by WolfWinter » Sat Oct 06, 2018 1:00 pm
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Username
WolfWinter
Gender
Male
GFBP
Male
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Ｖｅｒｉｔａｓ
Ｏｆ Ｈｅａｒｔｓ ａｎｄ Ｒｏｓｅｓ
Veritas double checked his watch before walking up to the door. His knocking was quick and precise. Nerves wracked his body the longer he stood out on the step. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the door opened and all of his fears were washed away. His date stood there looking like the cover of the viscet fashion magazine "Tufted". A bowtie was tied around his neck and it suddenly felt too tight as he went up to hug him. He had decided to be very romantic for tonight's date, and had flowers waiting in the car. Veritas hoped it would be enough, it had to be enough. His heart skipped a beat in his chest, and the fear came rushing back.
The night was a very pleasant one. He and Simone ate dinner at their favorite restaurant, before going to see a play that Simone had just been dying to go to. While he was as focused as he could be on enjoying the night, a little box and a demon kept gnawing at his thoughts. He told the demon to leave him alone, and made sure the box remained firmly shut. Finally, they came to the spot he had picked out. It was along the river, with cheery yellow lamp posts that made it all seem like a dream. But it wasn't. Simone was there with him, and he was going to propose. Show that demon, telling me my heart isn't my own! This will show her...
They stood holding hands, leaning against the railing. Then Veritas stepped back. He watched the confusion, shock, and then excitement play out on Simone's face. He pulled out the ring box, and got down on one knee.
"Simone, when I first met you, I didn't think that I would ever find love. Why, well, we can talk about that later. Right now is about us, in this moment. I love you Simone, and want to spend the rest of my life with you... Simone, will you marry me?" He finished in a rush, voice shaky because of the fear and excitement.
His answer was a squealed "Yes!" and being nearly knocked into the ground with the force of the hug. He put the ring onto Simone's hand while his own shook. He was waiting for the repercussions that were promised if he did something like this. Falling in love was out of his cards. Just as he stood up, a grin of relief on his face, he felt his chest hurt. His vision began to black out, and the last thing he saw was his fiance's concerned face as he fell to the ground.
The heat was soothing, or it tried to be. His mind was screaming at him to wake up, and leave this place, but he couldn't... The heat was too tempting... too comforting... A pair of eyes like molten rock looked out at him from the darkness, as she reached to tear his heart out of his chest. After all, it was rightly hers...
He gasped as he sat up, and looked round in confusion. The bright white of the hospital room was startling to the comforting glow of... wherever that was. Then the fear set in. It was forced comfort, she had hijacked his mind,again. Simone startled awake from his seat, and quickly went over to hug Veritas. They both started crying, but for very different reasons that only one of them knew. Veritas was dreading this talk from the moment he learned the truth about his mother...
When he was released with instructions to take it easy, Veritas went over how to bring it up to Simone. His chest had a dull ache. Even from her prison she had this much control over him. He hated it. The car ride was agony. She was enjoying his pain. How could she not? Pain and suffering were her domains. He screamed in his head for her to leave him alone, and he heard her cackle in his mind as she slunk back to her prison. Walking up the steps to his apartment felt like he was climbing a mountain. The entire time iImone was silent. It was not a good silence.
Finally, Simone helped him sit on the couch before going to the kitchen to make some tea. Veritas gathered himself to bring it up when Simone shoved a mug into his hands.
"Talk," he said, sipping angrily on his own tea.
Veritas went to speak but was cut off, "Wha-"
"Talk, what caused the heart attack? You've always been a health nut, and I've been with you to several doctor's appointments. No mention of any heart issues. So what caused it? I know you that you know, you get this look on your face when you want to tell me something," Simone was angry, and Veritas didn't blame him one bit.
