons what they assume. It'll solve the problem of either of you lacking romantic feelings. Every astral being can tell you don't have those."
"I will not sink so low in feigning it when it's not necessary."
The Aqualord rolled her eyes. "Yes, but we're invoking stereotypes. The taboo of dragons and humans about love involves carnal desire as if it were the same thing as romanticism. So fake carnal or I'm going to melt the ice cream."
Ten minutes later, they were in a hall way with a closet when a group of humanoid dragons would soon pass by.
"Let's just get this over with," Filia said when the sound of heavy footsteps neared the corner.
They turned their heads as if surprised when the dragons stepped around, then Xelloss grabbed her wrist and dragged his into the closet. He let go as soon as they were inside.
The sting of fear hit him, but it quickly ebbed to suppressed anxiety. Right. Small, dark space deep below the earth, drenched with devil magic.
"You stay on that side." She drew a line on the floor with the tip of her boot and look up, daring him to cross it. Oh please, as if he was so childish. Anymore.
Outside, the dragons hesitated, apparently unwilling to pass by the closet now Xelloss was there.
"Make noises," the Aqualord said, disembodied.
Xelloss complied with the most appropriate sounds he knew.
"Xelloss, stop making duck noises," Filia hissed.
He raised an obnoxious finger. "Ducks' promiscuousness is legendary."
"Xelloss. Neither of us are ducks."
"Well, why don't you do the noises?"
"I ... " She went beet red, for as far as he could see in the near dark. "I don't know what would fit. They never taught me anything about ... you know."
"Oh. I don't either. Ehm, miss Claire? How do horny dragons sound?"
"I've never paid attention to dragons doing it in human form. I do know about humans though, I noticed plenty of that in Sailoon."
Both of them stayed silent, waiting.
"Ugh, fine," Claire said after a long silence.
On cue, she produced a plethora of moans, cries and desperate whispers. Filia became even redder and sank into her corner, hiding face behind her arms and knees.
Xelloss stayed put, determined not to be affected and failing. Not ten meters from the closet, the dragons muttered among each other. The things they said about him were anything but befit to a mysterious priest or servant of Zelas Metaliom. His eyes twitched uncontrollably until he joined Filia by sinking into his own corner.
This was it. True and utter social mortification for the first time in his existence. Mortification tasted so, so good, how could it be so awful to experience?
He tried eating Filia's negativity, but found it muddled with something positive. Forcing his eyes away from the wall, he met Filia's stare. Hand clamped over her mouth and shoulders shaking, she did her best to stifle laughter.
Five dozen ways to turn that on her announced itself to his mind, brawling in desperation to be used. Filia's natural talent for sting his pride finally asserted itself, but now he had a reason not to act on it. It was just useful.
She hadn't felt happy on anything in too long. Really, he could just let her have fun, because he did owe her a lot and she needed it. That thought in itself didn't even sting. It wasn't even hard. Damn it.
"You should be a duck," Filia spluttered behind her hands.
· · · · · · ·
Xelloss spent the rest of that day remembering times when he pulled off amazing schemes to patch up the blows to his ego.
In a better mood than before, and eager to avoid meeting dragons to ruin that, Filia and Jillas convinced the Aqualord that they go to the shore. The old transporter that Almayce had built could probably be restored for more efficient maneuvering. They were allowed to go, but only with an escort.
During this, Leyunso called him to the headquarters to iron out a few more things, such as how to get Lina to show up for the actual subtraction of the Val program. Xelloss braced for the jarring effect of her speech by shoveling up ice cream.
"Guess what? I've found us a way to get the angelsblood talisman," she said with no shortage of glee and cognitive distortion.
Xelloss's human form flickered, so he switched to pure voice projection. "And that would be?"
"Lei Magnus is on the southern shore and I believe he is still interested in obtaining a talisman. He can be our diversion."
"Lord Beastmaster did tell me he attempted to take it, but it did not seem a priority. Are you certain he will risk coming here? Why does he even want it?"
"I do not know why, but I am certain he will try to take it again. He circles the area, depending on the instabilities to remain hidden from the devils. I'd much prefer we use him than do anything suspicious like ask whether we can borrow it. Sure, I could brainwash a lot of people and just walk out with the talisman, but I'm not keen on such large scale mental mutilation. Not to mention the side effects."
"There's a risk he'll kill people. I doubt miss Filia will like the idea," Xelloss said, finally regaining his solidity. He'd just barely kept the icecream in his hand, which he resumed eating.
"Lei Magnus isn't into dishing death. If we keep the path clear, it should go off without a hitch," Leyunso said, bouncing a little on her chair. "Aaaah, it's so wonderful to say all this without needing word gimmicks! Before I became human, I did not appreciate speech!"
