Xel’oshia  

Prologue: The world

A scent, one overpowering and invasive, one you couldn’t get away from. The scent of death and tortured souls, that’s the kind of thing one witnessed and lived with every day when living in Tartaron the hellish semi-plane and home of many demonic creatures.

This place was brewing with all kinds of activity, but of course all of those were in the veins of atrocity, pain and sadness. One could not find a spark of good in such a place, or so it seemed. In actuality, there was much more to this place and it’s inhabitants then what you’d see at first glance and not all of the living being there wished to hurt others. Although most of those kind souls where shunned upon by the others, they were still there in the shadows. Bidding their times and dreaming of living in another realm.

This is the story of one of them. This is Xel’oshia story.

Chapter 1: Blooming in the shadows

This was her safe haven, this was where she’d go everyday to be alone, to think about everything and anything or to simply lay down and relax. Today was not different then any other day and the young girl was lying in a field of plants in their blooming states.

The Flaming Wilther Crown were a very rare variety of plants that one could only find in the deeper ends of Tartaron, it had flowers of a few inches wide. It wasn’t that big or small, but it was more renowned for another of its properties. The flowers grew in set of five or six, never more and never less, that was something unheard of. But that too wasn’t why it was renowned for. It was because of the luminescent glow they were casting where ever they may grow, their favorite growing spots, in some non lighted area. Their favorite colors: Red, Orange and a Purple that goes close to Pink.

The girl was drowsing off; she was far from her worries and far from her house. They’d never find her there and they’d never be able to force her to do things she didn’t like here. Here in her heaven, in this field of never ending blissful colors. She could be safe and stay forever unbothered; it was soft, warm and had everything she could ever want except for food. That was her most important problem, maybe she could find a way to live off of the same food as the Wilther did? Could she?

She was in those thoughts, when her peace and quiet was broken up for her in the most unceremonious method ever. Someone shouted her name and launched a ball of energy running full speed toward her, rapidly gauging the strength of it. It was evident it was her getting hurt a lot or the flowers, what did they ever do to deserve that? They were only peaceful creature living off the magical energies of the walls, they never bothered anyone. Except maybe those creatures sensitive to light levels, but even then they usually didn’t live in the same area did they?

She pushed off of her right arm and in one beat of her wings, got up and away from the blast landing point. She closed her eyes for a second as the pure mana contained inside the flowers burned in a bright flash of white and the scent of charred chloroplast permeated the air.

“To what displeasure, do I own you to have disturbed me Beet?” Started the barely awoken girl, groaning softly and cursing the day she showed this place to her.

“I told you to stop calling me that!” Shouted the previously mentioned disturber of sleep

“Psht... That’ll be the day…” She started to reply, before being cut off

“Look no time for that today Xel!!” She cut her, hurriedly adding “Mom and dad sent me to get you, as I seem to be the only one that can do it when you decide to vanish…. Just be glad I didn’t just tell them where you were…” She added, just before she ran away back toward the secret entrance to this rocky cavern.

Xel’oshia St-Claire of her full name, looked on toward her vanishing sister with a grim expression, both her parents wanted her to go home. This certainly didn’t feel like a good omen down her back, literally gave her tremors. She looked around her with regrets, all those flowers that died and just because her pest of a younger sister wanted her to wake up. Did she really have to be so show offy too? It was great that she showed a good potential for offensives spells and destruction, but more and more Xel had started to see the other sides of life. She longed for peacefulness and in her world this was something that didn’t exist, it was a form of oddities and more then once she had been looked at like she was crazy. Even more when she displayed more emotions toward what was going on then just plain violence, envy, lust and some other emotions that seemed so characteristic of everyone else out there in Tartaron.

She lowered down and got on her knees, she looked right and left. Twice to be sure that her sister had really left the place, not feeling her personal aura anymore she allowed herself a breath and relaxed. Then the young demoness closed her eyes and started to feel around herself for the energy, she had tried to become one with the Wilther a few times. Just so she could get away from her troubles for a bit.