He dove into his explanation, "Okay, this is, extremely complicated. Please, let me talk, this will make sense when I'm done... I hope. You know my parents, and that they adopted me as an egg. What you didn't know is that, I didn't come from an ordinary egg. I came from an egg on fire, an egg that melted most metal and rock on contact. The closer it came for me to hatch, the hotter my egg became. My parents hid this from everyone, for fear that They would take me away from them. They must've done it right, because I was never taken. They didn't know where my egg came from. Just that one day there was egg buried in their yard. Luckily, they took me in that day and had the adoption filed through with help from a lawyer friend.
"When I hatched. My eggshell turned into volcanic ash. Instead of keeping bits of eggshell to remember my birth, they kept the ash. The dragon urn that sits on their mantel? That doesn't hold the ashes of grandma Leanne. It holds the ashes from my egg. It's important, because it was through those ashes, that I learned about my birth mother. A few years ago, before I met you, I started getting horrible migraines. I went to the doctor, but nothing worked. I had to leave work because they made it impossible to function, let alone stare at computer screens and bright lights all day.
"That was when I learned about how my parents found me. After they told me, they gave me space, and went outside. I remember sitting on the couch, staring at the urn like it would burst into flames. Then pain like nothing I had ever known struck. I was writhing on the floor in silent agony. I watched the ashes flow like cold lava from the urn towards my chest. It burned. I felt something inside me break. Through the walls that were torn down, she came through. Like molten rock burning everything in her path, and shaping my very soul to what best suited her. My mother. A demon of pain and suffering, locked inside a volcano. Doomed to be a part of it until the day the Earth itself dies.
"She hated her prison, she told me. She wanted to be free, just like everyone else. She tried to use my own ideals against me, and when that didn't work, she used force. Then something surprising happened. There was a calm in her tirade as she searched my mind. She learned that I wanted to fall in love, get married. She laughed at those dreams and said they would be impossible. When I asked why, she said it was because my heart wasn't my own to give. It belonged to her. If I participate din any ceremony that would bind my heart to another's, she would claim it then and there. I didn't believe her, not until I met you.
"When I met you, and started to fall for you, Simone, I thought I could beat her. Then she visited me again. She told me her name that time. Ignis Mortem. Fire Death. Even her name was a reflection of who and what she was. She said that I would only get a few short years with you. To make sure the point was driven home she squeezed my heart. I didn't know it was possible. I woke up on the floor. Since that day, I tried to find a way to break her hold on me, but it's impossible. Her blood runs through my veins. She will always have a hold on me. Simone, I'm sorry. I'm selfish. Even after learning that I wouldn't be able to marry you I still tried. I'm sorry."
Veritas broke down sobbing, and then Simone wrapped his arms around him. They cried together, for the future they'd never have. Then Simone spoke.
"We will find a way to break her hold on you. If not, then we'll die trying. I love you Veritas Amar," he said softly.
True to his word, they looked. Any place that may have a clue, they searched a dozen times. They were feeling especially hopeless when they turned on the news. It was about a volcano erupting in the pacific. THey almost changed the channel when the image of a young volcanologist appeared on the screen. They turned the TV up. It changed to a video of the doctoral candidate talking about the volcano, and how it seemed alive. It was an obituary to him. When he was sent as part of a team to place instruments on the volatile volcano it had erupted. He was the only casualty. Something about the way he had spoken reminded Veritas of how he felt when his mother was inside his mind.
"Simone, where did they say that voclano is?" he asked.
Simone pulled out a notepad and wrote it down as he spoke, "Somewhere in the South Pacific. It shouldn't be too hard to find an active volcano..."
How wrong they were. It was like someone had scrubbed the entire internet of all information about the volcano. They groaned. a week went by, and still nothing. Every lead became erased. As if it was never event here. Simone became so frustrated he threw his tablet at the couch before storming off. Veritas approached him. Simone was looking out the window, playing with the ring on his finger as a way to calm himself down. When he was about to speak, Veritas' phone rang. It was on the table.
He ran to it to answer it in time, and answered the phone out of breath (everything was taking a toll on him, these days), "Hello? Who's this?"
