Devil Ash Deceit (Devil Ash Saga) (44 page)

“I just thought if I made something for her, I might as well make some things for you boys as well,” Amos lied. Shiva shot him a grateful look quickly.

“So when are we going to get back to our weapons training sessions?” Amos asked.

“Soon,” Shiva replied. “We’ll be having them here from now on. Too many bad memories in that private courtyard…”

“Well, you know where to find me when you need me,” Amos said. “Enjoy the gifts.” He turned to leave, but Aura called out to him.

“Hey dad, why don’t you come to our housewarming party tonight?”

“I’d love to,” Amos replied, feeling touched.

“Bring Nora,” Aura said. “It’s time I made things right with her.”

* * * *

That night, the house warming party was held at their new place. First to arrive were Gio and Yazma, as the boys bumped into them when they were out shopping and invited them. Shortly after them came Sars, Vadnais, and Fry; Aura’s former gang. After their previous spat and fight(s), the groups had at least reconciled enough to party together.

Wilhelm managed to bring Archen along, to Ash and Aura’s delight. The two old fogies entertained the room with stories of their youthful days, including many epic tales about the great devil hero Aster. Once they got a couple drinks in themselves, it was hard to get them to shut up.

Amos and Nora showed up. The father led his blind daughter with a sturdy arm, as Ash welcomed them into his new home. Amos introduced the two, and after hearing so much about Ash from her father, Nora requested to ‘see’ Ash’s face. The boy absent-mindedly agreed without knowing what he was getting himself into. Nora fondled his face for some time only to declare the boy “might be her type.”

Stepping between the two, Aura gripped his sister’s arm and led her into the living room. “Hello, Nora,” said Aura.

“Hello, Aura,” said Nora. “How’s Frank the reporter doing these days?” When Aura failed to come up with a comeback, Nora cracked a playful smile and the two laughed. Aura left her with Shiva to go fetch drinks. The girl instantly struck up a friendly conversation with Shiva, whom she admired deeply for her bravery and strength. The girl listened intently to Shiva describing her favorite battles, drinking up all the action she could never experience herself.

Aura and his old gang obsessed over the beautiful Yazma. Amos, Wilhelm, and Archen traded old war stories. Ash and Gio sipped martinis. Shiva grew jealous of all the attention Yazma was getting in her dress and rushed upstairs to change. Aura pulled Ash aside for a moment to talk about a ‘business’ proposal from Sars.

Shiva came back downstairs to the party. Gone was her usual armor. Instead she wore a simple red dress and some more feminine footwear. She even literally let her hair down. No one except Wilhelm had ever seen her dressed so casual, and that was back when she was a toddler. Her change in outfit changed the mood of the party, and soon Shiva the femme fatale was even catching curious gawks from Sars and his gang.

Aura thought this the perfect moment to take his sister by the arm and lead her to his bedroom. He had a surprise planned that would hopefully blow her mind. The boy winked at Ash, pointing him to Shiva, then disappeared into his room with Nora. Ash and Shiva, who found themselves sitting next to each other on the couch, turned red and looked away from each other.

Up in Aura’s domain, the boy walked his sister to the middle of the room. He stood her before a large easel and canvas. The boy took his sister’s hand and placed something in her palm. Nora felt the tip of the wooden stick and knew it was a paintbrush.

“What is this for, Aura?” she asked, her hands trembling with excitement.

“You’re standing in front of a huge canvas I bought,” said Aura. “You just tell me what color you want, and I’ll dip your brush in it for you.”

“That’s a nice thought bro, but…” Nora stroked the tip of the brush with her thumb in contemplation. “I’m no good at painting anymore. I don’t want to waste any of your time, or your money.”

“Nora, please. It’s a gift.”

“You don’t need to give me any gifts, bro. All I wanted was you back in my life.”

The siblings hugged. When they broke apart, Nora handed the paintbrush back to her brother. Aura pulled his hands away, declining to take it back from her.

“I haven’t given you your last gift yet,” said Aura. “I think you’re going to want to hang on to that brush when you
see
what I got planned.”

Nora bit her lip. She tried to shrug it off with a light chuckle. “You accidentally said the S-word again, bro.”

“No, sister, that time I meant it,” Aura said with a sly grin. “
Soul sight
!”

With his gauntlet removed, Aura placed the palm of his right hand on his sister’s face. The electric blue current came alive, jumping from Aura’s hand straight into Nora’s empty eye sockets. The girl jumped with fright, letting out a startled shriek but stifled herself at once. A tingling sensation filled the girl’s head. When she opened her hollow eyelids a radiant blue light shone out.

“What is this?” Nora asked.

“Did it work? Can you see?”

“No,” Nora said. “Everything’s still black.”

Aura hung his head in failure.

“Wait a minute,” Nora said, tilting her head around the room. “I see something! It’s a big orange blob! I can see the color! Oh, I can really
see
it! And there’s more of them, all in different colors! It’s so beautiful!”

Nora’s head was pointed down at the floor, where below them the party was still going on. She was seeing the houseguest’s souls, all in various brilliant shining colors. Though they were merely colorful blobs, the girl leaked
tears of joy to finally be seeing anything at all after nearly twenty years of darkness.

Beyond their party, Nora could even see the faint glowing souls of the Kingdom’s citizens all around her. Everywhere she turned, it looked like she was surrounded by starlight. After twenty years of feeling like she’d been left alone in the dark, finally Nora could see that was never the case at all.

“Aura, how did you know you could do this?”

“It’s kind of a funny story…” The boy chuckled, thinking back.

* * * *

Earlier that day
…

Aura was in the middle of setting up the painting easel in his bedroom just hours before the party. Ash walked in through the open door, curious.

