Ileus: The Dark Prince

Iona frowned. 

"That book is in Etaya's chamber," the woman said very plainly.

Iona's eyes flew wide open. "That's like entering a vespiary."

The woman laughed softly. "Palaces have secret doors to every room. I don't know which one leads to her chamber, but if you can, then you will find that the book is eating dust." She got up from the bed and said, "I really need to go back to Iona." 

Iona smiled and pressed her finger on the symbol and the woman disappeared. She cocked her head looking at the darkness outside her window. Why go through a secret door when she could enter through the main door? A smile played on her lips with a glint of mischief in her eyes. 

The only way to enter Etaya's room was as the witch she was. Because that way no one stopped her. Next day she chose a time to go to her room, when she knew that Etaya would not be there. When she went there, they were too scared to even talk to her. The maids let her enter easily. Iona knew that after Diumbe got out of her body, after she came back to her human form, she would only remember it all as a blurry memory. In order to remember things, she had taken a dagger, inserted it in her thigh and then twisted it. She stifled a scream. The pain was excruciating but that was the only way. The pain carried on even after she turned into the dark witch. 

Iona scanned Etaya's room, as pain throbbed through her thigh. She associated it with the task at hand. 

Etaya's bedchamber was grand. She had come here a number of times and every time she couldn't feel how much the woman had spent on the expensive furnishing and upholstery of the room. It was neatly made and the fireplace was burning with fresh logs. A four-poster bed in the center was carefully made with every pillow and sheet matching. Though most of the time she had visited in the past, she remained in the antechamber, this time she just walked in the main room, the constant pain in her thigh a reminder that she had to find a book. 

She floated towards the grand writing table to look at the bookcases above it. Then she checked for the drawers and concealed compartments, if any in it. But there was nothing. Frustrated, she turned her attention to her armoire. She was going towards it when she thought of taking a look under her bed. Why not? 

A maid entered the room at that time and gave her a look that was a mixture of anxiety and fear. "May I help you?" she asked too scared to offend her and even more scared to offend her owner. 

The dark witch nodded. She gestured to her with her finger and said, "Come here." 

The maid walked to her trembling like a leaf. 

Iona leaned towards her ear and whispered with her pointy teeth clacking, "If I see you back here for the next one hour, I will kill you and chew your bones." 

The maid scurried away. 

Satisfied that it would give her a lot of privacy now, the dark witch went to look beneath the bed. There was nothing and she stomped the floor. The rug moved. She bent down again to peer beneath her bed and then with one pull stripped the rug from there. The book was right there, in a small dip in the floor. "Aren't you a sneaky little fae?" the dark witch chuckled. She grabbed the book from there and then threw the stripped layer of rug beneath it to cover it back. 

An hour later after she had put a bandage on thigh and taken a hot steamy bath, she had her dinner and then looked at the book. It looked… ancient. There was so much dust covering it that Iona coughed while wiping the leather bound cover. It wasn't a very thick book, but the pages were so yellow that Iona was scared that they would turn to dust if she wasn't careful. The book was a treasure trove of information about demons. There were two types of demons in the Lore—one with horns and the other with wings and horns. She turned the pages one by one, carefully and at last when she reached right in the center of the book, she saw what she was looking for—the family tree of the ancient demons. She started right from the top and a wave of shock passed her body when she saw that the first name was that of Estelar Aramaer, the brother of Faelar Aramaer. 

"Oh my god!" she gasped. 

Estelar Aramaer had four wives and he fathered fifteen children, five of which were daughters. One of the daughters was named Etayalar Aramaer. 

"Fuck!" she rasped. Was this Etaya the same as that one? But she was a fae. A shiver passed through her body. It couldn't be. She pressed her mouth with her hand. 

Etayalar Aramaer. That name rang in her head like the bell the sentries rang for the capital city. "Gods!" 

Iona trailed her finger to the name next to it. It was that of her brother and his wife. The woman never married. If this woman existed, then she was born thousands of years back when the first faes had come to the Lore. It was said that the faes had come to establish their presence here and they created the Lore. 

Iona trailed her finger further down but she didn't find the name of the Zor'ganians. So, the Zor'ganians weren't included in this family tree. Where and when did that species branch out? She focused her eyes on the tree and looked at every name carefully. Her eyes went much lower and that's where she found a name, which was botched by black ink—youngest son of one of the kings about five generations back. He married someone from outside the demons and created this anomaly of winged demons. 

But Etayalar Aramaer? Iona's head pounded with the information. She turned more pages to find information on winged demons and she didn't have to go too far. That family tree was also recorded in this book. 

Iona traced her finger and found Etaya's name at the end, right next to Seraph. Aed Ruad and Maple's names were beneath their names. 

Why was Etaya's name not in the family tree of faes? It was no surprise that her name should have been in the family tree of the demons, but… 

She went back to look at the family tree of Estelar Aramaer. Shock and utter disbelief surged through her body. She turned more pages in order to find information about Etayalar Aramaer. Only one page was dedicated to her, which said that she was the only daughter of the first demon king and that she died young. Was this Etaya a reincarnation of Etayalar Aramaer? Was there a greater conspiracy going on? Or was she just imagining things? 

Iona shook her head. She closed the book and kept it on the side table. Her head was pounding heavily with the headache. 

Etayalar Aramaer. Etaya. Etayalar Aramaer. Etaya.