She had read many things about the fact there were many different types of magic in the multiverse and other semi-dimensions out there, she had tried her best to track down records of it even in here. But everything that wasn’t on destructive use of mana seemed to have been ‘destroyed’ she heard rumors of magic texts, scrolls and other artifacts that had other properties existing in her realm. But all of these were leading right to the Fiends Lords, these demons were the current leaders of the realm and their dark hands were everywhere. They were a nightmare for dreamers of better times and Xel knew better then to try and pursue those leads.

Relaxing a bit and with her eyes closed, she started to see an image of the flowers around her. She could feel their aura, it had its own energetic signature and she tried to get a grasp of it. She placed her hands down and touched the still warm crater that had until a few minutes ago been alive with Wilthers, she touched the remnants of the plants and tried with all her heart to give them energy. She didn’t know how to do anything else but destruction, but she tried to give them the same kind of energy she felt everywhere around her. She opened her eyes, when she felt tears fall on her hands and let out a sigh of despair. She just couldn’t do anything for them and it frustrated her so much, she felt like screaming and punching the smokey ground with all her might.  

Instead of that, she bit her lip and got up. Stretching up fully, some of her bone joints let out a soft crutching noise as they snapped a bit. She had been lying down for a few hours and she just realized it wasn’t the best thing ever on her wings, despite how much that carpet of plant was comfortable to her. She flapped them a few times, working out the kinks and then started her way toward home with a sway of her fine curvy hips and the swish of her tail.

Unbeknownst to her, several minutes after she had left a soft green glow started to appear. It was vibrant, weak a moment and stronger the next one. In the sea of flaming flowers, who were all lighted in oh so many colors. That particular green glow could have easily been missed, however its magical essence was singular and different then the rest of the living form present and there in the small crater. In an approximate form of two hands, small saplings of the flowers started to show through the remains of the previous ones. Growing faster then normal and feeding on that basic natural energy.

The young demoness had been gone for nearly half an hour when a small creature stepped once more in this small cavern, it walked in the flower with unnatural grace and seemed to be weighting nearly nothing as the flower barely even flinched on being stood on. Whatever it was, it was obviously interested by the spell that still lingered in the air. It sniffed and searched, touching with its three little fingertips the area affected by it. Soon evident that what had done this wasn’t there any more, it quickly vanished back to another figure outside. The second figure was standing much taller than the little creature, a good 6 feet and maybe some more. But it was a bit hard to ascertain the details of it as it was completely covered by a thick layer of clothes, worn on its figure like a cloak.

“A druidic spell you say?” The second figure spoke in a soft whisper and the tiny creature nodded its head in answer and said the other things it had found out. It was silent as it communicated via telepathy to the tall figure, communicating all it had found to its summoner and master.

“Very well… I’ll report it, but here…Who could do such a thing?” The figure started to walk, further thoughts kept to itself and silent as it started to go back toward inhabited areas. It quickly dismissed the little one a few minutes before reaching town, not needing it anymore for now and also not wanting to drag any unwanted attention.

Meanwhile

Xel had been walking on toward home, her feet were used to walking on terrains that were considered by most species to be unwelcoming to flesh. It went from the slightly hot ash of the field, which never seemed to cool even though eruptions were rare, and then it continued with the broken rocky feel of crispy stone as she neared town.

Despite all common senses, she had long since gotten used to the sights of her town. People being tortured, Merchants trying to sell anything to anyone, some even trying to hypnotize their clients into buying things they really didn’t need at all. There was the usual stare and fight routines of some species that didn’t like each other, she still didn’t quite grasp why they still showed up in town if they knew the others would be there. But they were and she certainly wasn’t about to try and talk some senses into them.

She continued deeper into it, slowly passing next to several buildings with some looking more run down then others. That was something that since her childhood had always amused her greatly, there were two kinds of views on houses and its values and both were so completely different it was real funny to watch.

