The Chronicles of Faylon: Saahira | Chapter 32 (Patreon)

The walk to Lillith’s classroom weighed Saahira’s feet and rustled the butterflies in her stomach. It was a completely different kind of apprehension than when she’d first arrived at the sanctum. This wasn’t a room filled with bright-eyed students that she would confront. No. Two of the most intimidating presences she’d ever met awaited her, and only her, down the winding staircase.

Saahira adjusted the hex ward at her wrist, fingering the smooth gemstone with a deep breath. She couldn’t decide which outcome was worse—Lillith finding the demon who had attacked her, or Lillith unable to trace the signature. While a sure discovery would potentially put an end to the threat, could Saahira really face someone who wanted to kill her? Bullying from a handful of her peers was difficult enough. But what would she find inside the gaze of someone who wished her dead?

 Torchlight flickered against Saahira’s skin and hair, catching glints of violet from her wrist. Every step felt heavier as she approached, and a thin blanket of sweat coated her face and back despite the cool air. When she rested her hand on the door to the classroom, her fingers felt numb. As if she were watching another person move her body from outside her consciousness.

She closed her eyes and breathed, mentally placing herself back at the top of Ludus’s tower with Cyprus. One, two, three… His hand on her waist, hers on his shoulder. The lights around their feet. Music wove between the heartbeat in her ears, and her chest felt light again.

It’ll be all right, Cyprus’s voice assured her.

It was so strange hearing him and not the choir. They’d been uncharacteristically silent since they’d spoken through the masks. There had so rarely—

-You delay the inevitable, Saahira.-

Ah. Of course.

With one final breath, she pushed the door open and entered the classroom.

The obsidian tables were empty, save for one at the front of the room nearest Lillith, where Professor Lodovico and a man Saahira didn’t recognize flanked a dark-haired woman sitting between them. She wore the black robes Saahira had seen on the servants during mealtimes. Lillith stood at the front of the classroom, her hand and attention resting on a silver cage that came up to the succubus’s hip. Its thinly spaced bars hinted at a dark, undulating silhouette held behind them, one that seemed to swell in Saahira’s direction the moment she stepped inside the room. The bars vibrated with the motion, and Saahira fought her first instinct to run.

“Good evening, Miss Montarac.” Saahira’s gaze snapped to the man beside Lodovico. “I believe this is the first time we’ve been formally introduced. I am Headmaster Erato.”

Saahira’s eyes widened. The headmaster appeared…younger, than she had expected. Younger than her father, even. Golden hair and intelligent blue eyes adorned a chiseled face that suggested forty years at most. The only betrayal of his age were the tiny wrinkles in the corners of his eyes when he smiled. His dark brown robes were the color of chocolate, embellished with a red sash and delicate golden accents.

A black cane with a bird’s skull carved from gold serving as its grip rested in his right palm. He gestured with his left hand to Lodovico and Lillith. The leather gloves he wore looked soft and supple, shaped perfectly to his fingers. “Thank you for joining us.”

Nia’s brief etiquette lesson struck Saahira like lightning, and she bowed. “O-Of course, headmaster.” She straightened and carefully made her way to the front of the room, ensuring her steps were light and her shoulders were even, attempting to emulate even a fraction of the grace Nia and Cyprus carried without a thought.

“Professor Lodovico and Lillith apprised me of the situation,” Headmaster Erato said. “As I am sure you understand, the safety of my students is of the utmost importance. To know a member in my employ would betray my trust and confidence to bring harm to one under my charge pains me greatly.”

So it really was the sanctum’s uniform that the woman beside him wore. Saahira turned to confront her, and the servant stared back with dark, blank eyes. She couldn’t have been more than ten years Saahira’s senior.

“Do you know this servant, Miss Montarac?” Lodovico asked.

Saahira studied the woman’s face. There was nothing that stood out as familiar to her—every feature would have blended in so easily with a crowd. If she had been one of the servants in the dining hall, Saahira didn’t remember her, or her demon, at all. “No, sir.”

“Her name is Madora Roderic. She’s tended to the ladies’ dormitories for four years.” The headmaster looked down at Madora and shook his head. “She’s said very little since we brought her here.”

