With Artists’ sign-ups closed and the time for writing nearly halfway through, we present to you the Artists of the second volume of the Reylo Short Story Collection. Welcome!!
a-bunch-of-bananas
a1army
ailyth
AngelQueen13Art
dustoftheancients
ellensama
Flybynite19
i-am-a-factorygirl
ikari-cat
kazeot
kylorenhell
lilithsaur
lunarlaurels
om-nom-berries
pissbabysithlord
Poethrotsvitha
sleemo
sleepy–dinosaur
Terapid
(italics indicate returning artists. welcome back ! ! )
(hi this is pissbabysithlord rolling into your inbox to offer a humble prompt) HOW DID DEMON REY MEET FATHER KYLO? (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ i wanna know
WELL HERE YOU GO!! May not be what you expected!! 8D
——-
“Kid’s a fucking idiot.”
“He has no idea what he’s doing.”
“He’s Vader’s grandchild, though.”
“Vader was a fool.”
“Even so, shouldn’t that be worth something?”
“Since when is merit won by bloodline? What kind of soft, monarchic bullshit is that- have you forgotten what side of Eternity you’re on?”
The demons coalesced in and out of each other, more or less huddled, around the 17 year old who worked in secret in his uncle’s attic, with a book he never should have found.
He was an easy target- opened wide to the powers of the other side with zero training in how to control it. They enjoyed messing with him, moving his things around when he turned his back, flipping to the wrong pages. In the beginning, he fell for that one a lot, and they’d laughed loudly when he’d summon some odd, grotesque thing after meshing two different chants together. He’d gotten mostly wise to that trick, though, so they’d had to come up with other means of entertaining themselves.
“I think he’s just young,” came an airier voice.
“Pfft,” another scoffed. “Agaraesh only likes him because Vader used to hang around with that primordial buffoon.”
“Obi Wan was not a buffoon!” Agaraesh exclaimed. “He knew more than all of you combined! He’d know what do with another Skywalker trying to break into this realm.”
“Newsflash, Rae, he’s a Solo, not a Skywalker.”
“A different last name doesn’t change what’s in his blood.”
“Maybe not….but names have power. And Skywalker is a name he does not have.”
“Yeah, and it shows.”
As he went to grab a new instrument from the shelf behind him, the pages flipped silently over before fluttering down to stop at 1012.
“Shh, SHH!!” they hushed at each other, and they watched.
The boy, so wrapped up in his spell, thinking his audience was blessedly absent for once, continued on as a green smoke began to swirl over the tome. He frowned.
“That…that’s not supposed to be green,” he muttered, and screamed when thirteen vipers materialized atop his ritual.
The demons were beside themselves, and their satisfaction reeked into the surrounding space.
Agaraesh watched as the boy backed himself against the bookshelf, hands clinging to it, as his chest heaved. His mind was practically humming as it worked to think of an incantation to at least freeze the aggressive beasts. Eyes wide and arm shaking, he held out his hand towards them. The demons grew rapt. He took in a breath.
“Fríesende!!” he commanded. There was a pause, but the vipers still persisted, slithering amongst each other, slowly flicking out their forked tongues and honing in on the boy’s fear. The demons were in an uproar, falling over each other, as much as incorporeal being could, over the apparent failure.
Agaraesh was frustrated. Moving close to him, the demon rested its lips close to his ear.
“Try ‘aþ’ as your ending….” it purred, and instantly his hand shot over his ear in a panic, pulling at it desperately as the vipers moved closer.
“I’d try it quickly, too,” Agaraesh continued, “They’re already within striking distance…”
He whined, adding to the amusement of the others gathered, but his hand raised up as he forced his fear and failure into another form. His eyes flared.
“FRÍESAÞ!!” he screamed, an in an instant, the snakes not only ceased to move but also began to quickly frost over.
“Unfair!”
“You’re helping him, Rae??”
“This goes against The Orders, Agaraesh!”