There were peoples for who, the more broken, run down and close to decrepit a house looked, the better it was. And then there were the people for whom a house had to be strong, big and sturdy looking. You’d often see them repairing any fault on their terrain and take care of their lawn, which in Tartaron was a beautiful form of venomous grass more often then not, growing along with some carnivorous bushes. But to her, the real fun was to see those two kinds of person living next to each others and arguing on the others form of ‘care’ of their properties.

She continued deeper still, upon reaching the square she had a moment of revulsion. She looked on at all those Succubi and those Incubi courting and exchanging words with perfect strangers, trying to find a mate and trying to up their positions in the social ladder. Inside she boiled with rage and anger, cursing and then sighing as she continued her way onward. She would soon be home and she didn’t want a speech on anger issues.

The reason for all of that boiling of her mind was because she too was a succubus and she was coming of age to be getting wed, which was probably the reason her parents wanted her home at any rates. She hated that way of seeing things; she wasn’t an object to be had! She was a full fledged person!

Just because eons ago, a stupid mage had went and created her species for his pleasure and had went and created more for his friends. That didn’t mean they hadn’t grown from these ancients times and evolved. They were now a proud race and lived across many dimensions; too bad some of them like Tartaron were still treating them as a sub race and were nearly forcing them to slavery. It sucked especially more, knowing that they were representing nearly a fifth of the whole damned population here.

Reaching her frontward she sighed again, then pushing her dark thoughts out and away. She grabbed the iron key out of her one pocket and unlocked the door, she closed and locked it again once she was inside and stepped in slowly.

“I’m home ma!” She then called out, closing her mouth tight the very next second as a cold wave crept up her back and made her tremble for a second.

“Young lady, Where were you?”  Her mother’s cold voice resounded from the dark.
“I?! uh?! Eh?” She blinked, pulling her hands up on instinct of having been caught; her mother looked at her and shook her head in disappointment

“You’ve been wasting time and daydreaming again, haven’t you?”

“Well…. I….” She had been, but she didn’t want to tell her that. And so she searched for a way out of this terrible speech she was sure was close to follow.

“You’re lucky your father had to go in a hurry today, or else I would have made sure you’d have gotten the spanking you deserve. Now hurry and get eating, or it’ll be cold”

Xel quickly bowed her head to her mother and hurried to the kitchen, almost running there. She was both driven by the slight hunger she had developed and more importantly by a fear of her father coming back later that night to deliver one of his spanking. She winced as she remembered the last time it had occurred, it was four years ago and she hadn’t been able to sit correctly for a good two days to her ever lasting shame and to the great amusement of her younger sister. To that day, she still hadn’t completely retracted the idea that it could have been all her sister’s fault. But she lacked enough proofs to accuse her out loud, that with the fact that pranks were more the style of her older brother.

She sat down at her usual spot and took a whiff of the dinner that was set on the table, there wasn’t much to look at and it was just okay that way. Like any demon of her kind, she didn’t require a lot of substance to eat. Just a bit of protein here and there, bits of glucose and vitamins, very little in comparison to other humanoids of their sizes. What she really needed as sustenance was life force, energy or mana call it as you want. It was what she really needed to keep going and as much as she was sadden by it; the truth was that it was forcefully extracted here in this plane. Taken out of the prisoners and fed to all the inhabitants that needed it, she was sad because she knew and was sure in her heart that there was other ways to obtain it then hurting all of these peoples.

“You’re so grounded when dad comes back...” Came forth the pesky sharp voice of the sleep disturber now also known as Xel’s little sister, she was sitting next to her.

“Shut up beet…” Xel replied in the calmest tone she could muster, while taking a bite.

“Stop that!!!” She screamed, and almost climbed on her chair to jump on her.

