Chapter 11
As you and your group walked through grand golden doors and into the castle, you let out a small gasp, your free hand raised to your mouth in awe. The inside of the castle was beyond beautiful and grand with heavily detailed golden crown moldings and baseboards lining the walls, the walls themselves being made of Zebra Marble. The floors are in both black and white marble tiles laid out in an intricate pattern. Looking forward you notice two golden detailed staircases curling towards one another leading up to the second floor that showed off a circular balcony that spanned the entire width of the room below.
The ceiling itself made you speechless. It was made out of colored glass and glinted in the soft lighting of the room. In a stormy background, a black/white three winged angel dressed in black flowing robes, flared it's wings out in flight, reaching for a blinding light above him, while deadly lighting reached towards the him, as if in anger at his transgression's. You stood in awe, starring up. It felt so familiar... like you had seen this very room and ceiling before, but how?
You were quickly ushered out of the room, which jarred you back to reality and it was far too soon for your liking. You wanted to stay, to see more! What had made you feel that way? The memory seemed too fuzzy to grasp at, making you pinch your nose in annoyance with your free hand. You could feel a headache coming on...
Alastor continued to lead you down the hallway that mimicked the first room in style, you noticed that it was uncomfortably long, seeming to go on forever... finally ending and expanding into a medium sized room that led to a very grand set of golden apple themed doors. In the room that continued the same style as the first, sat a set of Victorian styled cream colored couches on either side of the room with detailed dark mahogany side tables and Gothic/Victorian styled table lamps. There was many family portraits and beautiful landscape paintings decorating the walls.
Bastian opened the door, bowing towards your group, a frown marring his beautiful face as he stepped aside to allow your group entry. Looking inside the well lit circular room was a beautiful set of large arched bay windows that spanned the entire back half of the room. Through them was a view of the upper class city and it's hellish red sky. The floors are in a black marble tile and the walls are a black marble with gold vein's running through. The walls are decorated in rich detailed golden crown moldings and baseboards. In the middle of the room stood a dark mahogany heavily detailed desk in the theme of golden apples that gleamed in the light from the crystal chandelier hanging above the desk.
Behind the desk, sat a man in a grand golden apple shaped backed chair. His skin was pure white and scaly. His hair was blonde and slightly wavy and oddly he had thick black eyebrows. He has pure black full lips, which soon stretched to show off his razor sharp, all to white teeth. His eyelids were purple which gave the appearance of eyeshadow. His sclera's a bright golden color, his eyes like that of snake slits. His cheeks had two red circles, much like Charlie, who you assumed was his daughter. He had no nose, only two slits for nostrils.
He wore a white silk high collar suit, lined inside and at the edges in a bright red, with a black silk bowtie, and a bright red silk undershirt with white stripes. On his head sat a white wide-brimmed silk top hat, with a living purple snake curling around the base. A red apple placed over bright a red band that spanned base of the hat.
His black leather gloved hand curled around a red apple-topped obsidian cane. He stood up gracefully from his chair, waiting for Bastian. Tapping his black leather boots as Bastian bowed deeply, his voice shaking. "My King, I have Alastor... though he has changed somehow into Alabastien Archion... well mostly in appearance... he accompanies your daughter,Vaggie and (Y/N)" he rattled out, indicating towards your group behind himself with a sweeping wave of his arm, while still bowing, head down.
Whom you assumed was Lucifer, smiled widely with a cruel edge. "I sensed something was off today..." He trailed off, waiving his hand at Bastian "You may leave them to me, but stay near by." he ordered. Bastian looked relieved as he swiftly departed the room and stood outside the door in the other room. Lucifer spoke again, but in a harsh stern voice. "How did you get out of your prison, Alabastien?..." Alastor let go of your hand and stepped forward, unafraid, though his ever present smile was gone.
Alastor gave a deep mocking bow before speaking "Hello, my old friend, nice to see you to! Ahh well... when I finally found my reincarnation of myself, whom I made out of shear boredom, having been lock up all those long years... standing there with my soulmate. I took advantage of the situation presented. They were near my prison, the one so very well hidden amongst the noble district. No one saw what I did... no damage was done. I remained calm because of her being so near. I would have razed all of this to the ground otherwise..." he said with an eerie calm, pausing. "Your kingdom... I mean..." he finished, a cruel smile appearing. You turned your gaze towards Lucifer and saw a twinge of fear flash in his eyes for the briefest of moments. This disturbed you more than you thought. If Lucifer... Satan... was afraid of him... what was he? Who was he?
