[IC] Really? You're the Demon King?

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

Soreth stopped, dropping the knife and staring with wide eyes.

For several very long seconds, he didn't even know how to respond. It was...it was...
"Perfect."

Walking up a bit closer, he took a minute to examine the changes, walking around to confirm exactly what he saw with a very shocked look. "It's...it's amazing. It's just like...you could be straight from the central ashlands, even...or the crescent isles, there's definitely something reminiscent of them here." He leaned in to examine the wings carefully for a moment before stepping back with a slight blush and moving back in front of her. "How did you manage a form like this one? It's a really good combination! Not too uncommon a species, but hinting at a lot of potential! You could be seen in pretty much any position here with a few exceptions."

He smiled, tail swishing behind him excitedly as an idea formed in his head. "How long does it last for? Does it need to recharge often?"

[onenote]

Wrenna let out a proud little smile when he started to go on about her illusion spell. He may have had the most powerful offensive spells, but at least she had a powerful magic of her own. "Well I had to do a lot of research. It took a little while since the royal library has very few books on demons in their for public sections. I had to get permission to go into the military section to really get a lot of information. Then I just picked a combo that would be inconspicuous. Now this dosn't actually need a lot of energy and doesn't take too terribly long to recharge. So I can use it all day and recharge it while I'm asleep. The downside is...well.." Wrenna reached over and picked up the knife that Soreth dropped and made a rip, a few inches long, in the sleeve of the dress. Almost instantly the illusion faded. "It's terribly fragile...Physical contact, if there's too much of it, could potentially reveal me..."

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

"Hmm..." The male watched and nodded thoughtfully after the illusion disappeared. That could be a slight problem, but hopefully not an impossible one. "How much is too much? Would something more neutral, like...shaking someone's hand be too much for it? Or...what else would be likely...?" He thought for another moment, weighing a few other scenarios. "Or maybe...what if you held someone's hand or something like that? Would that be too much? Would it work for a certain amount of time?" Perhaps it would be a bit much to ask for, but at the very least, he wanted to know how far the boundary could be pushed before they could run into trouble. There had to at least be some leeway for something like this, right? He really wasn't sure at the moment.

[onenote]

"I'm...actually not too sure." Wrenna told him, a little embarrassed. "I mean, I know I can handle a handshake, and I think I can handle a punch or something as long as it's on skin. I think that if you do something where it would change how it looks by quite a bit, it disappears. I don't think spilling anything on me would affect it but we'd have to experiment." She shrugged. "Why...what do you want to do with this?" She remembered him mentioning how she could do any job here...did he intend for her to go undercover as a servant?

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

Soreth took the information into account as he went to find a clean knife for the bread again, deciding that they would likely have to start there before going with the plan he had in mind. Of course, he had expected that there would be a few snags to work out, what with the other various differences between humans and demons and all. The moment she actually asked about the plan though, he couldn't help but grin as he placed the other knife down on the table. "We're going to hide you in plain sight."

Sitting down at the table, the demon began looking through the fruit as he continued. "I definitely don't want to start this until we're sure how much your disguise can take, but we can work on that today and maybe tomorrow if necessary. The fact is, we really can't just keep you in this room or the other one all the time, and I imagine that'd be really boring, anyway. However, if you can avoid being detected as a human, you can just stay here without having to dodge everyone's eyes all the time. The only thing we have to do now is give you a reason to be here, though, or you'll probably be kicked out." Pulling out an oddly shaped green fruit from the bowl, he placed it near the bread before picking up the knife to cut a slice from the loaf. "So, then...what kinds of skills do we have to work with? If all else fails, you could pretend to be one of the servants for a while, but I'd...kind of prefer if..." He stopped for a moment to think about how to word what he was trying to say without making it sound weird. "...If I could make sure you stay out of trouble, I suppose. Not that I think that you can't handle it, just...just in case, you know? One human, entire castle of demons...tight spot, there."

[onenote]

Yup, that was indeed what he was going for. It wasn't a bad plan to be sure but it would definitely put her acting skills to the test. "Well I wouldn't really mind boredom." Wrenna was used to it with her father when he wasn't getting her trained, "But you're right. Staying in the room for much longer isn't a great idea...But I'm not sure how well I would work as a servant. It's not that I'm afraid of getting my hands dirty with work, its just I don't really know how to do a servant's job. I've never had to clean or do anything like that so this might be hard to pull off...and I would like to stay close to you as I'm not exactly well-versed in how you demons interact with one another." Wrenna sighed, "Well this is going to be interesting to say the least..." There was so much to consider with all of this now. Not only would she have to figure out how to act with other demons without looking suspicious...And she would have to come up with a backstory for herself...

