The Demon Lord and his Hero

Syryn was anxious all evening. Taking a cue from Enkansh, he channelled the restless energy into exploring his home with Levia. 

He first came across an enormous garden where they grew several kinds of plants. The longer Syryn stared at the plants, the more familiar they began to seem to him. He was overjoyed to find that he was able to identify two of them. 

"Little blue beak," he whispered, caressing a delicate looking flower. 

"Meow." 

Syryn sharply turned to the right where a snow-white cat with blue eyes was staring at him. The cat was majestic to behold. It had luxurious thick white fur that appeared silky and clean. Its eyes were a shade of blue that Syryn hadn't seen on anyone else.

Levia made a growling sound and sniffed the air. She canted her head at the cat who merely rolled its eyes. 

"Milky," he whispered. Syryn's eyes went wide. He had remembered the cat's name. "Milky!" 

Milky's tail swished from side to side and lazily blinked. The kitty then turned away from the human and looked behind him where an orange cat was daintily trotting towards them.

[How does my memory work? Sometimes I remember things without even trying to.]

Thats just how it is. Wisps of memory can escape my hold and I have no control over it.

[Will that cause problems?]

No. 

"mrrreeoow!" 

The orange tabby greeted Syryn and he began to wind his fat body between the human's legs. 

"What are you called?" He asked the cat. 

"Meow," the cat replied as he rubbed his head against Syryn's pants. 

Crouching down, he petted the cat and observed it sniffing Levia's flank. The monster backed away from the cat and hid behind Syryn. 

"He won't hurt you!" Syryn said to Levia as he began to laugh at her timidity. 

Levia made a sound of disagreement and ran into the thick vegetation of the garden. 

"Levia!" Syryn called out but she was gone. 

____

Riha had been learning to cook. He made a simple dinner for everyone and retreated back into his room. The siren and the selkie were very similar in nature if they looked past the prejudice they had against each other. There was no enmity between them but it was going to take a while before they got comfortable being around each other. 

"Syryn, why are you covered in mud?" Alka asked the mage who was walking back to the house with Levia behind him. 

"Her fault," he pointed to the little monster who was also caked in mud. 

"Take a bath before you come for dinner. I can't have you track mud inside the kitchen, Syryn." The plant mage turned to the house and shouted, "Riha, we need rain."

"Coming," Riha's voice floated out of an open window. 

"And where's Rowan?" Alka asked when he turned back to the mage. 

Syryn had been distracted by Levia but now he was back to worrying about Rowan again. 

"Lunch with the royals. He told us we don't have to wait for him if he gets late." 

A tiny wrinkle appeared between Alka's brows. "Did he say why they invited him?" 

"No," Syryn replied, feeling a pit form in his stomach. "Should I be worried?" 

The plant mage shook his head. "Rowan is a powerful anti mage respected by everyone. I'm sure the king wanted to meet Rowan for something related to the country's security." 

"Right," Syryn replied. Rowan wasn't dressed like he was out having a meeting about the security of anyone. The blond had gone out looking like he was on his way to a ball. 

Levia jumped in surprise when the sound of thunder broke through the air. Within seconds, a downpour of rain fell upon them soaking not only Syryn and Levia but also Alka. 

The plant mage's hair was plastered to his face as he put his hands on his hips and sighed. 

"Scrub yourselves," he told the duo then walked off to stand under the eaves of the kitchen where he proceeded to wring cold water out of his clothing.

___

Dinner was tasteless on Syryn's tongue. He wasn't even paying attention to what was going inside his mouth. 

"Syryn, what's wrong with you?" Red asked him. 

The mage tried to play it off as tiredness but the redhead wasn't buying what Syryn was selling. 

"Is this about Rowan meeting the royal family?" He bluntly asked. 

Salem and Alka pretended they weren't listening in. Enkansh though looked at Syryn expecting something interesting to be said. 

"Mmm," Syryn responded.

"Rowan would never cheat on you," Red said to the mage. "Your boyfriend would kill himself before he betrays you." 

They were the words of a child but Syryn was oddly comforted by them. 

"He's obsessed with you, unhealthily so," Red continued. "And everyone can attest to that fact. Right Alka? Salem?" 

The two called out by Red nodded their heads.

"Rowan had been in love with you long before he realised what his feelings for you meant," Alka said to the mage. 

