章 6: (Ch 6)Prince of shadows
Alzeor really did leave as he said not long after Faith was back inside the apparent self repairing castle. Though it was quite the thing to wrap his tiny head around Faith just wrote it off as 'ahh yes magic, the power of lazy' and moved on, not daring the complex mana smithing and enchantments needed for such a thing to be possible. After all a house that rebuilds itself is a pretty nifty thing.
The walk back to his or rather Eshir's room in her arms was quite the experience for Faith. Since no one wanted to be the next Ruleth all the demons that had previously been at the Queen's side had scattered giving Faith clear views of everything. First of all the garden was filled to the brim with flowers of all different colours though the majority were purple, black and red. It was also filled to the brim with different over growth that at first glance looked un kept but had been placed around purposely on further inspection.
Eshir had noticed Faith looking completely enraptured by the flora and picked him multiple different flowers placing them in his hair to form a little crown.
"Look little one, your not only a prince of demons but also a prince of flowers" - she giggled to herself making Faith laugh along with her.
'Yeah to be honest I'd rather be a prince of flowers, demons are just too intense. Though It would probably make mom sad If I said that aloud… oh right baby'
Faith thought reminding himself he was still two weeks old, for some reason it was far easier to forget then you would have thought. Faith also got a chance to see the outside of the castle on their walk together which made him realise just how stupid rich his mom must've been. The castle was probably around the size of the Vatican or at least Faith imagined that was the closest thing, and it came in the normal gothic medieval tone you would expect of demons, shining in a black hue.
He also got to see the city which was filled with building of the same theme only smaller. From what he could tell it actually seemed to look exactly like a normal city only with some people that looked a little more then human. It seemed he was on raised ground but apart from that the city was built in a normal environment, no lava pools or volcanos in sight.
'Yeah now I put a little more thought into it, living near lava would be mighty inconvenient. Oh look theres some child demons down there too…. is that a bakery?? Man I need to stop judging books by their cover Eshir just sets unrealistic standards about demons'
Faith honestly wasn't sure if demons were slightly more inclined for evil by nature, or if his mother was just hitler 2.0 though in his mind it didn't matter all too much. He noticed from the sky and clouds that the world he was on now seemed to be similar to earth in its climate and atmosphere.
Another strange little thing he found out on his walk to the main gates in too the castle was that the shadows around him seemed to be able to give him little pieces of information, though calling them information wasn't really accurate. They gave him gut feeling about certain things and also allowed him to notice the mana flows and capacities of things around him.
It was almost like having a 6th sense and Faith found it to be mighty useful in his limited time exploration event. The city was the thing he was now interested in the most because there seemed to be at least a million of his kind residing in it and he had no doubts this probably wasn't the only demon settlement. Alas once he entered the castle gates he now longer had a chance to see it, so all his could do is pout with his flower crown atop his head making Eshir burst into laughter multiple times throughout their trip to her room.
Time continued on as it does, for the first 4 months of his life Faith didn't really leave his room much at all and only met people when the occasional maid would dare to disrupt Eshir, making his life a little boring. It was the good type of boring though as Eshir never made a moment not happy and calm. It seemed Eshir thought the concept of her child with a flower crown was so funny that she had adopted calling him little flower prince whenever she wanted him to behave.
It wasn't like Faith was a naughty child per say, he was a saint considering he was a demon, but he was just too curious about the world he'd been born into to sit still all the time. Faith hadn't managed to make it out of the bedroom once but every time he tried Eshir would death grip himfor the next hour or so.
Calling her a doting mother was by far an understatement, it wasn't unwelcome though as Faith respect and care for his own mother grew everyday. It turned out that one month was too much for Alzeor to go without seeing Faith so he'd visited three seperate times already, without causing as much of a fuss of course.
Another strange occurrence in these four months was the legend that spread to the light-dark and dark-light people about a monster far worse then Eshir exodus being born. It was said that even as a newborn with nothing but a simple glare he could kill a normal man, and his shadow magic could summon an entire legion of undead with a simple flick of his finger.
Though that last part was more then a little wrong it still seemed to be accepted as complete truth starting the rather frightening legend of Faith Exodus, prince of shadows. It made all the kingdoms of Dark-light and Light-dark happy that they were currently allied with both dragons and demons, and it made the collective absolutely terrified.
Faith wasn't aware of this rumour as Eshir thought it was nothing but nonsense, she'd come to learn that her Faith didn't seem to have any bad intentions in his body and merely contained curiosity.
He'd never stopped using his shadow magic since he'd received it, Shadows were merely an extension of himself so it was par for the course in his opinion.
