As the great stone gates of the royal courtyard creaked open and the tension-laden congregation began to disperse, a cold wind whispered through the marble halls like a sigh of postponed calamity. The nobles murmured, warriors retreated, and the Queen's breath of relief echoed like a coward's anthem.
But not Keede Demios.
She moved with rigidity, moving beneath the flickering torches. Behind her veil of poise and ceremonial silk, her heart roared with venom. She watched the others from behind narrowed eyes, her lips tight, nostrils flaring ever so slightly.
"Royalty, my foot," she spat in her mind, the words acidic. "A bunch of trembling cowards hiding behind gold and false titles."
Her jaw clenched, and her fingers dug into her gloves until the leather creaked.
"Can't even handle a damn mutt, a Stain to my royal family. A mutt who should've died years ago—what in the nine hells is wrong with these fools?"
Her eye twitched as her gaze followed Zephyr's broken body being gently lifted by Demios soldiers—as if he deserved honor. As if he hadn't brought shame, risked war, and spat in the face of everything the clan stood for.
She turned sharply, storming down a side corridor, her heels clicking with purpose. The sound was sharp, crisp—like the bite of a dagger sliding into soft flesh.
"The Queen bends her knees like a whore the moment Demios flares its cursed little embers. Pathetic. This is the supposed wife of the sovereign ruler of the realms? The so called Queen? She's nothing but a gilded puppet with a crown too heavy for her spineless head."
Her thoughts spiraled, dark and venomous.
"And those damn bastards in my own clan... fools, every last one of them."
Her fury turned inward, toward her own blood.
"Ladarius, bowing like some lapdog—'We'll punish him.' Punish? We should've crushed him underfoot and burned the ashes. But no. They're playing politics again, as if mercy ever did us any good. Hypocrites. Weaklings. Clinging to the ghost of pride while letting filth like Zephyr crawl back in."
She paused, resting one hand against a pillar as she seethed.
The memory returned.
The Pit.
The Veiled.
Her secret command.
She had told them to send him—the Aetherless failure, the shameful spawn of a broken lineage. When they hesitated, voicing concern that he might die, she had silenced them with a single, sharp word.
"Good."
Let him die. That had been her wish. Let him rot where no flame would mourn him.
"But no," she whispered now, venom dripping from her voice. "The little maggot crawled out. Should've drowned in his own blood, but somehow he's still breathing. Still standing. And now, because of that useless queen's mercy and my own clan's indecision, he's walking the path back into my house?".
She let out a short, humorless laugh, filled with malice.
"Mark my words—I'll finish what the Pit couldn't. I'll tear the spine from that little bastard myself and use it as a torchstick to light the Black Flame."
Her fury deepened into something darker.
"The royalty's days are numbered, and if the Demios clan keeps licking wounds instead of sharpening blades, we'll fall with them, no they will fall with them."
She spat on the floor—an unthinkable act in a sacred corridor—but she didn't care. Respect had limits. So did patience.
"They let a mutt live. They let him live. And now they'll reap what they've sown. When this kingdom burns, I'll be the one holding the torch."
Her shadow stretched long against the torchlight as she turned, eyes gleaming with hatred not just for enemies—but for family.
Keede Demios wasn't just angry. All her life she has always got what she wanted, but ever since her cursed sister husband bested her husband and became the clan head, things has taken a turn for worst. All the attention, all the spot light had shifted towards her sister, her cursed sister.
"Curse be the day she was born". That was what she always said whenever she saw her blood sister. Then she gave birth to a perfect child, he became the perfect heir. She gave birth to twins girl, her vitality draining.
In the clan Demios, only an Alpha ranked individual could become a clan head, then when his wife put to birth, a part of his divinity was passed from him through his wife unto his child, but in the process her body begun to break down. Bearing the weight of the clan head for seven months was no joke. Then Ladarius was born, her rank dropping down to beta as her vitality plummeted down, then the twins and then her rank dropped down, any more and it would result in a certain death.
But Clan Demios was a clan of love and lust, the clan head couldn't control his urge and then he impermagnated her, the child was meant to be aborted, but how would his wife allow them kill her child.
By some miracle she survived, the clan surged in happiness, the little one quickly became the North Star for all the clan. The spotlight shone brightly on him, but one person wasn't happy.
Keede hatred shifted from her sister to her child, but this hate burned brighter then ever. But at the age of five, he was discovered to be Aetherless, a never before seen situation. despite the clan rich knowledge they were helpless. The child was casts into the pit. Hearing of the child situation she was excited and happy. The pit was a place even she didn't dare step her feet into, it was a place of perpetual darkness, the pit wasn't just that— a pit, no far from it, the pit was a living entity, despair given form. At the age of Twelve, Sons and daughters of Demios were casts into the pit, never to return untill they have been branded their birthmark and possess their first Art. But how could a five years old, clueless, Aetherless young child survive the brutality and despair it promised, but against all odds, he did and not only did he survived, he reached the peak of what the human body could offer. But that was all, without Aether he didn't have access to Arts and without Arts he could not survive in this world.
"But why in the nine hells isn't he dead and why isn't his Lifeless body back in my room where I can step on it and spit on it". She was now in her carriage alone, she pulled her hairs with a deraged expression on her face. She looked like she have ran mad, but all of them were mad, they just haven't realized it yet. But she has and she has embraced it.