“How did you find out that it was her?” Saahira asked.

“Just as we have every student’s and staff member’s energy signature in our records, Lillith maintains a list of all demon energy signatures present on sanctum grounds. It was a perfect match,” Headmaster Erato explained.

“Did she say why?” Saahira asked.

“No,” Madora said before the others could reply.

Saahira met the eyes of the woman who had nearly killed her. Where Saahira had expected contempt, hate, or disdain, Madora’s gaze was glassy and unmoving. They were utterly empty.

“Then why?” Saahira whispered. “Why me?”

Silence. Just Madora’s placid, vacant gaze. No spark of recognition. No fire, no fury. Nothing. It was like talking to a doll.

“Bynraen x'lori!” the demon in the cage roared, slamming itself against the bars. Saahira spun on her heel and took a step back. Now that she was closer to the cage, she could make out more than just the silhouette. A dozen beady eyes blinked at her from a pitch-black, malleable body. Tiny, wriggling hairs coated it from top to bottom, and it moved and convulsed on its belly like a worm.

Lillith frowned, holding out an arm to keep Saahira at a distance.

“Bynraen x'lori!” The demon opened its giant maw, revealing three rows of teeth as it shrieked. The words were familiar. Saahira watched the dark mass continue its onslaught against the unmoving bars while it cried out.

“Silence your beast, Madora,” Lodovico snapped at the empty-eyed woman.

Madora gazed up at him without a shred of emotion on her face. She raised her hands to her chest, clinking chains following behind the shackles gripped around her wrists. In flat, inflectionless words, she said, “Free me first.”

Lodovico narrowed his eyes. “Silence him, or I will.”

Madora shrugged and placed her hands back in her lap.

“Bynraen x'lori!” It continued howling like a mantra, searing the phrase into every ear that could hear it. Eyes bulging at Saahira with a hunger that demanded to be sated.

Khuwadzi… Saahira realized. Moborí’s demon had murmured the same thing while her hearing was enhanced.

“Chaos? What is he saying, Lillith?” Headmaster Erato asked.

A sardonic smile twitched at the corner of Lillith’s mouth. “He calls Saahira the ‘Paramour of Chaos.’”

The headmaster touched his chin. “Does this name hold any significance to you?”

“Oh, yes,” Lillith murmured. “It—”

“Lith ter’nys!”

A sensation eerily similar to the gut-churning drop of translocation turned Saahira’s stomach, and she gasped.

Lodovico’s attention shot to Saahira’s face just as warmth flooded her wrist and the violet stone sparkled to life. “Cistilion lith ter’nys.” Whether it was the stone or Lodovico’s counter hex, the discomfort vanished, and her mind quieted. Lodovico glowered at the demon and murmured, “Gal tor’vyn sylis.”

The demon gaped, gnashing its teeth together and slamming its body against the bars. Throwing its head back, it made the same gesture to scream as it had before, but no sound emerged.

“That’s better,” Lodovico said.

-Pathetic Chthonia.- There was so much vitriol in the choir’s words. Saahira clenched her teeth, overcome by a desire to lash out. Even more so than when Lillith had threatened to prevent them from speaking with Saahira.

The professor turned to Madora. “Did you grant him the right to cast magic independently?”

Madora maintained her gaze on her demon, her thin lips pulled into a tighter, thinner line. She said nothing.

“It may have been a part of their original pact, or she granted him the right recently,” Lillith supplied. “That is within the powers of a summoner. As you know, my darling Tristan gave me permission long ago to do the same.”

Lodovico glanced between the succubus and the headmaster, mouth poised to speak. He seemed to think better of it, sealing his lips and clasping his hands behind his back.

“It seems that all he knows are hexes. Fortunately for us, Agandaur, you had the foresight to give Saahira a ward,” the headmaster said.

Lodovico nodded and squared his shoulders. “Not that she would need it with me here.”

The same disconnect Saahira had felt just outside the classroom returned. As if she were watching herself piece through a puzzle she had little hope of understanding. Paramour of Chaos… The term repeated in her mind with the same pattern and urgency as the two demons who had uttered it.

