[M] IC - La Belle et la Bête - Dark pigeon / Scottishgal

[Dark Pigeon]

Samuel carried Melia out of the throne room as soon as the messenger had left. He did not need to truly know his sire, to know that this man was now full of anger and hatred. He had seen how the black smoke was slowly filling the entire space, how those green flames had engolved the entire throne and his sire upon it. This was not the place for Melia to be, for anyone for that matter. Only the guards had remained at their sires side, together with Vermin who did his best to calm Salvador, and to aswer all the questions he might have about the lord of light.. about his brother. Because no matter who's brother was. Vermin was truly loyal to just one man. The one man in this entire world that could save Vermin's family, who could break the curse.

Samuel brought Melia to her room, if she wanted to walk then he would let her. He said nothing, not even know what to say as his mind was racing. What would all of this mean, would this kingdom be at its end? He did not want to think of it, he did not want to think of how .. wonderful.. this country could be if the lord of light was to bring life back to it. He would right? Samuel let out a small sigh as he opened the door by puhsing it open with his hip and made sure that Melia was confortable in a chair. He would stay with her for a little while. Especially because he had questions, because he needed to know what was going on with her... and why the king favored her above everyone else.

[Scottie]

Her arms weakly wrapped around his neck. His tight grip on her legs and back told her that he wouldn't drop her. He never had before. Even when she violently wriggled from being picked up. But now she was still. Her eyes looked dead, like no spark was left within them. Nothing. Like she was a husk of a person. She was getting too much information at once. Vermin was really the brother of the Lord of Light....and the Lord of Light killed her. Now he was coming here. War would come to this castle and she didn't know what to do. Melia knew that the other voice deep within her was screeching at her. Demanding that she do something, anything to help. But Melia didn't know what. She just lay there in Samuel's arms and felt pain soar through her neck. Switching between blinding firey pain to a shudder as cold as ice down her spine.

A sharp movement from his hip brought the door open and he tried to put Melia down in a chair but she refused to let go of him. It was the first real movement he had felt from her the entire time he had held her in his arms. She didn't want to let go just yet. "Mel....I need to put you down." A soft shake of her head and a pitiful "Please" got him sighing softly. He turned and slowly sunk into the chair himself. Holding her against his chest as she kept herself curled up. "What happened? You need to tell me what happened Mel?" Melia sighed deeply, letting his arms make her feel protected. "S...The King was not always alone. He had a f..family once." Samuel now knew that he had a wife and child, that knowledge was not known in the villages. "He lost them to the Lord of the Light...but sometimes people can come back. Like a soul can return in another." Samuel was confused but let the woman continue to speak. Melia finally raised her face from his neck and let her eyes pierce into his. "I...I have that soul. I have the soul of the old queen nestled in my skull."

[Dark Pigeon]

It was not common knowledge that their king once had a family all of his own. Samuel had heard faint whispers about it when he was fighting in the kings armies. But it was never clear if the man had gone insane and killed his own child and wife, or that someone else had murdered them. To be honest, most.. well.. everyone thought that Salvador had gone insane with the dark powers he wielded. That the lord of light had tried to safe him, to bring him back to the light. Only to find that he was to late, and that the child and wife if the Dark one had been killed in some kind of ritual that would give the dark one inmens power. Power that could drain an entire country of its life, only so he could life a unnaturallly long one. Everyone knew he had to be 100 years or so, one does not get old like that without doing some dark magic.

Not the lord of light of course, he was decended from the gods themselves! A man that was to put an end to all the evil in this world with his mighty sword! He was the only person in the world that could defeat Salvador, and many of the soldiers hoped he would. Only so that they could finally go home again to their families.

Samuel did not understand what Melia was telling him, how could he? " Did he not kill them himself in a fit of rage? When darkness overtook him.. are.. are you sure he is telling you the truth?" He asked Melia in a hushed voice, fearing that if anyone was to hear him that his head would roll.. and that of Melia as well. What she said next only confused him so much more "You mean... he has put the soul of his wife inside of you?.... but why? " He asked her as he gently held her in his arms.

[Scottie]

Melia watched it trickle through his skull. She could see it register in his eyes, though confusion was still etched onto his features. Maybe she could have explained it better. Melia took her bottom lip between her teeth and chewed on the soft skin as he started to air his thoughts. Her eyes went wide and she violently shook her head. "N...No Samuel No." She told him as gently as she could. She was sure. "I..I can see it." His next question threw her off. He couldn't put her soul into her.....he didn't have that power did he. "N...No.." She told him again, her hands firmly on his shoulders as she tried to explain it to him.