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you handle becoming a human? I imagine it must be very limiting."
"Physically, you bet. Mentally not much changed. I didn't get new cognitive functions, if that's what you mean. I have no need for social bonding or external affirmation of identity and purpose. The reason I spent so much time as the god of marriage is because it fascinated me. People just came and offered me insight into their minds!
You know the feeling, I'm sure. Tickling curiosity. Finding out new and unique things, it kept me entertained for a long time. Now very little surprises me, but that's why acquired tastes are a good thing." Leyunso's smirk made him uneasy.
"Do you think your organic form has to do with that? I noticed the Aqualord has forsaken a lot of the more earthed traits she had as miss Claire. She also seems to avoid talking to me unless it pertains to the plan."
"Ragrairyos decided not to be social, but give her some time," she said. "Even if she does not decide to be social, she'll love life eventually. Just as we all have come to be, when we're forced to appreciate it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to stir the fire a little. Milgazia and Azonge are talking about you nonexistent closet adventures, and Sylphiel and Memphis are having them. My acquired tastes need attending."
· · · · · · ·
"We weren't doing anything important in that closet! He was just ... eh, tickling me!" Filia told Milgazia upon her return.
"She is telling the truth," Leyunso said for emphasis.
· · · · · · ·
Xelloss had a thousand years of experience with when he could expect to be drilled for explanations. Usually when Zelas suspected he'd acted on his own and that had messed up something. The biggest immediate problem was that Zelas could order him to tell her what existed between him and Filia any day now.
He needed at least some material to work with. Sacrifices had to be made. Sacrifices of dignity yet again. And patience. Chaotic lord, the patience. When his favorite people slept, he killed time with reading or finding someone to taunt. Not now.
Not that he was going to ever be a duck. He chose a more dignified form, the quadruped winged wolf Zelas used at times, but in his own dark colors.
Filia woke with her arms around fur, half under a wing. The moment she raised, he licked her across the face (actual wolf tongue now, just so she'd tell the difference) and said, "How are you doing this morning, miss Filia?"
"Aaaaaaaah!" She kicked him so hard, he hurled across the room. Finally, freedom after none boring hours!
"You agreed not to invade my privacy!" she shrieked. "What on earth were you doing on my bed?"
Scrambling up on his paws, he shook our his wings as if that got rid of the humiliation. Calmly, or so he tried, he said, "Yes, but this falls under permissible spooking. I needed some method of honestly saying I did certain things with you. This way, we don't need to repeat the closet trick. Ever again. Besides! You have now genuinely lost your temper at me, so I can honestly tell lord Zelas I get your frustration out of this."
Filia groaned and pulled a pillow over her head.
"We did agree that for the sake of the project, I could spook you."
More groaning.
"Besides, I just laid down, then you curled around me. I did not invade your privacy so far as you invaded mine."
The pillow joined him, leaving a seething blonde with her tail popping out on the bed.
"No, you vile ... " Clenching her teeth, she took a deep breath. "No, do not twist my words. I didn't do that, I slept."
"So? Are you claiming the actions are someone else's?"
"It wasn't a choice, unlike you did. Just invading my privacy like that. Don't twist my words, you know what I mean." Now she only sounded tired.
"Do you really?"
"Xelloss, this is exactly the kind of thing you need to stop doing if we are to cooperate. The undermining, the belittling. Do you even realize how much you bear down on people?"
He cracked an eye open. "I eat the results, miss Filia. Not now, but I know the drill."
"That's just it, Xelloss. You just eat something tasty, but you don't understand how thoughts disarray and nag even when the most intense of an emotion is gone. Being in a bad state isn't just feelings."
"What are you getting at with all this?"
She clutched her short hair, her teeth gritted, her face crunched up like she was in a hurry but didn't know what fork of the road to take. A few times she started to talk and broke off without finishing a word.
Finally, she said, "I know you can be kind when you think nobody's watching and there's nothing in it for you. However you do that, can you try thinking like that when it comes to me? Just for a little?"
"I do that sometimes. It's got nothing to do with this. This is just a set up."
"You could have asked me," she said, her voice almost shaky ... was she going to cry? Over this?
"Are you really going to make a big deal out of this? You were only bothered for a few seconds. You seem to put up fine with all the demon energy around here, so I doubt I made your sleep much worse. I'm not even eating anything right now."
"GET OUT!" she screamed.
"No need to make a fuss," he said. He phased away to just outside the room. Inside, he heard muffled sobs.
· · · · · · ·
Almost an hour later, Filia appeared in the central room. Xelloss had driven away the time by reading one of Leyunso's books.