“Are you finally going to tell me why you bought all this painting stuff?” he asked.

“I plan on helping my sister regain her talent for painting,” Aura replied.

“That’s cool. How are you gonna do that?”

“Actually, I could use your help if you don’t mind,” Aura said, stepping closer to Ash.

“Sure, what do you want me to do?” Ash asked.

“
Soul sight
!” Aura cried, jamming his uncovered palm in Ash’s face. The electric blue current shot into Ash’s eyes, and just like when Aura used it on himself, the boy became able to see the glowing orbs of soul power as well.

“
Ahhh
,
my eyes
!” Ash cried, rubbing his eyes furiously. “What’d you do to me? There’s all these weird blobs floating around! Make it stop!”

“Yes! It works!” Aura shouted, smiling with excitement.

* * * *

Back to the present
…

“Give me blue,” Nora said, facing her brother.

“Coming up,” Aura replied, dipping her brush in the blue paint. He directed her hand once more to the canvas and let her go. Nora attacked the white paper like a skilled swordsman, tilting her head every so often to get another look at her brother.

“So is that me?” Aura asked her. “Am I blue?”

“You’re blue, bro.”

“Why am I blue?”

“You have a blue soul,” Nora said, putting the finishing touches on the blue blob that was her brother. “Red! I want red now.”

“I wonder why…” the boy said. Aura dipped the paintbrush in water to clean it off, then stuck it into the red paint and handed it back. Nora started inspecting another soul downstairs and worked on a new red blob. After a few minutes of this, Aura’s eyes gave out. The boy tried to hide his blindness from his sister, but Nora was now a master at being blind. She could sense his once confident movements were becoming slow and awkward.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked.

“To tell you the truth, sometimes when I use this technique it takes away my vision for a little while.”

Nora dropped her brush. “Stop it then. I won’t allow you to blind yourself for me. That’s not what I want.”

“Calm down,” Aura said. “This is the longest I’ve been able to hold the technique without losing my eyesight. I think that with a lot of training, I could learn to do it without ever going blind again. But it’s going to take a lot of practice, so you’re actually helping me out by letting me use the technique on you. Get it?”

Nora sighed. “When did you get to be so cool?”

* * * *

The party lasted late into the early hours of the morning. Aura hugged his father and sister goodbye long before most of the guests left. With his sister’s work completed, Aura hung her first painting in years on his bedroom wall. His eyesight still darkened, the boy retired to bed to sleep away his ailment. The rest of the party guests eventually filed out as well.

Shiva hugged Wilhelm goodbye, saying she hoped to see him again real soon. There was a sadness to the Old Satan’s eyes as he left, and Ash could see it. The boy knew Wilhelm’s guilt over what he’d done to his granddaughter would eat away at him for a long time. He didn’t think she’d be seeing much of Wilhelm in the near future.

When the last of the guests were gone, Ash and Shiva muttered goodnight to each other and went to their rooms. Ash was ready to pass out as he toppled onto his bed. Staring up at his ceiling, the desire to pray to God came over him once more.

The boy put his hands together. Normally he would say something like “God, if you can hear me, I’m trapped in Hell and I need help.” He paused, thinking about it a little more. His thought process was interrupted by a gentle knocking on the door and Shiva’s voice whispering to him.

“Ash, are you still awake?”

Ash popped out of bed and opened the door for her. “Yeah.”

Shiva stood there in baggy pajama pants and an oversized sweater. Ash had to resist the urge to laugh out loud and managed to dial it back to just a smile. “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” Shiva said.

“What do you mean?” Ash asked, a little confused.

“You know, with Phoenix…” she trailed off.

“Oh, yeah, all that stuff,” Ash picked up for her. “No, yeah, I’m okay.”

“Okay then,” Shiva said. “Good.”

“Yeah, all good, everything’s okay,” Ash added.

“Okay then, good. I’ll be going to bed now,” she said.

“Wait a minute,” Ash said. “Are
you
okay?”

“I don’t know…” Shiva admitted. Ash stepped back and allowed her inside his room. “I thought I was. When I heard you beat Phoenix I was ecstatic. I felt relieved, avenged even. But when I saw him die I realized I just lost a dear old friend, one of the only few people I cared for. It was a lot harder than I thought it’d be.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Ash said. “I was so pissed at him for what he did, but…” Ash stopped. He knew he couldn’t tell Shiva about what really changed his mind about the man. “Well, I didn’t want him to die, that’s for sure. I just wish we could have worked out some other way.”

“Leona was his real love, you know.”

“Yeah, Aura told me. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. I should of seen it coming.”

“There’s no way you could have. Their relationship was a secret.”

“I heard you say that I’m a friend worth fighting for,” Shiva said.

“Oh,” Ash blushed. “Yeah, I said that.
So what?”

“It was just nice, that’s all,” Shiva replied.

“Well its true. After all, I am your
subordinate
. I have to stand up for you.”

“You’re
too
kind,” Shiva said flipping back to her familiar sarcastic tone. “I’ve had enough girl talk for tonight. See you bright and early for training tomorrow, hang over or no hang over.” The girl left and went back to her room to sleep away the night.

Ash lay in bed once again, thinking more about his prayer. So far, praying had failed to do him any good at all. Maybe God couldn’t hear the boy from Hell, or maybe God just didn’t care. For all Ash knew, God could be trying to find him to ‘erase him from existence’, like Goddard had once warned. One thing was for certain though: praying wasn’t helping.

Maybe instead of clasping my hands together in prayer, I should put my hands to good use making my own wishes come true,
thought Ash.
After all, the only times I ever got what I wanted, I accomplished through my own strength and will. I’ve fought every day to survive here. All praying ever got me was a naïve dependency on an invisible, no-show savior.