"Samuel, he didn't kill them." She told him and held him still from shaking his head. "I know that he didn't. I can see her memories...I know that he wouldn't kill her...or their child. He loved them." Samuel couldn't believe her and softly shook his head again. "But how can you be certain...that he didn't...fill your head with it." His words were quiet. He knew what would happen if the others heard him. "I......Remember back when I was 12. We went into the woods and we found that big old oak tree?" She waited until he nodded before she continued. "It was massive and had all of those odd shapes around it. We thought it was a witches lair. Something scary that we had to explore. Then we found that book remember. It was green, had gold writing and was just sitting there...Half in the dirt." Samuel remembered but he had no clue where she was going with it. "Remember how I touched it...and I collapsed." She started to wriggle from his lap as he spoke.

"I remember. You just collapsed and I had to carry you out. I thought it was a curse...That you wouldn't ever wake up." He said watching her move around her room. She brought him back a book. "I went back for that book. I took a cloth and wrapped it up and brought it back to the house...I never really looked at it again...and then I saw another, just like it." She said showing him the book in her hands. The exact same style but a different title. "The book we found...she read it the night before they died. She read it to her son as he slept. I remembered that moment and my mind went blank. He didn't put this soul inside me Samuel. It's always been here."

[Dark Pigeon]

Samuel became a little scared now, hearing all of this was not easy for anyone. He looked at the book and wished he knew what was written upon it. Reading was forbidden for those not in the upper class, and he wasn't upper class.. nor was Melia. He took the book from her, his mind buzzing as she told him how they had found one like it, how she had collapsed, or how a part of a soul that wasn't hers was in her. He placed the book away, gently and carefully as if he was afraid that something might happen to it. He looked back at Melia, and tried to make sense of everything she was telling him. "But... how can... how?" He asked her, not understanding any of it. "Was the soul on the book, did it cary a part of her soul around. Did it attach to your soul when you picked it up? Does... does he know?" He asked her, worry clear on his face as he feared for her well being if the king was ever to find out. "I told you not pick it up" He wispered gently, blaming that day and himself for never stopping her in the first place.

[Scottie]

"I...I don't know how." She couldn't give him a simple answer. There wasn't a simple answer. There wasn't a clear cut answer that she could just gift him. She didn't know the answer herself...how could she tell him anything. "N...No...It's always been there..Samuel, I don't know all the answers." She rested her hand against his cheek again and didn't know what she could do to make him understand. "It wasn't on the book I know it wasn't. Cos I can remember when I was 6 and knowing that the flowers weren't the right colour. I mean...you know of my scar" She dragged her hair up to show that scar again. Samuel raised his fingertips as he stood, dragging his touch lightly over the scar. "It's warm" Melia nodded. "It...it was how she died. The first cut wasn't deep enough...and she could heal herself....The second one did it." Samuel felt his stomach drop to his feet. "She could heal herself...like you c..." He shut himself up then, he knew the punishment for magic users to hide their gifts.

Melia nodded softly and turned back to see him, "I know...We are similar in some ways and so very different in others. But I know that he did not kill this land...it is another doing it." Samuel's forehead creased, "But why?" He was genuinely confused as to why another would kill their land. "Because they want his power...and what better way than to kill off the people living on the land...make them hate their king..make them wish to overthrow him." She said softly as Samuel's ears pricked up. He could hear something from the window and he was by the open window in seconds. "I think we aren't going to have problems about the villagers overthrowing him..." He trailed off and beckoned Melia over to see. A single glance outside and she could see that whatever forces were slowly trying to enter the villages...were being kept at bay by angry housewives and their frying pans. "I wouldn't wanna mess with Mrs Norman....But she can only go on for so long. I'm needed downstairs Mel. Stay here." He pressed a firm kiss to her forehead and without another word...he was gone.

[Dark Pigeon]

It all sounded so plausable. He knew that the dark one.. that his king wielded inmens power, power that he had heard was connected to the staff he always carried around with him. Samuel had seen the staff, and how it radiated this... aura that made you whant to stay away from it. Almost as if the very thing was alive, as if it was telling you to back off.... or else. But he still did not understand, why someone as holy as the Lord of Light would ever do such a thing. It sounded like lies to him, propoganda spread by the warmachine against the Lord of LIght. If it had not been Melia telling him everything he would not believe a single word being told. But how could he truly trust her now? She could have been lied to, she could believe the lies........ He shook his head. He could not think about his king like this.