She still had red eyes, but otherwise looked composed enough.
"What was that about?" he asked.
"That's my question," she said. "Can't you tell when you go too far, even with a list?"
"I'll keep our agreement to the letter, it's not my business if you get fussy over details. Or is this enough to make fusion magic difficult?"
"You're not even trying to understand how you bear down on people, aren't you? I don't have the energy anymore, Xelloss. The rules of that list aren't about me controlling you, they're just ... oh forget it. Have a new rule : don't touch me, or arrange for us to touch, and stay out of my bedroom. And I don't want to see any black feathery wings anymore."
"Technically, it's not really your room. This island belongs to—"
"That's exactly what I mean! For heaven's sake, can you just once try to let me say or feel something without turning it against me?"
"I was just pointing out the obvious."
"You insufferable piece of ... " She didn't say it, but she made a very irritated, disgusted noise while she kicked over one of the chairs.
With insincere calmness, he said, "I did it because I need to be able to say certain out of context truths. Part of your list means I am not to wake you when you need sleep, but I got the idea while you slept and lord Beastmaster could call me anytime. Plus, I can say I pushed you over your prudish limits this way. Lord Beastmaster may have trouble believing you'd do anything so soon."
"As if you weren't aware of the loophole of asking mister Jillas or miss Leyunso to wake me. Aren't you leaving something out?"
"Like what?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Don't you think I've talked with miss Lina about everything? When I told them how you looked and acted when you fought Valgarv or took me hostage, they were surprised. You never let them see you like that, only me. You choose when you're going to scare people, and you like doing it with me."
"Ah, is that the real problem? It's about what I did to you in the war of Kataart. You think I'm after your fear?"
"Aren't you?"
Being truthful had worked before, so fire away.
"I used to be. Before I met you, I never had to do hurt a dragon to earn their fear and respect. But you, not only did you not, you're also the only one who knew how to get under my skin, and instinctively so. Challenge a devil and they defend their pride to the end. I wanted you to fear me just by being around you, like all dragons did. I also did not want to ruin my casual standing with miss Lina, so yes, it's intentional that only you ever saw me like that.
Remember the confrontation with Valgarv in his base? Imagine what would have happened if Valgarv hadn't moved out of the way fast enough. There you'd be, atop a skewered body covered with his blood, me inches from your face. No dragon before had been so close to seeing me kill another and lived to remember. It wasn't worth it before, but with you?
So when I had to act the devil I was expected to be and torture you directly, yes, I enjoyed it more than it bothered me. For what it's worth, it turns out I don't really like the results. The fear doesn't satisfy me as much as I assumed."
In a way, it was a test. If she responded with renewed terror, he knew where the main cause lay. She didn't. Just disgust with a layer of fear, but not the same rabid panic as before. Had to be something else, then. Hmm, black feathery wings?
Oh, she might've been half awake and seen those, considered it part of a nightmare. Filia being prickly about having her privacy invaded was old news, the crying not. Put them together, he supposed it made sense she lost it.
"Yes, it's always about what you can get from me, isn't it? Entertainment, respect, food, words," she said dryly. "And fright, of course."
"For the last time, just now, I didn't do it to scare you," he snapped.
"Oh, forget it!"
"No," he said. "Explain why you're making such a big deal about this. I had a beast form explicitly because you'd freak out if I was in human form, and you know I need a ruse."
"And it just had to be black wings, right? You never take on animal forms, except now!"
She teleported back to her door and slammed it behind her.
He was about to phase after her, but stopped short at the door. Behind it he could hear constrained sobs, somewhere close to the walls. Sorrow poured out, accompanied by the kind of anxiety both of flight instinct and of long term stress.
Black wings ... before everything went to hell, Val had always been able to cheer her up just by being there. Now he was the reason she'd been in pieces.
No more Val, no more purpose that she actually liked living out. Did she still think she needed to redeem herself, or worse, did she think she had to redeem Valgarv? Tss.
He'd known this tore at her, seven years ago already. He had noticed what went on before anyone else, but what Lina had told Filia wasn't very different from what he had said. You have to act, or there's nothing to save. For the life of him, what had Lina done right that he hadn't?
He was powerless in this, and if anything could unbalance a devil, it was that feeling. Something had to be done.
The lasting effects of trauma weren't unfamiliar to him. When suitable, it was hilarious and nutritious to trigger these people. Lina typically tried to claw her way into rock to hide, and if that failed, went to hug Amelia. Filia didn't try to dig herself in, but might have use for the second option.
Xelloss himself was out of the question. He considered Jillas first, but no, Jillas turned into a blubbering mess whenever Valgarv was mentioned. Orun was busy with the cult, Luna was too drunk, but Sylphiel was around. She understood loss well enough.