“Both of you calm down now, I’m not done eating” This time it was her older brother that spoke, he was using his hypnotic suggestion as he talked. Actually he was almost always talking with it being active, saying it was helping him get even better.

He was the oldest of the three siblings by about two years and while he hadn’t much strength in the offensive department, he had inherited the charms from their mother side of the family and the incredible talent for voice activated power of their dad. He was in himself another form of oddity in Tartaron, but almost everyone was leaving him alone for fear of him hypnotizing them into a humiliating event. Her brother had the gift of a sense of humor that was very particular and different then the rest of them and hadn’t hesitated to use it against people in his way in the past, making the parents deal with discontented fellow that came ringing the doorbell and wanted reimbursement.

The two girls looked at each other embarrassed as the voice spell was now forcing them to stand down and calms from their previous angry state. They both mouthed silent curses and looked back at him as he ever so softly without a care in the world continued to eat.

“Stay out of this…” Finally muttered Xel with a glare

“I don’t think so, not if you keep calling her that name anyway” He simply replied.

Xel grumbled under her breath, she hated receiving comportment speeches and especially when coming from her brother. For many reasons, going from the fact he wasn’t that much older then her, to the fact he more often then not had a worst attitude then her. If she was calling her beet, it wasn’t because she hated her sister. It was simply to tease her, for her sister completed their trio of odd demon, she was the only succubus she had seen that got that red in the face whenever talking about boys. Even the younger one could talk about them without being all blushing, but her sister could barely stand talking about them without fainting.

“I’m not hungry anymore….” She said and got up, getting her glass of liquefied mana and walking out of the kitchen. She then went upstairs to her room and closed the door.

“Xel…” He tried to plead with her as she stood up, but her will was set and steeled and not even his best hypnotic spell could have stopped her. Not that he wanted to force her.

“I think I’m done for now too….” Said the younger sister as she stood up and walked away somewhere in the house, leaving him alone.

He looked at the both of them and shook his head softly, at 19 years old he was the oldest of the three siblings and his parents had made it clear that he had to lookout for his sisters and try to protect them from any danger. It wasn’t a problem and he did love them both very much, but trying to create peace and cease fire between them hadn’t been a very successful mission so far. He longed for the time he didn’t need to be so responsible and a time when they weren’t both hooking horns like some stupid jumping jack demons would do on instinct to defend their territories from each other. He leant back and sighed, finishing up his last food and then going back to his own turf in the house to relax.

Xel arrived to her room and leant against the door for a moment, the spell finishing dissipating. She breathed a sigh of relief as her heart started flaring with a moment of anger, she thought about going back down and clonking her brother’s head with a blunt object to teach him about using that trick of his on her again. But she knows it’s not worth the effort and will only lead to them feeling unsure about each other, she already have her sister and her parents on her back. She really doesn’t need troubles with her brother to add even more pressure to her life.

She moves over to her bed, still clutching the glass with swirling energy in her hand. She sat down on her bed and looked outside by her window, looking outside to her world. One can find beauty in everything if they look and with a smile she looked at the fiery aura of the sky, reflecting the furnaces flicking flames of the surfaces. Soon the night would come and the city was lighted with all kinds of activity. She could stay there for hours, looking at the dancing lights and sipping on energy. And she intended to do just that.

Her sister was in her own room and was crying softly on her bed, she had always loved Xel very much. But lately she had just kept getting angry at her and despite herself she had started to reply in very much the same manner. As they were growing up, it seemed they were growing apart and she hated the fact that no matter what she did it didn’t look like she could fix up their relations now.

Kahzhar stood in the doorframe of the younger girl for a moment, he had heard her sobbing as he made his way to his room and he just couldn’t leave her like that. So he thought about it a few more seconds and then softly walked to her, grabbing her softly and hugging her, even patting her back softly.

“You’ll see Wilkxie…. You won’t be against each other forever, it’s just a bad pass…”

“Bro?!” She snapped her eyes open, major surprised at his sudden action.