As he had left Melia alone in her room, ready to lead the armies towards the enemy and keep them away from the castle. A small hand rattled against the door. It seemed like Salvador had no need for Vermin now, and after everything that was being told to Melia, Vermin knew he had to come and talk to her. Boy was he scared, and so very sad that she now knew. He had seen her anger, but then again.. he had seen the anger of Salvador for decades now. Hers did not scare him as much. "C... can I enter?" He asked her, his voice shaking as he stood in the door opening.

[Scottie]

She could almost see his doubt float through the air behind him. Without him on her side...she had no one in this castle. Well, not really. She had those in the kitchen and the stables...but everyone was so very wary of her. The woman who had not been removed from the castle yet, the woman who had not chucked herself from the closet window and the woman who managed to drag what could be called a smile from the dark one. Witch. Samuel had known her for as long as she could remember. If he started to listen to those stories, if he believed them. Melia harshly pushed that thought from her mind and moved back to the window. She needed to keep herself calm. A gentle rattling caught her attention. Someone was coming into the room...or at least they thought they would be.

Vermin. Her jaw tensed and she kept her eyes on the window before her. His voice shook and her stony expression nearly sighed from her features. No. She had to remain strong. "Yes. You may enter." Her voice was soft yet her eyes never once left the window. Smoke was starting to pour from the villages. The villagers were holding their own for now...but unless they had help, they would be squashed within the hour. Melia could hear Vermin shuffling into the room. She couldn't bring herself to look at him. He knew. He knew and he didn't tell her. He found out like the others that she carried that soul in her skull. He knew...and he didn't gift her the answer to the question that had been keeping her awake night after night. Her child...had died at that bastards hands and Vermin knew it. A horrible concoction of anger and sorrow welled up in her chest.

[Dark Pigeon]

Vermin walked into the room, and gently closed the door behind him. He noticed how she did not look at him, or how she smiled like she normally would when he was with her. He had messed up, he had never told her.. but how could he? He walked up to her, his little hands infront of his chest as he wondered if he should sit down next to her or keep is distance. He choose to stay where he was, and keep a distance between the two of them. "I... Vermin understand you are angry with him. Vermin know he never told you anything. Vermin very grateful you never asked him. even when King told you to do so. BEcause Vermin very scared for what you think of him when you find out" He let out a small sigh and took something out of the back of his pocket, and gently held it out to her. "Yes, I am younger brother of Lord of Light. My name is Devan. I am young prince, not held magic like brother did. This is how I look, when not an imp." He said as he held out a piece of paper on which he was drawn.

Devan had never truly met Salvador or his wife when he was a human. He had seen them when his brother had gratuated in the same year as Salvador and Melia had. HE hardly remembered them, he knew that Salvador was a prince as well. And that he had taken a liking to a non Royal woman. Quite the scandle, but quite romantic as well. Salvador had never met the young prince before he had been send as a messenger to tell the Dark One to retreat his armies as it would bring out a war that would never end. But instead of doing so, or letting the young prince go. The dark one had imprissoned the young prince in the body of an lower demon, an Imp. "Will you allow Vermin to tell his story. So he can explain to you what happened?" He asked her gently.

[Scottie]

It felt like something was clawing her throat with every step closer he took. His voice broke through the silence and she slowly closed her eyes. She knew he'd be grateful that she didn't ask. But he could have told her. He could have come seen her and told her...so she didn't find out how she did. Paper rustled and she let her eyes drag back open. Melia's eyes slid to him and she noticed the outstretched hand. She sighed softly and let her fingers brush his hand as she took the paper. Devan. She uncurled the paper and looked over the young man. How he had a soft face and a smile like nothing she had ever seen before. He had been a young man...he is a young man. Trapped in a horrible weak appearance because of Salvador.

Even as sorrow hit her stomach, pain prickled through her neck. Almost as if one part of her felt sorry for him and the other felt nothing but rage. She could find herself easily drained by this conversation, so she lowered herself to sitting on the seat by the window. Her eyes finally dragged back up to see him. To truly look at him and for the first time know how he should really look. His real name and his real smile. "P..please" Her voice cracked and she waited a moment before trying again. "Please. Tell me what happened. I need to know the full story...from your point of view."