Chapter 1: Oh How Cruel Is Fate
Zeta walked in the gardens of his homeland. It was a peaceful city that was also in the neutral zone.
His family and he were the royals of that city, and they’d decided that, to keep from being overtaken, they’d become cities that did not support, go against, or cause wars dealing with other nations.
They also tried everything in their power to keep from going to war themselves. They found that it was for the good of the people of their nation, and they were even willing to give themselves to save the people.
That is why the royal family was exceptionally beautiful. That is why they only reproduced to fill in the gaps of someone that has gone. They needed every royal that they could come up with, as there was always some twisted demon or other that wanted one for their own.
That was Zeta’s fate. He was the youngest son of the youngest brother of the current king.
There was a demon lord here, at the moment, threatening to overcome the city. At first, the other’s intentions were pure. He merely wanted the resources, because he’d been told that there was something here that could give him back his arm.
When Zeta was mentioned as being that ‘something’, the other smiled and realized that he was willing for a compromise.
He wanted a crucifix angel, but was never sure of how to get one. Now, he saw, the way to get one was to come to this place and demand something from them.
Sighing once more, Zeta realized – for the twelfth time since entering the garden – that he couldn’t exactly hate the man that was to be his owner. And, for the twelfth time since entering the garden, he curses himself and wonders what is wrong with him.
The demon seemed…different. He wasn’t like most of the power hungry demons that came to the kingdom, knowing exactly what they’d come there for. He seemed as though something were telling him to go there. Something were telling him that this was his only option.
He also seemed as though he were out of place amongst his own. As though he needed something more.
In truth, Zeta was right. Beta – his new owner – was indeed different. He wasn’t 100% demon. He was half demon and half devil, making him of a higher class than the rest, though none knew it.
If they did, he’d have been shipped off to the palace with the other devils and half devils, being put above those he’s held dearly all his life.
You see, demons are those for lower class. They are more robust and brutish than devils. They are mainly for manual labor, and war, because that is all their minds and bodies can really accept.
While devils, on the other hand, are made for tactics, and ruling, and fair judgment as far as you can get in a demonic civilization.
Beta had always hidden from himself. He didn’t know what these strange powers that he seemed to possess, but no one else in his family had were, so he hid them, and never used them, for fear that he was defective.
His deceased mother was unfaithful.
Beta was the youngest of his family. At only fifty, he’d already surpassed all of his siblings in just about everything, including strength, but not including brutality.
That should have been the obvious evidence to conclude that he was not from the same father.
Though Beta had been bourn within the same timeframe as if he were conceived by his father, in truth, his biological father was the king himself. Thus, explaining why he had everything but brutality under his belt buckle.
The king was a great man, wise in his ways, though he was known for being able to both hold his own in a fight, and manage to rough up the opponent. He was a man to be regarded with greatness, and he’d been a ruler for as long as anyone could remember.
Sighing, Beta thinks about his past. Thinks of the shame he’d first felt when he’d started off lighter than the rest of his family.
How his father had nearly killed him, and then only agreed to let him live if his mother began to work around the house as though she were a servant, and live that life as well.
The usually selfish woman agreed, and died when Beta was only 5 from pneumonia.
Beta had wanted nothing more than to curl himself up into a ball and cry his heart out, but he had a duty to uphold, or so he’d been told by everyone.
His siblings felt the same as he at their mother’s passing, but they handled it differently.
They took their grief and frustration out on the young man, blaming him and saying that if he had just been born ‘right’, she would still be alive.
That always confused Beta.
What was ‘right’ anyway?
There was no such thing as breeding mold that had everyone come out perfectly.
Just because he came out a lighter than them didn’t mean he wasn’t ‘right’. Did it?
He was confused all his life, but now, they couldn’t blame him for not being born like them. If he HAD been born like them, he wouldn’t have a crucifix angel, and have been able to do the one thing that no other from his kingdom had done: forged an alliance between himself and the royal family of Asgarnia.
While they didn’t like to get involved with outside nations, it wasn’t JUST in purposes of war.
Very seldomly did the proud people of Asgarnia associate themselves with those outside of there own and end up in an alliance, so if you had one of the few, you were highly revered and respected all around, and your name would go down in history.
However, Beta wasn’t interested in being famous. He just randomly got the alliance, because the leader respected his honestly, which was something rare amongst demons.
Sighing once more, Beta made his way back to the front of his house. He would wait for his new pet there, and then they would head on their way to be back by midnight; one in the morning at the latest.
oOoOoOo
Taking one last glance back at his room, Zeta sighs, walking down to where his new master was with his most prized possessions – the few things he’d been allowed to claim as his own in his life.
Crowing up in the royal family meant knowing that you would eventually be used for the benefit of the country. Knowing that you wouldn’t be able to take many things; so learning, as early as two, that you had to choose wisely, as you would not be able to see most things later on in life.
Your family included.
Sighing once more, Zeta makes his way down the stairs to where his new master awaited him. He didn’t want to go with the man. He didn’t want to be uprooted, but he knew that his country and his family were both in jeopardy if he didn’t.
Pushing that thought to the forefront of his mind, he managed to make it down the stairs and hand the new man his collar. However, once he felt the lock slide closed, he began to silently cry. He didn’t want this. He just felt so helpless, like he’d never be the same. Like he’d never be allowed to see the light of day again, or see anyone from his home.
He vaguely wondered if this was how his eldest brother felt, before he was lifted bridal style by the man, and carried to the carriage.
At first, he wondered why the other had done that, only to remember he wasn’t wearing shoes. Once given away, Crucifix angels weren’t allowed shows, as that would only encourage them to run away.
oOo
Once they were in the carriage, Zeta bites his bottom lip, leaning his head against the chest of his new master, and feeling oddly safe and protected. Pushing the feelings and desires to merely close his eyes and sleep there, he dares a question.
“Do you know Saya?” He quietly asks.
“Saya?” Came his master’s response.
“Yes…Saya. He’s my eldest brother. Do you know him? He looks exactly like my father…” he whispers in return.
There was silence as the man thinks, though Zeta began to worry after a while that maybe his tone had come across disrespectful, and the other was thinking of punishments or something.
Finally, the boy was put at ease. “Yes. He lives in the house we go to. My teacher’s pet. Why?” He asks the boy.
“May we see him?” Zeta asks, sitting up to look the other in the eyes.
“Yes…” His master answered, causing Zeta to fling his arms around his neck. He was thoroughly excited. So much so, that when he pulled back, he noticed – for the first time – that the carriage had begun moving.
He leaned his head out the window, his master’s hands on his slender waste so that he wouldn’t fall. This would be the last time that he would ever see his home; at least for a while.
Once the structure was out of sight, he sighs and leans back