“Not to mention ruining all the fun.”
Agaraesh huffed. “It got boring watching him fail,” she defended. “This is far more interesting.”
The group grumbled and several moved away. The boy was heaving rather dramatically as he stared in shock at the frozen vipers.
“….Snoke will hear about this,” one voice that hadn’t spoken up amongst the previous rabble said. Volse. “You know what could happen.”
“I hardly think the Devil’s going to be upset over nurturing a Skywalker, regardless of what his current last name may be.”
There was silence.
“You know they’ve been shielding him for a reason,” Volse said again. “You may have just ruined that.”
“Well then even more reason for his Lordishness to be pleased,” Agaraesh replied.
The boy was swinging his head around the room, as if he were looking, or checking, for something, before slowly approaching the vipers. Squatting down, he stuck out a finger, and gave one a prod. The second his flesh made contact, Agaraesh reached out with a wily grin and jolted his shoulders, sending him screaming, backwards, and banging his head into a shelf.
Agaraesh laughed heartily. “Oh, God, I really couldn’t help myself!”
He sat up, rubbing his head with a wince. “That wasn’t necessary,” he grumbled.
“Who says it wasn’t? I helped you, after all. Don’t I get a little fun in return?”
“You call a bunch of vipers ‘fun’?”
“Of course.”
“You’re insane.”
“Well yeah. Demon,” Agaraesh scoffed sarcastically. The boy froze, and his mouth went dry.
“….demon?”
Agaraesh grinned and leaned towards him. Really, the moment of revelation was always the best- time to savor it.
“Well of course, sweetheart,” Agaraesh purred sweetly, and lightly licked its tongue up his cheek. He shuddered violently but didn’t move away. The boy had more guts than the others gave him credit for.
He blinked into the nothing. “Where are you? Why can’t I see you?” he asked finally. Agaraesh smirked.
“Well for that, you’d either need to know my name or be a much more powerful conjurer than you are. Although the snakes are quite impressive, and…”
He sighed in exasperation. “Alright, alright, I think I’ve been mocked enough for one day.”
“It’s Agaraesh,” Volse’s voice cut cleanly through the empty room.
“Hey,” the demon protested, but the boy already went to open his mouth.
“AGARAESH,” he recited firmly.
“SSHIT!!”
“You said he was interesting…” Volse drawled back.
Agaraesh popped into existence, shorter than the boy, tawny brown hair in a mess, and she was clothed, she, in the most moth-ridden, poncho-esque piece of tapestry he’d ever seen, held closed round the middle with a rough leather belt. He pulled himself up to his feet, trying to hold himself together. As she raised her head, her eyes met his, and they stared at each other in shocked silence.
“What are you wearing??” he demanded in an accusing tone. Agaraesh groaned loudly and brought up her hands to ruffle her already tangled hair.
“It’s been a thousand or so years since I took human form, alright?? I liked it. I wanted to wear it!!”
“So you cut out a giant hole in a priceless piece of art??”
“Priceless??”
“You know those things hang in museums today, right??”
Agaraesh scoffed. “Yeah, well, they weren’t considered art where I got it from,” she shot back. She looked down with an arched brow at her garb and pulled at the front of it to get a better look, as much as the thin leather belt tied around her waist would allow. She got lost the images suddenly, eyes roving across the wovenwork, before quietly giggling and pointing at one figure being violently beheaded on her chest.
“Look! Look at that one! That one was always my favorite,” she barked in a strange and uneven, breathy laugh. She tried to hold it out for him to see, but he reared back, a look of mild disgust on his face.
“Listen.” he sighed, “Agar—“
Her face fell instantly and she stepped towards him, slamming her finger against his lips. “DON’T!!” she hissed.
He stared wide-eyed at her, critique of her appearance gone. She was unaware of the energy flaring off her, and he reeked suddenly of fear. This was a demon. A demon!! Her looks were made to be deceiving. And she was touching him. This wasn’t—
“Don’t say that name!” she continued, face pinched fury, but he couldn’t help but think it incomplete. How was she so—?