He phased out of the room, spent twenty minutes finding her, then warped her along without an explanation.
Confused, Sylphiel looked around the room. "Where are we, mister Xelloss?"
"Well, you see—" he started and got no further.
"What's this?" Filia stood in the doorway of the kitchen, a warm teacup in her hands.
"Miss Sylphiel? You're still here?"
"Yes, uhm, you see, mister Milgazia isn't quite alright and miss Memphis sometimes takes over some of his duties and I thought I could help out a little ..."
"There's no shame in admitting spring has arrived, miss Sylphiel," Xelloss said.
Filia grabbed Xelloss by the sleeve and pulled him into the kitchen, closing the door. "This area is supposed to be a secret, why did you bring her here?"
He scratched the back of his head, and said, "Well, I figured you needed someone to hug."
Filia looked at him like he'd just named Milgazia the funniest person ever.
"Is everything alright?" Sylphiel asked on the other end of the door.
"Just a minute!" Filia called. She pulled Xelloss further from the door and whispered, "I can't just go hug miss Sylphiel, even if I tell her what I'm upset up. We're supposed to be a thing because of you taking your orders to the extreme, what's it going to look like to Zelas if you need to drag in others to ... you're trying to comfort me?"
"Yes, and you can just tell her we had a lover's spat about me triggering you with Valgarv. Miss Sylphiel probably knows I've triggered miss Lina a few times so it'll be totally credible."
"Ugh, now I have to act about this," she said with a sigh, and then with suspicion, "But really, why are you even doing this?"
"I'm sensing this was a mistake." A big, big mistake of the I wasn't even thinking about the plan variety with an appendix of how do I explain this to myself?
"I'll go talk to her," she said. "Can you just stay out of the way?"
He left them to talk and spent that time avoiding Zelas. One of the lieutenants told him she wanted him to visit the center of the island to have a word, which he just barely dodged thanks to the Aqualord asking for a favor. He was permitted to assist the god and Zelas hadn't given an urgent message, so he could stall. Not that he needed more fuel, he just had to think up a way to put it together right. If Zelas asked, what happened after, he'd be in trouble.
The Aqualord occupied him with dissolving curses on a few of her dragons, whom had run into trouble up north. This was boring and vexing, but kept him busy enough. One of them tried making a joke and he made it clear he didn't like that with glaring. As expected, that worked. Typical, boring dragons who shivered before his overrated wrath.
To his surprise, Filia dropped by the sick bay. Sylphiel was with her, and announced she'd like to help tend to the injured. Sylphiel knew how to handle demon curses that were developed in the last thousand years under the barrier, and Filia stronghanded some dragons into letting a human tend to them — really just a matter of pride, Xelloss realized, as they were glad to be rid of him.
Once Sylphiel was trusted and at work, Filia went outside with a nod to follow directed at Xelloss.
They found a quiet corner, and Xelloss asked, "Did that help? You don't seem so prickly anymore."
"Pffft. Prickly, that's what you call it?" she scoffed. Somewhat better then. "But yes. It was nice to talk to someone as understanding as she is. You owe her an apology for just grabbing her, though. Actually, you didn't apologize for the room incident either."
"Should I start a tally book?" he joked.
"That's a wonderful idea," she said. "Since your words are worthless most of the time, you can pay them in tea, or whatever else someone may prefer. I think miss Sylphiel may like some earth for flowers, and seeds to go with it."
"Ehm, that was a—"
"Great idea," she said through gritted teeth, a challenge in her eyes and tone.
"Well of course it's a great idea," he said. "I have those all the time. Why exactly are you here anyway? I kind of need to buy myself some time."
"It's actually about that," she said. "We're going to do something better than your silly gimmicks," she said, slyly. "You know, it's really convenient your name begins with an x. Meet me in the central room at eleven. Ragrairyos will give you an excuse till then. Now shoo."
· · · · · · ·
Eleven minutes after eleven, he arrived in the central room to find a little card that said, Go up to the fifth room from the bottom of the spiral.
The room was filled with puffy chairs, trinket on shelves and blackboard against the wall. Filia stood before it.
"Now that our students have arrived, please take a seat," she said, gesturing at one of the chairs.
Xelloss raised an eyebrow. "And what would this be?"
"Sensory Education for Xelloss. Today we will be teaching you all about sensory meridian responses."
"The what now?"
"Don't worry, it has nothing to do with fornication. Not even close. It's about soft sound, superficial touch, dedicated slow work : a form of mood sensitivity that manifests in a tingling sensation on the scalp and upper back," the Aqualord said from somewhere. He looked around, but didn't spot her projection.
