章 6: Custody Battle - Round 2
"You..." he pointed at Brigit. "You are the one who attacked Dysith!"
"What?" All three of them said at the same time.
"Three years ago... that light shone outside the capital. It destroyed the fields of Perdition and scoured a crater a great measure wide!" A great measure was one hundred spans long, roughly equivalent to a kilometer with a bit of extra. The look in Maledict's eyes wasn't angry. On the contrary, it was greedy.
And Kir got a bad feeling in his gut. The nova blast Brigit had just used was far below the power of the one Kir had first demonstrated. Hers was more on par with his first experiments with the spell, since even after three years her capacity for science was still below his... Thinking back to three years ago...
"Wait... are you telling me that Hell is on the first moon?" Kir shouted, pointing backward and up at the moon in question.
"Wait, you didn't know that?" Darlae asked at the same time as Maledict.
They shared an awkward moment of eye contact and then looked away.
"I thought he knew!" Brigit said. "Besides, how was I supposed to know his spell would actually reach the damned thing?"
Dropping the scroll rod, Maledict began to shrink until he was at the same height as before, though still entirely devilish in appearance.
"Well, well... I can admit when I've been defeated. Good work, witch." He clapped his thick, meaty hands together three times. "You met my challenge perfectly..."
"So you'll leave Kir alone?" Brigit asked. She was looking a little pale and sweating, which was the first sign of mana deficiency.
"Oh, I renounce my right to claim him by contract... but that does not mean I cannot tempt him." He held out an open hand toward Kir. "Come with me, son... Kir. With power like yours, and my knowledge of magic, you can be a general... A true devil! With your strength in magic and my cunning, eventually, you may rule all of Hell as a Demon Lord!"
Reaching behind him, Maledict tore open a portal, an oval hole in space itself with a view of a massive city, its walls towering over a river of lava with a great citadel at the very center.
Before Kir could protest, Darlae spoke up. "Fat chance! He's going to college!" She drew one of her knives and held it in a reverse grip.
"Are you willing to fight me for him?" Maledict challenged.
"You bet your ass!" Darlae replied, looking to Brigit, who nodded and made an effort to stand straighter.
"I will kill you both to claim what's mine..." He responded.
Kir had enough. In the span of a second, he gathered and prepared a lesser version of nova blast, and pointed it at Maledict.
"Enough... father," he growled. "You saw what my mother did to your precious contract. Imagine what I, the creator of that spell, could do to you with it."
Maledict looked for a moment like he was very interested in finding out, before he let out a sigh and smoothed his flame-colored hair back. "Very well... son. How about we make a deal." His eyes flicked over to Brigit and he licked his lips.
Kir knew something was up. He didn't want to kill his father, and he sensed his mothers didn't want to either, but if Maledict continued his behavior, Kir sensed he might have to. "I'm not signing any contract with you," Kir said.
"Oh, but it isn't a contract I'm offering. It's an oath. A devil may break a contract, but we must always keep our oaths. That is our way to do otherwise would unmake us." He smiled, putting a hand over his heart.
Kir looked to Brigit. She had always been cagey with knowledge about Kir's ancestry. He knew next to nothing about demonic behavior except what people in this world expected of him. "Is this true?" he asked.
"It is. But another demon must witness..." Brigit replied.
"We are two demons here, are we not?" Maledict said, gesturing at himself and Kir. "Devil is merely the name given to a powerful demon. The oath I would swear would not be to him, but to you two... on his behalf. After all, you're nearly spent after that one spell. If not for Kir, you two would be defenseless..."
Kir sensed trickery, but he couldn't tell what was afoot. Not without more information.
"Speak," Brigit said. "But know that all we want is for you to leave us alone."
"And that, fair witch, is exactly what I propose to do," Maledict smiled. "I will leave you two alone if Kir will agree to come to Hell... Let us say, in ten years' time. That will give him time to grow stronger."
"That's not an oath worth taking," Darlae raised her voice towards Maledict. "There's nothing in it we wouldn't gain by just destroying you here and now." She looked at Kir.
Kir had never killed a person before. Even after he got stabbed, he'd merely focused on his recovery, and having a long talk with his moms about his understanding of prejudice. They thought him wise, but in truth, he was scared. He cared about their safety.
He hesitated.
"There is something you gain by accepting my oath," Maledict smiled as if sensing Kir's thoughts as he stared at him. "The name of Kir's mother... and a hint on how to find her. If any of you bring her to me before the ten years are up, we can come to another arrangement. In any case, I will uphold my oath to these two for as long as they, or I, live." He gestured at Darlae and Brigit. "And I'll even word it to exclude any action, direct or indirect, that would allow myself or any who I control to bring them harm."
Kir wanted to refuse. He truly couldn't remember a thing about his mother other than vague impressions, and the only thing Brigit would tell him when he asked her more about why she'd abandoned him was that his mother had given her an ancient artifact that would help her escape her past.
An artifact that would make her untraceable to both Heaven and Hell while she lived on Airel.
Kir looked at his moms, and he knew that they sensed the trouble in his soul. The desire to know why he was abandoned. He'd already inferred that on his father's side, the contract had kept him from claiming Kir until he was an adult. With how the years were on Airel, he was now considered such. But his mother was a mystery, and now he learned she was an angel...
Kir's moms looked at each other. Then they looked to him.
"Kir..." Brigit asked the rest of the question with her eyes.
"I want to know..." he admitted, finally allowing his uncast spell to disappear as he lowered his hand. "Please."
Brigit nodded and looked at Maledict, but it was Darlae who spoke next.
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