Kneeling, Lillith brought her head level with the Chthonia’s many eyes. “Aieuz, you feel what it is not to breathe. To be trapped in a cage.”

Aieuz rocked back and forth so desperately that it was a wonder the cage didn’t move at all.

“Tell me, and you will not have to suffer. Why would you harm Saahira?” Lillith swished her tail toward Lodovico.

With one simple whisper, breath and voice returned to Aieuz. 

The demon churned, fighting for air, snorting and growling. “You…have spent too many years with mortals, Lillith…” His voice was low and gravelly, teeth grinding the syllables as if he were chewing on each one. “You smell just like them.”

“Again, Agandaur,” Lillith instructed.

Lodovico’s expression suggested that he did not appreciate taking commands from the succubus, but he spoke the words again without hesitation. Aieuz pantomimed another silent scream.

“Madora, Aieuz has flourished at your side for quite some time, hasn’t he?” Headmaster Erato asked.

Madora’s ivory complexion had sallowed. “Yes.”

“And you are content to see him tortured?” The headmaster rested his hand on the table and leaned closer to Madora. “You are content to feel him tortured?”

The warm, kind demeanor he’d worn when greeting Saahira had vanished, replaced by a man willing to do the unthinkable to find answers. A chill crawled through Saahira’s veins.

Madora turned her chin up and met the headmaster’s eyes, unflinching. “Yes.”

“Why?”

But there was no reply.

“Your confession means the difference between prison and a hanging.”

Madora returned her gaze to watch Aieuz struggle in silence. A bead of sweat trickled down her temple.

Lillith signaled Lodovico with her tail once more.

“You understand that you will be put to death for this?” Lillith asked the demon. “There is no prison for us.”

“You…are more pet than demon. Collared and whipped,” Aieuz continued. Despite his gasps and the ache in his voice, he continued unfazed. “You teach their whelps and taint our pacts—”

“Did Madora command you to do so? Did you coerce her?” Lillith pressed. “Do your fears bleed into your master?”

“—You believe you hold that bynraen x'lori under your control while you dance like a puppet.” A laugh like nails on a chalkboard grated against Saahira’s ears.

“And if Saahira is not what you think she is?”

“You are a fool,” Aieuz spat.

“One final chance, Madora.” The headmaster drummed his fingers along the desk. “You swore an oath to protect the students. Why attempt to murder one?”

Beyond the gruesome sight laid out before her, Saahira couldn’t help but notice the coordinated way that Lillith and the headmaster played off one another. Like a macabre dance. This was not the first time they had done something like this. She supposed that it wouldn’t be the last.

Neither Madora nor Aieuz were forthcoming with answers. Saahira reached for the choir. You knew it was him.

-Yes.-

Do you know why?

-No.-

Saahira folded her arms over her chest and frowned. Then what debt do I have to repay?

-We saved your life, Saahira. Are mortal memories so short?-

Saahira flinched.

With a sigh, Lillith straightened her long legs and flicked her wings to the sides. “I am afraid Aieuz is as incompliant as his master.” Her heels clicked against the floor as she moved to stand beside the headmaster. “I leave him to you, Tristan.”

“This is quite unfortunate. Quite unfortunate indeed.” Headmaster Erato approached the cage and lifted his cane into both hands before closing his eyes. He parted his lips and murmured a long, low chant beneath his breath, every word entirely foreign to Saahira. An orange glow encompassed the full length of the cane while he spoke, glimmering around it like a thousand licks of candle flame. Lillith placed a hand on his shoulder, and the glow burned brighter, almost too bright to look at.

“Weak, vacuous succubus!” Aieuz roared.

When the headmaster opened his eyes, the orange flare he’d gathered around his cane glittered in his irises. With one sharp, fluid advance, he stabbed the cane between the bars of the cage, down the demon’s throat until the end burst through Aieuz’s back with a sickening squelch. Black blood pooled around him, then vanished into the cage floor as if it had never existed. The nauseating scent of burning flesh overpowered the lavender and patchouli incense. Saahira covered her nose with the back of her arm, but she couldn’t turn away.