“If you say it,” she instructed slowly, “I go back.”
His breath stilled.
“Do you understand?”
Slowly, he nodded. She pulled her finger away from his lips and lowered her hand with a -pat- against her tapestry tabard, causing a decent-sized puff of dust and filth to billow out into the air. They watched it rise up and disperse out into the air together.
“Might be plague on that,” she muttered.
“What??”
“Where do you want these snakes?”
He stared at her, mouth agape, but when the idea of ‘plague’ blared across his mind again, he promptly shut it. “Snakes?” he finally echoed back.
“Yess, snakes,” she hissed at him with a sardonic look and a vigorous nod in their frozen direction. There was a small puddle forming beneath them. They were beginning to thaw.
He thought quickly. Biting his lip, he went over to the attic window and looked outside.
“See that kid?” he asked, pointing. Agaraesh tiptoed over and peered through the glass.
“That kid’s an asshole,” he fumed. “Give ‘em to him.”
The corner of her mouth twisted up. “You hate him that much?”
Gritting his teeth, he nodded. Her grin broadened as she looked him over. Taking a step closer, she peered up at him- God, humans have gotten tall!- and gifted him with a pointed smile.
“What do they call you?” she asked. He blinked down at her.
“Um…” he cleared his throat, “Kylo. They call me Kylo Ren.”
Agaraesh smirked. “Nobody calls you that.”
He frowned. “Maybe not, but you do,” he said with conviction, and Agaraesh looked over the stern set of his brow, the subtle movement of his lips, and the piercing nature of his eyes….no, he may not be a Skywalker by name, but he definitely was one by blood.
Rey tilted her head to the side. “Alright,” she said simply, and with a raise of her arm and a snap of her fingers, the wet pile of vipers was gone.
He startled- he did that easily, she thought- but soon recovered to look eagerly out the window again. His enemy’s mother was just pulling up in the driveway, arms full of paper bags brimming with groceries. Kylo and Agaraesh watched, heads together in the narrow window, as the mother called her son to help. With a roll of his eyes and a quiet insult, he stalked over and Agaraesh snickered. Finally, they made their way to the door.
“Where did you put them?” he asked quickly.
“Kitchen,” she replied with amusement.
“Perfect.”
His nails dug into the window frame as the key went into the lock, turned, the door opened. They both took in a breath as the two disappeared into the kitchen. There was a scream. A shriek. And a loud pounding as several things hit the floor. There was the sound of crockery breaking and plates smashing, as the mother, and shortly thereafter the son, came streaking out of the house in terror.
Kylo was beside himself, nearly doubled over in laughter. It was too good! Too rich!! Ohh, payback really was satisfying, regardless of what his uncle always said!! He looked on, through the tears, as the target stumbled now onto the driveway as his mother screamed again. He was clutching at his ankle.
“Uh-oh!” Agaraesh exclaimed in a sing-song voice. “Looks like somebody got bit!”
The boy was wailing out in the open, rolling around, and Agaraesh was wheezing as she bit into her finger from laughter. When the ambulance and several animal control vehicles pulled up, the show was over, and they turned around to slide back down the wall.
“OH my god, that was satisfying!” Kylo breathed, running his hands through his hair.
“God, had nothing to do with it,” she snickered.
“Oh right,” he corrected, feeling a bit embarrassed. “Sorry.”
Agaraesh shrugged. She stretched out her filthy bare feet in front of her, rolling them on her heels back and forth, watching the way her toes wiggled. It caught Kylo’s attention, too.
“So since I can’t call you A—“ he coughed, “I mean…the other name…..what can I call you?”
She sighed, giving one last longful look at her toes before turning to him. “Dunno,” she confessed. She paused, before her eyes lit up brilliantly, and he sort of smiled. “Some call me Rae.”
