Devil Ash Deceit (Devil Ash Saga) (25 page)

Thirty Years Ago
…

At the age of seven, Shiva Satan wasn’t like most little girls in Hell. While other children were attending school or learning the trades of their families, Shiva was kept bottled up inside the Royal castle for most of her early life. She was given everything a child could ever want in life, except for freedom.

Leaving the castle meant having an entire team of Royal Guard escorts following her, watching her every move, never allowing anyone to get near her. Not even other children. It was a lonely existence, made lonelier by the fact that not even her brother Darko would play with her.

When dolls and toys could no longer hold her interest, Shiva discovered the entertainment of her brother’s favorite pastime: sparring. On a chance trip to the castle’s private courtyard one morning, the little Princess happened upon her brother and another boy in the middle of a heated fight.

The boy Darko was fighting with was someone Shiva had seen around the castle before, a friend of Darko’s. The son of a wealthy Noble family, a young Phoenix Dawnfall was a face that Shiva had become used to seeing lately. It seemed like he was the only boy willing to go anywhere near Darko. Even with full knowledge of the tragic event that occurred only years ago, Phoenix never shied away from the Prince.

Shiva sat in the grass with eyes glazed over in wonder as she watched the two boys trade blows. They seemed evenly matched, until Phoenix started to pull ahead a little. It looked like Darko would be defeated, but the boy had one more trick up his sleeve. Before Phoenix could throw another punch the young Prince activated his soul power, vanishing in the blink of an eye. It was an amazing skill for a thirteen year old to possess.

That looks like so much fun
, Shiva thought.
I wonder if I could ever be strong like my brother
and Phoenix
…

Darko caught Phoenix off guard and knocked him to the ground. The fight was over. “Same time tomorrow,” Darko said. The Prince exited the yard, walking right past his sister and ignoring her starry eyes of admiration. When he was gone, Shiva hurried over to Phoenix, still sitting on the grass.

“I’ll beat him one of these days,” Phoenix said with a determined smile.

Phoenix was always kind to Shiva. He was the only person she could speak casually with, the only one she ever
wanted
to talk to. His friendship, along with Darko’s unrivaled strength, inspired Shiva to become a capable fighter. She dreamed of doing her part in protecting the Kingdom, fighting alongside her brother and their mutual friend. She wanted to be just like them.

From then on, Shiva went to the private courtyard every day to watch her brother and Phoenix spar. Besides the occasional visit from her grandfather, watching those matches became her favorite way to spend her time. When their sparring sessions ended, she’d replay the battles in her mind for the rest of the day, anxiously waiting for tomorrow’s match.

This became a problem when she started her schooling lessons with the private tutor her father hired. Learning was fun, but not as fun as watching the boys fight. Unfortunately for the girl, her morning lessons interfered with her favorite hobby. She would often arrive late to her lessons, having stopped to watch the sparring match and losing track of time.

Finally, the newly elected Royal Advisor Goddard von Gosick had no choice but to go to the private courtyard. He would retrieve the young Princess, and hopefully put a stop to her attendance issues once and for all.

“I knew I’d find you here,” he said. With arms crossed in agitation, Goddard tapped his foot expectantly. “Your tutor has been waiting nearly half an hour for you to arrive. What do you have to say for yourself?”

The girl could only shrug and stare down at the ground. “Can’t I do my lesson
after
I watch them?” she asked. “They’re just getting started!” Behind them, Darko and Phoenix clashed with wooden swords, undistracted by the appearance of the Royal Advisor.

“Absolutely not!” Goddard said. “You’ve already kept the tutor waiting long enough. You should be studying right now. And look at your dress! It’s all dirty now. Your father is going to be very upset with you.”

“But I
am
studying!” Shiva insisted. “I’m studying their moves so I can fight like them some day! I wanna be a fighter, not listen to some old guy talk!”

Goddard laughed. “You?
Fight
? I’m afraid that’s never going to happen. It’s for the best, though. Take it from me; a good education is the greatest weapon. Knowledge is the best way to defeat an opponent.”

“No! Punching them in the face super hard is the best way to defeat an opponent!” said Shiva. “If I started training now, I could fight like brother does some day!”

“
Pff
,” Goddard scoffed. “Your father would never allow it.”

He gripped the girl by her wrist and dragged her out of the courtyard. She turned and struggled to catch the last developments in the sparring session as she was being pulled away.

“Prince Darko will be a powerful asset to the Kingdom someday,” Goddard said, tugging extra hard against the struggling girl.

“So will I!” Shiva said.

Goddard laughed. “Sure you will,” he said as he pulled her through the door and away from the private yard, still chuckling to himself.

* * * *

Shiva sat impatiently tapping her foot against the hard wood floor. Her elderly instructor babbled on about fractions, variables, and something called a hypotenuse. Shiva had little use for this information, not seeing how it could help her in a fight. Her tutor slid the girl a paper with assorted math problems written on it for her to solve.

“And this is supposed to help me…how?” Shiva asked.

“You need a good education,” the old man said. “Don’t you want to be smart?”

“No,” Shiva replied instinctively. “I think I’d rather just fight.”

The old man grumbled something about it being a passing phase and that she should just be quiet and solve the problems on the paper.

As Shiva zoned out, staring at the math equations like they were a foreign language, her teacher read to himself silently. This is how their lessons would usually go for hours. The girl was dying of boredom. That is, until the demon invasion siren started sounding. Immediately, the girl’s head perked up.