The voice of an older woman came on the phone, "Stop looking into the volcano, for both your sakes. That blasted mountain brings nothing but misery-"
"That mountain is the reason I'm dying. Who is this?"
A sigh, "I worked with Agni before he fell into that volcano. I'm trying to protect everyone. I can't do that if you two keep sifting through the internet drawing the attention of less kind people than me. G out and buy several burners, call me from one of them using this number from it. I'll give you both more instructions then."
The call ended. They did as she asked. Once trust was established, she took them to her lab at home. Her name was Dr. Lee, and she was the head volcanologist on the doomed team. She told them her theories. Veritas was shocked to learn that most of the equipment survived the eruption. Dr. Lee told them each piece of equipment left on the volcano wouldn't be working without someone there to maintain it.
"That's why i think he's still alive. Agni was such a good young person. He could've done great things, and he's helping protect everyone from that cursed place and they can't even know about it. That demon needs to stay hidden..."
That caught Veritas' attention, "Did you say demon?"
"Yes, I did. It's the only fitting word for that volatile mountain!" she practically hissed the words out.
He nodded his head, and was interrupted before he could speak.
"Now, when I first called you, what did you mean when you said that the volcano was making you die?" she asked.
He sighed, and sat down in the offered chair, "She, ah, the volcano is alive. I know, because, she's my mother. I don't know how, please don't ask, but she is. She is a demon that was trapped inside of it. Because her blood runs through my veins, she owns me. My health has been failing because of it. I know this is hard to believe bu-"
"That makes sense. It's the only explanation for everything I've seen, and who I've seen..." she trailed off, and clutched at something under shirt. Simone looked at him with and arched his brow.
"Dr. Lee, if I may ask... what's that you'r holding?" Simone asked.
"It's a gift from someone who swore to watch over me. So far, they've kept their promise. As long as I wear this, that volcano can't invade my mind and hurt me. Believe me, it - she- , has tried." She said matter of factly, pulling it out to show them.
Simone gasped, and looked at Veritas. The look wasn't a good one, Veritas shook his head, and Simone reluctantly relaxed again.
"How does it work?" Veritas asked.
"I don't know. Frankly, I'd call it magic! I've been trying to understand it, it follows a set of rules much in the same way as the laws of physics. I just don't know what those are. The one who gave this to me, said to never take it off. I haven't. If what you say about the volcano being a trapped demon, and your mother, are true, then I'll see what I can do to get you one too. I'll try contacting them, but they have their own responsibilities, and may not get back to me for some time," she said, rubbing the softly glowing crystal.
Simone looked at Veritas anxiously, before getting up and hugging him. Dr. Lee watched this all with her stern, but not unsympathetic eyes. That night his mother came to visit him in his sleep.
Lava pooled around him. It was warm where it touched him. He wasn't scared of it burning him. He was scared of it surrounding him. Some deep instinct told him he didn't want so be surrounded by the rock. He clawed at empty space to get out. He tried to find the rim, but there was none. Lava rising as far as his eyes could see. Then suddenly, he felt someone grabbing his outstretched hands. The lava that clung to him cooled and broke off as the person sent energy through his body into the lava below him.
"That's enough Ignis. Leave him alone."
An island in the sea of lava. He looked up and saw someone who all but one had said was dead. Agni looked at him, energy was shoved at him and then he felt himself leaving this plane.
Veritas woke up clutching his chest. it wasn't pain, it was an absence of something. He looked at his chest, and saw bright lava dripping from where his heart was. He started to panic, then realized that the wound didn't go all the way down, and that the lava was his blood. He touched it with cautious hands, and it changed back to how it normally looked. Simone looked up groggily from the bed.
"Veri? Everything okay?" he asked.
Veritas looked back at his fingers, and the blood was gone, "Yeah, everything's fine. I'm getting back in bed."