"What does that mean, exactly?" he asked.
"It means you need to quit talking," Filia said. "Your voice is an automatic destroyer of mood."
His voice took a deliberately annoying pitch when he said, "And we will do this why?"
Filia chalked the class's name on the blackboard, abbreviated : SEX.
"I doubt she'll ask you to write it down when she asks whether we're doing it." She erased it, if only to quell the embarrassment it caused her. "I bet the class will bore you, but you're not supposed to be content anyway."
He smirked. "I'll take boredom over the collapse of our plan."
"Excellent. Now shut up and stop having gloves."
The items were mundane tools, each used for one purpose or another. The running theme was things like tasks done with great care, superficial touch and soft sound. Filia performed them herself and had him imitate a few, all to no effect. He didn't noticed anything particular in Filia either, save an occasional wave of enjoyment. He tried entertaining himself by thinking up ways he could frame this as something else.
Once, before having heard Milgazia tell a joke, he would have described it as the epitome of boring. It didn't even come close to the Anti-Fun's desecrating words, but he still grasped at straws to keep his attention.
The alleged sensation itself was a nervous system response, according to the Aqualord. He could project a functional nervous system but that didn't create the cognitive link, just like projecting hormones wouldn't give him lust or having a stomach didn't cause hunger. However, due to the strong cognitive effect the potential should be more likely to exist. At least, Ragrairyos claimed this. Xelloss was too busy trying to not talk to figure it out.
So many things he wanted to needle her about, so many ways to try and provoke that excellent anger.
"You're not even trying to be serious about this," Filia declared soon, when they were seated next to each with sand bowls in their laps. He'd not fully process that. Zoning out.
"I didn't say anything," he said.
"You make faces," Filia said. "And I can read."
Oops. Xelloss had used the colorful sand he was supposed to arrange into a useful form for writing, All work and no play make Xelloss a dull devil in tiny font.
"Excuse me for trying to keep my sanity in this borefest. I don't know how I'll ever convince lord Beastmaster this situation, useful title or not, is something I'd do for fun."
Filia puffed up her cheeks. "Fine, tell her it sucks and your stupid order makes you give into my needs or something."
She stood up, her own bowl in one hand. Leaning over Xelloss, she grabbed his bowl and brushed past him as she stood up. He tried to hold on to the bowl just to be annoying, which caused her hair to move over his hand, just briefly, but ...
Something like spray of drops or goosebumps run over his head, down his back.
Oh. This ... well. Wow. This wasn't bad at all. He might actually keep his nervous system on like this.
Too bad his trigger preferred that he not touch her.
· · · · · · ·
"Yes, lord Beastmaster, I had SEX with miss Filia. It took some getting used to, but by the end it was quite pleasant."
She tapped her long nails on the edge of her throne. "I suspected as much, but what eludes me is why ever you would do that."
"I restored our relationship in the best way possible, didn't you say I should? We get along now, and sometimes she wants to do SEX. I am carrying out your orders."
She took a long pull of her cigarette. "So I have said, though the interpretation is peculiar. Did she request it?"
"More like tell me to show up in a private room and wham, there she was all ready."
"The dragons say this had been going on for a while. Why did you not tell me?"
"We only began yesterday." Quite true, but she might have heard of the closet incident. She didn't bring it up, but she did narrow her eyes and flicked her astral tail.
"I've never minded your crushes much, Xelloss, but you must understand I am worried when it is this golden dragon who at last compels you to mortal activities."
"I would have to agree, lord Beastmaster. It caught me off guard, but alas ... the temptation was too great. Here I am, involved with miss Filia." In a scheme.
After an icy pause, she said, "Tell me the truth about what you did with her."
"I already did, lord Beastmaster. It was an act of bodily stimulation that causes a pleasant sensory overload. I assure you all is well and she will not break again."
"What about you? Can you actually handle having a sappy relationship with anyone?"
"I'm quite alright, thank you," he said, and since his fresh wave of victorious joy needed an explanation, he added, "I'm happy with the new arrangement, actually. Filia feeling fine isn't that bad, actually."
Never had he seen her so disturbed about him. "I do hope you are going to add something to this statement, like an assurance you are not eating her positive emotions."
"Why ever would I do that?" he asked.
"Luna Inverse has spent some time eating negative emotions, it did not do her any good. That we eat negativity only is not merely a matter of tastes, you know that. They are poison to us, you cannot afford to be addicted to them."
"I'm not eating her positive emotions, just ehm, appreciating them from a short distance because they contribute to other fun things," he said. Quietly, he planned to eat some just so he could later claim he'd been experimenting.