'I HAVE THE SUPREME POWER'
He would often think, laughing at himself and his inner dragon as he bent shadows to his will ever honing his craft. It wasn't like he was in an epic quest to become the strongest of all, it was just a fun and very neat hobby for the newborn with lack of things to do. Pure magic spells were also part of his hobby but he seemed to always be missing just a little bit when trying to grasp them, so they took far longer to figure out then his shadow magic.
Faith had made it a habit to use his magic until he was completely tuckered out and then repeat the process when he woke up the next day. As a result his mana capacity and efficiency started to grow exponentially. After all children were quite adaptable so his body learned quicker and easier how to use and conduct mana from the world and shadows.
He'd done this for four months until finally the day came where he'd be given his own room. Incidentally it was only a week after he'd first called Eshir 'mama' that he'd been granted it. Eshir had almost had a heart attack because of how happy she was and had boldly bragged to everyone in the castle about how awesome her son was and how much she cherished him.
It had served as a clear reminder to all those working there that Eshir was a two sided coin, being a monster on one side and a doting mother on the other.
Faith arrived at his room, escorted of course by his mother and what was apparently his personal maid named Sapphire and was a little stunned. Not only was it the almost the same size as his mother's who was the queen but it was also filled to the brim with expensive looking things same as her's. The only thing out of place that clearly made it his was the crib and the toys that were sorted in his dresser.
He also seemed to possess quite a few sets of cloths made of this worlds equivalent of silk.
'Damn being rich is just ridiculous, why would you buy a fast growing child silk cloths'
Faith wasn't going to say no to silk mini jackets and vests though, so he just smiled happily as he was set down in his crib. Meanwhile Eshir was having the equivalent of a nervous breakdown. Out of all the maids and at her disposal Sapphire seemed the most apt for the job of taking care of Faith in her absence and she'd already used that fact to go back to her daily duties as Queen.
That and having Faith be in a room independent of her own were two very different things in her mind though. Of course She knew that Sapphire was perfectly capable of taking care of Her little prince, and Faith for the most part seemed to enjoy her company as the only one other then Eshir he'd had the chance to get interact with on a regular basis.
Truth be told Sapphire Kelight was a high ranking noble in demon society and highly sort after for her healing abilities with light magic which was one of the reasons Eshir had hired her. It also helped that in Eshir's eyes Sapphire looked quite similar to herself apart from the blue eyes and black hair, plus she was only 16 so Faith could grow up with a sister figure of sorts making her the ideal candidate.
Eshir still tried to resist the need to leave her son in that room alone constantly reminding him that she'd return the second he needed or wanted her there. It took Faith a good 3 hours of looking unconcerned and fine with the changes for Eshir to finally give in and return to her own room.
'I can't tell if mom is paranoid or just doesn't want to spend less time with me, either way its still endearing as always. God how the hell was I so lucky to end up here'
Faith thought to himself, wondering how he'd rolled the metaphysical critical d 20 for his reincarnation. After that night the only thing that changed about his daily life was spending less time with Eshir and more time with Sapphire which proved an odd hurdle to jump over.
Having a stranger strip you naked, bathe you, help you Dress and take care of your 'accidents' was far more jarring then he thought it would be. As a royal it was something to get used to, but being so vulnerable around anyone but Eshir was still a big step in Faith's book. It made him notice that he hadn't changed that much at all since the his days on earth.
'How am I ever gonna get anywhere if people don't like me even as a baby. Fuck I haven't changed at all'
He could be open to Eshir now yes, but that was born from a trust built on a lack of literally anything else and him certain his life was all but over. Sapphire may have been his maid but apart from her duty to take care of him she was still just a stranger making their interactions quite tense and awkward.
The only saving grace was he was slowly getting better at shadow magic and his ability to communicate had returned for the most part, still in broken speech however. Sapphire on the other hand was tense for a far, far different reason. She was given both the honour and perilous danger of taking care of what had now become the legendary prince of shadows.
At first she'd thought that it was a death sentence to take care of what was clearly a temperamental brat with far too much power and far too little care for life like his mother. Unfortunately the very same mother had personally assigned her as his one and only maid making her escape from this position nigh impossible. Yet the more time she had spent with Faith, the harder it became for Sapphire to believe this was the same child that had legends of terror written about him.
Most of her friends and relatives would worry about her and constantly ask if she was okay and safe. It was a strange feeling considering the thing they were worried about was probably the cutest and sweetest child she'd ever met, though he was quite shy at times.
'Honestly who called this little treasure a monster, I'll kill em myself'
She would constantly think. Another adorable thing she'd come to learn about Faith was his constant hobby for using shadow magic. At first she'd wrote it off as a child simply playing but watching his shadows get quicker and larger each time he summoned them quickly made her rethink her theory.
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