Arkhelios Adventures
Xylona Onerieroi thought carefully about her next move. Chess wasn't a game that came naturally to her, but her partner loved it. He always boasted about his skills and his strategies and how chess sharpened him to battle with his living enemies.
It wasn't easy to be the consort of Xexys, the Demon of Nightmares, but it was a role Xylona cherished. Had her love for the demon consumed her life to the point of losing her family and friends, even her very name? Well, yes, but Xexys was worth the sacrifice. She could barely remember the faces of her family and the name they'd once called her. Those memories were an unpleasant dream from a time long ago without Xexys.
"Your move, beloved. Don't think that I've missed the way you focus on your rook. I'm quite prepared for your attack."
Xexys wasn't conventionally attractive, but the charm he wielded against those who stood against him usually did the trick. There was something about the way he spoke that soothed the most irritable soul, drawing them into his inescapable web of dreams. There had been a time once, millenia ago, where he had roamed all the realms, taking whatever he wanted, just like he'd taken control of the Proxy's home. He was using the Proxy's chess board, eating his food, and displacing his family.
Simon Klein may have been the Proxy for the Watcher, but he'd been a terribly boring opponent for a demon of Xexys' talent. He'd begged and pleaded when Xexys graced Simon with his presence, and had surrendered to the cold embrace of Xexys' nightmares far quicker than anyone had in centuries. The man mistakenly assumed that his god had blessed him with this world when really, he had been condemned to this hellhole just as much as Xexys had been. Jubilant Accosts was a prison made by the gods in their own image: cruel, isolated, and fond of sacrifices made in blood. Long ago, Xexys had been free to take as much as he could from the mortals, to watch as his dreams overtook them until they were either dead or praying to be.
"Hmm, now that you mention it, perhaps I should try another move," Xylona replied with a cheerful tone.
She knew that Xexys didn't consider her to be his equal, but unlike so many other mortals, he indulged Xylona. He made her the mother of the only children he had ever had in his long life. She was never going to be equal to the majesty he embodied, but just being in his prescence was enough for Xylona.
Their son, Xanthos, wasn't inclined to worship his father the way his mother did. Unlike his father, mother, and brother, Xanthos wasn't interested in being a demon or messing with the mortals and their dreams. Because of his family, Xanthos was forced to live on the outskirts of Jubilant Accosts, far away from the devout and non devout mortals just the same. No one wanted a demon walking among them, even if he was harmless.
It was because of his affection for the mortals that Xanthos was trying his best to counteract what he could of his father's plans. When Xexys had taken the Klein house for himself, little Simona Klein was still in her crib, completely unaware that her parents were no longer there to protect her from the demon. Xanthos would deliver the child to a sympathetic home in the night, away from his father. Surely, the devout Jacobeans would take in their leader's daughter. The humans were cruel to demons, but they were supposed to care for each other. It was that benevolence that Xanthos clung to when he thought of his own little girl, hidden among her mother's kind.
Lukas tried their best to understand what they were seeing in the random house they had stopped by to check. The Jakobsson household wasn't anything like they'd expected to find, even in a place as odd as Jubilant Accosts.
A man and a vampire woman lay dead in the room down the hall from Lukas' hiding place. The deity was certain that they were hidden from sight from the mortals; centuries of shadowing the living had made certain of that, but someone clearly wanted these bodies to be seen by somebody.
None of the other plague victims were posed in such a dramatic manner, and none of them had had pools of blood around their bodies either. The plague certainly didn't involve a sword, so that was an unexpected element as well.
"What in the world?"
Lukas almost wished that they could send their husband a photo of this scene through the barriers separating this realm. This reminded them of some of the early work they had done in their first few centuries together. During those wars, some cases stood out amongst the rest of the battlefield. Cases that were just a little too specific to the details of a battle report. Cases that felt staged.
"Oh, for Watcher's sake! My husband! He's dead, fallen victim to the unholy sickness!"
A woman shouted, drawing the attention of her stepdaughter, Siv, who gasped in horror at the scene.
"Dad? This can't be! He can't be dead!"
Håvard Jakobsson hovered in the air, suspended by some kind of foul magic.
"He has the diseased eyes," Jacobina Jakobsson stated, as if the cause of death should be obvious.
"And the sword?" Siv didn't dare challenge her stepmother openly, but even she could see the sword had done far more damage than any disease.
"Well, there's a vampire next to him. Clearly, he fought her off while weakened by the disease. We're all fortunate that we were not here when she attacked. Her kind is getting desperate these days, and we're vulnerable with the disappearance of our Proxy. Praise the Watcher that we were spared."
Widad Yun was no stranger to Jakobina Jakobsson or the Jakobsson household for that matter. Too many nights Håvard had disappeared into the dark without explanation. Too many days Jakobina had noticed telltale puncture marks on her husband's neck.
Lukas didn't need to see anymore of this household. There wasn't any need for their intervention. The matriarch of the family appeared to have everything taken care of. Life was their job, murder and death were their husband's.
Maybe killing the infected before the disease could spread was actually helpful. None of the other members of the household seemed to be developing the film over their eyes synonymous with the illness. If someone was killed and their dreams ended, did that also end the threat of the disease spreading?
It was too dark a plan for Lukas to present to the Grim Reaper, and far too close to the edge of the boundaries of their own role for Gee's comfort. Lukas would just have to keep searching for a cure while also keeping an eye out for any sign of the supernatural team assigned to Jubilant Accosts.
The Timelady might be the easiest to find. Xexys controlled dreams, not time, so there was a chance that this creature from Ticktop had sealed herself away, lost in time. It wouldn't be an easy task, but it was the one that made the most sense.
The likely murder in the Jakobsson household was trivial compared to the tasks ahead of the deity. They made a mental note to mention this incident to Gee as soon as a proper reaper team was established here, but until then, Lukas had a Timelady to find.