Fooling his lord and creator shouldn't be fun, but it was. He would not get a taste for positive emotions, but this? He just might.
"You are dismissed," she said, doubt stronger than ever.
· · · · · · ·
Killing Filia without permanency wasn't as easy as casting an immorality pledge. Her ghost actually had to be out of her body for a certain time, in case anyone inspected whether she was alive. The other four of the group seemed confident it could be pulled off with a pledge because Filia knew how to get back into her body, somehow.
It took some prodding, nagging and incessant sitting on furniture that people meant to use for other things than sitting, but Filia eventually told him how.
Three years ago, when Lina and her group had invaded the Eternal Queen's castle, Filia had vanished half way through, something had exploded and a few hours, Filia rejoined the party by crashing from the sky with Luna on her back. Xelloss hadn't spent much thought on it, he'd been too busy enjoying the biggest traumatic breakdown Lina had ever had (that he'd seen, anyway).
Apparently, the whole reason Laust had scheduled the event at that time was because Liliane would be busy with Luna. Liliane had an interest in subtracting power from knights; now it made sense why she even had one of the hosts of Shabranigdu. She had used the host to experiment with it, her goal being to take the power of Siephied out of Luna for herself. This process would have erased Luna's identity, so she had fought it and inadvertably attracted Filia's attention. A channel has two directions and Filia had training in picking up godly input. Luna had, unknowingly, screamed across the astral plane.
So voila, Filia pops in and messed up the ceremony, and both of them died. Not in the intended way, so they kept their identity and went to hell until they figured out how to climb back to their bodies through the channel. Filia's status as channel was partially physical, apparently.
That explained why Filia had lost her last faith in the gods around then. Megiddo had only a road to hell, and heaven didn't exist at that time. It sounded like he'd missed something very interesting, but Filia refused to say more than detached facts.
The pledge itself was performed without ceremony or vow. He just put the bag before her and nonchalantly, she put her tail on it. Their pledge stone was the buckle; inconspicuous and not likely to get damaged first in case of a fight. The magic formed a blueprint of her current body and that was it.
An immortality pledge did not really heal anything. Rather, it formed a molecular blueprint of the entire body after being given access to the soul. When the body was damaged, the blueprint activated to restore the original state by fabricating something like projection from magic. Due to this method, most contracted lost track of their organic needs over time. He'd have to remind her to eat and sleep well, but for now, death was on the menu.
Filia's soul would have to migrate out of her body for a duration of at least an hour if not more. To practice her migration and reintegration, Xelloss would kill Filia a few times in private.
Jillas covered the furniture with cloth in between fussing over Filia, who repeatedly assured him she'd be fine.
Once the Aqualord teleported him out, he said, "Given that I'm at least part of your trauma, it would probably be best you don't see me do it. We wouldn't want you to be too conspicuously startled by me."
"Just get on with it."
So, Xelloss stabbed his staff through her heart.
Filia's body dropped to the ground, where they'd laid a blanket to absorb the blood. It still twitched when her ghost shifted out. Megiddo's light crossed the astral plane, outlining her.
"The death we put up for show will be a lot more gruesome," Xelloss said. "I'm thinking about stabbing you through the stomach the way Valgarv did, to indicate I'm in one line with him."
She nodded stiffly.
"We'll keep this one short, get back in."
She ghosted back in and he sat the pledge to work. Only to hold it close, leaving as much healing to herself. Filia's own magic could handle that and it would be better if she didn't walk around too obviously pledged. Devil magic radiating from her would be just that.
After a minute or so, her heart resumed beating, but she remained on the ground. Xelloss tried to see the holy magic bringing her back to life, but couldn't get a handle on it. Too much a matter of flow, and other holy tricks he did not know.
Careful, she stood back up, probing her skin and wincing. Devil magic might hurt her dragon body, but as this was only physical he couldn't tell. Maybe there was more to it, since her movement jerked.
Still, she said, "Do it again. Wait longer before reviving me this time, I need to know whether I can handle rigor mortis."
"The pledge should return your muscles just as they are, and rigor mortis won't happen till a few hours in anyway."
"Still, it's best if we cover our bases. The moment you've crossed over, I need to be able to explain everyone what really is going on. I don't want to have to do that while patching up my own lungs."
"Fine with me," he said and killed her again.
· · · · · · ·
Half an hour later, he revived her. This time the process caused her noticeable pain, probably due to the chemical processes and stiffened muscles. It took almost twenty minutes to heal her body well enough that she could move just a little normal.
She smiled, despite everything. "It's working. We can pull this off."
"Yes, but should it take this long for you to heal?"