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

At first, Soreth was just glad that the plan hadn't come across as completely ridiculous or strangely worded. As he nearly misinterpreted part of the reasoning she gave, though, he found himself frozen for a second until she finished the sentence before realizing his mistake and standing up quickly to check on the kettle in an attempt to hide it. "Ah, yes, that's right. I-it's important for me to be able to advise you on interaction. I'm glad that you get it..." He trailed off as he removed the kettle and brought out the tea leaves to finish preparing the hot beverage. "But anyway, just being a regular servant would be pretty risky in this case either way. And if cleaning isn't really your specialty, then maybe there's another skill you can make use of. There are other things we have people around to do here."

Once the tea had been properly served, he sat down again at the table. "I wanted to suggest maybe becoming a bodyguard, but if the illusion can be broken by contact, then I think it would be better not to. It would be better if we could say that you were a visiting guest, but we would still need a reason for that. Something like a diplomatic mission or research...or an apprenticeship..."

[onenote]

Wrenna had noticed by now that Soreth was...sort of awkward. Awkward around her, though she wasn't really sure how he normally interacted with people. But she was getting used to it so she didn't really mind or care anymore. "Right...well I'm not really suited for anything other than fighting. I mean I can read, write and do a bit of athritmitic so I'm not sure I would cut it as a scholar...There...is a few things I can do...I um..." This was actually pretty hard to admit as it didn't really fit her persona as a hero, or at least that was what she was told most of her life. "When I was a girl, there was a man in my hometown that was a physic...he taught me some of his tricks. Tarot cards, palm readings, and so on...I spent a lot of time with him before my father started my training and moved us out of that town, so I'm not sure how much I remember of all of that. Not even sure any of those skills could be put to use here." She admitted with a sigh.

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

"Hmm? That is kinda interesting...can you show me any of it?" The demon king leaned over in his seat slightly, eyes shining a bit in wonder. "I don't think I have a tarot deck we can use...but can you read my palm? It'd be amazing if you could actually see something there. That's a pretty odd power for someone to have! You said that you found someone just living in your town that could do this?" The thought was actually pretty exciting to him, and he didn't hesitate to offer an open palm for Wrenna's inspection. "What exactly do you do to read someone's palm, anyway? And what would you normally find there?"

[onenote]

Wrenna nodded and took his palm. "Well, I read the lines in your hand. And there is no real normal thing to find as each person is different. Now let's see..." Wrenna said as she started to study his palm. After a few minutes she started to trace lines in his hands with her pointer finger. "I see a rough life ahead of you. Your body will be your own battle, but you will pull through for many years." She started to trace another line. "You will marry a woman of worth and she will give you all of her heart as you will do the same for her. The two of you will not stop loving each other till the day that you die and will have a small, but wonderful family." She began to trace another line. "You rule will not be easy, not in the beginning, not for awhile. But your hard work and dedication will bring peace and prosperity to your land." There was one last line. "Your life will not be the longest, but the end will be a soft and painless one, passing away in your sleep long after you have retired your rule and passed on the crown." With that Wrenna sat back and looked at Soreth's face to see how he would react.

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

The demon stared quietly in awe as the hero gave her prediction, staying completely silent even for a few seconds after she finished. "You can really see all that? That's incredible! It's like what some of the seers here do when..." He stopped for a moment, blinking a bit in surprise as he thought about the similarities. "Wait, Wrenna...wasn't that some form of advanced magic? Do humans use blood divination rituals as well? But you didn't even draw the blood to do it..." He pulled back his hand to examine it again, almost as if he needed to confirm that it was so. "I can't believe it! That's rare even for powerful demons to learn! And nobody can just read it without extracting it through the lines first, either. At least, not that I've ever known."

Soreth traced the lines on his hand as he continued thinking about it. "And, is it all true, then? I'm actually going to...I actually can become a good ruler, then. I'm glad." His voice became quieter, a slightly disbelieving, but content smile on his face. "All of that's actually even more than I had hoped for. I've always been worried about it, but I guess there was no need after all, was there?"

After another moment of reflection, he looked back up again. "If you can do something like that, then maybe we could have you here as part of the investigation into the ancient magicks or something. Or you could be a magic adviser! Things like that are always needed, especially for crafting new spells. I think I can probably set it up, as long as we find the proper way to introduce you."

