Chapter 311: The Signed Parchment That Raised Questions
Chapter 311: The Signed Parchment That Raised Questions
Elyn’s POV
The children nodded at my words, their heads bobbing in agreement, their expressions earnest and apologetic. They looked sincere. They looked like they genuinely understood that they needed to stay close and not wander off again.
All except one.
Azerion frowned.
His small face scrunched up, his blue eyes narrowing, and I could practically see the gears turning in his head as he processed what I had just said. He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again.
"What if there’s some good snacks?" he asked carefully, his voice carrying a note of genuine concern. "Or—"
I didn’t even let him finish.
"Listen to me carefully," I said, my voice flat. "If you go missing again, then you can go missing forever. Don’t think I’ll come looking for you. And you can kiss the palace goodbye. There will be no snacks, nothing at all. You’ll become a beggar on the streets."
Azerion’s eyes widened in horror.
"A b-beggar?!"
Velira chuckled beside him.
"You’re an idiot," she said.
Azerion ignored her completely.
"Okay, okay," he said quickly, his voice rising with urgency. "I’m not going to go missing again. I swear. I’ll stay right here. I’ll stay next to you. I won’t even look at any snacks unless you say it’s okay."
Tell me a more pathetic lie. Azerion staying next to me and not going after snacks? That was debatable.
"You promise?" I asked him.
He nodded vigorously, his head bobbing up and down like it was attached to a spring.
Before I could say anything else, the door burst open.
An incubus rushed into the room, his wings half-spread, his expression flustered and urgent. He was tall, with sharp features and skin the colour of bronze, and his eyes darted around the room before settling on Velira.
"What’s going on?" he asked, his voice carrying a note of desperation. "You’re wasting time. There are numerous demons outside waiting for the selection. We can’t keep them waiting forever."
Velira straightened, her wings lifting slightly behind her.
"The selection is over," she said.
The incubus frowned.
"Over?" he repeated. "Did you find a spouse?"
"No," Velira said, her voice calm and matter-of-fact. "But we’re tired. We’ll continue when we feel like it."
The incubus stared at her for a moment, his expression caught somewhere between confusion and frustration. He opened his mouth, closed it, then seemed to think better of whatever he was about to say.
He bowed.
"Very well," he said.
Then he turned and hurried out of the room, his wings folding against his back as he disappeared through the door.
I watched him go, then turned to Velira.
Something was bothering me.
Something about the way the incubus had reacted. He had been flustered, yes, but he hadn’t argued. He hadn’t questioned her authority. He had simply accepted her decision and left.
"How," I said slowly, "were you even allowed to hold this selection? And why did that incubus treat you with such respect? Are you not still in disguise? Or perhaps do you have a way to get rid of it?"
Velira shook her head.
"I am still in disguise. I can’t get rid of His Majesty’s power after all," she said. "We used something else."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a parchment.
It was old, I could tell — the edges were worn, the colour faded, and there were creases running through it like it had been folded and unfolded many times. But the stamp at the bottom was clear and unmistakable.
Seraphielle’s stamp.
I took the parchment from her and read it.
The words were written in elegant script, formal and precise, and they stated clearly that the bearer of this document may do as they pleased, and that every incubus and succubus who saw it was to obey without question.
I sighed heavily.
"Did Seraphielle give this to you?" I asked her.
Velira shook her head as her smile widened.
It was at that moment that I knew there was definitely something more to this parchment.
"Then how did you get it?" I asked her.
"I did it myself," she said. "With Zayrion’s help."
Zayrion immediately coughed... loudly too.
I turned to look at him, but he avoided my gaze, focusing on the corner of the room, examining the wall with intense interest. Then he moved to the ceiling and then the floor, looking everywhere else except in my direction.
"Zayrion," I called out, "did you know where Velira, Brixton, and Azerion were long before you found us? Were you pretending not to know?"
His head snapped toward me immediately.
"No," he said immediately. "Absolutely not."
"Then why is the stamp you made with Velira..."
"It’s because I took it with me!" Velira said. "Zayrion didn’t know we were doing this."
Brixton nodded. "Yes," he said. "And the document was prepared over thirty years ago so Velira could have a slumber party in one of the pleasure houses."
I blinked.
"Thirty years?" I repeated.
The children nodded.
Wait, rather than focusing on the document, what the fuck did they mean by a slumber party?
"You forged a document to have a slumber party?" I asked Velira.
She nodded. "Mama wouldn’t let me have it otherwise."
I turned to Zayrion. "And you helped her?"
"We made a deal, so I did," he replied.
I stared at them with my mouth open. Actually, I shouldn’t even be surprised. This was the demon realm. These children had the ability to do things like this. They were absolutely mischievous.
One would think, for children older than me, that... what was I even saying? They may be older than me, but they were children. They grew slowly compared to humans.
I exhaled, then I returned the document back to Velira, who nodded as she took it from me and then folded it up with care and placed it back in her pocket, that smile still on her face.
"Quite brilliant, right, Your Majesty?" she asked me.
I paused and stared at her.
"What?"
"Forging Mama’s seal. That’s quite brilliant, isn’t it?" she asked me.