"I have an inherent deposit of holiness. I can feel it slow down the pledge magic, it doesn't blend enough, so I'll be here for a bit. Why don't you be useful and get me a book?"
He so badly wanted to say he wasn't her errant boy and get a small sip of her delicious irritation. But, well, they had an agreement, and it wasn't like he objected to book carrying in particular. Besides, it'd be the height of immaturity to kick a fuss over this.
That did not mean he was going to hand her one of those dreadful sappy novels that she'd been reading to fuel her act on the emotional faking front.
Deep Sea Dalphin's cult had a little library, meant to give them the illusion of being well cared for. Xelloss found he couldn't actually read most of the titles. A worldwide magic made languages understandable as long as it had the same roots thanks to an old sorcerer and flow spirits, but it did not extend to written languages. Filia probably could read them, though. Learning languages was a beloved time killer for dragons.
Having only cover images to go on, he skipped anything that looked heavy and serious. A few shelves down, he found a small novel that reminded him of something Luna had said.
When he returned, Filia had regained enough motion to turn herself over. She lay on her stomach, trying to flex her fingers. Those still didn't move as they should. She was disappointed, but quickly stopped when she sensed him approach.
He sat down at her side and deposited the book before her. "Is her majesty satisfied?" he couldn't resist saying.
"Cat stories? What an idea for a book." With a chuckle, she opened it and was absorbed. Judging by the emotions she produced, anything but savory to Xelloss, the book was a big hit.
The healing flow kept working on her. He tried helping it along, but found that as always, holiness was one thing he could not really influence.
On a whim, Xelloss ran a finger over the tip of her ear. She tensed up.
"Can you feel that?" he asked.
"No ... not as good as I should," she said, pushing away the fright with a deep breath. "I'm sure it will be better soon, once you're gone."
Forever she'd have that grating tone that just irked him. He wasn't going to leave now she said that.
Any form of caving to Filia felt like losing, but maybe that meant he was spoiled. He didn't typically run into creatures that got under his skin. It just had to be this one he had to get along with. The Lord of Nightmares wasn't merely capricious, She was mischievous and ironic.
He wasn't sure how well he liked this specific push of chaos.
"Why do you want me gone anyway? I'm not bothering you right now."
"Oh good, so that means you admit to bothering me at other times."
He took offense to that, but made a minor pause because the what if was back. Filia annoyed him too, that was a fact. Did she do that out of frustration, arrogance, competitiveness or a desire to hurt him? He actually had no idea. Tasting emotions didn't tell him how and on what they fit in the mind.
Xelloss wasn't good with figuring people out by understanding how they thought using intellect alone. He only had a thousand years and a sharp eye for patterns of behavior. Filia was easy to tickle in some aspects, but he'd been wrong about her more than once.
"Why do you think I'm so annoying anyway? I'm trying to be polite and you're always acting like I've done the opposite merely by existing. It would be great to know what philosophy lies behind that, yet you have infinite patience for others."
Filia groaned. "Oh heavens, not this. I'm not going to play Who'se Worse."
"This isn't a game," he said, knowing full well it was a quiz instead. Those weren't covered in their contract. "I don't understand you any more than you understand me. You're going to need to put some effort in this too."
She dropped her book and gave him a most incredulous look. "What?"
"I told you my greatest secret, yet you're refusing to even slightly tell me anything about you," he said.
"You ... Just because you told me something doesn't mean I owe you! It wasn't a trade, I didn't ask for it!"
"I think it's only fair."
"Did you just get me a nice book so I'd be extra peeved once you started annoying me?"
"You're avoiding the question, miss Filia."
She slapped the book shut. "That's not the point, Xelloss. You know damn well you're infuriating. It's the one thing you're good at."
"Oh my. It must be bad when you resort to such language," he said. "Regardless, you don't get to determine the point. I started this conversation."
"Then what is the point?"
Now he backtracked on everything he blurted out, he realized he'd left it out. He wasn't annoyed she wanted him gone in itself. Countless people wanted that. Old news. It was two more things. Her, and the other criminals that she tolerated, in relation to him.
"Why do you want me gone from your life, but were ready to invite Valgarv in when he's done worse than I ever did?"
Bringing up Valgarv jarred the tranquility out of her and replaced it with guilt, shame, regret and misery. He took it all in, and found one strand of (for him) the most bitter taste. She still cared for Valgarv?
"This isn't like what you did when you told me your secret, it's not going to make anything better. It's like you talking about how you once wanted to make me fear you."
Oh, that was enough to know she'd probably tell him something disgusting.
Here was Filia, epitome of eccentricity and everything a dragon wasn't meant to be, yet somehow she had a fixation on the one who opposed everything she represented, both by her standards, and those that Xelloss valued. It made no sense; felt like a stain on an otherwise intriguing phenomenon.