“Yeah, I don’t like you two fighting either…. So just give it a bit of time…” He said with a tiny smile, letting go of her and gently poking her nose.

“O-okay….” She answered unsure, but smiling a bit.

“There, that’s much better” He ruffled her hair and walked to her door “Try to rest now”

She nodded as he walked off; she looked downcast and thought about what had just happened. She didn’t remember him being so serious and there for her like that ever before, she couldn’t help but smile and grab her diary to note it. Once that would be done, then she could get ready to sleep.

He walked on to his room, taking a look at his mother’s closed door and nodding softly. He had gone once inside there without permission when he was younger and had been grounded for nearly a month for it. So he continued his way, without disturbing what ever she was currently doing. He would have liked to have a word with her about his sisters nit-picking, because he wasn’t sure how to solve it. But it would wait another day.

Xel finished her glass and placed it on the desk of her room, she moved over to the enchanted plate of polished metal that served of mirror to her and let out a sigh. She didn’t like what she saw very much, she had started to grow alright. But for her species it meant getting married and she still hated that idea, she didn’t hate boys. She just didn’t like the idea of not getting the choice of which man she’d spend her life with.

It was getting late and she didn’t want any more troubles than she already had, so she reached into her desk and pulled out a night dress. She softly slipped out of her dirty day clothes, letting them fall to the ground along with the supporting underwear and her belt with the pocket sewn directly to the leather. She placed the belt on the desk and resumed her preparations; she slipped the silk garment over her curvy body and slipped her wings in the holes made for them as her tail softly clung to one of her legs. She grabbed her comb and started to untangle her hair a bit, if she didn’t do that, she knew she’d have much more troubles in the morning. She was busy and minding her things, when a soft knock came to her door.

“Yes? What is it?” She asked, looking back at it and seeing her dad come in

“Hey sweetie” He said, with a soft smile as he got into her room.

“Sweetie? Weren’t you supposed to…. Uhmn…. Be angry with me?” The uncertainty was thick on her face as she looked at her father.

“Hey… You know we’re not like that…. You’re mother is just worried about you, even she has trouble saying it. We love you, you know that right?” He then said, sitting down.

“… Yeah I know…” She replied, sighing and looking back at her mirror as he nodded.

“Try and not skip school anymore okay? They always tell us and it’s getting out around to the whole neighborhood too. We had so much trouble with your brother already…”

“Dad….” She looked back at him and groaned as she said that “I’m not him…. I just… I don’t feel like I fit in with the rest, I don’t like that place…”

Her father looked at her for a moment and then looked back outside at the windows, he would have had sighed at her comment. But he knew her enough to know she was only speaking her mind, something he had always encouraged her to do. At the same time though, he was sad for her heart. He had learned a long time ago that ones cannot fight the system on its own without consequences and he also wished she would find her happiness. Such a difficult and biased feeling when she wanted nothing to do with norms.

“You’ll see…. Someday you’ll be happy about all of that, someday you’ll fit right in and you’ll have a life that you’ll like, with persons that you’ll care about and for whom you’ll do anything.” He stood up again and walked to her, gently patting her shoulders. “Just promise me to try it okay? Things are not all dark”

“Alright dad, I will…” She said smiling back at him, he might not have all the answer and he might be an ordinary demon in the seas of Tartaron. But her father always seemed to be able to find the right words to cheer her up.

With another smile he left her room and made his way deeper into the house, he had closed her door behind him and she was left there smiling softly. She looked back in the mirror and finished doing her hairs.

“Maybe he’s right, maybe I just need to hang on a bit longer and I’ll find my way in there...” She giggled at the prospect of being happy and finding the right man for her. She quickly extinguished her lamp and snuggled under her blankets; they were warm and soft and had always made her feel good. She closed her eyes as she started to fall asleep with a soft smile on her lips, whispering.

“Tomorrow…. I can make myself a happy future….”

End of chapter 1