"He secretly burned many love letters that were delivered every morning when he started living here. You never caught a whiff of it but I counted close 205 letters that went up in smoke," the half-elf confessed. "Rowan asked me not to tell you because he worried that you might get jealous." 

Syryn was grateful that his friends was trying to comfort him but the things they were saying made him pause. 

"Rowan isn't obsessed with me," he told the redhead. "Was I a very jealous boyfriend?" He then asked Salem and Alka. 

"Not really," Salem replied. "In Rowan's defence, anyone would go crazy if they saw their significant other receive so many letters from his admirers." 

Red snorted at that. 

Salem raised his blond brows at the boy. "Do you have something to say, Lucien?" 

"Nothing. I just think it's funny that you're now defending Rowan when you guys were rivals competing for Syryn's affections." 

The table went quiet and someone cleared their throat. 

"Pass me the salt, please," Alka politely told Enkansh.

Syryn was feeling more awkward than Salem. He could tell from the smirk on the half elf's face. 

"No, what's funny is that the parties involved have all moved on and you haven't. Why is that so, Red?" 

"Can't we talk about the past without accusing each other of not moving on? It's called reminiscing, Salem." Red was just looking to stir up drama in the house, everyone could tell. Normally, Salem would ignore the brat but he was in the mood for a friendly quarrel tonight. 

"Alright, then let's reminisce about what you did when Rowan and Syryn weren't home." 

Now Red appeared annoyed. He lowered his lashes to the plate of food and shrugged. There was nothing he could do to stop Salem from airing his dirty laundry in public. 

"Maybe we should have this conversation another time," Alka suggested. 

"No, no, let's listen to what Salem has to say." Syryn was curious to know what the naughty redhead had been up to. 

The blond alchemist poured himself a cup of water and then took a drink. Placing it on the table, he looked directly at Red. "Should I tell them about the dead person you buried in the forest?" 

All eyes were already on Red. The child frowned at Salem. "What are you talking about?" 

"You know, the bearded man. Tall, burly, brown pants and a black shirt stained with his blood."

"Oh Lucien," Alka exclaimed softly. "I told you to do it when everyone was asleep." 

Enkansh and Syryn were both shocked at the implications of the conversation. 

"You killed a man?!" Syryn asked the child. 

"Of course I killed him," Lucien replied in a tone that made it known to them that he didn't regret it at all. "That guy tried to burgle the house and was caught by Riha. Anyone that sees the selkie has to be silenced." 

"Isn't that a bit extreme though?" Syryn asked, still unable to believe that a literal child had murdered a grown man. 

"No. What do you suggest I should have done then? Cut his tongue out and crippled his fingers? Because that's the only way we could have prevented him from non-magically communicating Riha's existence to another party." 

"I know I brought this up to get him into trouble but I want you to know that I support Red's decision," Salem interjected. "That man was unlucky to have broken into our home." 

Enkansh wondered about the sort of people he was living with. If murder came so easily to a child then what about the adults who were supporting the child's actions?

"Look, Syryn," Red said to his brother. "This is exactly the scenario you were trying to avoid. That's why we're growing a corpse tree in the garden. We're hoping that its aura scares off interlopers." 

"What is a corpse tree and why can't we hire or buy normal security?" Syryn asked the child. 

"Weren't you listening, Syryn? We can't let outsiders see Riha. Forget normal security, our best bet is the corpse tree." 

"I meant hounds, not people. We can hire trained animals as security." 

"They're not good enough to thwart the crazy fuckers that you've antagonised. We've made enemies out of the house of shadows, Syryn. We need corpse trees, dead people, runes, and magical traps to keep this house secure!" 

It was all a little too much for the mage to suddenly process. "Dead people?" 

"Yes, hi, I'm Lucien Rivenspire, a necromancer in training. I raise dead bodies. I'm going to raise the dead burglar and have him become a guard." 

Syryn's spoon clattered onto the plate. 

"Someone give my brother some smelling salts. He looks like he's about to faint." 

"Enough, Red. Syryn, why don't you go to bed?" Alka suggested kindly.

It was Enkansh's first dinner with Syryn's family but the conversation was already so wild. 

"I'm sorry, Syryn. I shouldn't have brought it up," Salem said to the tongue tied mage. 

"It's fine," he replied. "We're all a group of misfits living together so I guess I shouldn't really be surprised about anything anymore."

"I'll drink to that," Alka raised his glass of wine.