Solciro whistled. "Hey guys, Delirious' been sent to the asylum."
"What? Why? He's always been somewhat mad, why send him there now?"
"Apparently he went crazy. Well, crazier. He started attacking people, it says here. And certain background information about him was revealed. Delirus was actually two people once. Siblings. Del and Irus. Who would have guessed. Some weird magical accident, they merged or something." He said, reading the newspaper.
"Wow. Where'd they get that information from?"
"His, uh, their other siblings. Iris and Iria."
"So, what's his real last name?"
"I don't know. It just says here The Family Of Del. I don't know, but it sounds quite sketchy to me. The Family Of Del. Maybe they were well-known somewhere else?"
Cocytus shrugged. "Anyway, I wonder who's gonna be the new Magics teacher."
They were sitting in a parlour sipping coffee and just lazing around, whiling away the time. The Terra parents had, as Solciro had predicted, expressed their sympathy and offered Grei a home. Grei had accepted and was still sleeping, not having slept in a proper bed ever before. It was a whole new world to her.
"So, Kestrel, what did you mean by those words yesterday?"
"Boredom strikes back. Shopping anyone?" Kestrel asked.
Cocytus stared at her. "Who are you and what have you done to my beloved Lady Kestrel?"
"I could do with a new hoodie." Lethe said.
They had been studiously avoiding the subject ever since Kestrel accidentally revealed it to the siblings. But they knew that they would have to tell them soon.
How long more before we tell them? It's starting to get annoying, hiding it from them. Styx sent.
Yeah. I think we might as well just tell them. I don't think I'd really want a boyfriend who doesn't accept me and my friends.
My friends and I. Phlegyas corrected. But, the grammar not withstanding, I agree with Lethe.
Then we might as well get it over and done with. Cocytus stated.
"Solciro, Lune, what you two heard yesterday was exactly that. As you already know, Lethe can absorb memories through touch and Styx is a telepath. But what you didn't know is that I can control blood and that Phlegyas here appears to be able to return from the dead without any outside intervention." Cocytus shrugged and deftly unbraided his veins. They dangled about his hands, far longer than his fingers. He lifted his hands up.
"See? Remember these? Watch." Blood started flowing from the veins and poured out into the air, forming a crimson globe. Cocytus became a shade paler, but continued concentrating.
"Blood control." He funneled the blood back into his veins and after he was done, started heaving heavily. He smiled weakly. "And it's tiring. Very very tiring."
It was a good thing that the parlour was empty save for them.
"But... How... I don't..." Solciro struggled futilely, trying to grasp what he had just been told. "Ah, you know what, never mind." He dropped the newspaper onto the table, slumped back onto his cushioned seat and closed his eyes, simply enjoying the cooled air and hot coffee.
"You're pretty accepting, aren't you?"
He opened an eye lazily. "You have to be accepting if you want to survive. You'll get nowhere with bigotry and calling other people freaks." Both his eyes then jolted awake as Lethe threw herself onto him.
"I am never going to get used to their extremely open displays of affection." Styx said, averting her face in mock embarrassment.
"I'm gonna have to get used to it, she's gonna be my sister-in-law!" Lunare exclaimed. "If they do this everyday..." She let the thought hang in the air.
"Besides, do your parents know about this?" Phlegyas gestured with a finger at the couple.
"Do you mean the fact that they're so intimate or the fact that they're together?"
"Um, both."
"Father and Mother only know that there's a relationship. They didn't inquire further. They think we know better. And I suppose we do."
The lovebirds finally broke their kiss and grinned somewhat breathlessly. Lethe sat on his lap, smiling in that Cheshire way that they had come to know recently.
"And I think I'm learning some manner of control over this. I can limit the experiences to just intellectual knowledge now, not actually reliving it all over again! But I guess it could be because I've touched him many times."
"Yeah, and in all the wrong places."
"I'm curious though." Cocytus cut in. "You and Lune don't act like nobles. Your speech, your actions, it seems more suited to the style of us regular commoners. The nobles I've seen apart from you two, they like to enunciate their words precisely, speaking in clipped sentences as if Common weren't their first language. And you two seem much more open."
Solciro shrugged. "We always resented the language, debate, court manners and politics lessons. We only put up a show of it in front of Father and Mother. Ah, you see, only we stuck-up nobles actually call our parents Father and Mother all the time, not Dad or Mum."
Lunare yawned. "Acherus, could we go and practise? Please? I'm really bored."
"We all are. I guess so then. Pickpocketing or lockpicking?"
The two made their way out, though Acheros opted to stay in the cool room. The weather recently had gone haywire, the weather mages unable to control the eco-dome they had erected over Pero Diaz. Pero Diaz, having the good luck to be located in the middle of a desert, had several high-ranking resident mages who created a dome over the entire city to control the weather. This meant that the weather was very monotonous, cool anytime around morning and evening, warm in the day. However, the dome had been fouling up recently and heatwaves that were more in tune with the desert had been passing through the city. No one knew why.
Lethe had taken up the newspaper. "Hey, slaughter of three kids in this little village."
"What's so amazing about people slaughtering three goats?"
"Sorry, I meant three boys."
Cocytus eyed her suspiciously. "Since when did you pick up street slang?"
She just rolled her eyes. "Since I touched her, remember?"
"Oh. Right. That."
"And anyway, what's interesting is that it says here something about a lightning demon is suspected. Family Of Del included in questioning."
"Let me see." He eyed the article. "So if this is the same Family Of Del, which is highly likely, then we know where Delirious came from."
"What, you wanna go check it out?"
He snorted.
"I'm not so bored. Besides," He slid a deck of playing cards out from his jeans pocket. "Cards anyone?"