-Be fragmented in the void for all eternity, Aieuz.-   

As the Chthonia deflated and burned around the headmaster’s cane, the last word to gurgle from his mouth was his master’s name. “Madora…”

Madora blinked, and the corners of her lips pulled slightly tighter. It was such a minute display of emotion that Saahira wondered if she’d imagined it. And still, Madora said nothing, glassy gaze locked on her demon until every bulging eye closed and its body no longer moved.

Headmaster Erato retrieved his cane, using the bars to dislodge it from the corpse. Once it was free, he procured a handkerchief from his robes and methodically cleaned the black blood from the ebony length.

Once finished, he twisted his wrist palm upward and murmured, “Hanakar.” The handkerchief caught fire in his glove, burning away as easily as if it were paper. The flames looked at home reflected in his eyes. “Agandaur, deafen Madora, if you would.”

Lodovico cast the hex on the unbending servant as instructed, adding more words than any hex spell Saahira had heard so far. Madora’s chin dropped to her chest, and her eyes closed. The headmaster tilted his head and cocked an eyebrow, to which Lodovico simply replied, “I prefer it this way.”

“That is why I value your talent, Agandaur.” The final embers of the handkerchief vanished into the air, and Headmaster Erato turned to Saahira. “My apologies for this display, Miss Montarac.” He rested both hands on his cane and looked at Lillith. “Now, what is this ‘Paramour of Chaos’?”

“A mortal that certain demons will see as a threat to Ix’ryzr, while others see them as a boon.” Lillith closed the distance and ran a hand over Saahira’s hair. “Saahira is a chosen of the Six. The power this potentially brings ignites fear in some.”

“Why?” Lodovico asked.

“Because they are the only mortals who attract the attention of the Leliouria.”

Saahira bit her lip. Lillith sounded so excited each time she uttered their name. The coaxing touch against her scalp suddenly carried a much different connotation.

“Which we have successfully dispatched twice when summoned in the past,” Headmaster Erato added. “However, those students were never the targets of a staff member or their demons.”

“Excuse me for asking, but could she have been paid to do target me?” Saahira asked. The condescending expressions worn by Dimitri and Talia were still at the forefront of her mind.

“This possibility was mentioned to me as well, Miss Montarac. Yes, she could have been bribed. However, I have not found evidence that would suggest as such. I will continue to pursue it, but with what we know so far, it seems Aieuz was the one who wished you harm.” Headmaster Erato tapped his cane in thought, eyes flicking to their corners to glance at the servant. “Regardless, Madora will be imprisoned and tried as an oath breaker. Her throat will find its end in a noose.”

Lillith finished one final stroke over Saahira’s hair, then let her hand rest on Saahira’s shoulder. “Tristan, while a hex ward is a good temporary measure, I would request to give Saahira additional tutelage on the days of Oriana. I believe the sooner she creates a pact, the safer she will be.”

-Hm?-

“And if she summons a Leliouria?” Lodovico asked.

“Then we take care of it as we always have and attempt a second summoning,” Lillith replied easily. “No mortal has ever summoned two Leliouria—they are demons who will not risk dying twice.”

-Interesting…-

“Your request is granted,” the headmaster said. “I will take Madora and oversee her transfer to Rhoryn. Agandaur, if you will follow me.” He nodded to Lodovico, then Saahira. “I will send for you should I find anything further, Miss Montarac.”

“Thank you,” Saahira replied quietly. Excitement welled in her chest, though she was certain the emotion didn’t belong to her.

Headmaster Erato and Lodovico lifted Madora from the chair and ushered her from the room. Saahira noted the chains binding her ankles and wrists. When they were gone, another burning question surfaced to her tongue.

“What happens…” Saahira cleared her throat and looked up at Lillith. “When demons die?”

Lillith smiled. “Oh, sweet girl. We experience the same transition that happens to mortals: our energy and essence disperse, and our consciousness evaporates.”

A sharp pang struck Saahira’s heart for the limp, unmoving mass in the cage.

I…don’t want to kill you.

-You won’t.-