[onenote]

Wrenna was...surprised at how bad she felt now. She hadn't expect him to get so into it or really believe that she could do it...she sighed as he went on to say how happy he was that he could be a good ruler. "L...Listen..." Wrenna said, realizing she couldn't let him go on believing that was actual magic. "Soreth...I want you to think back on what all I said...did I give any exact dates? Did I say anything that didn't directly pertain to you, like who you would marry or any especially good or horrible events that may happen to your kingdom. I told you a death you probably expected you would have." Wrenna sighed again.

"What I'm trying to say is...That "fortune" I gave you fake. I just took all the information I knew about you, could see about you, and guessed and formed it into something believable. That wasn't magic, that was BS." Wrenna rubbed her face. "Desmond said...Desmond was the man I was telling you about, he said that you can't see the future, but you can read people. That's basically what he taught me, was how to read people and tell them what he wants to hear. If you put me as a magical consultant or something, they're going to see right through me..."

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

The boy was a bit confused to hear the assertions that the foretelling couldn't be serious. His brow furrowed a bit as he tried to reason with the explanation given. "But...that was a pretty broad prediction. It's kind of rare to get exact dates on a lot of things like that. And with an unconventional ability like that one, I'd expect it to be a little less exact, anyway. At least it wasn't just a bunch of vague riddles."

"Besides, if you said exactly who I'd marry...No, actually, never mind that. But the death really got me, though. I'm sure that you've noticed, but, um...how do I say...life expectancy talks..." He paused for a moment as a cough forced its way out of his throat, giving a sheepish chuckle when it stopped. "...they're not things I often get into. And it's not that rare for rulers to be assassinated or to die in battle. If anything, I would have expected that part to be way more vague than the rest of it." He stared at his tea, wondering whether it really was fake or not.

"...I guess that was something pretty nice to hear, though, either way. It's something I can try to work toward, at any rate." He looked back up before motioning to the table. "We'll have to keep thinking of where you would be able to work best, but at least get something to eat for now. I'm sure we'll think of something."

[onenote]

Yup...Wrenna was actually feeling really bad for getting him to go along with the prediction now...This was probably why Desmond had warned her never to give predictions to people she liked...Soreth seemed to really want to believe what she had told him. "The reason you want to believe it is because its broad. Broad is possible. Narrow is less so." Wrenna told him quietly before he started to cough. she winced a little as he recovered, for the first time wondering how bad Soreth really had it. She had seen how he had gotten yesterday and figured that wasn't the worst he had ever gotten...She was a little glad to hear that Soreth was taking it as something to work towards instead of feeling bad about it or getting mad at her for it, which that was good.

"Right." Wrenna nodded as she sat down with him. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Wrenna finally spoke up with, "Why don't you tell me a little more about yourself Soreth...I mean, I don't really know all that much about you, and it might help me fit in more around here." She was genuinely curious about him now though.

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

"Hmm?" Soreth placed his cup back down after taking a sip. "Well, okay, I guess."

"Ah...where should I start?" He thought for a moment, biting his lip in concentration. "I was born to the former great King and Queen Dizoralth 19 years and some months ago. I don't have any siblings, though I've always wondered what it would be like to have a brother or a sister. Then again, maybe it's better this way; possible political disputes aside, I don't think I'd be a very good sibling." He took another sip of his tea before he continued. "I've been training to take over since I was pretty young. My mother taught me a lot of my magic before she died in battle. My father had a pretty rough time with that. Bonded demons tend to have it very difficult when one end of their link just vanishes, but you know how that goes. I was worried he'd go, too, but he somehow managed to stick around for a bit longer." He shrugged. "Maybe it's some kind of inherited luck after all."

He frowned a bit as he thought back on the whole situation. "I remember that I was really sick that year, so I spent a lot of my time just trying to recover from one problem or another. I wasn't even here most of the time after the whole thing, but my father came to visit me a lot more then. There was a place where I'd stay sometimes near the southern sea when things got particularly bad so I would recover more easily. I haven't been there in close to a year now, not even to visit. It would be nice to find some time to do that eventually, though. There are some people there I'd like to see again. Friends and such. But that probably won't happen for a while. Not until we have things a bit more secure around here with the change of rulers."

[onenote]

Wrenna listened carefully as Soreth told his life's story, surprised at some of the things he told her. She wanted to ask him more questions. Like why he didn't think he would make a good sibling, what did he mean about bonds and so on...but she felt they wouldn't really be appropriate. "It sounds like it was rough." Wrenna told him as she took a sip of her own tea. "I um...lost my mother to..." she told him after a moment. She wanted to say something to keep the awkward silence from coming back and also to make up for asking to recount all of that.

