Chapter Text
It had taken a while for Sosiel to finish his masterpiece he wanted Zon to see him the way he saw him, that mixture of love and fear, of grace yet savagery.
As he walked towards the citadel there were demons all over Drezen, the screams of the tortured, their pleading for mercy, the mocking laughter and jeers of the torturers a horrendous background symphony while the smell of burning flesh and ash burned in his throat. He stares up at the Citadel and trembles as he walks forward.
There's blood near the entrance and Sosiel thinks back to the sorry procession of crusaders that had abandoned Drezen like ghosts, a slow march of broken wills and shattered hearts followed by the demon's hungry gazes. Some had stayed but those were traitors to the rest, demon worshipers and cultists in the making…more evidence of Zon’s corruption of the crusade. The queen, he winces in memory remembering her bloody body at the hands of Terendelev’s corpse, Zon’s mocking laughter harsh in his ears.
He continues onward his heartbeat roaring in his ears.
“Turns out I won’t even have to kill you after all.” Zon’s eyes had gleamed with malice and Sosiel couldn’t help but be grateful for the queen’s impending death, he knew the indignities Zon was capable of inflicting on those who had wronged him. Yozz’s bloody battered face and wheezing gargle flashing in memory.
She had died with hate in her eyes but Irabeth, broken and ashamed the paladin had been embraced and told to go home. A specter from her usual self.
“Let’s get you home to Anevia.” Zon had said all tender faced and concern, gentle hands and voice softly holding her up to steady her, wing gently embracing her, none of that horrific gleeful cruelty he had just shown the queen. A demon on one side and an angel on the other. Aasimar at birth and blessed with the heavenly grace and demeanor it gave most of them. It battered the senses at times, seeing someone who looked so trustworthy, so pure do such unsettling brutality on the other.
And yet…he seemed to do acts of immense compassion with the same ease as his cruelty. When he told the slaves at the market to go to his camp, when he helped Red Mask gain her revenge over Latvek…but even then, he remembered the cold way he had watched the women beat him to death, not even flinching at the sounds of shattered bones and torn flesh. Latvek had deserved his fate true, but to look upon it without flinching wasn’t something Sosiel was capable of and even now the memory turned his stomach. Zon had been so gentle to the Aasimar women afterwards had taken them under his wing like so many others. They had looked at him with hope, he had that way about him that charm that drew one in like a moth to the flame unheeding of the fire’s danger.
Even now Sosiel recalled their conversation, when he had stood near the exit of the flesh markets tears streaming down his face and Zon had told him that it was okay for him to be weak, that the beauty he sought was in him and that he was strong enough to stand despite the horrors of the Abyss. He still remembered the warmth of Zon’s hands as he held him, the sense of safety, of rightness even despite the awfulness around him.
It was why he always came back, that benevolence, that flame that kept his hope alive even at the darkest of moments. He remembers falling in Zon’s arms after they rescued Trever from the arena, that awful horrific place, how Zon himself had almost fell victim to it, the collar snapping around his neck, and yet like so many other times he triumphed.
Trever's scarred hands in his and Zon's gentle concern as he asked Trever what he wanted.
Zon's scream of rage as his fists broke Yozz's bones the smell of blood and urine in the air.
His gentle indulgent, yet exasperated smile at Ember when she begged him to be kinder and he spared the cultists.
Minagho's screams as he burned her alive.
The smile as Zon said "I love you", the warmth of his hands as they laid together overlooking Alushinyrra.
The crunch of Irmangaleth's throat when Zon lunged at him.
He stops at the door to Zon's bedroom and trembles, recalling Zon's hand around his own throat as he whispered fiercely "I'll never let you leave Sosiel, you're mine...forever."
Before he can open the door though it opens and Zon's brilliant smile warms him he smells of fire and blood as always a smell that he'd come to enjoy as much as it terrified him.
Sosiel can't help but smile enraptured and reaches his hand out to grab his beloved's. "I have something to show you my love."