"I need to know whether I won't find myself before Valgarv only for you to turn out to still be his devoted martyr," he said sharply, and left out what he wanted her to be like.
"You're just going to have to gamble, then."
The idea of working with her seemed absurd in this moment. He could just get up and go to Zelas, tell her everything and forget about it. If he couldn't trust her not to fall to him at a crucial moment, it was madness to even try.
Barely had he thought this or Filia cried out. Spasms took over her body and darkness leaked from the wound. Light broke from it, like fraying threads. Dark magic binding the body of a holy creature resulted in pain whenever they tried to be both. He should have realized fusion magic was what allowed it to work on a dragon in the first place.
Swiftly he broke the bag's buckle. Filia relaxed at once, letting her forehead drop on her arms.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Sure you are." Filia propped herself up on her arms. She took a few deep breaths and refocused her energy to take over the wound, continuing her healing at a better pace. Then she pulled her book closer and continued reading.
"Don't you want to know what caused that little accident?"
"I'm healing. We'll try again later," she said, still with that detached tone. She didn't use Rezast at the moment, but still dissociated.
"Well, I'm explaining it anyway. Whatever you've got with Valgarv is wrong and I don't get it. He's a traitor to the Lord of Nightmares and he's planning world wide genocide, yet you seem unable to hate him as much as I do. I ... it's also frustrating me that I don't know how to carry out my lord's order, or whether I'm doing it right, or what I'm becoming."
Filia just turned a page and didn't look up. "Nice to know that we might lose fusion while facing the enemy because someone is emotional."
By now, he almost was accustomed to her not riling up against him. He hated the lingering, exhausted acceptance in her, but he couldn't change it except to make it worse.
Xelloss had always been perfectly aware of when he hurt people, he just didn't do anything with that information. Now it mattered, he realized he didn't even know what to do with it.
She gambled on him as much as he did on her, but in different ways. She probably had to reason with and force herself through whatever misery would eat her otherwise. For him it was easy to interact with her now that she didn't call him names anymore, except when it came to this one thing; not hurting her in some way.
His hand hovered near her shoulder, either to pull her hair, or maybe just offer support. The latter was a move that he'd seen thousands of times in the human world, meaningful to them but not him. He drew his hand back. There was no space for comfort, which he did not know how to give and which she could not receive as sincere from him.
He conjured up steaming tea instead, not that that helped driving about the founding question : what the hell was he doing? Trying to understand her, or just carry out his lord's command? How did this tie into his hatred for Valgarv and everything he represented? He couldn't tell where any lines lay, anymore.
Whatever the case, he wasn't called a jack of all trades for nothing. He'd figure it out, himself and her as well.
Might as well start with the obvious. Xelloss asked, "Can you translate one for me?"
"No. You'd just ruin it with your tasteless commentary."
"I promise I won't ... it's be entirely tasteful criticism. I sat through all of your sensory lesson, didn't I?"
The scathing laugh was enough of an answer. "I don't know why you'd care for cat stories unless you're making same vain attempt to be congenial. Quit it, it doesn't work when you do it."
Sheesh, how did Luna even manage to talk to her when he and her were both evil by Filia's standards? Okay, she had no massive body count that included, by proxy, a god, nor the inclination to inquire how likely it would be to kill another god as the start of their relationship. But, it probably also mattered that Luna had an idea what Filia needed to hear.
"Miss Filia ... what do you need?"
"Peace."
Aside of the typical irritation, Xelloss got awfully close to feeling powerless again. He loathed that, so this was a good time to actually give Filia the peace she wanted. He stopped projecting. If not for the astral walls making it harder to move, Xelloss would be out of the room already.
"Hey, where are you going?"
He stayed on the astral plane, knowing she could see him. Only his voice he pushed into the physical sphere.
"You said you wanted peace."
"Yes, but I meant between us."
He tilted to the side, not sure what to make of that. Again.
Filia grew impatient with the lack of response. Pushing against stiff limbs, she sat up. "Look, I'm giving you another chance, you ... oh, take a pick. Just in case it does improve our fusion magic. We can do something fun together, but not at my expense."
"Oh? And what would that be?" he said as he projected back onto the physical plane.
"You won't like cat stories, but I have another idea. Six centuries ago, our order wrote several books for humans. They were meant to enlighten the wicked ways of humanity. Get one of those and I'm game for mocking them. Maybe after that, we'll see about sabotaging Ospirias. I don't like how he talks about mister Jillas."
"Now that I'd be happy to assist in," he said, though he didn't know what had changed. If lines existed at all, they had to be a big tangle of nonsense.
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