Shiva diverted her eyes towards the window. Outside, she could see an assortment of Royal Guards take to the skies, their destination unknown to her. She watched to see what kinds of weapons they carried, or how many men were ordered to go fight. She imagined herself among them, scrambling to the front lines of a demon invasion.

She smiled.

“Focus,” said her tutor. Without looking up from his book, the old man knew Shiva would be staring out the window in a daze, like she did every time the sirens went off. The girl was about to look away when she saw her brother Darko flying into action. She practically jumped out of her seat to get a better view.

“
Sit
,” the old tutor said. “Your work is right here, not out there.”

This work is meaningless to me,
Shiva thought.
I should be out there, helping to defend the Kingdom. Just like brother is… He’s out there fighting demons and getting stronger. Meanwhile I’m stuck in here, wasting time. No one ever killed a demon with a hypotenuse… whatever that is.

* * * *

King Al Satan decided that Shiva’s frequent truancies and her interest in the boy’s fighting sessions was brought on by a lack of all things feminine in her life, including the noticeable absence of a motherly role model. The solution was simply to expose the Princess to some children her own age, in the hopes that a little interaction with other young girls would change her opinion on the matter.

“Come in, come in, my dear friends!” said King Satan, ushering in a group of Nobles. Every so often, Al would host social functions for the upper-class citizens of Hell to visit the castle and gab about the various goings-on around the Kingdom. They gathered in the Royal living room, taking seats on the largest, comfiest chairs in all of Hell and lighting up smelly cigars. Servants poured mugs of wine and passed them around.

The worst part was that Shiva was forced to attend these gatherings. The Nobles didn’t come alone: their daughters would accompany them, brought specifically to mingle with the Royal Lady in hopes of striking up a friendship with her. So far, there had been no takers. The adults sat in their comfy chairs, smoking cigars and shooting the breeze while the gaggle of little girls enveloped Shiva.

“Why are you wearing
that
?” one little girl asked Shiva. They were all around eight years old, and this girl had long curly blonde locks of hair and a fancy pink dress on.

Shiva looked down at her plain and simple denim dress full of old grass stains. She didn’t see anything wrong with it, especially compared to the girl’s silly frilly pink dress. She shrugged. “It’s comfy, I guess,” she said. “What’s wrong with it?”

“That dress is
ugly
,” the girl said. “If
I
were a Princess, I would wear only the most beautiful dresses all the time!”

All of the girls giggled at Shiva’s choice of clothing. They all wore much fancier dresses that their rich fathers must have bought for them. Shiva never saw the point in wearing dresses, though. She found them terribly inefficient for combat.

“I guess I just don’t have an eye for style like you do,” said Shiva, trying to behave to please her father.

“That’s
obvious
,” the little girl replied. The other girls giggled even more. While the girls excluded Shiva and showed off their dolls, the little lady marched over to her father.

The King reeked of smoke and alcohol by now, and was having an obnoxiously loud laugh at something one of the other men said. Shiva tugged on his sleeve from behind the armrest of the giant chair. Al put down his drink and cigar and turned to his daughter.

“Not now honey,” he said. “I’m speaking to my friends. Why don’t you go play with yours?”

“I don’t want to,” said Shiva. “I kinda hate them all.”

“Shiva, I don’t care. They came all this way to play with you today, so you’re going to play with them whether you like it or not!”

With a gentle shove, the King sent his daughter off to interact with the other children. Shiva was disappointed at first, but then an idea dawned on her. She approached the girls once more, waiting for the appropriate time to cut into their conversation about who was going to marry the Prince some day.

“Wanna play a game?” Shiva asked, an innocent smile on her face.

Moments later, King Al’s conversation was again interrupted. This time, it was by one of the girls screaming like she was in terrible pain. The Noble men and the King jumped out of their chairs and ran to the children, fearing the worst.

Shiva sat on top of the curly-blonde girl, a golden lock clutched tight in her hand as she pushed the girl’s face into the Royal rug. King Al screamed at her to get off, and the children were swept into the loving arms of their fathers. All except for Shiva, who was gripped by her little ear and pulled out of the room.

“
Owwie
!” Shiva cried. “But we were just
sparring
!”

* * * *

The King and his daughter sought privacy in the Royal throne room. Shiva’s face was beet red and her bloodshot eyes leaked tears uncontrollably.

“Stop crying!” Al shouted at her. “You did a very naughty thing! I will not tolerate this kind of behavior! You are a Royal Princess, and you will act like it!”

“Darko gets to spar though!” Shiva said, trying to hold back her tears.

“Darko is a
boy
,” Al replied. “He gets to do things like spar, and fight demons, and protect the Kingdom. He’s strong. You
aren’t
.”

“I know! But I could get stronger! I know I could!” she said, stomping her feet to punctuate every other word. “All I need is a sparring partner!”

“Shiva honey, you’re a
girl
. You’re my little princess, and I forbid you from fighting. What if you got hurt? What if you
died
? I’d feel terrible. You don’t want to make me feel terrible, do you?”

“
I dunno
,” Shiva replied, wiping her runny nose with the back of her hand. “Darko started training at my age, so why can’t I?”

“Shiva, that’s enough! I’ve told you already. You’re a
Princess
. You will have your own guards to fight for you and protect you for your entire life. All you have to do is be pretty and give me grandchildren someday. Is that so hard?”

“
It is for me
,” said Shiva with a sniffle.

“Trust me, my dear. I am doing you the greatest favor of your life by keeping you from fighting. You’ll thank me one day when you’re happily married, living a comfortable life of peace. You never have to lift a finger. You should be happy; no one else in the Kingdom has the kind of opportunities you have.”