Lucifer now visibly cringed, his cruel smile faltering as he grabbed at his chin, looking down in thought. "But Alabastien, that still can't explain exactly how you broke free?..." he trailed off looking up into Alastor's eyes, who continued to smile cruelly at him in turn, speaking "My prison was... hmm well say was weakening, falling apart if you will... I would have escaped in maybe two human years or sooner... but like I said, there stood my opportunity... and I took him and his body back into myself, back were they belong..." he trailed off, his smile only increasing. "And I now want to be called Alastor Archion. I like the new lifetime I had lived as Alastor, I like who I was then and whom I now become... were so similar to one another, it's as if nothing has changed..." he raised his arms up and out to each side of himself in a dramatic display, walking closer to Lucifer, who had to increasingly raise his gaze upwards to meet Alastor's.
You saw Lucifer's eyes darken, a cruel smile forming on his face. "Now that I know your out of your prison and how you did it... Alabastien... I will put you back!" he declared darkly. You could hear fabric ripping as all three set of wings grew out from his back, all pristine white and flared out threateningly. A set of four white/red horns grew from his head, going straight up and curling towards the back of his skull, he also seemed to grow taller.
You heard Alastor laugh cruelly, still looking down at him "Your tricks will no longer work, I'm afraid... I am not the same as I was back then, I know how you did it and more! Young man... I've been watching you, all this time... from my prison and I've seen everything..." he pronounced the last word heavily, etching it into the now heavy air in the room. Lucifer stiffened at Alastor's revelation. He seemed mortified even, folding his wings from their flared out positions.
Alastor suddenly warped behind you, wrapping his long arms around your torso. "She's my everything... she keeps me calm." he took a deep breath, as if to inhale your scent and continued "you won't have to worry about me as long as she is by my side... so I would be sure to invest in keeping it that way and keeping them away from her! You know... the almighty goody two-shoes up on high." he said pointing upwards at the ceiling and then resting his chin atop of your head. Lucifer still appeared stiff, but now seemed visibly disturbed "I'll do that... but to truly keep them from getting to her... you need to marry her even sooner than 3 days from now... because if you do then she would truly belong here..." he said heavily, as if reading Alastor's mind.
He let you go and walked towards Lucifer again, looking down at him. "If you cannot do so, just say so... My King..." He said the last part with sarcasm, leaning over and looking him directly in the eyes. You saw Lucifer gulp heavily, clearly intimated, answering "I'll give you... your... three days..."
Alastor straightened up and smiled, simply saying "Good." and began to turn, but stopped himself. "I need you to get the Three V Overlords to understand that my A/N isn't a prize they can have... is that clear?" You saw Lucifer nod "I can try to get them to see reason, but they are young and stupid... for Overlords." Alastor nodded, saying "Understood, we will be heading to the Royal Library and your daughter wants to speak to you, goodbye... my king." he said in a mock bow.
You saw Lucifer's expression turn to that of relief as Alastor turned away from him. He was fast approaching your all to shocked form and took hold of your hand, kissing the top of it and gently leading you to the doorway, turning to his head to the right to talk to Bastian.
"Dear old friend, would you be so kind as to lead us to the Royal Library? I haven't been there in quite a while." Alastor asked gently, as if talking to a skittish animal. Bastian visibly gulped and bowed at you both. "Of course, follow me..." he trailed off, walking ahead of you both quickly.
You turned one last time to see Charlie walking over towards her dad with Vaggie trailing behind her. She looked visibly upset, hugging her father. "Father I am so sorry..." she said, putting her head on his shoulder "He's... it's going to be okay!" Lucifer said pausing, looking suddenly sad, but continued "She looks so much like her..." you heard him reply as the heavy doors closed before you could hear or see anything else.
You looked up at Alastor with confusion in your eyes. What relationship did he have with the King of Hell? How did they know each other and what roles did they play back then? Heck, how did Bastian know him? And more importantly... how did you look like her? Who was she? He looked back down at you with only love in his eyes, softly smiling down at you. He then turned his gaze forward again. You kept telling yourself you would find out about what was going on in the Royal Library, there you would hopefully find out about everything! You were just so tired of being confused and in the dark...
You were again led down the long hallway, which eventually led you back to the front room, you guessed must be the foyer of the castle. Bastian then took the opposite hallway on the left from were you came in from, leading you down a shorter hallway. Though it didn't feel all that short of a way... you soon came upon a large double set of dark wooden doors with apples and eyes carved intricately into it, the apples shining golden in the light of the hallway. Bastian opened the double doors and bowed once more, stepping to the side of them and indicating to go inside. You smiled gently at him and step inside, with Alastor in tow.