He looked at his chest, and everything that had been there was gone. The smell of volcanic ash lingered. He carefully crawled into bed, trying not to wake Simone anymore. He lay there until the sun came up.
When it was time to get up, he gently woke Simone. The smell of bacon and hash browns drifted up the stairs. It didn't take much to wake up Simone. When they went downstairs, they were surprised to see a strange viscet in the kitchen, making breakfast. Dr. Lee sat at the table drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. She looked at them over her glasses, and smiled. Veritas thought he was seeing things, but now, he wasn't. The stranger had antlers, but not just any antlers. There were candles on them. Burning and flickering with a green flame.
"So, you're Ignis' only surviving child," he said, turning around and filling a plate for each of them.
Veritas sat down in a haze. Simone stood behind him and looked at the stranger with suspicion.
"Who are you? How do we know we can trust you?" Simone snarled.
Dr. Lee chuckled, and answered for him, "This is Borean. He's the one who gave me this crystal. When I contacted him, he came right away. He brought the materials to make one for you too, since yours will have to be made, ah, specifically for your biology. Oh, and I hope you weren't planning on going anywhere today. We're snowed in."
Sure enough, they could see the snow outside going up to the windows.
"Wait, what, how is this possible? It's May" Simone asked, staring wide-eyed at Borean.
"It was the only way to get here as quickly as I needed to. Now, Veritas. Please come here before you eat," said Borean.
Veritas stood up and walked over to the looming viscet. The flames flickered softly. He was asked to give him his hand. He did. Borean pulled out a large piece of crystal, no Ice. He could see the water dripping off of it. It smelled like the sea. Borean pulled out a needle, and pricked his finger. He winced, hoping that the strange lava thing from last night wouldn't happen. It didn't. The moment his blood touched the ice, His mind and body exploded in agony.
"How DARE you seek help from one of the Ice Kings! For this I'll have your heart AND your soul!"
She screamed in rage, he screamed in pain. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. He looked down, and a crystal that looked like churning magma rested on his chest. It was changing shape, and became a perfectly round globe. He leaned his head back against the floor as he caught his breath. Veritas then realized his mind felt clear. His body didn't hurt like before, that dull ache in his chest was gone. Simone dove at him and they cried in a mess of fur and arms. When he looked up Borean was giving him an odd look.
"You have your own magic. I didn't expect that. None of her children in the past have. Do you know who your father was?" asked Borean. Veritas shook his head no.
Their celebrations were cut short with a banging on the door. Dr. Lee had them hide in her basement with her. Borean answered the door. They heard footsteps, and muffled talking. No fighting broke out. Borean yelled at them to come out. Standing behind Borean was Agni Smith, with a path of melted snow behind him. Dr. Lee ran to her former student and hugged him. He awkwardly patted her on the back. Then he looked at Veritas. In that moment Veritas knew that Agni wasn't Agni anymore. He had never known him, but the very energy he was giving off wasn't that of a normal person.
"Dr. Lee, please. I'm all right, but I'm not the person you once knew. I'm not Agni Smith, my name is Glass. I'm here to give you all a warning, and to ask for your help. It's Ignis Mortem. She broke out of her prison..." he trailed off as the ground beneath their feet rumbled. The images before him broke like glass shattering. Reality itself was breaking before Veritas' eyes.
"You are mine... I claim you Veritas Amar. Enjoy your stay in my prison..." she cackled, and his body become one with the molten rock flooding around him. He was drowning, and this time there was no one to save him. She tried to grab is soul as she left, but couldn't. He felt her mentally shrug as she left him there. Everything became murky, he couldn't see, couldn't hear, but he could still feel, and he wept. Despair grabbed at him, and he gave in to it.
Simone stared at where Veritas had been standing, and now he was just gone. He clutched his hand with the ring to his chest, and vowed to find Veritas. Wherever the demon Ignis Mortem had sent him he would find him.
Last edited by
WolfWinter on Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:08 am, edited 7 times in total.
