The Demon Lord And His Hero

"What?" Lillith blurted out. The flower stopped twirling and she looked affronted.

Drake regretted his words immediately. He had spoken without thinking.

"Did you really mean that?" Lillith asked. His sister looked white in the face.

The cup of milk had been spilt and there was no way to take it back. "Yes. He's very attractive, sister. I'm not blind."

"Then you're not straight," Lillith replied. Maybe she just didn't want to accept the fact that Syryn was just so beguiling that he could even pull the ones who had never been interested in men. Maybe Drake really wasn't straight.

"I've never fallen for another man. I don't think I ever will. Syryn is special," he told her.

Lillith had a faraway look in her eyes as she thought about Rowan. Was it like that with him too?

"Anyway, I have to go now. I'll meet you later at lunch," Drake informed her. He wanted to get away from Lillith because deep inside, Drake felt a sense of doom about the choosing ceremony. Rowan was a good man. If he was truly in love with Syryn, Rowan wasn't going to ditch him so easily. Drake feared for his sister's happiness and he felt stifled by the negative thoughts he had about the choosing. Unable to say more because of how happy Lillith looked, he pushed it all in and left her behind, thinking about the conversation they just had.

____

Lillith spent an entire night praying at the temple. She was in the midst of a group of priestesses who had been fasting the entire day. The goddess had been silent and it troubled them but they continued to pray.

Lillith prayed asking Eos to give her a sign. After the conversation with Drake, she had been feeling out of sorts. A seed of doubt was planted in her heart and she came to the temple to ask Eos to soothe her heart. After praying all night, Lillith left the temple without a sign. The goddess hadn't said anything and she was left with more restlessness within.

When her best found her looking despondent, she asked the princess why she was so glum when her dreams were finally coming true.

"Guinevere, what if I don't get chosen?" She softly asked the tall girl with a willow figure and white-blonde hair.

Guinevere was the daughter of a minister. She had joined Saint's Moon in the same year as Lillith and they had been inseparable.

"That's rubbish! Lili, what makes you think you won't get chosen?"

Lillith shook her head. "I don't know. The goddess didn't show me a sign when I prayed to her all night. It makes me worry, Guin."

The pretty noble girl huffed at the princess. "Lillith! If there's anyone who deserves to be chosen, it's you! There is nobody in the world more blessed than you. Nobody is more beautiful. Put those thoughts away, beauty. Rowan will fall in love with you when you get married. It's impossible not to."

The princess shyly smiled. She hadn't given her first kiss to anyone because Lillith wanted it to be Rowan who she gave it all to.

"You're right. I'll stop worrying so much. Thank you, Guin. You've set my mind at ease even if a little bit." Lillith hugged her friend and banished her troubles to the back of her mind. What was the use of worrying anyway?

_____

Syryn was doing his own worrying at home. What if Rowan was wrong about Eos accepting him? What if he was struck to death by holy light at the altar? He hadn't thought about all these things because Syryn had forgotten he was part demon.

Your Rowan seems to think everything is going to be just fine. I would have some faith in that since he clearly cares about you very much.

[Yeah, yeah. It's me who will get struck if things go south. Let me fret about it and later purge it from my mind when I've worried sufficiently enough.]

Just ask him about it. Why are you like this?!

[And when did you become my mother?]

Fine. This old man wanted to give you some advice but since you don't want it then do as you wish.

Syryn did ask Rowan about it and the anti mage assured him that Eos would not strike him dead.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive."

The choosing ceremony was 6 days away and Rowan still hadn't put in Syryn's name. He was waiting to do it at the very last moment because it would give little time to those people who would no doubt make a fuss about it.

Not having to go to work, Rowan still found his time being monopolised by the nobles and royals who thronged the gates of Syryn's manor in their fancy carriages.

The visitors streamed in endlessly, forcing the anti mage to meet them whether he liked it or not. Aside from Rowan, the others were also inconvenienced and annoyed by the people who had no regard for their privacy. Red especially cursed the person who had let slip the address to where Rowan had been hiding.

"Congratulations!" A tall burly man came walking into the compound. "Rowan, you rascal! What does it feel like to be the man who will marry the exquisite flower of Sigil?"

"It feels like a dream," Rowan answered with a bland smile. He was thinking about a different flower, one who had become a little stupid since his memory loss.

"You lucky man," Lord Huvez clapped Rowan on his back. "I heard that Lillith's wedding dress is being made entirely of water silk."

"What a waste," Rowan replied, wishing that Huvez would leave quickly.

"I know, I know. Lillith is so gorgeous she'll look good in anything, even a potato sack." The man laughed at his own joke but Rowan barely even looked at him. The impatience in the anti mage's eyes was evident to everyone but Huvez himself.

"My Lord, we must get going," his manservant told him respectfully. "Lady Rose is waiting in line."

"No," Rowan interrupted. Rose was an ardent admirer of Rowan and she had made it known to him by sending ostentatious gifts and letters, which were all subsequently returned back to her. He absolutely refused to meet the woman. "Stay for a while longer, Huvez. I was told you recently got engaged. Which family is your fiance from?"

Rowan led the beaming man inside the kitchen where Red was messing around with a few dry bones.

"My goodness! Child is that a femur?" Lord Huvez exclaimed. "It looks like a human femur."

"Oh, this?" Red held up the bleached bone. "My brother is a healer. He brought home some bones to teach me about human anatomy."

Rowan stared at the bone in Red's hand. Syryn had most definitely not brought that thing home.

"Luci, why don't you take the bone and study it with Syryn?" He told the child. Having Red around guests was a powder keg waiting to explode. Especially so when the redhead had that look on his face. Rowan prayed to Eos that Red wouldn't say something-

"Hey, mister, how many inches is your femur?"