You took in a deep breath, the smell of this place made you smile. Looking around made your smile widen, it was as grand as you imagined, considering the decor everywhere else here. The room was massive, the walls all lined with tall dark mahogany bookcases. There was rows and rows of these bookcases in the entire expanse of the room, creating hallways of them. In the middle of the room was a set of detailed golden staircases that led up to a second level with the same tall bookcases as down below. The balcony above was a narrow walkway which spanned the entire shape and size of the room.
The floors were a light cream colored tiled marble with golden veins. The hard to find bare walls were the same as the floors, with the same crown moldings and baseboards as everywhere else you've been so far. The library had a red tint to it, which made you look up to see that the ceiling is made out of wrought iron and glass in a beautiful swirling design.
Turning to your right you caught a glimpse of a librarian custodian, she was pushing a black cart filled with books down one of the many hallways. She stopped, turning to put some books away in one of the bookshelf's. As she finished and walked further down the hall towards you and Alastor, coming into better view. You noticed that she has long white silky hair and a small pair of pure black horns going straight up. She was rather tall and slim, her skin a gray-blue. She turned towards you both and let out a gasped, her blue/gold human like eyes filled with fright. She was wearing a simple black dress with silver high heels.
She crossed her arms as if to comfort herself at the sight of Alastor, you assumed. You rubbed the back of your head "It's okay! We didn't mean to startle you! I'm Y/N and this is Alastor." you smiled gently and continued "I need to use the library to find out about history of Hell itself and about a particular man named Alabastien Archion..." You were now fidgeting with your fingers behind you back, nervous of her reaction. She didn't scream and run away like you thought. But she was shaking...
She look up at Alastor who was standing directly behind you, then looked at you straight in the eyes, still frightened. "I am Alana Delven, the Librarian here. I'll give you a map of the library with marked locations on where you can find certain genres of books. I'm am very busy today, so I cannot help you! I am sorry!" she quickly blurted out, walking further towards you and shoving a map into your hands. She quickly rushed away with her cart down one of the many hallways the bookshelf's created. You turned and looked up at Alastor, you were very confused by her reaction, did he know her as well?
He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I may have met her once and made an impression as Alastor back then..." he laughed and took the map out of your hands, looking down and muttered "Ah ha! This is the section we need... so they didn't change the layout all to much from what I remember!" he said, smiling cruelly down the path she left.
He wrapped his arm around your waist and led you down the hallway to your left. It didn't seem to take you long to find the history section. You looked at the many books accounting the histories of Hell and you took as many as you could carry within reason. He laughed, taking most of them with a huff, raising an eyebrow at you. You shrugged as he motioned you to follow him again. Now turning right at the end of the hallway, he led you down a maze of bookshelf's, until you got to the section that had a plaque, saying forbidden books. It's given name seemed to beckon you to look.
He produced a key out nowhere with a devilish grin and unlocked the rot-iron gate that you just now noticed was there. He opened the door that made a loud creaking groan and bowed towards you "After you, my dear." you smiled at him and went inside. The room was suddenly illuminated, where as before it was pitch black. It was dusty and filled with cobwebs everywhere, as if no one dare come inside here for ages. A lone tan colored old table and chairs stood in the middle of the room. An old green glass lamp placed in the middle of the table lit itself suddenly.
You looked around the room in awe, twirling in a circle to get a better view of everything it had to offer. You saw tan colored dusty tall bookshelf's lining the walls. The wall themselves were a dusty gray/white marble, the floors tiled in the same marble. The crown moldings and baseboards a stark white. You smiled as you walked towards the dusty table, placing you burdens on it, Alastor soon following your example. You then saw him swiftly go down a hallway inside the rather expansive room and decided to follow him. He ran his hands along some very old looking books with a nostalgic look in his eyes. You soon found some even older history books close to where he just standing. You took them into your arms.
He stopped in front of a lone bookcase and picked up an old thick silver leather bound book from the rather dusty bookshelf, smiling cruelly ahead with a angry look in his eyes. He soon turned towards you, with a now gentle smile, though his eyes still held a very well concealed anger "I found it! My dear! This is the only copy of this book in all of Hell Itself!" he said in a surprisingly light tone. He took the book and held it between his hands, making it float between them. It morphed and distorted itself, a duplicate appearing next to it. He handed you the duplicate book "We'll keep that for ourselves, my dear! This used to be mine anyway..." He trailed off, putting the old original back on the shelf.
The cover of the book itself read his original name in black bold font "Alabastien Archion". Maybe it was his Diary?...