"What? Why? He's always been somewhat mad, why send him there now?"
"Apparently he went crazy. Well, crazier. He started attacking people, it says here. And certain background information about him was revealed. Delirus was actually two people once. Siblings. Del and Irus. Who would have guessed. Some weird magical accident, they merged or something." He said, reading the newspaper.
"Wow. Where'd they get that information from?"
"His, uh, their other siblings. Iris and Iria."
"So, what's his real last name?"
"I don't know. It just says here The Family Of Del. I don't know, but it sounds quite sketchy to me. The Family Of Del. Maybe they were well-known somewhere else?"
Cocytus shrugged. "Anyway, I wonder who's gonna be the new Magics teacher."
They were sitting in a parlour sipping coffee and just lazing around, whiling away the time. The Terra parents had, as Solciro had predicted, expressed their sympathy and offered Grei a home. Grei had accepted and was still sleeping, not having slept in a proper bed ever before. It was a whole new world to her.
"So, Kestrel, what did you mean by those words yesterday?"
"Boredom strikes back. Shopping anyone?" Kestrel asked.
Cocytus stared at her. "Who are you and what have you done to my beloved Lady Kestrel?"
"I could do with a new hoodie." Lethe said.
They had been studiously avoiding the subject ever since Kestrel accidentally revealed it to the siblings. But they knew that they would have to tell them soon.
How long more before we tell them? It's starting to get annoying, hiding it from them. Styx sent.
Yeah. I think we might as well just tell them. I don't think I'd really want a boyfriend who doesn't accept me and my friends.
My friends and I. Phlegyas corrected. But, the grammar not withstanding, I agree with Lethe.
Then we might as well get it over and done with. Cocytus stated.
"Solciro, Lune, what you two heard yesterday was exactly that. As you already know, Lethe can absorb memories through touch and Styx is a telepath. But what you didn't know is that I can control blood and that Phlegyas here appears to be able to return from the dead without any outside intervention." Cocytus shrugged and deftly unbraided his veins. They dangled about his hands, far longer than his fingers. He lifted his hands up.
"See? Remember these? Watch." Blood started flowing from the veins and poured out into the air, forming a crimson globe. Cocytus became a shade paler, but continued concentrating.
"Blood control." He funneled the blood back into his veins and after he was done, started heaving heavily. He smiled weakly. "And it's tiring. Very very tiring."
It was a good thing that the parlour was empty save for them.
"But... How... I don't..." Solciro struggled futilely, trying to grasp what he had just been told. "Ah, you know what, never mind." He dropped the newspaper onto the table, slumped back onto his cushioned seat and closed his eyes, simply enjoying the cooled air and hot coffee.
"You're pretty accepting, aren't you?"
He opened an eye lazily. "You have to be accepting if you want to survive. You'll get nowhere with bigotry and calling other people freaks." Both his eyes then jolted awake as Lethe threw herself onto him.
"I am never going to get used to their extremely open displays of affection." Styx said, averting her face in mock embarrassment.
"I'm gonna have to get used to it, she's gonna be my sister-in-law!" Lunare exclaimed. "If they do this everyday..." She let the thought hang in the air.
"Besides, do your parents know about this?" Phlegyas gestured with a finger at the couple.
"Do you mean the fact that they're so intimate or the fact that they're together?"
"Um, both."
"Father and Mother only know that there's a relationship. They didn't inquire further. They think we know better. And I suppose we do."
The lovebirds finally broke their kiss and grinned somewhat breathlessly. Lethe sat on his lap, smiling in that Cheshire way that they had come to know recently.
"And I think I'm learning some manner of control over this. I can limit the experiences to just intellectual knowledge now, not actually reliving it all over again! But I guess it could be because I've touched him many times."
"Yeah, and in all the wrong places."
"I'm curious though." Cocytus cut in. "You and Lune don't act like nobles. Your speech, your actions, it seems more suited to the style of us regular commoners. The nobles I've seen apart from you two, they like to enunciate their words precisely, speaking in clipped sentences as if Common weren't their first language. And you two seem much more open."
Solciro shrugged. "We always resented the language, debate, court manners and politics lessons. We only put up a show of it in front of Father and Mother. Ah, you see, only we stuck-up nobles actually call our parents Father and Mother all the time, not Dad or Mum."
Lunare yawned. "Acherus, could we go and practise? Please? I'm really bored."
"We all are. I guess so then. Pickpocketing or lockpicking?"
The two made their way out, though Acheros opted to stay in the cool room. The weather recently had gone haywire, the weather mages unable to control the eco-dome they had erected over Pero Diaz. Pero Diaz, having the good luck to be located in the middle of a desert, had several high-ranking resident mages who created a dome over the entire city to control the weather. This meant that the weather was very monotonous, cool anytime around morning and evening, warm in the day. However, the dome had been fouling up recently and heatwaves that were more in tune with the desert had been passing through the city. No one knew why.
Lethe had taken up the newspaper. "Hey, slaughter of three kids in this little village."
"What's so amazing about people slaughtering three goats?"
"Sorry, I meant three boys."
Cocytus eyed her suspiciously. "Since when did you pick up street slang?"
She just rolled her eyes. "Since I touched her, remember?"
"Oh. Right. That."
"And anyway, what's interesting is that it says here something about a lightning demon is suspected. Family Of Del included in questioning."
"Let me see." He eyed the article. "So if this is the same Family Of Del, which is highly likely, then we know where Delirious came from."
"What, you wanna go check it out?"
He snorted.
"I'm not so bored. Besides," He slid a deck of playing cards out from his jeans pocket. "Cards anyone?"
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