"I didn't really know her though...I was too young when she passed. Then it was just dad and me and his...delusions. Well, Desmond kind of raised me a bit too, but I haven't seen him in forever. I grew up in a backwater town in my country and my father kept trying to prove to everyone I was the Hero he kept rambling on about. I did whatever he told me to...all my good deeds were all things my father told me to....well, there was one thing he didn't tell me to do that I did on my own, but that's a different story. There's a few places I want to go back to and people I'd like to go see again..." She left it at that.

"Oh! Sorry if you didn't want to hear all of that...I just thought I should tell you since you told me some things about you...I really don't know how much you already know about me." She added as she remembered that he had scryed her before.

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

"N-no, it's fine! I'm sorry about everything else, losing parents is awful no matter when it happens." Soreth couldn't imagine what his life would have been like if he hadn't at least known his mother for the amount of time he had. Everything she had told him did pique his interest a bit more, though. There was still so much he didn't know, especially about exactly what drove her to become a hero. Based on what he had heard so far, though, her father did seem to play a pretty big role in it. Hadn't she mentioned him a few times yesterday after their fight, too?

"I only really know what I've heard from other sources or what I've been able to see while scrying. I-it's not like I've been able to see everything, either! I have my limits!" He still felt a little awkward admitting to having done that. It probably wasn't that weird, but since she had already seen the paintings, he wasn't sure how much she probably thought he had been watching. He couldn't deny that it had become a little more than just to gauge her abilities like it had been at first, either. "It's only been for maybe the past few years at most, around the time the rumors about the human's new hero garnered enough attention to make it back to me eventually. I've seen some of the trials and a couple of the other parts of your travels, but I don't know everything that you've been up to or even the significance behind some of it. Some of the things humans do is completely outside my understanding. There's actually a lot I still wonder about, so I'm glad I can actually hear about some of it now."

"I bet you know a lot of interesting things from your travels, too. What is the human realm like?"

[onenote]

Wrenna accepted Soreth's answer of not being able to scry everything. Even if he didn't seem the type, his condition and role didn't exactly provide for him a lot of time to spy on her...thouh it was just enough to paint her but Wrenna really didn't care about that anymore."The past few years hmmmm..." Wrenna said, going on with what Soreth had said and asked."That might have been around the time I saved Duke Remington from those harpies..." that was one of the first things that got her the first good chunk of fame in the kingdom. "As for what the human realm is like....well thats a little hard to describe. It's rather big, diverse and I'm not sure how diffrent it is from your realm...Maybe I could show you with your mirror and maybe explain anything you have questions with?" Wrenna suggested.

[YamiCuoreLaroux]

The male nodded, red eyes lighting up in excitement. "Yes, let's do that! Um, after we finish eating though, I guess. I don't want to rush you." He turned his attention back to the food he still had yet to finish, not wanting to be the cause for delay, either. There would still be some time before he would be expected to go back to his duties, anyway, so he figured that he would probably at least manage to learn something about the human realm in that period. Who knew that this would be how things worked out? This is way better than how I thought today would go so far.

Once he had finished, he stacked the dishes he had used carefully and waited, considering the many things he wanted to know about. Suddenly having this opportunity left him a bit overwhelmed, however, and he decided that it might be best to just see what Wrenna would want to show him first. She probably had a better idea of what to look for to best represent the land where she was from, anyway.

[onenote]

Wrenna nodded as well and went back to eating as well. It was interesting to try demon food. There wasn't much that was different, or at least that Soreth had given to her wasn't that different. She wondered if he chose that food since it would be something she would be familiar with or it was what he really normally ate. It really didn't matter in the end. The food was good and edible and Wrenna had always appreciated those qualities in food.

After soreth finished his food and they had both taken care of their dishes, she walked with him to the art room. Once Soreth was ready to watch, Wrenna gently touched the mirror, but no scenery appeared right away. There was so many places she could show him. The royal palace, lake Everdeen, the snowy fields of Avarlas, the Comrition ocean coast...but Wrenna soon realized what the best place to start at would be.

"Let me take you back to the beginning," Wrenna said as a desert town came into view. It was old, a little run down as if it had almost seen more sand storms than it could handle, and quite busy with people moving around in it "This is my hometown Soreth. Riccori, near the Trafri desert. It's where I was raised until the age of 10." She slowly started to show him around the area as best as she could with the mirror.